Try and Catch Me - Chapter 90

He says – One of the guys (2)
“That’s why I’m going to leave tomorrow,” Lia said.

Lia just threw a curveball, yet there she was, sitting and poking at the fire as if she only stated a fact.

“What?” Eldric asked as he watched Lia with her raised eyebrows. They were exchanging news just now. How the topic came to her leaving their camp was beyond him.

“I’m going to part ways with you and head to the capital.”

“No,” was Eldric’s immediate reply. Shocked faces turned to his direction. He drew a long breath. “No, it would be dangerous.”

It was out of the question, really. He did not mean to cage her with them. Lia could decide for herself and Eldric wanted to respect her decision but it was not the best decision under the circumstances. Just the thought of seeing her as haggard as she was earlier felt like something was clawing at his insides.

“It would be more dangerous for you if I stay.” Lia insisted.

Sometimes she could be really stubborn.

“It would be more dangerous for you, you mean.”

“No– I mean, yes but it would be for you too just–” Lia sighed and hung her head, reluctantly giving up her protests.

Eldric could not even begin to fathom why she insisted on going alone, on leaving him. He had a feeling that ever since they met that she wanted to stay away from him. Why, he did not know. But he did not know a lot of things about her. She rarely talked about herself. Sometimes, Eldric wanted to crack her shield open, to know, to understand. But of course, he could not do that. It only meant that she did not trust him enough to open up. Eldric knew how difficult it was to trust in a very different world. She was used with a couple of people around her in a safe forest. In an unknown environment, everyone was suspicious. Lia had every right to be that. Eldric wished she would trust him a bit, to be the ally she needed in this foreign place.

“I might…. I might put you in danger if I stay with you. The Unseen is looking for me,” Lia stared at him, her last attempt at pleading.

Eldric considered for a moment. If there was something he learned during their short time together, that was Lia valued logic and facts. If he wanted to drive his point, he had to give her reasoning and not emotional appeal. “How about you put it this way, if you’re with us, you would be safe and we would be able to capture the Unseen if they go after you. How about that?” He did not add that he would have peace of mind that way too.

Lia raised an eyebrow, her eyes looked amused before she hid it by narrowing them, in which he found adorable. “I’ll be a bait?”

Eldric nodded.

She seemed to consider his words before the corners of her mouth raised and Eldric knew that she permitted it. “Fine.”

Eldric finally breathed when he heard of her answer. “For now sleep.”

He escorted Lia to his tent and received another raised eyebrow from her. “Don’t worry we have different beds.”

Once she was settled, Eldric left the tent to plan their next move with Tim. Tim raised his head from the map when he noticed Eldric enter the tent.

“Is she alright?” Tim asked to which Eldric nodded in reply. But the frown on his friend’s face did not clear. “Be honest with me, do you see that girl to Lia?”

Eldric knew full well who was that girl Tim meant. Without a doubt, it had to be Penelope, his first love. Tim was one of the handfuls of people from the capital who knew about her.

“If I’m going to be truly honest, yes. At first. But we both know how stubborn Lia can be. Not at all like Pen.”

Pen had a single-minded devotion to anyone who seemed to care for her. Perhaps it was because she was well-liked in their town before Unseen pillaged and burned everything. When she saw that Eldric ‘liked’ other people’s bodies, she called him a monster.

Lia had the kind of innocence that Eldric had the urge to protect. He wanted to shield her from the world’s ugliness. She did not want her to be robbed of her youth. But at sixteen or seventeen years old, she had experienced too much unkindliness. If Eldric could help preserve a little of that innocence, he would. By all means possible.