Zachan and I arrived together at the feast celebration that night. Commonly we would part then, I would wonder to the jeweler's table and my husband to his fellow warriors. But tonight Zachan lightly grasped my elbow and led me to a table. Curious eyes watched us as we seated our selves on the plush floor cushions, Zachan sitting on my left. Even Seanne, situated in front of me gave me confused eyes, yet looking down to her lips they form into a smirk. It took everything I had not to comment on it.

It was a fun night, full of laughter and dancing. When it was over Zachan and I went back to our tent, only remarking on the evening we had. When getting into bed we gave hesitant smiles and lay back to back to one another before falling asleep. It was like most nights we had been having weeks before.

Yet the kiss that we had not discussed still loomed over our heads.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of Zachan clinking clay cups and plates in the next room over. The early rising sun sent a faint shadow of his sitting figure through the fabric. Lying on my side I watched this shadow, and somehow it was calming. He was not as taught or rigid today, I could tell by his slightly hunched back. It was strange to think this was his morning routine. Get up, get dressed, eat and then...

I had no idea what he did in his day. On occasion I would see him on the farm, or mostly he would spend his days training with fellow warriors or hunting. But other times he disappeared, as if vanishing from this world and travelling to the next. I knew there was no hunting party this morning, as last night I overheard their conversations and they decided that they would be waiting until evening.

Still watching him, an idea sprang to mind before I could really think it through.

I lay still, waiting. And when I saw Zachan move, leaving the tent I made sure he had exited before I sprang up from the bed. I quickly shoved my boots on, not caring I was still in my dark navy nightdress, and crawled through the flap in the corner of the tent.

I was instantly regretting not picking up a fur to wrap around my shoulders, as the morning air was colder then expected. But I ignored this and crept around the back. Around the corner I saw him walking in the direction of the eastern border of the haven, through the tents with people who have not risen yet.

Still in the forest I make my way behind them, trying to be as quiet as possible. Creeping behind homes I kept an eye on where Zachan was going, watching him through the narrow passages between.

As he was approaching the end of the haven, about two tents before the edge he vanishes. I stop, wandering if my mind is playing tricks on me. Walking again I plan to reach the last tent, and see if I can spot where he has gone from there.

"Are you lost, Aleenia?"

I squeal out in surprise, my heart jolting as if being squeezed in side my chest. My hand flies to my mouth, scared I might have awoke the people in the tent beside me. Spinning around I find the person I was looking for seconds ago. Zachan seems amused, a light smirk gracing his lips as he looks down at me. He raises his eyebrows as if waiting for an explanation, yet I could not speak as I was recovering from my recent scare.

"At first I thought you were my shadow." He says, playfully." Yet I soon realized my shadow should not be smaller then me, or make as much noise walking through the forest."

I wince, knowing he is right about the noise. No matter how hard I tried, I still would step on twigs that would snap. I wondered how he snuck up behind me with out me hearing...

Zachan's face then begins to fall into one of seriousness. " Were you following me Aleenia?"

Deny, is my first thought. Yet I knew that would be as stupid as saying I was going for an early morning stroll.

"Possibly..." I murmur, my arms coming to cross over my chest defensively. Yet also in an act to try and regain some body heat.

"Why?" Zachan asks next.

"There is a reason." I admit, not meeting his eyes." But I am not willing to share it with you..."

Peeking an eye up as the silence follows for a long time I see the hard gaze of Zachan staring back. Averting my eyes again we stand there in the uncomfortable silence for a few seconds.

Eventually the sigh of Zachan alerts me to look up, and by that time he was moving around me. His bear fur wrapped around his shoulders softly brushes mine as he does this. I bite my lip, upset with myself and upset that Zachan was leaving, as if disappointed.

"Aleenia, are you coming?" I turn around to see Zachan waiting a few feet in front of me. " Or would you like to be my shadow again, because I have to say you are not very good at it."

I can't help the small smile that graces my lips in amusement and relief. Yet it is quickly replaced with an abundance of nerves as I make a move to walk with him. He waits until I am by his side before he leads the way through the forest, to where ever we were going.

Just after a few steps of walking my arms return to fold across my chest, the bite of chilly air making me cold. It didn't take long for Zachan to notice however as he effortlessly removes the furs across his shoulders, to then drape them across mine.

"Thank you." I whisper, gathering the front of the black bear fur in my fist to keep in place.

His answer is a smile back, one filled with a slight nervousness. I suspected it was not from the gesture, but from the fact that wherever we are going, was going to show something more about him. Something I knew Zachan did not do often.

