Post by Lady Hammer on Sept 21, 2007 12:52:20 GMT -5
5: River Water
I was rudely brought to wake with cold water splashing on my face. My eyes, beginning to open, saw the culprit. Aleth had me by a riverbed, I could hear the water flowing, and was tapping me on my cheek to bring my vision clear. I didn’t say a word, I felt so exhausted. I realized, however, that Aleth must’ve carried me the rest of the way through the pass, because we were no longer treading through the snow, and he still had me in his arms.
“Hey,” he whispered. “You alright?”
“What happened?” I brought myself to say. There was still a dull pain pulsing in the back of my head.
“Congratulations,” he said, “you survived the first craving.” He grinned and flicked a few stray droplets on his hand onto my face.
“Craving for what?” He helped me sit up, but I fell backwards onto the ground, still disgustingly weak. I decided to just lay there and act like I liked it.
“If it gets that bad, I’ll let you know. You’re lasting longer than I did, so I don’t want to jeopardize your progress by saying anything.” I sort of understood, I was just so pissed off earlier that I didn’t really want to.
I moaned wearily, closing my eyes again. I wouldn’t have minded laying there on the wet dirt in the drizzle, right there, and going to sleep. I wouldn’t have minded eating the wet dirt, either.
“You scared me,” Aleth said through the silence, “a lot.” I didn’t really know what to say, especially since I was getting annoyed with him feeling like he had to protect me. Sighing, I tilted my head his way.
“Sorry.” He stood up and dusted himself off.
“You ready to go? The ferry girl is over there,” he said, gesturing to a woman down the bank. She looked oddly familiar, and I say this because her curly hair was a sunset red that embedded itself in your memory once you laid eyes upon it. She was littered with freckles and wore a thick green sweater. I wish I had a sweater. It was probably really warm.
“Yeah,” I answered. I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up, but upon having to support my weight, my legs gave out and I fell. Remember that dirt that I said I wouldn’t mind eating? Yeah, I got a chunk of that. Aleth stood there laughing, and I was going to yell at him, but I didn’t have it in me anymore. And I could see how it was funny. In fact, I saw it so well, I giggled a bit myself. Luckily, Aleth still had his heart, and picked me up, helping me over to the ferry. Our driver was patiently standing by her wooden ferry with a lantern pole.
“Tizena?” My eyes widened. Who was she, and how did she know my name? I hoped that wouldn’t be a reoccurring problem in this trek. “I’m sure it’s you! Tizena Hallenar, right?” she asked. I waited a few seconds for the memory, and then it came. She frequented Allanis’s rich-people banquets, though if she was a ferrygirl, I couldn’t see how she made very much money.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. “Gabriella, right?” The sunset girl nodded and grinned when Aleth butt into the reunion.
“How much is it for us to get across?” he asked.
“Two gold coins each, but since Tizena and I go back a bit, one will do.” I guess she didn’t get to see people she knew very often, because we definitely didn’t “go back”. I think this is the first time we’ve actually exchanged anything other than a greeting. She secured her lantern pole in a little notch in the front of the ferry, and sat down next to her oars while Aleth helped me in.
“So where are you two headed?” she asked. That wasn’t a good question. I stammered, thinking, giving a glance to Aleth, hoping he could offer some silent instruction. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to feign this, or what.
“We’re going to Moonspine Inn,” he said. Her jaw dropped as she pushed off the riverbank.
“You can’t go there! No way! Why would you risk your lives to stay at a place like that?”
“It’s none of your business,” my brother replied coolly. I hoped Gabriella knew her place.
“I realize that, but you can’t go there! You’ll get killed! Thugs are always going there, sometimes for the sole purpose of just causing a random fatality!” I sighed, showing irritation.
“Gabriella, have you taken a look at this guy? Who the hell would be stupid enough to attack him?”
“Still!” she said, “Tizena, you have no idea! Giant mutts are showing up on the mainland all the time now, and a seven foot giant thug could come in and snap both of your necks before you saw it coming!”
“They can try,” Aleth started, “but we have a sure-fire weapon that will keep us safe.” He looked in my direction, flashing me a smirk. Those stupid guns! At least that’s what I thought he was referring to.
