After trudging through the dead forest for a good ten minutes, the three of them arrived back at their camp.
Anahita and Ignatius set Zephyr gently on the ground, where Anahita began healing her thanks to naiad abilities.
Ignatius stood there silently for a few minutes before walking over to the smoking fire, and throwing some kindling on it to start it back up.
"Stop brooding. It's quite annoying." Zephyr told him.
"I'm not brooding." He denied, looking at her, and then turning back to the crackling fire.
He was brooding, but he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to brood over about what he did to Zephyr. He just couldn't stop thinking about it. The feeling of being powerful and full of rage and then losing control after he hurt her. The worst part was that he scared Anahita. He didn't want to scare her. He wanted to protect her. But at the same time he asked himself "why"? He just couldn't figure anything out. And the geyser of memories popping up in his head at the moment wasn't helping either.
He sighed, placing a hand over one side of his face, like he was separating himself between just him and out of control him.
"Hey," a hand touched his shoulder, "are you okay?" Anahita's voice asked.
He didn't know how to answer her.
It seemed impossible for him to make her understand everything he was feeling right now. All the memories, feelings, acts. He was just a powder keg of emotions and memories just waiting to explode. If he ever even started talking about anything rolling around in his head he didn't think he would be able to stop.
"Ignatius?" Anahita asked again.
He remained silent.
"Are you really that upset that you hurt me?" Zephyr asked. "Trust me, I've been through worse than this. So no harm done, Hot Head."
He looked back at her to see her rolling down her pants leg. But before she finished, he saw a faint scar on her ankle. It looked like jaw marks, and not no ordinary ones. They looked like metal ones.
   When in Elementa did she run into The Hunters besides yesterday?
"Ignatius? Hey, are you okay?" Anahita asked once again.
He turned his gaze from Zephyr and onto the islander from portus maris.
   "I'm fine." He fibbed, keeping his voice even and his face emotionless.
   Anahita seemed to studying his face for any deception.
   "Liar." Zephyr suddenly spoke up.
   They both looked at her.
   "What do you mean?" Anahita asked, a confused look on her face.
   "I already told you. He's lying."
   Anahita looked back at him with a questioning look on her face.
   "Is she telling the truth?" Anahita asked him.
   He refused to look her in the eyes.
   He didn't want her have to fix everything for him. She helped him after his first transformation and probably his second one. She kind of helped him gain control after he lost it during his "lesson on control" with Zephyr. She had done so much for him that he just wanted to solve his own problems.
"Ignatius," she said gently, placing a hand against the side of his face, "please tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help."
Ignatius turned his head away from her.
He could feel her eyes on him, but he ignored it.
He just wanted to solve his own problems for once. He didn't need any help with his past. They were his problems and his alone. Nobody else's.
   After awhile of silence, Zephyr broke it.
   "Well who's hungry cause I sure know I am."
   When they finished cooking and eating some furry thing Zephyr scrounged up, they went to sleep, taking shifts as look out.
   Ignatius took the first shift. He couldn't and didn't want to go to sleep, afraid he would think whoever woke him up would be someone from his past. He no longer trusted himself and honestly was thinking about leaving while the others were sleeping. It's not like they would miss him. Anahita might, but that was just who she was. It was the one thing he liked about her.
What was he even thinking! She deserved someone way better than him. Someone who wouldn't try to strangle her when they thought she was some demon from their past. She deserved the best of the best, and that wasn't him. He was the worst of the worst. Someone no one would miss.
Settling on his decision, he got to his feet, and was prepared to leave when someone whispered his name.
He stopped in his tracks.
It was Anahita who had said his name.
"Ignatius, where are you going?" She asked groggily in a soft tone so they wouldn't wake up Zephyr.
   "Just for a walk to clear my head." He lied again.
   He cursed himself. This was exactly why he wasn't right for her. All he did was lie to her when he should be telling her the truth. But he just couldn't.
  "Ignatius, you know I know you're lying. I knew you were lying earlier too." She said, surprising him of her acting skills. "It's not hard to spot a lie. Avoidance of looking people in the eyes, fidgeting, hesitation, a slight change in their voice, and many other things. You displayed all the ones I mentioned. Which makes me want to know why you are lying and where you are going. So tell me the truth, Ignatius, or I'll find another way to." She said in slightly menacing tone at the end.
   She took him by surprise at the end by the way she literally threatened him she would get him to tell the truth somehow, and his did not want to see her angry. He didn't even think she
could get angry, but apparently he was wrong.
Sighing, he turned around to face her.
She was standing up looking at him intensely with her ocean colored eyes, her arms crossed across her chest.
"Now, what are you trying to keep buried?" She asked him.
He hesitated before answering.
"It's a long story."
"Well we got all night, and I take next shift. I could use a little story time to wake me up."
He really didn't want to talk about this, but Anahita wasn't exactly giving him a choice on the matter.
He sat down against a dead tree and Anahita joined him.
Ignatius sat there for a good few minutes, gathering his thoughts.
Once he had, he went about telling her everything from his rage problems to the flashbacks of painful memories that kept resurfacing.
The words just kept tumbling out. It was like all of this had just been waiting to be let out.
Anahita listened intently. Never interrupting or saying a word. She just listened.
When he had finished, he watched her carefully. She probably thought he was a monster after all the terrible things he divulged to her. And he wouldn't blame her. All the horrible things he had done made him a monster and there was nothing that could be done to chance that.
"My brother Lir had a traumatic incident when he was younger and I was able to help him get through it with my healing abilities. Maybe I could do the same for you." She suggested.
He thought this over for a moment.
It would be nice to not have to deal with all these memories anymore, but he also deserved to suffer from them. It wouldn't be fair to all the people he hurt to just wipe away all the horrible things. To give him a new slate. He didn't deserve one. He deserved to suffer for all the wrong deeds he committed.
   "You really need this." She said.
   "No—," he started.
   "Don't lie to me, Ignatius. I can see there's a lot of conflict going on inside of you. If you don't let it go it will destroy you from the inside out. And...you don't deserve that. You deserve to be happy, not...like this." She said to him, making him look at her in astonishment.
   Why did she think he needed a do over? He didn't earn one. He wasn't worth it. He was just a waste. All he did was hurt people. He was a monster and monsters don't get do overs.
   "Ignatius, please just let me help you. I hate seeing you like this. It...I..." she trailed off, starting to curl a strand of hair around her finger.
   "What?" He queried.
   "I don't want you to suffer. I heard you scream in agony when you stepped in that trap and when you went through your transformation. You went through all that pain for me. And I want to help you. You don't need to take all of this on alone. I'm here," she said, laying her hand on his, "for you and I always will be. If you let me, I can help you through this too."
   He looked at the ground for a hard, long minute before answering, making up his indecisive mind for once.
   "Do it."
   Anahita nodded, and took out the water skin she always kept by her side. Opening the cap, she withdrew the content from the skin, and held it in her hand.
   "I'm not sure how much this will hurt but if you ever want me to stop then tell me."
   "Don't stop. No matter what I say or do. Even if I'm begging you. You do whatever it takes." He told her, no longer caring how much this might hurt. He just didn't want to have to deal with this anymore.
   Anahita nodded, and placed her water covered hand to his forehead and closed her eyes.
   He followed in suit.
   Nothing happened for a long moment.
   Then his mind screamed as memories overwhelmed his entire psyche, and he was trust into a tide of unwanted and painful memories.