©opyright C.S. Wahlberg / Vazchu | Written 2015
This Life
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Chapter ThreeStart Anew
Years had gone by, time had gone dry. Each day had been the same, decade in and decade out. Still all alone, still all feared. Sahariel was still no one and still yearned for belonging and love. His hope had all but vanished and turned to ashes, for each time someone ran away screaming … They took a part of those hopes with them.
One day was different though. The sun was hidden behind thick clouds that told the world stories about a storm that was coming soon. And throughout the entire day he had heard a song wandering through the forest and into the old graveyard. The song seemed so calm. He sat there on top of his favourite tombstone and listened to it. Hoping that it would come closer, he wanted to hear it more clearly. Even in that dull day the song was bright and filled with happiness. The words of the song were words he had never once heard, so he couldn't understand what it meant; but even so, the song calmed the chaos of his mind. Before he knew it, a girl with light blonde hair and a purple dress stood in the gateway to the graveyard. She looked around over the old tombstones and tombs that were viewable in her sight. Those purple eyes were filled with light and didn’t seem like they belonged to the people who lived in the town close by. Surprised he followed her with his gaze, as she slowly walked into the graveyard. He was still sitting at the tombstone and was playing with some cobweb that covered his tail. But she couldn’t see him; he knew that; because he kept himself invisible for her gaze even though she turned her eyes towards him many times. “Are you scared? Do you fear this place …?” he tried to ask her that by sending over a small amount of feelings to her … Fear … It was the wrong feeling, he knew that, but it was the only way he could ask her. At first she had seemed scared, but she didn’t run nor did she turn away. To his surprise the human girl simply looked around the old graveyard once more, slowly walking deeper in between the fallen tombstones. Past the place where he sat. “Who’s there? I do notice that someone is here and I have heard the rumours …” The question made him fall into the cobweb that was attached to the side of the tombstone, this because he was surprised since he thought that she would run away just like everyone else did. “I am here … I am … I am …” his thought stopped, he no longer knew his own name. Who was he? Upset and afraid, he couldn’t help but to show himself at last. Watching the girl who had turned around where she stood and thus noticed him. If he could have, his eyes would have been filled with tears, but no tears where seen. She saw him and he couldn’t tell her who he was. After a while he broke, he simply let all the feelings he felt for the moment flow into the girl, it was probably better if she just ran away like everyone else. For a short moment she seemed shocked, as if she didn’t understand what just had happened. He didn’t blame her; she seemed to be such a young human still, a child if anything. When he met her gaze he hadn’t expected to see the tears that had broken loose and now covered her cheeks. “Are these your feelings …?” she asked in a whisper as she stroke her hands over her eyes time and time again, in a failed attempt to make the tears stop. “Yes …” he lowered his gaze; he knew that she couldn’t hear his voice. “I’m sorry … I’m so sorry …” she cried so much that her voice barely could carry her words. “Why is the world so cruel toward some …?” He wanted to cry too; he wanted her to leave so that he could forget that he had forgotten who he was. It was painful to see the girl cry the tears he wanted to cry. “I’m sorry … I’m sorry …” he couldn’t understand why she kept crying, he had stopped sending his feelings to her minutes ago, and there she was. Still crying her eyes out before him. Not to mention that he couldn't understand why she was apologizing. When he was about to make himself invisible again, to disappear once more, the girl hand fallen to her knees before him. Just when he was about to back away, she lifted him up into her bosom and hugged him tightly. This time it was he who was shocked, this time the tears broke through in his eyes too. He cried, for the first time in forever. Eons had passed since the last time he cried. And even though he couldn’t feel it well enough, he thought it was warm to be that close to someone. “I’m so sorry …” she whispered close to him, still crying. “I wish … I wish I had come sooner. If I had known it was a Rune who haunted this place. I would have … I swear. I would have come for you sooner, I’m so sorry …” The storm that the day had been waiting for had been able to break free at last; he could feel his own tears mixing together with the raindrops. Somewhere the thunder could be heard, frightened he tried to hide himself against her, but it was in vain. The girl stood up, she must have noticed his fear and she still held him close. She looked around and to find the closest tomb that she quickly ran towards. Slowly she sat down in its threshold. Still holding her arms around him, giving him shelter from the terrifying thunder high above them. As the storm kept taking out its rage upon the world below, they had managed to stop crying. Each time the thunder was seen above the trees in the horizon he tried to hide against her bosom, but she simply stroke him along his spine to calm him down. “I never got to tell you my name, did I?” she said after a while. “I’m Missouri.” “Missouri,” he repeated her name within his mind and looked up at her. She was smiling towards him and he couldn’t help but to look away. Ashamed that he couldn’t tell her his name. “Do you have a name?” she asked the question he didn’t want to hear. “No … I forgot it,” he sadly shook his head. “May I … May I give you a name?” she asked shyly, when he cast a gaze towards her face again he could see traces of red on her cheeks and she looked out toward the rain that poured down from the sky. “Yes,” he nodded, but she didn’t notice, so he pushed her a little on the arm to make her look at him again. When she did, he nodded once more. That smile of hers returned immediately and he couldn’t help but to feel a little happy for her sake, he was able to make her smile. Had he ever made someone smile before? He couldn't remember it at least, not even one time throughout his life. “How about …” she was silent for a short while. “How about Sahariel …?” “Sahariel,” he tasted the name a little. “I like it.” He sent over the feelings of warmt that the girl made him feel. She smiled when she noticed. “You like it?” she asked and he nodded. “Then Sahariel it is.” “Yes. I will become a new someone,” he thought, once again hiding in her bosom when another thunder came crashing down towards the ground over the forest. Her arms held onto him tighter. “Don’t be scared … I won’t leave you. I will never ever leave you,” she said with a soft voice. “I promise.” He felt more at ease because of her words, but when she began to sing it was as if the storm disappeared from his mind. It was the same voice he had been listening to all day long. In awe he peeked up at her face where she once more had turned her gaze over the landscape. She was such a pretty human girl, there had been others like her in the graveyard before. Though this girl carried something in her heart that none of the other had and the best thing of them all; the voice he had taken a liking to when he heard it coming through the forest belonged to her. He had started to like her even before he had seen her. He didn’t understand what she sang, because the language was to him unknown, but the song was still beautiful and made him calm. Just like it had when he heard it before. Was this how it felt like to be happy? He had never known such a feeling before. He cuddled up closer to her and closed his eyes, relaxing to the sound of her voice that made the raging thunderstorm seem distant. “Missouri!” he felt her jump a tad underneath him, the two of them must have fallen asleep. “What …? Who said something?” she yawned and straitened herself a tad. “Missouri!” he turned his gaze towards the gate of the old graveyard and saw a boy with the exact same hair colour and eyes as Missouri’s. “Oh … That’s my brother,” she said with a low voice, she must have noticed that he was surprised with how much alike the two of them were. “You know, it’s really annoying when you run off when we’re out and travel with father … If you keep it up he won’t let us come along again!” the boy seemed mad, and he couldn’t help but to feel scared. “Oh shut up, you’re scaring my friend!” she stood up, still holding him closely. “If you keep that up I won’t come at all!” “Your friend?” the boy seemed surprised. “Would you like to meet my brother? He’s not as bad as it seems,” he looked up on Missouri and nodded, still uncertain if he liked the boy or not. Her steps were light when she made her way toward the boy in the gateway. He peeked at the boy as they got closer, curiously though still scared. “Nath'aniel, meet Sahariel,” she said when she came to a stop infront of the boy. “Sahariel, meet my brother, Nath'aniel. But you may call him Nath’iel, everyone does that.” The boy looked at him with a surprised gaze, as if he hadn’t ever seen a Rune Dragon before. Let alone a ghost of one. “So wait what …? Since he’s a Rune Dragon, will you take him with you home?” the boy asked hesitatingly. “Well … I hadn’t thought that far. Either that or I’ll stay here. I refuse to leave him, that I am certain of,” she said with a smile. “Sahariel, would you like to come live with us?” “Leave my graveyard …?” he looked at the old tombstones that he knew all too well. He had been there long enough to know each and every crack and to have read all the names of the people who were buried there. “Leave my … Home …” "Or should I stay here with you?" He felt sad for a moment, but the longer he thought about it, the more certain he was that it was better to leave the graveyard behind. He didn't want her to leave her family behind for his sake ... And the old graveyard around them was filled with both his own memories and the memories belonging to all who had walked there throughout the years. Most of all, the tombstones were filled with all the sadness and all the memories he wanted to forget but never had been able to forget about. He would be better off without them. When he had decided he turned to Missouri again and nodded. “If I’m allowed to,” was what he wanted to say, but the words remained untold. “Well, I guess that means you’re family now, Sahariel,“ he turned to face the boy who didn’t appear to be all that bad after a closer look. He looked like Missouri too much, the only difference were that he was a boy and she a girl. “Welcome to the O’Brien’s, little one.” “Let’s simply go back to the village and find father, Nath’iel. We can take care of a real welcome at home,” Missouri said with a smile. Hugging him tightly. He turned around and looked at the graveyard for as long as he could when the three of them started to make their way away from it. That sad part of him was still there, he would miss all the cobwebs and tombstones. But he didn’t want to turn down the first and only chance he’d ever been given to belong somewhere even if Missouri had offered to stay with him. And perhaps be loved for the first time ever. “Goodbye, home … Goodbye, all bad memories,” he thought and closed his eyes and cuddled up closer to Missouri while he silently hoped that this all wasn’t just a dream or an illusion. He wanted it to be real, his new reality. His start of a new life, a life as Sahariel. |