Andrew

The light drizzle of rain fell upon him as he watched. He was too tired to even care about how wet he was getting. His head too heavy to look away at the scene that lay before him. Chase, Iris, and the family that travelled here for shelter had finally come out to see what was happening. 

Too late… they mourned over Gracie’s lifeless body. The wolves stopped howling, Allowing Andrew to actually hear Chase’s sobs. For a strange moment, it had seemed as if all the wolves upon the land had howled in unison. From the vast forest and the mountain beyond him, they all sent one unifying cry to the heavens. Their howls marked the exact moment Gracie had passed away. To Andrew, the howl was heard to hear. It felt like an accusation singing his failure to stop her death from happening.

He recalled wishing for nothing more than for the howling to stop. When the wolves finally stopped, however, he just felt worse. The reality of the situation began to sink in as he heard Chase’s pained sobs. 

Too late… Gracie was dead, and it was because he was not fast enough. As he stood there listening to the patter of rain. His heart felt… heavy. 

The clouds had suddenly come back, blotting out the sun in its sombre shade. Andrew did not need to be there to know that Natalie had just woken up. Given the whole circumstance along with this rain, it was obvious that she was not taking things too well.

“It’s my fault! I couldn’t help her and now-” Chase said between sobs. Iris held her son tighter in her arms to comfort him, but his tears did not stop. Although her eyes were red from crying, she held a soothing smile.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” she whispered in his ear. As Chase continued to cry, Iris turned to Andrew. A tired but grateful smile on her lips. “We can’t leave her out here in the rain. Help me carry her inside.” 

They have it a lot worse. Unlike him, they knew Gracie, and although he felt like a mess, he pushed his feelings aside. As he lethargically walked around to Gracie's corpse to pick her up. It hit him. 

Natalie… The rain had vanished before he made it here. Flynn told him that Natalie was unconscious. Did this mean that she’d woken up? Does this mean that already know?

The four wolves who started the chain of howling across the land now sat in silence, watching him as things proceeded. Soon after, Flynn came jogging out of the wheatfield with somebody in hand. It was the woman who charged the assassin seven on her own and lost her arm for it. He still didn’t know her name.

So she was still alive…  he saw it in Flynn’s urgent but hopeful face. When their eyes met, Flynn was about to say something until he took a good look at him. He must have seen the lack of hope in his own face because all he did was stand there silently for a while before coming towards them with a more sombre air. Taking one look at her corpse, Flynn looked away with a deep sigh.

“I should have been there,” he said. 

“Did you tell them?” Andrew asked. Before Flynn could answer, he heard a distant rumble of thunder rolled past them, saw the clouds became darker and felt a light fall of rain became heavy. Both looked at each other in a bitter understanding of what this meant. As Chase, Iris and the others ran back into the house, Andrew felt an unwillingness to enter. Although the rain came down heavily Andrew was too numb to even feel it’s falling. It was Flynn who snapped Andrew out of his stupor just enough to drag his feet behind them. The four wolves were leaving now, all except one, the one that stood right by Gracie’s side until the end, the one who licked away her tears and was the first one to howl when she passed away. They stood there now, taking one long look at the corpse before catching up with the others. 

Andrew walked into the farmhouse and placed Gracie on the sofa. Only when he laid her down did he realise just how cold she had got. The heat of the hearth tingled his cold wet skin, bringing the feeling back to his limbs once more. The heat should have been a welcome contrast to what he was feeling, but instead of comfort, Andrew felt a numbing bite in its warm embrace. He looked at her now. It was strange… despite everything she looked… Peaceful. He envied her tranquillity. 

“Harley’s awake,” Flynn’s voice sounded from just outside the room, but Andrew did not turn to look at him. He must have daydreamed again. 

“‘Harley’?”

“The woman I just carried in?” Flynn said carefully. “She worried that her actions got you killed,“

“Oh,”

So that was her name. 

“She’d have bled out if that bastard’s flaming attack did not cauterise the wound. Anyway, she is asking for you now. She… seems to be struggling to grasp her new reality.” 

