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Description
A few weeks passed, and I felt like I just got out of a storm. The house was calm, not exactly serene, but unlike a few weeks ago, I felt strangely peaceful. Morigan was always supportive towards me and her brother; she was glad Loëcë had told me the truth about Gabriel. And I was glad too, even if I hadn’t slept a lot for at least five or six nights after that conversation. I felt a mix of sadness, sorrow, tiredness, and loneliness. I missed my family, my home, even if the Sullivan’s house was beginning to feel like a secondary home.
I called my mother two days after Loëcë’s revelations. She was glad to hear me, but her smile faded out of her voice when our conversation finally drifted to my brother. I was still clearly reproachful towards her; she never talked about Gabriel, she hid his sheer existence from me all these years.

“I wanted to tell you”, she breathed. “But your father… He absolutely wanted to protect you from that.”

“Protect me from what?” I snapped. “From the memories of having siblings? Am I not good enough to honor Gabriel’s memories?”

“Of course sweetie, that’s not the point! He didn’t want you to know about… the circumstances.”

“Mom,” I said firmly, “Loëcë didn’t do anything on purpose. It was an accident.”

“I know Devy, I know... I wouldn’t have sent you there if I wasn’t sure of that.”

I pursed my lips. I could feel she had trouble even saying his name, and not only because it was exotic and weird sounding for humans… She seemed to be rather scared or disgusted by Loëcë. I could hear it in her voice every time we talked about him.

“Sooo,” I said, changing topic, “Dad doesn’t know where I am yet?”

“No, and I hope he will never find out. You know, the situation got worse after you left…”

“I can guess that.”

“He won’t stop tal… hum, arguing about Gabriel, and why I sent you away from us… He thinks everything is my fault.”

“Don’t think that way Mom. That’s not true.”

I was beginning to blame my father for my mother’s distress, and I hated that. Couldn’t he just stop dwelling on the past and look at our future? Unless he knew something deeper I wasn’t aware of. That was more than possible.

Anyway, we ended up hanging off the phone on kind and reassuring words, after almost an hour. This conversation had enlightened my mood; my mother’s voice was soothing to me. It was soothing to a lot of people; the way she talked, her benevolent smile, her natural kindness…

She was definitely the opposite of my giant, grumpy host and neighbor –since his room was right next to mine. However, Loëcë was also a remedy against my loneliness. He was not the angel my mother was, he didn’t bother to smile when he had no particular reason (me tripping over a blanket fold on his bed was a legitimate reason), but he was still here, even if he’d been silent for two or three days after he talked to me in the cave. I hadn’t looked for his company during these days, to respect both our needs to be left alone.
Progressively, we’d begun to talk to each other again. And he was different. Different from the first day I craned my neck to look at him in the eye from the kitchen table. Different from the boy who treated me like an intruder. He was still Loëcë, with all his sarcastic and cynical words, but it was like I’d met him from a different angle.

One chilly and misty morning, we ate our breakfast together in the kitchen. I wasn’t sitting at my table as usual, but cross-legged, a few feet away from Loëcë.

“You were right,” I said, taking a sip in my warm bowl.

“About what?” the young giant asked after swallowing. “I’m right about a lot of things, so be more precise.”

“At least you have a sense of humor,” I said flatly. “But I was talking about the vanilla flavored coffee.” I gestured towards my bowl. “It’s heaven.”

“See? Told you,” he smiled and took a sip of his own bowl. And his smile was actually a true smile, not a smirk. It was surprising how someone so basically unfriendly could look so nice. I mean, kind. Well, nice too… He was certainly not ugly to look at. ANYWAY. What am I even thinking?

“It’s not gonna rain today, I think,” Loëcë said, drawing me out of my thought. “Besides, it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen Orsail.”

The idea of seeing the human side of Bergia, even from afar, seemed so appealing to me. I just had to nod several times like an enthusiastic child.

“I agree! Maybe we could go to the bridge?”

