Howdy!

I can’t believe I almost forgot about this post. *blushes* I can blame it on day two of summer school and trying to write down all of the assignments blowing my way for the next seven weeks, right? And speaking of summer school, the weekly character stories will be put on hold for a while because of my upcoming schedule and trying to find a new story to share. I might even start writing a new one. Hopefully not. I have too many WIPs and short stories going at the moment and not enough time to devote to all of them.

I hope you enjoy the last post for Liam and Trey. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts you can find them all here!

~~~

But when Trey awoke, he saw it was almost mid-morning. Liam still sat by the entrance to the cave. He had dressed in his own clothes again and was cleaning and repairing his leather tunic, occasionally stirring the thick stew that simmered over the fire. He hadn’t slept all night, and had gone hunting and foraging with the dawn.

“What part of ‘wake me up’ did you not hear?” Trey asked him, sounding mildly angry.

“How’s your leg?” Liam asked in return.

“Better.”

“Good. The food will be done in a few minutes if you wanted to wash.”

Trey had managed to hold onto his own pack, and pulled new clothes from it. He shrugged out of his tunic and mail coat. Like Liam, he hadn’t taken them off in days. Pulling himself upright he found he could bear to put some weight on his injured leg, and limped slowly to the stream. After weeks of running and fighting, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be clean. When he made it back, Liam insisted on seeing his other wounds.

“You’re quite the mother aren’t you?” Trey said as Liam finished and handed him some food.

“That’s what they tell me,” Liam replied, the faintest of smiles on their faces. They both tore hungrily into the hot food, something almost regarded as a luxury after the past weeks. It was possibly the strangest breakfast Trey had ever had. Sitting in the forest, bare feet stretched in front of him. Liam had told him to leave his boots off to let his leg heal better.

The better part of the day was spent in silence as they both concentrated on the task of cleaning, oiling, and repairing their gear. For dinner, Liam brought in several fish from the lines he had set that morning. He surrendered them willingly to Trey to cook, settling back against the cave wall and wrapping the cloak taken from the Calorins around him. It was summer, but the nights were always cool in the forest.

“So you know where I’m from,” Trey broke the silence. “What about you?”

“I was born in a small village not far from the forest,” Liam said. “I didn’t have much of a family there, so when I got to Lynwood, they became my family.”

“Why’d you choose Lynwood?”

“My grandfather served there. He was the Second Lieutenant too. I can barely remember him telling me stories about the Keep, but they’re what made my decision.”

“What about your father?” Trey couldn’t help but ask.

“He died in a hunting accident when I was four.”

“Sorry,” Trey said. Liam shrugged. It was so long ago, he barely remembered. They ate in silence again. Then Trey spoke.

“I’m taking watch, and I’m a First Lieutenant, so you can’t argue with me,” he said. Liam almost smiled.

“Fine…sir,” he replied. The ghost of a smile passed over Trey’s face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wake you up later,” he said. Liam hadn’t slept in almost four days, and he succumbed to the exhaustion as soon as he lay down. Trey did have to wake him up, but not to take watch.

He heard his name called, and jerked out of a nightmare. For a moment he thought he was still there, the dream had been so real.

“Liam! Easy! What happened?” Trey asked concernedly. He helped Liam sit up.

“I just can’t forget him killing Ianto,” Liam said.

“The other Lieutenant?” Trey guessed.

“We grew up together so we were close,” Liam said. “He shouldn’t have died like that.”

“Maybe you’ll get a chance to avenge him,” Trey said.

“When? When could I possibly have a chance like that?” Liam shouted. “The Calorins have completely taken over! What do we do now? We’ve both lost everything, so what chance do we have?” he said hopelessly. He tried in vain to stop the tears, but his body refused. He dimly felt Trey hold him until they subsided.

“Sorry,” he said, wiping away the traces.

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Trey replied, and Liam saw that his own eyes were bright with tears.

“What now?” Liam asked again.

“We do the best we can out here,” Trey said. “Maybe we aren’t the only ones who survived. If there are others, we can band together. I’m not dying out here in this forest until I give the Calorins absolute hell.”

Liam saw the cold determination in Trey’s eyes and felt fresh resolve of his own. They had lived when so many others hadn’t. They could find a way to make the Calorins pay, some way or another.

~~~

I hope you’ve enjoyed these Wednesday Character Stories and getting to know a character from my books. As I mentioned before, they will return eventually but probably not before mid-July. If you’ve read the Rise of Aredor series, tell me who you’d like to see a story for next, or you can suggest any other character from stories of mine that you’ve encountered on this blog!