The Loss Pt. 1

“Oh, come on, can’t you for once just walk past a body of water without jumping into it?”

            “’Ara, how many years have you known me? And my father, and my sister and-”

            “Okay, Okay! I get it, so your family likes the water, but even your father and your sister aren’t this bad!” He turned to me and grinned, the one that always made my heart flutter….and…dove into the lake. If I wasn’t so annoyed with him about stopping Once Again, delaying us even further from our expected arrival to Port Insk, I would have admired his skill. He swam like a fish, my Drefen…No.  More than a fish; like a dolphin. He was always so playful and carefree in the water; it was the one place that no one could best him, not even his family. Me, like any typical Scillieran, enjoyed the water; there were many places in Scilliera where I used to sit for hours soaking up the sunshine on a lake shore, or pushed my brothers and had water wars with them on family outings….but that was before my life turned upside down. It is amazing how in one night you can lose your world….

            After about 30 minutes of watching him frolic, the only word I could use to describe his antics in the water, I decided I’d had enough. Besides, I beginning to think of things I had promised Dref I wouldn’t think about, for this trip, at least. “Come on, Dref, or do you want to make us late again? We’re already two days behind the caravan...”

            “Really?” He said, his head popping up out of the water. He started climbing up onto the bank, shaking his head like a dog. “I thought you said yesterday we were a week behind.”

            “No,” Did he Ever listen? “Yesterday I said ‘At this rate we’ll be a week behind.’ Of course you deciding to drive all night certainly evened things out…” I glared at him suspiciously, still not believing his excuse of wanting to catch up with the rest of the caravan. He always lagged behind like this, I saw no reason why he’d decided to change last night, and his behavior today only fueled my suspicions. “There was something in that town you didn’t want me to see.”

            “No, not something…” He turned away from me, pretending to be fully consumed in making sure we had left nothing behind at this impromptu campsite, like we’d been here all night instead of him jumping off and leaving me to stop the oxen while he divested himself of his shirt and shoes. I’d have had to have been blind and deaf not to have realized he was stalling.

            “Someone then.” He started checking the harnesses of the oxen, and pretended he hadn’t heard me. Finally he climbed up into the driver’s seat….still ignoring me. I knew I’d find out eventually, he was never very good at lying to me, I knew him too well. The pressure would build and build until he finally gave in and told me. I could wait.

            We started down the road in silence, and that’s the first thing that tipped me off. It was very quiet, too quiet for a forest. The birds had gone silent, and there was no evidence of squirrels running about. Something had spooked them…Drefen noticed the sudden tensing in my shoulders and started to stop the wagon. “No,” I wispered, laying a hand on his, “Keep the wagon moving, we don’t want to alert them that we know.” I pulled my sword from its scabbard as I slid silently to the ground