by Juliet Lili
Really? Nara mused. She cocked her head and looked at him briefly. There was no trace of arrogance on his face, just the truth that he was better than the rest.
“Besides imagine watching a match that you already know the winner. It’s exciting at the beginning, but after a while it gets repetitive, and there’s no new excitement even if the person is a crowd favorite” he spoke.
“So, you used to participate?” she asked, once the cheers dwindled. The pair had gone down to three and Leena, and Finn was still standing.
“Yes,” Calemir replied before vanishing in the crowd.
Nara kept on watching. Besides her, Izza was full on participating with the yells, cheers and scowling when a favorite of hers, a man with short dark hair didn’t attack properly.
Nara made a face when the short haired one was thrown to the ground roughly by Finn.
“I should get back and cook,” Izza said to her,
“You don’t want to see who’s going to win?” Nara asked, glancing in her direction.
Izza shook her head, her features lacking any enthusiasm of continue watching. “You can tell me the winner when you get back home.”
“No, we came together, we return together,” Nara said after a quick moment of thought.
“You don’t have to go back with me” Izza argued.
“It’s fine. By the looks of it I think Finn is going to win” she said, looking to the front and seeing Leena being pinned down. And two pairs were standing.
“Probably” Izza agreed.
With that, they made their way back home.
Part Three
Chapter Forty-five
Nara rode fiercely down the road. It had been a while since she felt the wind beating down her face. Two weeks since she had indulged herself in such thing. She needed space to think. There was so much to think about. Calemir being an issue at the front of her mind. He had started occupying her time often. She could be sitting out at the red tree, and his image would appear on her head, and she would think of him. She would suddenly get anxious and excited as it approached evening, knowing it wouldn’t be long until he was home. She had started looking forward to their lesson times because of all the fun they had amid writing.
Nara looked around. She had gotten far than she normally did. Very far in fact and closer to the forest that bordered the East. She reigned in the ropes and halted. This is a great spot she concluded. She hoped down. The meadow here was short, the grass brushing just above her ankles.
She cast her quiver and bow on the grass before sitting down. She faced the forest. It was so thick, sunlight hardly filtered inside and yet the leaves were vibrant as ever. She breathed in nature and exhaled, her breath coming out with a whoosh.
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.
“Cursed spirits” Nara replied bitterly. She studied the boy. He was young, couldn’t be more than seven years old. His face was thin as the rest of his gangly frame. She had barely felt his weight when she had carried him up the stairs.
Calemir stilled. “Where you in the East forest? Are you hurt” Surely she didn’t take it upon herself and went to seek vendetta on behalf of her long dead horse?
“No” Nara clipped. Sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes dropped at the expanding red stain on the boy’s shirt. She reached the hem of his shirt and dragged it up slowly to assess the wound. Blood trickled from the deep gash on his side. She quickly pressed her hand on it, trying to stop the bleeding. The boy whimpered.
Nara’s face hardened as she pressed on the wound. The blood wormed between the tight space of her hands and his skin, trickling down unto the bedsheets.
“Here” Calemir gave her a piece of towel. She grabbed the cloth and pressed it on the gash.
“Tell me how you came across the spirits if you weren’t in the forest.” Calemir spoke.
“They came out of the forest, chasing the boy.”
Calemir folded his hands across his chest, suspicion evident of his face. “That’s not possible. They have never left the forest.”
“Well, they did” Nara muttered glumly, irritated that he doubted her word. Gentling her voice, she said with increasing concern. “We need to do something. His losing a lot of blood.”
“Father” the boy whimpered. Her eyes flew back to the boy.
“Finn will be here shortly. I’ll order Izza to bring some medicine.” Calemir said, his gaze on the boy.
“What’s Finn going to do?” Nara asked, turning her gaze to Calemir.
“He’s a healer” Calemir held her eyes with his, his features grim. “I must go and check the situation.”
Nara’s lips thinned, worried for his safety. She recalled how the cursed spirits had circled the stranger. Her heart hammered with fear. “It’s dangerous. There were so many of them.”
Calemir’s shoulder tensed, a new urgency in his voice. “Then, I must go now.”
“Be safe.” Nara implored.
Calemir nodded then fled.
Nara turned back to the boy. His bottom lip trembled. His skin had grown horribly grey. Where the heck is Finn? Nara irritably wondered.
Izza padded into the room, carrying a tray.
“I brought some things” setting the tray on the bedside table. There was a small bottle of alcohol and a needle and ball of thread.
“I know how to patch a wound let me help” Izza added.
Nara slowly removed the cloth from the wound.
“Where’s Calemir?” Leena interjected, standing by the door.
Nara glanced at her. “Where is Finn?”
The female elf looked reluctant to say.
“Where is he, do you not see the boy is dying!” Nara snapped. What’s wrong with her? Was she going to keep her mouth and let boy just die because the man that had ordered her wasn’t here?
The warrior elf stared back at her unfazed, not even a flicker of emotion on her face. “He isn’t coming.” Nara’s stomach dropped as her hope for the boy’s survival blackened. She glared at Leena and hissed. “Then get out.”
Nara returned her focus to the boy, holding him down as Izza dabbed the alcohol around the wound. Even in the state of unconscious the boy cried and thrashed. He screamed and sobbed even harder when the needle pierced his flesh and Izza began sewing up the wound. The boy saw and felt nothing but pain.
