by Brindi Quinn
We were just entering a new terrain of black rock and potholes when Rend started to stir in his arms.
“Cousin?” asked Nyte far too eagerly.
He was answered with a groan.
“Cousin!”
The party quickly halted.
“Let us rest here! She is awakening from the long slumber!”
Ardette flashed Nyte a dazzling smile. “Finally,” he drawled. “There have been far too few females amidst us as of late. Not that you should feel jealous, my cherry pit. My interest in Rend is purely physically driven.”
I wasn’t at all ‘jealous’.
Grotts surveyed the surrounding area with a hint of concern wrinkling the ridge of his nose. “It’s fine if ya wanna stop and all, but this isn’t the safest ‘o places. If we’re gonna break fer a meal, we should at least find a cave or somethin’.”
Nyte was excited, shaking even. “You are right, Grotts. Please, search for something suitable. In the meantime, everyone, give us room!” He proceeded to set Rend down against the sleek belly of a black boulder.
Urr. Okay. Hurt, I started to back away with the rest.
“Wait! Miss Havoc, I wish you to stay.”
“You do?” A cube of hope floated to the top of my internal river of pessimism.
“Might I stick around a moment, as well?” inquired Scardo, slithering up next to Rend.
“Uhh-” Nyte didn’t look at all happy with the request.
“It will only take a moment.” Scardo reached for the dead effulgence flower peeking out of his front tuxedo pocket.
Surprisingly, Nyte shot me a knowing half-grin. Rend’s awakening had apparently made him much less tense.
“Very well,” he said, still grinning, “but after that, I ask that you give me a moment alone with my cousin. You see, I have been anxiously awaiting-”
But the Elf herself interrupted him with a loud groan.
Nyte started to lean towards her, but was cut off by Scardo, who hurriedly knelt over her and pushed the flower at her face.
“Please accept this flower, Elven sorceress, as a symbol of the debt to be-”
But Rend pushed the flower away, a scowl across her otherwise-beautiful mouth.
“What is this nonsense?” she said scathingly. “You dare to think an Elf should ever require the assistance of a lowly, weak, zebron-consuming – Oh! Cousin?”
“Rend!” Nyte pushed the disgruntled Scardo aside and crouched in his place. “At last you have returned from slumber. I have been waiting and waiting, and truthfully, I did not know how much longer I could endure!”
Scardo frowned at the pair of them a moment before huffing away with hands properly folded behind his back.
An angry salamander.
The flower was nowhere to be seen, probably returned to some place on his person for use at a later date. Knowing Scardo and his strict following of traditions and rules, he wouldn’t be able to give up on Rend that easily.
“Waiting? Pray tell, cousin, whatever for?” said Rend. Even though she sounded blasé, I don’t think I was imagining the slight flush to her cheeks. “And how is it you have come to be at the site of the portal with us, for that matter?”
“You are no longer at the portal, cousin, but the retelling can wait. There is something I must confess to you at once.” Nyte’s eyes, though bright, were impatient. It was clear that he was struggling to contain his excitement.
Confused, I again tried to figure out what it was he was so worked up over.
Confess? What does he mean?
At first I didn’t understand, and maybe it should have stayed that way, would have been better for my state of solidity if I went on not understanding, but unfortunately, my tireless mind wouldn’t let the issue rest. Before, I’d only feared that Nyte’s unrest was something passion-fueled, but now as I observed the situation, I knew for certain, clearly and unmistakably, that it was passion I was again seeing in my Elf’s eyes as they stared down at his cousin.
When the shock of it hit me, the features started to slide from my face. Eyes, nose, and mouth all dripping down . . . down . . .
He’s going to confess to her?! As in, confess his feelings for her?! But how can that be?!
With my worst fears materializing before me, the rest of my body joined my facial features in melting into a gooey mass on the ground. Yes, a drippy, goopy pile of ‘me’ was all that I’d become . . . at least, that’s how I felt.
