Falling Hard (Veronica's Secret)

by Scarlet Rose

  With one final grunt, he came too.

  All three of them were gasping for air when they heard grunting coming from outside the tent. Immediately afterward, guards started shouting out orders.

  Herron and Jarrod jumped up, and threw their clothes on.

  “Stay here,” said Herron, with a kiss to Nayla’s cheek. “Stay quiet unless you think you’re in trouble.”

  The two guards darted out of the tent to face the groll attack head-on.

  Nayla wanted to lay back and sleep, but instead she slipped her yellow dress back over her head and peeked out of the tent.

  Chapter 7

  Aaron stumbled off to the edge of the camp, not wanting to be around anyone. He saw an opening that wasn’t being guarded so he took his chance to sneak out of the camp.

  The area was lightly wooded. The moon and stars shone through the trees, guiding him to a place he could be alone for a while. After quite a ways, he decided he was safely away from the eyes of scouts. He searched for a place to sit down, and found a grouping of large boulders.

  Plopping down, he let his mind drift to Veronica.

  He wanted to caress her soft skin, and kiss every inch of her naked body. Aaron closed his eyes and pictured her standing before him. She stood there, barefoot in the soft green grass, and danced for him. Her hips swayed slowly as her hands twisted about, caressing her curves as she danced.

  He imagined going to her and teasing her nipple between his lips. His hands would wander over her body until one of them found the soft warm place between her legs.

  Her dancing would stop, and she would lay on the ground, inviting him to explore her nakedness even more. Aaron wanted nothing more than to give her infinite pleasure.

  He drifted to sleep with her on the ground, smiling up at him with her haunting eyes.

  When he woke, it was just before sunrise. The rays of light were just beginning to dart between the trees and dance with the wind onto the swaying blades of grass before him.

  His head ached horribly. “You drank too much,” he told himself. He glanced to the spot of grass he had pictured Veronica laying on, and groaned.

  Slowly he pulled himself up.

  “Why haven’t they come to find me yet?” Aaron thought for sure the guards would have noticed his absence by now, after all, he and Nayla were the ones they were hired to protect.

  He made his way back toward the camp, stumbling over fallen tree limbs and around rocky patches. The area was eerily quiet, which put Aaron on edge.

  Have they left me behind?

  Once he stepped into the clearing, Aaron gasped as he looked around at the gruesome scene before him. Half-eaten bodies were strewn everywhere.

  He stepped into the camp, hoping and praying that Nayla’s wasn’t among them. She’s got to be cowering in a tent somewhere.

  Here and there a dead groll lay skewered by a sword. Their hairy human-like forms resembled bears in the shape of humans. They fed on flesh, and had been traveling in small packs. The pack that attacked the camp was clearly much larger. Two or three men could take on one groll, but his group had twenty men who were trained in killing them.

  Aaron searched harder for his sister. His panic rose to new heights when he found her tent, and she wasn’t in it.

  He saw no sign of her.

  A larger pack. That must mean their numbers are growing. Where are they coming from? Each Kingdom in Elarra maintained its own rule. There were good rulers and there were bad ones. One of the Kingdoms must be using a sorcerer to summon them here from the Wastelands.

  Sorcerers were rare. Their power usually led them to the dark rulers. It corrupts them. This would take a powerful sorcerer—or several of them.

  Aaron found no sign of Nayla. That gave him hope. He looked around, trying to gauge which way she would have run. We are a day out by horseback from Atarris, the city where Veronica is. The next city is another day ahead of us. She would’ve felt safer returning to Veronica.

  Aaron looked around. “Of course, they killed the horses too,” he said aloud.

  He searched until he gathered a pack full of food and water, then he set out on foot back toward Atarris.

  It’ll take a few days by foot. I hope I can catch up to Nayla.

  He kept his eyes peeled for any sign of grolls. The pack is probably off sleeping off their feast in a cave somewhere. He hoped the attack meant he would be safer here. They tended to move on pretty quickly after each attack.

