Fan Fiction ❯ Earth's Reflection, My World ❯ Beasts ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine:

Beasts

When the man were cleaned, fed, and relaxed, they left.

All that was left, was Keurai, Eede, Xel and Vairon.

Keurai summoned his sister, and his intended, only to find she was busy with preparations for the upcoming ball.

When Neouri came, as was expected, the young galdilore came with her.

But, both were dressed differently than from before.

Neouri's hair was bound in a high braid, intertwined with threads of light lavender and silver. The dress she wore had no sleeves, but spaghetti straps, and a scooped neckline that was modest. The dress itself was the pale shade of blue at dusk. It was tight around her waist, and flowed from her hips to her knees. To his surprise, she wore the soft leather boots given to her by Keurai.

The galdilore wore a tunic of a pale yellow, threaded with gold. A belt of deep brown at his waist, and the same colored pants on his legs. His hoofed feet were bare, save the gold of his hoof which could be mistaken for a bizarre shoe. Only his horn protruding from his head, gave any indication to what he truly was.

His sister stood oddly at a discomfort with her brother.

He wore a crown upon his head. It was gold, and not at all ugly, and in the center was an amethyst crystal, sided by twin diamond. It was beautiful, with no hint to gaudiness. Keurai also wore a dark cape of deep purple his armor still on. He had a lot of blood on his left arm, and his leg looked pretty bad. Obviously, he and his other three companions hadn't bathed, or cleaned. They still looked like muddy warlords.

Neouri shivered.

She felt Cerin's quiet support beside her, and smiled at the four men.

Then she noticed Eede and Xel.

The brothers wore the same black garments they had picked her up in. Where before, they hadn't had armor, weapons, or blood, they did so now. They were fairly covered with it. Their hidden weapons dripped from the inside of their cape. She couldn't decide if what they wore was originally black or red, or if the blood was from the wounds of enemies, or their own.

Vairon wore clothes of deep navy blue. He wore a circlet on his head, on where in the center, a sapphire glowed on the darkness of his face. He had a gash on the side of his cheek, and a great deal of dirt had gathered on his chin.

She shrank back again.

She heard Cerin snort, a sound she had soon learned was one he made when irritated.

She smiled once more, in real humor.

"Good evening, friends." She said with a beaming smile. She missed Vairon's intake of breath, and the flash that traveled in Xel's and Eede's eyes. Keurai expelled his breath. "How did the battle go?"

Keurai sighed. "We tried to negotiate the terms of releasing the road, that way civilian's could escape, and there was less chance of them actually dying." He gave her a strange look, then gave Xel, Eede, and Vairon a look. "I don't know how to tell her."

Vairon and Eede grinned, Xel frowned. "Put it bluntly." Xel said.

Keurai blushed. "If I do, she will surely be embarrassed."

"Hmm. . ." Eede said thoughtfully. "Perhaps we could put it in a roundabout way?"

Vairon glared at the three simpletons, and bestowed Neouri a smile that would have taken her breath away, had she been looking. "Neouri, you know you are lovely, am I not correct?"

Neouri laughed. "And what do looks have to do with war?"

Realization dawned in Eede's eyes, and he smiled at her. "You'll see."

Vairon continued. "Anyway, you are lovely. A rare gem of dark beauty with your hair that shines like the night sky, and slumberous eyes that invite a man to think of what lies where he can only dream." Keurai coughed, and Vairon laughed at Neouri's blush. "Also, your strength makes a man think of what kind of sons you will bear him, and just how joyful a task it may be-" Keurai's hearty cough, and Neouri's wide eyed look of anger and embarrassment made his choke back his own laughter, and Xel he noticed, was biting his cheek, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "So, the one who started the battle demanded the only daughter of the king as the negotiating term."

Cerin though her face couldn't turn and redder. But it did.

Fury was emanating from her. "Demanded!?" she whispered, her voice soft, and chillingly calm.

Keurai gave her, her props. She was pissed, as he rightly was when the arrogant ass that demanded her walk, nay, swaggered up to him and demanded the One Princess.

Keurai learned more of his sisters names in a period of time, though not all of them he liked. One was Beastly Beauty. Princess of Power. Keurai's Treasure. Xel's Annoyance. Eede's Heart. Vairon's Sweet Battle.

He despised all those names, but one.

Ebony Angel.

Someone had called her an angel.

Looking at her bow, dressed in the colors of sunset, he could believe she was. Her hair was up, but he knew she looked helpless when her hair was down.

What's more, she had a galdilore.

That brought him to the reason he wanted her here, ignoring her anger, he waved his hand, and asked her. "Who is your friend?"

The galdilore didn't have a wild look in his eye.

Oh no, he looked like he would challenge the prince.

"Oh, him?" She placed her hands on her friend, and drew him in front of her, not to far that he felt placed in spotlight, but not too close he that their bodies touched. "This is C."

"C?" The four looked amazed that they had learned a galdilores name. Did she not know that it was forbidden? To learn a galdilores name meant they could-

Cerin broke into a smile, and the men knew that C was not his real name. Yet, did he give it to Neouri, they did not know.

Directing a critical gaze to the galdilore, Keurai asked. "Why?"

The galdilore's eyes softened as they turned to Neouri, who had looked at him quizzically. "She does not know what I am."
Neouri, not wanting to be made a fool of in front of her brother shook her head. "You are a galdilore, are you not? That is what you have said you are."
He reached a hand out to soothe her. "I am that."

She calmed.

Keurai finally understood. "She does not know what the giving of a galdilore's name means."

The other three men had darkened faces. "It is forbidden to give the name of a galdilore to someone who is not a warrior." Vairon said.

