"Born of the Rose - Part 2"

BY;Fjm                                                                   the Rose - Part 2"

"Born of “ ’ey , Netanas, see this one?” Norlea asked looking up at his sad looking face.

“Aye, you drew that?” He asked, surprised at Norlea’s talent. He had seen almost every drawing she’d drawn since she had turned 14, but each time he saw one it never failed to amaze him.

“Yes, last night,” She looked amazingly cute at the moment. Netanas bend his neck and let his lips connect with hers for a moment. She tasted wonderful, everything he could dream, and more. They pulled away and Netanas’s checks flushed pink and he bent his head so his hair would fall into his face and hide it. Silence. Damn that silence. It controlled him, his fear, the one thing that he could never stop alone.

“You liked it then?” Norlea asked pushing his hair out of his face and lifted his chin with her cold thin fingers.

“Yes. It’s wonderful. You’re wonderful.” It was her turn to blush. Oh good god this was overpowering for him. He leaned his head in again and their mouths became one. This time he let it last longer. Smooth and flowing. There was no one in the world as flawless as her. No one. And she was his. He was hers. For them to live without each other, you wouldn’t call it life, it would more of just being. That was his love.

Kelaré and Norlea walked up to the Fordge. The sun was setting. They were late, again.

“Did you have another…dream?” Kelaré ventured.

“Not exactly. But in a sense, yes I did,” Norlea answered.

“When?”

“While we were kissing, I saw the same dream, but much quicker, then I forgot it. Until we departed,” Norlea explained, heavy hearted.

“Oh. Well, lets try to forget it, shall we?” Kelaré said in attempt to cheer Norlea up. “We’ve got a whole nigh to spend in the Fordge. It’ll be great, you’ll see.”

“I guess so, but I feel like we’re more than just friends, the four of us a mean”.

“Oh, ok. I was getting a little scared for a minute there,” Kelaré said laughing at herself.

“Oh you stoop. I’m serious. I seriously think that we’re all…connected, somehow.”

The moment Norlea said this she was surrounded by an icy cold breeze, though the air was quite warm. She looked down at the ground and saw Netanas’s footprints, they all began to fill with blood. The trees began to spatter blood out of them, everything was bleeding. Norlea heard a wailing sound. Suddenly a bony long fingered hand reached out toward the two girls, who stood horrified. A man’s face appeared behind the hand, and his arm appeared as well. His mouth was open wide and his flesh was grayish and was peeling off his face. His eyes were sunken in and he seemed to be crying, but his tears were thick and black. His hair was long and matted. He wailed loudly and flew toward them, and went right through them, and his body, or vapor as it seemed turned to a fog like substance. It cleared after a moment and Norlea saw Netanas lying, chains bound his half naked body, and he was weeping. Covered in blood. It all disappeared and went back to the way it was almost as quickly as it had appeared.

“What in all of heaven, hell, and earth just happened?” Kelaré stuttered. Her face had gone pale and her eyes were wide.

“You saw it too?” Norlea asked completely shaken.

“Yes”. At that moment Norlea fell to the ground.

A few moments later Norlea woke up again. Kelaré was still standing up, shocked, looking down at Norlea and then back at the place were Netanas was hunched over a few minutes before. Norlea knew she wasn’t out long.

“Kelaré ?” Norlea asked weakly. “What do we do?” Norlea began to slowly rise back up.

“I think we should tell him,” Kelaré said.

“No, not yet anyway”

Kelaré and Norlea finally made it to the Fordge, though a bit shaken and a good deal late appeared normal.

“Were the hell were you two? I had to sit here and get my ass whipped by Netanas here, playing bulso,” Silean complained.

“Oh you’ll live,” Kelaré said, kissing the top of his head and then proceeded to tousle his hair.

“Are you ok?” Netanas asked Norlea, who still looked a bit paler than usual. The image she had first seen of him dying flashed in her mind unexpectedly. Her eyes widened.

“I’m…fine,” she finally answered.

“No, you’re not. Come here,” Netanas said standing up and walking toward her. He cupped his hands around her face and pushed her hair away. Her eyes were shinning and wet, and her lips trembled. He pulled their bodies together into a tight hug. He held her close to him and she wept.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Netanas implied. “Why shouldn’t I know?”

“It’s nothing, here, I’ll forget it,” Norlea said, pulling away and wiping her face. She looked up at the high rock ceiling, a few crystals shinning from various places.

After a half an hour or more they were all laughing in fits of hysterics, and eating fruits and chocolates by the dozens, throwing cards at each other. Silean went out of the cave for a few minutes and came back in holding a frightened looking pixie.

“Why the hell did you go and capture a pixie for,” Kelaré asked.

