High Elder Leeora could only shake her head at the departure of the King. The old lady took efforts to kneel next to the bed and look at the human girl who was hiding under the wooden frame. The girl had a small slender body that made her look as if she had been leading an extremely poor life since young. After Draven had left the guest room, the human girl had a less hostile reaction, but from her stiff body, it looked like she remained wary of the new person studying at her.
She was lying on her sides, curled into a ball under the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees, her delicate legs covered by a long white dress and her face buried in her arms. The rest of her small face was hidden by her long mahogany hair.
"Young lady, would you like to come out? I am sure it's very uncomfortable under the bed," Leeora said as she offered her hand to her. Her voice was soft and her tone gentle as she tried to coax the human girl. "I know you must be scared to find yourself in an unfamiliar place, but trust me, you are safe here."
Still, there was no reply from her. Leeora was a patient woman so she didn't mind the lack of reaction. On the contrary, she was relieved that she didn't get bitten like Draven.
"Hmm," she pondered for a while. "Would you like to see magic, young lady?"
The word 'magic' did wonder. The human girl lifted her head a little, just enough to take a peek at the elf from the safety of her arms.
Leeora smiled lightly. 'She seems to have calmed down.'
The elf slightly pulled back the hand she put under the bed. Afterwards, she made a snatching gesture in the air and her hands emitted mild rays of light which turned into tiny images of silver butterflies which flew like real living creatures across the room.
She heard a very soft gasp of awe coming from the human girl under the bed.
"If you come out, you can see them better," Leeroa said in a kind voice as she offered that girl her hand once more.
The elf only had to wait for several seconds this time. A delicate hand covered in bandages was placed in Leeora's warm and wrinkly hand. Slowly, hesitantly, the human girl came out from under the bed and stood up with the help of Leeora.
The moment the human girl straightened herself, the elf realized that the human was taller than what she imagined. It made Leeora torn between deciding if she was a tall young girl or a small young woman.
In contrast to the elf's confused face, the human had a look of wonder as she raised her head to follow those silver butterflies lively flying around the room.
Under the soft glow of the silver butterflies, Leeora could clearly see the fine facial features of the human girl holding hands with her. A fair delicate skin, an adorably tiny nose, lips like the petals of a rose and large almond-shaped eyes that reminded the elf of the fresh colour of spring.
'What a beautiful child,' the old elf exclaimed in appreciation, 'but…what kind of beast dared hurt her so?'
The human girl's face had tiny bruises on it, and the bits of skin seen under her dress had many scars and scratches on them. She was incredibly skinny, as if she hadn't had a decent meal for years, making her look smaller and frailer than her actual age. The long white dress was loose on her thin body, and though the length of the dress fit her height, the collar and sleeves hung limply around her thin shoulders.
"Do you like it?" Leeora asked but her question was left unanswered. The human girl merely stretched out her hands as if tracing the flight taken by the silver butterflies.
However, the elf elder didn't give up. "I am Leeora. May I know your name, young lady?"
In response to the elf's attempt of starting a conversation, she retreated from her, pulling back her hands towards her body and stopped playing with the butterflies. She stood still, looking warily at the elf.
Leeora understood she didn't wish to tell her name and didn't insist on it.
"I am sure you are hungry. Would you like to eat something?" Leeora asked.
The girl didn't react but Leeora still ordered, "Someone, bring a nice hot meal for the young lady."
"Yes, High Elder," one trembling voice responded from beyond the door.
The palace servants were efficient. Food was already prepared by the kitchen to feed the human girl that the King brought back, and the only issue was that the moment the female servants entered the room earlier, they were attacked with hostility, causing them to flee in panic. The servants were calmer now in the presence of a high-ranking elf. It didn't even take a minute for the servant to bring the meal to the guest room.
"High Elder." She bowed in front of the old elf.
Seeing a new person enter the room, the human girl stepped back towards the bed, her expression torn between fear and suspicion.
"Put it there," Leeora instructed, gesturing towards the table in the room.
The servant left as soon as she put the wooden food tray on the table.
Leeora then turned towards the girl on the bed. "Do you smell that? I can smell it even from here. I can smell meat, and there's even freshly baked bread," Leeora commented.
The human girl gulped. She was starving and wished to eat after smelling the appetizing aroma of the food, but she remained in her position as she eyed the old elf and the door.
Leeora understood the human girl's situation. That kind of vigilance was a given, especially since she found herself in a strange environment and among unfamiliar people. The elf elder decided to let her eat in peace.
"I will leave you to have your food. Have a good meal, young lady."
The moment Leeora stepped out and closed the door behind her, the human girl hurried towards the table in the centre of the room. She didn't even bother to sit on the chair. She grabbed the first plate within her reach and sat on the floor, eating with her hands as if she had not tasted decent food for ages.
Leeora saw the unbecoming sight from the little gap left between the door and the door frame and smiled with relief that this poor terrified girl at least agreed to eat.
After leaving that strange human girl with Leeora, Draven returned to his study. Inside, he found his servant Erlos, seemingly waiting for his arrival with a silly grin on his face. However, the moment he saw his master's expression, that grin disappeared.
Without a word, Draven sat on the chair behind his desk as he had to finish reading a couple more reports before he left to attend the council meeting.
However, the silence was very, very uncomfortable.
The elf fidgeted on the spot. "Sire, do you have any instructions for me…?"
The red-eyed man purposely ignored him, continuing to read through the scrolls on his desk. Only after he finished did Draven look at his servant with a displeased gaze, causing the elf to gulp.
