The Others

Chapter Fifteen

It doesn’t take Lilly long to find me. She strolls up to me, the size of a fawn. Her gentle braap sounds more and more like a low grumble. But her bright, blue eyes, still show how young and playful she is. She tilts her head, and I wipe away my tears.

‘He’s right, Lil’, I say. ‘I’m an embarrassment to you.’ She tilts her head the other way. ‘I do not come from a magic family. I have no clue what I am doing, and you deserve better. What if you truly are the last of your kind? Why aren’t you together with someone powerful, and properly raised, like Jonathan? Or someone as good at sword-fighting, as Isla. I’m a disgrace, and I will never learn.’ I hear a second low grumble coming from her throat.

"Maya ", I hear a voice, as bright as the sky. I forget to breathe, and look her straight into her eyes. Her voice is beautiful, clear and absolutely feminine. ‘What…’ I stumble. ‘Did you just say my name?’

"Maya", she repeats. "You are not a disgrace. I love you."

I laugh in-between my tears. ‘I love you too, Lilly.’

"To you, I am Lilly", The voice says. "To my kind, my name is Faetur Eldur."

I can not believe that I hear her voice. ‘Why can I only now hear you?’

"You were not ready." Her voice sounds soothing, calming. "But now you are."

I wipe away the last couple of tears that were resting on my face. ‘But I am weak. It’s better for you to connect to someone strong, someone that knows what they are doing.’

Lilly snorts, and it even seems like I can see a bit of smoke coming from her nostrils. "I have chosen you. And I stand by my decision. Now wipe away your tears, and head back to him."

‘No way’, I say. ‘He said all those horrible things about me, about my farm. I want to go back. I do not even know what’s going on with my mother, or how she’s doing. I want to see Carl, and Keira. I do not want to be here. You made a mistake.’

Lilly turns her back at me. "In that case, you know where to find me", she says, before she walks away.

‘Hey’, I yell at her back, and I jump up. ‘Don’t walk away from me.’ The dragon does not change speed. I decide to follow her.

Before I know it, I see Jonathan. He’s laying on the floor, staring at the first couple of stars in the sky. Thalia is laying next to him, with her belly pressed against the side of his face.

‘Jonathan’, I say excitedly. He does not move. I run up to him, and sit down next to him. He does not even look at me. ‘I heard her’, I say. ‘She spoke to me, inside my head.’ Jonathan still does not look at me.

‘Why are you ignoring me.’

‘Look’, he says, pointing at the sky. I lay down on my back, right next to him. He points at three stars, close to each other. ‘That left star, is the brightest in the sky. It’s the first you see, when the sun sets. The one to the right, is much smaller, but if you look closely it has an orange glow.’

I turn my head to the guy, who’s still facing the heavens. ‘Jonathan’, I whisper. Now he turns his face to mine, and I realise there’s only a few inches in-between us. ‘She spoke to me.’ I smile. He smiles back.

‘Congratulations’, he whispers.

For at least ten seconds, I look into his eyes. Their dark colour is not even. In some spots it’s lighter than others. It almost seems like the colour is waving when you look at it. I can not stop my face from slowly getting closer to him.

‘Maya’, he whispers when my lips almost reach his. He moves, and sits up. Wrapping his arms around his knees.

For three seconds I lay there, embarrassed like crazy. Then I decide to get up and sit next to him. ‘I’m sorry’, I say. I do not know what else to say.

He shakes his head. ‘You do not have to apologize’, he says. ‘I have let you believe things that are not there.’ It feels like he took a knife, and stabbed it to my heart.

‘I am your teacher’, he continues to stab me. He gets up on both legs. ‘Not your lover.’ It almost sounds like he spits the last word out. ‘I will see you in the morning.’ He walks away from me, with big steps. Leaving me and my fast beating heart, behind.

-

I reach my tent with mixed feelings. I am angry, sad and embarrassed. I am happy, because now I can speak to Lilly. Or Faetur Eldur, or whatever she wants to be called. But I feel a new sense of hatred for Jonathan, that is difficult to describe.

I see Lynn sitting next to my tent, and open the cloth door to enter. Isla is sitting on my bed, with a smile on her face. ‘There you are’, she says. ‘I was looking for you. Did you run late with Jonathan?’

I snort, and I see her smile vanish. ‘Uh-oh, what happened.’ I shake my head.

‘Nothing happened’, I say, but not even I am convinced of my own tone of voice.

‘You can tell me’, Isla says, and I see her change position. ‘What did Jonathan do?’

I shake my head. ‘Who says that Jonathan did something?’ I say. She shrugs.

‘It’s not difficult to guess’, she says. ‘Besides, the guy has a reputation.’ There it is, the blade that’s still stabbing in my heart, twists again.

‘What reputation?’ I ask her, while I know I do not want to hear the answer.

Isla shrugs. ‘Well, it’s the entire bad-boy appearance. No one knows exactly who he is, or where he came from. Five years ago he magically appeared in the fifth division, out of nowhere. I have never seen him train, and I do not understand how he instantly achieved his position as officer to the fifth and sixth division. It’s unfair to the captains that have fought for his spot for years.’ She coughs, and continues: ‘Have you ever noticed how the birds hate him?’ she refers to the people with flying Others.

‘One of their people, Preston, was up for officer. We all knew he would become right hand to Mart when the time came, but then Jonathan was there and even now Preston is still just captain.’ That explains why that girl when I just joined looked at him with anger.

‘So no one knows him?’ I say. She nods.

‘Nor respects him. You can not respect someone that’s not one of your own, you know. We have not grown together and no one can stand for his character. Besides, when he just joined, he dropped girls left and right. It was absolutely unprofessional, and many still hate him. He promised them the world, but never delivered.’ Something in her eyes makes me ask the next question: ‘Girls like you?’

She smiles. ‘Yes’, she says. ‘And the crazy thing is, I am not even into men. As long as I have known, I like girls. Men appal me. Yet when Jonathan showed me interest, there was this… urge. It’s hard to explain.’

I snort. ‘Trust me, you do not have to explain.’ She tilts her head, and nods once.

‘So what did he do?’ she asks for clarification.

I shrug. ‘Nothing, and that’s the thing. He embarrassed me.’

She looks at me surprised. ‘Well’, she says. ‘It’s probably just a matter of time. Maybe Mart has told him to keep his hands to himself. I don’t know. All I do know is that you need to be careful with him. Something smells fishy, and not the good type of fishy. There’s a backstory to him that I am dying to know.’ I pull up the right corner of my mouth, and grin slightly.

‘When he tells me, I’ll let you know’, I promise her. She laughs.

‘Oh please, do.’