My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 222: The Last Wall

Violet

We followed the curve of the river for hours, the sun making its slow descent toward the horizon.

The landscape changed as we moved. The open grassland gave way to clusters of trees, and when I saw them, I stopped walking entirely.

They were enormous.

I had never seen such massive trees before.

The trunks were pale, almost silver in the fading light, and they climbed so high I wouldn’t be surprised if they reached the sky. But it was the branches that stole my breath. They cascaded downward from impossibly high, sweeping toward the ground in long, graceful curtains of slender green leaves. The tendrils swayed gently in the breeze, brushing against the grass like fingers trailing through water.

It looked like the trees were weeping or dancing.

I stood, momentarily transfixed. I had never seen anything like them.

I walked closer, reaching out to let the hanging leaves brush against my palm. They were soft, almost silky, and they moved around my hand like living things, parting and closing behind me as I stepped through.

"What kind of trees are these?" I asked, my voice hushed.

Rowan came up beside me, looking up at the towering canopy. "Oh, willows?" He smiled fondly. "My mother used to call them crying sisters."

I looked at him. "What?"

"She calls them that because they emit soothing weeping sounds..." He then looked around. "We can camp near here tonight. They usually grow nears multiple streams and rivers gathered in an area."

"Oh..." I returned my attention to the willow trees. They looked very pretty, and I was a little happy we would rest here for a bit.

We continued deeper into the grove, and the world grew softer around us. The light filtered through the cascading branches in tiny dappled patterns, casting everything in shades of green and gold. The air smelled of water and growing things, fresh and clean in a way that made my lungs ache with something close to happiness.

Then I saw the animals.

I stopped so abruptly that Rowan nearly walked into me.

They were small creatures, about the size of rabbits, with round bodies covered in soft pink fur. Their ears were small, tipped with white and they had long fuzzy tails. Their eyes were large, dark, and gentle.

They moved through the grass on delicate legs, nibbling at flowers, utterly unbothered by our presence.

Some were asleep, curled into soft balls and others pranced around lazily between the hanging curtains of leaves, disappearing. A few of the smaller ones, likely babies, tumbled over each other in the grass, making tiny chirping sounds that were almost like laughter.

One of them crept closer, its nose twitching, and looked up at me with those big dark eyes. It made a soft chirping sound, almost like a greeting.

"They’re docile," Rowan said quietly, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Though, while harmless, they tend to disturb a lot."

’I don’t think I would mind being disturbed by creatures this cute...’

I crouched down slowly, not wanting to scare it away. The creature tilted its head at me, then went back to nibbling at a nearby flower, apparently deciding I was not interesting enough to warrant further attention.

I watched it for a long moment, something warm unfurling in my chest.

This place felt like a dream. The weeping trees with their silver trunks and flowing green curtains. The dappled light filtering through like liquid gold. The soft pink creatures moving through the grass like scattered petals. After the darkness of the underground, after the tension and the running and the weight of everything, this felt like stepping into another world entirely.

Rowan had to gently pull me away, but I still stared at the little critters.

"You’ve not told me what they’re called," I said without looking at him.

He chuckled softly. "They’re sifs. And again, they can be very troublesome. We should get away before they start following us everywhere we go here."

We found a spot beneath one of the larger trees to pause and rest. The ground was surprisingly soft and made it a bit pleasant to sit on after spreading the fabrics we would be sleeping on. There was also a river close enough that I could hear its gentle murmur.

Rowan stood staring out into the distance. Now that we had stopped, I could see the exhaustion in the lines of his body. The escape from the underground had taken more out of him than he had let on, and as expected, using a skill like that consecutively for many wolves at a time had cost him.

Before settling down, he climbed one of the trees and to my shock, hidden within the hanging leaves up high were clusters and clusters of fruit nestled where several thicker branches met.

They were the size of his hand, had soft thin skin the colour of orange bleeding into pink. He plucked several and handed me some.

"They’re sweet," he said. "And a very good source of nutrition too."

Puzzled, I looked around. "I had no idea they had fruits. I see none on the ground."

Rowan had already bit into his own and a dazzling sweet smell trickled up my nose, causing my mouth to water.

He swallowed what was in his mouth. "It doesn’t drop when it ripens. The tree preserves it for a few weeks before it starts taking back the nutrients to make another batch." He glanced up. "The sifs usually eat it when they’re not eating grass."

When I bit into it, the flesh inside surprised me. It was the same sunset colour, but the texture was unlike any fruit I had tasted before. It was mushy, and almost melted against my tongue.

I was about to wipe it away when I felt his gaze.

Rowan was watching me. His eyes had dropped to my mouth, tracking the trail of juice sliding down my skin, and there was an intent, hungry look in his eyes that made me go still.

The syzygy flared without warning.

It surged through my chest like a wave of heat, pulsing outward, reaching toward him with an urgency that startled me. I had felt the magnetic pull and desperate ache to close the distance with Kael that magnetic pull, and it shocked me so much my face fell in front of Rowan.

Or was it starting to act this way because I had let down my guard?

My lips tingled and I looked away sharply, wiping the juice from my chin with the back of my hand. My fingers were trembling slightly.

"Sorry, I—" Rowan’s voice was quiet and rough at the edges. "I didn’t notice—" He stopped and sighed. "I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable."

I didn’t look at him.

"It’s fine," I managed.

Silence settled between us.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him turn away, returning his attention to his own fruit. He ate in silence, his jaw tight, and his gaze fixed somewhere in the distance.

The syzygy still hummed beneath my skin, restless and unsatisfied.

I took another bite of the fruit, barely tasting it this time.

I should return to keeping my guard up.

I could hold on for the next few days till we got to his territory.