  He hoped that there wasn’t another pack in the area.

  Chapter 8

  Veronica woke late in the morning with a mild headache and a severely dry mouth. She reached over to pull on the bell that would summon her maid. The sound of the deep bell made her head pound more.

  Shoving the soft green blanket off of her, she made her way to the bathroom to wash her face.

  When she returned, her maid for the day stood waiting for her just inside the door. “Bree. What’s going on in the castle right now? Anything?”

  “Miss Veronica,” she said with a bow. “Your new fiancé will meet with King Doogan just after lunch. The majority of the guests have been leaving throughout the morning. King Tiblis is set to leave tomorrow, once the final details of your marriage are sorted out.”

  Veronica rolled her eyes. “How nice of them to plan my marriage without even inviting me.” She walked to her closet with a huff. “I guess I better get ready for lunch. I’d like to have some choice in my future, at least.” She shuffled through her gowns, looking for something that would make her look mature and sophisticated.

  “Bree, can you fetch me the healer? I have a killer headache.”

  Bree’s curly brown hair spilled over her shoulders as she bowed. “Yes, Miss.” Then she scurried out the door.

  Veronica slipped off her clothes and made her way into the bathroom to clean up. When she was done she dressed in a simple long-sleeved green dress, with a high neckline, that hung down to her calves.

  A knock on the door announced the healer. Marissa. She didn’t possess enough magic to be a sorceress. Usually those in that situation moved to big cities to study to become healers.

  “Marissa, I’m so glad to see you.” Veronica let the older woman in. Her gray hair hung down to her knees in a tight braid, and her eyes were the color of a winter storm. She always appeared to be wise and unafraid.

  “You drank too much wine and you want me to take away your headache, child? Usually you have such a good head on your shoulders. Along comes a boy, and instantly you revert back to a sullen teen.”

  The way she said it made Veronica feel as if she were being scolded by her mother.

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need my head clear for the meeting this afternoon. Please, Marissa, just this once,” she begged.

  Marissa gave her a dark frown. Her eyebrows pulled together in a scowl. “Just this once. Next time you are on your own.”

  “Thank you.”

  Marissa held her hands up on top of Veronica’s head and closed her eyes. She felt a warmth soak down from the old woman’s hands into her skin and soothe the ache. It did nothing, however, for the ache of losing Aaron that still burned heavy in her heart.

  As the magic drifted into her veins and coursed through her body, she could feel a connection to Marissa that she had never felt before. It was like a jolt of energy. She could not only hear the old woman’s thoughts, but sense her emotions and desires. Veronica had never been able to intentionally read anyone’s mind. The occurrences had only happened when she was tired or drunk.

  Her mind had been distracted, but this exposure to the depths of Marissa’s mind astonished her.

  Marissa removed her hands from Veronica with a confused look.

  She felt it! “What was that?” Veronica asked.

  Marissa gripped each of her wrists tight. “Have you done that before, child?”

  “No. I’ve accidentally heard people’s thoughts before, but never … that … whatever that was.”

&
nbsp; Marissa stood still for a long moment, as if gauging whether or not Veronica was lying. Finally she spoke. “Grab your cloak. You’re coming with me.”

  Veronica pulled her hands out of the old woman’s grasp. “No, I have to go to the lunch and the meeting afterward. They’re deciding my future and I need to be there.”

  Marissa’s hands moved to her hips. “Do you know what happens to children who are born with the gift and they don’t go train their abilities?”

  “Yeah. They go crazy. Their gifts take over their minds, but that’s not what this is. I was tested. This is something different.”

  “And why haven’t you told me about this?” Marissa’s scolding voice grew louder. “Do you want to go mad?”

  “I told you already. I don’t have a gift for magic. This is something different. I didn’t want everyone to think I was a freak.”

  Marissa let out a loud huff. “Get your cloak. We need to see my sister in the city right away.”