“Whatever,” Gabriella said, sighing, “I’m just saying that it’s a bad idea.”
“We’re not listening,” I told her. She said nothing as she took us down the river a ways, looking for the other blazed riverbed on the opposite side of the bank, where another forest path would be waiting to take us to either Moonspine, or the White Dolphin Inn. Sheerspine River wasn’t your prettiest landmark, though. The bank on the other side was muddy and littered with dead, spindly trees and rocks, and the river itself was dark and murky, with a choppy current. It was always cold, too, no matter how the sun hit it. Then, Aleth fished through his pockets for his coins, and I started to do the same.
“Keep them,” he told me, “I’ll pay for you.”
I wasn’t used to all of this treatment, so it was really starting to bug me. No other sibling had ever cared for me like he did. I guess it was kind of hard to care for all of the siblings equally, but I didn’t expect him to be so… nice to me. The only person who had shown me more affection than Aleth was… no one. And that was kind of sad. I couldn’t believe it, but I was starting to get a heartache, and I wasn’t the type of person who corresponded well with those.
My stomach growled a little too loud for the moment, however. Aleth glanced at me and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He knew that I’d refuse his food, anyway. Smart guy. Still, I probably needed to stop being so stubborn with my subconscious. And my conscious… I have such a bad habit of fighting with myself.
Gabriella was doing a fine job of rowing. The orange light of her lantern dully reflected off of the Sheerspine water, and it was kind of pretty. I wished I had some cider, as silly of a wish as it was, or tea, maybe. It was a bad time to be wishing for those things. Then, my thoughts were broken as a large tree branch suddenly reached from the water and snagged onto the ferry.
Gabriella screamed, and a large, white, amphibious tail rose from the surface from under the ferry and slammed into the side, flipping it over. We were all tossed into the freezing water, the lantern immediately loosing its glow and sinking into the current. Gabriella and Aleth were yelling at each other, but I couldn’t make any words out. I was drowning, flowing with the current beside the lantern. My consciousness was getting ready to drift away for the second time that day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I soon went comatose.
Then, something white and slimy whipped around my waist and squeezed what little air I had left in my lungs away while lifting me above the current. I felt like I was on showcase, shivering and soaking wet, Gabriella and Aleth probably staring up at me in horror. I screamed in pain as I was squeezed harder, and the creature that had me skimmed me across the surface of the water. The dull pounding in my head returned as I was submerged, pulled down under again. However, this time, the pounding brought me a different feeling. Anger. But the angrier I got, the more my mind threatened to slip away from me, and as I struggled for a breath, I thought I was going to die…
Suddenly… it was the strangest feeling I’d ever felt, which was saying something. A hot sensation shot up my spine, the one that I was becoming familiar with, and my arms twitched under their amphibious binding. A burning feeling was in my gums, behind my eyes, and in my lungs that were about to give up… I writhed around, twitching and fiery inside, tingling surging up and down my back. I was screamed under the water, knowing it was futile, but I couldn’t keep it in. The pain was too much. My eyes shut, and my lungs were through.
Then, I was lifted into the air again, water gushing from my mouth, and I gasped in the frigid air as quickly as I could. The precious air. I stared my predator in its pale, beady eyes, observing something quite like an eel, an eel that squeezed my midsection like it wanted to crush my bones. I screamed again, but this time, not out of pain. I screamed with rage, arching back as far as I could, letting the white hot feelings rush through my body. Then, three loud cracks came one after the other, piercing into the creature’s slimy hide. Aleth leapt forward, slicing it with his black blade, the wound letting forth a spray of purple blood. The grasp was immediately released on me, and I slipped back into the river, watching my brother’s slaughter, sinking back into blue.
A low screech sang to me as I was carried down with the current, my heart pounding the rhythm. Something was hunting me. I opened my eyes and let the river take me, my arms limply floating before my sight. Suddenly, another hand broke through the surface and grabbed onto me, pulling me up. The sunset-haired girl strained to fight the current and carry me back to safety.
