FIFTEEN

It was late in the afternoon before anyone made it out to the water’s edge, and it was an older woman who was alone, carrying a basket to gather some seaweed. The older woman stared at the human form for a moment, and then she looked out at the water for any sign of a boat or ship and saw nothing.

Slowly, she approached and sat down in the sand next to the naked man. He was clearly alive, at least, his body visibly shivering with shallow breaths. She reached out and touched the man’s shoulder and shook gently. She didn’t know if he was injured or if she should try to move him, but he didn’t seem to be bleeding or broken.

It took her several minutes to rouse him at all, and when he did show signs of regaining consciousness, the arm she was shaking flinched a little. Destin similarly pulled away from the danger, rolling away along the sand, but stopped and grunted against a few stones along the beach as he struggled to get his bearings. His limbs shook as he came up to full consciousness, but he hadn’t even managed to open his eyes yet as he pushed himself to his hands and knees.

“Whoa, careful there.” Her voice was silky and comforting, as though she was meant to tell stories and sing lullabies to help soothe people into serenity. The woman moved closer to him and pulled a shawl from around her shoulders and draped it over him. “It has been a long time since I’ve seen a young body like yours. Better get that covered up in a hurry. Are you alright?”

As his mind caught up to his body and began to wake, he brushed the sand from his eyes, still breathing heavily and shuddering as the shawl laid awkwardly around his midsection. His hair and beard were wild from being at sea for so long, and they were still matted with sand and fallen leaves from the bush. He started to calm down as he fully opened his eyes, invisible behind the curtain of his unruly hair.

“Where am I?” He attempted to say, sputtering a few times before he finally got all the words out. His voice was dry and cracked from long disuse, but it was still intelligible, if only barely.

Instead of answering him, she grabbed a water pouch out of her basket and held out the pouch. She remained close, though she eyed him carefully. His strangely colored hair and his otherwise young stature had her on her guard, since she was fairly certain what kind of man she was dealing with. “I have a feeling you are a long way from home.” She reached out and brushed a little more sand off of him. “Mine, however, is not too far from here. Do you think you can make it if I help you?” She wasn’t about to give him any more information than she needed to until she was sure of what and who she was dealing with.

He took the pouch from her numbly, but as soon as he saw what was in it, he shuddered again and handed it back to her. He’d had too much of his element for far too long. He needed to come back to himself before he could return to it. “I can try.” He didn’t flinch away when she started to brush him off, and finally managed to stand upright, though he was shaky at first.

His balance improved quickly, though, and he got most of the sand off of him and his hair out of his face before he remembered her request and tied her shawl crudely around his waist to cover himself. It did nothing to hide the rest of him, though, and the rest of him radiated power. He wasn’t a particularly tall man, but he was powerfully built and had obviously worked for what he gained. Destin had arms that looked like they could wrap themselves around a ship’s anchor and haul it up single-handedly. For all the obvious physical power he possessed, though, he still shook as he attempted to follow her up the low incline one hesitant step at a time. His eyes were still a little hazy with whatever he had gone through to get to the beach.

When he did not take the water and she was able to get a better look at him, the woman was more careful around him. She helped him to her small home anyway, and once she was inside, she set him down on her bed. It was soft from her accumulation of animal furs over the years, and he could hear a fire crackling across the room. There was a half-eaten loaf of bread on the table that she offered to him, wondering if he was hungry instead of thirsty.

Once he got a better look at her, he could see that she was a much older human than he was accustomed to seeing. Her features were beautiful even though they were well worn and there were wrinkles in her face. It was clear that she had been a very attractive woman in her youth, and it had mostly carried with her in her age. Her eyes were clear and bright, a warm, light brown in color. Her hair was like Destin’s, except it was peppered by age, white in several places. “You’ll be alright here.”

He took the bread and ate a single chunk of it quickly, sighing in contentment at the taste as he visibly relaxed. It was something completely unknown of the ocean, and that fact on its own made it precious to him at the moment. “Thank you.” He was starting to shake a little less than he had when she found him, and after another bite of bread, he managed to look up at her eyes. “My name is Destin. I’m sorry that you had to find me this way.”

“My name is Elyra.” She returned, as she continued to sit by and watch. “I don’t mind coming up on a naked man, so long as he’s attractive. And not bleeding. It is a lot more work if they are bleeding.” Elyra smirked before she got up to find him some suitable clothes to wear. “You’re a wolf, aren’t you? Oceanborn, by the look of your eyes.”

