The Fortress in the Clouds

NAOMI COULD NOT understand why but she felt guilty. It stung her heart painfully, squeezing her lungs and restricting her from the much-needed oxygen. It was as though she was locked in a cage, trapped and kept away from the flight that could set her free.

“I am so sorry.” Immediately, without warning, her apology stumbled past her lips. Unfortunately, they were for the wrong person.

Argus shook his head, his hair lightly falling over his eyes before he casually combed them upward and away from his face. “It is not me that you should be apologizing to and it is not your fault. You did not know.”

“Yes, that is true, but I should have been able to guess that what happened to him was not natural. I should have been more sensitive to his feelings.”

“For all you could know, Rayner’s abilities could have been something he adored.” Shrugging, Argus tucked his hands into the pockets of his trousers, casually continuing in his steps. “And how could you have known?”

Naomi pursed her lips, allowing silence to be her answer. There was a part of her that wanted to shoulder all the blame, to berate herself for not being intuitive enough to guess that shifting into a wolf was something Rayner did not desire. Yet, there was another side of her that shrugged all of that off, reminding herself that there was no possible way for her to know because she had only just met the guy a few hours ago.

“How did it happen? Was it something he was born with?” Naomi asked instead, glancing at Argus with curious eyes.

She could see the hesitation that danced across Argus’s eyes. It was heavy and filled with pain, deepest memories flitting across from an iris to the other before both turned dark with sorrow.

“It was a long time ago, maybe five or so years after Rayner was born.” Argus started speaking slowly, as if immersing himself into the painful memory once again. “He was a curious child, a child that resembled our father. He had pale skin and pale hair, a blond that glistened and caught the rays of sunlight at dawn, then moonlight at night. He was crowned as the child of the sun, a child blessed to protect our fortress, just like our father did.”

When Argus paused, Naomi nodded at him, urging him to continue speaking. Once he noticed her subtle action, he sighed, shaking his head.

“I am the first born of my family, taking after my mother’s appearance. They deemed me as the ‘eye of the fortress’, the one that will look after our grounds to keep intruders out. Hence, I was granted the opportunity to leave the fortress whenever I deemed fit to scout the surrounding villages and towns.”

“That was how you met me.” Naomi filled in the blanks in her mind, concluding with certainty.

A small fleeting smile lit up on Argus’s face. “Yes,” he nodded, “that was how I met you in your village. I was scouting for possible threats, even at a young age. Rayner, on the other hand, was trained as a counselor. He was to stay in the fortress, to have the turrets of our haven protect him like an army protecting their king. Rayner is smart even as a child and the tutoring only made him more so. But with those smarts, he also has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge that made him far more curious than the average child.”

“What happened?”

“He left.”

Argus spoke those words as if he did not believe them, even though they were words from his own memories. He stared into thin air, eyes unwavering even as he blinked.

“He left the fortress one night under the full moon. I woke up to find him gone. When I finally located him an hour later in the forest, a woman had her hands wrapped around his neck, lifting him off the ground while chanting a mantra under her breath. To see my own younger brother at the mercy of a stranger is a sight I will never forget.”

They were somewhere along the edge of the fortress now, standing in a much quieter spot where hardly anyone walked by. The view was similar to the one where Naomi had drawn just mere hours ago. She could see the tops of other mountains, it ranges far beyond the horizon and grazing the skies with their snow-white tips. Every once in a while, a bird of prey would fly past, its war cry resonating into the blue sky.

“When she was done with him, she dropped him to the ground, gave me a sinister smile, before disappearing into the shadows. I never saw her again after that day. Rayner was unconscious for three days after that incident and when he woke up, we went to ask our mother who that woman was. She told us that the woman we met was a witch, an enemy of the fortress that had been kicked out for her crimes against our people. Hence, filled with rage, she seeks vengeance on the weak. Rayner’s lack of knowledge of the world beyond our walls made him weak. After that day, my brother was never the same again.”

“He became a wolf?”

Argus nodded.

“Only when he leaves the fortress. Once beyond our walls, he would shift unwillingly, bones cracking and reforming themselves into an animal’s. His blond hair changed to silver after he awoken from the coma, eyes a piercing neon green instead of soft moss-colored ones which he was born with. Instead of a child of the sun, he is now a child of the moon. On the nights where a full moon graces the heavens, he will shift even if he is in the fortress. Thankfully, he still has his human mind even in the form of an animal and is able to control his actions.”

“That is horrible,” Naomi murmured, unable to believe her ears. “Did you find that witch? Did anyone?”

“No. We do not leave the fortress for it protects us from evil like her. Our people fear what is beyond our utopia and refuse to go out to see the rest of the world we live in. I am the only one that hunts for this witch that ruined my brother’s life. Yet, so far, I have been unsuccessful.”

Gently, Naomi rested a hand on Argus’s. He had rested them on the stone railing, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. When their skins touched, a burst of electricity crackled through Naomi’s fingertips. Argus loosened his grip almost immediately, relaxing underneath her fingers.

“We will find her one day, Argus. Do not fret,” she promised with a smile.

Slowly, he turned his head to look at her. Naomi was glad to see that he wore a smile of his own, one that was small but enough to light up his features like a thousand fireflies. It made her heart flutter, as if they danced in it, brightening it with their own sort of starlight and making the heavens at night seem so lonely just because all of the stars had left it to be with her.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

It might have been short and breathy, but Naomi heard it nonetheless. That was all she needed.