With a nod, Andrew took one last look at Gracie before heading upstairs. As he passed the hallway towards the stairs, he saw Chase sitting on the kitchen table with her mother beside him. He did his best to ignore Iris’s words of comfort for her son as he made it up the steps, with Flynn leading the way into a room with a large king-size bed. Harley sat there looking whimsically out the window at the heavy rainfall. She turned to Andrew slowly as he and Flynn entered the room, before giving the faintest flash of a smile. 

“Thank the cycles, you’re ok, For a moment I thought that I got you killed as well.” She said, her voice sounding raspy and sour. Not surprising considering the last time he’d seen her, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Andrew shook his head. 

“It’s only thanks to you two that I’d survived that,” he said meekly. Had she not taken the fall first, then it might be he who…

Her stub was bandaged up. There was little blood staining the bandage, but even so, Andrew could not stand to look at it. Instead, his eyes glided to the closed window, with the rain crashing against it. 

“You don’t have to pity me,” Harley said, making Andrew blink.

“What?” he said. 

“Besides hurting like the cycles ever burning pits, it’s not as bad as it looks. Of course I’m going to have to revise what I’ll be doing for my next occupation but… well, my point is, what happened to me was not your fault. So you don’t have to look at me that way.” Although her voice still came out a little sour, Harley did sound a lot more put together than she did a moment ago. Is this what Flynn meant by ‘struggling?’ Clenching his fists, he nods in understanding. 

“Excuse my friend, he’s bad at getting across what he means. What he was meant to say is that he understands and is thankful to know that you are alive.” Flynn said. Andrew felt to glare at him but he did not even have the will to do that. So instead, he opted to look out at the window as they continued. 

“That’s my line to you,” Harley sighed. “I handled things so poorly back there. I froze when he stabbed Cruz. And by the time Lawrence was injured, it was like a switch flipped within me and I just… acted.”

“The assassin was really powerful. None of us expected someone like that,” Andrew said.

“Wish I could hide behind that excuse, but you’d already warned us,” Harley sighed. “So no excuses. Me and Cruz messed up. I overreacted and put everyone in more danger. I feel kind of stupid for saying what I said earlier’ I talked a big talk like I had everything at hand. Now look at me.” she waved her stump only to flinch at the pain before sighing. “Yeah, when all is said and done, we had it coming.” 

“Less of that, I won’t allow you to make light of your struggles,” Flynn said. “Looking after the farms is good honest work for good honest people,”

“Would hardly go that far,” Harley sniffed. “Gracie and the kids are good people, but me and Cruz were nothing but trouble before all of this. Before Lawrence took us in were mere robbers and thieves. A bunch of bottom feeders out to get back at the world.” Andrew turned to her in silent surprise. Harley, seeing this, nodded.

“If there was something we wanted, we took it and to hell with the consequences. Wasn’t until we moved here that things changed. Lawrence gave us a new chance to do things right. I thought I changed but…” Although she was playing it off for laughs, Andrew could feel the weight of her burdens sink her into the depths, threatening to make her choke. Not knowing what to say, Andrew just looked back out the window. He could not explain why, but more so than anything else, he wanted to be out there in the rain. 

“The rain. It’s like it awoken something primal within me. An old part of me that fed on violence and spitefulness to the world. A naïve drive that sort nothing more than destruction.” Shocked, Andrew turned to Harley, only to see her looking at her arm in a silent marvel. When she noticed that Andrew was watching her again, she forced on a smile. 

“What do you mean by that?” Andrew asked. She blinked as if really thinking about what she just said. Looking out the window again, she shook her head. 

“I don’t know. It all happened so fast. I froze when we were attacked, but when I began using the rainwater to fight back, it felt like... it was reflecting my mood. I lost control of who and what was important. Thanks to that  Cruz, Lawrence, and my arm were taken.” before Andrew could say anything, Harley waved her own comment away. “That would make for a nice excuse, wouldn’t it? I’m sorry, it’s just… after all that happened, I kind of wish I’d been taken too.” Harley began to sob as Andrew turned to leave the room. Unable to take any more of this, he walked downstairs and out of the house. 