"Didn't I say to throw that creature among her kind?"
It was a simple question, but Draven's slow, dignified voice caused the usually carefree servant to be nervous.
"Y-Yes, Sire," Erlos replied.
He thought the King would scold him, but Draven only glared at him, not saying another word.
To Erlos, it was fine if his master scolded him but if he received only a wordless glare, it was a warning sign for him that he had truly angered his king.
Erlos put on an awkward smile to hide his anxiety, but the twitching of his long ears was a dead giveaway of his true emotions.
"Sire, before you punish me for disobedience, may I be allowed to explain my actions?"
He blinked his eyes towards the King, trying to act cute to appeal to his master, but the red-eyed man had no change in his dark expression.
The servant took his silence as permission to speak. "Sire, trust me, I also want to throw that human girl out as much as you want. After All, the palace is not a place for those weak and deceiving creatures but…" He paused mid-sentence, trying to bait a response from Draven but his master simply kept his cold glare pinned at his body.
He continued, "B-But Sire, we cannot forget that she is a female, nothing but a frail and injured human girl. Throwing such a helpless little one to a bunch of strangers is not a good idea. You also know we can't trust those humans. Though we have allowed those human refugees to take shelter in our kingdom and they live in those villages at the edge of Agartha, we generally have nothing to do with them. Since it was your order, I still did think of bringing that human girl to one of those villages, but seeing her thin body covered in bandages, I thought perhaps we should wait and at least let her regain her consciousness first. We can't say what would have happened to her if we…"
After this long speech, Erlos waited to get a reaction from his king, but all throughout, it appeared that not a single word managed to affect him.
The elf servant sighed helplessly, "The human will be thrown out this very instant. I will excuse myself, Sire—"
"No need," the cold voice of that red-eyed king interrupted him.
'Huh? Did I hear anything wrong?' His long ears started twitching again, but this time from excitement, not nervousness. "I knew it, Sire! You may have a heart of stone, but you still have a teeny-tiny bit of conscience in you for that frail—mmf! Hmf? Hmmphf!"
It was as if his mouth was sealed on its own and he could not create anything else but strange, muffled noises. Of course, it was the doing of his master and it was not the first time he used his power to shut his servant's talkative mouth.
Draven stood up from his chair and walked out of his study. Just as he stepped out of the door, his dignified voice reached his servant's ears.
"We are going somewhere."
Erlos, who could not say a word, followed behind him while silently crying in his heart. 'I must have been the worst villain in my last life to be reborn in this life as his servant and be forced to follow him everywhere.'
'Stone heart? To me, it looks like he seems to not have any!'
The king without a heart and his poor servant stepped out of a long corridor and came out into the open lawn on one side of the palace. Erlos was still breathlessly catching up with his fast-walking king. When he was only a couple of steps away, Erlos found that he could finally use his voice. His eyes glistened with happiness.
"Sire—"
But his words were cut off as the two suddenly disappeared from the lawn. The elf servants who were working around witnessed the astonishing performance of magic but didn't feel surprised as it was not the first time their king had disappeared in front of them.
Draven Aramis was the owner of various kinds of abilities and powers. The fact that everyone was scared of him, was not for nothing.
It only took a few moments for Draven and Erlos to travel almost half across the continent, and they reached a particular burned forest.
It was exactly the haunted mountain where Draven was summoned the night before, the very place where he found the unconscious body of the human creature he saved.
While Draven's eyes were busy looking around, assuring himself that it was the same place, his companion found himself falling on the ground, feeling dizzy as an aftereffect of the teleportation magic. The young elf didn't even get a chance to breathe before he appeared in an unknown place.
"Oh my, my body–eugh! S-Sire… I know I have said this many times before, but it would help me if you can inform me before teleporting. I almost felt like dying," he whined as he caught his breath.
As a creature of nature, the body of elves were many times stronger than a human's, but still, they would need to at least cover themselves with their powers to protect their body from the laws of space when teleporting. Otherwise, though they would not sustain injuries, it would feel like every muscle of their body was being drained of energy.
However, true to his namesake, the king without a heart looked like he cared not a bit about his servant and walked ahead to inspect the area.
"What is this place, Sire?" Erlos asked as soon as he regained the ability to stand, looking around the remnant stumps of trees and the rocky ground covered with ash. "How cruel. Who would dare destroy trees this way? It looks like it was burned recently. But how wicked can one be to burn an entire mountain? What kind of lunacy or grudge is this—"
Though it was daytime, the mountain looked bleak as grey smoke continued to rise from the ground, with the wind blowing up the ash that had yet to fully settle on the ground. As an elf, Erlos shivered in heartache, unable to imagine the kind of fire that burned this mountain.
Draven still didn't comment and stopped at the place he remembered to have found that human girl. Though he had been here merely for a brief moment that night, his sharp memory and eyes that could see in the dark made it easy for him to find this place.
He remembered how that creature looked at that time—she looked like a giant block of charcoal, and he didn't realize she was a living human being at first glance. Though he had seen worse sights, he could not stop feeling something about it. It was strange, but perhaps his kingdom had gone through boring peace for some time, that such a minor thing was now stirring strange feelings inside him.
He had no idea that his frozen heart of his seemed to have a tiny crack on it.
Draven shook his head to forget it and then looked around, peering into the distance like a hawk to see the nearest village or town to know what happened in this place. The reason he came here was to investigate what happened that night. The creature he saved was insignificant. He didn't care about that girl, but it did pique his curiosity that why he was summoned to this mountain.
What was his relation to this place?
Was it the place or the creature he saved?
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT