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Alrin held Shella close to him. His heart was pounding. She had her eyes closed trying to regulate her breathing, trying to keep herself calm. Both of them not looking into the window every three seconds to see the intruder helped Shella calm her nerves. While Alrin was holding her close, she couldn’t ignore his warmth and the steady beating of his heart. It was too quiet. They could only hear their breathing and their heartbeats. Alrin felt like he desperately needed to break the silence between them. The longer he held onto her, the more his anxiety grew.
“I cannot believe this... I cannot believe I am this close to her. What possessed me to do this?” Alrin gulps as he looks at her with her eyes closed. He quickly looked away. After confronting her earlier in the day, and her finally saying they are just friends, he felt so strange inside now, holding her close. He didn’t know how to feel. But he knew that all he wanted to do was protect her, keep her safe. He continued meditating about how it all came down to this moment. “Without even thinking about it, at the very last second after warning the villagers, I just followed her home. We were so frightened, our adrenaline pumping, that she did not say a word, she just let me hide here in her home with her. In the end, I guess, it was the best outcome, it was for the best. She would have run out that door as soon as she saw that intruder, that boy, reveal his weapon.”
“I wonder… What exactly is he thinking about right now?" Shella thought, as she swallowed hard. "He is holding me so close. I do not know what to do…. I do not know how to feel about this… Alrin…. Why are you messing with my emotions? I-I do feel calm when he holds me…. But… NO! It is not supposed to be like this. I cannot afford to lose someone I… I… Alrin…. I do not want you this close to me….. We… we cannot….” Shella began struggling with her emotions for him.
The more Alrin thought about the situation in his head, the more his body began to tremble. He was nervous. Shella started to feel it as he held on tight, trying to keep her calm, and away from the door. It was such a difficult task for him, to hold on to her. He was trembling because for a long time Alrin was fond of Shella ever since they were kids but now he managed to put his fears aside for just one moment in his life and do something important, keep her alive. He finally had the courage to do something because he knew what she had gone through, the loss of her family members. Yet despite all that, she's willing to train, not afraid to stand up against the Dark One.
“Her personality, her unpredictable emotions, it is hard to know what she thinks of me! It is frustrating at times. She is constantly pushing me away, isolating herself, keeping me at a distance. Why does it have to be this way? Why? Why is it always so difficult with her? It has always been hard for me to gauge her thoughts and to understand her. Why…? Why Shella? Why does it have to be this way between us?” Alrin felt discouraged and afraid of rejection. To be told that she just wanted to be friends made his heart drop in his chest earlier that day. Because of her personality and her fluctuating emotions, he found it hard to know, truly know, if Shella had real feelings for him. Showing her his flowers was the hardest thing he's ever done in his life. Alrin was trembling at that moment trying his best to impress her. When she stormed off, he felt distraught, defeated inside because he felt like he ruined his chances to confess his love to her. The moment needed to be just right.
He knew this was it, he needed to break the silence between them and finally say something important, get something off his chest. This would be the moment, the true moment, to find out her thoughts. Did she really want to be just friends? Just at that very moment, Shella lifted her head, randomly for no real reason, and met Alrin’s gaze. She wanted desperately to look away but something in the back of her mind told her to look into his eyes. She looked deeply into his eyes and almost lost herself inside them. He knew he needed to speak. His mind kept saying to him, ‘now’.... ‘Say it now!’ And then Alrin spoke, “You're my inspiration Shella, I am not afraid anymore. I want to tell you something.” He gulps air down hard and takes a moment to focus on what he wants to tell her. He takes a deep breath to try and calm his anxiety. Shella waited patiently, not knowing what he was going to say next. “I-I want to tell you that, I lo….”
Grandfather Kiev turns the knob on the door and walks into Shella’s home.
“Oh, so I was right. You decided to hide in your home rather than one of the underground bunkers like you were supposed to.”
“Grandpa! You're okay! Uh, nothing happened!” Shella quickly removes Alrins arms away from her and has an alarmed yet embarrassed look on her face.
“What do you mean nothing hap…? You know what? Nevermind. The important thing is…” Grandfather Kiev raised his index finger in the air. At that moment, Shella interrupts him by dashing to him. She pushed Alrin away and quickly got up and ran to her grandfather. She grabbed him tightly and gave him a warm embrace.
“Do not ever do that again, grandpa! You were supposed to hide with us like all the other villagers. Why? Why did you do that? Who was that guy?”
“Yeah, who was that boy?” Alrin also wanted to know too. He got up from the floor, feeling a bit of disappointment that he couldn’t say what he wanted to say to Shella, but at the same time felt relieved that the dangerous situation was over.
“Alright, alright, calm down you two. Shella, you know very well why I did what I did. I needed to make sure that whoever it was, they would not come after any of the villagers. If the situation called for it, I would have led them away from the village and dealt with them myself. But I needed to assess the situation first and make a decision accordingly…. I will explain everything about that boy. But first we will need to tell the entire village that it is now safe and everyone can come out.”
After things settled down and everything went back to normal, Grandfather Kiev invited Shella to his home and made her some tea. Shella was in a cheerful mood, happy that an event like The Invasion didn’t happen again. However, in the back of her mind once again she had a million thoughts floating in her head as she sipped on her tea. Alrin was on her mind and what he wanted to say to her. But she quickly tucks that thought away and focuses on the mysterious boy named Geoni.
