Haunting Past
Lost in her thoughts, she had not scented the other until her ears were pulled in the direction of his bark. Quickly, she'd whip her head to face the stranger, the male coming up beside her on her left, a question slipped from his tongue. Looking for something... Oh how she had a million answers for that. She was surprised she had not decided to distance herself from him, surprised she hadn't turned defensive like she used to. Were she younger, her hackles would have been raised and her teeth bared. An obvious sign of her wariness and fright. But no. Here she was, standing calmly and allowing the stranger to remain where he was. And she would move neither closer, nor farther from him. Perhaps it was the time she had spent alone, that her soul ached for the company of another. And he didn't seem like he would do her any harm.
She took a long moment to answer. Having only cast him a glance for a brief moment before returning her gaze out to the water. She mentally apologized if she seemed rude for not answering, but her mind seemed to be full of so many things. Questions she wanted answers to. Answers, that wished she knew. "I...was. But it's been gone for a long time now...There's nothing left." Her family. Her life. Her heart. Gone. Her soul felt like it was incomplete. She was older now, she had gained knowledge that she had been taught by rogues on her journey or learned herself. Gone for two years. And in those two years, hope of finding what had been lost to her, faded. There was no hope now. They were gone, and she might never see them again.
She faced the man, wondering what had brought him to ask that question. Was it that obvious that she had been looking for something? She shivered slightly from the ocean breeze, the sun slowly sinking beyond the horizon as it turned the water the shades of blood. "What about you?" She'd ask simply. Her voice was not unkind. More of a soft whisper then usual. She was tired, feeling a little empty. But the discovery that what she had been seeking was not here, had made that last little bit of hope fall away like a dying leaf. She was alone. And she did not truly understand that, until today. |
