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Post by ThatDenver on Aug 24, 2018 20:03:08 GMT -6
THE LONGEST WALK
Post chapter 6
Somewhere between Opulence and Bloom - open farmland. A beautiful spring evening.
It's a long way home.
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Post by ThatDenver on Aug 24, 2018 20:56:27 GMT -6
ALEKSEI
It felt like his nose bled almost every day now.
Aleksei hated it. He hated it, and this deceptively serene landscape.
He hated being here instead of home. He should never have left.
It was not so much that the company was poor, it was more so that it was simply not the right company. He missed Faiza’s smart mouth and observant eyes, he missed his children. He missed Ramiro’s unflinching loyalty – a thought that hurt quite terribly as he knew Ramiro was not waiting for him even if he got home – and he missed…
Aleksei stopped himself and aimed his eyes steadily at the road. The walk would not get any shorter by feeling sorry for himself, and the few chevaliers given to accompany him and a few others who chose to leave immediately rather than stay in Opulence made him feel safe enough.
Even if Aleksei knew they would be no match at all for the wyvern, should the beast return.
Every night in camp the cloud’s passing them by each looked like the wings of a wyvern – each howl of an animal deep in the woods was like the shrieks of the wyvern. The flap of heavy leather wings and the scraping sound of claws against solid metal invaded his dreams, and what he did mixed together with what Solaris had once done, the memories merging as if they were one and the same to begin with.
He was exhausted, and more than a little afraid. His new magic rippled just under the surface, barely skin deep and barely under control. There was no finesse in the way Aleksei wielded his power, for it was raw and new. It would shimmer alternate realities into existence on what seemed like whim.
This scared him, too. He hoped he would learn to control it naturally, and soon.
Aleksei pushed away the thought and looked around him at the rest of the group. His legs hurt from walking, and he wasn’t exactly in a social mood, but Aleksei feared that walking in silence any longer would give him entirely too much time to get lost in his own head, and the terrors that dwelled there.
His eyes found Beau, and Aleksei matched his steps to Beau’s until they were side to side, at a comfortable distance for discussion.
“I am surprised you decided to head home with us”, Aleksei said, but despite his words, there was no judgement in his voice: “Do you have urgent business back in New Valore?”
Word count: 420
Post #1
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