He had never seen Kel as ‘just a half-breed’. Just anything, really. He was the boy who lifted a young bird on enchanted winds like a kite with no string and the man who laughed at Rance’s filthy stories. Rance had mourned everything he’d lost the night he lit a candle for Morgana. The friends he’d met on the road, his easy lifestyle, the family who were still alive who he would never see again. Kel had been in his thoughts then, too. Memories of helping him clean up the messes his winds made of the raven family’s house, of laughing when Rance’s father and mother tried to scold them. Of bringing a young Morgana with them to play in the forest and leaving her in the care of a dryad so they could escape to explore on their own. Of their meetings as adults, how Kel had mourned his sister’s death with him when they’d finally bumped into each other after the accident. The long talks as they tried to pack in weeks of time spent apart into a single night or day. Asking after each other’s families, or telling each other stories about the people they met on the road. Kel might not have traveled as much as Rance, but the folk he guided through the forest were equally as interesting to the raven.
And now he was here, in a far away world where everything was foreign and strange. A lantern in a storm.
Four or five months? Then all the times Rance had visited, every gathering he’d gone to on the beach.... He sucked in a breath, shaken, and focused on answering Kel’s question first. ”The Hollowed Grounds, another kingdom on this world. It’s... well, it’s not great. A lot of fields and forests, but they’ve all got somethin’ off about them. Probably because of... well, what that place went through. It’s a long story.” Kel didn’t need the full history of the Grounds, not right now at least. And Rance was well aware that he was rambling. He could feel all the words he wanted to say crowding up in the back of his throat. “I’ve been stayin’ in the main settlement, mostly.”
He didn’t try to pull away from Kel’s hold, he own just as desperate, fingers spread to touch as much of his friend’s warm back as possible. “But, shit, Kel... All this time, we were so close. Did you travel through the portals at all?” At thought struck him and his eyes were wide. “The lantern festival, on the beach -- were you there?” If he'd been there and they’d missed each other....
For Rance, the cloud mantas might have become part of the waves. All of their mystical beauty was nothing in the face of finding out that he wasn’t alone. To finding his friend all over again.
And now he was here, in a far away world where everything was foreign and strange. A lantern in a storm.
Four or five months? Then all the times Rance had visited, every gathering he’d gone to on the beach.... He sucked in a breath, shaken, and focused on answering Kel’s question first. ”The Hollowed Grounds, another kingdom on this world. It’s... well, it’s not great. A lot of fields and forests, but they’ve all got somethin’ off about them. Probably because of... well, what that place went through. It’s a long story.” Kel didn’t need the full history of the Grounds, not right now at least. And Rance was well aware that he was rambling. He could feel all the words he wanted to say crowding up in the back of his throat. “I’ve been stayin’ in the main settlement, mostly.”
He didn’t try to pull away from Kel’s hold, he own just as desperate, fingers spread to touch as much of his friend’s warm back as possible. “But, shit, Kel... All this time, we were so close. Did you travel through the portals at all?” At thought struck him and his eyes were wide. “The lantern festival, on the beach -- were you there?” If he'd been there and they’d missed each other....
For Rance, the cloud mantas might have become part of the waves. All of their mystical beauty was nothing in the face of finding out that he wasn’t alone. To finding his friend all over again.