Chapter Forty-six
Nara sat the armchair in the dark with the two lamps dimly lighting the room. She watched the boy as he slipped between the conscious and unconsciousness. The flickering flames revealed her fear and hope etched on her face. She listened to his short breaths, shuddering his whole body. His eyes twitched behind fluttering closed lids. She was alone in the house, Calemir had yet to return, and Izza had left to be with her young son after doing what she could. Nara had asked if there was another healer that could help apart from Finn. Unfortunately, there wasn’t, Finn was the only healer in Uruloki. She also found out elves with a natural ability to heal were scarce, there were only a few of them and didn’t have a habit of revealing themselves to people.
Nara was dozing off when moans awakened her. Her eyes flew open. She shifted on the sit properly and looked down at the boy, feeling sorry for him. He groaned again before his eyes weakly opened and mumbled unintelligibly. She leaned closer. His hot breath scalded her cheek as he muttered again with difficulty. “Father.”
Nara leaned back slightly. “What father?” she asked softly. Please, Odin let it not be what I’m thinking. She prayed desperately.
“My father” the boy whimpered, his eyes glazing with tiredness. “He…he” he choked with pain. “did you see him?” looking at her with hope. “He was behind me.”
Nara’s heart teared. There had been no man behind the boy except the vile creatures. If he had been with his father, then his father hadn’t made it.
“Shh,” she cooed instead when his face twisted with pain and tears dropped from the corner of his eyes.
“You need to rest,” Nara said softly, putting her hand on his head and brushing his hair gently. “Sleep” she urged when he tried to speak. The excruciating pain from the wound and the potent remedy they had given him to make him fall asleep when he had been thrashing and crying when Izza sewed him up seemed to overwhelm him. Slowly his eyes closed and he fell back into the unconscious. Nara couldn’t tolerate listening to his screams any longer because they hurt to hear. The agony on his face had torn her. Thus she had asked if there was anything they could make him take and sleep and wouldn’t feel a thing as Izza worked on him.
What were he and his father doing in the forest anyway? She pondered. Coming into the elves’ territory and do what? It didn’t make sense. No sane human dared to enter in elves’ lands.
Nara looked at the boy’s face again, her eyes questioning him.
The night blended to another day, the sun gloating from the sky at the misery which gloomed her room. Nara hadn’t left her room, specifically the boy's side. She hadn’t done much other than taking care of him by removing his dirty tunic and wiping his face and torso as much as she could. She checked on his wound from time to time, sterilizing it from his sweat. The boy had grown scalding hot during the day. His body consumed by fever. The fever seemed to spike by the hour.
“Go bath, I will watch over him,” Izza said, as she strolled into the room.
“I’ll do it later” Nara replied tiredly. She hadn’t bath or change her stained blood clothes from yesterday. She didn’t want to leave the boy’s side. Nara was afraid if she even left for a minute, something horrible would happen. She was the only person familiar to him. Human. She was the only person he could talk to without being terrified. He had already been traumatized by strange creatures and if he woke up and an elf was the first thing he saw…it might be too much.
“Okay” Izza muttered softly then quietly left the room.
Nara was again putting a damp folded cloth on his forehead to bring down his fever when she saw the scar on the side of his shoulder. Gently, she pushed one of his shoulder up to get a better view. Her eyes widened. Long old scars ran down his back. She quickly removed her hand when he stirred.
What did the freak happen to him? Nara frowned, anger boiling her blood. Who has done this to him? Her questions weren’t answered until later in the evening. His fever had gone considerably down, and he woke. “What were you doing in the forest?” she asked him when he had finished eating the soup she had prepared for him.
“They pushed us in” the boy replied then grimaced from the ache on his side. Nara expression turned disgusted. What evil man pushed a child into the hands of cursed spirits.
“Who?” she asked.
The boy’s face grew terrified
as if seeing his tormentor. “My father’s master.”
“This master, is the one who gave you the scars on your back?”
The boy looked down and nodded. “yes, the Muri man.”
Nara turned impossibly rigid. Although she didn’t want to believe him and wanted to refute his claim, she knew it he spoke the truth. She had heard of masters who mistreated their servants. However, what the Muri master had done to the boy caused her to feel terribly ashamed and guilty. Nara looked away, fearing the boy would realize she was also a Muri and judge her to be cruel too. “Where is my father?” the boy asked, worry plain in his face and voice.
“Your father” Nara stalled… “Uhh” Her throat tightened, voice refusing to come out. She swallowed, glancing away from the boy’s imploring eyes. The boy had more than enough on his plate. He was still extremely weak and wounded. She didn’t think to suggest that his father was probably dead would be a good remedy for fast recovery.
“Nara” Calemir called her. Calemir had been standing by the door for a whole good minute unnoticed by the two as they talked. He had visited the site where Nara and the boy had faced the cursed spirits. Terror had sunken in his bones when he had gazed down at the rotting corpses of the creatures. The creatures had never left the forest borders. They were bound there. But with the event, it appeared that was naught. This was a problem, a very huge problem. To make matters worse, there had been another attack. He had gotten word that the attack had where Finn had been patrolling in a village just outside Uruloki. The two attacks happened on the exact same day. Calemir clenched his fists, looking grim. Nara whipped her head in his direction while the boys wore out features stretched, his fatigued eyes widened with the shock of seeing him. Calemir glanced at Nara. “I need to speak with you.”
Calemir took in the state she was in as she walked up to him. Distraught shrouded her face, her stained clothes telling him she hadn’t done anything other than watch the boy since yesterday.
