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Gavril

Liorah buried her head into my shoulder and I hugged her tighter. She was here, and she was alright. That was all that mattered. I let out a quivering breath, letting the tension slip away. As she took a step back, she limped. In the amazement of seeing her, I had barely noticed she was hurt.

“Are you okay?” I asked,

Liorah nodded,

“Who’d you pick a fight with?” I asked, resignedly,

She grinned, the familiar flicker of mischief dancing in her eyes.

“What are you going to do, avenge me?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“No, I’m going to apologize, because I know you started it.”

Liorah crossed her arms and raised her chin.

“You have a terrible opinion of me.”

“It’s backed up by years of experience.”

Liorah wrinkled her brow. She was probably running over every possible sarcastic reply and trying to choose her favorite. I didn’t let her and interrupted,

“What happened? Is it safe here?” I asked, in Lehabim. If any of these people were dangerous, I wanted to know right away.

Liorah shrugged.

“Nah. The castle is attacking us. It sent a flock of beasts at us that time. Everyone’s hurt in some way. Most worse than me,” she replied, casually. She spoke in the common language so everyone could understand her, but spoke quietly, trying not to wake anyone.

“Do you trust them?” I asked, still in Lehabim. I wasn’t going to throw all caution out the window, just because there was a common enemy.

Liorah hesitated, then shrugged again.

“I suppose. Most of them.”

I raised my eyebrows. Most wasn’t good enough.

“Okay, yes, I trust them. I just don’t like all of them.” She said, adding the final remark in Lehabim.

I grinned. If Liorah said she trusted these people, I was willing to listen to her. I switched back to the common language. I didn’t want to give anyone the idea we were planning something behind their backs. That could turn sour very quickly.

“Habit of yours, isn’t it? Also, what possessed you to wander into that cave?” I said, preparing to give her a good scolding.

“Well, you did it too, didn’t you?” Liorah said, rolling her eyes in the most exasperating manner.

“That ill-mannered horse of yours literally shoved me inside. I’m never going into those tunnels again,” I said, with a shudder.

I was just about to resume my scolding when I noticed someone behind Liorah. In the dim light, it looked like a girl. She stood on uncertain legs, one hand firmly planted on the wall. A large black-and-white dog lay on the ground next to her, a bandage wrapped around its midsection. From what I could see, the girl was staring in my direction, but not at anything. I looked over my shoulder to see if something had popped up behind me. I wouldn’t even have been surprised, but there was nothing.

I realized she must have spoken before, but Liorah hadn’t heard her in the excitement.

I nodded in the girl’s direction and Liorah spun around. Then, she grabbed me by the sleeve and practically dragged me after her. I was more worried about her painful limp than anything else.

“Stop storming around on that leg,” I commanded.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Liorah said, reflexively.

We reached the girl and Liorah stopped.

“Riure, this is my brother, Gavril. Gav, this is Riure, a friend of mine.”

The girl looked in the direction of Liorah’s voice, but her eyes were fixed somewhere off Liorah’s shoulder. I shot Liorah a questioning glance and she replied by mouthing She’s blind.

Finally, I understood. So that was it.

“Pleased to meet you, Riure,” I said, quietly.

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@joelle-stone

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I have to confess, I love writing Gavril and Liorah together mostly because of the excessive amounts of sarcasm. It’s glorious.