by Ross Turner
Vivian opened her mouth involuntarily to speak, not knowing what to say, indeed captivated by the man before her. But before she had chance to gather her thoughts, shape her tongue and form her words, he exploded into movement and darted out of sight, sprinting away down the next corridor.
That snapped Vivian back into focus.
“HEY!” She yelled after him, settling for something easy and with only a single syllable.
And, of course, she immediately took off in pursuit, hurtling down the hallway and round the corner at the end, following both the sound of his heavy footsteps and the fleeting glimpses she caught of him each time she careered round a corner.
Finally they were on the ground floor and Vivian’s heart was racing. She was neither gaining nor losing pace on the intruder, and she kept attempting to gather her will, but with each attempt she made, for some reason, her focus fell flat, and so she simply kept up the chase.
That was all she could do.
The stranger burst from the heavy front door to the Keep and leapt down towards the iron gates, his movements easy and athletic, not once even breaking his stride. He swept quickly down towards the treeline and had almost even disappeared amongst the vast red trunks before Vivian too bounded out into the streaming sunlight.
“WAIT!” She shrieked as she tore down after him.
But of course he didn’t, and he slipped and darted into the trees and disappeared in an instant.
Vivian charged after him, racing as fast as her beating heart to keep pace with the man who had disturbed her.
Who was he?
What in the world was he doing here?
What had he been looking for?
Why did she feel like she’d seen him before?
Vivian’s thoughts raced through her mind faster even than her legs churned, and she tore through the open iron gates and into the comparable dark of the woodlands to pursue the answers she so desired.
5
Branches whipped at Vivian’s face as she ran, darting round and through and beneath bushes and shrubs, desperately trying to keep the man she was pursuing in sight, yet every time losing him amongst the trees.
For what seemed like hours Vivian pursued the stranger that she felt as though she recognised, chasing after him through the endless woodlands, tinted with such an ancient red that it was very much a part of the makeup of the world itself.
The Redwoods didn’t speak to her as she ran, and even if they had done, she likely wouldn’t have been able to focus enough to hear them. Instead though, as she hurried forward, whenever Vivian lost sight of her stranger, she gained a certain sense from the trees all around her as to whether she was still on his trail or not, directed almost entirely by her and their senses combined.
Eventually, each time, she always emerged into a clearing of some kind and caught sight of her target once again, resuming her chase.
Though it had at first seemed that this man’s stamina was endless, he was at last proving at least that he was human, and his pace was slowing.
Vivian however, though of course she was still human, could force her body to continue without slowing, feeding her muscles and her lungs and heart with her sometimes seemingly infinite power. This meant, essentially, that she could run for as long as her power lasted, and with power as vast and extensive as hers, that could truly prove to be rather a long time.
“HEY!” She yelled again, gaining on the stranger with every step. He threw a quick and clearly exhausted glance over his shoulder, his eyes widening as they laid their sights briefly upon Vivian.
The image he found was of his pursuer, not looking even slightly wearied, replenished to a point that seemed both entirely inhuman and impossible, and the sight shocked him beyond belief.
Soon enough, he was able to outrun her no more. Forced to stop with cramping muscles, a heaving chest and gasping breaths, the stranger backed up to the thick trunk of a tree, holding his hands up defensively, but so out of breath unable to speak.
Vivian wasted no time, having let him evade her once already.
An invisible force knocked what little wind there was in the stranger’s lungs from him, and he was pinned back up against the tree, unable to move, dragged four or five feet up from the ground.
“Wha…?” Was all he managed to gasp as his body was restrained, and all that remained of his breath was stolen.
“Right then…” Vivian stated, placing her hands on her hips and walking right up to the man pinned against the tree by her invisible force. She was not even short of breath, let alone struggling to breathe as he was, and though she was wearied and fatigued from her efforts, of course she did not let that show.
Looking at him more closely now, and in better light, Vivian could see that he was about her age, and his unusual features made him actually very handsome, though that wasn’t what concerned her right at that moment.
“Who the hell are you!?” She demanded, the frustration and even tinted anger in her voice all too clear.
He wheezed and puffed for breath again, unable to reply, still held in Vivian’s invisible and suffocating grasp. She relaxed her tension slightly, allowing him to breathe gratefully, and he caught his breath for a minute or two before he was eventually able to reply, returning Vivian’s fierce gaze with one of innocence and strange curiosity.
“My name is Kael.” He eventually managed to respond. Speaking simply and matter-of-factly, his voice soft, though it had a definite edge to it: the kind of sharp and astute tone developed through hardship.
Vivian knew it well.
“Kael?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow. She had never heard the name before, and it sounded strange to her.
“Yes…” He replied uncertainly, as if he’d somehow wronged her by having the incorrect name.
“Where are you from?” Vivian demanded, her voice firm. “I’ve never heard that name before.”
“I’m from the north.” He replied, as if that explained everything without the need for any further elaboration.
“The north?” Vivian questioned. “What do you mean, the north?”