  Veronica sensed the seriousness in her words and stopped protesting. She grabbed her cloak with a sigh.

  I guess I will have to settle for whatever the Kings decide about my future.

  Chapter 9

  Marissa moved quickly for a short old woman. Veronica struggled to keep up with her. She kept her hood up over her head to keep people in the city from possibly recognizing her. In all of her nineteen years, she’d rarely ever been allowed to go out into the city, but she’d bet that some of the citizens knew what she looked like.

  She’d never met Marissa’s sister, but she’d heard of her as the local fortune teller. The rumors said that she couldn’t heal a paper cut if she tried, but she could read about people’s futures better than anyone else.

  Veronica followed Marissa into a shadowed alley. Babies could be heard crying and people shouted through the thin walls of the lower city. The old woman produced a tiny key from the pocket of her colorful dress and used it to open a door.

  Locking the door behind them, Marissa ushered her up a set of barely lit-stairs and through a beaded curtain.

  A woman that looked as if she could be Marissa’s twin sat in a wooden chair on the far side of the room with a huge book resting in her lap. They were so similar-looking, yet different in subtle ways.

  She looked to be studying it so intently that she didn’t notice them enter.

  “Clarissa,” whispered Marissa.

  Clarissa? Their mother must have hated them. How could she keep them straight?

  Clarissa looked up from the book with a scowl that matched Marissa’s. Veronica laughed, which got her an even dirtier scowl from both of the women.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that you both look so much alike. It’s kinda scary.”

  Clarissa set the book she’d been reading down carefully, and made her way to where the two of them stood. All the while she stared at Veronica like she was a spectacle.

  “Sister, why have you not brought this girl to me sooner?” Clarissa took hold of one of Veronica’s hands and studied her palm like the book she’d just been reading.

  “I didn’t know until just now. I wasn’t gifted with your sight, sister.” Marissa huffed and stomped off to snoop through the book that now sat on the table beside the wooden chair.

  Clarissa didn’t seem to care. Her full attention was on Veronica’s palm. “A great change is happening in and around you.”

  Yeah, tell me about it, thought Veronica. I’m being forced to marry a prince from Yarinna.

  “A death is soon to come,” continued Clarissa without looking up to see her reaction. “You will make a choice. A big one. Soon.” She dropped Veronica’s hand and raised one hand slowly toward Veronica’s forehead. Her hand moved so slowly—as if she dreaded what would happen when she touched the young girl.

  Clarissa’s thumb landed directly in the center of her forehead, and Veronica’s vision went blank. She saw only white, as if she was lost in an endless snow scape.

  “What did you do to me?” Veronica tried to pull away from her, but she couldn’t. She knew the woman wasn’t holding on to her, but still she was frozen there in place.

  “Hush, girl,” grunted Clarissa.

  What felt like only a moment later, her sight returned, and Clarissa was no longer standing before her. Veronica was shocked to see the two older women sitting together on a bench seat, poring over the giant book. They spoke to each other in whispers.

  “Did I black out? What happened?”

  Neither of them looked up, so Veronica walked over to the abandoned wooden chair and plopped down. No sun peeked in through the curtains.

  “It’s nighttime? How long was I standing over there?”

  Her voice sounded like the screech of a tea pot at boil.

  Neither of the women looked up, but Marissa spoke. “All afternoon, child. You are probably tired. There is a bedroom through there.” She pointed to another beaded curtain on the other side of them. “I’ve sent a message to your father. We’ll sleep here for the night.”

  “But …”

  “Don’t backtalk me, girl. We’ll chat in the morning.” Marissa waved her hand at Veronica in dismissal, and didn’t say another word.

  Veronica stomped off through the beaded curtain as if she were a child again, and threw herself onto the lumpy bed. She couldn’t sleep. Too many strange things had happened that day. She wished she could have Aaron by her side to comfort her, but knew that would never happen again.

