Chapter Two
A shiver prickled the back of Kaily's neck. The same sensation she felt daily over the past few weeks. Ever since the first dream of him. She didn't turn to see the source of the sensation. She knew her dark warrior with strange hazel eyes sparked that shiver. The strange, intense hazel eyes with silver like webbing covering his irises, eyes she saw awake or asleep, they haunted her. She thought of him as a warrior, because of his stature. She glimpsed him in passing, with exception of her dreams. In her dreams she studied details about him she couldn't in person, assuming he was not an illusion, an imagined figure from her dreams. He stood tall and proud. She suspected she would be lucky if the top of her head touched his chin, and she was not a short person. Height alone did not feed her suspicion of his warrior status. His build and dress reminded her of a warrior from a time long past or imagined. She didn't know.
"Dammit!" Kaily said under her breath. The shiver traveled past her neck down her back. She found her eyes drawn in his direction. She turned her head ever so slightly to get a better look. She couldn't help it. She felt drawn to him and she needed to know if he existed in reality or her mind. How could he be real? No one looked like him in reality. The hair on the back of her neck rose as her eyes locked with his. For one brief moment, she felt the ground shift beneath her feet. She felt the same shift before, each and every time their eyes met, and then in the next instance he disappeared, each and every time. Like an illusion which cleared the moment her eyes focused on it. This time was the longest her illusion remained before her eyes.
It didn't to last. The moment she blinked he disappeared, like all the other times. Whether illusion or reality, she decided to figure it out right then and there. Kaily lifted her foot to take a step towards her dark warrior's previously occupied spot.
"Are you listening to me, lassie?"
"Aye," Kaily said with a silent sigh. She didn't fault Mr. Ferguson for disturbing her peace at the wrong moment. She knew he only did it because he cared about her, and both he and his wife were worried. "Aye," she said, "I am listening to you." She linked her arm in his and guided him towards the path that led home. The sooner she got him to go away, the sooner she could investigate.
"Humph!"
Kaily new Mr. Ferguson didn't believe her, but he let her guide him to the path. "Truly, I am." Kaily said. "I just came here to think." Not that thinking mattered now. She intended to get to investigating, just as soon as Mr. Ferguson took the hint and left her to her own peace.
Mr. Ferguson patted her hand. "You spend too much time here thinking, lassie, and don't think I don't know about the other night you spent out here until the wee morning hours."
Kaily smiled at him without reply. How well she remembered that night! She didn't intend to be out there all night, it just happened. It'd been the first time she saw her illusive dark warrior. He came and went so fast she thought she imagined him. A part of her still thought she imagined him. That night she didn't intended to stay, but once she started waiting for his return, she lost track of time. She thought that maybe if she concentrated hard enough, she might conjure him up again. She reasoned if he were imaginary, she could imagine him a second time. She couldn't. By the time she gave up night fell. She didn't want to risk trudging back to her cottage on the rocky path in the middle of the night. Even knowing the path as she did, only a fool walked it at night. So, that night she laid back, and lost her thoughts in the sprinkling starlight. She loved the lack of people, the wide-open spaces, and the splattering of stars not visible near cities due to light pollution. Of course, she froze her butt off. Her toes and fingers were numb by the time she stumbled back to her cottage in the wee morning hours. She soaked a long time in a hot bath the next morning.
Mr. Ferguson stopped at the mouth of the path and turned to Kaily. "I know today is especially hard on you, lassie, but you've got family who care about you, you know."
Kaily nodded. "I know. You and Mrs. Ferguson are wonderful, especially after, well you know, and I don't know what I'd do without you both. I just need to be alone today. Please understand."
"I do, lassie." Mr. Ferguson patted her hand again. "Don't stay out here all night. We be besides ourselves if we lost you too." He gave her a pointed look.
Kaily suppressed a sad smile. "I promise to be back before dinner." She said and waved him on.
Kaily watched him go with sadness in her heart. She felt a moment of shame for sending him away, but this day she always spent alone, and he knew it. This year was exceptionally harder than the other four. The fifth-year anniversary of her parents' death, foster parents in reality, but the only parents she ever knew. Since they found her huddled in these very ruins those many years ago. They found a
