Why me?
Running through the streets they came to an empty house and ducked in, breathing deeply and unable to speak she pushed him against a pile of hay pointing franticly at it, he understood and immediately started pulling the bundles of hay down to create an opening and she jumped in as he covered up as much as he could before joining her in the darkness of the haystack, covering up the hole he made, she put her fingers to her lips and he nodded, all that could be heard was their hearts racing from the running they had to do, both of them looked away from each other more intent on the sliver of the door they could see from between the bundles of hay, it was getting hot in there, she wanted to remove her wrap and he wanted to get rid of his armor but they couldn't afford to move.
Suddenly the door burst open and the armed guards came pouring in, Aaron's hand instantly went to his sword which was no longer there, he remembered he had had to drop his sword to catch her when she fell into his arms from the 3rd-floor window of the inn where he and his friends had been resting and practicing. Her mumbling pulled him out of his thought, "what are you doing" he asked in a whisper, "I am casting an invisibility spell" she said nonchalantly as she continued mumbling holding on to the pendant on her chain, he looked on in disbelief, he never believed in magic and spells, though he had heard there were such folks who practiced it, he had never come across any and she didn't even look like a witch to him, but just then a guard approached the haystack they were hiding and Aaron tightened his fist ready to fight, some instinct told him he had to protect her no matter what cost, no matter if he had to fight barehanded with armed black guards, the most elite force in the kingdom. As the guard came close he looked dazed "There is no one here" said the guard, "let's pull out", Aaron looked surprised as the guards left and she kept mumbling he touched her shoulder as if to let her know whatever she did worked, she turned to look at him, her face was red and covered in sweat, she looked drained, he was about to ask her if she was ok when she fainted into his arms.
When he picked her up, she felt light as a child and smelled sweet even though she was covered in sweat and dirt, he laid her down in a clean corner inside the house and went to find some water to help cool her down, while he was filling the bucket from the well, he heard the guards again in the back streets this time, he left the bucket and hurried back inside, they needed to get out of here if she was to be saved, he didn't know what she was running from or who she was, but again in his heart he knew he had to keep her safe, which was strange since he usually never looked at women and thought women had no role in his life, but now this day, he felt different, it was the first time in a long time that he had not thought of battle or fighting or training or his troops, 1st time in a long time he was a little scared, scared not for himself but for her, how will he keep her safe?, why should he keep her safe?, who was she? , such thoughts were running through his mind as he wrapped her in his clock and picked her up to put her over his shoulder once he was sure none of her dress was visible he walked out to the street and back towards the inn, his only chance was to get back to his friends and troop members, he needed the backup if the guards arrived.
It was getting dark, and he was not sure what he will tell his friends, but he had to get her there, he kept walking taking side streets and alleyways until he came to a spot in the road from where the Inn was visible and what he saw left him standing still, the Inn was burning and not a sole was trying to put out the fire, from this far he couldn't make it out clearly but looked like there were bodies on the ground, what happened to the troops there? where was everyone, he started to step forward but something stopped him and he moved back into the shadows and set her down making sure she was still breathing and went to find out what he could, he passed from shadow to shadow and got closer, the fire lite up the Inn like it was day making it clearer to see that many of his friends lay dead on the ground around the inn, he wanted to rush forward and pull their bodies out but as he was about to step out of the shadow he heard talking close by "did she escape? how incompetent are you guys? cannot catch one measly girl ?." said a gruff voice with an accent. He strained to listen more but he heard boots running up the road so slipped further back into the shadows, as he made his way back he heard the lead guard pass out orders"kill everyone in the vicinity no one should know what happened here today that is the minister's order".
He rushed back to where he had left her, she was still unconscious, he picked her up and made his way carefully out of the village, he had seen a lot of bodies during his life , he had seen them since he was 5yrs old travelling with his grandfather from army camp to army camp, but to see his friends dead like that today made a tear escape from his eyes, he angrily pushed it away with his free hand and headed deeper into the woods, once he found a empty cave where he was sure a fire will not be noticed from outside he set her down and built a fire, she still was not moving, which worried him, he didn't want her to die without answering his questions, after awhile he went to hunt and got a couple of hares to cook them over the fire, as he was about to finish eating she stirred, mumbling again in some language he didn't understand, and suddenly she sat up screaming he jumped up to stop her , somebody might hear them, but she seemed possessed and he was not able to hold her down and close her mouth at the same time ,finally he hugged her , burying her face in his chest, and automatically stroked her hair saying, "sshhhh it's ok you are ok" her muffled scream subsided and turned into soft sobs, meanwhile crazy thoughts like "is my shirt stincy?, is she going to be ok?, will she get sicker?, she is so small she fits right into my chest." kept trying to break into his conscious which he fought to keep back....honestly he had never thought this way before and he attributed his new reaction to this strange species and his general curiosity.
"S..s..sorry for your friends," she said looking up from his chest and into his face, in such proximity he looked handsome, with a chiseled face, rough skin he had from being outdoors, a full lip that curled in such a way that he seemed to be smiling even when he was angry and large brown eyes framed with a straight eyebrow, his long hair was loose, long and curling any which way enhancing his features further. "what about my friends he asked," looking into her face obvious to her beauty, her quivering bud-like lips were not on his mind now, he wanted to know what she was talking about."I saw them dead", she said tears welling up again, "How?" he asked, "you were unconscious right?" she nodded, "I am a Vey" she said as though that explained everything, his puzzled face made her continue " When we cause someone to die their death lives in our memory forever, it is a curse to our kind so that we don't abuse our power to kill non-veys, it has driven some veys mad since we will see their deaths and feel their pain every time we use our magic enough to drain ourselves" she said looking tired and sad, "Why?" was all he could say while trying to understand what she said, "I am sorry" she said again and stopped " I don't need your sorry, I need to know why, why did you jump out of that window? why did I help you even though I didn't know you and and why why did my friends die? why did they burn and kill? and who are they?", each question got him angrier and angrier until the last one came out as a scream, She covered her head with a hand as though scared he will beat her, which made him angrier and he just pushed her away and walked out of the cave, he needed to calm down scaring her will not help at this point.
Once he calmed down he went back into the cave saying, "Ok, look here, why don't we start with one quest....." before he could finish his sentence he realized she was not in the cave anymore, "shit" he said to himself and went running out, where will he find her in the dark? what if she gets caught? what if she falls down and hurts herself he taught himself when he suddenly stopped short, she was standing in a clearing, she was standing very still and looking on the opposite side very intently, "what..." he started to say and then saw the panther standing in the bushes on the other side of the clearing, his arrival had tensed the panther up and it started crouching to pounce, she held out her hand and holding on to her pendant started mumbling again, he started moving slowly towards her whoes mumbling had drawn the attention of the panther away from him, as he moved he was looking around to see if he can find something on the ground to use as a weapon, he looked up to see that she was walking towards the panther,"Hey, stop" he yelled scaring the panther which turned and ran in the opposite direction and she just collapsed to sit on the ground. " what were you doing?" he asked rushing to her side and sitting down to see if she was hurt, " I was asking the panther if there was someone else in the forest" she said softly, "i don't want you to get hurt too," she said looking up at him through her lashes and his words were jumbled coming out of his mouth"I, you, hurt, care, why?" in the moonlight her white skin shown like it was illuminated from within and all his anger and worry from before fell away.... only one burning question remained "Why me?"