As he walked further I knew we were approaching the hot springs, the place where the people of the haven came to bathe. At first thought Zachan came here to wash, and the thought has me becoming very uncomfortable. Yet approaching the steaming hot baths we pass them with out a glance, heading down a small hill, but sticking to the east side of the mountains.

The hill was quite rocky and on a few occasions I lost my footing. However Zachan would be there, grabbing onto my forearm until I regained my balance. At the bottom of the hill we walked a short while, still in silence, until my husband stopped at a narrow gap between the rocky slants of the mountain. He walked through the arching rocks, and I followed, sucking in air as if the space was so tight I couldn't fit through.

Once past the wall of rocks, yet still in open air Zachan turns to his left before descending down some irregular stone steps, the echo of them fills the silence. I follow once again, and walk behind as he hunches his back in the slightest to enter a cave opening.

Out of all the places he could go, I don't think I was expecting this. I knew it wasn't Helir Nara, as that was on the other side of the mountains. But until now I didn't know this place existed. And from the fact Zachan comes here in the morning with no one around, I felt no one else knew of its existence either.

Zachan suddenly stops at the entrance, and I nearly bump into his back. He turns to the wall where a torch is mounted. He then lifts something up from around his neck, a small rope with a flat charcoal stone hanging off it. He swipes it across the wall, above the torch. After a few times sparks started to flutter off, trickling down to alight the dry mossy tinder on the top of the torch. With a few heavy breaths blown, the torch was alight, making my face become rosy with the heat.

Claiming the torch, we walked down the tunnel and it wasn't long until we reached a cave.

It was about as large as the size of our tent, yet had no walls to separate the space. In the far wall in front of us was a dip in the stone formation, large enough for a bed to be situated there, covered in soft furs. It answered the question of where Zachan spends his nights when he disappears. To the right was a low table, messily scattered with parchment and animal pelts with scribbles and writing. On the left was piles of flat cushions, weapons of spears, arrows and bows accompanied by wooden furniture. In my mind it was a cross between a lived in den and a storage room.

Zachan moves to the center, lowering the torch to a bundled pile of wood resting on grey ashes of the fires before it. The cave illuminates when the fire begins to burn, and shadows waver on the walls from the objects around the cave. I didn't think it a healthy thing to light a fire with out a place for the smoke to go, so I looked for a hole or crack in the stone for it to escape.

Yet when looking up, I suck in a breath.

Right above the fire was a hole, but that wasn't what had me amazed. No, right around that circular opening were white painted dots. Some were the size of my fist, while others no smaller then my fingerprint. There was no exact pattern to the dots, they seemed scattered as if-

Stars.

My eyes wander back to Zachan, he watches me steadily. Observing. Waiting.

"How?"

His eyes also travel up to the cave ceiling, taking in what could be years of work. His head remains tilted back as he answers." There is a clearing in the forest, not far from here where I have marked a point in which I stand. The stars have not changed their patterns from where I started, but some have disappeared while new ones have formed in the sky."

Zachan then takes a step to his left, his eyes traveling around the ceiling." The stars move from where the sun rises and the sun sets." His hand reaches up, indicating the circular arrangement of the star chart above." Their formations change through from the hot season, to the cooling season, the cold season and the warming season."

He points to the four quarters of the ceiling, to my right being the warmer seasons and the left the cooler. My eyes had followed his hand and in the dimly lit corner of the ceiling, to the left colour catches my eye in contrast to the white. I walk over, my footsteps echoing off the stonewalls. I tread carefully to avoid the fire in the center of the cave.

Underneath the cold season part of the chart, my eyes focus on a white dot. The circumference of the star has painted around it a ring of dark red magenta.

"What is this star?" I question, my eyes travelling back down to the room to see Zachan now looking to the floor. From his change of mood I had begun to regret asking the question.

But after what seems like a long time, he looks to the fire, still not meeting my eyes.

"The day after Saria left us..." he explains." I went to the opening in the forest, to look up and find a star that I had not seen before."

My husband then eyes me with a hesitancy before he continues." I have disbeliefs in the story of Himmila and Valdoor, yet... a azar had appeared when she had died." A sad smile graces Zachan's lips, followed by a bitter huff of a chuckle." She would have laughed in my face, knowing she had proved me wrong about my doubts..."

After my shock of his open talk of Saria, I find my voice again, yet it remains quiet." She knew... of this place?"