The galdilore stood straighter. "I have chosen a warrior! Whether you think she is not, or if she is. She is a warrior. She has fought, she has shed her own blood. She is a warrior."

Keurai sighed, and put a hand to his head. Neouri looked confused. "What are you talking about? C is my friend!" Her eyes took on a possessive, and defensive look. "He has given me his name of his own will. You cannot change that. Whatever the giving of his name means to either of us, and yourself."

Eede didn't know what to say. So he smiled. "He is your friend Neouri."

Keurai sensed that had failed to placate his prickly sister. "Very well, galdilore. You may stay within my walls, and protect my sister."

Still confused, Neouri found herself being escorted out, and to her room by Cerin.

******

Twilight is beautiful here, Neouri decided as she stared at the sky.

It was splashed violet, and deep blue, clouds at the horizon, chasing the dying rays of sunlight, the moon and the stars were alright shining softly. She could no longer see the glows of bloodfire and was glad for it. The eerie red color making her uneasy.

She was sitting on a bench, beneath a tree not far from the palace. The tree offered shade earlier, when she and Cerin had been out. And the cool breeze blew stronger here.

Cerin was on a high tree branch, one where he could see her, and anyone that came to the tree. He sat with his back against the trunk, and his legs outstretched on the branch, his arms folded behind his head. He tensed when he saw someone come over the hill, but relaxed when he realized who it was.

The breeze began to blow cold as she sat there watching the sun fade into the western horizons.

She stiffened when her ears picked up the sound of someone walking. But the wind was blowing to her advantage, and she caught the scent.

Lightning. She thought.

Xel.

He stood behind her when he arrived.

"It's late, aren't you going in soon?" He asked her.

Being her guardian must have been such a hard job for him. Poor Xel.

She didn't look at him when she answered. "No. I'll be in when I'm ready."

He sighed. "Fine."

He walked around her, and sat beside her on the bench.

He knew C was around, but he didn't know where. So he figured he wouldn't be able to hear anything if they began talking.

"What really happened?"

Xel seemed startled. "When?"

She turned to him. Xel didn't see her watching his profile as he looked up into the sky, and paled at how the moon was fading. . .fast. It was near it's last crescent, and when that happened. . . It would be a full twenty-nine days.

Neouri noticed his discoloring, and switched topics in her mind. "When you met Vairon, and Keurai. What happened?"

Xel sighed as those dark memories washed over him, and his feeling of rejection. How could they not have vanished? It was a weakness. If his father challenged him for his little town of outcasts, the rejection was his weakness.

"It was too hard for you to really accept." He said , his voice hard. "Eede has a hard time of it."

She could take a hint. "Did your parents leave you too?"

It wasn't the question that had provoked him to look at her, but the hurt in her voice.

She didn't look anywhere near sad, but the pain he had heard was unmistakable.

He had nearly forgotten, her birth parents had left her. At least her father.

He shook his head. "At least your mother tried to save you." He muttered. "Mine didn't want me, or Eede."

Neouri's shock was apparent as she watched him.

"My mother was a lower pack member." He said. "My father was a beta. Our pack had been the largest, so it was really a big deal in the power chain. My mother was beautiful though, and my father was handsome. So, he had taken my mother as his mistress." Xel didn't know why he felt compelled to tell Neouri this, but she was easy to talk to. She listened so raptly, Xel felt a little shy. He didn't want to tell her! Then why did he find himself. . . It was the time of the month. The time where all his human emotions want to exert themselves. That was the explanation he gave himself, and allowed that half to tell his story. "Eventually, my mother became pregnant, and she had me. She wasn't at all caring. She resented having given up her place as a beta's lover, just to care for his bastard child. When I was five, of age to be taken, and begin training as a warrior, I was thrown from the pack, and forced to live in the wilds alone.

"I survived, and when I was probably seven, or eight, Eede was born. He too, was thrown from the pack. We shared the same mother, and same father. I had resented him at first, because our mother had actually cared for him, and cried when the pack tossed him out. But, our father didn't want him."

He turned to Neouri then, a soft smile on his face, as anger burned in her eyes. It was obviously for Eede, he decided. For she would never be angered for him.

"Your mother didn't want you?" She asked angrily.

Xel's eyes widened.

"Then you didn't need a mother like that. Besides," She stood up, Cerin leapt from the tree and landed beside her. "I like the way you are." She ran off after, but not before Xel missed her face.

Her smile was so sincere, and so caring that he knew she meant it.

*****

I like the way you are. Xel heard her voice ringing in his head, saw her eyes as she said it to him.

He was lying in his bed that night, and knew she was only in the next room. If he tried, he could hear her breathing softly, and evenly. He could see her that first night she was here, in her white dress before the fire with her hair unbound. He could see her the day she ran away, the look that had been in her eyes.

And he could hear her laughter.

Xel thought it was amazing that he began lusting for her. But, it was not only her body he began to want. It was her.

He rolled over as a picture of her naked beneath the tree near the lake flashed again in his minds eye. He could see her golden skin, her full breasts and dusky nipples. Her delicate ribcage, and the graceful arch of her waist to her hips. And her hips, just the luscious, and softest he imagined. The type of hips he wouldn't mind nipping playfully in his attained form.

He moaned as he pictured what it would be like to see her in his bed. Not this one, but the one that was at his home.

"Damn animal." He thought, laughing harshly.

He kicked the sheets off, and his naked form was revealed on the bed. A dark shadow on white.

It was true, this girl was appealing to his more baser side. But then, it was nearly the last moon. It would begin to make it's appearance more often than not.

He could only pray he never caught the object of the beasts desires alone.

*****