~#~

He stood out in the rain, its cold heavy downpour drowning out all his swarms of inner turmoil. To Andrew, the rain was a connection to Natalie-a reminder to him that whatever he’s going through now, she still needs him. The rain reminded him that she had a big heart, a heart whose trust had been tainted by the things the stars of halo did. Lastly, it was something that Harley said that tipped him off that mayhap it was indeed not totally her fault that she’d lost control. Just like Harley was angry at that moment, perhaps Natalie was also angry. From the amount of thunder and lightning that struck around that moment, it was obvious when he thought about it. Was it possible that her powers could not only affect the weather but also affect other people’s moods as well? At the very least, standing there in the rain as he was now, his head tilted back to let it fall directly upon his face, Andrew knew one thing for certain. The tears from the sky match his mood. 

He was not sure how long he stood there beneath the rain. Among the roaring downpour, time felt like it stretched on to infinity with no true beginning or end, just a blissful, painless void of white. Nothing in the world came into focus until he heard the sounds of rustling wheat ahead of him. Something blazed a trail through the tall wheat bushes. Leaping out of the wheat was a horse-sized wolf with a young girl straddling its back. Her short ruby red hair and long grey cloak billowed as she jumped off the beasts back in midair before landing on the grasslands between Andrew and the farmhouse. Without breaking her stride, she ran as fast as she could the rest of the way, the two-handed great sword swaying on her back as she sprinted towards him. Her green eyes were already burning to ask a question as soon as she was within talking range. Although he’d never met her before, Andrew instantly knew. 

“She’s in the living room,” Andrew said. Isabella slowed down just enough to hear what he said before crashing into the front door and turning into the living room. Heavy rain filled the silence, only to be broken by the howling crying of a girl coming face to face with a cold reality. Like standing in the living room with Gracie’s body there or talking to Harley, Andrew felt compelled to walk away from there. To be as far away as possible from the morning. As his feet began moving away from the farmhouse, Andrew froze in place again as he saw Natalie come running out of the wheat fields. She saw the horse sized wolf before her eyes found him, but when they did, her reaction mirrored his. Face to face, Natalie was about to walk on over until she heard the cries of denial coming from within the house. She flinched at the shout as if slapped in the face. Taking a timid step back, Natalie mouthed something in denial under her breath before retreating back into the fields. 

“Natalie!” Andrew was already running towards her before she faded into the tall wheat. Just as he was about to enter, Sophie came bursting out from the wall of wheat a few feet beside him. 

“Andrew!” she exclaimed between pants. Besides her wet, wheat covered clothes and a strange kind of gas mask hanging around her neck, she looked none the worse for wear. Looking around at the open field, her eyes narrowed until she looked back at him and the directions he was going.

“I see…” she sighed to herself. “I tried to tell Isabella the news in private but-” Sophie stopped as she heard Isabella’s cries for from the farmhouse before sighing to herself. “She’s a vocal one. I don’t think Natalie heard any specifics. But waking up to all the shouting and seeing Isabella rush onto her wolf to get back here… what else could it be?” 

Andrew’s eyes darkened as he pictured the scene. Her waking up from cycles knows what battle she’s been through, feeling as though she failed somehow. Then, hearing the person you said that you will watch over scream in denial and make a break for it until they came back here. To Andrew, it was obvious. 

“I’ll talk to her,” he said. He’d better hurry or else he might lose track of where she went. 

“Andrew?” Sophie said, making Andrew turn back around to her. 

“Glad to see that you’re ok,” Sophie said. Andrew tried to smile in thanks, but the gesture barely touched his lips. 

~#~

He found her sitting on a light slope just beyond the wheat fields. The road that led to the village stretched onwards, alongside Lawrence’s farm that stood on the other side of its crossing. Tucking his hands in his pockets, Andrew sighed. He made it a point to make his approach noisy to not startle her, but even so, Natalie did not turn around. Seeing that she did not want to talk, Andrew nodded to himself. As he glanced back over to her, he could not help but notice the tear marks in her purple vest revealing a small side of her stomach. Besides a faded stain of red, there was no indication of how serious the wounds were thanks to her fast healing. 

“Your back early,” Andrew said. Natalie did not respond. Twisting his lip to one side, Andrew sat down beside her. 

“I heard that you ran into some trouble facing the demon, “ Andrew began as he looked again at the open tear in her vest.“where you-” 

“-It’s fine,” Natalie cut in.

