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Avin

He looked away, suddenly unaware that the girls were still talking to him.

There was a man leaning against the wall ten feet away. His posture seemed relaxed, but Avin knew the tension behind that relaxation. This man was ready for anything. Unconsciously, Avin straightened, detaching himself further from the girls with every muscle of his body, but never moving an inch.

The man was hidden in the shadows, and the two women hadn’t noticed him yet. He was almost hidden, but Avin’s keen eyes could see him clearly. He looked the man up and down. He was used to this. Used to dark places and uneven terrain. Used to the uncertainty and fear that seemed to radiate from off the walls of this place.

So was Avin.

The man had weapons: even though Avin couldn’t see them, he knew they were there. He had training: who else could meld so perfectly with the shadows, come as quietly as a hare through the broken glass and rubble at their feet?

Avin wondered if his senses had grown so rusty that the man had stood there for a long time, unnoticed. He was long-limbed and well built. A woman would call him handsome. His hands were at his side, apparently at ease. But they were ready to catch hold of something–a knife, or a dagger maybe.

In a quick flash Avin wondered if there were other weapons in this country, that Vegada knew nothing about.

The girls still hadn’t noticed him.

He was well built, but not a hulk of a man. Someone used to going quickly and quietly.

Suddenly he moved. Avin tensed. Rosemary’s voice died, and Jade stared at him with a look across between fear and a frown.

“Not from around here, are ye?” The man’s mouth tilted upward slightly. “Welcome aboard. I’m afraid you will not be having a pleasant stay here.”

He stood straight, and in that little movement his face came into view. Certainly, he was handsome. Elsa [his wife] would have said so. she would have said his hair was black as midnight, his face well-set, his mouth expressive, his eyes the like starlight.

But Avin only noticed the eyes. They held something else than a light like stars; behind them was the curtain Avin had used since he was a boy, a veil to spread over the pain, to keep people from hurting him again. The iron wall, impenetrable. Avin’s fists clenched involuntarily.

The man’s face was laced with scars. His own seemed to burn as memories flashed through his mind. Memories he had thought to have buried forever.

Before he could look away, the man met his gaze and held them.

~~

@irishcelticredflowercrown okay you’re right. THIS. WILL. BE. AWESOME!