The fact that she had to ask confused him, until he began to look closer around the house. It had none of the trappings of homes he was accustomed to, no access to the roof for Skyborn, no customary plants in the windowsills to make the space hospitable to Forestborn, and barely any stone used in the house’s construction. Even the stones lining the fireplace were rough-hewn in a way that was almost jarring to his eyes, stacked together as well as they could be made to fit and pasted in place with what looked like baked mud. Even Chainhome had been built by Stoneborn to be smooth and safe from the elements. This place had no such protection.

“Yes, I am.” He decided there was no point in lying about what he was, and he had no desire to do so in the first place. “And you are human. Where are your masters?” His voice had no malice to it or accusation, only curiosity, since he thought it was strange that a human would be left alone to build their own house and stoke their own fires.

Elyra chuckled softly as she shook her head. She pulled out some clothes that would be too large for Destin, but she held out the shirt and pants to him anyway. It had been a long time since she had any reason to keep men’s clothing around, but she kept them from her brother. “I am human. And I have no master. I take care of myself pretty well.” She smiled at him before she looked back toward the fire. “There is a stew in there, do you want some of that?”

The only other human who had ever dared to laugh at him had been Adriana, but Destin found the experience both strange and strangely comforting. It got a slight smile from the edge of his mouth, but he shook his head. “The bread is more than enough for now, thank you.” He pulled on the simple clothing quickly, and took a moment to appreciate the care that had gone into its construction, the careful stitches and the well-worn fabric from a thousand washings. It was more comfortable than most of his own clothing back home, even if he had to tie the pants tightly to make them fit and the shirt hung off him loosely.

“It seemed cold outside for the afternoon.” He felt sheepish just asking the question, but he was still trying to get himself oriented. “Has it been…I mean…what season is it? The last day I remember it was approaching the Fulness just before the equinox.”

“My, my. You were adrift for a long time, Destin.” She sat down on a small stool once he declined the stew, and she motioned for him to sit back down on her bed if he was still feeling tired. “There have been three more Fulnesses since that one, and we are not far from the next one. It is getting quite cold now.” She raised an eyebrow as she continued to inspect him. “How are you during the Fulness? I might have to trap you in here, it would be too dangerous to let you roam free around here.”

What she said was so completely backward to anything he had ever conceived of that it took him a few moments to register what she’d said. A human? Trap a wolf? During the Fulness? That made no sense.

“In general, I am fairly level-headed. Though these past few months at sea…” he shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, still adjusting to being human again after spending so much time steeped in his element.

“So long as there are a few days between now and the Fulness, I should be well enough to maintain composure. But if those are your requirements, I will of course abide by them, as your guest.” He was coming to realize quickly that he was among humans, with no signs that a wolf had ever even been a part of the home’s existence. It was an unsettling feeling.

“This island is a home for humans.” She could tell he was still confused, but she expected him to be after hearing how long he had been at sea. “There are very few wolves on the island, and those here are connected to their humans in one way or another. Some of them help protect us, but we mostly take care of ourselves. During the Fulness, they stay contained so that the rest of us can go on with our lives. I’ve seen what Fulnesses are like elsewhere, and nothing gets done when wolves are enjoying themselves like that.” She paused. “I don’t mean offense when I say that.”

“Of course.” He said automatically, since he had been raised at court, after all, and having good manners was considered the height of good breeding among noble wolves. “Have you ever heard of the Reef? The Genovin kingdom? The Seven Isles?” He had no way of knowing how far he had drifted when he was at sea, or where he was in the ocean with relation to his home. If he was in a place almost without wolves, he couldn’t possibly be close.

“Oh yes, I have heard of them all.” She ran her fingers through her long hair. “I was once a kept human of an Oceanborn like yourself. He was a wolf of the Seven Isles, but no one of real importance.” She gave him a small smile. “He was kind to me, at least. Most Oceanborn have kind hearts, I’ve always thought.”

“Most.” He agreed, since his opinion of his own kind was rather high, on the whole. “Not all.” He continued taking pieces of the bread she’d given him until it was gone, still taking in all the details of the simple but comfortable home. “How did you all come to be here, then? If you were once kept on the Isles?”

“My brother and I, along with a few other humans, managed to escape because my wolf was so trusting of me. I gathered supplies for a long time and we escaped during a Fulness many years ago. My brother has since died, but we expanded our people here by gathering slaves from all of the closest islands. The Falls, The Reef, The Genovin, The Isles. Over time, we’ve created our own home here. Some of our smallest children have never interacted with wolves at all.”

He was amazed by the simple story she told him, just because what she was suggesting was something no wolf, and certainly no noble, had ever even considered as a possibility before. There had been small slave escapes over the years, a family here and there, sometimes as many as a few dozen at once escaping and heading out to sea, but they had always been dismissed as fools who couldn’t possibly survive away from their masters.

Yet here Elyra was, with however many others she had gone to save, apparently healthy and having lived a great deal longer than most humans generally did on the Isles. She looked like she was in her decline, whatever that meant for humans.

“If the lords of the Isles knew about this place, they would not tolerate it.” He didn’t sound angry about what she’d said at all, and there was a note of something like fear in his voice, on her behalf. “It’s a wonder you’ve managed to go undetected for so long, if you visit those kingdoms so often.”

“You, like all of them, would not even think that a place like this could exist. I am one of few who live so close to the water, but if the wolves come after us here, they will find a stronger resistance than you imagine.” Elyra did not want to reveal to the wolf how many humans she would estimate, but she knew they were safe. “This is a large island, though it is too small for any of the wolf kingdoms to care about conquering it. And there is a feral Oceanborn population off the opposite coast from here, to the southwest. They mostly live in the water by the whirlpool there. Between those wolves and the whirlpool, no ship wants to get close.”

“Now you’re talking about ghost stories.” He said skeptically, since he’d grown up on homespun stories his parents had told him about the great eye of the ocean, a whirlpool of such fabled power that it was both the source and the end of all water that covered the world, a vortex which allowed nothing to survive.

“Am I?” She chuckled and shook her head. It had been a long time since she had had a proud wolf in her company. “I’ll show you myself once you are well. Then we’ll see who is telling stories.”

The confidence in her reply and her laugh made him second-guess himself, and he had to give the woman another long look, but she seemed to be telling the truth, as she understood it. Either way, he wasn’t going to argue the point with her. “If it exists, I would like to see it.” Even if there was such an act of nature in existence near the island, it didn’t help him get home. If months had passed, then he was sure everyone on the Isles believed he was dead. Taimon, Kaia. Adriana. Daiva, if she had survived the remainder of the battle. “I need to return to my people. My family will have given me up for lost by now.”

“I don’t think you are ready to go home, but I won’t stop you if you want to go.” She got up from her stool. “I can’t give you one of our boats, though. If you want a boat, I’ll help you make one. Otherwise you’re going to have to swim back.”

He could understand that, especially from a human who clearly wasn’t interested in having anything to do with wolves. He nodded and took a deep breath to try and steady his still-shaking hands, the power running through him still far too much to allow him to rest completely. “I’ll start work on one as soon as I’ve rested, then. After the Fulness has passed, depending on how close it is.”

Elyra looked at his shaking hands, and from probably too much experience, she knew that he needed to be put to work in order to burn off some of the energy pent up inside of him. She pointed toward her door, and then she looked back at him. “Maybe you can help me with something.”

When she led him to the outside of her small house, he could see there was a stream that ran down out of the trees past her house and several others in the small settlement. There was a deep well dug at a distance from the stream with people standing around it, looking at the two of them in instant suspicion as they walked.

Destin just tried to stay close to Elyra as they approached a wheel that was set in the stream but wasn’t spinning as it should to move the water onto a wooden channel that fed the well. “I can’t quite figure out how to fix our water wheel. My brother made it, and he was the one who kept it up. Can you get it working?”

Destin looked around at all the curious and fearful faces that surrounded him first, but they seemed to be holding back out of respect for Elyra, so he approached the wheel cautiously. It was a fairly simple design that he was familiar with, but he was careful to stay out of the water as he inspected it. “Any of you here carpenters?” He looked around, since he certainly didn’t expect a woman of Elyra’s years to be chopping at wood.

“I am.” A man said defensively as he stepped forward with a small axe in his hand, obviously prepared to defend himself if necessary.

Destin didn’t miss the instant dislike in the man’s eyes, and just crouched by the wheel looking up at him. “My name is Destin, friend. What’s yours?”

