Chapter 2 #2
The others seemed to appear from out of their homes or from behind them. Aurin wasn’t sure. All ten of them were now present, every one of them male, some older, some children, each wearing the same brown and green hemp clothes. All looked to be borne from the forest itself.
They were staring at Salem as if he was a celebrity of some kind.
Aurin realised then that that was exactly what he was.
“Let me sit,” Salem said, nodding to the log benches by the fire. Aurin helped him walk over and gently lowered him to the seat.
“Are you okay?” Aurin asked him quietly.
Salem looked up at him, pale and sweating a little. “Yes, better now.” Then he patted the spot on the old log next to him. “Sit with me.”
“Of course.”
Aurin sat, and Salem quickly took his hand as the camp folk all sat around the fire, watching Salem as if Aurin wasn’t even there.
There was a single log chair that looked like a throne, and Cern took his place in it, setting his walking stick down beside him.
Then he took the pipe from his mouth. Pax stood beside him, but Fyn and Zaq sat on a log.
Fyn smiled at Aurin. Fyn was perhaps around Aurin’s age, with curly, unruly brown hair. He had a cherub’s face, if cherubs were inclined to be a little grubby, and he had hazel eyes. He’d been the kindest of them all to Aurin, and Aurin gave him an appreciative smile in return.
“Thank you all,” Salem said to them. “For allowing us into your home. For sharing your food with us. For giving me a place to heal and regain my strength. And for showing kindness to Aurin.”
A few spared a glance at Aurin, but their gazes quickly returned to Salem.
Salem smiled at Aurin before continuing his little speech. “It has been a long time since I last visited. A regret of mine to bear, but I’m grateful to be here now.”
“You survived a great battle against the Lusca,” one of the men said.
“Well,” Salem said. “A great battle, yes. But not for me. I was taken by her, a hostage if you will. Aurin, here, was the brave one. He stood against her. An army of one.” Salem looked at Aurin then, fondness and gratitude in his smile.
Everyone looked at Aurin then, some in disbelief—Pax clearly didn’t believe it—but others stared in shock.
Aurin felt himself blush under their scrutiny. “Until the others arrived, that is,” he said. “I was no match for her alone.”
“Ah, modest and brave,” Salem said, grinning at Aurin now.
He was being so openly smitten with him in front of others, and Aurin wasn’t used to it at all, especially in his human form.
He wasn’t sure what to do with the public affection or with the overflow of warmth and butterflies it gave him.
He was sure he was blushing, but he was too giddy to care.
“I believe this calls for an added celebration tonight,” Cern declared.
“A feast for the coming winter and now for our guests also.” Then his gaze fell to Salem, and he gave a nod just as the breeze picked up, rustling the trees around them.
“The mountain agrees. It too is glad to see you still with us, my old friend.”
“We would be honoured to be your guests tonight,” Salem replied. “Though I would honour you more if I were to find a bath first.”
Cern laughed. “Ah, the smell.”
A small boy ran up, his brown eyes wide with excitement. “Salem, can you morph for us? I want to see! I want to see!”
Another boy joined him. “How many things can you morph into?”
“Ah, boys, enough,” one of the older men said, ushering them away. “Leave him be.”
Salem waved away the man’s concern. “It’s fine. Being curious is also a trait of mine,” he said, winking at the boys. “I am not well enough to morph yet. But I promise before I leave, I’ll show you.”
They jumped excitedly. Then one of the boys stopped and stared at Aurin. “You can change too?”
Aurin felt every pair of eyes on him. “I can, yes. Not like Salem. He’s way better at it than me.”
Another boy came to stand beside the first. “Will you show us?”
One of the men admonished them quietly, but Aurin smiled widely. “I can. When Salem shows you, if it’s all right with your elders....” Aurin wasn’t sure about the parent situation. “If they say yes, then it’s okay with me.”
The boys’ eyes grew wide with excitement, as if Aurin had told them the best news ever, and they ran over to the men, asking over and over. “Is it okay? Is it okay? Can we? Can we?”
Cern quietened them with just the slightest rise of his hand, but his eyes were on Salem. “You are still weak,” he said. “You should be resting still.”
Salem nodded. “I might wash in the stream, if that’s all right.” He looked down at the dried paste covering him. “Downstream, of course.”
“Of course,” Cern replied. “Pax can take you, if you need.”
“Not necessary,” Aurin replied with a gracious nod. “I remember the way.”
He didn’t want Pax to supervise them or watch them. Or be anywhere near them, if he was being honest.
“I think it best if I go bathe now,” Salem said, slowly getting to his feet. “Then I can rest again before the festivities tonight.”
Aurin was quick to support Salem’s weight, slotting in under his arm where he fit so perfectly. Salem was slower to walk now, so Aurin could safely assume he was tired. But Aurin was happy to go at his pace, if not a little concerned for his health.
“I could fetch some water for a sponge bath if you’d rather go back to bed,” Aurin suggested.
Salem stopped walking. “While a sponge bath by you sounds delightful, I need running water, and so do you.”
“Are you doing this for me?”
He smiled and began his slow walk again. “No. Selfishly, this is for me. Though I’d like to take a raincheck on that sponge bath.”
Aurin smiled as they began walking along the path to the stream. The camp was at a convenient distance, as most villages were, from their water source. They’d be afforded some privacy, but Aurin didn’t think for one minute they’d be entirely alone.
He knew better than to say anything should he not want it to be common knowledge.
This forest was quiet. Perhaps too quiet, though Aurin wasn’t intimately familiar with forests.
Not like he was with water, or the cove.
His home. He didn’t feel threatened in the forest at all, but he was reminded that he was merely a guest here.
A guest who was tolerated only because he was with Salem.
They loved Salem.
They knew who he was. What he was.
Yet Aurin had no idea who they were. Or what they were. He had some wild ideas, and given Cern’s position here, and how they revered him, Aurin had an inkling...
“This forest is a special place,” Salem said, a little breathless, as they ambled along.
“You’ll have to tell me all about it one day,” Aurin whispered. Then he pointed to the ground. “Watch your step here.”
The path to the stream was little more than a memory pressed into the earth—an uneven ribbon of trampled leaves winding through the forest. Sunlight filtered down in fractured beams, caught and scattered by layers of canopy above the moss-covered trees, and ferns.
The air was warmer as they neared the stream, but it still carried the scent of earth and leaf rot, rich and heavy. It was cloying and unfamiliar to Aurin, and he longed for the freezing cold water of home.