The Scent of Lilac: An Arrow's Flight Novella Read Online Free PDF

obeyed.
                “We all
have our duties,” I whisper.
                Chad waits, eyes on me. There is no question he is significantly attached to me, but
whether this attachment is solely out of a dog’s loyalty is something I’ve
never been able to quite perceive in him.
                I pause,
contemplating this reality. I never intended to let a dog make me feel things.
That may have been Kate’s way, but not mine. What transpires in the Pit should
fall simply under duty, and as an obedient member of the clan, I perform my
duty as required. No emotions, no fuss. In and out.
                No
emotions.
                Chad understands this all too well, and I should take a lesson from it.
                With a
sigh, I close my eyes and lean into him. He takes his cue, habitually wrapping
his arms around me, and I listen to his heart thud against my cheek. Soon, duty
obediently steps in, and we are tangled on the mat, which is all we truly know
of each other.
                Until
recently, I always left immediately after, grateful to have the week’s task
behind me. And I wouldn’t give Chad a second thought for an entire seven days. But these days, his face slips into
my mind more often than not. As I scrub laundry in the creek, wash dishes,
gather vegetables. It shocked me at first, which is why it took weeks for me to
tell Kate that Chad was becoming more to me than just a dog. First, it was simply out of sheer
stubbornness that I said nothing. I never liked admitting when I was wrong,
especially to Kate, who always seemed to make the right choices, even when she
suffered for them.  
                Later, it
was more than stubbornness that kept me quiet. By then, I sensed Kate’s
ever-growing rebellion, felt a shift in her attitude with each word she
uttered—with every moment she spent in the Pit with that boy. Revealing more of
my changing frame of mind toward Chad would have only encouraged her.  
                I lie
next to Chad now, the lengths of our bare bodies pressed against each other in a glistening
sheen of sweat, and I wish I had said more. I wish I had told Kate of my
feelings for him. I sigh, and close my eyes until her face disappears. I shift
my position.
                “ Chad ?”          
                I whisper
his name into the darkness as if speaking too loudly may break a spell cast
over the earth. Outside, the sky has grown black, a twinkling blanket of stars
our only light.
                “Mia?” he
replies. His mouth is close to my head, and my name comes on a puff of air,
disturbing my hair. I smile.
                “Did I
tell you Kate is gone?”
                “They let
her leave the Village?” he asks.
                “No—” I break
off thinking. “Yes, I suppose they did. They didn’t stop her, at least.”
                “But...
where did she go? Where would she go?”
                “I don’t
know,” I admit. Another pause, and another sigh. “But she was my best friend.
Even after I brought trouble on her she—”
                My words
are cut short by the lump that suddenly swells up in the back of my throat, and
then a quiet sob erupts—breaking the lump free with one heavy sound.
                Chad shifts beside me, snaking an arm beneath my body to pull me more tightly
against him.
                “Don’t
cry.” His tone floods with true concern. “I don’t like it when you’re sad.”
                “I have
no one.” My whispered voice is wet. “Everyone has left me behind.”
                I do cry
then—thick and sloppy—wetting his chest. I thought my heart was finished with
its weeping, but it wasn’t. I hold nothing back, and Chad ’s
arms tighten around me, silently giving what I require as if he’s been trained