The escaper to freedom [Roman]

She was so used to be surrounded by trees, by green that the flat space now almost give her the feeling she was walking around naked. Every time her eyes turned back over her shoulder, looking for trees, trying to shake of the feeling that somebody was watching her. They wouldn’t watch her, they wouldn’t find her that fast, she had a days head start. Still that feeling kept pushing her forward out of Nymmerwell. She never told her parents how much she wanted to explore the world on her own, now she had “ran away” it felt like she released herself out of a cage. She knew her parents would be concerned, she knew they would look for her, her brother would look for her and Emery couldn’t resist to keep on moving, like the devil itself was behind her while all it really was … a choice. Her choose to not bound herself to somebody she didn’t know, her choose to taste freedom. But offcourse, nobody knew that so escaping was a better word for her current situation.

Emery had learned about the lands, his nature. It had took her quite some time, days that turned into weeks before she reached the borders of Nymmerwell, into Navarre. She didn’t know first handed why she wanted to go here, because there was a lot of green to? Because it felt right? Emery always followed her instinct, listened to her clear mind and spirit. It was an elf thing, to be so connected with nature. Seeing the mountains she couldn’t resist on looking, smiling over his magnificent heights, surrounding cities and trees.

D’Auvergne laid on the background of a forest and his mountains when Emery paused her journey. Her hand rested on the handle of her sword as she looked up to the walls, the many houses she could see from her spot. She turned around and looked back from where she came, biting her own lip in the doubt she felt. She couldn’t “run” the whole time, there would be nothing left to explore. Her eyes rested on a small river bank, taking a deep breath while walking over there. Like she needed to gather her courage to walk into this city, like she was a criminal rather then an elf on her own journey. She buckled the belt loose with her sword on and laid it in the grass before taking a step closer to the water, crouching down. Her long small finger reached into the water, instantly tucking up a smile for the cold feeling. She cupped her hands under water, taking some water up to refresh her face a little. It was when a twig snapped and the fact she was so on edge with her own disappearance out of Forlindon that she lost her balance, jumping halfway down in the river bank. Yet her body was as quick and gracious in turning around to grab for her sword only to see a rabbit watching, holding that little twig. Emery signed, looking down to her half soaked clothes, cursing herself for that hunting feeling through her body.

She wasn’t really used to it, being so … alert. It was a rather refreshing feeling, to look over your shoulder, to be so sink with nature that you noticed it’s little changes. Emery had followed the little marks to her next meal, had learned more about the plants, recognizing pattern she only saw in books or stories. Seeing it all for the first time, because this was that, was so much different. Her mind and knowledge stretched out over everything around her, absorbing energy in curiocity. But she was tired, after weeks of not much rest she felt that her body was ready for a break, just a little while on the same place would do her good. But yet, she was afraid somewhere. Despite that Navarre had so much similarities in nature, the trees, the rivers … it was so much different to. It would be a certain boundary, stepping into that city and taking a little time to rest knowing she would keep looking over her shoulder, knowing any point ear could be maybe coming for her.

She realized all of that while looking to the city from the spot where she stood. Maybe the thoughts scared her, kept her there on the river bank, where it felt more secure than a house of stone ever would. Taking a moment of time she turned to the water to refresh herself. Her brown long hair slipped over her shoulders as she reached for the water. It wouldn’t happen if she was at home, but that certain feeling never left her, causing her to lose her balance into the river bank. The water wasn’t deep but cold as hell. Yet, with her clothes slightly wet, her movements were quick in defending herself, against a rabbit.