I-I thought that he and I were . . .
Ignoring the messy, melted mass of ‘me’, Nyte leaned in close to Rend, closer than I’d ever seen him get to her and said, “There have been no other Elves senior to me present, so I have had to keep it to myself even though it is against law.”
Rend lifted herself up and scanned the new horizon with squinted eyes. When they fell upon me, her mouth twitched.
“Hey, Rend,” I blubbed, irritated. “Welcome back.”
Of course I didn’t mean it.
Rend said nothing in response, only sniffled, before turning back to Nyte. “Speak, Nyte Attirb, I will agree to hear your confession.”
There faces were too close. I was going to be sick.
I wallowed without form until . . .
“I would like to proclaim my intentions regarding Aura.”
. . . Nyte said something magical.
At once, I was no longer a messy pile.
“Huh?” I asked. Me?
Rapidly gaining form, I realized I was at least solid enough to stand and inch closer. Thus, I attempted and succeeded the ‘inch’, but immediately had to recant it for fear of my life. Rend’s reaction to the magical words was far too chilling for me to sustain something so bold.
Her previously cool face turned murderous. Seriously murderous.
“Regarding her?” She shot me a glare filled with the deepest loathing.
“Yes,” said Nyte confidently, not fearing that evil glint in his cousin’s eye. “I confess that I have . . . uttered to her.”
I didn’t know what it meant, but Rend certainly did.
“You WHAT?!” Her mouth fell open. “Surely, you do not mean-”
“Yes, Rend, I have spoken the forbidden to her.” He turned to me with an expression of yearning – a yearning so intense that it made my neck hot.
The forbidden? Again I didn’t know what he meant, but it didn’t matter. I was too tremendously relieved that the ‘confession’ hadn’t been a confession of his love for Rend. And if it hadn’t been for her . . . the passion and anxiety were for me? All for me? This entire ordeal has been regarding Nyte and . . . me.
I lost myself in self-indulgent bliss while Nyte continued,
“As one senior to me, I ask that you bear witness to my intention here and now, Rend Attirb.” Nyte tipped his head forward respectfully. “It is my intention to take Aura Rosh with me through the Wood of Erow.”
At these words, he suddenly looked up to show me a devious grin – like he was sharing some sort of fun, coded plan with me – but it was useless. I had no idea what it meant.
“Um, Nyte?” I said, again inching a bit closer. “What’s the Wood of Ero- Whoa!”
Before I could even finish forming the question, Rend was up, eyes flaming.
“Rend? What’s wron-” But my inquiry quickly turned into a scream, – “EYAAAH!” – when Rend, without giving me a chance to move or fully comprehend what was happening, scathingly sprang at me with a madness-filled battle cry.
Fortunately, Nyte’s reaction was much faster than mine. In what seemed like less than a second, he was in front of the rampant Rend, his hands cuffed around her wrists. Holding her arms down and most certainly trying to stop her from forming them into the dreadful circle that would send a sizzling ball of red energy straight at me, he said calmly,
“Yes, it is not ideal that you are my confessor, cousin, but there is no one else here, so-”
“How DARE you!” She let out a screech and pushed against him with all her might.
> “Rend – I – had – hoped – that – as – kin – you –would – be – more – understanding!” Nyte panted out the words while he pushed her back.
But she persisted like an enraged ram, fighting to plow him over so that she could get to me.
“Ahhh! What is that Erow thing?!” I cowered a short distance away, uncertain as to how to react to such a crazed outburst that was apparently at least partially my fault.
Rend finally managed to pull her arms from Nyte’s grasp.
“Nyte, HELP!” I screamed while dodging an incoming red blast attack.
Ardette, who, like the others, had been surveying the land for a suitable cave, must have been alerted by the light, my second scream, or any one of Rend’s fevered cries; for, at some point during my cowered dodges, he came slinking over a nearby ridge to check on us, only a little haste to his step.