I was eventually taken to the upturned ferry that had gotten stuck between a few fallen branches poking out of the water. I looked around for Aleth, and found him swimming over to us, grabbing onto the other side of the ferry and hoisting himself in. Gabriella then took us down the river in silence.
When we were finally on the other side, I fell into the damp ground and laid, motionless, catching my breath.
“Are you okay?” Aleth asked Gabriella.
“Fine,” she said, out of breath also. “You?” The sound of Aleth sheathing his sword and pocketing his gun confirmed that he was just fine.
“What was that?” she asked, getting her ferry up to the bank.
“A white dolphin.” I was going to take that as the omen that clearly told us to go to Moonspine.
“Tizzy, you okay?” Aleth kneeled down to me, and all I felt was resentment. Screw you, I wanted to say. I’m fine. Get away. The hell with you, the hell with the river, the hell with the dolphin, the hell with Moonspine…
“Fine,” I said.
“What was going on?” he asked. “You… your eyes… they were red.”
The hell with my red eyes. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
“I don’t know. I was angry.”
“What else?”
“… screaming… and pain… heat…” I said, trying to remember it all. Aleth was very silent, and Gabriella hadn’t said a word, either. “Was… that the second?”
“No. This is something else. We need to get you to Moonspine.” Those words worried me. If this wasn’t part of the process, than what was going on?
“Let me take you there,” Gabriella then said. “I can help you. Traveling is safer in large numbers, you know.”
So, I was hoisted into Aleth’s arms once again, and the sunset-haired girl began to lead us to the Moonspine Inn. I let my tired body take this time to sleep, not that I could give it much of a choice, anyway.
Blue light seeped in through every stained glass window, and the heat returned behind my eyes. I felt my lips turn into a smirk, and my head lowered so I could show a malicious glare down a blue carpet, rolling down the pews. A silhouette began through the darkness from the arched doorway, coming down the walkway. My fingers gripped onto a cold, steel handle, my arm raised the gun, and I pulled the trigger, watching the bullet fly into the silhouette’s chest.
“This place, gaunt,” I growled, “is my home… and you will never approach it again.” And I felt no contrition as I stared, watching the anonymous shadow die right before me.
“Hey, wake up.”
“I don’t want to…”
“Too bad. You’re already up.”
I groggily opened my eyes and looked around, kind of glad that Aleth had woken me. My dreams were seriously starting to bother me.
“What do you want?” I asked. Dead, spindly trees were spread out across a field of mud and boulders, and I conferred that we hadn’t traveled very far. The purple skies overhead were cloudy, teasing with a chance of rain.
“You looked like you weren’t having a very good sleep,” Gabriella replied. That heat flared up inside of me again.
“Screw you,” I growled, squirming around until I rolled out of Aleth’s arms, landing on my fours in the mud. I proceeded to clean my hands off on the bottom of my skirt, with a look daring anyone to come closer.
“Tizzy, what the hell is your problem?” So, Aleth was finally going to drop this extreme hospitality fix. It was about time. That’s right, yell at me, I thought. Yell at me!
“Leave me alone!” I bit back, trying to get to my feet. My legs seared with pain, but I did my best to put on nothing but a mere wince and gather what composure I had left to take a few steps away. They were awkward and painful, and when I took a breath, I felt like my chest was on fire. But did I care? Of course not.
“Tizzy, you’re going to hurt yourself!” Aleth rushed up to me, but I ignored him, turning away. I knew I was making it worse. I knew it, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Then let me get hurt.”
“I did! And look at you now! You can’t even walk right!” he shouted in my face. I was sick of him hovering over me all the time like I couldn’t do anything for myself! So I slapped him, just hard enough to show my point. “Why do you have to be like this? I give up my stubborn ways to help you, and you pick them right up and throw them back at me!” Had I done that? Had I really? I suppose that’s why I got that far. Yes, yes, my denial of all his help had enabled me to leave Suradia and somehow venture all the way to my current state. If that wasn’t accepting help, then I had no idea what was.
“Shut up,” I said. “Shut up! I’m fine, and I don’t need any help!” That wasn’t the best thing to say. By far. Aleth angrily stormed up in front of me and raised me inches into the air by the collar of my coat. I could see the malevolence in his eyes that was starting to rear up in me, and… I think I was afraid.
