DW Sneak Peek :: Talk to Saren (Patreon)

Nyx and Saren both present in party.

Hurim Present:

Hurim is the first to spot your approach, producing a small grunt to warn Saren of your presence. Saren looks over at you, abandoning his previous task, and gives you a subtle nod before gazing down at his fingernails. 

“Having fun?”

“It’s the only thing I can do to keep sane.”

“So, going outside every day isn’t enough?”

“I’m not talking about that kind of sane, sane as in I feel every night we’re going to be ambushed or attacked.”

“We haven’t been since we got here.”

“Yea, and I think we owe that to our ‘across the seas’ friend up there. But haven’t you noticed her getting antsier? When she gets antsy, I get antsy.”

“I’ll talk to her if you want me too.” Saren nods his head in thanks before growing quiet. He gazes down as chipped and dirty fingernails, stray bits of paint from the shutter now decorating the tips of his fingers.

“Why am I here, ${name}?”

“Well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much –” Hurim snorts, sending Saren a mischievous look.

“The need to hit both of you is becoming overwhelming,” Saren reprimands, sighing heavily, his shoulders drooping, “that’s not what I meant, and you know it. Plus, the mommy and daddy can hate each other, and you still show up. That night in the woods though, running from the Marauder Territory. You could’ve easily sent me away, said something to make me disappear. But you didn’t, why?”

#It was a death sentence.

“Sending you away would’ve been your death sentence. Even if you found Hurim, you wouldn’t have survived long. I wasn’t about to have that type of blood on my hands, I don’t care how I felt about you then.”

“Makes sense. Don’t know how I feel about it, but it makes sense.” Hurim bends over and lightly rests his head in Saren’s lap, nudging him softly and causing him to smile. He nods at you before putting all of his attention on Hurim.

#You’re one of us, that’s why.

“Like it or not, you’re one of us, Saren. Part of our little group of outcasts and weirdos. Not letting you in the group didn’t seem like an option at all.”

“Shader would disagree with you, you know.”

“Shader disagrees with everything; it would be different if Cassius were the one with the problem.” Saren chuckles and nods his head, turning his attention towards Hurim.

#*Because I like you.

“I like you Saren, I think it’s obvious. So, you tell me, how much sense would it have made to send you off to face whatever was out there without me by your side.”

“I don’t see how you like me, after all I’ve put you through.”

“We were rivals, I expected nothing less.” He leans up and looks over at you, the fire’s light reflecting off of his emerald eyes.

“And you’re telling me that somewhere down the road, that whole rivalry mindset just vanished.”

“A long way down the road, after two turns, a handful of loops, and that one gateway. But, yea.” He continues to stare into your eyes, searching for something you aren’t sure is there. Whether he finds what he was searching for, you don’t know. He turns his back to you, staring out the window once again.

Hurim not Present

Saren looks over at you and gives you a subtle nod before gazing down at his fingernails.

“Having fun?”

“No. Doing this is messing up my nails,” he points out, and you notice that most of his nails are bloody if not all together messed up and missing.

“Saren! What is wrong with you?” you ask, grabbing his nails and looking them over cautiously.

“I didn’t know they were getting that bad,” he says flatly, and you look at him in horror. The pain alone should’ve been enough of a wake-up call, but you can’t find any emotion in Saren’s eyes. You sigh as you realize what this was, remembering that insomnia wasn’t the only thing Saren was going through.

“We need to bandage these up,” you tell him, looking around for your pack. Finding it beside ${dname}.

“No,” he hisses, snatching his hand back and gazing at you in hatred, “I don’t need your damn help.” He whips back around, frozen in place as his eyes bore into the window, focusing on nothing in particular. Then, suddenly, he begins to claw at the boards as if he was a rabid creature.

“Saren stop,” you say struggling to restrain him and move him away from the boards. He begins to fight you, trying to push you away, sobbing for you to leave him be.

#Hold him.

You refuse to move, clenching your teeth at the punches that actually hit you. You continue to hold him tightly against you until he stops fighting, and instead, his arms wrap around you, hugging you tightly as he cries into your shoulder.

“It’s okay,” you tell him as you look around at the others, Shader nor Cassius looking your way or showing any signs of paying attention. The only one who was watching was ${dname}, but you couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“There’s nothing to live for,” you hear him whimper. He had done it so quietly that you have to rerun the phrase a couple times through your head in order to truly realize what he had said. You pull away and force Saren to look at you.

 #“There’s always something to live for.”

“We’re going to make it out of this, we’re going to make them pay. You hold him close, rocking back and forth as he continues to sob. You do so until he falls asleep. You drag him closer to the fire, hoping that he would leave the shutters alone. But you believe that you’ll see him back over there tomorrow.

#“I’m not letting you go.”

“I’m not letting you go, Saren. So, don’t even think about giving up, I refuse to let you. Not on my watch.” You place a light hand on Saren’s cheek, and he finally looks into your eyes.

“I still have you. I don’t deserve you, but you’re still here. And there’s no way I’m letting some foreign bastards take you from me.” He places his hand over yours and holds it tight, clenching his eyes closed as if he’s scared you’ll disappear too.

#Let him go.

You release him, taking a step back and letting him do what he wishes. Realizing that he was now free, he falls to the ground and crawls to a corner, putting his back to you. He clings to the wall as if the cold surface was his only friend. You watch him for a couple more seconds before going about your business.