She had meant every word she had spoken, and silently refused to let herself feel any sort of remorse for her words. It was easy for her to regret the things she said, felt, if they were judgmental of others. Even while her thoughts rang unfortunately true she could not help but second guess herself. Partly, it was due to how sudden her passing of judgment could be. She was reactionary, unthinking at times, and this made her wonder at the outcome of such quickness to blame. Though, she knew in this case that there was little she could have been wrong about. Ghanon's reaction had not refuted her analysis, rather it could have been interpreted to further solidify it. Lana had not been looking at him, however, and purposely garnered nothing from his body language. It was her intention to put distance between them. She had done him a favor in cleansing his wound, and had hoped to separate for yet more time until.... Well... Lana honestly could not know. What change could she expect from him? Certainly none.... So she would not have waited for change. Would it be a change in herself that she desired? Or maybe, simply a length of time to collect her thoughts, rejuvenate. But hadn't a month been time enough.... All she knew was, whatever relief she felt knowing she was away from him, it was relief none the less. It simply would be ridiculous to think that time with him, for innumerable reasons, would be profitable. The more she was with him, the more she desired to be closer to him, and it frightened her to know that so rapidly and so powerfully she had felt for him. What he would do with her vulnerability...... she couldn't imagine. She did know that it would not be sweet, or tender, or pure. Not entirely. And the knowledge that even this drew her in caused her to waver in his presence.
It was her consumption in these thoughts that caused her to start and lean forward in response to Ghanon's yelling, her hand reaching out to grasp the creature's feathers and pull backward to stop their ascent. Whatever had alerted him so moved his feet to flight and without warning he dashed across the grassland and disappeared into a collection of trees. Her eyes narrowed, her mouth shaped into a delicate 'o' as she strained to see his dark figure through the trees. There were yet more raised voices, but not only Ghanon's. For a moment, Lana considered ordering her creature to take flight. This was the perfect moment to seize of she truly wanted to part ways. There would be no need for a fumbling explanation, and no emotional struggle with saying goodbye. She would simply leave, and he would return and see that she had left him, think ill of her, and never know of her internal struggle with her feelings... and perhaps... they would never see each other again.
Lana faced forward, the angry voices still reverberating in her ears amidst her thoughts, and her fingers gripped the beast's feathers as she bit her lip in resolve. It was the only way. She had no other friends, especially no friends like him, but whether a relationship with him was positive or negative, she could not decide, and there was little certainty that he would in the next moment deserve her affection. Certainly, she would have to expend more energy in cultivating their friendship, energy she wasn't sure she had. To spare herself this frustration, she had the choice of simply leaping upward and away and never being tormented by this kind of uncertainty again.
But then, Ghanon spoke, and powerfully.... And it brought her attention back to the direction of the woods.
"What is the meaning of this? You're not going to kill your son. Not on this day."
His voice was distant, in the way a voice can seem so unworldly to a mind freshly awoken from its dreams. What he said... how passionately the words left him.... It struck her in her chest, and she felt the over sized pang that she had known the night that he sat at her feet, naked and open to her. It was indescribable other than it hurt and thrilled her all at once, and curiosity stopped her heart. Was he saving the boy? All was quiet for a moment, so that she could further listen....
But the more she listened, the more she realized she could not simply stand by and avoid knowing the situation first hand. She leapt from the creature and laid a hand against its cool form, further cooling it until it froze in the motion of grooming itself. Her footsteps were heavy and loud due to her boots as she bounded through the greenery toward where Ghanon remained, but it mattered little. This situation did not call for stealth.
Their figures came into view, and with wide eyed astonishment, her lips parted just so in quiet surprise, her hand reaching gently up to touch the side of a tree, she watched the older mortal suffer at Ghanon's will. But Lana knew it had been justified. This was the man who was to kill his son... He deserved no pity. And in response, Ghanon was livid. But his anger seemed to stem from a more familiar source than it appeared.
"Don't do something you know...you will never be able to take back. You have a grandson now...and he will come to know the man who took the life of his father. You want to love your son. Then love him. Or it is not his head that will be on the business end of that axe. It will be yours."
Lana remembered what Ghanon had told her about his past... It hadn't been much, she knew there was so much more to his story, but she thought that maybe this father and son were reflections of some kind of pain he had known himself. Her eyes glanced over at the young man, still quivering, as anyone would even in the presence of their savior, especially if that savior was as overwhelmingly intense as Ghanon. On instinct, she found herself wanting to free the boy while Ghanon dealt with the father, the poor young mortal still strapped to the stump, his chin now slightly bloodied from the roughness of the tree bark. But she knew better than to interfere, no matter how her heart went out to the child.
And it wasn't long before Ghanon had clearly made his point, and released the son, but not without a word.
"You are free now. Choose wisely, boy. I may not be here the next time your father decides it's a good idea to take your head as offering to godly things."
And the two ungrateful humans were soon gone in a flurry of running footsteps.
She wasn't sure if Ghanon knew of her presence behind him. She was privy to the quiver that shook his shoulders perhaps more violently than he realized. From her standpoint, she could not see his face, but the muscles of his body being taut, his neck forward, head down, gave her clues enough that he was not unmoved by all of this. And this, she realized, was why she wanted to know him so.... To be close to him. There was more than simple arrogance and illusion, at times, though not often enough. And maybe this was why she stepped forward, without thinking of her previous hesitancy, and knelt behind him, laying her warm palms against the back of his dirtied coat.
"You did a good thing." her voice was hushed.