“Geoni, huh? What an interesting name. So he turned out to be an….. Aleeyah warrior? That’s incredible. He must have traveled from one of those kingdoms. But….”
“Yes, I know what you're thinking. Where is his traveling partener?” Grandfather Kiev takes his first sip of his extremely hot tea and visibly almost burns his tongue.
“Exactly! You told me, over and over again, that’s the rule.”
“Well… I am thinking that this new generation of warriors is bending some of those rules. Times have changed since I was an Aleeyah warrior. However, to leave your partner on their own. I do not know what exactly is their relationship but that was the decision they made between them. It is none of my business.”
“That sword he possessed, grandpa. I’ve heard stories of it and about the warrior that wielded it. Some of those stories growing up were told by you yourself, now that I think about it.”
“He was looking for you… Shella.”
“Huh? Wha…. What do you mean? That Aleeyah warrior?”
“He was chasing down a power his sword detected. Hmmm. A warrior’s aura. But there’s no telling what energy the sword truly detected. It could have been yours….. or mine. We were both fighting each other in the training grounds today at the time, so it is possible the sword must have detected a concentration of our auras together.” Grandfather Kiev stroked his beard as he meditated on the matter.
“Speaking of today, something just occurred to me, grandpa, I want to ask you something. When we were fighting earlier today, how come that powerful kick you hit me with did not hurt me so much.” Shella stared at her tea waiting for his reply.
“It is simple, child. The stone you now possess gives you additional strength to withstand the impact of some attacks. There is a limit though. If the attack is strong enough, it will cause real pain. But at that moment, with you, I am holding back most of my strength for the sake of your training. My goal is not to go all out and knock you out cold. Hahahha! You see Shella you still need a bit more training in handling the stone. You need to learn how to tap into that power and how to regulate it, using it to your benefit in combat.”
“About that, my training that is. Your encounter with that Aleeyah warrior got me thinking.”
“Heh. When are you not thinking?”
“Very funny grandpa. If I am to be an Aleeyah warrior like…. like that guy, would I not need a partner myself? That is… the rule, correct?”
“Hmmm.” Grandfather Kiev started to think, stroked his beard, and looked at Shella seriously. “Now that you mention it. Yes, yes that is the rule. That is another reason why I should train more young people in the village. How about…. How about that Alrin boy?”
Shella was in the middle of sipping her tea and then immediately spit some of it out when she heard Alrin’s name.
“Shella, you alright?” Grandfather Kiev looked at her all confused.
“Cough…. Uh yeah, just, just choked a bit on my tea. Uhmm. B-but why him? Why Alrin?”
“Why not Shella? It is clear to me that he was fascinated by our fighting earlier today. He follows you once in a while and watches our training sessions. I have noticed already for a while he has been hiding in the bushes, I just never called him out on it.”
“Yeah, I have noticed for a long time too that h-he’s been spying on our training sessions.”
“Is there something I should know about this boy, Alrin?”
“No. No. No. Nothing, there is nothing.” Shella waves her hands in front of her with a fake smile on her face. Grandfather Kiev looked at her with a curious look on his face, still stroking his gray beard. Shella didn’t want to spend more time with Alrin. The closer he got to her, the harder it was for her to imagine herself without him. Just imagining the pain of losing someone was too intense. Earlier that day she panicked because she thought she was going to lose her grandfather. “If you want to train him… then, I-I have no say in the matter.” Shella became quiet. The idea that Alrin could be her partner, Aleeyah partner, only increased her anxiety over the decision even more.
“I am glad that boy Alrin was around to…. keep you safe. That is another reason why I feel very strongly about him. He has very good qualities. If I can train him, he will be an outstanding Aleeyah warrior.”
“Uh yeah, he is a really nice…. guy I guess.” Shella anxiety kept growing, her voice was but a whisper now. Shella looked down at her tea and drifted off in thought. “But you said… You said you did not have anymore Aleeyah stones grandpa. How can Alrin be an Aleeyah warrior?”
“Do not worry about that. The stone you possess, the Aleeyah stone, is crafted. All I have to do is visit one of those kingdoms. The closest kingdom is Zygen. Many mountainous peaks separate us from that kingdom but with my wings I can cut the long time it takes to get there in half. I can get more stones for our village, as well as special Aleeyah swords. As an elite, they will gladly give them to me for free.”
Shella touches the back of her neck feeling the smoothness of the embedded Aleeyah stone. “Interesting. These things are made by someone. I would have never guessed.”
Grandfather Kiev coughs to clear his throat. “Shella, listen to me, and listen well. We are at the tail end of the first half of my training. I am just letting you know. Shella, this is important.” Shella’s focus was on her tea but then looked up at him when he mentioned ‘this is important’. “You will be going out on a simple short mission before the second half of your training begins.”
“Wait. A mission?” Shella looked deeply into her grandfather’s eyes. She studied his body language and realized how serious he was. “What-what exactly am I doing on this mission?” Shella wanted to know immediately. She was already curious. Her grandfather pauses and nods. He felt like she was ready for an important task.
“If you are successful with this mission. You will be able to continue your training with me. This is a test to see how far you've come. I know, I know that you will be successful, Shella.” Shella turns her head, swallows hard, and stares at the small flames under the black metal cauldron that Grandfather Kiev used to prepare his tea. She was deep in thought, speculating as to what kind of a mission she was expected to complete.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAPpewR5SZ
