Shadow of Beginning

Night

Ali lay against Vic that night, staring up at the sky in a bit of a dazed state of mind. She could hear some of the others sleeping nearby. They had been unable to go to an inn due to the fact that they were still out in the middle of nowhere. That didn’t really bother her too much. She was used to sleeping outside, considering she had often gone to the stables with Vic in order to escape the constant snoring coming from her brother’s room right next door.

She began to think back to earlier that day. She remembered her uncle telling her a few things about Companions and how they Chose Heralds. She now wished that she had paid a bit more attention. When Shadow had made his announcement she had simply fallen into a state of shock.

At the time she had gotten the feeling that Shadow would have had the biggest grin on his face had he been human. Leah, who had apparently been in on the Choosing from the beginning, had simply smiled broadly and rode a little ahead to give Shadow room to come and walk alongside Vic.

It had been Vic who snapped Ali out of her semi-shock. :You know most would expect you to have some kind of emotion on your face right about now.:

She seemed to snap out of it a little and when she finally grasped what he had said she turned to Shadow who had been watching her with a strange new light to his eyes. She had seen it somewhere before, but it was only now, in the dead of night that she could finally understand what that light was.

Thinking of Shadow, she glanced over at him a few yards away. This late at night he could only be made out as a dark hulk against the surrounding black. He seemed to be even blacker than the night itself.

She was startled when his blue eyes opened calmly and watched her silently. She had meant to turn away, but she was locked in by the depth of his eyes. She had the sensation of falling into a pool of cool water, only without the shock of cold. It seemed to wrap around her, keeping her floating and caressing her with a warm emotion that she almost didn’t recognize.

:Are you alright Ali?: That was Shadow’s voice. It rang in her head even after the thought was finished. It sounded like the echo of a long ago bell chime.

:Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking. A little in shock I guess.: she replied after a moment of awe at the warmth that had come along with his previous thought.

:I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shock you. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how to break the news to you. Leah and Aunt Melodi kept pushing me, telling me that I needed to hurry. You just offered an opportunity and I took it.:

:Yeah. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that. I mean, something felt different; I guess you could say since we joined up with you. I just couldn’t put my finger on what the feeling was.: Ali closed her eyes contentedly. Vic snored gently next to her, and she couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto her lips.

Shadow’s thoughts turned to a small chuckle, and then he too seemed to doze off into sleep. Ali smiled once again, this time at Shadow, and began to drift off into the paradise of a dreamless sleep. As her consciousness fell away into darkness, she heard what could have been her imagination, but the warmth, the love, that came along with it evaporated that theory.

:Ali, I’ll always love you no matter what, and there’s nothing you can do about it.: Not being entirely familiar with the warmth, the feeling, or even the word ‘love’, it took Ali a moment to process the thought. How could such a simple sentence mean so much and more? Well, Vic always told her not to think about things so much. So pushing that question aside for later speculation, she smiled warmly at Shadow, and even though he couldn’t have seen it in the darkness, she knew he had felt it, and said something she thought she would never say to anyone or anything other than Vic or Tuck.

:I love you too, Shadow.: