by Eric Vall
“Here, here!” Ruslan pounded the table with his fist.
“I know worrying is just in your nature,” Alyona said as she squeezed my hand and smiled at me, “and that’s one of the things I love about you, but you have laid the foundations of a strong and prosperous city. Now, while we travel the country for the good of all of Inati, we must trust our people to keep Hatra growing and safe.”
I smiled softly and leaned over to peck a quick kiss against Alyona’s lips. “You’re right, as always. We’re leaving the city in good hands. And claws.”
“And we know how to reach you if the need should arise,” Julia assured me as she fluttered her fan before her face.
I nodded and looked around the table at the family I had made for myself. Each of us was strong individually, but together, I didn’t think there was anything we couldn’t do.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely, “all of you.”
“Your thanks might not even be necessary,” Nike remarked with a shrug. “With you and the princess out of the city, perhaps Hatra will be left alone.”
“Yeah, well I’m not holding my breath,” I snorted, “but I do feel better now that we’ve talked through the city’s defenses.”
“Is that all we needed to discuss?” Alyona asked with a tilt of her head. “If so, I wanted to do a little more research on the city of Tikal before we set out in a few days.”
“And I’d like to speak to my grandfather and some of the other guild members,” Laika added. “Just to make sure everything is squared away for our departure.”
“Go ahead,” I nodded, “I have a few things I want to take care of as well.”
“Tonight?” Ruslan frowned. “You look a little beat, son. Maybe you should rest and start fresh in the morning.”
“Nah,” I shook my head, “I still have another hour or two before the sun sets. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing I still had stuff to do.”
“Stuff like what?” my father questioned. “Perhaps we could help.”
“Yes,” Ravi agreed and smiled eagerly. “Whatever you need, Lord Evan.”
“It’s okay,” I assured them with a smirk, “I’d rather handle these things myself.”
Ruslan cocked an eyebrow and raised his hands in response, and then we adjourned the meeting. Alyona stayed behind in the library with Ravi to research the city of Tikal some more, and Laika headed off to the Blue Tree Guild’s airship to talk with her grandfather Pyotr.
I wasn’t sure where my parents disappeared to, but I did hear the words “grandegg” mentioned multiple times as they left the library, so I could only pray that they didn’t overwhelm Valerra too much.
In the meantime, I left the underground archives behind and strolled into the city. The sun was arching low toward the western horizon, and I knew night would fall in only a matter of hours. Ruslan had been right, I was a little tired from battling a leviathan and moving my mate into the palace, but I knew just the thing to perk me up.
Well, three things to be precise.
As I walked through the streets of Hatra, various citizens called out and waved to me, and I did my best to respond in kind. It did bring a smile to my face to hear children laughing and to see my people going about their daily lives. More refugees had been streaming in by the day since word had gone out about Hatra’s resurrection and restoration, and now the city was a place teeming with life instead of a forgotten ruin.
And I, along with my friends, had been the one to do this. It felt damn good.
After nearly twenty minutes of walking, I finally reached my destination: the farms. I wasn’t really prepared for the sight I found, though. When I’d first come to Hatra months ago, the farms had been small patches of vegetables grown in the ruins of the old city. Now, the farms spanned multiple city blocks and were growing by the day, and new crops and vegetation painted the area in vibrant greens and various other colors.
It was in the midst of all this life and brilliance that I found what I was looking for.
“Lord Evan!” Polina gasped when she caught sight of me.
The three dryad sisters were busy harvesting and pruning from the herb section of the farms. Dirt was dusted across their green cheeks, and sweat beaded across their brows, but somehow they looked all the more beautiful because of this.
“Hey,” I greeted with a smile. “Just the girls I was looking for.”
“You were looking for us?” Marina giggled and batted her green eyes at me. “Did you need something, Lord Evan?”
“Actually, yes,” I replied before I turned to study the herb garden, “but I don’t want to pull you away from your work if you’re too busy.”
“Oh, we’re never too busy for you, Lord Evan,” Trina purred as she sidled up to me and wrapped herself around my arm.
“Yes, you’re the one who’s always too busy for us,” Polina pouted as she bounced over and clung to my other arm.
“I’m sorry,” I chuckled, “ruling over a city can be hard work. Ain’t no rest for the wicked, after all.”
“But you’re not wicked!” Marina argued with wide eyes.
“Unless you’re talking about in bed.” Trina trailed a finger down my chest and bit her lip as she looked into my eyes.
“It’s just a phrase where I’m from,” I laughed, “but speaking of beds, I actually have something I want to show you. If you have a minute.”
“For you, we have all the time in the world, my lord,” Polina giggled. “We were just helping Afra with the herb garden while she tends to the other fields, but the matter is not pressing. We can come back to do it in the morning.”
“Great,” I grinned, “then if you ladies would follow me, I have a surprise for you three.”
“A surprise?” Marina gasped.
“We love surprises,” Trina murmured and pressed her breasts against my arm.
