Chapter 0369

"I knew it was spring," he murmurs, his head still hanging as he gets back on track, "because the riverbank was seriously muddy. Like, I kept slipping in it, couldn't keep my footing, annoying as hell. In winter, it's frozen solid. In summer, it's so dry that the dirt...puffs up in the air."

He sighs, raising his eyes to mine, and shrugs. And I smile a little, a small part of me really liking the idea that he told the passing of the year by how difficult it was not to slip and fall face-first into a river. But I don't say anything, just letting him continue.

*They sent us out, one day, to collect wood, of all things." His face screws up in confusion. "And you have to understand, Ari, like....we didn't collect wood - not me and the guys from my barracks. We were warriors at this point - not even in training anymore. Our jobs were to eat, and to... work out, and spar, for lack of better terms. And to keep the barracks clean. I was never given chores outside the barracks like collecting wood - not unless it was an emergency or something."

He continues, then, telling me about how the elders sent them out into the forest to collect firewood, instructed to bring back as much as they could carry.

*I was collecting by the stream," he murmurs, his eyes going distant as he remembers, "and I was getting...pissed, because all the wood was wet, because I knew it wasn't going to be any good in the fireplace. And then, suddenly... she was there."

I ask, a little

me. "Yeah. She was just there, in the woods with me. Like she'd just appeared

ask, my voice quiet like I'm trying not to

face a little like he does when he's embarrassed. I grin, watching him, not able to help it. "I was just so shocked - everything I was holding

at this because....I mean, it's cute, isn't it? A girl and a boy meet in a forest, and my sweetheart

me. Called out to me, told me to stay. Called me by

that means something to him. But I don't

But Ariel," he shakes his head now, and his voice grows low like he's still afraid. "When I said, before, that women were forbidden - I mean forbidden. I knew that this wasn't

to tell, and I scootch closer to him, wanting him to feel my support. Because I can tell that this isn't easy for him and also, that he's never told anyone this before. Update first at NôvelDráma.

don't want him to see how incredibly sorry it makes me - that a girl was nice to him, and that

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