“I’m from the north.” He repeated, as if he didn’t quite grasp what she was asking of him. “Up past the great plains. Beyond the northern border of the Redwood Empire.” He expanded.
“Beyond the Redwoods?” Vivian asked then, her voice opening and the harshness dropping from it almost completely, as if what he was suggesting was utterly ludicrous.
“Yes…” He replied carefully, again unsure what he’d done wrong - apparently just by revealing his name and where he was from he had baffled his pursuer.
Nothing was said then for a minute or two, and a bizarre silence hung between the two of them, like a connection that was long overdue reunifying. Finally, Kael decided to break the quiet, for even the whisperings in the trees above them had ceased.
“Vivian, right?” He asked, his tone admittedly a little uncertain. “Vivian Featherstone?”
His question however, did nothing to stir Vivian’s tongue, and the sheer fact that he seemed to know exactly who she was, although he wasn’t even from the Redwood Empire, shocked her some.
How…?” She started, looking for the right words of accusation, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she was accusing him of.
“You come out here quite often…” Kael continued. “Nowhere near as much as you used to though…”
Suddenly Vivian forced him further up the tree and the choking clasp around his neck tightened. He gasped desperately for breath and clawed at the restraints around his neck and body, but there were none to be found, and he simply continued to struggle.
“How do you know me!?” Vivian demanded, hissing her words fiercely through gritted teeth.
It wasn’t too much of a surprise that he knew who she was, most did. But the fact that he knew about her regular visits to Featherstone Keep usurped Vivian’s calm somewhat.
“Please!” Kael managed to gasp between weak and desperate gulps for air. “I
can’t…I can’t breathe!”
“Tell me!” Vivian ordered him, a red shade covering her view of the poor, innocent soul she was crushing beneath her will.
Finally, after another thirty seconds or so, Kael’s struggles began to weaken, and his kicking legs hung more limply. Vivian suddenly panicked, realising all of a sudden in that moment that she was killing this man, for no reason other than that she’d lost control of herself.
Shame swept over her in an enormous flurrying wave, and Vivian immediately released the stranger Kael completely.
He dropped to the ground with a heavy thud and took deep, grateful gulps of air, able to finally fill his lungs freely. His recovery took a few long minutes, and Vivian took several steps back to give him space, feeling decidedly ashamed of herself.
Eventually Kael looked up, a strange expression set on his face, and he sat back against the tree he had only minutes ago been pinned to, looking up at Vivian openly, and his face entirely unreadable to her.
If she could have described it as anything, the word that came to mind would have been, for some strange reason, affectionate.
“I’m sorry…” She admitted, her voice quiet and filled with apologetic shame.
“Not to worry.” He replied, brushing his scrape with death off somewhat casually. “No harm done. I probably should have explained myself first.” He admitted honestly. “That probably sounded like I’ve been stalking you, which, considering the stories I’ve heard flying round, I can imagine isn’t the most comforting thing…”
Vivian nodded slowly in agreement, but said nothing, silently urging him to continue.
High above them the white blanket of clouds circled endlessly, growing and gathering together into darker and darker bundles by the hour. By now they had blocked the sun entirely and the air felt heavy, clearly thick with the preparing onslaught of a storm.
“The place where I used to live, where I was born…” Kael began, his thoughts clearly lost to the past as he recalled it to the forefront of his mind.
A pained look crossed his face that Vivian recognised all too well, and her features softened noticeably, having something of an inkling of what might be coming next.
“It was far to the north, like I said, past the edge of the Redwoods and the plains. It was a place called Hope.” He explained. “We raised cattle and farmed the land, trying to grow enough food for ourselves, and then also to sell so that we could pay our Lord.”
He paused for a moment, as if he was going to say something else, but instead changed his mind, deciding against it, and flitted back to his tale.
“There was a terrible drought. We have no idea what caused it, but it brought us hard times. Our animals all grew weak and eventually died, our crops withered, and we struggled more and more to revive the land every year. We had no money to go anywhere, and though we pleaded to our Lord for help, he never listened to us.”
Vivian’s heart began to throb as she thought of those who farmed the land around the outskirts of Virtus, and how she had spent years considering their every need, along with all her other people. It sounded as though Kael’s Lord had not been bound by such principles.
“After another six months, since we hadn’t been able to pay our rent, our Lord eventually drove us off of his land, though I doubt since then he’s been able to find anyone to replace us, unless the rains have returned…” Kael continued. “Without food and shelter, it wasn’t long before we got desperate. But there was nothing we could do…”
He sighed deeply and his expression saddened, though it was still difficult to read.
“I was the only one still strong enough to travel, but it didn’t matter. There wasn’t any food around. My father told me to go south to escape the drought. He told me about the Redwoods and that they were protected. He said there would always be food there. So I left…” His voice dropped and Vivian didn’t need to hear any more.
She felt suddenly a strong connection between herself and Kael then. It was a link forged by the similarities between them. She too had abandoned her family, not by choice, but out of necessity: simply to survive.