“Oh yes,” Polina nodded her head vigorously, and her green curls tumbled into her face. “We love, love, love surprises.”
“Then I hope this one is to your satisfaction.” I smirked.
The sisters tittered and giggled as they fell over each other and me. It was a bit of a struggle to walk toward the palace with three women trying to hang off me the entire time, but somehow, we managed.
“The Lunar Palace?” Polina asked with a furrowed brow as the structure rose up before us. “Is our surprise in there?”
“Yes.” I nodded and nearly tripped over my feet again as Trina and Marina tried to pull me in different directions.
“Is it in the palace gardens?” Trina asked. “Milady showed us the gardens the other day. They are quite beautiful.”
“They are,” I agreed as we walked through the palace gates, “but that’s not the surprise.”
“Are you the surprise?” Marina questioned while we mounted the palace steps, and her green eyes darted coyly to my crotch.
“Not exactly,” I chuckled before I sent her a wink, “but I’ll keep that in mind for future reference.”
“Then what’s the surprise?” Polina whined as she plastered herself to my right side.
“I thought you said you liked surprises,” I teased, and we started to climb the staircase to the second floor.
“We do,” Trina said, “but my sisters struggle with patience.”
“Like you don’t.” Polina stuck her tongue out.
“Alright, ladies,” I laughed, “no fighting. You’re going to spoil your present.”
The sisters immediately clamped their mouths shut, though I still caught them making faces at each other out of the corner of my eye.
“Okay, this is it,” I announced when we reached the door that led into the dryads’ room.
The sisters looked from me, to each other, to the door, and back again.
“What is?” Marina finally asked with a confused frown.
“Why don’t you open the door and find out?” I countered.
The dryads extracted themselves from me and moved in unison toward the threshold
, but before they could even touch the handle, the door was yanked open from the inside.
“Lord Evan!” Raisa gasped as she slipped into the hall and quickly shut the door behind her. The red-haired architect looked frazzled, and her brown eyes darted between me and the dryads. “And Polina, Trina, and Marina! W-What are you all doing here?”
“I came to show the sisters their surprise,” I replied with a quirked eyebrow.
“What?” Raisa’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head. “B-But we’re not nearly done. Not nearly!”
“That’s okay,” I smiled, “I’m sure the girls won’t mind if it’s a work in progress. Will you, ladies?”
The dryads shook their heads in unison.
“There, see?” I told Raisa. “It’s all good.”
The architect’s mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to find a response, but before she could, the door cracked open at her back.
“Raisa?” Azra stuck his blue-haired head into the hall. “What are you--?”
“Hey, Azra,” I greeted, and the dryads waved beside me.
“Lord Evan!” the male architect yelped before his wide amber eyes darted to Raisa. “What is he--?”
“He’s here to show the dryads,” Raisa mumbled as her shoulders slumped.
“But did you tell him we’re not--”
“Nearly done,” I finished for him, “yeah, she told us. And it’s okay. I just wanted to give the sisters a precursory look. You’ll still be able to finish it up later. For now, why don’t you and Raisa take a break?”
Azra gaped at me and turned to his redheaded companion for help, but Raisa just tugged him out into the hallway.
“Please do not think poorly of us,” Raisa said to the dryads with a stricken expression, “we still have much work to do, and it will look worlds better when it’s completed.”
“We believe you,” Polina chirped with a smile. “You made the palace look so pretty already! If you helped Lord Evan with our surprise, it will certainly be beautiful.”
“That was the plan,” Raisa sighed dejectedly before she pulled a still gaping Azra down the hall.
“I’ll send you a message to let you know when we’ve gone,” I called out after the architects.
Raisa merely nodded, and then she and Azra disappeared around a corner.
“They seemed very sad,” Trina noted with a frown.
“Don’t worry about them,” I chuckled, “they tend to be perfectionists.”
“Will they be okay?” Marina asked as she stared after the architects.
“They’ll be fine, but maybe later you can find them and tell them how much you loved their work.”
“You sound confident that we’ll love our present,” Polina teased and wrapped herself around my arm again.
“Well, I hope you will,” I smirked down at the dryads, “but there’s only one way to find out.”
“May I?” Trina giggled as she reached out for the doorknob.
“Please do,” I said with a smile.
Trina’s green eyes glittered with excitement as she pushed open the door, and then she stepped into the room.
A moment later, her shocked gasp filtered out into the hallway, and Polina and Marina shared a look before they were shoving each other to try to get through the doorway first.
Polina won by a hair, but I didn’t think Marina minded that much once she saw what was waiting for them.
I grinned as I followed behind the sisters, and I found them standing stock still in the center of the room. Their heads were craned back to stare at the huge window that made up the ceiling, and the orange light of the sunset sparkled off their emerald skin and in the depths of their jade eyes.
I followed their gaze and spotted several dangling vines and other plants hanging from the rafters, and flowers of pink, purple, blue, and a dozen other colors dotted the green foliage at random intervals. I let my eyes drift down the vines, and then I took in the rest of the well-lit room.
