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fifteen

Luka

L uka stared up at the tree Morai was sitting on, her back was to him as she petted Noa. He sighed looking around him. How did she even find this place? The Chepi home was large beyond belief.

He had set out partly to look around, and partly to look for Morai, and partly to get away from Tanen and Neoni who seemed to not want to leave each other since Morai gave them the go ahead. It was nice to see his brother happy, but it made him resentful, something he didn’t want to feel towards a family member, and so he’d set out to clear his head. Only to find that the smallness of the place was an illusion, he did figure out where he could, and couldn’t go by if the yellow mushrooms lit up his way or not. That sort of narrowed down where he could look, but it still took him what felt like hours before he found Morai up in a tree.

He took out his dart—the one he always carried, even when he wasn’t armed—and threw it at her. He knew she’d sense it coming and dodge, but since she was up in a tree, he threw it, so it lodged itself on the branch she was on instead. That didn’t stop her from trying to duck, though. She looked down at him with a furious scowl.

“Are you trying to kill me?” she asked.

“You know I would never do that, my Morai.” Her expected anger made him chuckle as he withdrew his dart from the tree, with the rope attached to it. He frowned as his hands itched. Was she hurt or Noa? Morai scaled down the tree, landing with a thud next to him. She gave him a sleeping Noa. Luka inspected Noa, but he seemed fine.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I was bored.”

“So what? You decide to interrupt my much-deserved rest?” He grinned at her.

“Precisely that.” He turned and headed in a random direction, he didn’t want to go back to the camp just yet.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Morai asked, falling in step with him.

“Not a clue, but the mushrooms are good at telling you where you can and can’t go,” he said. Morai winced, rubbing her shoulder, and Luka stopped walking.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

“It’s just a bruise. It’ll heal,” she said, well that explained the itchiness, he stared at her shoulder.

“Really, I’m fine.”

“Did you take a healing potion?”

“It’s not so serious to need one,” she said. Luka furrowed his brow at her shoulder again. He sighed then continued walking.

“What happened, the mushrooms light up the place enough that you won’t slip on something.”

“Ahhh, well…”

“Don’t tell me you continued walking, even when the mushrooms didn’t light up.” Morai lifted her chin.

“It happened once, and don’t tell me you weren’t curious.”

“I was, but my self-preservation instincts are pretty strong,” Luka said, coughing to cover up his laughter.

“What happened?” he asked.

“The trees made it pretty clear I wasn’t allowed. They had vines that practically dragged me out.” This time, Luka didn’t bother to hold his laughter.

“It isn’t that funny.”

“Oh, it is,” Luka said, straightening from putting Noa on the ground. His laughter had woken Noa, who immediately started sniffing around.

“Do you hear water?” Morai asked. Tilting his head, Luka listened and sure enough he could hear it.

“It sounds like a creek,” he said, leading the way again. Morai followed. The mushrooms lit up the place all the way to a clearing where they found the creek. The place was covered in mushrooms of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Luka frowned.

“Whoa,” Morai said.

“You think this is where someone might have stolen the mushrooms?” Luka asked.

“Possibly,” Morai said, going ahead of him and towards the creek. His hands still itched to heal her shoulder, gritting his teeth, he turned away from her and looked around. He saw a few white mushrooms and headed towards them. Healing potions were specific when it came to ingredients, but a rule of thumb was that anything white could mean it could heal or be added as an ingredient to make a healing potion. He stooped down and touched it, but it didn’t give anything away. The only mushrooms that gave a miniscule amount of magic were the yellow ones that were scattered in between the other mushrooms.

“These mushrooms do not hold any magic,” Morai said from behind him; straightening, he turned to face her.

“Since when could you sense magic?” he asked.

“I cannot, but look at the yellow ones compared to the others, then look at the trees.” The trees? Luka looked up to find that the trees were dotted with yellow mushrooms as well. Which meant the yellow mushrooms were the ones keeping this place running and the rest were a cover to protect them. Like everyone else, Luka had assumed the yellow ones were only for light. Could the Chepi have thought this as well?

“Which mushrooms do you think were stolen?” Morai asked.

“I’m not sure. We could ask Chenip tomorrow,” Luka said, and Morai opened her mouth to speak, but Luka raised his brow.“Fine,” she said, turning away from him. His hands itched again with all the lights around, he could heal her without her noticing. He just had to send a surge of healing magic as quick as he could. His mind made up, he grabbed both of her shoulders and spun her around to face him.

“Ouch, what did you do that for?” she asked, trying to break away from him. But he tightened a grip on her uninjured shoulder trying to figure out what to say.

“Why are you leaving?” he asked, blurting the first thing that came to his mind. Morai scrunched up her nose in confusion.

“What? I’m going to bed, of course.” He shook his head while at the same time concentrating on his hand that was on her injured shoulder.

“No, I mean…” He paused as he sensed the magic working, his hand glowing softly, but the light from the mushrooms helped to shield it. But Morai must have seen something from her periphery because she started to turn her head.

“Luka…”

“Why are you leaving Linden?” He cursed at himself, now was not the time to ask such a question, but it stopped her from turning.

“Really? You want to know that now?”

“Yes, why are you leaving and were you going to tell me?” He felt her tense.

“Yes, I was going to tell you eventually.” Luka raised a brow when she didn’t continue. Morai scoffed and tried moving away from him again, this time he let her. He’d healed her already.

“Besides, it's none of your business if I leave.”

“Of course it’s my business, who else am I going to compete with?”

“Is that all I am to you? A competition?” Luka hesitated. Would telling her the truth change anything? He had a responsibility to his family; his parents expected him to take over the family business. He was certain his parents would let him marry anyone as long as it wasn’t Morai. But he didn’t want that, so he took a deep breath and fingered his dart, feeling the cold smooth metal to anchor him.

“What if I told you, you are more than that?”

“Are you telling me that because you think it will stop me from leaving?” He focused on her face trying to read whatever was there, but she held her emotions close, so he focused on her eyes instead. She was studying him, like she was trying to find something.

“Did you mean it when you said we could date?”

“Will you stay, if I meant it?” Morai scoffed and looked away from him.

“Fine, I’m leaving because I want a better future for myself.” Luka gave a bitter laugh that had her turning back to face him.

“Really? You think your parents will allow that?”

“I’ll convince them that I can handle myself on my own.”

“But…you’re the first born.” Morai lifted her chin.

“I am aware of that. My siblings can handle the business.” Ah, so it was just him then, left to shoulder everything, his siblings had their own lives. Well, most of them did, but here he was stuck, he was hiding his healing magic, for crying out loud. He wanted to be happy for her so he smiled and hoped it didn’t look as sad as he felt.

“Well, I wish you luck,” he said. Either his smile didn’t work, or something in his voice gave him away, because Morai furrowed her brow.

“Luka…”

“We should head back.” Luka scooped up Noa who’d come back to them after frolicking in the creek. He walked past her and back the way they’d come, hoping that Morai wouldn't notice that her shoulder was better, and that his heart would heal with time.