“Hmm,” he said, pausing to inspect the scene. “My, my, true lover’s tiffs are far more violent than one would think, aren’t they?” He let out a deep laugh. “What, might I ask, is the source of this charming quarrel?”
He evidently couldn’t see the very real danger associated with this particular ‘tiff’.
“I don’t know!” I yelled, taking cover behind him. “Nyte just said he’s taking me to the Wood of Erow, and Rend freaked out-”
But I stopped myself at the look of mortification on Ardette’s face.
“Ehh?! Ardette?”
He proceeded to shoot Nyte a scowl even more gruesome than that of Rend’s, one that read not only murder but torture as well. With white knuckles of rage, he pulled his saber from its resting place and held it out.
“Hold him down, my dear Rend! I’ll pierce him straight through!”
“What?!” I cried, reaching for the edge of his flapping cloak. “Ardette, stop that right now, you idiot!”
He was definitely only going to make matters worse. I prepared myself for whatever sort of ariando might be necessary to subdue the two raging lunatics, ready to knock them both out if that’s what it took, but luckily, such an ariando was unnecessary.
At the thought of someone threatening her kin, Rend turned on Ardette in a flash.
“You dare speak a word of threat to an Elf?!” she shrieked.
Withdrawing her sights from me, she charged at Ardette, tackling him with one soaring pummel, and thus relieving Nyte from battle.
“What? R-Rend! I’m on your side, you hear me? Let’s gut the scoundrel togeth-”
Rend grabbed a handful of Ardette’s untamed hair and screamed, “Who is it you are going to gut, vile Daem?!”
“Well, you now, I suppose.”
Ardette grabbed her around the waist and threw her off of him.
A flash of red lit up the evening air.
Gah! What a pair of morons!
Extremely aggravated, I was about ready to hit them both with a thunderstorm, this time with hail, when Nyte called to me. “Miss Havoc!”
I flicked my eyes from the meaningless scuffle, only to find him just before me, holding out his arms for an embrace. The agitation was instantly gone.
“Nyte!”
Without thinking, I ran to him and settled my head against his chest.
“What the heck’s going on?” I asked.
Nyte didn’t answer, but I didn’t press him.
His cloak muffled the surrounding skirmish, blocking out the outside world. Even so, my thoughts were racing, though it was probably for the best because it meant that I was distracted.
Wood of Erow? What does that mean? It’s got to be something serious, but what? Either way, Rend is going to kill me. She’s actually going to kill me this time! I thought she’d finally seen I wasn’t evil, but now . . .
Lost in this racing distraction, I didn’t even know Grotts had approached until I heard him shout, “Whoa!”
I looked up to see him barreling towards Ardette and Rend with hammer’s crescents glowing.
“What’s all the commotion over here?” He was in between the two enraged wrestlers in an instant. “Ardette, ya numbskull! What’d ya do to ‘er this time?!”
But the pair ignored him and continued to furiously take their aggressions out on each other, so much so that even the massive man couldn’t pull them apart.
With such calamity before me, I was still distracted, so the warmth’s call was held at bay for a short while . . . .
Yes, for a short while, I was able to stand there as a confused onlooker, firmly within the protective hold of my Elf’s arms . . . .
For a short while, things were all right . . . .
But it was only for a short while.
Amidst the eruptions of red and cries of insult, that safe blanket of distraction came to a swift end when Nyte whispered ever so gently, ever so smoothly,
“Miss Havoc?”
That was when the impulse started to creep in again.
Uh-oh.
With a quickening heartbeat and sudden awareness, I immediately knew we were in danger – maybe a danger even greater than that of Rend’s wrath-fueled lightball.
W . . . a . . . r . . . m.
Nyte whispered a second time, “Miss Havoc?”
His arms were tightly around me, his mouth against my ear.
“Hmm?” I said, voice a murmur while I struggled to ignore the impulse.
“All along, Aura, I have been unable to escape you – though never would I have wished for it had I been given the chance.”