“You listen up,” he said, dropping me. I was relieved until he pinned my arms at my sides and shook me. “You’re going to do what I say. You will not turn away, and you will not put yourself in danger. I’m frightened by what I see in you, and if you ever turn away again…”
“If I ever turn away again, what the hell are you going to do?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Good God, I couldn’t help it… I couldn’t stop myself! Suddenly, I saw red flash in my brother’s eyes, and he bared his teeth at me, gritting them. I saw the malice I had never known to lie in him.
“I can only take so much of your shit,” he whispered into my ear, a shiver running down me, “and if I have to take much more, you’ll be left for dead. You’ll be alone. So if you ever do this again, you’ll be sorry.”
The fire shot back up my spine, and I clenched my fists. How dare he. I clenched my jaw. How dare he make such threats. He wants to see malice? I don’t have to have glowing eyes to show him that I’m not just the surly sister everyone hates to be around.
“You think you can pit yourself against me?” he asked, shoving me back. Gabriella whimpered and started backing away from the scene, and I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that she was ready to bolt off, back into Suradia, and tell Allanis everything she had seen. But, my attention was focused on my brother, and I didn’t give a damn what Gabriella did. “I dare you to try.” My fists were begging me to strike him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it, and I did everything within me to will them at my sides. “Go ahead. Hit me.”
I looked up at him, seeing bloodthirsty anger in his reddening eyes, and all of my rage suddenly drained from me, falling into a splash beneath my feet and seeping into the earth. I shuddered, and brought my hands to my mouth, confused. Fearful, maybe. I was feeling so much at the time I couldn’t understand anything going through my head.
“I…” My words were stumbling worse than I was. That wasn’t me. I never backed away. Why was I backing away?
“Since you seem to think you can walk just fine on your own,” Aleth began, “let’s go. We should’ve been at the inn about fifteen minutes ago.”
So, we went. My legs were screaming in agony as I strained to keep up with them. But, nothing felt worse than defeat.
I was rudely brought to wake with cold water splashing on my face. My eyes, beginning to open, saw the culprit. Aleth had me by a riverbed, I could hear the water flowing, and was tapping me on my cheek to bring my vision clear. I didn’t say a word, I felt so exhausted. I realized, however, that Aleth must’ve carried me the rest of the way through the pass, because we were no longer treading through the snow, and he still had me in his arms.
“Hey,” he whispered. “You alright?”
“What happened?” I brought myself to say. There was still a dull pain pulsing in the back of my head.
“Congratulations,” he said, “you survived the first craving.” He grinned and flicked a few stray droplets on his hand onto my face.
“Craving for what?” He helped me sit up, but I fell backwards onto the ground, still disgustingly weak. I decided to just lay there and act like I liked it.
“If it gets that bad, I’ll let you know. You’re lasting longer than I did, so I don’t want to jeopardize your progress by saying anything.” I sort of understood, I was just so pissed off earlier that I didn’t really want to.
I moaned wearily, closing my eyes again. I wouldn’t have minded laying there on the wet dirt in the drizzle, right there, and going to sleep. I wouldn’t have minded eating the wet dirt, either.
“You scared me,” Aleth said through the silence, “a lot.” I didn’t really know what to say, especially since I was getting annoyed with him feeling like he had to protect me. Sighing, I tilted my head his way.
“Sorry.” He stood up and dusted himself off.
“You ready to go? The ferry girl is over there,” he said, gesturing to a woman down the bank. She looked oddly familiar, and I say this because her curly hair was a sunset red that embedded itself in your memory once you laid eyes upon it. She was littered with freckles and wore a thick green sweater. I wish I had a sweater. It was probably really warm.
“Yeah,” I answered. I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up, but upon having to support my weight, my legs gave out and I fell. Remember that dirt that I said I wouldn’t mind eating? Yeah, I got a chunk of that. Aleth stood there laughing, and I was going to yell at him, but I didn’t have it in me anymore. And I could see how it was funny. In fact, I saw it so well, I giggled a bit myself. Luckily, Aleth still had his heart, and picked me up, helping me over to the ferry. Our driver was patiently standing by her wooden ferry with a lantern pole.