His taunting smirk suddenly came back and his blue eyes glinted. “Hey, who said you were coming?”

I gave him a flat look. Bastard. "If you're still wondering why you have no friends, you can stop looking for an answer."

He chuckled, his deep tone sending vibrations through my entire body. He never laughed hard, he just chuckled or snickered behind my back (I hated that when it happened) instead of actually laughing with me, but it was a warm, pleasing sound.

“Fine, I’m inviting you. Is that okay?”

I shrugged and smiled a little. “Well, I guess,” I mumbled and turned around to face him. “Hey, how much more for a shoulder ride?”

Loëcë blinked with confusion. “What?”

I pointed toward his neck. “I don’t like cold hands. If you say no, then I’m not coming.”

He looked at me for a moment, then sighed and stood up. “Fine, then who am I to say no?”

We quickly finished our coffee and toasts, then grabbed our coats and scarves. I climbed in his hand when he lent it to me, but he didn’t lift me up to his shoulder right away.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure I want to keep warm in your scarf, yeah. Problem?”

“Just don’t fall.”

“Just don’t run.”

“I’m not stupid.”

I smiled and opened my mouth to contradict him, but he immediately lifted his hand, making me shut up before I could even talk.

“Hold on and shut up,” the giant said as I left his palm to settle on his shoulder, between the folds of his black scarf. “And if we meet someone, just hide.”

“Why?”

For a short moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but he did. “I’m not supposed to have any form of contact with humans. It’s… forbidden.”

I frowned. “Because of what happened when we were kids?”

He nodded, and I just decided to stop talking about it. “Don’t worry, nobody will notice such a small detail as me.”

I saw the corner of his mouth stretch in a playful smirk. “Don’t belittle yourself, you’re not a detail. In fact, you take quite a bit of room for someone your size. An entire room actually. And you’re heavier than you look.”

I smacked his cheek. “Bastard. And it’s not my fault if you don’t have any human scaled bedroom.”

He crossed the living room and opened the front door; the icy, morning air hit my warm skin, and I pulled up my scarf over my chin.

“Do you like sleeping in there?” Loëcë asked as he began walking in the alley toward the gate. “Doesn’t it look vast, empty?”

“I have plenty of room for myself, that’s nice”, I said, quickly getting used to his calm, peaceful walking cycle. “But it does feel a little empty and… too vast sometimes.”

The giant hummed thoughtfully. I looked at him from the corner of my eye; his skin was clear, almost pale, but maybe the blackness of his hair made it look paler than it actually was. His strands were swaying softly around his face, and from his left shoulder, I could see his clear blue eye. I was so close I could see all the shades in that stunning icy color; sky and pale blue, even some greys…

“I could try making a bed your size,” he said, drawing me out of my thoughts, “if you want to sleep elsewhere, you can just say so.”

I smiled. “Don’t bother, I already have more than I expected before.”

“What do you mean? You thought we were going to make you sleep in the basement or something?”

“Well no, but I didn’t expect to feel h… hum, to feel so comfortable here.”

Loëcë opened the gate a little, then squeezed though the opening and closed it behind us. He began walking through the green meadow surrounding the house, heading toward the woods. “Well, I’m glad I made you feel part of the family,” he mused.

I gave him a flat look. “You’re kidding right? Pff, of course you are… You were the exact reason why I couldn’t feel welcome in the house.”

The giant smiled. “Are you still feeling this way?”

“No. You’ve made some progress, you know. I noticed.”

He smiled. “Good.”

The house disappeared behind the trees after a few minutes. Loëcë was walking peacefully through the forest, but I could still spot the road between the trunks from time to time. There was no vehicle; I supposed Gordon’s old car had been the last one to go that far on the giants’ territory. I remembered how lost and apprehensive I’d been that day.
Wrapped in Loëcë’s scarf, I was watching the strange landscape, made of dark browns and sinister greens. It was beautiful. From time to time, my eyes flickered toward the giant; he seemed more peaceful than ever, a cloud of white mist appearing and vanishing into the air as his warm breath met the cold.

About half an hour later, we arrived near Orsail; the river was so wide that I could barely see the other side. It was only a thin line on the horizon, above the dark waters. It could’ve been a peaceful view, if not for the car horns concert coming from the bridge, only one or two miles north.

“That’s strange,” I said thoughtfully. “The bridge is never congested…”

The giant was standing still; he was gazing toward the vast construction, as if he could see something I couldn’t.

“Oh my god,” he breathed. “Hold on.”

I opened my mouth to ask a simple question, but I only cried out in surprise when he rushed forward; he was not running fast, but I still had to tightly grab his scarf to stay on his shoulder.

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” I exclaimed angrily.

“Look at the bridge, about a hundred feet away from the bank.”

The closer we got, the clearer the situation was; despite Loëcë’s movements, I could hear dozens of sirens, I could see blue and red lights flashing on a part of Orsail Bridge. The center of all that mess was a car, hanging seventy feet above the water. The vehicle had left the road after an accident of some sort, and only a few metallic cables were preventing a deadly fall.

Once he reached the bridge, Loëcë stopped, standing on the bank and watching the trapped car from where he was. Slightly out of breath, I looked up at the bridge, still holding tightly on the scarf. The fire soldiers were trying to find a way to get the driver and the passengers out before the car fell into the water. I was no specialist, but the way the vehicle was hanging in the wind, only held by a few cables, was even more frightening than a giant rushing forward while you’re sitting on his shoulder.

“They won’t make it!” I panicked. “Loëcë, do something!”

The giant looked at me from the corner of his eye; I could see he was shocked and afraid, and he didn’t know whether or not he was going to step in.

“What do you want me to do? Even if I tried to grab it, I couldn’t, it’s too high. And I definitely can’t go on the bridge.”

“Just wait under the cables!”

His mouth twitched. “I can’t catch it in the air! It will just disintegrate between my hands!”

“Please, Loëcë! They're going to die!”

He closed his eyes and stubbornly shook his head. He didn’t seem like he was refusing, but he was apparently trying to make a decision.
He made it sooner than expected. A loud crack made my heart jump in my chest; a broken cable flew into the air and fell into the water. The car began to slide down as well.

“Shit!” The giant spat.

Fortunately, I still hadn’t let go of his scarf when he rushed forward again, stepping into the cold water. He progressed as fast as he could, but he already had water up to his waist. I looked up; the bridge was higher than I remembered, Loëcë could’ve barely touched it with his fingertips if he’d reached up. But he could catch the car before the river swallowed it. I could even hear and see a helicopter flying in circle around the young giant.

I couldn’t hold back a scream when the tangled cables suddenly let the vehicle fall.
I saw his hand shot up just in time to catch the car from above. His arm briefly followed his targets’ weight downwards, breaking the fall progressively. Despite the obvious precautions the giant took, his grip slightly crushed the metallic frame; I heard several voice screaming from inside the car, and also on the bridge, where people were haunched over the edge, directly looking at the giant. A lot of "ohmygod-ish" frightened and shocked exclamations reached my ears.
Still holding the car, Loëcë turned around and walked back toward the bank.

“We have to go now,” he breathed. “I can’t stay here.”

“Set down the car on the road and let’s disappear.”

Loëcë nodded; he carefully set down his burden on the road, at the end of the bridge. Several emergency vehicles were already rushing toward us. I hoped the damaged car’s passengers were going to be fine…
Soaking wet, the giant turned around and rushed toward the forest; I was still holding tightly for dear life, but I dared to throw a glance behind us. The helicopter was following Loëcë, and my eyes widened when I recognized the white and blue painted shell. It was a TV station vehicle, probably flying with a bigass camera aboard.

“We’re so screwed!” I shouted to the sky.

Description
A few weeks passed, and I felt like I just got out of a storm. The house was calm, not exactly serene, but unlike a few weeks ago, I felt strangely peaceful. Morigan was always supportive towards me and her brother; she was glad Loëcë had told me the truth about Gabriel. And I was glad too, even if I hadn’t slept a lot for at least five or six nights after that conversation. I felt a mix of sadness, sorrow, tiredness, and loneliness. I missed my family, my home, even if the Sullivan’s house was beginning to feel like a secondary home.
I called my mother two days after Loëcë’s revelations. She was glad to hear me, but her smile faded out of her voice when our conversation finally drifted to my brother. I was still clearly reproachful towards her; she never talked about Gabriel, she hid his sheer existence from me all these years.

“I wanted to tell you”, she breathed. “But your father… He absolutely wanted to protect you from that.”

“Protect me from what?” I snapped. “From the memories of having siblings? Am I not good enough to honor Gabriel’s memories?”

“Of course sweetie, that’s not the point! He didn’t want you to know about… the circumstances.”

“Mom,” I said firmly, “Loëcë didn’t do anything on purpose. It was an accident.”

“I know Devy, I know... I wouldn’t have sent you there if I wasn’t sure of that.”

I pursed my lips. I could feel she had trouble even saying his name, and not only because it was exotic and weird sounding for humans… She seemed to be rather scared or disgusted by Loëcë. I could hear it in her voice every time we talked about him.

“Sooo,” I said, changing topic, “Dad doesn’t know where I am yet?”

“No, and I hope he will never find out. You know, the situation got worse after you left…”

“I can guess that.”

“He won’t stop tal… hum, arguing about Gabriel, and why I sent you away from us… He thinks everything is my fault.”

“Don’t think that way Mom. That’s not true.”

I was beginning to blame my father for my mother’s distress, and I hated that. Couldn’t he just stop dwelling on the past and look at our future? Unless he knew something deeper I wasn’t aware of. That was more than possible.

Anyway, we ended up hanging off the phone on kind and reassuring words, after almost an hour. This conversation had enlightened my mood; my mother’s voice was soothing to me. It was soothing to a lot of people; the way she talked, her benevolent smile, her natural kindness…

She was definitely the opposite of my giant, grumpy host and neighbor –since his room was right next to mine. However, Loëcë was also a remedy against my loneliness. He was not the angel my mother was, he didn’t bother to smile when he had no particular reason (me tripping over a blanket fold on his bed was a legitimate reason), but he was still here, even if he’d been silent for two or three days after he talked to me in the cave. I hadn’t looked for his company during these days, to respect both our needs to be left alone.
Progressively, we’d begun to talk to each other again. And he was different. Different from the first day I craned my neck to look at him in the eye from the kitchen table. Different from the boy who treated me like an intruder. He was still Loëcë, with all his sarcastic and cynical words, but it was like I’d met him from a different angle.

One chilly and misty morning, we ate our breakfast together in the kitchen. I wasn’t sitting at my table as usual, but cross-legged, a few feet away from Loëcë.

“You were right,” I said, taking a sip in my warm bowl.

“About what?” the young giant asked after swallowing. “I’m right about a lot of things, so be more precise.”

“At least you have a sense of humor,” I said flatly. “But I was talking about the vanilla flavored coffee.” I gestured towards my bowl. “It’s heaven.”

“See? Told you,” he smiled and took a sip of his own bowl. And his smile was actually a true smile, not a smirk. It was surprising how someone so basically unfriendly could look so nice. I mean, kind. Well, nice too… He was certainly not ugly to look at. ANYWAY. What am I even thinking?

“It’s not gonna rain today, I think,” Loëcë said, drawing me out of my thought. “Besides, it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen Orsail.”

The idea of seeing the human side of Bergia, even from afar, seemed so appealing to me. I just had to nod several times like an enthusiastic child.

“I agree! Maybe we could go to the bridge?”

His taunting smirk suddenly came back and his blue eyes glinted. “Hey, who said you were coming?”

I gave him a flat look. Bastard. "If you're still wondering why you have no friends, you can stop looking for an answer."

He chuckled, his deep tone sending vibrations through my entire body. He never laughed hard, he just chuckled or snickered behind my back (I hated that when it happened) instead of actually laughing with me, but it was a warm, pleasing sound.

“Fine, I’m inviting you. Is that okay?”

I shrugged and smiled a little. “Well, I guess,” I mumbled and turned around to face him. “Hey, how much more for a shoulder ride?”

Loëcë blinked with confusion. “What?”

I pointed toward his neck. “I don’t like cold hands. If you say no, then I’m not coming.”

He looked at me for a moment, then sighed and stood up. “Fine, then who am I to say no?”

We quickly finished our coffee and toasts, then grabbed our coats and scarves. I climbed in his hand when he lent it to me, but he didn’t lift me up to his shoulder right away.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure I want to keep warm in your scarf, yeah. Problem?”

“Just don’t fall.”

“Just don’t run.”

“I’m not stupid.”

I smiled and opened my mouth to contradict him, but he immediately lifted his hand, making me shut up before I could even talk.

“Hold on and shut up,” the giant said as I left his palm to settle on his shoulder, between the folds of his black scarf. “And if we meet someone, just hide.”

“Why?”

For a short moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but he did. “I’m not supposed to have any form of contact with humans. It’s… forbidden.”

I frowned. “Because of what happened when we were kids?”

He nodded, and I just decided to stop talking about it. “Don’t worry, nobody will notice such a small detail as me.”

I saw the corner of his mouth stretch in a playful smirk. “Don’t belittle yourself, you’re not a detail. In fact, you take quite a bit of room for someone your size. An entire room actually. And you’re heavier than you look.”

I smacked his cheek. “Bastard. And it’s not my fault if you don’t have any human scaled bedroom.”

He crossed the living room and opened the front door; the icy, morning air hit my warm skin, and I pulled up my scarf over my chin.

“Do you like sleeping in there?” Loëcë asked as he began walking in the alley toward the gate. “Doesn’t it look vast, empty?”

“I have plenty of room for myself, that’s nice”, I said, quickly getting used to his calm, peaceful walking cycle. “But it does feel a little empty and… too vast sometimes.”

The giant hummed thoughtfully. I looked at him from the corner of my eye; his skin was clear, almost pale, but maybe the blackness of his hair made it look paler than it actually was. His strands were swaying softly around his face, and from his left shoulder, I could see his clear blue eye. I was so close I could see all the shades in that stunning icy color; sky and pale blue, even some greys…

“I could try making a bed your size,” he said, drawing me out of my thoughts, “if you want to sleep elsewhere, you can just say so.”

I smiled. “Don’t bother, I already have more than I expected before.”

“What do you mean? You thought we were going to make you sleep in the basement or something?”

“Well no, but I didn’t expect to feel h… hum, to feel so comfortable here.”

Loëcë opened the gate a little, then squeezed though the opening and closed it behind us. He began walking through the green meadow surrounding the house, heading toward the woods. “Well, I’m glad I made you feel part of the family,” he mused.

I gave him a flat look. “You’re kidding right? Pff, of course you are… You were the exact reason why I couldn’t feel welcome in the house.”

The giant smiled. “Are you still feeling this way?”

“No. You’ve made some progress, you know. I noticed.”

He smiled. “Good.”

The house disappeared behind the trees after a few minutes. Loëcë was walking peacefully through the forest, but I could still spot the road between the trunks from time to time. There was no vehicle; I supposed Gordon’s old car had been the last one to go that far on the giants’ territory. I remembered how lost and apprehensive I’d been that day.
Wrapped in Loëcë’s scarf, I was watching the strange landscape, made of dark browns and sinister greens. It was beautiful. From time to time, my eyes flickered toward the giant; he seemed more peaceful than ever, a cloud of white mist appearing and vanishing into the air as his warm breath met the cold.

