Below the Peak (Sola)(95)

Nara’s thoughts drifted back to when she spent time with the prince. When she wrote, he told her old stories. How life had been in Forod hundreds of years ago. The elves had only started building their kingdom after waring with the dragons for hundreds of years. He had been a just young elf in his youth when the rise of Forod began.

She plucked a lavender and started pulling on its petals. She sighed. What’s going on with her? She couldn’t possibly be…

Nara tensed. Someone was whistling, and it was drawing closer.

“Hey” a deep voice called in elvish.

Nara stood abruptly, the bow and arrow in her hand and faced the intruder. Seven meters from her, the elf stood. He had long silvery hair and was clad in simple linen grey shirt and leather trousers with boots. She eyed the sword on his hip before looking back at his face. His brows knitted, his eyes narrowed as he peered at her. His mouth parted with surprise as he exclaimed in elvish. “Human!”

Nara’s shoulders stiffened. Who was he? Her suspicions grew as he continued to scrutinize her. His surprise of seeing her felt like a warning sign to her. The man clearly wasn’t from Uruloki. Was he a rebel? Her fingers clenched tightly on the bow.

The stranger took a step closer. Nara drew her bow up and cocked an arrow. She pointed in his direction.

“I mean no harm,” he said in accentuated Nyr, holding his hands up.

“Who are you?” she asked, not lowering the bow.

“What is a human doing here?” he asked back.

“I asked you first” Nara retorted. Why did elves have a habit of answering a question with a question? She recalled when she had met Lady Leena. The she-elf had done the same thing.

The stranger cocked his head to the side, his handsome face twisting with suspicion. “Are you the human prince Calemir married?”

“Who are you?” Nara repeated, not divulging anything.

The elf tilted his head back straight, his mouth curling with amusement. “I see. My name is…” he trailed off.

“What’s your name?” Nara asked. She frowned when he didn’t speak. He was looking in her direction, but he seemed to be staring at something behind her. Her body tensed.

“Help!” someone cried loudly.

“Help!” that young voice begged again in Nyr.

Nara jerked and turned. She froze, terror consuming her eyes from what she beheld. Right behind the young human boy running were cursed spirits. Five dark shadows chased the boy, licking at his feet.

Her horse whined, stomping its feet on the ground.

Nara released the arrow and shot one who was in the air, and moments away from sinking itself on the boy. The thing fell back, it’s shadow dematerializing to rotten corps.

Not today! Nara growled, fury coursing in her blood. She was prepared. Ever since Calemir had told her of the way to kill them, she had coated her arrows and weapons with the poison. She ran toward the boy when he stumbled, opening a leg for the things to catch up. She noted the way the boy was limping.

Shit!

Nara ran faster. She kept on firing as she ran, hitting and hitting the foul spirits. A shudder reverberated her bones when she saw more kept on emerging from the forest. She didn’t have that many arrows to shoot all of them.

“Take the boy!” the stranger elf ordered. She hadn’t noticed that he was also fighting the spirits until he had spoken and cut through a shadow beside him with his sword and killed it.

“You can’t kill them all by yourselves” she shouted, drawing her own sword and using it to murder the bastards. She grabbed boy’s hand when she reached him and pushed him behind her. “Stay behind me” she ordered.

“I can buy time unless you want us all to die” the elf yelled.

“Why would you do that?” she asked, genuinely stunned that he’d put his life for two humans he had just met. The elf grunted and muttered strings of curses. He cocked his head to her, his silvery eyes angry. “Why don’t you just thank me and leave!”

Nara gulped. “Thank you.”

He nodded gravely and ran toward the cursed spirits. The creatures circled him as he swung his sword and slashed crazily. But a few turned their hollow eyes in her direction.

“Come here” Nara grabbed the boy’s thin waist and carried him. The boy wrapped his legs tightly around her waist as she sprinted to the horse. Thankfully the steed hadn’t abandoned her. Instead, it had drawn closer in her direction as if waiting impatiently for them to catch up. Nara hoisted the boy up before climbing behind him. She wrapped one arm around the child to keep him steady whilst the other she held the reins as the horse sprinted.

It wasn’t until they were far from the horrific scene and her pulse and mind had mildly calm did Nara register the sticky warmth of blood on the hand she had on the boy. She stared at the boy’s young face smudged with dirt and trails of tears. He looked eerily pale, his dark eyes waning with light. Her lips thinned to a grim line. Nara spurred the horse to go faster.

She would get the boy in town and get him help.

*****

“Go and call Finn” Calemir ordered Leena as he watched the kid in Nara’s hands. Nara carried the boy up the stairs. Calemir didn’t wait for Leena’s reply, he trekked up the stairs and entered in Nara’s room.

“What happened?” he questioned, looking at the boy she was laying on her bed.