Chapter 6: Decades -Part 2-

She looks around and there she sees a tall man a tiny bit north of her age.  He looked rugged but handsome, wearing jeans and a loose black shirt, messy hair like he’s been pulling and shaking it, eyes glowing against the lights of the faes, and eyebrows furrowed with questions.

“H-h-hello.” Faes saw the outsider and hid and the once beautiful lights turned into complete darkness. The only light illuminating their encounter was from the moon. Shivers chill down her back, ‘who is he? How did he find this place? Is he like me, too? ‘She slowly stands and positions her feet to run towards home but that would endanger her family. ‘What do I do?’ she thinks.

He raises his arms, showing both palms to her. “I—I don’t mean any harm. I just saw these lights and followed them. I thought you were lost so I spoke up.” He continues to stay in the same position until she spoke.

“You can put your hands down. I won’t hurt you either but please stay where you are and don’t come any closer.”  He nods agreeing with her condition.

“S-so what’s your name? Where do you live?” she continues. Leora tries hard to keep the fear and nervousness out of her voice but failed. He notices the fear in her voice and sits down on the ground where he was, hoping it would make her feel a little calm.

“I live a little far from here. I just got into a fight with my father and walked away. I kept walking and walking and walking until I looked up and saw the lights. I—I’m sorry. I am actually a little lost. I haven’t reached this side of the island before.” His last sentence piqued Leora’s interest.

“Sounds like an adventure waiting to happen. Who are you again?”

“Oh, uh, I’m Gideon Willows II. I’m named after my grandfather.”

“Well, I’m –“ a grumbly voice interrupts from below

“If you’re going to have this conversation, can you please leave our home?” Their conversation got cut short by an angry old fae.

“I’m sorry Ert. We’ll leave.” She replies with an apologetic smile.

“Let’s go Gideon Willows II, named after his grandfather.” She walks toward him with a cautious step. Gideon was in awe of how bright and kind her aura was. She’s beloved by the fae that even the faes allowed her in their home. While for him every creature hid, ‘what kind of creature is she?’ He thinks to himself.

They walk together but with a space in between, she puts for her own safety.

“What—what was your name again?” He asks as he falls into step with her.

“Oh, yeah. Ert interrupted us. I’m Leora. L-E-O-R-A.” She says in a sing-song voice.

“Leora” he repeats. “why haven’t I seen you here before?” he curiously asks.

His eyes glimmer in the light, his features getting more and more visible. She was in awe and to her delight, it was nothing more than magical to officially meet another of her kind that’s not her family.

“I don’t know.  I’ve been wondering the same thing, too.” She tries to memorize his features with a little fear of never seeing him again. They walk more than a few steps, lost in their own thoughts until Gideon’s foot falls in a puddle and startles him. 

“You know, I’ve been walking with you for quite some time now and I don’t know much about you besides your full name and where it came from” she giggles. “And to be fair my name came from...  Well, I don’t really know. I guess my mom just thought ‘oh, Leora is a nice name. It’s from all the roaring you’ve been doing since you were born and then she laughed it off and dad probably just agreed with it.”

Gideon smiles and smirks at her story, he’s very amused at how she’s not as wary as she was hours before and it seems quite different with her.  He listened to more of her theories of where her name came from and it dawned on him that she was not alone.  She has a family and knows more creatures in Yord than he knows.  How come I’ve never seen her or the others before? His attention was caught when she waves her hand on his face.

“Gideon! Hello! Oh, there you are. Welcome back!”  he rapidly blinks as if fanning the questions away from his eyes.  “I said, it was really nice knowing you” as her big eyes and sweet smile confused him.  He tilts his head, looks in the same direction she’s looking, and shocked him.

They were near his house.

“How did you know where I live?” he says as he turns to see her skipping in the tall grass a little far away from where he stood.  He ran following her, she stopped skipping as she felt his presence chase her. 

“Hey!” he shouts, “Leora!” he seemed to growl and shout at the same time. She turns to him not intimidated by his voice.  Her sweet demeanor changed into a cautious one.  ‘if he kills me, I won’t be a sacrifice. If he follows me home, he’ll target my family. If I fall for him, it’ll be the end of me.’ Thoughts flood through her with each step he came closer.  He was close enough to feel the heat radiate off of his body.

“I said, how did you know I live there?”  his defenses were up.  Even though she was beautiful, charming, sweet, and funny, she was still a stranger to him.  His family was his priority to protect, seeing as how this girl who he just met brought him to his home without alarming his family with her scent rang all the danger signs in his head. 

Leora takes a deep breath. Breathe in, tell the truth, yup that’s the plan.  It’s not like he can follow us home. Breathe out.  Changing from cautious to commanding, ‘you may be the most handsome guy I’ve ever met but I’m not letting you near my family.’  

“I didn’t know who you were but I’ve walked this entire island.  I know where every mortal creature lives.  And, you know, I honestly thought you were lost so I took you back home.”  She shrugs.  She was either a genius for telling the ‘truth’ and making her point across so straightforward or dumb for sounding too simple that it’s like a lie. 

He stares at her looking for any change in her that gives off a tell that she is lying but nothing.  It’s as if he can’t look at her directly without having this feeling of more than her eyes were looking at him.  Heavy stares intensify when he took a step closer to her.  His angered confusion turned to curiosity and caution.  Such a feeling is new to him and suddenly he finds himself amused. Who is this girl?

“All right. Thanks for bringing me home.  If I get lost again, I’ll hope you find me.”  He smiles and walks back to his home.  Leora stays where was and watched him go.  His smile melted her heart and his charming remark made her knees weak.  She too does hope that his wanderlust leads him to her, again.