“Naw, I didn’t capture ‘em. We ran into each other is all. I told ‘em to wait outside the cave ‘till we’re ready for ‘em,” Silean explained taking Kelaré ’s hand. “He’s gonna play a little tune for us, come’on now, play for us Niddenthrill”. This, obviously being the pixies name, began to play a number of wild tunes on his odd looking flute, which could very well be three flutes stung together, each more shrill than the last. Silean grabbed Kelaré ’s other hand and began to swing her around.

“Silean!!!!” Kelaré shouted, more in shock than anything else. Norlea and Netanas, sat and laughed their heads off before they started dancing as well. Well past midnight and Silean about 50 keilins shorter, they all had laid down to sleep.

“Well that cost a lot more than I had expected it to,” Silean complained.

“You caught ‘em in the first place. Not my fault that ya promised to pay ‘em,” Kelaré said.

“Well, now I only got ‘bout 10 keilins left in me pocket”.

“Well, ya shoulda thought ‘a that afore you caught ‘em,” Netanas replied.

“Funny, real funny guys. I have’ta go out an’ buy me mums vegetables tomorrow,” Silean said sulking.

About a week later, on the full moon day, Norlea ran up to Kelaré in the market.

“Kelaré , I saw it again, twice,” Norlea said in a panic.

“You’re telling ‘em. Today,” Kelaré said looking at her, dropping three apples and a teca fruit.

“How the hell am I going to do tha’? Go up to ’em and say, ’Netanas, I think you’re going to die’,” Norlea said picking up the apples.

“Well, you could write ‘em a letter, you’re good at that,” Kelaré suggested.

“Yeah, I guess so. How am I going to put it?” Norlea asked.

“Well, I dunno. Come on, lets go to my house,” Kelaré said taking Norlea’s wrist and pulling her towards her house.

“I’m guessing I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Yep”.

They sat in Kelaré ’s kitchen an array of parchment and inks in front of them. The room wasn’t all that big, but it wasn’t small either. It had white walls and a sepia colored trim. The table was dark sepia and had an ink stain on the left side, which had been there as long as Norlea could remember.

“Is this good?” Norlea said, twirling a gray quill with her fingers and handing an almost dry letter. Kelaré took it and began reading. She handed it back to Norlea.

“I think that should be good, it’s well written and explains most of what happened,” Kelaré reassured her. Norlea looked down at it and reread it.

Dear Netanas,

I’m not utterly thrilled to tell you this and I’m very sorry. I have a suspicion that someone may be out to kill you. I’m not really sure, I’m guessing, I’m sorry. I’ve had dreams of you being toured to death, and they’re all the same. Kelaré too. I know you trust us, and I’m very sorry to tell you this, I’m sure you’ll understand. We were late to the Fordge the other day because Kelaré and I saw the forest change into something most horrible and I wish not to write it. I am not a visionary that I know of so I’m not completely sure if this could happen. Please heed my warning. I’ve also seen you dying while I looked at you, and once when we kissed. I’m very sorry, don not let anyone see this. Especially Mornen and Ishmé .

Norleaš

She folded it and put it into her satchel.

“I’m going to go find him,” Norlea said and walked out of her best friends house, a bit more nervous than usual. She found him sitting under a tree reading a book. She walked over and sat down next to him. He looked up at her, his eyes were shinning brightly and he smiled at her. She took his entire body in and fell on his chest and cried. He held her to him and whispered in her ear. She didn’t hear him, her head was pounding so much. With her one free hand she reached into her bag and pulled the letter out. She pushed it into his hands and kissed him quickly before running away. No words were exchanged, no words were needed. She didn’t notice that everyone was looking at her, she ran, and ran. She had no clue were she was going, all she knew was the ground that carried her feet as she fled. She found herself at the Fordge. How she had gotten there she didn’t know, but when you know a place well enough and it’s your refuge from the world and makes you happy, your feet will find it, even if your mind doesn’t. She sat on the edge of the drop off that Netanas loved to sit and watch the sun go down from. And that was what she did. She sat and watched the sun setting in the east. Tonight was the Full Moon. By the ancient religion of their people, scarcely practiced anymore, except maybe the older folk, and the four of them. She knew they would preparing for the individual ceremonies each of them held. She also knew they would find her here. Were else would she go? She closed her eyes, when she opened them again night had fallen and the moon shone brightly in the darkened sky. Someone was cradling her in their arms. Her vision was slightly blurred from sleep. She rubbed her eyes and saw Netanas, his face turned toward the moon.

“Netanas?” Norlea whispered.

“Shh,” he said putting a finger to his lips. A tear fell down Norlea’s cheek, Netanas wiped it away with his finger. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see. Let’s just get you home first, it’s almost the 10th counting since midday.” So he walked her home.