With her sword pulled out of the belt she looked ridiculous towards that rabbit. She tilted her head, lowering her arm while looking back down to her own wet clothes. It was then that she noticed the movement and how alert she could be earlier, her way in turning was almost to calm. She looked up to the long slim man standing there, feeling a relieve going through her body because he wasn’t an elf. Her shoulders relaxed and she tugged a short smile on her lips when he pointing out his observation, that she was on edge. Emery opened her mouth, wanting to speak but she closed her lips rather quick, looking down to her sword with his next words. The sarcastic tone matched his nonchalance, almost as he was mocking her acts. But as pure as an elf was in body and mind, so pure was her honesty. ‘Thank you.’ She said, grabbing her belt and sliding the sword back down in it’s protection. She avoided more details about it, simply because elves used to have that certain privacy over their lives others often didn’t had. Her eyes drifted slowly back up to him, not knowing where to put her finger on it; She wasn’t so familiar with type of people aside elves, so her long gaze got a little awkward as she looked back down into the water. Should she step over to his side? ‘And yes I am,’ she answered, shaking her head in slight confusion. ‘on edge.’ She clarified her previous words. She stepped onto a small rock sticking out of the water as she silently and gracefully stepped with easy over the other rocks to his side of the riverbank. It almost looked like dancing. When stroke a strand of her hair out of her face, slowly turning back around to him. ‘I’m not much used to,’ she lifted her arms, pointing out her situation before her eyes found his back, doubt smacking her right in the face. ‘Where you watching?’ She asked slowly, one eyes slightly squinted together, not afraid, not confident … just cautious. Always be cautious with strangers her mother always said, certainly if they are not elves. But to be honest, she rather had a complete stranger before her then a befriended elf … for now.

He was … she had a fine eye for detail, she could tell he was different. But she couldn’t tell in what of way. Elves had a certain symmetry, a certain perfection you didn’t often saw with normal people. Where elves had always the perfect size and exact same nales and others human often weren’t that perfect. But this one was different, the little bit of sun getting through the leaves of that tree made his brown hair almost sparkle. He had that pale perfect skin, that slim build body which in a weird way showed a certain finesse. Even in the little movements he made she could see it all went in a certain automatic flair, not much like her way of moving but different. And then that weird make of grey in his eyes, making her to take her breath slowly in as she caught herself of staring. This was not the kind of impression she wanted to make, for other elves this would be an abomination. First falling into the water like an scared little rabbit and then all the staring, like she didn’t saw a human ever before in her life.

She felt her cheek turn slightly red as she find herself a way out of the water. In the corner of her eyes she saw a hand, reaching to help her but with her eyes firmly in front of her she ignored it, not wanting the help. She was an elf, if she could get all by herself in the water she probably could get out of her own to. She didn’t wanted to be ill mattered it was simply the situation cutting her of guard. And a presence like that … it was like he was looking right through her, it wasn’t helping. Remembering all the lessons her mother gave Emery tried on keeping her own true self.

When the question came over his lips, over her sword it felt like a certain push in her privacy. She never before had to explain where she came from or how things worked, what she wore and carried around. Now here he was, right away asking about the one thing of value she carried around. Her fingers tensed hardly a second around the handle of the sword as she looked back up to him. ‘Yes.’ She answered, looking down to the sword before swallowing. ‘A gift from my brother.’ She explained, slowly looking back up to the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. ‘Don’t think I look like the person to steal things.’ She shrugged. Not that she was implying he did but he looked way more suited for that then she did. Despite all of that … looks could deceive, she hoped to prove that one day.

Emery was looking down to her wet clothes, tugging her brown hair behind her pointy ears as he wildly asked why she was on edge. Patience was her virtue so she forced the first smile since she saw him on her face and shrugged. ‘Running away from home.’ It could sound like a joke, mostly because she started rubbing the dirt from her hands right after. It wasn’t exactly running away, yet it felt like it. She looked how he crouched down for a rock, tilting her head a little to follow the easy movements of his body. She focussed her gaze somewhere else, not knowing what to do really with the situation. Since when was she so awkward? Her eyes drifted to his hands, where he held the stone, long pale fingers before she felt him looking again and her amber colored eyes went back up. She swallowed the intensity of that gaze down, listening to his words.Her eyes followed the rock into the water, dimples on the surface as the stone sunk down. Her question became more rhetorical and Emery just shook her head on yet another intense gaze. ‘No, sorry.’ She shook her head, forcing a smile on her lips. ‘Like I said, on edge.’ She took the blame on herself for all of this, trying to push herself back in who she really was. ‘Emery by the way, I’m,’ she felt silent, gazing over to the city. ‘heading that way.’ She pointed. Like he would care where she was going, but it was like she needed to say it, or at least needed to find a subject instead of gazing at him all the time.

