Falls

Though she were in a whirlwind of fear and pain and loss and sorrow, Avangeline’s ears twitched at the first words Bjorn had spoken and her heart reached out to him. She knew too personally the pain of not knowing where one’s mother was, for that was one of the various pieces of the puzzle that was troubling her most. Even old as she was now, Avangeline had always been very, very close to her parents. They were, perhaps, suffocating, but she believed they had reason to be at times. One day she might have craved adventure and rebelled, but the chance was taken from her so abruptly, Avangeline was only left confused and frightened.

“N-no,” she said, small shake of her head. She didn’t hear voices, but she quieted as Bjorn spoke, watery eyes watching him as he spoke of his grandfather. The tears had stilled, for now, but the sorrow weighed on her heart like a wet blanket. It was nice, for a moment, to pay attention to another story rather than hers. “That must have been awful for him,” said Avangeline softly, thinking how horrible she would feel if she was driven to behave cruelly due to voices in her head.

She swallowed, drawing in a small breath, and taking a moment to pause and wonder whether or not to lay her woes at the feet of this poor stranger. Thus far Avangeline had been good at quieting herself when she worried, or stilling her misery when she began to miss home, but emotions such as that could only be bottled up for so long. She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t remember how I got here. Isn’t that strange? I just… woke up one day and I was here, I smelled of the ocean, so I must have swam here… but, I can’t remember it.” She’d met Al-Hattaal shortly after that and he’d been with her ever since, her protector. Her sorrowful eyes glanced back the way she’d left, where he must still be, and then looked to Bjorn again.

“I have these… memories of my life before here. It all feels so real, but the longer I remain here the longer I fear they’re… made up.” It broke her heart to think the parents she remembered, the home she loved, and the goddess she worshipped were nothing but stories filling her head and that she actually had no loved ones out there, missing her.