The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 27

Chapter 24

A delicate giggle woke Harry from a sound sleep. He shouldn’t have let his guard down for so long but his body could only cope with so much these days, and it was so hard to keep remembering why it even mattered. He crept back into the bushes, hoping the girl would lose interest once he was out of sight, but she followed him curiously, her large blue eyes showing no trace of fear. He should have known his furtive behaviour would only spark her inquisitiveness. He sat down and tried to look as bored as possible instead. It usually worked with young children at home, not that he’d had much experience with those, really. He only knew that when Lainie was a child she tended to lose interest most quickly when they were doing something that even he found tedious. Like trying to teach her to drench sheep. But this girl wasn’t nine years old. She was probably more like fifty. Then again, she could have been four hundred. How could anyone tell in this place?

The girl smiled and came to sit down, practically in his lap. She hugged him tightly and her glossy dark hair tickled his nose, and then she looked him in the eye, curious to see what he would do next, so he kissed her on the cheek and smiled.

It had taken a while but he was slowly becoming re-accustomed to these people. The day he had arrived he’d been energetically embraced by a hulk of a man with legs like gate posts and a thick black beard who wouldn’t have seemed out of place at the Nalong pub. Except for the hugging. There was nothing kinky in it—that almost made it harder. If there’d been some sort of seductive motive behind the intimacy he would have had no trouble knowing how to throw a good punch, but when he’d backed uncomfortably away from the man, the Edenite had just looked confused. The behaviour of the people here was completely innocent and natural. He might just as well get offended by an infant burping at him as with anything these people did. They just didn’t get it.

Harry shifted away from the girl and tucked a couple of flowers into her hair. No matter how adult she appeared, he just couldn’t think of her as anything but a girl. Everyone here looked like a young adult except for the very occasional true children, who were doted on by everyone. But they all behaved as children. Very, very intelligent children.

Pulling himself to his feet, he tried not to look as tired as he felt. The pain was getting worse. The girl watched him in delighted amusement. As he knew she would, she reached out and picked a yellow Fruit from a nearby tree and offered it to him. He shook his head, trying hard to keep his face passive. She looked surprised but tossed the ripe golden treat carelessly over her shoulder. Great, here we go again. Now she would follow him around to see when he would eat, until she eventually got bored and gave up. Perhaps he should talk to Annie again. She would know how to send the girl away without being rude.

He looked across to the lake where he knew she was busy collecting water chestnuts for the evening meal. Speaking to her had its consequences. He reminded her of a past life, and despite her enthusiasm for his company, his visits always ended the same way. He had come to Eden to try to address the problem of the sad music in the River, but his presence only seemed to be making it worse.

A gentle nudge reminded him of his friendly shadow. The girl had noticed his less than chirpy expression and was holding out another piece of Fruit, expecting him to eat it.

But no matter how bad things got, he refused to do anything that would make the River cry for him.