The Tall Sprawling; Towering Bookcases Of The Library Never Made Me Feel Confined, Trapped Like It Did

I came back to our little camp to find him with his head in his hands.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I set the gathered food down.

"I hurt you," he whispered.

"I'm sorry?" What was he talking about?

"I caused you physical pain." He clenched his fists tight.

I could still feel the burn every now and again. I sat down directly beside him.

"I do the same thing to some of the plants I watch over," I told him, staring into the fire. "Sometimes, the best thing I can do for them is to cut an infected part off and burn it because there's nothing else I can do," I explained before he could ask.

"Still doesn't justify my behavior," he muttered.

"Well, I don't like the pain and it sometimes bothers me," I started, referring to the injury he gave me earlier, "but I forgive you."

He met my gaze before he asked, "Why?"

"You're going to make mistakes some as me, granted different from mine. But life and time are just that way - unforgiving. I think it's easier to get through a day if people are more forgiving."

He stayed silent.

"You going to be okay?"

He rested his head on my shoulder and whispered, "Yeah. Just processing."

"You're going to be okay," I told him, letting him take however long he needs to figure it out.

"Alright," the stranger sighed, "what's with the orange peels?"

I was laying some fragments of orange peels out to dry for black gold and others near some potted carnivorous plants that needed to be fed.

"Black gold," I said as I pointed to the ones drying on the sunlit stone. "Plant food." I pointed to the other peels that were already attracting flies.

"I thought that those plants didn't like any nutrients in their soil," he remarked as he gracefully draped himself across a fallen log in the shadow of a large maple. "And I though that you hated potting plants."

"They don't. But they still need food, just not food like the others." I sat down not too far from him, in the shade too. "I don't like potting plants but a kid asked me for a plant that wasn't like any others."

"So, obviously, you chose..." he propped himself up, "what is that, anyway?"

"Dionaea. A fly trap." I cast my gaze back to the potted plant that just caught a decent size fly. "I had to do a lot of trading to get a hold of that plant."

"If it was such a hassle to get, why did you?"

"The kid was curious about the world outside our boarders." I looked him dead in the eyes and told him, "Tell me how I could have said 'no'." I settled in a position similar to his. "When I see the kid again, I plan on giving it to him as a gift."

After I said that, he settled back down on his log, lost in thought.

I looked down at the young boy my brother found in the streets with no one to care for him and I wondered how he could sleep through such an earth - shattering thunderstorm.

What had he been through for this to be peaceful?

Or is it the fact that he was finally safe that kept him calm?

The only thing I've seen about this kid is his autumnal colored hair.

"I made a promise years ago to a boy who's hair was color of autumn and eyes the color of spring," I murmured a reminder as I cleaned off my broadsword.

How can this be? This is the fifth report that I've gotten.

"May I ask you something?" I questioned the highwayman once we stopped to rest.

"That depends on what you're asking," he mumbled as he laid back and draped an arm over his eyes.

"I have been hearing reports of periodic darkness in areas that we have traveled through." The smoothness of the stone that I was sitting on was a little bit of comfort.

"That isn't a question," he retorted. There was something off in his voice. He almost sounded like the nymphs that gave me the reports and sightings.

"Did you cause those periods of darkness over those areas?" There were a lot of things I needed to know but the first was if he was the cause of it. "There aren't any plant mages in the area to cause that and it's too far away for me to do anything like that."

"I shouldn't be the source of it, no." He sat up and rested his head against the palm of his hand.

"Is it bad? Will it be harmful to those living in the area?"

"How did you even hear about the darkness forming?"

"The plants have a complex system for communication through their roots. They talk to each other that way. The nymphs live inside the trees and they told me."

"How long does it last?"

"Almost a whole cycle."

He sat there in silence before raising his head and answering, "They don't have to be worried. It isn't anything dangerous. It'll keep happening and probably follow us. I don't know why it does but... It's nothing to worry about and they can rest during that time."

I moved so I was seated next to him. "But what is it?"

"A myth for you and reality for me."

I knew he wasn't going to say anything else about it and deadpanned, "You're helpful."

He flashed a smile as he said, "I try, sweetheart."

"Toby!" I called out to the celestial minister.

He visibly sighed. "Yes, my king?" I knew he was just tired.

I beamed at him. "I would like for you to follow me."

"Why?"

I slung my arm around his neck. "I have something for you."

He looked at me as he reminded me, "The last time you wanted to do that, you had a constellation there in the flesh and not where it belonged in the sky!"

I rolled my eyes at the memory. "You know that my brother and I see you as family, right?"

"Yeah..." he trailed off.

"I know that you worry about us, too. So," I pulled a small, plain box out of my cloak and handed it to him, "I want to give you peace of mind."

He gingerly opened the box. He pulled out the pin I'd asked an apprentice metal worker to make. It was divided in half, one side a warm yellow and the other a gentle white, and some silver going down between the two.

"What-?"

"If either of us are in trouble, the respective sides will light up. Yellow for my brother and white for me," I explained.

"But... Why?" He looked up at me. "I-I mean, I appreciate the gift but why did you give me a gift?"

"Tommorow is your birthday."

"You aren't planning to do anything stupid, are you?"

I smiled, "I don't want my brothers to worry. So, no, I will stay here."

so wholesome

My therapist just told me my problem is that I need to write more fanfiction.

Taking one look at him, something dawned on me. He was like me, looked like me in a sense. He had the dark, bark-like pattern that I have.

Only his was in a different shape.