That he showed an interest in her sword wasn’t a rear thing. It was … one of a kind, a handle made out of rare stones, golden details, steel graved with her name in curly weird signs. It had that certain elven look, long, slim, gracious almost. You didn’t saw much of it as it was covered away but she suspected that people would look. What made her more nervous was the way he asked about, with that nonchalante like he really didn’t care what came out of her mouth.To long looking at him made her only more uncomfortable so she looked right the other way or down to the sword or her feet. Yet in a way she didn’t mind his bold actions, he was the first to have a real conversation with, her social nature was already suppressed enough as it was by all the traveling. Despite everything, his boldness, his nonchalant, he had something, he was something she didn’t saw before but she couldn’t laid her finger down to what it was. One way or the other, not talking wouldn’t get her to know who he was.

When he commented that she must have a nice brother her eyes went to the direction she came out. Would he be looking for her? Would he be worried? Her brothers always looked out for her and now she was here with a stranger that just put a little too much interest in her instead of asking if she wasn’t hurt for falling down. ‘He is.’ She nodded, fingers clenching around the handle of her sword again. Elre had made her this sword when she turned twenty, an age recognized among the elves as growing up. Every elf got a gift then, some potions, jewelry, Emery got a weapon suited to her body and capabilities.

As soon as his hands raised after her words she opened her mouth to still her own thoughts, thoughts she said out loud. Emery was never afraid to talk, yet in this situation every word came out as wrong or doubting. She shortly scraped her teeth over her lower lip on the mockery, just looking at him with such a calmth and patience while all she did in the inside was asking herself what his endgame was. Was he a danger? Emery couldn’t say, the only thing was that he was different, good or bad different she didn’t know yet. The intensity shifted in his eyes as soon as he asked if he was looking like such a person. ‘No.’ She blurted out, shaking her head. ‘I never gave the impression that you do,’ she felt silent and looked down to her sword. ‘you already would have if you were, right?’ She asked it so careful, words slipping over her lips in the perfect tone and leverage. She opened her hands lightly. ‘I’m merely a girl in an unknown part of the country, still you do nothing. Don’t know if that makes you trustworthy, I'm just,’ she smiled, a general tender one. ‘Thankful maybe.’ She whispered, tearing her gaze away from him to look back down in the river, repeating her own words. What was she even doing with all of that.

When he changed the subject to her running away something in his eyes changed and Emery was staring again, to the light worry she saw. It surprised her … she had no idea why it surprised her but it did. Automatically something of a slight smile lifted on her lips before she looked down, smiling a little more. ‘They probably see it as running away.’ She started, slowly looking back up to his studying look. ‘For me it was just doing what I always wanted to do, I just did it on the wrong moment so,’ she shrugged, relaxing a little under the look he gave earlier, again, not knowing why she relaxed.

Why she was apologizing, or even telling who she was and where she was heading she didn’t know. Next thing she sees him move, an arm stretching out. Emery looked down from his greyish eyes to his long pale fingers, almost tensed for what he was going to do. He wasn’t bad? Was he? Emery always learned that there was good in all kinds of evil, for that she didn’t believe in the real monsters, they were all driven by something. But he pulled his hand back before he could touched her and her breath slowly leaved her chest. He murmured her name to himself and Emery looked back up to him. ‘Roman.’ It came with so much ease over her lips that it cooked a little smile up. She kept looking, again, repeating the name in her head while studying his face before she nodded, kind of for herself, shifting her attention again. That moment fade with the charming smile lifting up his face. ‘Yes.’ She followed the look to the city. ‘That way.’ She held back the chuckle on her own behavior. Still looking she almost missed his words about her clothing. ‘What?’ She looked down, jerking back around to him with such finesse. ‘No, it’s fine, it’s just water,’ she lost a bit of her reaction with his proposition. Her lips parted while she was looking up to him. She needed the guidance, she needed the company, but was he that? Yet her head made already the decision by nodding. ‘If I’m not a bother to you or your day,’ she forced a smile on her lips, finding confident in her decision. ‘then yes, please.’

