13

The following morning…

Tallulah awoke early that morning, as per usual. It wasn't that she couldn't fall asleep earlier; rather, she could only fall asleep later during those instances that Rellin decided to spend the entire night staying up late reading, talking, and playing games… Which happened fairly frequently. This particular exception had been occurring more frequently lately. When Kelwarin had left last night, the young man had spent most of his time sleeping peacefully in the room below. But today, he was woken by the sound of the front door opening.

He sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. There was no need to open his eyes yet, as he could easily tell that Rellin was already downstairs. It was also unlikely that he was going to run into any problems as he was currently surrounded by dozens of strangers. In order to avoid drawing too much attention to himself, Kelwarin stayed in his room most of the time and rarely ventured out unless someone brought him some food. Otherwise, he preferred to spend his free time studying or practicing with various weapons or fighting techniques he picked up from various books.

After listening intently for a short while, he heard Rellin enter the living room. His voice echoed from inside the house as he spoke.

"Everyone else is still asleep. I doubt we'll encounter any trouble. I think the rain has ended and things will return to normal soon enough… Although… How come you're up so early anyway?"

Tallulah stood up from the chair beside her bed, walking over to the window and pushing aside the curtain before stepping outside. As soon as she stepped out onto the balcony, the cold breeze instantly swept through her hair causing goosebumps to appear. "Oh, right," she uttered as she looked around. The view wasn't anything unusual either. It seemed like it was still nighttime, the moon shining brightly above the sea of snow. "It must still be pretty dark out…"

After closing the window curtains behind her, she turned around to discover that Kelwarin was standing next to her. Before she could utter a word, he wrapped his arms around her, embracing her tightly. As he buried his nose deep into her hair and inhaled her aroma, he felt tears starting to prick at his eyes, threatening to spill over. He wanted to hold her so badly, to just hold her close to him and kiss the top of her head, to whisper sweet nothings into her ear and to assure her that everything was going to be alright... Unfortunately, Kelwarin had learned over the years that such gestures were meaningless. He may as well have held onto her forever, and he knew it. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to convince himself that everything was going to be okay.

"It won't last forever," he eventually said after they broke apart. "One day, the cold winds will sweep through these mountains and destroy everything that you love. Even I wouldn't be able to stop this. One day, you're going to find someone new."

Tallulah shook her head slowly. "No one is going to replace you," she insisted calmly, although there was obviously something troubling her. Something that he couldn't decipher. She was holding herself differently than she usually did whenever they had conversations about the subject. A part of Kelwarin was certain that the other male knew, yet he chose not to mention anything about her behaviour. It made Kelwarin wonder whether or not he truly cared about their relationship. He was aware that he liked Tallulah, he certainly loved her dearly, and he definitely thought about her often throughout the past week... But that was precisely the problem.

He couldn't help but wonder if he really loved her. What if he fell in love with another, stronger woman? What if he decided that Tallulah wasn't good enough for him? Then it would be all over – she would disappear from his life forever.