Page 313 of The Lands Defying
I stretch, a groan coming from the stiffness in my joints at staying in the same position.
Sighing, I sit up, rubbing a hand down my face and look to the moon. It’s still high in the sky, so I know I haven’t had much sleep.
That is nothing new.
Not when your dreams are nightmares of shadows.
Covering a yawn with my hand, I stand. I may as well head back to Eridian and start early on the daily jobs. We need more wood, and I can go hunting early. We feed more now as some of the refugees didn’t leave, so that will keep me busy for longer.
I nod to myself.
Planning the day helps, it keeps me busy.
Keeps me from feeling the emptiness of a heart that is no longer there.
I feel the port stone in my pocket, but with it still being the middle of the night, I can walk a little. Maybe I can look over the Aragnis pack.
Mivera and her pack lie there now, and she has built more cabins for those passing through who are in need of a place to stay.
She once told me that she was giving just a little back to how I helped her.
I'm glad she has found a place to stay, and I don’t resent her having my old home.
My home is lost to me, so I'm not going to kick her out of hers, even though it is rightly mine after Darius burned my other family members and my old cabin to the ground.
I didn’t know that until Leo told me. I just walked away.
It wasn’t because I was upset that it had happened.
It was because Darius did that for me and he never told me.
He purged more of my monsters and he didn’t want recognition for it.He just made it so because they are the people who hurt me.
I trace my fingers over the lesias as I walk, watching the blue light up under the moon's gaze. The space is filled now, going as far as the eye can see, and I have no more lesia seeds to speak of.
I will have to wait for another traveling merchant to come by, but they are few and far between now. They are saying that there are things going on in the west and it is hard to travel through, and it makes me wonder if it has anything to do with Kruten and his tribe. They headed that way after all.
I sigh, picking a flower and bringing it to my nose, the sweetness of its center calming me for a moment, but suddenly, my senses go on high alert at the feel of power at my back.
I blink, my body tense.
Brows furrowing, I breathe steadily, even as a tremble starts in my fingers.
I turn slowly, sensing something here with me.
I drop the flower, hands now at my sides as I look over the field of blue, trying to pinpoint where it came from.
Runa stirs within me, but there is nothing. Not a single thing there.
I turn, shaking my head at myself. I need sleep, maybe that’s why I feel so on edge—
A wave of power rushes out over the field, the flowers swaying with it and a scent follows.
A scent I know all too well filling my lungs, for the first time in what feels like a lifetime.
My heart beats so hard it feels like it’s going to come through my chest as I stop dead in my tracks. My breathing is erratic as I turn, hair flying around my face in my haste as I look at the figure in the distance, look to where he stands above a patch of black.
The figure cracks his neck from side to side rolling his shoulders, and a whimper spills from my lips.