Doubtful… is what he wanted to say. Instead, Andrew simply nodded again as he tore his eye away from the vest. He had seen Natalie take some rough blows during their travels. Some of her worst ones were self-inflicted by her using her strength more than she should have. Each time they healed fast, but Andrew could not shake the feeling that somewhere deep inside, she still carried those wounds with her. Looking off at the wheat field on the other side of the path that led to Lawrence’s farm, Andrew sighed. That’s when he heard the incoming footfalls approaching up the path. Baffled, Andrew stood up just as three boys around his age came running down the path. Caution and confusion seemed to overtake their features until they looked over his shoulder. 

“Your Andrew,” the tallest boy said. It was not a question. His mind racing, Andrew simply nodded. The boy had tan skin and eyes almost as blue as Sophie’s. His long brown hair swayed as he slowed his pace. On his back, Andrew spotted the fang ends of a trident. 

“Tristan!” another boy from behind called. “We can cut through here!” He was perhaps a bit younger called out, making the tall. He was of a more stocky build and also had a trident as a weapon on his back. The third boy had already run into the wheat field, meaning Andrew barely caught anything more than he was wielding at the hilt of a sword on his back and the strange gas mask all of them had dangling upon their necks. Nodding to them, Tristen took one last look at him and Natalie.

“She ended the fighting,” he said. 

“Really?” Andrew asked. In truth, he was not sure what to say to that. The boy nodded. 

“Tristan!” The other boy was still waiting by the wheat fields impatiently. 

“I’ll be right behind you!” Tristan called over his shoulder. Andrew took that moment to look back at Natalie. She was still sitting in a fetal position, her face covered by her tucked-in knees and long hair. 

“Somehow in her sleep she did something… and before we knew it, everything changed. We all felt it, she’d saved us all, it was like a miracle,” he said. Confused, Andrew just gave a noncommittal sound. So, were they around when she’d passed out? They must have been the ones protecting her from the Famine Fissure at the time. It was not a stretch to say that she was still alive thanks to them. That only made the pain in his gut feel even worse. 

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Andrew said, bowing his head. Had he only been stronger-faster than Gracie would still be-

A hand touched his shoulder, giving Andrew a reassuring squeeze. 

“I just wanted to say thank you for honouring Gracie’s request. And being there for her in her hour of need…” Although he did not say it, Andrew could tell by the look in his aqua-blue eyes that he harboured regret for not being there himself. He knew it in the way he turned ever so slightly away from him and felt it through how he once again squeezed his shoulder- it-should-have-been-me. It screamed. It should have been him and yet…  “I don’t know when I’ll ever get another chance to say all this… so,” He breathed out. Looking back up at him with a smile, Tristan nodded to Natalie as he backed away saying: “You take care of her,” Andrew nodded back. 

As Tristan ran into the wheat fields, Andrew felt a load slide off his shoulder, only to be replaced with an older, more familiar burden. The battle was over, but Andrew could not really say that he felt like he’d done anything worth being thanked for.

Despite his efforts, Lawrence and Cruz were gone. Harley only survived because the bastard assassin Seven’s weapon burned her open wound shut. He couldn’t even keep their names straight until shit hit the fan. He tried to tell himself it was because he hardly knew them, but that only made a lump rise in his throat.

“You sure made a lot of acquaintances,” Andrew turned to Natalie. A fake chipperness coloured his tone. “Seems to me like you’ve got your own story to tell,” No response. With a sigh, Andrew scratched the back of his dreadlocked hair. This was about what he deserved. Swallowing down his own inadequacies, he sat back down next to Natalie. 

So much for not getting attached. Feeling the fatigue fall upon him, Andrew bowed his head in frustrated defeat. Everything just… sucked. That was when he heard Natalie’s shaking sobs. Turning to her, he saw her still curled up in the rain, clenching her knees closer to her chest as she tremored with suppressed sorrow. Seeing her break down made Andrew turn away. A bittersweet smile found its way onto his face. 

“I thought we’d agreed not to get attached,” Andrew said. “You should take your own advice,”

“I didn’t get attached.” She said between sniffles. 

“Doesn’t look like that from where I’m sitting,” 

“Then stop looking!” The sudden snap made Andrew do a double take on her. Natalie had turned to him now. Leaning forward, a look of anger on her face. It was so raw and intense and, just like a flash of lightning, it faded, leaving Natalie deflated. “I have taken my own advice… ok? I really have,” she said to herself uncertainly. As she shrunk back to cry into herself, Andrew put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close. 

