#voroni

It was quiet, too quiet for her liking but by now most of the travelers who were looking for refuge had headed into Amnoon. Leaving herself, a lone sapling to sit on the edge of an abandoned cliff face to smile at a sky that didn’t want to smile back at her. She missed her family. She missed her home.

Pulling her legs up to her chest, she rested her head on her knees. Ashal’s soft teal glow was the only light up here for miles that she could see. She had been too distracted by the hauntingly beautiful night sky that she didn’t hear the soft footsteps of her companion behind her. Ashal jumped when Voroni gently placed his hands on her shoulder. He smiled gently as he draped a soft cotton blanket over her bare shoulders.

        “If you’re staying out here, you’ll get cold.” He said softly, dropping down to sit beside her. Their knees touching almost instantly, her tense attitude changed to a relaxed one as soon as she recognized that it hadn’t been a stranger but instead her beloved revenant friend.

“Thank you” She spoke softly after a moment of silence, he turned to the noise so that he was facing her, leaning forward to press a kiss against her forehead.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, I hope it’s not one of my ghosts running around in my head. You know I can’t see if they escape” he pointed out, gathering a quiet and almost bitter laugh from the otherwise cheerful sylvari. He frowned a bit, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, “Are you okay?”

She rested her head against his shoulder instead of her knee, leaning into his embrace. “Do you ever miss it? The Grove?” despite being right beside him – her voice sounded like she was a million miles away, her heart yearning for something other than following the sounds of despair and torment that seemed to follow her sister’s footsteps. She hadn’t heard from Tomomi in 6 months now. The last anyone had heard of him had been when Canach had mentioned something about a place to stay in the desert. But neither Ashal nor Luna had heard from either of them since then.

        “If I’m honest, I never really felt like I belonged in the Grove. It’s why I was so eager to escape, to get into the action. That’s when I met you. Just after the pact crash in Verdant. You pulled me out. Saved my life” he gave her an affectionate squeeze of her shoulder to which she looked at him. She knew that he couldn’t see her, he was not only blind, but the strip of fabric tied tightly across his eyes also meant that even if he wanted to, the world was firmly blocked from his view. But that meant the private smile she shared when she looked at him as if he was the world was just something that she could feel – and somehow that felt like it had more of a meaning behind it. He was her best friend, her travel companion. Her everything outside of the Grove and she was so thankful to have him – these adventures and journeys would feel a lot lonelier without him. Even if it was only for their quiet chatter when they were on the move, the dumb private jokes between the two of them when the fire was roaring or even huddling in a tent at night to fight off the cold that seemed to plague them the closer they were to the Shiverpeaks.

“You miss it don’t you?” his voice brought Ashal out of her rather odd trance, as she sighed and cuddled closer in an attempt to fight off the chill of the night air. The question felt like a weight on top of her shoulders more than his actual arm.

        “Yeah. I do. I want to introduce you to my family one day, so you can meet them all – Meet the house of Amanatsu!” Ashal seemed to brighten up when she talked about her family. She seemed so absorbed in talking excitedly about her family that she missed the gentle smile Voroni directed at her, being able to hear the pure joy in her voice was better than the wayward, sad voice he had heard earlier.

“Ashal?” He interrupted her rambling even if he didn’t want to but knew that if he didn’t, she would go on for hours and then neither of them would get any sleep and they’d be exhausted for their continued journey tomorrow. She paused and nervously laughed, a quiet apology on her lips for rambling on for longer than she should have. “Do you know why I don’t miss home?”

She paused, pondering the question as if it was one of the world’s greatest mysteries and that the answer would be the answer, she had been dying to know her entire life before giving up and making an annoyed noise, “No idea! Tell me!” she leaned her head against his shoulder again, looking up at him despite knowing he couldn’t see her.

Voroni paused, mostly for dramatic effect, and to annoy her to leave her in suspense. Before he quietly spoke again, as if afraid to speak the words like they would poison his tongue as he spoke them. “Because you’re my home. And you’re always with me”

There was a quietness that seemed to stretch on, it was almost quiet enough that Ashal could hear the stars shining and sparkling as if they were dancing and making noise in the night sky just for her. “Oh” was all she could say before placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

“Well! Time for bed!” just as quickly as the conversation had turned soft was just as quick as Ashal got up and turned towards the tent. Voroni laughed, shaking his head before following her in.