"Yes... but she thought of me as-" He thinks for a moment, squinting his eyes to remember a word." – stupid, wrong to do such things. She did not want to believe in anything else, no other possibilities but those she was told."

In my mind I wanted to comfort him, but I could not think of what to say. On one hand I could comfort the side that is hurting for Saria, but I did not know how to do that, as I knew nothing about what it was like to love someone. On the other hand I could see his confliction about his doubts. How do I tell him that the star appearing on Saria's death could be mere coincidence with out sounding insensitive?

I bite my lip taking a step closer towards him." In Fellshore, I was shown charts like this." I point up to the ceiling. " Yet they were on parchment and in books. People who study the stars, we called them 'astronomers'. They traveled around the world to look at the different star patterns."

Zachan seems to absorb this information. His eyes dance with a spark of light that I had not seen as clearly before. " There are more stars, different patterns then these?" he asks.

"Yes." I nod my head, a small smile forming on my lips." Stars are strange things. Some appear every night, or when the sky is clear you see some of them regularly. Some only appear a couple times a year before disappearing, some only show themselves once in a person's lifetime..." my eyes begin wondering again to the extraordinary ceiling, looking to the warmer seasons up above. My eyes recognize a certain pattern of stars." In fact, I know these stars. The constellation."

"Con-stel-lati-on." Zachan speaks out the word, the noun foreign to him.

"Yes...um..." I was trying to find a way to explain it to him. Yet like always my mind went straight to my sketchbook and pencil, I always found it easier to explain something with a drawing. Yet I had neither.

Looking to the ground I see a small rock lying by the cave walls, probably a piece of crumbling stone. I brush past Zachan and pick it up. I probably should have asked if I could draw on the walls, but my husband makes no move to stop me. I make a series of dots on the rock, the stone against stone making white dusty markings. On occasion I would look up to reference the star collection I previously recognized.

As I was drawing, I feft Zachan approach me from behind. He wasn't uncomfortably close, but close enough I felt the heat of his body radiating towards mine.

"A constellation is when they connect the stars..." I say, before joining the dots in one line. The scrape of the stone fills the hollow silence of the cave. " They call this constellation the 'Owl'...."

Silence follows, and stepping back I have to turn around to see Zachan with his head craned to the side. A small laugh leaves me as I see the confusion evident to the scrunch in his brow.

"Some of them take a little imagination..." I step forward again, recalling on memory of the Book of Stars storybook a read to my sisters to draw a resemblance of an owl. The dots create two long slightly bent lines going out wards to create wings, and a third line contains three stars with a slight bend resembling an eye and a beak. I do a quick outline of an owl from this and look back again to my husband.

He still seems a little unconvinced, and I don't blame him. Half the time I never saw the resemblance to animals or objects constellations supposedly had.

" Every constellation has a story behind it, yet I don't think their true..." I say with a shrug, bringing my arms up in a self hug." I mean they were stories I read to my little sisters as children..."

"What is the story of the 'Owl'?" Zachan questions." I would like to hear it."

His request throws me off my guard." Oh... I don't really remember it... the owl represents wisdom I think...."

It grows quiet again, and I realized Zachan's question was not only of interest, but to prolong a conversation. I wondered now if this was the most relaxed and civilized conversation we have ever had. One that didn't involve tension or end in one of us walking away in anger.

In the silence both our eyes seem to wander back up to the ceiling, the vocal point of the whole cave.

" You don't need the owl story, or in fact you do not need the 'Owl' constellation altogether..." I wonder aloud, my thoughts filling the room." You discovered these constellations Zachan, you can create their stories."

I look to see my husbands head cast up to the stars still. And I swear in the soft fire light illuminating the room, I can see him forming a small smile.

Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I would like to hear your thoughts, what do you think of Zachan's secret hobby?, and sorry for the long wait... I am really really sorry,

I stared writing this chapter right after my last update but got half way through and got some writers block. And I swear every day since then I would open up the word doc and not know what to write. But somehow today with some research and raining cosy writing weather I was inspired once more.

I would also like to say for all the new readers of the story and the ones from the beginning, thanks so much for all the Votes and Comments. My phone was continuously getting notifications and it brought a huge smile to my face. Also because of that the story has mainly remained in the Hot list for the previous weeks. You guys are awesome!

And for those who commented recently I will hopefully get back to you soon.

Sorry for waffling on, as always Vote and Comment! I love hearing your thoughts!

Update... I will hopefully write tomorrow, and I'll post on my profile what is happening next time there is a long gap.

Love U