“Tizena?” My eyes widened. Who was she, and how did she know my name? I hoped that wouldn’t be a reoccurring problem in this trek. “I’m sure it’s you! Tizena Hallenar, right?” she asked. I waited a few seconds for the memory, and then it came. She frequented Allanis’s rich-people banquets, though if she was a ferrygirl, I couldn’t see how she made very much money.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. “Gabriella, right?” The sunset girl nodded and grinned when Aleth butt into the reunion.
“How much is it for us to get across?” he asked.
“Two gold coins each, but since Tizena and I go back a bit, one will do.” I guess she didn’t get to see people she knew very often, because we definitely didn’t “go back”. I think this is the first time we’ve actually exchanged anything other than a greeting. She secured her lantern pole in a little notch in the front of the ferry, and sat down next to her oars while Aleth helped me in.
“So where are you two headed?” she asked. That wasn’t a good question. I stammered, thinking, giving a glance to Aleth, hoping he could offer some silent instruction. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to feign this, or what.
“We’re going to Moonspine Inn,” he said. Her jaw dropped as she pushed off the riverbank.
“You can’t go there! No way! Why would you risk your lives to stay at a place like that?”
“It’s none of your business,” my brother replied coolly. I hoped Gabriella knew her place.
“I realize that, but you can’t go there! You’ll get killed! Thugs are always going there, sometimes for the sole purpose of just causing a random fatality!” I sighed, showing irritation.
“Gabriella, have you taken a look at this guy? Who the hell would be stupid enough to attack him?”
“Still!” she said, “Tizena, you have no idea! Giant mutts are showing up on the mainland all the time now, and a seven foot giant thug could come in and snap both of your necks before you saw it coming!”
“They can try,” Aleth started, “but we have a sure-fire weapon that will keep us safe.” He looked in my direction, flashing me a smirk. Those stupid guns! At least that’s what I thought he was referring to.
“Whatever,” Gabriella said, sighing, “I’m just saying that it’s a bad idea.”
“We’re not listening,” I told her. She said nothing as she took us down the river a ways, looking for the other blazed riverbed on the opposite side of the bank, where another forest path would be waiting to take us to either Moonspine, or the White Dolphin Inn. Sheerspine River wasn’t your prettiest landmark, though. The bank on the other side was muddy and littered with dead, spindly trees and rocks, and the river itself was dark and murky, with a choppy current. It was always cold, too, no matter how the sun hit it. Then, Aleth fished through his pockets for his coins, and I started to do the same.
“Keep them,” he told me, “I’ll pay for you.”
I wasn’t used to all of this treatment, so it was really starting to bug me. No other sibling had ever cared for me like he did. I guess it was kind of hard to care for all of the siblings equally, but I didn’t expect him to be so… nice to me. The only person who had shown me more affection than Aleth was… no one. And that was kind of sad. I couldn’t believe it, but I was starting to get a heartache, and I wasn’t the type of person who corresponded well with those.
My stomach growled a little too loud for the moment, however. Aleth glanced at me and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He knew that I’d refuse his food, anyway. Smart guy. Still, I probably needed to stop being so stubborn with my subconscious. And my conscious… I have such a bad habit of fighting with myself.
Gabriella was doing a fine job of rowing. The orange light of her lantern dully reflected off of the Sheerspine water, and it was kind of pretty. I wished I had some cider, as silly of a wish as it was, or tea, maybe. It was a bad time to be wishing for those things. Then, my thoughts were broken as a large tree branch suddenly reached from the water and snagged onto the ferry.
Gabriella screamed, and a large, white, amphibious tail rose from the surface from under the ferry and slammed into the side, flipping it over. We were all tossed into the freezing water, the lantern immediately loosing its glow and sinking into the current. Gabriella and Aleth were yelling at each other, but I couldn’t make any words out. I was drowning, flowing with the current beside the lantern. My consciousness was getting ready to drift away for the second time that day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I soon went comatose.
