CONTENT WARNING: Animal death
Zeydrick - Earlier
“What do you mean you lost sight of her?!” I growled as I rose slowly from my chair, staring daggers into Aleanna and Eyvindr, who stood before me with bowed heads. Duras let out a snort and turned from his whittling, while Euri and Ji’u stopped looking over the map spread between them. All eyes turned towards Eyvindr and Aleanna.
“We were bathing,” Eyvindr started, fidgeting from one leg to the other. “We didn’t think she’d try anything with her clothes off…”
“How did she get away?” I asked, a bit of smoke curling from my nostrils.
My ears caught the sound of the women swallowing hard.
“She… she said she needed to use the restroom… she promised she’d be right back…” Eyvindr replied.
“She’s been cooperative, we had no reason to believe she’d do anything,” Aleanna joined in, “but when we realized it’d been too long, we saw her clothes were missing, and so was she. We tried following her steps but they vanished - literally vanished, I am not joking around, Captain. You know I’m good at tracking in the forest. Her tracks vanished.”
I swore, rubbing at the bridge of my nose. “Show me.”
With a glance towards Duras, Euri, and Ji’u, I motioned for two to follow and one to stay with the legions. Aleanna and Eyvindr led us to the river where the soldiers were taking shifts bathing or gathering water upstream. Aleanna took over then and showed us the tracks Elisabeth left behind. The tracks went for a ways, following the river before cutting south, just as the Knight had said, before the tracks quite literally vanished. They were there in the soft loam of the forest floor, then nothing. There were no trees near where the tracks vanished, nor rocks to hide her steps.
I growled and started my inspection, taking in deep breaths to catch her passing scent. Humans couldn’t hide from my nostrils; their cloying, acrid sweat always gave them away.
And it was there - but it didn’t move. And it was a faint scent, as if she’d been there, had moved no further, but was gone all the same time.
There was only one explanation.
“Magic,” I growled out.
“But - she has no magic. We checked. The stones didn’t react to her at all,” Aleanna said.
“I didn’t say it was her magic. She must have had help,” I said. “Spread out. Look for anywhere they could hide.”
“What if whoever helped her used a gate?” Ji’u said quietly, rubbing at his chin.
“We would have sensed such a powerful spell. We didn’t, therefore they’re still here somewhere. Now spread out and find her.”
“Yes, Captain!” the Knights saluted and scattered into the forest, going in pairs. Ji’u and Eyvindr went south, while Aleanna and Euri tracked north.
A growl rumbled in my throat as I began my own search, kneeling on the ground. I dug my gauntlet into the loam of the forest, closing my eyes and reaching out my senses.
As my senses stretched out into the earth, spreading out and down to hear the song of the earth itself, I hit a barrier, bouncing me out of the trance.
My eyes snapped open in surprise and I let out a bark of a laugh. “Fuck. What have you found, you little brat of a princess?”
Shaking my head, I tried again, keeping my senses to the soft earth, slowly reaching down, following a tree root. Rocks reached up to meet my senses and then - void. Openness.
“Tunnels,” I muttered, my eyes opening and glaring down into the earth as if that could change what I’d found. “You better be down there, brat.”
I stood, shaking my gauntlet free of dirt, and started off, following the slope of the earth. My nostrils flared as I walked, searching about the slowly darkening forest for a hint of Elisabeth’s scent. The forest scents - pine sap, deer droppings, carcasses ripped apart and left to rot, pine needles and leaves rotting in the underbrush - fought over domination in my nose. Pushing all those scents down, sorting through what I smelled, I pushed on.
Night fell, and still nothing, but I did not stop or slow my steps. Even if it took a week, a month, I would not rest until I dragged that brat before the Emperor.
As I approached a clearing, my eyes fell upon a group of wolves stretching and settling down for the night. Near them, just past them, a rock face with trailing vines offered a barrier to watch their backs.
And perhaps, a way into the tunnels.
Rolling my neck, I stepped out of the forest. Three heads snapped up in my direction and a low growl came from the one closest to me.
I met it with a growl of my own, showing my fangs and releasing the tight grip on my aura. Daring them to see me as prey.
The moment my aura crashed upon them, the wolves shrank back, their growls turning to low whimpers and yips, tails tucked between their legs. I pulled back my aura and strode forward, one eye on the wolf pack as I searched the rocks. My fingers glided over the rocks, barely touching them as I walked.
The tingle of familiar magic prickled over my fingers, up my wrist and arm, before I yanked back my hand.
“Here you are,” I growled out.
