FicWad

Bowls and cups washed in the stream Zuri found while gathering wood, Gavan and Zuri now sat on opposite sides of the fire, neither saying a word. Though, thankfully, it wasn’t the awkward silence they’d been through before making camp. Gavan still wasn’t sure why Zuri had been as she was towards him, but had an idea it may have been left over reactions from when she had awoken him.

Gavan watched closely as Zuri sat with her knives and daggers laid out before her. She held one and was very focused on sharpening it, almost too focused. ‘I shouldn’t have let her see that side of me,’ Gavan thought with a sigh. He shifted and grabbed an apple from the bag closest to him and took a large bite from it. ‘She’ll never look at me the same again.’

Listening to the sounds of the night and the smooth sound of Zuri sharpening her blades, Gavan allowed his mind to travel slightly. Life with Zuri had, at the least, been an exciting change for him. The night she managed to climb into his attic bedroom two years ago was a sign of things to come. He’d spent every minute of free time he had with her that week, listening to her tales. He became enraptured with her lifestyle, but even more so with her. She was beautiful. Imagine his luck, a simple farm boy waking up one morning to find a beautiful woman sleeping only feet from him. Then, despite the circumstances that led to it, spending two years of his life plundering and traveling with her. His family had cared deeply for her, enough so that they refused to hand her over to officials resulting in death and enslavement. Gavan wasn’t afraid to admit, to himself at least, that he too cared deeply for her.

Finding his gaze had gone from the trees above them to his companion across the slowly fading fire, Gavan scowled slightly. He had to admit he thought she was exceptionally gorgeous in the light of the fire. Her deep emerald eyes were focused on nothing but sharpening her blades, but he knew that if even the slightest hint of movement came from any direction, those eyes would become alert, cool and calculating. Her deep red hair shone in the firelight, tied back in a braid. When he’d met her, her hair had hung around her shoulders. It now rested just above her waist. More than once he wanted to run his fingers through those crimson locks as she untied and retied her hair after a bath in the closest source of water.

‘Stop it,’ He forced his gaze to move from her slender form and to the apple that rested forgotten in his hand. ‘She’s a friend. Nothing more. Never will be anything more.’ He took a bite of the apple, frowning at the browned part where he’d bitten before. Nothing seemed to go wrong when he was with her, and if it did they made a joke out of it.

“Gav?” His eyes snapped up to meet hers, raising his eyebrows questioningly. “You okay?”

“Fine, Zee. I’m fine. Just didn’t want to distract you from sharpening your blades.” He smiled as normally as he could with the thoughts of her beauty and how much he truly cared for her swimming just below the surface.
“Well no need to worry about that. I’ve finished.” He glanced at her blanket and was shocked to see that all the knives and daggers were gone. No doubt hidden god knew where on her body. ‘Don’t picture it.’ He warned himself gritting his teeth and groaning, covering it quickly by stretching and yawning.

“Who has first watch?” He asked, tossing the apple into the fire followed by a few more pieces of wood. He looked up from the flames to find Zuri watching him. “Zee?”

“Oh, er… I’ll take first. I’m no where near tired.” She replied, pulling her braid around so it hung over her shoulder and began to fiddle with it. Gavan watched her for a moment then met her eyes for a instant before she looked away. “Goodnight, Gav.” She picked up a rock and tossed it in the air, caught it and repeated the action several times. Gavan sighed and settled into his bedroll, sleep quickly replacing the waking world.


/]Rain was pounding on the roof heavily, causing his younger sisters and brothers to cling to him as though life as they knew it were to come to an end right then. Flashes of lightning lit the room, making the lanterns seem insufficient and thunder occasionally penetrated through the noise of the rain.

Gavan was sixteen years of age. His youngest sister was two, followed by a five-year-old sister, six year old brother and twelve year old brother. Their parents had gone to the next town to sell the year’s crops, leaving Gavan in charge of his siblings.

The storm was the worst they’d had that year, at least natural storms. The town officials had been storming the houses of Carmlen for that past week. They claimed to be searching for an escaped felon. However, rumors flew about the neighbors that they were stealing crops, taking children from the parents and parents from children.