Then, something white and slimy whipped around my waist and squeezed what little air I had left in my lungs away while lifting me above the current. I felt like I was on showcase, shivering and soaking wet, Gabriella and Aleth probably staring up at me in horror. I screamed in pain as I was squeezed harder, and the creature that had me skimmed me across the surface of the water. The dull pounding in my head returned as I was submerged, pulled down under again. However, this time, the pounding brought me a different feeling. Anger. But the angrier I got, the more my mind threatened to slip away from me, and as I struggled for a breath, I thought I was going to die…
Suddenly… it was the strangest feeling I’d ever felt, which was saying something. A hot sensation shot up my spine, the one that I was becoming familiar with, and my arms twitched under their amphibious binding. A burning feeling was in my gums, behind my eyes, and in my lungs that were about to give up… I writhed around, twitching and fiery inside, tingling surging up and down my back. I was screamed under the water, knowing it was futile, but I couldn’t keep it in. The pain was too much. My eyes shut, and my lungs were through.
Then, I was lifted into the air again, water gushing from my mouth, and I gasped in the frigid air as quickly as I could. The precious air. I stared my predator in its pale, beady eyes, observing something quite like an eel, an eel that squeezed my midsection like it wanted to crush my bones. I screamed again, but this time, not out of pain. I screamed with rage, arching back as far as I could, letting the white hot feelings rush through my body. Then, three loud cracks came one after the other, piercing into the creature’s slimy hide. Aleth leapt forward, slicing it with his black blade, the wound letting forth a spray of purple blood. The grasp was immediately released on me, and I slipped back into the river, watching my brother’s slaughter, sinking back into blue.
A low screech sang to me as I was carried down with the current, my heart pounding the rhythm. Something was hunting me. I opened my eyes and let the river take me, my arms limply floating before my sight. Suddenly, another hand broke through the surface and grabbed onto me, pulling me up. The sunset-haired girl strained to fight the current and carry me back to safety.
I was eventually taken to the upturned ferry that had gotten stuck between a few fallen branches poking out of the water. I looked around for Aleth, and found him swimming over to us, grabbing onto the other side of the ferry and hoisting himself in. Gabriella then took us down the river in silence.
When we were finally on the other side, I fell into the damp ground and laid, motionless, catching my breath.
“Are you okay?” Aleth asked Gabriella.
“Fine,” she said, out of breath also. “You?” The sound of Aleth sheathing his sword and pocketing his gun confirmed that he was just fine.
“What was that?” she asked, getting her ferry up to the bank.
“A white dolphin.” I was going to take that as the omen that clearly told us to go to Moonspine.
“Tizzy, you okay?” Aleth kneeled down to me, and all I felt was resentment. Screw you, I wanted to say. I’m fine. Get away. The hell with you, the hell with the river, the hell with the dolphin, the hell with Moonspine…
“Fine,” I said.
“What was going on?” he asked. “You… your eyes… they were red.”
The hell with my red eyes. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
“I don’t know. I was angry.”
“What else?”
“… screaming… and pain… heat…” I said, trying to remember it all. Aleth was very silent, and Gabriella hadn’t said a word, either. “Was… that the second?”
“No. This is something else. We need to get you to Moonspine.” Those words worried me. If this wasn’t part of the process, than what was going on?
“Let me take you there,” Gabriella then said. “I can help you. Traveling is safer in large numbers, you know.”
So, I was hoisted into Aleth’s arms once again, and the sunset-haired girl began to lead us to the Moonspine Inn. I let my tired body take this time to sleep, not that I could give it much of a choice, anyway.
Blue light seeped in through every stained glass window, and the heat returned behind my eyes. I felt my lips turn into a smirk, and my head lowered so I could show a malicious glare down a blue carpet, rolling down the pews. A silhouette began through the darkness from the arched doorway, coming down the walkway. My fingers gripped onto a cold, steel handle, my arm raised the gun, and I pulled the trigger, watching the bullet fly into the silhouette’s chest.
“This place, gaunt,” I growled, “is my home… and you will never approach it again.” And I felt no contrition as I stared, watching the anonymous shadow die right before me.