Raisa was right, the space wasn’t completed yet, but the architects had made commendable progress in a single day. More potted and vibrant plants lined the walls and corners of the room, and rugs woven from rich and colorful fabrics covered the floors. Three wooden bed frames, that looked like they could be pushed together to form one single bed, were placed against the far wall, but even though there were no mattresses yet, I could tell the frames had been expertly carved. Emerald green curtains framed each of the large windows that wrapped around the room, and there were accents of gold and brown here and there that really drove home the earthy, natural aesthetic of the space. It seemed like the architects still had to work on the meditation room aspect they had mentioned, along with more décor to line the blank spots along the walls, but all in all, I thought it looked fantastic.
But my opinion didn’t matter as much as the sisters’ opinions did.
“So,” I broke the silence after a long few minutes, “what do you guys think?”
In unsettling unison, the dryads looked down from the skylight, and their bottle glass green eyes fell to me. Their expressions were also unnervingly blank, and I shifted nervously from foot to foot.
“Ladies?” I tried again and waved a hand in front of their faces. “Anyone home?”
The dryad sisters blinked in tandem … and then tears started gushing from their eyes like waterfalls.
“Woah!” I stepped forward in alarm, and my hands fluttered helplessly through the air. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“Y-Y-Youuuuu … ” Polina blubbered.
“D-D-Did t-this … ” Marina sobbed.
“F-F-For us?” Trina wailed.
I blinked in shock as I looked between the sisters, and my arms fell limp at my sides.
“Yes?” I hedged. “The room is your surprise. Do … do you hate it?”
“Hate it?” Polina cried as she snapped her head up and stared at me, and her nose was turning a cute cherry red. “How could you think we hate it?”
“Ummm … because you’re all crying?”
“We’re crying because this is the most beautiful, amazing thing anyone has ever done for us!” Trina hiccupped as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Yes!” Marina agreed as she threw herself at me, too. “It’s magnificent.”
“Gorgeous.” Polina bobbed her head as she followed suit and pressed herself against me alongside her sisters.
“Oh.” I wrapped my arms around the three still sobbing women and tried to make sense of their blubbering. “So … you like it then.”
“Of course, Lord Evan,” one of the sisters sniffled against my chest. “We love it.”
“Absolutely love it,” another dryad chimed in.
“Positively,” the last sister agreed.
“Okay, good,” I sighed in relief. “You had me worried for a second there.”
“We’re sorry, Lord Evan,” Trina sniffled as she pulled away and looked up at me with teary emerald eyes. “We are just overwhelmed. We’ve never had such a nice room before.”
“Or a home, really,” Polina added and wiped at her eyes.
“Huh,” I breathed, “I never realized.”
Actually, now that I thought about it, I didn’t know much about the dryads’ past.
“But this … ” Marina trailed off and gestured around the room, “this is … this is like a dream.”
“A very good dream.” Trina nodded.
“Well, damn,” I chuckled, “maybe I should have listened to Raisa and waited until they were finished to show you.”
“No!” the dryads cried out in unison, and their jade eyes went wide.
“We’re happy you showed us now,” Polina gasped, “so very happy.”
“But I do have one question,” Marina murmured and bit her lip. “Why?”
“Why, what?” I asked with a frown.
“Why … us,” Marina clarified before she turned and waved at the room again. “Why this?”
“I don�
�t understand,” I said as I looked at the other dryads.
“What I think my sister is trying to say,” Trina frowned, “is … we heard you built rooms for Milady and Laika--”
“And the beautiful phoenix girl,” Polina chimed in.
“Yes,” Trina nodded, “but--”
“And the Crimson Dragon,” Marina added.
“Yessss,” Trina bit out and shot her sisters a stern look before she turned back to me, “but all these women are different from us.”
“How so?” I questioned.
“Well … you love them,” Polina whispered and dropped her eyes.
“Oh, ladies,” I sighed with a furrowed brow, “I--”
“We don’t mean to be ungrateful,” Trina cut in as she waved her hands frantically. “We love the room, it’s just … ”
“It’s okay, I understand,” I said as I reached out and cupped Trina’s cheek. “And I didn’t mean to make you feel unloved, that was never my intention. Of course I love you three.”
“Really?” the sisters asked in unison.
“Really, really.” I grinned. “You were some of the first people I met when I came to Inati, and you’re obviously gorgeous.”
The dryads blushed and giggled.
“Then why haven’t you taken us to your bed?” Polina pouted.
“Well, at first I was a little thrown by the multiple lovers thing,” I admitted, “and then I thought you were just flirting to have fun with me. And then … I don’t know, we all got busy and time just got away from me, I guess.”
“You did become lord of a city, I suppose,” Marina allowed with a cute frown.
“Exactly,” I chuckled, “but when I saw the other women’s rooms, I felt like something was incomplete. And I realized it was the three of you. The palace didn’t feel right if you didn’t have your own room, too, so that’s why I commissioned Raisa and Azra to work on this place. I wanted you to see how much I cared about you.”