“I know,” he said, comforting her. She was right, this was her not getting attached. He should have known… should have remembered how badly she took things amongst the last group of people she’d opened up to. “It’s not your fault you know, what happened here,” if anything it was his fault for failing to stop that thing in time

If stopping it was even possible… he drifted. Whatever that walking nightmare was, it scared him. Natalie shook her head as a flash of lightning blinked over them, snapping Andrew back into reality. 

“If I’m not to blame, then why do I feel so guilty?” she said as she clenched her chest tightly. It was as if she was trying to dig for her own heart and tear it out. And again, Andrew had nothing good to say, no witty words or comforting remarks to give. All he could do was remove her hand from her own chest and hold it gently.

He held her hand as she sobbed under the crying rain. The two of them remained there for some time. Once again, Andrew lost track of time. Too lost in his own thoughts to track it. His fatigued mind replaying what had just happened over and over, about what Natalie had been through, about his mother. He was not sure if Flynn told Sophie about their run-in with the underlings of a star that blighted this land. Even if he did, he doubted that she had the time to relay the message to Natalie. 

As he felt her shaking sobs on his side. Andrew decided to keep about that for the time being. With how badly she was taking things, hearing that they were involved might just shatter her. Only the slow ebbing of rain and calming shakes of Natalie’s sobs tethered him to the real world until he heard the sound of trotting horses and a carriage approaching in the distance. Andrew saw a man stop a long horse and carriage make its way down the road. It was only when the man spotted him and Natalie sitting by the road did he stop the horses. 

“Miss Natalie?” He said. Natalie had composed herself just before they arrived. Sitting up, she faces the newcomers. 

“Hector,” she said, her voice a little strained from all her crying. “You must have heard… about Gracie?” Hector nodded solemnly.

“To be honest, I’m still in shock,” he gave a thousand-yard stare at the road ahead. “Don’t think that will change until I see her myself.”

“So then, what about her teacher!?” Natalie shouted. “Is he not going to see her off?” Andrew was surprised at how blunt Natalie was being to what he assumed was an acquaintance, but the man took it. As his darkened eyes deepened, he nodded slowly to himself. 

“He’s currently seeing to the dead,” Hector said.

“He was like a father to her-he should be here to-”

“-I understand your grievance, but uncle Shepherd got his own way of doing things,” Hector said, his glance holding a weight to it. It surprised Andrew. He seemed like the timid type. It seemed to have surprised Natalie also since she too fell silent. Before Andrew could question it, the intensity was gone and Hector just sighed heavily. “He may seem cold, but he will come through in the end. We all have our own ways of coping,”

Natalie simply remained silent, her eyes trying too hard to look anywhere else but at him. Hector simply smiled. 

“That does not mean that I will not honour my promise,” 

‘Promise’? Before Andrew could ask, Natalie had turned back to the man with open shock. 

“But then that would mean that you won’t be here to send her off,” Natalie said. 

“Wait a sec, what ‘promise’?” Andrew asked. 

“If she helped us with our issue, I agreed to take you and your friends to Aqua Falls,”

“You’d do that?!” 

“I get a little something out of it, of course, protection from you guys on the journey there, and once I arrive, I can sell the catch I’ve made.” his smile dimmed after a moment. “That all sounded like a far sweeter deal before I heard the news… I had no illusions that we’d all make it out of this unharmed. But still…”

“You should see her off. We’ll wait.” Natalie turned to Andrew with a concerned question on her face. 

“I gave you my word. You guys are in a rush, right? And besides, it’s what she’d have wanted.” Hearing it like that, Andrew had to agree. If he knew nothing about Gracie, it was that she hated the idea of owing anyone anything. 

“Then we better go and tell them the news,” Andrew turned to walk back through the wheat fields. When he realised that Natalie had not moved, however, he frowned. Hugging herself, Natalie simply shook her head, eyes downcast. 

“I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m sorry…“ Andrew wanted to protest-tell her that she was being silly, but he knew it was no use. Instead, Andrew nodded to himself.

“I won’t take long,” he said. Natalie responded by forcing on a smile. 

“Then I’ll see you two in the village,” Hector said. Bowing a farewell to them both, the man took the reins of the horse and followed the path the long way around the wheat field.