'A Perfect Exile': Nera & Arian's Pivotal Journey

We were born in the time of The Wars, as they were called. My mother was a simple woman who knew how to love and how to heal; my father was an incredible warrior who fought in the name of King James, and with the blessing of God. It’s after midnight when I am awoken by scraping at the window. I hear a rustling behind me, and open my eyes to look over my shoulder. Arian is still sleeping; he has been unable to sleep well since we left our family behind. I slide out of bed and approach the window, not surprised to see Nera there. She is always sneaking into his room at night, drawing pictures on his skin with her knife or whispering in his ear. I can’t make out what she’s saying but it must be important if she’s waking him up this early in the morning.

I walk to the door and carefully step across the floorboards so as not to wake anyone else in our makeshift home. The wind beats against the outside walls, whistling like a thousand banshees amidst the trees nearby. I crack open the front door just enough for Nera to slip inside, and follow her back towards Arian’s room. She sits down on the floor next to his bed and runs her fingers through his dark hair lovingly, murmuring some sweet words I can’t make out again. Her touch makes me think of my own mother. I place a hand on her shoulder, feeling my heart ache for my family even more than usual tonight. Nera turns and looks up at me with those big green eyes before standing up from the floor and stepping away from Arian’s bedside. We spend what feels like hours trying to decipher what tomorrow will bring us, but eventually we fall asleep on that cold wooden floor together.

When morning sun peeks through our holes in the roof, we both wake up at once and stare at each other as though we had never seen one another before. Arian steps out of bed then begins pulling on his armor pieces while Nera watches silently from across the room. When he finishes dressing himself he stands there staring at us blankly while opening and closing his mouth slightly as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. Finally he says “I have to go now” very quietly before turning around and walking out of our little hovel without another word or glance back at us.

Nera rushes over to me once he disappears outside and wraps her arms around me tightly before burying her face into my chest as she begins sobbing uncontrollably. It breaks my heart every time she does this, but I don’t know what else to do besides hold her tightly until she stops crying; which is usually after quite a long time has passed when she gets upset about something this serious. That is why it surprises me when she suddenly pulls away from me after just a few minutes and wipes her tears away with her sleeve before looking at me intently with those big green eyes again; searching deep within them for answers to questions she hasn’t yet asked aloud herself yet.

After a moment she takes a deep breath then says “We need to get going now or we won’t make it far enough away from here before they catch us!” Before dropping her knife onto the ground near my feet, then throwing open all four windows before rushing outside onto our tiny balcony attached to one side of our hut so that she can climb down onto a tree branch below us after tying off a long piece of rope that hangs down from one side of our house on several nails hammered into the wall over twenty years ago by someone who no longer lives here with us anymore. She tosses down two bags filled with food and water supplies then shimmies back up onto our balcony once again so that we can climb down together using that rope once it becomes clear that both of us are perfectly capable of doing so ourselves without needing any help whatsoever from each other; even though neither of us have ever done this sort of thing before today because it never really seemed necessary until now when we need to get ourselves halfway across Scotland undetected by those who would do us harm otherwise; only Arian isn't here anymore so there's really no choice except for Nera and I will be doing this alone together because otherwise we'll be captured for sure rather quickly; besides which Nera is too short for me to reach down far enough to grab onto if I tossed down just one end of that rope instead of looping both ends together as she did when tying them off onto those nails in our wall earlier this morning while I slept next to her...