Where she found herself on a travel leading to this point, she didn’t even considered the reason why he was here. When she asked him if he was watching he didn’t gave her a straight answer and for some reason she let him … never overthinking it. She wasn’t the kind to overthink things, you were telling the truth or you were lying. He, he did not lie or tell the truth, it was something in between. And yet for her it was alright, not knowing. The world was full of the unknowing, even if you were ancient or old, you couldn’t know everything. That was the life Emery build on, what made it terrifying and yet worth living. In her case now, here with him, it was just exciting.

His statement were empty words confronting her with the fact she left home, she left her brother. Emery never thought of what her brother would say if he ever found her again. Now she thought about it, because of Roman. Her brows from, in a difficulty, a puzzling look almost as she looked away from him, not knowing if she should be disturbed by those words or just accepting them. He just laid out the obvious, she left, even after her brother gave her a sword like this. It was a painful realization, one you couldn’t read from her face. So when she looked back her expressions were neutral but confident. ‘Yes, I left.’ They weren’t hard, but they were in for no discussing, still friendly edged. She forced a short tug on her lips, hardly a few seconds before she thought back about his confronting words. Her eyes went back to the sword, mixing her own words with her own believes, he wouldn’t steal. His reaction made her instantly smile, looking back up to him. She relaxed, looking at him in a different kind of way. ‘Would a thief really tell me this if he was planning on using that tactic?’ She asked him right back, her head slightly tilted for which her brown hair slipped over her shoulder. She gazed at him until his eyes grew more serious and hers automatically took that over. She opened her lips on his words … bad … it sounded so … she just looked at him. Looking until that charming smile came on his lips and he knocked her right out that relaxation. It was something, she couldn’t say what, she couldn’t see what, but it was something that made him interesting, yet there was that lingering instinct of her telling to be careful, a instinct hidden far away. Like she all of the sudden was a little girl meeting a dazzling boy for the first time.

Roman digging in her past was something she wanted to stop the moment he started asking questions. But in a way explaining would make it less tough to go through. Yet she didn’t, keeping it for herself. She didn’t knew what to do with her body either, her eyes darted around while he didn’t had any problem in standing there. ‘It isn’t,’ she shook her head, taking a ferm breath. ‘What is it that you do?’ She asked, changing the subject, not wanting to give him a reason for her running away. Did he really needed to know she ran away because she didn’t wanted to commit to an stranger?

Her whole body reacted on that small gesture of him, eyes glued to his fingers before they followed the arm up to his face, that pale expression, those blue grey eyes. It was easy to look away after saying his name, something that felt like second nature. She wanted to give a compliment on it, like he did but looking up to that smile just forced her to look away again, smiling a little herself. Roman … she didn’t heard that name before, she liked it. But then it all changed again, him offering to do something about those clothes pushed her back in that defensive position. Not that you noticed it, she was just a little alerter, eyes scouting over him to her own wet clothes, reassuring him that it was nothing more than a little water. And water wasn’t deadly. Yet she chose to go in on his invitation, something that gave her a little bow in reply. She couldn’t resist a small chuckle, light, elegant almost as the smile widened more. ‘Graceful.’ She complimented his little bow. Her eyes rested on his charming smile as his words made her blush, looking to her own feet. ‘I think I just wanted to say, if you have plans or whatever, don’t let me stop you.’ She started, giving him an almost shy smile, nodding a little. She shook her head, looking down to where his hand was reaching out to her. Her breath left her lips as she made the switch in her hand just as easily. ‘Thank you.’ She lifted her hand, laying her hand on his, finger scouring his skin without her looking away from his eyes.

It was something her mother always told her about, the certain people, the humans, the elves … the impure. There was always that story, about the people of the night, those creatures feeding on others, pale skin, cold touch. She looked down to his hand, realizing just now everything that happened in this encounter … Roman was a vampire. And Emery an elve, one that never judged. So she didn’t pulled back simply because she didn’t wanted to believe a story without having something to get her believing in it. How cold that touch could be, how strong the shiver was in her body, she just looked back up to him like before, like she didn’t know with that giving him every benefit of the doubt.