8. Reflection On Trust

Coughing up water, Sigardus rolled on his side. Pandrea tried helping him, but there wasn't much she could do. She also was exhausted by this point and hadn't slept in... she wasn't sure how long it had been. Sigardus seemed to be getting his coughing fit under control, and Kira whipped around him as a golden cloud. The blue Shift was hiding behind a rock in the shape of a small faceless woman.

"You can come here, I won't hurt you," Pandrea said to the little blue woman, and she slowly started to slide towards her. She reached out her hand towards the small blue, glowing form. She turned into mist and flowed up her arm and swirled around her. It felt cool to her skin but soft, and when Pandrea put her hand up to touch the fog, the blue form flew away in a puff.

"You truly are amazing, you fell from the stars and were lucky enough to survive. With my help, I might add. Then on top of all that, you save me after my idiocy. You befriend a Shyft, all in one day," Sigardus said reverently. He started to pick himself off the ground, still dripping water.

Pandrea looked around and shivered, wrapping arms around herself. Suddenly, she was becoming extremely exhausted. Sigardus noticed her wavering and started over towards her. The world began to get fuzzy, and by the time he got to her, everything had gone black.

Pandrea woke up to hear the snapping and crackle of wood in a fire. The smells of smoke and some kind of meat that filled her nose. Pandrea could feel the warmth of a fire close to her. She opened her eyes to see a small fire with some kind of small skinned animal over it on a make-shift spit.

Her clothes were still damp, but they had dried off quite a bit. She noticed something soft under her head and turned to see the blue Shyft in the shape of a cloud. The Shyft had wanted to keep her comfortable. That was a relief. This Shyft seemed to have a motherly air about her, unlike Calimus. He was...wound uptight.

"I am not wound uptight; I merely want you to get to your father safely. Not gallivanting around with some strange man that you just met. If you hadn't noticed, you both almost died," Calimus said in a scolding tone to her in her head.

"You're lucky this little mother hen found you and decided she wanted to help you. If she hadn't, that hydro-deathtrap would have drowned you and the mystery man before it even got to eat you both."

Pandrea shifted uncomfortably; Calimus wasn't wrong. She couldn't just go running around without thinking. This was a different world, with different rules.

She also needed to find her father, but she didn't want to reveal too much to Sigardus. Calimus was right; she needed to be more careful around him. They had only just met, but as lovely as he seemed, she knew another boy that was nice to her.

Two years ago

"If you want it, you have to come to get it," He taunted her jokingly.

Pandrea leaped forward to grab her pencil case he held over his head; instead, tackling him to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her, and she buried her face into his chest. He smelled of the laundry detergent his mom used, and it made her heart leap when he squeezed her close.

She jabbed her fingers into his side, making him laugh and squirm. Pandrea rolled away from him, grabbing her pencil case from him. He got to his feet, faking his injury and holding at his side.

"That's unfair, you cheated," He protested, and then started to run after me.

She let out a small squeak and ran away, laughing. Clive, a handsome looking fifteen-year-old boy in a grade higher than her, chased her across the schoolyard. They had been seeing each other since the beginning of the school year, and it was already April.

"As if you ever play fair, Clive," she said, running as he continued chasing her.

Pandrea ran towards the back of the school towards the bleachers on the far side of the football field. She turned the corner going around the back of the bleachers. As she looked back, Clive almost on top of her. He ended up running into her and knocking them both to the ground.

Once they had both hit the long soft grass, he grabbed her and pulled Pandrea close to him. She pretended to resist, but quickly gave in, melting into his arms, he felt so warm. She looked up into his eyes, which made her heart start to pound in her chest. She started getting a twisting nervousness that pulled at her stomach.

"I'll never leave you, Pandrea. You know that, right?" He asked her as he ran his hands through her hair. He was staring so intently at her with those green eyes and that cute half-smile. She couldn't even imagine being without him, and she buried her face into his chest.

"I know," she breathed, and he put his hand under her chin and lifted her face to his. His lips felt soft as he kissed her and pulled her closer to him. Her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest as he slid his hand up her back. Then he started pressing her closer to him.

"Pandrea?" A familiar voice called out. "Where are you? We are going to be late..." and Sara's voice trailed off as she rounded the bleachers. Both of them tried to straighten their clothes; trying not to look like they had been doing what they just had been doing. "Arent, you two love birds cute, but lunch is over. We need to get to class, or we are going too have to stay late again."

One week later, Clive and his family vanished. They had packed everything up in the middle of the night and left without saying a word. She had even talked to him the night before on the phone. Even when she texted him goodnight, he said he would see her tomorrow. Tomorrow never came.

Pandrea spent a week in her room, sobbing over the stupid idiot. How could he just leave her? He had said to her that he wouldn't leave. Even going as far as to say, "he would see me in the morning," but how could he have not known? Was it all just a lie he made up to get close to me?

When she was finally able to pull herself back together and get back to school, something had changed inside of her. The happy, optimistic, and friendly girl became the reclusive, pessimistic loner that just wanted to be left alone. Friends tried to support her and talk to her, but she just pulled all her emotions in and tried to keep them back.

Something about how it was so easy for Clive to lie to her dug at her. He made her believe he cared about her and had broken her trust. In the end, she decided to keep people away to create a space between everyone else and her. If they couldn't get close, they couldn't hurt her.

Pandrea didn't know If she should trust Sigardus. He seems honest and friendly, but Clive was the same way. Could she afford not to trust him for now, though? She was in a strange land with no idea where she was or how they might find her father.

She had asked Calimus how to find her father earlier when they had been walking. That was before the water plant had tried to eat them. He reluctantly replied it was his job to protect her until she found him and wouldn't talk about it. It was almost like he was holding something back, but she hadn't thought to push him on the matter.

Sigardus made a sound like he was clearing his throat. It was at that point Pandrea realized she had just been sitting there daydreaming. She was staring off into the fire like some dunce not muttering a word.

"Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind. How are you feeling? I mean, you can't be too bad if you were able to catch whatever that is and make a fire to cook it," Pandrea asked him as she leaned forward and sniffed. It didn't smell that bad. My father had cooked some meals in a controlled environment while my mom was out of town that smelled a lot worse.

"I feel pretty good, thanks to you, Pan. I owe you my life after you saved me in my attempt to save you," Sigardus said. He leaned forward and turned the animal so it wouldn't burn.

"I think that would make us even, considering how you saved me from falling out of the sky," Pandrea said to him as she sat up and began to warm my hands by the fire.

"Regardless, catching food and making a fire after you somehow brought me back to life seems like the least I could do. You had passed out, and I am no shaman or doctor. The best I could think to do was get you warm so you could dry and food to help you regain your energy."

"I don't want to seem rude or prying, but would you be able to tell me a bit about yourself. There is something I need to do, but I need to know if I can trust you. I haven't had much luck in the past with men telling me to trust them," she said to him as he continued to turn the meat.

"Well, considering you were unconscious, and you still have all your clothes on and belongings. I would say I'm not that bad of a fellow. Other men might not have acted the same way, and the Gra'Nixhas-Morenki would have done unspeakable things. Those bloodthirsty red bastards are the scourge of Harkaedium," Sigardus said, spitting to the side. He pulled out a knife and cut into the meat to see if it was done.

Pandrea started to blush, thinking about the fact that she had been unconscious, and he could have done god knows what to her. Then, those thoughts were pushed to the back of my mind as she realized something. The Gra'Nixhas wore red? This could mean the things that had attacked her in my school were these Gra'Nixhas. That would also mean the Gra'Nixhas were the ones that killed my real mother and tried to kill my father.