Chapter 170 - Fourteen

XXXV.

Later that night, El stepped out of the house as soon as she was sure Typhon was asleep.

The moon was full, casting the isolated glade in its pale glow as El walked to the small tree around the back of the house in her nightgown, taking in the night air with a weary sigh.

Is it even possible for someone like me to find their place here?

A strange girl such as she, with an unknown past, living in a land of people with the rich histories they'd weaved together. Like a dull patch of wool, a part of the same tapestry as everyone else but overshadowed by all the others, and serving no real purpose.

I should fly away, and search for others like me.

But where should she look? And was there any guaranteed she'd be able to find any?

"My....already, you're having second thoughts about this life you've chosen," a voice called out to her from the darkness.

El saw the serpent as it slithered down from the tree above her, dangling on a branch.

"How long is it that you intend to keep up this charade with that boy?" It hissed. 

El bristled. "Actually, I have no intention of ever leaving."

"Do you plan to grow old together? Die together?" The serpent laughed coldly. "He'll be dying alone, if that's the case. Our kind never withers with time as the humans do."

"Then by my own hands, when that time comes--"

"What is it about this boy that has you so enamored with him, anyway?" The serpent cut in. "That pathetic little calf looks at you like you're his mother!"

"What is it that binds you to his side?"

Curious to find the truth for herself, El thought back to where it all again.

After being ejected from Paradise, she'd found herself in a vast desert. Naked and alone she wondered, growing more and more weary without food nor water nor rest, nor shelter from the harsh sun and wind, that would blow tiny grains of sand around that cut into her skin like invisible knives. 

Thinking back on it now, most ordinary men would have certainly perished from the ordeal.

Where am I? What is this terrible place?

She wanted to go back. To return to the gardens, and be free again from all this suffering.

With no idea of how to get there, however, she could only press on.

After a few days, her first ray of hope came as a patch of green on the shimmering horizon.

There were trees, grass, and a sparkling pool of water ahead, and yet no matter how far she walked, it seemed to always remain just out of her reach.

It was then that the horses appeared, and the cloud of dust in their wake.

A group of slavers had found her, and captured her with a rope. They dragged her screaming, back to their camp, where they clothed her in rags and locked her in a cage. 

The true suffering began at that point.

Over the days that followed, they'd force her to eat vile slop, and drink from bowls of murky, disgusting water. All the while, they'd  taunt and tease, but never touch their prized new merchandise, or at least not when anyone else was looking.

During all this, El retreated into herself, imagining her father's voice calling out to her.

"El! El! Come out now, El! Where are you hiding now, you silly girl?"

She held out hope that he was looking for her, and one day come to her rescue, but that day never came.

Then one day she was appraised by a man with red hair, and a scar running across his face.

"Make her walk again," he said to one of her captors. "Then I'll believe you."

Thus began the second long walk, as El was harnessed to the back of a camel and made to march across the desert again. Again, made to suffer the pangs of hunger and thirst and lack of rest, as well as a growing loneliness. 

At night they'd set her off alone, on the edge of the camp, where she'd stare blankly into the depths of the crackling fire while her captors would eat and laugh and drink.

It was during this brutal gauntlet that, for the first time, El really wanted her existence to end.

She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes one night, or suddenly fall unconscious from the pain she felt during the day, and never wake up.

That day never came. And so, the soul-crushing trek only continued.

It continued until her captors saw fit to place her back in the cage again, completely shattered. Drained. Devoid of hope, or any will to live.

They draped the cage with a cloth, like a pet parrot being told to go to sleep. And be quiet.

For what felt like a long time, she just laid there. Any sounds or voices she would hear coming from beyond her dark cocoon grew muffled, and distant. Like this, she could at least pretend to be at last freed from all the suffering. To finally have that ultimate rest she so craved.

In the present El smiled to herself, lost in thought, while the serpent still awaited her answer. 

"Typhon was...the first to show kindness to me."

The serpent was unimpressed. "Foolish girl," it hissed, before curling back up into the tree. "You know, there isn't much time left. Only but a day, at best."

El knew. In a way, she could sense it. Like her life in Bethel was the calm before a sandstorm.

She wanted to fully express to Typhon what she felt, knowing if she didn't hurry then it would soon be too late, and she might never get this off her chest.

Typhon stirred awake at the sound and light of the door opening, when she returned.

