Chapter 7: Homeward Bound

The sun rises around seven o’clock in the morning in most of the northern towns which is when Austin and Ellie were supposed to be setting off to find a carriage to take them back to Incipancy. But it was closer to ten o’clock when Austin’s eyes finally peeled open. He felt totally groggy and completely dazed as a result from the amount he drank last night but what seemed even weirder than that, was his inability to move either of his arms or legs. Even though he couldn’t move there was something pleasant about it. It wasn’t like he was paralysed, or even trapped, it felt more like he subconsciously just didn’t want to move. He was very comfortable in the position he was in; it was perfectly warm, and he could feel a cool, relaxing breeze run down his chest every few seconds. A sweet, fruity fragrance wafted up from the sheets and Austin moved his head closer to try and keep the smell. It was a perfect morning, with the sun shining brightly through the window and a dim hum of people talking in the streets outside which was interrupted every now and then by a soft sigh from his chest and slight shuffling. And then it all suddenly made sense to Austin, the warmth, the breeze, the smell. He looked down and saw Ellie snuggled and curled up tight against him with a peaceful smile and her legs entwined with his. There was only one word to describe her looking like this:

“Cute.”

Austin couldn’t help himself from saying it out loud. Then he realised why it was that he couldn’t move his arms; he was holding her close to him and both his arms were wrapped tightly around her. He was completely stuck. The only way he would be able to move was if they both moved together.

‘Do I wake her up and risk being complained at because she wanted to sleep more, or do I not wake her up and risk being shouted at because now we’ll be late getting to Incipancy and we could have slept on the way there.’

“Ellie… Hey… wake up… Heyyyy.” It was an easy decision to make.

“mmmmm… just five more minutes…”

“Nooo, come on. We need to go to Incipancy.” He kept his voice low and quiet.

“mmmmmMMMMM… fine.”

“Come on. We need to get up then.”

“no. I’m comfy. You first. I’ll keep my eyes closed.” As she pushed her head closer into Austin’s chest.

“About that… can I have my arms back?”

“no... comfy.”

“Please?”

“…Wait. What?”

Ellie’s eyes snapped open and she took in her surroundings and her position for the first time. She looked up at Austin and into his deep blue eyes for the first time and her entire face went bright red. She nodded slightly but couldn’t take her eyes away from his. Austin smirked slightly which caused Ellie’s eyes widened and she let out a tiny little squeal that she hoped and prayed that he didn’t hear. The two of them worked together to separate themselves starting with their legs and then removing Austin’s arms from under Ellie all the while she couldn’t look away from his eyes.

By the time the two of them had finally gotten up and out of their room it was far too late to be eating breakfast. Until they agreed that: “actually this is fine, we can just do everything like we planned but four hours later than when we planned it.” And that they would just get another room when they got to Incipancy, but neither of them mentioned the idea of getting separate beds…

It was midday by the time they had finally eaten ‘breakfast’, bought ‘lunch’ for the trip and found a travelling trader who was heading to Incipancy and had enough room to take them as well. There wasn’t much room in the cart they found for the two of them, but it was cheap and at least they didn’t have to walk all the way back. They were crammed in shoulder to shoulder with their legs dangling out the back. Yet this was quite a nice position for them to be in, it was somewhat comfortable but neither of them knew exactly why it was. The last time the two of them took this route it was hell for Austin, but this time he had something else on his mind.

“So what’s the deal with you bow?”

“… huh?... oh… well… you see… it’s a… Soul Binding weapon.”

“You good?”

“huh? yes… yeah… *clears her throat* Yes. I’m fine. Sorry about that.”

“Okayyy… then how is your bow any different to my sword?”

“Well first of all, it’s not got a blade…”

“…”

“But I guess you could say that I specialise in extremely accurate and powerful long-range attacks, but I can also do less powerful and accurate rapid-fire attacks for short range.”

“Damn. That’s pretty cool. So, is your close-range attack as strong as your full power one then? Just less accurate.”

“No. In all honesty it’s pretty garbo. Only any use against really weak monsters and even then, I’m better off just beating them with the metal arrows.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You don’t even use normal arrows. It’s those freaky pole things that just skewer everything you shoot.”

“Hehe. Yeah, well because my shots are like a lock on kind of thing, I found it best to use sturdier and more damaging kind of arrows instead.”

“So, what you’re saying is, you actually have no skill with a bow?”

“I’m gonna punch you so hard.”

“OKAYYYyyyy… change of subject. But do you actually remember exactly what happened last night?”

“I changed my mind. I’m not gonna punch you.”

“Oh good.”

“I’m gonna kill you instead.”

“No. No. No. that’s not what I meant! I mean, like… the topic of conversation…”

“OH! Yeah, you mentioned some stuff about not being from here or something stupid like that.”

“Hah. Yeah. It’s odd really.”

“And you definitely did say something about you not feeling yourself?”

“Ooooh I do remember that. It’s just weird. I’ve always been shy around people because I just assume that nobody really wants to hear my voice but recently, I haven’t felt that at all. Since the other day when you found me and started pestering me about being unemployed and dragging me around with you, I’ve not felt like people look at me like I’m just in the way anymore. You know? Well, not as much anyway. Like, usually I wouldn’t even dream of talking about myself for this long but right now I don’t really care because I feel like I can do to you.” He turned and looked at Ellie to find her staring right at him with big gleaming eyes and again her face went bright red.

“OH! Errrrr, yeah. Of course. Yes. Obviously you can.” ‘OH MY GOD! HE’S COMPLIMENTING ME!!!... I think.’