The older of Gavan’s younger brothers went to add a log to the fire as a knock came at the door. Jacen opened the door and was plowed over by three town officials. Charging his other brother with the task of taking care of their sisters, Gavan ran over and grabbed Jacen from the floor.

‘Get out of our home, there are no felons here.’ Jacen had yelled. Gavan tried to get him to go into the other room with their siblings. He fought his brother to go away while the officials demanded to see their parents. Jacen blurted obscenities at them as Gavan fought to get Jacen out of the room and in with their younger siblings

‘Stop being daft and get in the other room I’ll handle things.’ Gavan growled while holding Jacen against him. In that instant, an official grabbed Jacen from Gavan, holding him against the wall by the throat. The other two guffawed on either side of the two. They were drunk, Gavan realized.

‘Let go of my brother,’ Gavan demanded, lifting a knife from the table and moving towards the trio surrounding his younger brother. The officials turned to face Gavan and Jacen dropped to the floor. Was he dead? He didn’t have time to think.

The blade in Gavan’s hand penetrated the first official’s chest as he charged, however wobbly, at Gavan. He twisted the blade then ripped it from the flesh, slashing it across the second official’s neck as he approached from the side. Everything filmed over with red, rage. He was grabbed from behind. He spun, heard the blade slice through flesh followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. The door slammed. There was yelling.

The blade hung limp in his hand as Gavan stared at the bodies at his feet. No, he didn’t mean to. Had he really just killed three officials? What about Jacen? Was he all right? The guards didn’t matter. They weren’t family. Who had run? Had Jacen gone for help? Everything was so confusing. What made him react that way? He’d never been so angry in his life. What had happened?

Gavan backed up and tripped over the official’s body that lie behind him and listened to the knife skitter across the floor. Wait, no. Not the official. Was it really Jacen he was seeing? It couldn’t be, could it?

He’d been fighting, well more like lashing out at the officials. He remembered that much. Two had come at him. He killed them, with more ease than made him comfortable. The third hit from behind and- no. Jacen had tried to stop him. He reacted instinctively, thinking it was the third official and…he killed his own brother.

‘Jacen,’ Gavan was on his knees, holding his brother in his arms. ‘Jace, wake up! I’m sorry…so sorry. Wake up!’[/

“Gavan.”

/]‘Jacen?’ Was he alive?[/

“Gavan? Who’s Jacen?”

/]The official. The third official. Was he back?[/

“Come on Gav, get u-” /]His hand lashed out as hands touched his shoulders. He had to kill the final official. Had to-[/ oh Gods.

“Zuri!” He quickly unclenched his fist and watched in horror as Zuri gasped for air, staring at him as though he were a stranger. “I’m sorry,” He whispered in dismay as she coughed a few more times then looked him in the eyes. He seemed to be saying that a lot of late.

“What happened?” She gasped. “Who’s Jacen? And what the bloody hell is wrong with you, lashing out at me like that?”

“Are you alright?” Gavan asked. Why wasn’t she running? Why was she still sitting there, asking him stupid and pointless questions?

“This is the second time you’ve reacted this way when I’ve woken you, Gavan. What’s going on?”

He was confused. She was still sitting there, not far from him. She was asking questions. Why was she asking questions? ‘I could have killed her… all too easily.’ He thought ashamedly.

“Gavan! Answer me, will you?” He looked at her. Her deep emerald green eyes were full of nothing but concern. Concern for him. He’d had his hand wrapped around her throat, an attempt to kill a ghost of his past, only moments ago and yet she was asking him bloody senseless questions.

“I… I’m fine. I mean, no one. I don’t know who Jacen is.” He looked more closely at her, actually looking at her not his thoughts of nearly killing her. “Why?”

“You were yelling for him. Gav, talk to me.”

“No. He’s no one. It must have just been a strange dream.” Climbing to his feet, Gavan stretched and tried to smooth out all the kinks he’d developed over the night. “What time is it?”

