Young Writers Society

Sharing


“You are a noble, but not just any noble. Am I not correct?” She grilled him with her stare, but he had removed his hands from her shoulders and had turned back to face the way they had been going.

“Just forget about it Alan. I have my reasons, as well as you, to keep my identity a secret. And I’ll thank you to keep silent on the subject as I have promised you the same.” Here he glance back at her, eyes flashing – not dangerously, but pleadingly. Then he noticed her confused and hurt expression, he tried to make her understand. “I have things I do not wish to share with anyone, so there is no need to be offended, just please let it drop. If any of the peasants find out, it will be the worst thing I will have to live through, and I honestly don’t think that I can do it again – that is why I’m coming here now. A warring fief will be less occupied with the drama of court life, at least that’s what I am hoping for.” He trailed off, but Alan already understood.

Deciding that it would be better to not upset her new friend, Alan simply waited a moment to study him closely before nodding her head and walking along as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. Faolan jogged to catch up and, when she glanced over at him, he gave her a large, warm smile, which she returned. Suddenly at a loss for words to speak to such and individual as himself, Alan cast about for a topic that would be of interest for him and not sound too uneducated or disrespectful. She must have had an odd expression on her face, because soon Faolan’s deep chuckle – which she was quickly becoming accustomed to – sounded at her side. Curious, she looked up to see him returning her gaze with amusement. Once again trying to hide her annoyance at being laughed at, she kept walking and returned her attention straight ahead, waiting for him to reveal his thoughts. She did not have long to wait. “I’m sorry, but you had such a funny look on your face! I bet I can guess what you were just thinking about.”

He was grinning cheekily at her but she did not return it, instead merely shook her head and kept herself from looking at him. Thus, she did not see his excited expression and how he seemed to take her apparent lack of response as a challenge. She would soon learn how he could hardly ever turn down a good, rousing trial. However, seeing how her knowledge of him was – at the time – limited, Alan took the silence, which he allowed to settle about them as he thought, as his acceptance of her need for quiet, private thought. She was startled by his voice suddenly ringing out in the natural stillness of the coming evening. “Ah, I understand…You don’t know how to treat me anymore.” Though she had intended to keep her gaze averted, she could not help looking up. She struggled to hold in her gasp: his face was stoic, but his glowing green orbs held such sadness and hurt that she felt terrible for inflicting those feelings. She opened her mouth to counter, but he beat her to the punch. “I understand - you really don’t need to explain.” He heaved a great sigh before coming to a halt and grabbing Alan’s arm, signaling for her to do the same. Looking her up and down, Faolan studied her closely before continuing. “I get that you think I need ‘proper’ treatment, but I want you to understand something: I am the same as you! People have always made and thought of me as something I’m not. I have never been treated as normal, or who I am and I will tell you something else - I hated it. This is one of the better parts of being banished and losing my status.” He gave a half-hearted chuckle, and she was embarrassed about her thoughts and the way she reacted.

Before he even finished speaking, Alan could feel her face heating up and becoming an unsightly shade of red. She wished for a moment that her hair still had length - or at least enough to cover her obviously guilty expression. Instead, she could only lower her head as she heard Faolan chuckle - again. Did the man never stop? Finally she gathered enough of he wits to respond. “Alright then, you want to be treated normally? What is your problem? Must you laugh at my expense all the time?” Though calmly delivered, Faolan could sense the anger hidden behind the words and quickly sobered up. He made as if to reply, but now that he set her off, Alan was on a rampage and her voice quickly grew louder. “I understand, believe me, I do. I only left my home a little while ago, and I can already feel the affects of my decision and the changes it brings. You have no knowledge of me and what I am dealing, and will have to deal, with. So, if you could please stop chuckling at every little thing I do and quit patronizing me, I would be much obliged. Oh, and I’m not even that much younger than you: in fact -”

He was eventually able to cut her off. “Alan! Alan, listen to me: I’m sorry. Being condescending is second nature to me, but it’s something I’m working on too... You can’t tell me that you don’t have a specific fault that you must attend to?” He raised an eyebrow quizzically, almost daring her to disagree. Sighing in defeat, she shook her head begrudgingly.

“I have.”

He waited for her to elaborate, but with her once again refusing to pull her gaze from directly straight ahead and keeping silent after her two words, he figured a response was not to be had. So, he shrugged. “Fine. Now that that is settled, I would like to learn more about you, and then I will share more about myself. I’ll let you start then.” His tone was light as he tried to get past the storm. “Who are your family, and why are you now by your lonesome?”
Fighting back the panic that instantly arose with the realization that she had no real story or even a detailed plan for how things would pan out, Alan thought frantically for something - anything! - that would sound the least bit convincing. She also tried to keep her emotions off her face, but apparently without much success. “Alan, what is it now? There’s no need to look so frightened! I would understand if you were, in fact, a runaway: it can’t be as bad as being banished like I was... We’re in the same boat now either way, so there is no reason for you to be in such a stat. Now tell me your circumstances. Please?” He offered her a reassuring look that seemed to soften her. Also, his words gave her an excellent idea.

Putting on a proud face and tone, Alan stood a little straighter to reinforce the overall impression she was trying to make as a self-righteous run away. She also began to walk at a quick pace. “My family is not important, because they did not care for me or my siblings. I ran away just last night and I am going to find myself a job or a trade to learn. I intend to settle - for a while at least - in the fiefdom of Lord Lachlann Flynn. I have no real plans past that - yet.” She gave Faolan a defiant look, taunting him to counter anything she had just announced. For a moment he was in shock at his little friend’s outburst and self-assured manner, however, he quickly had to stifle a laugh after remembering the previous rant. His only words in response were: “My turn then,” before he began to tell her his situation in an oddly detached tone and manner.

“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you who my family is, nor why I am no longer amongst them. Though, I am also certain that you have heard a false reason for my current circumstances - but that is a story for another time.” Though he casually brushed it away, Alan could see that the subject caused him some amount of emotional pain, so she simply nodded. Responding likewise, he continued. “As for my current destination, it is the exact same as yours, but with a bit more precision: I am going to Flynn’s castle.”

Alan’s head immediately shot up and she was too excited to take care to lower her pitch. “You know where Lord Lachlann’s castle is? May I come with you? Please?”

Faolan could not help but chuckle at the enthusiasm her of words and face, and he specially enjoyed the raising of her vocal pitch. Realizing her mistake, her face immediately turned red and Alan cast her head downward once again. Hoping to pull off an embarrassed look, she cleared her throat and coughed a couple of times - just for good measure. Once he was done laughing, she looked up cautiously before wishing she had not: his smile was so genuine and warm that it melted her heart and she struggled for a moment to keep a hold of her train of thought. Even slightly dusty from his travels and in worn peasant’s clothes, Faolan was as handsome to behold as other noble maidens had rumored him to be. Finally able to focus her mind, Alan gave him a wary look. He smiled wider.

“You sure are excitable, aren’t you? Of course, I’d be delighted with your company! I’m really not much of a loner, you see. You might want to check your impulsive nature - though it’s common for people like us, it may get you in trouble with whoever hires you. Especially if it is for the Lord Lachlann himself.” Alan nodded in understanding and committed the warning to memory. She had always had a spontaneous nature and even her parents could not curb it.

Suddenly, the two fond themselves caught in the middle of an awkward, expectant silence. Trying to think of a good subject to broach, Alan was looking all around her grasping for any form of inspiration. She was coming up empty-handed and was just about to mention something relating to the weather - the fallback of all polite conversation, when Faolan suddenly perked up and, with a playful grin, began to ask Alan some random questions. Mostly they were useless or silly queries, such as: her favorite color, type of dog, which she preferred to hunt with - falcons or dogs, whether or not thought women’s clothes and styles to be ridiculous, and what she hated the most about her boots. She would answer each to quench his curiosity before asking him to answer the same question in order to satisfy her own.

His last question gave her a mini panic attack and she had to fight against herself to keep a merry facade by laughing and giving her answer. “And last, but perhaps the most important -” he paused to give her a look to indicate he was joking, but his next words sent her heart hammering. “What would you pick if you had to change your name to be a girl’s?”
Though it caused her some grief, she answered: “Alana,” before quickly redirecting his attention. “What would you choose?”

However, Faolan was not completely distracted as he responded. “Hmm, I like it! I guess it would be easy to begin responding to since it’s so close to ‘Alan’. It’s a beautiful name really.” Even though it was indirect, Alan was flattered by his compliment. As the red came over her features, Alan wished once again that she did not blush so easily. Luckily for her, Faolan was still talking and trying to decide what he would like to be called, so his attention was only on his own musings. “...So that definitely wouldn’t work. I guess if I had to choose: I would pick ‘Cara’.”
The mention of that particular name made Alan’s heart clench. She felt bad for forgetting her entire objective, even if it was only for a short while. She held in tears as she choked out: “I have a cousin named Cara.”
Faolan looked pleasantly surprised. “Really?” She nodded forlornly, not looking at him. “Does the name fit her? It means ‘friend’ you know...”

Alan let out a coarse laugh. “She is the most friendly, caring, and wonderful person I know! She was my best friend and almost like a twin.”

He finally looked at her and took in her dejected attitude. Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, he lowered his voice and made his tone gentle. “‘Was’? What happened?” She debated quickly what she ought to tell him - or eve if she should tell him - but then figured that after letting her mouth run and leading him on, she had to tell him at least part of it. She did however reason that it was best that she not mention the twins. “She disappeared. Two days ago. And before you question whether or not she ran away: she would never. And even if, by some out-of-character chance, she did, I know for a fact that she would have at least told me. Besides, none of her things were missing - in fact, she left some things behind out in the yard. And this was only a few days ago. That’s part of the reason I left home: to look for her since everyone else refused to help.”

Giving her an encouraging look, Faolan smiled like he had an idea. “I’ll help.”

“What?” Alan’s head jerked in his direction. “What did you say?”

“I said I will help you find your cousin, Cara.” He gave her one of his playful grins, and smiled a true smile in return.

“But, right now, we should probably find a place to stay: it’s getting really dark.” Gently putting his arm around Alan’s shoulders so he could lead her, Faolan and she continued into the gathering evening shadows.