  Chapter 10

  Aaron walked the entire day and into the night without a single clue as to what happened to his sister. He found a crack in a cliff face to slip inside and sleep for the night.

  He fell to his knees, exhausted from an emotional day in the sun. He wouldn’t allow himself to believe Nayla was dead. All he could do was focus on getting back to the city Atarris, where he could be reunited with her and see Veronica again.

  Veronica. The thought of her made his heart ache. He pulled a bottle of whiskey out of his pack. The more he drank from the bottle, the more real she became in his mind.

  Again she danced before him. The moonlight made her pale skin glow. The sight of her beautiful breasts bouncing as she danced gave him an erection. He took another swig of the whiskey, and imagined her laying down before him as she had the night before. He crawled over to her, savoring the sight and smell of her.

  “Veronica, my love,” he whispered into the darkness. “I want to watch you touch yourself.”

  She gave him a bashful grin. Their last night together had been their first as well. They hadn’t had the chance to experiment with new and exciting things. Aaron could imagine her reacting however he wanted, and that just added to the swelling inside his pants.

  Her bashful innocence turned him on like nothing else.

  One of her hands slid down her body and paused just below her belly button. She let out a barely audible giggle as her cheeks flushed.

  “It’s okay, baby. Show me how you please yourself.”

  Her fingers slid down the rest of the way and gently pushed apart the lips of her sweet glistening pussy. Her other hand slid down too, while she used two fingers to massage her swollen clit.

  Aaron could see she was excited. Her wetness glistened in the moonlight. Her breathing quickened and her back arched ever so slightly.

  Aaron opened his eyes for a moment. His cock wanted her to be real. He craved a taste of her sweetness, the smell of her excitement.

  He stroked his erection gently.

  In his mind he imagined that Veronica sat up and crawled seductively over to him, wrapping her soft fingers around his shaft, and stroked him.

  After a moment, he imagined gently pushing her away. “No, tonight isn’t about pleasing me. It’s about pleasing you. Turn around.”

  She did as he asked, until she was lying on her back in front of him again. He leaned his head down between her legs until his tongue tasted the sweetness of her juicy pussy.

  Aaron could almost imagine the taste of her in his
mouth. His tongue taunted her clit while his fingers penetrated her. She squirmed and moaned in pure heated pleasure as he stroked his erection with renewed vigor. It didn’t take long for him to get to the point of eruption. He remembered their night together so vividly. The vision shifted to that moment when she reached her climax.

  It had felt so amazing to have her warm body wrapped around him.

  He held back his moans as the tension in his body released with his ejaculation. If there were grolls in the area, they would surely hear him. He spared little of his attention to that, though. The release of his hunger for her brought back the pain of losing her.

  Aaron downed more of the bottle of whiskey until he passed out against the cold hard wall of stone.

  The next morning Aaron’s head ached. He stumbled out of the crack in the rock in search of the stream he’d seen on his way there.

  Once he found the stream, he ripped his clothes off and dove into the chilled water. It wasn’t deep. The smooth rock bottom of the streambed kept him from drowning himself in his misery. After scrubbing himself practically raw, he drug his aching body out of the stream and pulled his clothes back on.

  Aaron didn’t want to face another lonely day of walking, but he knew if he wanted to find Nayla, he had to keep moving. So, he grudgingly dragged himself back over to his pack, grabbed a snack for the road, and headed for Atarris.

  The sun and wind dried him quickly. The early mornings were cool in the Kingdom of Palinna. Once the sun rose above the mountains to the east, the temperature would warm considerably.

  The plains of Palinna were beautiful. The mountains appeared to be purple in the shadows before the sun crested over them. The grass was greener and lusher than any of the other plains regions. The soil was the most fertile too, but not much of it could be farmed in these times. The trees towered over the ground like fluffy green clouds.

  “It’s a shame no one can look at all of this anymore,” Aaron said to no one. “We’ve got to do something about the groll attacks.”