Breathing in slowly through my nose, I lifted my arms towards the obscured opening and released a wave of unraveling magic with a steady exhale through my mouth.
The barrier buckled and shattered under the assault. As soon as the barrier was gone, the faint acrid scent of human sweat met my nostrils.
“Found you.”
As I took a step towards the opening, I heard a growl behind me and I glanced over my shoulder. A grey-muzzled wolf with patchy fur bristled behind me, growling low, her tail and hackles raised.
“You must know the owner of this place,” I mused, turning fully to the old wolf. “Are you the reason the pack over there settles here? Because whoever lives here knows you?”
The elder continued to growl, and I noted one of her eyes was cloudy, while the other was a bright blue. A half-blind, old wolf is your only defense, huh? Must have had a lot of confidence in that barrier.
“Don’t fight me,” I told the wolf, “just live with your family until your time. This isn’t a fight you can win, elder.”
The wolf didn’t listen. As soon as I turned towards the opening and took a step, she lunged. A sigh escaped my lips as I whipped around, grabbing the wolf under her neck and holding her aloft. The wolf snarled and growled, snapping, trying her best to get to me.
Even like this, I could tell she was in her last year. A shame.
With a twist of my wrist and a loud snap, the wolf stopped struggling. I tossed the beast away, towards her pack, and the wolves scattered into the forest. They, at least, could see when they were outclassed.
Turning on my heel, I strode into the dark tunnel. My eyes adjusted quickly, easily; my steps threw echoes ahead of me, and I smiled to myself, thinking of the fear that would cause the brat.
Serves her right for making me have to find her in the middle of the night.
The tunnels seemed to go for miles. The scent of her was all I had to orient myself within the earth. Her scent began to get stronger and I quickened my steps, lengthening my stride. As I rounded a bend in the tunnel, I came to an abrupt stop.
It wasn’t just my steps that stopped.
I felt my heart, my breath, my mind, all stutter to stop, feeling as if I’d just been bucked off a horse.
My eyes widened as I took in the creature before me clutching a quarterstaff. Silver-blonde hair under an odd gold circlet cascaded over pointed ears, past fair, slender shoulders, falling upon a loose tunic that belied the lithe body clothed within. Loose trousers tucked into the tops of soft leather boots, his legs splayed in a fighter’s ready stance. Nothing about them gave away anything-
But it was the eyes that drew me in.
Deep, amethyst eyes locked with my own and I lost control of my aura. It spilled out and I could see the effects on them before I could reel it back in.
Swallowing with difficulty, I clamped down on my aura and spoke, forcing my voice out past a thick tongue and dry throat. “Who are you?”
My eyes darted to their neck as they swallowed, the movement calling to a part of me long dormant. I forced myself to look again at their face, but even there, I felt the strange tug. The purring temptation of home caressed my instincts, fanning the growing flame.
When the beauty didn’t move or respond, I cleared my throat. The intake of breath required flooded my nostrils with their floral scent and when they flinched from the sound, my heart seized.
Get a hold of yourself, you stupid lizard-
“I dislike repeating myself,” I said, bulldozing my way past the instincts screaming in my head. “I am looking for someone. A princess who lost her way. Her scent is near here.”
They flinched again, their knuckles white on their staff, inching closer to the entrance of a side cave - or maybe another tunnel.
“Are you hiding her? You’ve no reason to,” I said slowly, lowering my voice. “She’s the guest of the Emperor. As a citizen of the Empire, you have an obligation to return her safely to me.”
“She has said a different tale,” the vision finally spoke, their voice like gentle chimes on a spring afternoon.
I had to take another steadying breath before putting my foot down on my wildly out of control emotions. Then I started to close the distance between us with slow steps.
“I do not know what tale she has spun for you,” I began, keeping my voice calm. Even that, it seemed, affected the being, as they straightened and steadied themself in the entrance. “I am Captain Zeydrick of the Order of Holy Knights. I serve directly under the Emperor. I am escorting the princess to his Imperial Highness, under his orders, and with the cooperation of her mother, Jarl Patrova of Tolstal. Are you going to interfere in official Imperial business?”
The being met my eyes as I stood just a foot away, their height only getting their head to the middle of my chest. Even as they lifted their chin to meet my eyes, I knew such a position would strain their neck if they stayed like that for too long.
Slightly parted lips caught my eyes, capturing them, refusing to let go. The urge to kiss them - to claim those lips - wrapped around me like a vice.
From their shuddering breath and lightly dusted cheeks, I could tell I was not alone.
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