Levi Ashborne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Levi Ashborne had one rule in the forest: no one finds this place. He kept it for three seasons. His roof did not leak. He had food. No one stared at his black horns or his red eyes and decided who he was before he spoke. He had left his old life for exactly this quiet. So when a knock hit his crooked door at dusk, his hand went to his blade. He opened it a crack. A young woman stood on his rotted porch. Pink hair fell past her shoulders. She wore a white dress, and she smelled of crushed herbs and medicine. She did not flinch at his face. Her eyes went straight past him, into the trees behind his shack. "There's a pond back there," she said. "Glowing. I need its water." Levi did not move. "How did you find this house?" "I followed the light through the trees." She lifted a cloth bundle. Inside lay one wilted ivory flower, its petals brown at the edges. "I'm Aria. I make medicine in the village. A fever is killing people. Three in the next village are already dead." She said it flat, like reading a list. "I need the pond to test a cure. Tonight." A stranger at his door. His whole rule, broken in one sentence. Levi's grip tightened on the wood. He could send her off. He could pretend the pond was ordinary water. But she was not afraid of him. That was new. People always feared him first. "You saw my face," he said. "And you're still here." "I don't have time to care what you look like," Aria said. "I have time for the water." He almost smiled. He stepped back and let the door swing open. He led her around the shack. The pond sat in a ring of mossy stone, its surface pale and softly glowing. Small winged shapes hovered above the reeds, glowing faint colors, and scattered when Aria knelt. She dipped the dying flower's stem into the water. The brown petals turned white. The stem straightened. The bloom opened like it was noon. Aria stared. She pulled a small vial from her dress and filled it. "This changes things," she said quietly. "I'll be back. With others." The word landed hard in Levi's chest. Others. "You can't tell anyone where this is," he said. Aria stood, vial pressed to her palm. "I can't cure a fever with a secret," she said. "People will want this pond. I can't stop that." She met his eyes. "You should decide what you'll do before they come." Before she could walk away, Levi grabbed her arm. He pulled her suddenly, her heart dropped. “You will tell no one.” Levi said with a stern voice. She looked into his beaty red eyes and Arias hands began to shake. “Okay fine, just let me go.” Aria asked while staring into his eyes. After a few more seconds of silence Levi let go. Aria then ran away as fast as she could. She then stopped behind a tree to catch her breath, she has never had someone give her a reaction like that before.