Page 118 of Fires of the Forsaken
I wanted to stop. To lie down.
I was alone, frightened, and weak. But instinct drove me endlessly forward.
Instinct…and Terrick’s shadow.
For I heard his voice that day. Clearly. As though he was standing beside me. Guiding me. Protecting me.
“Find shelter, lass. The weather can turn quicker than a horse rounding cattle. Even if it seems calm, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for the worst.”
“The worst has already happened,” I said.
“It’s not so bad as that, lass.”Came Terrick’s warm response.“We’ll do it together. Remember what I’ve taught you.”
Terrick and I had lived in the woods for months before arriving at Swindon. And, upon realizing I did not know the basic skills necessary for surviving in the wild, he had been all too eager to teach me.
Terricklovedteaching.
“Look to the trees. If their branches are thick, they’ll shield you from the worst of the wind and rain.”
My knees trembled as I raised my eyes upward. Most trees had shed in preparation for winter, but a great oak still clung to its leaves. They’d turned blood red, and would fall soon, but they’d provide some measure of protection for the night.
“Well done, lass.”
Though the tree was only a short distance away, it took me several minutes to reach it. I was thoroughly winded as I lowered myself against the expansive trunk.
A leaf fluttered to the ground. For a moment, my fever-addled brain believed the red foliage to be a droplet of blood. I envisioned Terrick’s body suspended in the branches above me, blood seeping from his blistered flesh.
I pressed a hand to my churning stomach, fighting back a cry. But when I glanced up, I saw only the branches as they swayed in the breeze, making soft, creaking sounds. It was gentle. And rhythmic. A lullaby.
Through the crimson leaves, I stared at the starry sky.And I remembered the night Terrick and I had lain beneath the moon and stars on a warm summer’s eve, a full month before we would arrive at Swindon.
“Ah, lass,” Terrick said, “you see there, the brightest star in the sky?”
At the time, I couldn’t see what he was pointing at. But I nodded.
“That is Polaris,” he traced his finger around the constellation. “The Guardian. You’ll never be lost, as long as he’s watching over you.”
The stars blurred before my teary gaze. But Polaris, hanging high in the sky, still shone more brightly than the rest.
Yet I’d never felt more lost.
My chest ached. For all his faults, Terrick had cared for me. I was certain of that. Everything he’d done in the last years of his life had been to help me.
He’dlovedme. And I him.
But his love had gotten him killed.
I wished he had never rescued me from the depths of the pond. Drowning may have been anexcrutiating—excruciating death, but the discomfort would have only lasted a few moments.It certainly would have been less painful than living.
And Terrick would have been free to spend the rest of his days surrounded by his books at Swindon. He could have had many more mornings whistling his happy tune as he strolled to the market. His eventual death would have been peaceful, with the warm touches and well-wishes of friends sending his soul on its final journey.
Instead, he’d spent the last years of his life driven from his home, forced to work a job that took too much from his aging body, and struggling to contain an uncontrollable hybrid.
The fire did not take his life that night. But my presence, my existence, had robbed him of the happiness he’d deserved.
“I am happy.”Terrick’s warm voice filled my brain once more.“I’ll never leave you, lass.”
The words were mere memories, but they were all I had left of him.