“I didn’t know anything about the Redwood Empire.” Kael admitted. “I’d heard stories sure, but they were just stories to me. I knew nothing about the feud between the Greystones and your family, at least not until I eventually reached Virtus.”
“What have you heard?” Vivian asked then, curious to know what he knew of her family’s tragedy, being, quite possibly, one of the only people to now live in Virtus who hadn’t suffered the Greystone’s rule.
He shrugged slightly as if he’d heard many different versions of the same tale.
“That the Greystone’s had always hated the Featherstones. That they weren’t powerful enough to overrule them, so they tried to kill them. But you survived, and eventually came back to kill them all.”
Vivian nodded for a moment, considering his words.
“That’s pretty much what happened.” She admitted. “In the simplest terms anyway. So how do you know so much about me?” She questioned.
“It’s quite simple really…” Kael started, smirking slightly, though Vivian wasn’t quite sure why. “I work as a farmhand on one of the farms on the western edge of Virtus. They were looking for someone to work the fields, and I have a lot of experience in that sort of thing. I was working the fields in Hope pretty much from the day I could walk.”
Vivian considered that, but didn’t say anything of it. It sounded as though Kael’s upbringing had been a tough one.
“I think anyone in Virtus could point you out leagues away. And you’ve come and gone into the Redwoods there ever since I arrived here.” He continued.
“I didn’t think anyone had seen me leave.” Vivian admitted honestly, realising that perhaps she hadn’t been as careful as she’d thought.
“I’ve been doing my best to fit since the first day I got here.” He explained. “I’ve made it my business to fit in: to keep my head down. I’m not surprised you haven’t noticed me.” He paused for a moment, a smile touching his lips. “You’re very hard to ignore though…” He finally added, his smile turning into an affectionate smirk that flashed across his face again, but once more, Vivian missed its meaning.
He’d actually caught her very off guard now, she realised. He’d seen her come and go probably almost every time she’d come to visit the Keep, and she hadn’t once noticed him, even though his features were so different and so unique compared to anyone’s she’d ever seen, that they practically jumped out and slapped her across the face.
For some reason then she felt guilty for never having noticed him.
Nonetheless, she certainly had done now.
“Why did you follow me?” She asked, trying to collect her thoughts and rationalise them. “If you’ve seen me come and go so many times, why now?”
“At first I had no idea where you were going.” He replied with another shrug. “But then the more stories I heard and the more I thought about it, it only made sense that you were going to visit your old home.” He reasoned aloud. “Eventually I just grew too curious to ignore it any longer.” He admitted openly and with a light hearted laugh. “And, if I’m perfectly honest, I desperately wanted to meet you.”
Vivian didn’t know how to respond to that, and her heart jumped into her mouth for a moment.
Though she had faltered slightly, she at least understood a little, both about the pain of leaving his family, and about his burning curiosity, for those two things she had experienced herself, many a time.
What she did not understand, however, was his apparent desire to meet her, without needing something.
The thought was simply alien to her.
For years Vivian had been her people’s first port of call for problems and issues. And now, this stranger from another land, whom she had apparently overlooked a hundred times, wanted to meet her because…
She eventually realised, after a few more minutes of silent deliberation, that she didn
’t in fact have any idea why he’d wanted to meet her, and her heart pounded heavily against her ribs at that thought, stirring emotions that she had long forgotten, or perhaps never even awoken.
As much as she might have wanted to pursue that line of questioning however, and Kael could see her mind churning, Vivian decided instead to avert her burning curiosity, for perhaps the first time in her life, and asked instead a different question.
“Have you had trouble with the cattle on your farm?” She asked, seemingly out of the blue, and Kael smiled knowingly, but said nothing else of it.
“Trouble with the cattle?” He repeated. “What do you mean?”
“I heard some of the farms are having problems with something killing their cattle.” She expanded, realising how vague her first question had been.
“No.” He replied simply. “We haven’t had any problems. I’ve heard of problems in the south though.” He commented. “The man who owns the farm I work on, his name is Linton. He’s a good man. His cousin owns a farm in the south. I think they’ve had some problems with something killing their cattle…”
“I see…” Vivian replied, not really knowing what else to say. “I’m going to have to go and find out what’s going on…” She continued, but her voice trailed off and left her sentence unfinished, as her eyes wandered past Kael’s face for the first time since their conversation had begun.
They widened as she noticed what had happened around them, without them noticing, and Vivian’s sudden realisation forced Kael to tear his gaze from her also. He too looked all about then, shock and uncertainty gripping him, and admittedly quite afraid.
Unbeknownst to them, as they had been talking, they’d been so engrossed by each other that they hadn’t noticed their audience forming around them, watching their every move, and focusing on their words intently.
Around them, huddled in a circle about the clearing within which they’d been talking, a hundred and more animals had gathered, their eyes and ears turned intently towards the couple. Deer and squirrels and rabbits and hedgehogs and even wolves and bears alike.