She slipped into her room through her window, unnoticed, and began to light the candles. A soft melody played in her head as she sat and began to recall the months events.

She awoke the next morning and got dressed. She walked down to the kitchen, grabbed a roll, and headed towards Kelaré ’s house. She walked past a group of teenage girls huddled around something and giggling. One of them saw her and pointed at her.

“Look, it’s Norlea. Hey Norlea, look at me, I’m dying,” The girl said falling dramatically to the ground. The group burst out laughing. Norlea swallowed the last of her muffin and pushed her satchel back, as it had moved to the front of her body instead of the back.

“Shut the hell up Korinë ,” Norlea said. She hated Korinë , she was such a bitch. She walked passed them and Mornen and Ishmé ran up behind her and grabbed her satchel.

“Why do you carry this thing around with you, do have a murder weapon in it or something?” Mornen teased. He turned it upside down and a mess of parchment, quills, ink, and two books fell into the dirt. Norlea scrambled to gather her satchels contents. She hastily stuffed them back into her satchel and proceeded to Kelaré ’s house. But Mornen and Ishmé followed her. Mornen waved a piece of parchment that was sloppily copied down from something.

“Look what I have ginger crap,” Mornen taunted and Ishmé laughed. Norlea grabbed the parchment and looked at it. It was the letter she had written to Netanas a day before.

“How the hell did you get your disgusting things on this?” Norlea demanded. The kid may be a year younger but he was a real idiot.

“Nicked it off of Netanas while he was reading it,” Ishmé said.

“Shut up Ishmé ,” Mornen hissed. Norlea ripped the letter into a hundred pieces and threw them all onto the ground. It wasn’t the exact one that she had written, this was scaring her. If he had recopied what she had written then there could be more of these out there.

“That’s ok,” Mornen said. “Me en’ Ishmé got 10 more copies out there, we’ve been given ‘em to the teenies all morning’”.

“You -” Norlea proceeded to say something so very nasty at this moment that it would be inappropriate to write down. She ran away from the town an hour later after she had torn up three of the letters and yelled at what seemed like 20 people. She angrily ran up to the Fordge, knowing she’d find everyone there, since they were meeting there that morning for a few hours before going back down to the village. When she got there she found Netanas sitting on the overhang of the cliff, alone. Kelaré and Silean were no where in sight. Netanas had his back facing Norlea, something was wrong.

“Netanas?” Norlea asked, slowly walking toward him. He didn’t turn and look at her. “Netanas, where’s Silean and Kelaré ? And why did you let Mornen take that from you?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in a broken sort of voice.

“Netanas? Is everything all right?” Norlea asked, sitting next to him. He was hiding his face. She turned his head and pushed his hair aside, he was crying.

“Oh my god, Netanas, what happened?” Norlea said, beginning to want to cry.

“My grandparents are ….” He began, but he couldn’t finish. His shoulders started shaking and his face became contorted and he started to cry harder. His hair feel into is face and Norlea put her arms around him. He continued to cry for a few minutes then began to subside. They sat in silence for awhile before Netanas said something. Norlea was scared, she’d never seen a man cry, and Netanas, being 17, hadn’t cried since he was a boy, publicly at least. He sat up and stared out at the mid morning sky.

“My gramma died this morning…and…and my grampa told me that he’d kill me if I stepped into his house again. He thinks it was my fault my gramma died. And then there was what you’d told me, and what Mornen and Ishmé did to me yesterday…and my mum…and…that man that calls himself my father,” Netanas said bitterly. Norlea didn’t know what to say to him. She just hugged him again. He hugged her back this time, and she kissed his cheek. After a few minutes Norlea asked,

“Where’s Silean and Kelaré ?”

“I don’t know, they never showed up,” Netanas said.

“Oh, I never made it to Kelaré ’s, I thought she’d left without me by the tome I pasted her house. I was chasing Mornen and Ishmé for about an hour tracking down those letters.”

“About that, I was reading it over a second time when Mornen took it from me. I tried to get it back but he punched me in the stomach, then kicked me and ran away,” Netanas explained.

“It’s ok, it wasn’t your fault. Hey, I’m going to spend the night with a friend who moved across the river when I was little. Annehellrä , remember her?” Norlea said.

“Yeah, she was nice,” Netanas said. “Well, let’s go collect all the papers we can find, I’ll spend the night at Silean’s”. He stood up and started walking toward the village.

“Hey, wait up!” Norlea said jumping up and running to catch up with him.

By the end of the day Netanas and Nolea, with the help of Silean and Kelaré , had traced and torn up every copy of the letter except the original copy, which remained unfound. Norlea knocked on the door of Annehellrä ’s enormous house, she felt almost joy. It had been an interesting day. Her mind was doing flips in the bittersweet at the moment. That was the only way to describe the feeling, bittersweet.