My pulse was deafening. I could barely hear him.
More warmth. I couldn’t speak.
“I have already uttered my affections to you, but with this, my captor, it is now known to my kind that I intend to make you . . .”
He paused to kiss me just below the ear.
“. . . my bride.”
His breath was hot. His voice was soft. The warmth was greater than I’d ever felt it.
Almost instantly, I fainted in his arms.
~
“DAMN YOU!”
Hours later, Nyte and I were inside of the ‘suitable’ cave, being reprimanded by all four of the Yes’lechians for our foolish embrace.
Ardette was, without a doubt, more furious than I’d ever seen him.
“Damn you, damn you, DAMN YOU!” he said again.
I know . . . I know . . .
I guiltily stared at my knees.
Nyte, however, wasn’t displaying the same remorse-filled reaction. Quite the contrary, he was shaking with a fury similar to that of Ardette’s while pacing about the cave’s small, desiccated interior.
“You do not have the right to speak to me in such a way,” he said, seething. “As I told you before, it is none of your concern what happens between-”
“What happens between you and the Heart of Salvation?” cut in Ardette. “Oh, I think it is very much a concern of mine. Do you realize who you’re messing with? Whose little addiction you’re feeding?” Ardette flung his hand in my direction. “She isn’t just an ordinary girl that you can go falling in love with! I don’t care what you’ve uttered or intended or any other matter of barbaric traditions you’ve followed, you are NEVER going to take her to the Wood of Erow! And you are NEVER going to touch her ever again!”
I winced at his disgust-filled words.
Nyte let out a growl and looked ready to lash back, but Grotts, appearing incredibly uncomfortable with the situation, beat him to it.
“Now wait just a minute here, Ardette. Do ya realize what yer sayin’? Don’t ya think it’s a mite contradictory fer ya to be orderin’ stuff like that?”
With eyes locked on Ardette, he poked one of Scardo’s arrows at the fire, turning over a bit of wood whose flame had been suffocated by a neighboring piece. The fire cackled a crackle in response and at once tried to eat a bit of the arrow, but in the end, only managed to take a lick before losing to Grotts’ withdrawal.
“Implying something, are you?” said Ardette listlessly. But a slight change in demeanor showed that he wasn’t at a
ll unaffected by Grotts’ statement. He straightened up, and losing a little rage but gaining a whole lot of wryness, said, “You know, for members charged with protecting her, the three of you certainly are quick to let her fall right into the mouth of a wolf.”
“A wolf, Ardette? Really . . .” said Scardo. He shook his head and cast an uncharacteristically dark look at Grotts before continuing, “While it is true that we’ve all had our doubts about him, I’d venture to say that he’s proven himself most useful on more than one occasion. Wouldn’t you agree?”
At this, Nyte abruptly stopped his agitated pacing and examined Scardo with a look that was either uncertainty or surprise . . . or maybe a mixture of both. Whichever it was, it was an understandable response. Indeed, this was a far cry from the suspicious, hesitant manner in which the hunched man had previously treated him.
“Keep in mind,” furthered Scardo, tipping his head respectfully in my direction, “that it is the Pure Heart’s desire to have Nyte near, so even if the two have behaved irrationally, we’ve no choice but to look for a solution, rather than a punishment.” He frowned and then added, “That Elven sorceress, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.”
Ardette groaned in frustration.
“Do you even realize what this Elf is, Scardo? He’s an em – u – la – tor. There, now that that’s out in the open, we can just get on with casting him out of the Pure Heart’s guard-”
“An emulator? “P-pardon?” Scardo fiddled with his collar nervously.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one in the dark about this ‘emulator’ issue. That was a little reassuring . . . but only a little.
“Oh, haven’t heard of that one either? Lost the officers’ favor, have you? Even I know what an emulator is, and the officers practically hate me.” Ardette’s sarcasm was now at full force. He crossed his arms and arrogantly smiled after delivering the cutting remarks.
