Eden Emerged by Seth Benjamin (fiction novels to read .txt) 📕

"Horus," Brie grinned, savoring the name. "Horus, I have so many questions to ask you! Who taught you English? What language do you speak normally?"

She found herself accustomed to his calm demeanor and the length of time in between his responses, but she found it hard to be patient. His face was frozen with a look that she couldn't quite place. He seemed concerned and always deep in thought but there was another emotion to his face that she couldn't put a finger on. 

"Brie," he said at last, seeming disappointed in the name. 

"Brie," she repeated again to him.

"You are weak," he said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Brie sputtered.

"You are a child," he continued. Brie opened her mouth to yell at him but Horus switched abruptly and spoke in a foreign tongue.

"Ralaka me  joukin shama"  He said, a phrase of obvious distaste.

"What does that mean?" Brie made to stand up and approach him, but Horus stepped back apruptly, keeping his distance from her. "Tell me what that means!" Brie repeated, raising her voice. 

Horus shook his head, mometarily betraying his countenance. He's disappointed in me for something, Brie realized. 

"You are not what was promised." Horus said.

Brie felt the color flush to her cheeks. She had done nothing wrong and her only friend in this world was quickly becoming annoyed with her. 

"I didn't do anything!" Brie screamed. Horus flinched and checked the opening to the cave, putting a worried finger to his lips. 

"You are simple." Horus said quickly. 

"Stop insulting me!" Brie stammered, "I am not simple." She kept her voice low and checked back toward the opening to their tiny hovel. "I am not simple." She repeated, clenching her fists. 

Horus touched the palm of his hand to his cheek and cradled it there for a brief moment, fixing his eyes straight ahead at the floor. He looked concerned and hesitant to even look in Brie's direction. She reached up absentmindedly to the bandage wrapped around her throat, but that was a big enough movement to draw Horus's attention. He didn't move a muscle, but Brie could tell by the look on his face that he didn't want her to remove the bandage, so she placed her hands restlessly back at her sides. 

"You speak an old language," he said at last and for the first time since Brie woke up, Horus really looked at her. He had been avoiding her gaze forever and upon seeing his face fully for the first time, Brie realized what the emotion was that she had been trying to place on his face the entire time. It was fear. He looked frightened, but of what Brie couldn't say. 

"An old language?" She asked him.

He nodded solemnly, "It is hard to explain. I don't speak the old language much."

She nodded and waited for him to elaborate. 

"There is a time in our history meaning The Coming and it is a very proud time for us. Tall and radiant creatures that we have always called Mori. The Mori told us that we should not be frightened of them. The stories tell us that they taught us the new ways."

"New ways?" Brie asked, but he didn't stop to elaborate. He fixed her with a short stare and the continued. 

"They spoke their own language." He paused and cocked his head at Brie, "English?" He stopped again to sample the word. "We call it Moril. It has become lost exactly how many of the Mori there were, but one of them wrote a diction for us so that we could learn Moril. It is an old group of papers and I have seen the words written myself." At this his eyes widened slightly before they lidded back over heavily. "It is a list of words, with a translation so that we could learn and our children could learn Moril and their children could learn Moril. So we have been taught, but over the eras, the pages have been lost and now only the heads of our people may learn and the rest of them are forced to learn what they can. We speak our own language, but some can still speak the old language."

Brie clutched her knees to her chest and leaned her head forward when he finished. "What happened to the Mori?"

"Gone." was all he managed to say. 

"How long ago?"

He shrugged. "It has been too long to tell. Many children have lived and died since then."

"Is there anyone living now who was alive when the Mori visited?" Brie asked him and she was surprised when he smiled for the first time since she met him. 

"No." he said and the smile disappeared quickly as it had appeared and she could tell from the look on his face that she had asked an absurd question. 

"A long time then?" She asked, looking for his confirmation and he nodded. He gazed down at her from the end of his nose across the hovel and spoke to her warily. "You speak an old language Brie."

And with that he stopped talking abruptly, folded his arms and glanced back at the entrance to their hovel. Brie's head was swimming. She could understand why he was upset because she shared in his confusion. Who were these Mori that visited these people so many years ago and why did they know English?

"What ever happened to the Mori?" she asked him.

"Vanished." He whispered, not bothering to look back at her.  

 "They just left?" Brie managed to sputter. His answer was an unsatisfying one for her. 

He shrugged, "I know that they left, but I don't know the manner of their leaving." He regarded her with a look that suggested an apology. "I admit that I do not know the story well."

He clutched at a stick in the dirt and drew a crude line on the cave floor in the dirt. "This spot is where I find you." He pointed. "This is where we are now," and setting the stick down once more he traced an x in the dirt. "This is my home and where we must go."

"Caleb!" Brie thought suddenly. She stuck a foot out and erased his crude map with a sweep of her foot. "I need to find my brother." She pressed, ashamed she had forgotten him momentarily. "He is all alone out there! I have you, but he has no one."

Horus shook his head stubbornly, "No. Meera must see you. She will know what to do. We leave for home tomorrow."

Brie folded her arms against her chest, "We will find my brother or I will leave you again."

"I must protect you," Horus said, almost whining. "I must bring you back home."

"If you insist on protecting me, then you have to go where I say and I demand that you lead me to my brother." She tried her best to look determined and unafraid. 

Horus frowned. "That is an unwise decision. He is with the Aegeli most likely."

"Aegeli?" Brie echoed. "Do you mean those men with wings?"

Horus didn't nod, but she could tell from his reaction that she was right. She fought to keep her lip from quivering and held her ground. "Well, that is where I'm going. Besides, you don't know for sure that they've found him. We will look for him until we are the ones to find him."

He thought about her proposal for a length of time, his expression never wavering. "Very well. We will look in the morning. We should sleep soon."

Brie nodded and shifted onto her side, clasping her hands together and using them for a makeshift pillow. Her eyes were closed only for a few moments. She opened them again when she realized that Horus had not shifted at all. He remained upright, close to the entrance of the hovel. 

"Won't you fall asleep?" she asked. 

"In time." he answered.

Suddenly, she felt guilty, realizing that she had been acting selfish since he had found her. "You haven't asked anything about me. Is there anything you want to know?"

He shook his head, ever vigilant on his watch. "I know all that I need to know."

Brie frowned. "Don't you want to know where I came from?"

"I know where you come from." He didn't sound nearly as sure though. 

"Where do I come from then?" she asked.

He broke his concentration on the entrance to the cave to focus on her face in the dimly lit hovel. With one finger, he pointed directly up into the air. "Where all Mori come from."

She sat upright suddenly realizing what the word Mori meant. "You think I'm a god? I'm no God."

If Horus was disappointed he didn't show it. He turned back to his hovel and simply stated, "You speak an old language."

Brie huffed and collapsed back into the dirt. The makeshift bandage was beginning to bother her again and she was growing tired of the itching. She reached up and clawed the bandage away. The noise attracted Horus's attention and he raised a hand to stop her from across the cave but it was too late. The bandage fell to the dirt and Brie reached hand up to feel the wounds on her neck. 

Horus gasped and inhaled sharply drawing Brie's attention. His face was truly fearful and it was the truest emotion he had shown from the first time he had met her. Her fingertips traced over rough skin, but not wet, deep, gashes like she had been expecting. Instead, her wounds were dry to the touch, like the left over remnants of a scab dissolving into a scar. Almost all traces of the gouges to her throat had vanished. 

She glanced back at Horus in disbelief, bringing her hands away from her throat. 

"Are you so sure of who you are." Horus asked her, never taking his eyes from her.

Brie could only shake her head and lay back in the dirt, tracing her fingers along her throat one last time before falling asleep. 

Test

By the time Brie woke up, Horus had already left the cave. When she stepped out to meet him, she found him with his back to a tree, his spear laid across his lap. He greeted her with a small nod and beckoned her forward with a wave of his hand. He looked tired, the deep pockets of his eyes looked heavier than normal. 

"Did you sleep?" She asked him.

"Yes," was all he replied, although Brie doubted that he had slept much at all. He was up quickly enough however and already strapping his modest backpack around his chest and back. He motioned to her. 

"If you are ready." he motioned toward her, "Then I would like to leave quickly."

So they left,