"El?" He rubbed his eyes, sitting up to greet her. 

Without a sound, she knelt beside him and, without a word, met his lips with hers.

It took a moment for Typhon to come back to his senses, and realize what was happening.

"Take me," El whispered, before kissing him again. "Right now..."

Typhon slowly stretched out his arm, giving her an awkward embrace.

With a frustrated growl El pushed him unto his back, pinning her chest against his.

El locked her fierce gaze with Typhon's, and saw that he looked...confused.

"What's wrong?" She snapped. "Don't you love me?"

It was then El realized then that she'd made a huge mistake, as it was obvious Typhon had no idea what was going on. What she wanted out of him.

She got off of him and sat there on the bed, with her hand over her mouth to restrain her sobs.

"Typhon...no...I'm sorry, I--" What was I trying to do?

Typhon slowly reached out a hand to try and comfort her, but she quickly moved away from it.

He just watched her lay down with her back to him, not saying another word.

XXXVI.

The waters were unusually still, when Typhon and Jed waded out into the river together, on that particularly bright, clear morning. 

"You still keep your shirt on in the water?" Jed teased him. "Come on, be a man!"

Typhon didn't hear him, though, as his eyes were fixed upon the shore where Bridgette and El were sitting, talking to each other.

"I'll admit, she's a beauty," Jed said, smirking.

Typhon turned to him, bewildered. Like he'd just been daydreaming and woken up. "Huh?"

"You haven't had your eyes off El for a second." Jed put one arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. "Did something happen between the two of you last night?"

Typhon looked to El again, watching the breeze catch her hair.

Was El always this beautiful? He briefly contemplated.

"Come on," Jed urged him. "Tell me what happened, or else you'll be getting your face wet!"

"She...kissed me," Typhon let spill. "She just came back into the house in the middle of the night and kissed me without saying anything."

Jed clapped him on the shoulder. "Nice! Sounds like you're finally living the life!"

Typhon wasn't sharing in his excitement, however. El hadn't spoken to him at all, since yesterday. Like she was consciously avoiding him. 

Even now, when he'd cast his gaze in her direction, she'd only look away.

At the time Bridgette was telling her some old ranger stories, which she was only half-listening to while idly playing with the bear cub in her lap.

"Cute, isn't he?" Bridgette said, reaching over to scratch the cub under its neck.

"What happened to its mother?" She asked, while letting it nibble at one of her fingers to its heart's content.

Bridgette grew tense, as she briefly considered whether she should tell the truth.

She tried to hide the scar on her exposed midriff. "I don't know." 

"We found it alone one night," she said, adding in a whisper: "Jed would have killed it, if I wasn't there."

"What!?" El was fired up. "Why would he try to kill it?" What threat could this cub pose?

"It's a law that Frogman has in place." Bridgette sighed. "So that the young ones won't become a problem when they're grown."

"Worry about that when it's older, then!" El snapped. "Not when it's still just...a child."

But she was preaching to the choir, as it were, as Bridgette smiled sadly.

"Frogman raised both of us," she said. "We grew up under his roof, along with all the other children that have lost their parents in this war. Frogman only wants to keep the village safe, but even so I think some of his methods are too cruel."

"You mean like those animals, and peoples' heads mounted on spikes?" El said. The ones that lined the road leading the village, still forming a vivid image in her head.

Hiding half of her face in her palm, Bridgette nodded.

She then turned to El, sour-faced. "Sometimes, I worry over just how much Jed takes after him."

"What about Typhon?" El said. "Is he...like Jed?"

Bridgette almost laughed. "Typhon!? Oh, not at all. What you see is what you get, with him."

There was a serene look in her eyes, as she continued.

"Even though Jed and I are older than him by a few years, Typhon was always the one to comfort me. Unlike the other boys, he didn't get into fights. Didn't hunt, or fish."

Bridgette and El both looked out at the two boys in the river.

Jed was tugging at Typhon's shirt from multiple angles, still teasing him about wearing it into the river.

"Something was always...different about Typhon. In a good way."

El smiled, secretly relieved. "That's good."

On that note, Jed started to hail them from the river.

"What's the matter, ladies?" He said. "If you don't want to get your clothes wet, Typhon and I wouldn't mind if you just take them off!"

Bridgette turned to El, frowning. Neither of them felt like going for a swim.