The man didn’t seem to like being called friend, but he answered anyway, his fingers tightening around the handle of the axe. “Beylan.”

“Well, Beylan, these spokes have gotten twisted, probably during a frost. Most of the flats are starting to rot out too. You should replace as many of them as you can, and try to lift it out of the water when you expect a freeze. It’ll keep them from going twisted again. Once they’re replaced, it should spin just fine.” Destin got up and brushed off his hands, watching the man to make sure he understood, but Beylan seemed to grasp what he was talking about.

Destin nodded and headed over toward the well, treading carefully between several of the people, who got out of his way as he approached. The well was almost completely drained, and he could feel the water down at the bottom, a good sturdy stone basin that was impressively deep for being so close to shore.

“As for this…” he said quietly, turning to look at everyone gathered before he extended a shaking hand toward the stream.

Young and old alike screamed and staggered back out of the way as the stream arched up over their heads, rising completely out of its basin into the air.

The ribbon of water curled up over the roof of a nearby house, clearly panicking the occupants, before it condensed itself into a point and funneled down into the well steadily. His hands shook less and less as he drew the entire contents of the stream into their village well, until he could feel that the cistern was almost full.

He capped it off right at the brim of the stones set in place to surround it, and moved his hand again to return the airborne stream to its proper channel. He stepped over to it to ensure that it was running properly and there was no danger of it flooding its banks because of his intervention, then released it from his hold, allowing the water to settle to its previous course before he turned to Elyra. “I hope that helps.”

Elyra was one of the few who did not respond in fear, and she nodded as soon as he was finished. “Thank you, that does help. Sometimes I forget how useful an Oceanborn can be.” She smiled at him and looked around at the people watching. “I’ll keep him under careful eye. He swept in from the ocean, and he’ll leave when he is able.”

The people started whispering amongst themselves and walking away, but they were all still watching the wolf with careful glances. “This is sure to get the rest of the Elders talking.” She chuckled again. “Did that help you too?”

“Some.” He admitted as he looked at the woman with new respect. For someone who professed to have lived most of her life away from wolves, she knew a great deal about his kind. He flexed and relaxed his fists several times, enjoying the feel of exercising control over himself and his element again. “Elders?”

“The leaders of our city.”‘ She looked around again. Most people had disappeared, which left the two of them alone again. “We don’t have masters, but we still need leaders and some kind of way to govern this many people. I’m one of the Elders, so I’m not too worried, but the rest don’t always agree with my methods.” She looked at the water wheel and then at Destin. “Come with me, I will show you the walls of the city. Maybe it will do you some good to walk for a while.”

He wasn’t sure why she would want to do that when she was so reticent to tell him much about her people, but he nodded and waited for her to show him the way to follow.

As she stepped away, though, Beylan moved to block Elyra’s way with a sidelong look at Destin. “I’ll go with you. You shouldn’t go walking the trail to the city alone with the likes of him.”

“He’s been polite, Beylan. It’s like I told you before, they are not all bad. It is impossible for all of them to be bad.” She didn’t turn down Beylan’s offer, though, as they walked. “You should know that all of the guards will know of your presence here. There will probably be a weapon trained on you at every turn. If you aren’t as polite as you seem to be, they’ll kill you in a hurry.” They headed down a rough path that became paved as they went inland, and as more trees appeared around them, it was obvious they were being watched.

“Well…” Destin turned to give Beylan a slightly amused look that clearly didn’t amuse the carpenter himself, “I do usually prefer it when people tell me in advance that they want to kill me. It makes life simpler.”

“I thought so.” Elyra smiled and continued to lead the way.

It was well over an hour’s walk through the dense forest to get to the city buried deep within. As they got closer to the wall, there were more and more people. All of them humans. The air had taken a distinct turn as they walked, and she saw Destin shiver slightly as they went. She had to wonder if it was still because he had too much of the ocean running through him or if it was actually because of the cold. “How did you find us?” She eventually asked, mostly because she knew he didn’t find them on purpose.

“I didn’t, really.” He was looking around at the people on either side of the trail as they walked, some of them out tending to orchards subtly woven into the fabric of the forest, some of them fishing in the stream as it ran parallel to the path they’d been on for well over an hour. “I was involved in a battle between the Isles and the Genovin. During the battle, I was knocked unconscious and fell into the sea. I’ve been drifting ever since.”