Zuri stared silently at him for a minute then shook her head and sighed. “Five hours after sunrise,” She replied, standing as well. “I’ve already eaten. There’s some left over for you. We have time for you to have a quick wash in that stream I found.”

“Why didn’t you wake me earlier? So I could take second watch?” He sauntered over to the fire and picked at the meager breakfast she’d made for them.

“I’m not tired. You were sleeping. Seemed like the best thing to do.” She replied, rolling her blanket up and tying it with some twine. She looked up and watched Gavan as he picked at the food. “You going to eat that or should I leave it for the birds?”

“Barely enough to feed one,” Gavan grumbled, hearing the thud of a rock hitting the ground not far from him, and knowing she’d thrown it at him. Looking up he found Zuri shoving her blanket into one of the bags near his blanket. “How long before we leave?” He asked taking a bite of his breakfast.

“An hour. So eat fast and go take your bath.” Her voice was sharp and when she looked at him he couldn’t help but feel pain. Her eyes were cold, secretive. Something she never held in those eyes, not towards him.

“So, er, what did you do while I slept?” Gavan asked looking away from her and at his plate again. Was he really hungry enough to eat it? Perhaps he should cook from now on.

“Poked through the items we’re to sell,” she gestured to the bags of stolen goods. “Tried to determine how much we’ll make off from it.”

“What’d you do that for?” He stretched again and began rolling up his own blanket.

“I had the time to.” Zuri replied with a roll of her eyes. “And I was bored. Besides, if I have a goo idea of what each thing ought to be worth, I can get more by bargaining with the tenders.”

Made sense. Why the hell didn’t he think of that? Oh, right. He was too busy dreaming. “I see.” He tied the blanket up and stuffed it into his own personal supply bag, took another bite of his breakfast then stood. “I’m going to take a quick bath then we can head out.” Zuri simply nodded and flipped a knife out of her boot and began to whittle a piece of wood. Gavan sighed and slipped into the forest to find the stream, take his bath and get back to the campsite before Zuri left without him. An hour meant an hour to her, and no longer.

As they’d begun their trek again, Gavan was determined to forget about how he’d awoken that morning. He’d so often dreamt of that dreadful night, but never had reacted the way he did that morning when someone woke him. It’d never been like that; even in the prison they’d locked him in after the event. He’d been there for two years, charged with only two counts of murder, his brother not important enough to the officials. He dreamt of the night he killed his brother every night he was actually able to sleep; the nights when the beatings weren’t as bad.

“We have a handful of hours before we reach the next rest stop. We’ll make it before dark keeping this pace”

Gavan cast a curious look at Zuri. “How do you even know where to find them?” He asked frowning.

“I know how to read the signs the past travelers left.” She replied. Silence spread between them like hot butter before movement caught his eye and he looked at her. She was fiddling with her braid again. He scowled slightly then stopped as she did. She pointed to a fallen tree leaning between to standing ones.

“That fallen tree is a previous traveler’s way of telling others that there is a rest stop ten miles from here.”

“Ah,” Gavan scowled, wondering how a tree told her how far they had to go. It looked like an old tree that fell down and happened to land on two other trees to him. As if she read his thoughts, Zuri chuckled.

“There are markings on the tree.” She said grinning. “You have to know how to read them. Every tree that is lying like that will have markings on it telling how far until the next rest spot. When we reach it there will be a tree split from the top to the very middle.” Gavan vaguely remembered a tree with such a description near the last rest stop, but hadn’t thought twice about it.

“How do you read the markings from this far?” He wondered.

“Practice, my friend.” Zuri grinned again and sped up her pace, forcing Gavan to do so as well.

By the time the sun began to set, making the dark forest even darker, Zuri veered off from the path and pushed through the trees with Gavan on her heels. They settled down in the camp, finding that there was much more firewood than the last, and soon made dinner. Night passed by with the two simply talking and planning their journey and before they knew it the next day had come. Zuri was positive they had two more nights to go in the forest before they’d finally make it through to the other side. Gavan could only trust she was right and hope they’d actually make it without a hitch.