A storm was threatening, one that couldn't make up its mind between icy rain and strong rough blows of wind. The wind gusted and died, and then spat a spray of water again. The thick clouds were making late June afternoon into early evening.
He didn't care. He didn't even bother with his coat. He wanted to feel the wind on his face. He wanted to be cold. It would match his mood.
He left the shelter of the large porch of the Country Club, strolled past the line of waiting cars and well-bundled drivers. He went walking in the deepening twilight on the meticulously groomed grounds that surrounded the venue.
The garden was desolate and deserted since everyone were inside enjoying the party and taking shelter for the coming storm. It was full of flowering bushes, trees and vines but the real king of that big chunk of lot are the pine trees. Towering everything around them as their needle-like leaves are blown sharply by the unimpeded wind. The smell is what reminded him that he was in Baguio and that he should be enjoying his stay. But he couldn't.
Fallen leaves littered the gravel paths. He is well passed the area where someone could wander around and he could barely hear the merry makings of everyone in the party now. The trees and bushes were kind enough to offer him the solitude he needed. The howling of the wind from an impending storm and the gentle rustling of the leaves gave him the calm he couldn't get inside, sheltered and around those happy people.
There were quite a number of close standing trees at the edge of a herb garden that he passed by. There were eucalyptus and some he didn't know the names but mostly pines, it was Baguio afterall. He headed instinctively toward the protection of the grove. In the circle of their shelter, the wind could barely find him. He turned his eyes up to the cold stormy sky and tried to find a single star through the overcast. He couldn't. He lowered his face and wiped rain from his cheeks.
“Weeping at a wedding? What a sentimental fool you are.”
to be continued..
Based on an exerpt from Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
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