“HAHA! I’m sorry. I just started rambling about myself and then kind of threw the blame at you.”

“Well, it wasn’t really blame, was it?”

“No. But I wasn’t quite sure how you were gonna take it really. I guess what I’ trying to say is that since you came along, I guess I’m starting to act more like a person. If you get what I mean. New world new me kinda shit.”

“Not at all.” ‘Yes. Totally… Except the new world shit, that’s crazy.’

“Hmmm. It’s difficult but I just feel more at home now than I ever did before.”

“With me?”     ‘AHHHHHHHH!!! I WAS SUPPOSED TO THINK THAT NOT SAY IT!’

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Cool!” ‘AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH’ The blank look on her face gave away Elli’s internal screaming.

“You okay?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. I was just thinking: you’re kinda weird.” ‘Why did I just say that!?’

“Hahaha! Yeah, probably… Anyway, I was wondering. Have you named your bow?”

“Named my bow?”

“That is what I said.”

“No.”

“Well, you should do.”

“Why the hell would I?”

“To strike fear into your enemy’s hearts! Because let’s be honest: Oh no, it’s Ellie! Is not very badass. But: Oh no, it’s the wielder of the great insta kill bow! Is a little bit more badass.”

“…”

“Yeah?”

“…Alright then. That was a terrible example. But what about your sword? What have you named that?”

“I don’t know yet. What about: Silver Slayer?”

“Lame.”

“Harsh. But I guess you’re kinda right. Okay… how about… Ice Bane!”

“Why ice?”

“Because it’s white… and so is ice…”

“…”

“… Yeah, okay. I’ll admit that’s also pretty lame.”

“Pfft. ‘Pretty lame’? It’s awful!”

“Alright! Let’s see you come up with anything better then.”

“Hmm… Wish Bone! BOOM!”

“… So, you want me to name my badass Soul Binding sword after a bone from a chicken that people snap for a tradition?”

“… yeah…” ‘What the fuck’s a chicken?’

“Now that… is lame. See it’s harder than you think.”

“Yeah, alright I’ll give you that.”

“Err…” Austin scratched his chin a thought for a minute. He lifted up the sword and looked it for a moment. “I don’t know. Something to do with a white gemstone would be pretty cool. Like… Quartz Crusher!”

“Ooooo that’s not bad. Hold on I think I’ve got something. Let me just think for a second… … GOSHENITE!”

“Goshenite?”

“Yeah!”

Austin looked at the sword again and watched it glint in the sunshine. “Goshenite is pretty cool.”

‘NO.’

A deep, soft voice echoed from inside Austin’s mind and filled the air around him. It was quite soothing and yet, completely terrifying.

‘Giddenavya.’ It spoke again.

“Austin? What’s up?”

Austin turned and looked at Ellie but couldn’t shake the look of pure horror from his face. He couldn’t put his thoughts into words. He couldn’t even think at all. Eventually he cleared his throat a couple times and looked back at his sword. His hands were shaking badly, it looked as though he was dying from hypothermia. It took several minutes for Austin to finally gather his thoughts again and calm his heart rate down.

“Did you hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“Oh… never mind, I guess. But I think Giddenavya is a better name...”

“Giddenavya?”

“Yeah...”

The two of them sat in silence for a bit longer before Austin slumped over into his lap and stared at the ground, let out an enormous sigh and brushed away a cold sweat from his brow.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, sorry. That was just really weird. More importantly…” Austin’s head sparked up and he turned back to Ellie. “We gotta name your bow now!”

“Oh god.”

“Oh yeah. Go on, get it out… the bow, I mean…”

Ellie reached over her back and brought out her bow and pressed the button to extend it. Then stopped for a second and shot Austin a look of withering contempt. She opened her mouth and tried to think of something to say but decided to just give up and sigh instead. The two of them sat there looking at the bow and thinking about its powers to come up with names.

“How about Arbalest?” Austin finally suggested.

“Isn’t that a type of crossbow?”

“I don’t know. I just made it up to be honest.”

“Oh. Well, it is a type of crossbow. So, it wouldn’t work for a bow.”

“Oh. For real? My bad… How about something like Fir Shot then?”

“Oooo. I get it, but I think it needs to be a bit cooler than that.”

“Oh, yeah, haha, because that was really… smart of me…”

“… Because a leaf of a fir tree is more like a needle.”

“Yeah, I told you I get it… I did come up with it after all…”

“Fine, whatever. Alright then, what about… Hemlock?”

“… Hemlock’s not bad.”

“It’s not bad at all actually.”

“It pretty much rounds up all three of its abilities.”

“…Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Your needle like shots, your lock-on ability…”

“And the third one?”

“… Well… you uh… it’s… um… it’s… wood…”

“Right. It’s wood. Nice one.”

“Yeah, but Hemlock’s a pretty cool name though.”

“It is pretty cool.”

Ellie looked at the bow in her hands then held it up as if she were looking down its sight to fire a shot. Her proud smile was quickly wiped away and replaced by the sort of face you would make if a strange man held a gun to your head and told you to recite the words of a song you’d never heard of in a foreign language without any errors or he’ll pull the trigger. Her bottom lip began to shake and her breathing became sporadic. Austin put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

“Did it not like the name?”

“no.”

She rested her head against Austin’s shoulder as he rested his head on hers and brushed her hair behind her ear. They stayed like this for about 20 minutes without saying a word.

“What name did it say then?”

“Larax…”

“…You can get some rest if you want.”

“Mkay.”

The two of them stayed in the same position as Ellie eventually drifted off to sleep and once again Austin just watched as the evening sky faded into darkness.