A Dream

"I knew you would never be good enough."

"Why couldn't you have been born a boy?!"

"You are an embarrassment to the Arco family!"

Eva covered her ears but the endless accusations kept filling her mind. She was staring at the faces of her dead parents covered in blood. Their eyes were replaced by dark holes.

"Because of you we were murdered and left for the crows!"

"I'm sorry." Eva muttered. "I'm sorry." Tears streamed down her face. "I'm sorry." She kept repeating over and over.

Eva was huddled into a ball and her body shook uncontrollably. Their broken and bloodied image was burned into her retinas.

"I'm s.."

Before she could finish yet another apology she felt something warm pull her from the darkness. The ache in her chest began to fade and she realized it was the feeling of someone stroking her head.

Her consciousness latched onto this warmth. The feeling of weightlessness encompassed her body and she opened her eyes. The dark and bloody scene around her was becoming smaller.

She realized that her body was floating upwards. Looking above her, she saw the dark sky begin to lighten. Soon the brilliant blue of a summer day surrounded her. Looking below her she saw the endless meadow from the dreams she had been accustomed to seeing.

Her body began to descend again. Once she touched the ground she looked around for the small bunny. Frowning, she realized it was not here, but the warm feeling was still there.

"I am asleep."

Willing herself to wake up, the warm feeling became stronger until she looked up and Lucas, surprised, looked down at her. His hand paused midair.

Withdrawing his hand, Lucas looked away and pulled his hood down over his head. Darkness flooded Eva's vision once more as the heaviness of sleep took over once again.

************

Eva had been having one of her nightmares again, so Lucas began smoothing down her hair to calm her. The act also helped calm his overwhelming need to be close to her as well.

In fact, he had let himself get so immersed in simply patting her head that it was too late to stop when it seemed she had woken up. Her hand had lightly grabbed his and she was now holding his hand.

Lucas did not know how to process this new development.

'What do I do?' he thought nervously.

Realizing his hand was frozen midair he quickly pulled it back out of her grip.

'Maybe she is too drowsy to realize what happened.'

Lucas felt his face and ears heat up and immediately covered his head with the hood of his cloak.

Eva's hand fell back down and she remained still for a brief moment. Visible relief filled him as he saw her eyes droop back into sleep and her breathing returned to normal.

'It is ok. She will probably just think she is dreaming.'

'In what way is it normal to have a dream about this?'

Sweat dripped down Lucas' back. He decided that he needed to cool off. It was so quiet that not even his ears could pick up the noise as he headed towards their nearest water source.

His heart was still racing as he splashed the cold water on his face. Try as he might he could not forget the feeling of her hand in his to disappear from his mind.

'What did I do? What did I do?' This thought repeated in his mind until morning.

************

Eva stretched as she opened her eyes. Realizing the sun had already risen she looked confused. For days she had been woken by Lucas right before dawn to train.

'Where is he?'

She looked over to where his bedroll was and it was empty. Actually it looked like he had never even gotten into it.

Fear began to grip her chest as she thought the worst. Getting to her feet quickly she tried to remember if he said anything the night before.

A strange dream floated up to her mind. She lightly touched the top of her head in a daze.

'Why would I have a dream about that?' she thought, confused.

'Wait was that a dream?'

Looking over to Lucas' empty bedroll again she blushed. Nightmares had intermittently plagued her, but she always ended up having a decent dream by the time she woke up.

'Has he done that each time?'

Tears welled up into her eyes. Her chest felt tight and her breathing accelerated. For Eva she had spent several years without the warm touch of others.

Her mother blamed her for being born a girl and her father had given up on her altogether after that one party. She had pushed down the care that Lucas showed her in small moments.

Convincing herself to focus on her revenge, she had ignored it. The first tear fell down her face.

'I have been kind of terrible to him, haven't I?'

How many times had she just used him so that she could become stronger? At this moment, she realized he had become closer to her than her family had been all her life.

Family. It was something that meant many things to Eva before now. Fear. Sadness. Unquestioned loyalty. Honor. Coldness. Maybe for a short time it was filled with warmth, when her father was kind in the beginning.

It used to the safe and content feeling of being in her father's arms as he read her another story. Occasionally, it was the scared or depressed feeling when she thought of her mother.

'So, Lucas is like family to me then.'

Something clicked inside of her.

'Is this why I get excited everytime he is close to me?'

But that didn't feel quite right either. It was also something else to call an elf she barely knew family. Besides, how would Lucas feel if she started to call him brother or something?

Deciding to put her conflicted thoughts away she decided to freshen up for the day. She picked up her small bag that held her soap and brush and headed towards the nearby river.

'It is best not to think too deeply about it. We will separate when we reach the Capital anyway. I will have to think of a gift or something to thank him for all that he has done.'

************

The sound of someone moving about the forest pulled Lucas outside of his thoughts. Realizing how long he had spent staring at the water he quickly hid in the nearby trees.

Eva slowly walked out of the treeline and Lucas noticed the bag in her hands.

The heartbeat he had finally calmed with much difficulty immediately betrayed him again.

'I need to leave quickly.'

She would never find him, but he couldn't betray her like that. Pulling his eyes away from the river he decided to scout the area to make sure it was still safe.

He didn't allow himself to look behind him and forced himself away until there were so many trees around him that there was no way he could see anything.

Traveling amongst the branches was more difficult, but he had mastered the art of quietly traversing them. Finding a larger branch he stopped and leaned his hand against the bark of the thick tree.

The world was spinning and his heart was still beating loudly inside his chest.

'I need to find a better way to control the imprint. Or is this because I also have feelings for her?'

Leaning his shoulder against the tree, he let the tree support him as he pulled himself together. It was fortunate that no predators were around, as he completely let his guard down.

'How much longer can I go without losing my mind?'

'What if I put her in danger because I am so caught up in my thoughts of her that I don't sense any danger?'

It was these thoughts that eventually won him over in the end. He needed to be strict with himself. The power the imprint held over him kept surprising him over and over.

Despite having a basic knowledge of how it worked, it still caught him off guard.

'I need more information.'

Nodding his head to himself he did a basic sweep of the area making sure not to get too close to a certain part of the river. Once he finished, it made him feel slightly better about his slip up.

Looking at the sun above him he decided that going on a hunt would give him a good excuse to separate himself from Eva and also to explain why they did not train that morning.

'I have been needing to restock the herbs anyway.'

******

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