“Who were you fighting for?” She asked as they walked and she paused momentarily to catch a piece of fruit from the people tending to the orchards. It was the last they would get before it turned much colder. Elyra held out the fruit for him to take if he was interested, even though it wasn’t plump and perfect as it would be if it had been grown by a Forestborn. “We had a few people arrive from the Genovin a few Fulnesses ago. They said that the islands were preparing for war.”

He took the fruit, and even though she could see the judgment in his eyes at the inferior quality of it, he still nodded his gratitude as he bit into it. “I fight for my family.” He wasn’t willing to give away his origins so quickly, no matter how gracious the woman had been in offering her hospitality and her protection. It had occurred to him along the way that he might be following her into some kind of trap despite her assurances that he wouldn’t be harmed. “And I can honestly say I have no idea where they are at the moment. A lot can happen in four months.”

“We aren’t going after your family, Destin. We don’t go looking for wolves.” She stopped on the path when towering walls came into sight, and she pointed at them in the distance. They were surrounded by trees and deep forest, but somehow there was a giant wall in the middle of it all. “We probably should not get any closer.”

“You mean I shouldn’t.” He gave her a look, then turned back to the wall. He took in the sight of them slowly, his eyes flicking along the high wooden structure in amazement that such a thing had been made entirely by humans. It went on as far as he could see through the trees in either direction, with a broad space cleared of trees all around it. The humans who had arrived on the island had staked an obvious claim on the ground, and were just as obviously prepared to defend it. He saw several individuals moving along the top of the barrier armed with bows and arrows, keeping watch over the dwindling afternoon. “You’re right about one thing, certainly. No one from the three kingdoms would ever dream humans were capable of anything like this on their own.”

“Why do you say that? Being your slaves is what gives us the skills to do all of this.” She waved at a few more people before she looked at Destin again. “Don’t you think humans have any worth at all?”

“I said no one from the kingdoms would think you capable of this. I didn’t say I wouldn’t.” He took in the sight of the wall for a while and then turned back to her. “Back home, I was the overseer in charge of shipbuilding operations for the queen of the Isles. I’ve worked with humans for probably almost as long as you’ve been alive. I know what you’re capable of, I’ve just never seen you work on your own before, without our direction.”

“Well, we are quite capable, I think.” She assured him as they both stared at the wall. “To be honest, I didn’t know all this would come out of my desire for human freedom. It was only a group of ten of us that escaped, and now there are so many. It still amazes me.”

“I have to wonder what this place will be like when it’s stood as long as the Isles, then.” He looked over the wall again and watched one of the gates open, doors that were large and heavy enough that he imagined they would give even an Earthborn a difficult time to tear open. The walls wouldn’t stop many other kinds of wolves that really wanted to get in, but Destin was just glad they had any kind of protection at all. “And do you still go to the three kingdoms to rescue slaves?”

“About twice a year, yes.” Elyra said with a nod. “We would like to go more than that, but it is hard to get in unnoticed and to get away without getting hurt. We’ve lost good people too many times.”

“With those kinds of risks, I’m sure.” He said contemplatively, then turned to look back at the trail they’d traveled. “If there are any more wells that need filling, I’m happy to help. Otherwise, I think it’s best if I go back to sleep for what may be several days.”

“We could use a little more help with the wells, but let’s go back to my home. You can sleep there as long as you need.”

Beylan moved to walk with Elyra as Destin lagged behind at a glare from Beylan. “Helpful or not, Elder, you can’t keep an animal in your house.”

“You know my history, Beylan. I had a wolf in my bed for the longest time. I can handle one in my house. Maybe he can help us.”

“We don’t need their help.” He growled back at her, even though he knew he was speaking out of turn. “That’s the whole point of us being here. To live without them. Not to mention, if you let him go back to the Isles, he’ll bring their whole fleet back here to undo everything we’ve done.”

“The point is to live here free of them. I keep telling everyone that it is impossible to live in a world without them. They are more numerous than we are, and they aren’t easily ignored.” Elyra looked back at Destin before she looked at Beylan again. “I will figure out what to do with him so that we are safe. If I have to, we’ll knock him unconscious and drop him out at sea again. He won’t know where to find us.”

“That might work, if he is telling the truth about having just drifted here in the first place.” Beylan clearly didn’t think that was the case, but he wasn’t going to argue with Elyra any further. “The moment he shows the first sign of being anything but helpful, he dies. He has to, for all our sakes.”