“Hey, wake up.”
“I don’t want to…”
“Too bad. You’re already up.”
I groggily opened my eyes and looked around, kind of glad that Aleth had woken me. My dreams were seriously starting to bother me.
“What do you want?” I asked. Dead, spindly trees were spread out across a field of mud and boulders, and I conferred that we hadn’t traveled very far. The purple skies overhead were cloudy, teasing with a chance of rain.
“You looked like you weren’t having a very good sleep,” Gabriella replied. That heat flared up inside of me again.
“Screw you,” I growled, squirming around until I rolled out of Aleth’s arms, landing on my fours in the mud. I proceeded to clean my hands off on the bottom of my skirt, with a look daring anyone to come closer.
“Tizzy, what the hell is your problem?” So, Aleth was finally going to drop this extreme hospitality fix. It was about time. That’s right, yell at me, I thought. Yell at me!
“Leave me alone!” I bit back, trying to get to my feet. My legs seared with pain, but I did my best to put on nothing but a mere wince and gather what composure I had left to take a few steps away. They were awkward and painful, and when I took a breath, I felt like my chest was on fire. But did I care? Of course not.
“Tizzy, you’re going to hurt yourself!” Aleth rushed up to me, but I ignored him, turning away. I knew I was making it worse. I knew it, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Then let me get hurt.”
“I did! And look at you now! You can’t even walk right!” he shouted in my face. I was sick of him hovering over me all the time like I couldn’t do anything for myself! So I slapped him, just hard enough to show my point. “Why do you have to be like this? I give up my stubborn ways to help you, and you pick them right up and throw them back at me!” Had I done that? Had I really? I suppose that’s why I got that far. Yes, yes, my denial of all his help had enabled me to leave Suradia and somehow venture all the way to my current state. If that wasn’t accepting help, then I had no idea what was.
“Shut up,” I said. “Shut up! I’m fine, and I don’t need any help!” That wasn’t the best thing to say. By far. Aleth angrily stormed up in front of me and raised me inches into the air by the collar of my coat. I could see the malevolence in his eyes that was starting to rear up in me, and… I think I was afraid.
“You listen up,” he said, dropping me. I was relieved until he pinned my arms at my sides and shook me. “You’re going to do what I say. You will not turn away, and you will not put yourself in danger. I’m frightened by what I see in you, and if you ever turn away again…”
“If I ever turn away again, what the hell are you going to do?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Good God, I couldn’t help it… I couldn’t stop myself! Suddenly, I saw red flash in my brother’s eyes, and he bared his teeth at me, gritting them. I saw the malice I had never known to lie in him.
“I can only take so much of your shit,” he whispered into my ear, a shiver running down me, “and if I have to take much more, you’ll be left for dead. You’ll be alone. So if you ever do this again, you’ll be sorry.”
The fire shot back up my spine, and I clenched my fists. How dare he. I clenched my jaw. How dare he make such threats. He wants to see malice? I don’t have to have glowing eyes to show him that I’m not just the surly sister everyone hates to be around.
“You think you can pit yourself against me?” he asked, shoving me back. Gabriella whimpered and started backing away from the scene, and I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that she was ready to bolt off, back into Suradia, and tell Allanis everything she had seen. But, my attention was focused on my brother, and I didn’t give a damn what Gabriella did. “I dare you to try.” My fists were begging me to strike him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it, and I did everything within me to will them at my sides. “Go ahead. Hit me.”
I looked up at him, seeing bloodthirsty anger in his reddening eyes, and all of my rage suddenly drained from me, falling into a splash beneath my feet and seeping into the earth. I shuddered, and brought my hands to my mouth, confused. Fearful, maybe. I was feeling so much at the time I couldn’t understand anything going through my head.
“I…” My words were stumbling worse than I was. That wasn’t me. I never backed away. Why was I backing away?
“Since you seem to think you can walk just fine on your own,” Aleth began, “let’s go. We should’ve been at the inn about fifteen minutes ago.”
So, we went. My legs were screaming in agony as I strained to keep up with them. But, nothing felt worse than defeat.
