Darkness & Light: Book 1: Shatter Our Fates [COMPLETED]

7 - Hayley

Dax, Tiber, Atlas, and I find our way through the dark tunnels that the dungeons are in. We reach the outside, stepping onto the streets, and Tiber has given Atlas a cloak to make sure no one can recognize her as easily. She pulls the hood up, her arms wrapped around herself, she walks slow beside me, the two of us behind the boys.

Aldrea is silent as we wander the street, but it is getting late. Atlas tells us about an inn on the other side of the river, and we head for that. Dax looks back at us as we walk, his gray eyes shining in the firelight that lines the streets in lampposts.

He and Tiber are in the lead, but I'm beginning to wonder if we don't know where we really are going. I mean, it seems like we're just wandering at this point. I look to Atlas, finally seeing her in the somewhat better light out here. She wears a ttattered, baggy white dress. Her feet are bare, and I realize that she's shivering.

"You okay?" I whisper.

She shakes her head.  "I'm cold."

I nod. "Well, we can likely warm up when we get to the tavern, right?"

"Y- yeah," she stammers. We turn down a street and head toward a large tree sitting in the center of a square, its roots buried under the grate that protects them. The tree is in the middle of the square and surrounded by monks in robes, their bald heads hunched with their shoulders, sitting leaning forward. 

As we walk by them, Atlas shivers hard.  I walk a bit faster, trying to catch up with my brother. He must hear my cane hitting the uneven stones, because he slows and looks at me. Dax slows a bit, too.

"Do you have clothes in that magic bag of yours, brother?"

"It's enchanted, Hayley," Tiber says, as if that makes the most sense. "It has ... everything? I thought you knew that."

"I barely know anything, anymore," I say, thinking back yet again to what he said when Aldrea first came to me.

Tiber glances back to Atlas, and then he looks at me.  "You think she needs some new clothes?"

"Fuckin' duh, dude," Dax scoffs.  "She's wearing a torn dress and no shoes! Seven Silver Hells, Tiber!"

Tiber flips him off and we four stop in an alleyway. Atlas slowly catches up to us, being careful as she walks without shoes. She raises her head, her hand on the clasp that holds closed her cloak. She looks between us, confused.

"My satchel here," Tiber says, untying the bag from around his waist. "This is enchanted.  You can say or think what item you may need, and it'll conjure it for you. So, if you need clothes, it'll do that."

She looks at him, and the offered satchel. She slowly reaches forward, and takes the bag in her hands. Then, Atlas places a hand in the bag, whispering, "Shoes and a new dress."

Atlas pulls a pair of boots and a pale blue dress from the bag. She beams at the clothes, and her whole face lights up. She passes the bag to me, and I hand it back to Tiber. He nods and Dax and he leave the alley, and I begin to help Atlas swiftly change her clothes.

Soon enough, the four of us are back on the road, and we walk for a while more, before we reach the tavern. Once in there, Dax orders a room and food for us. We decide to eat in the room.

Tiber places a couple bedrolls on the floor, and one right by the door, for Dax, as he requested. Atlas stands by the bed, picking her nails. She then walks over to the small, somewhat scratchy looking couch.  "I'll sleep here."

"Why? Why not take the bed?" I ask.

She nods to my wings. "You and your wings should sleep in the bed, Hayley."

I open my mouth to protest, but Atlas has already laid down on the couch. Tiber walks by, draping a blanket over her body. That stops her shivers, but she lays her head down and before long, she's out.

"I'll take first watch," Dax says.

"We are in a tavern," I say.  "We are safe. For now."

He shrugs.  "Better to be safe than sorry, Hays."

"Hays? Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, Hayley's a mouthful," he says as he laughs. He lays down and sighs. "Anyways, I think we all can rest easy now."

Tiber lays down on his bedroll. I look over to the bed, and finally, I sit down on it. The mattress is cushy, but not too soft or even scratchy.  But the blanket is, though.

I lay down and curl my wings around me, and as I drift off, I focus on Aldrea and her thoughts.