“Is that an order of the Elders? I don’t remember going to a meeting today.” She gave Beylan a challenging glare. “If anyone is threatened, then he will be contained until he is dealt with. I am sure there will be a meeting about what to do soon.”

Destin stayed silent through the exchange, still not sure why the woman was taking his side, unless it was some kind of lingering gratitude for her treatment at the hands of her former Oceanborn master. Even then, Destin certainly didn’t want to push that kind of generosity too far. The sky had turned the grey shade of winter above them as they headed back toward the coast, and Destin cursed a few times under his breath when he saw that snow was beginning to fall. Even on dry land, he couldn’t quite escape his element.

When they returned to the village, he saw that most of the occupants had retired to their homes for the day, though he still saw a few pairs of eyes peeking out of windows and cracked doors as he returned to Elyra’s house. Beylan gave him a parting glare before heading to his own house, but said nothing else. So long as Destin was aware that he wasn’t welcome, that seemed to be enough for him.

“Thank you.” He said as soon as he was back in the house with Elyra, moving to help her put more wood on the fire, since she was moving one log at a time and, though he was tired, it was at least something he could do.

“I saw the state you were in when you washed up from the water. I know you didn’t end up here on purpose, and I know no wolf would go through the dramatics of putting on that kind of show.” She was grateful for his help with the fire, and once he added more wood, she spooned out a bowl of stew for herself. “I don’t know what to expect from you now, but I’m willing to give you a chance. That’s what we give everyone who sets foot on our shores. A chance.”

“I won’t waste it.” He promised as he sat near the fire across the room from her, letting it warm him. “How many years have you seen, Elder, fifty? More than that?”

It was strange for her to hear this stranger call her Elder, but she didn’t stop him from doing so. “A few more than that, but not much. You aren’t accustomed to seeing a human like me, are you?”

“A few, but not often.” Humans were incredibly short-lived compared to the lifespan of most wolves. Destin knew that an old wolf like Melyssa or Cadmos would have seen six or seven generations of humans in their time. He himself could remember knowing young slaves around his household growing up who had grandchildren back at home. “Are your children or grandchildren here on this island with you as well?”

Elyra shook her head and took a bite of her stew and chewed it slowly before she answered. “I had several children that were fathered by the Oceanborn who kept me. After they were born, though, they were always taken. I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you the reason why.”

“No.” He said sadly as he started to relax, though he could still feel the ocean running powerfully through his veins. “I’m sorry. I wish they could have been taken to a place like this, rather than the place we both know they were taken instead.”

“My Oceanborn had a particular love for intimacy during the days of the Fulness. It was inevitable, I am sure.” She took another few bites of her stew as she watched him carefully. “I’ll show you where you can find the wood you will need once you are well. Unless you decide to attack someone, then they won’t let you live to escape.”

“Yes, that point has been well made.” He sighed, but couldn’t blame her for her attitude toward him or that of the rest of her people. “I know that you have no cause to believe me when I tell you this, Elder, but I promise you that I will do nothing to insult your trust, so far as it goes.”

He stood up and undid the laces at the neck of his shirt, pulling it off over his head and folding it carefully before setting it aside. He began to finish undressing in order to shift, then remembered what she’d said earlier and left the room, coming back a moment later in wolf form bearing the carefully-folded pants between his teeth. He set them down on top of the shirt and went to lie down with his back to the fire. She could see his deep blue eyes staring into the darkness in the corners of her home, his thoughts far away.

She stared at him as he laid there by the fire and her own memories of a past life came rushing back. Elyra felt bad for him, even though she didn’t know why she should, since she barely knew him. “Sleep well, Destin.”

He looked up when she said so, and just nodded to her as if to return the sentiment. He kept his eyes on her for a long while without moving, then looked around at the space. He couldn’t speak in wolf form, and she was hardly a wolf to be able to understand him mind to mind, but there was something between jealousy and respect in his ocean-blue eyes as he looked around at the space. She had seen the same emotion there earlier when he was taking in the sight of her home for the first time, and there was something behind it that he wasn’t saying.

He clearly wasn’t going to be any more forthcoming that night, though. Tomorrow, he would begin working to build a boat to take him home, and within a few days, he hoped to see Adriana again. He just hoped she was well when he got there, and that he was able to find this place again. She would love it in such a place. And she would be safe. He hoped.