About half an hour later, we arrived near Orsail; the river was so wide that I could barely see the other side. It was only a thin line on the horizon, above the dark waters. It could’ve been a peaceful view, if not for the car horns concert coming from the bridge, only one or two miles north.

“That’s strange,” I said thoughtfully. “The bridge is never congested…”

The giant was standing still; he was gazing toward the vast construction, as if he could see something I couldn’t.

“Oh my god,” he breathed. “Hold on.”

I opened my mouth to ask a simple question, but I only cried out in surprise when he rushed forward; he was not running fast, but I still had to tightly grab his scarf to stay on his shoulder.

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” I exclaimed angrily.

“Look at the bridge, about a hundred feet away from the bank.”

The closer we got, the clearer the situation was; despite Loëcë’s movements, I could hear dozens of sirens, I could see blue and red lights flashing on a part of Orsail Bridge. The center of all that mess was a car, hanging seventy feet above the water. The vehicle had left the road after an accident of some sort, and only a few metallic cables were preventing a deadly fall.

Once he reached the bridge, Loëcë stopped, standing on the bank and watching the trapped car from where he was. Slightly out of breath, I looked up at the bridge, still holding tightly on the scarf. The fire soldiers were trying to find a way to get the driver and the passengers out before the car fell into the water. I was no specialist, but the way the vehicle was hanging in the wind, only held by a few cables, was even more frightening than a giant rushing forward while you’re sitting on his shoulder.

“They won’t make it!” I panicked. “Loëcë, do something!”

The giant looked at me from the corner of his eye; I could see he was shocked and afraid, and he didn’t know whether or not he was going to step in.

“What do you want me to do? Even if I tried to grab it, I couldn’t, it’s too high. And I definitely can’t go on the bridge.”

“Just wait under the cables!”

His mouth twitched. “I can’t catch it in the air! It will just disintegrate between my hands!”

“Please, Loëcë! They're going to die!”

He closed his eyes and stubbornly shook his head. He didn’t seem like he was refusing, but he was apparently trying to make a decision.
He made it sooner than expected. A loud crack made my heart jump in my chest; a broken cable flew into the air and fell into the water. The car began to slide down as well.

“Shit!” The giant spat.

Fortunately, I still hadn’t let go of his scarf when he rushed forward again, stepping into the cold water. He progressed as fast as he could, but he already had water up to his waist. I looked up; the bridge was higher than I remembered, Loëcë could’ve barely touched it with his fingertips if he’d reached up. But he could catch the car before the river swallowed it. I could even hear and see a helicopter flying in circle around the young giant.

I couldn’t hold back a scream when the tangled cables suddenly let the vehicle fall.
I saw his hand shot up just in time to catch the car from above. His arm briefly followed his targets’ weight downwards, breaking the fall progressively. Despite the obvious precautions the giant took, his grip slightly crushed the metallic frame; I heard several voice screaming from inside the car, and also on the bridge, where people were haunched over the edge, directly looking at the giant. A lot of "ohmygod-ish" frightened and shocked exclamations reached my ears.
Still holding the car, Loëcë turned around and walked back toward the bank.

“We have to go now,” he breathed. “I can’t stay here.”

“Set down the car on the road and let’s disappear.”

Loëcë nodded; he carefully set down his burden on the road, at the end of the bridge. Several emergency vehicles were already rushing toward us. I hoped the damaged car’s passengers were going to be fine…
Soaking wet, the giant turned around and rushed toward the forest; I was still holding tightly for dear life, but I dared to throw a glance behind us. The helicopter was following Loëcë, and my eyes widened when I recognized the white and blue painted shell. It was a TV station vehicle, probably flying with a bigass camera aboard.

“We’re so screwed!” I shouted to the sky.