They set off again with full bellies and Arawn and Evanna ahead of the rest, following the trail. Where before the path had been going up an ongoing hill, it was now flat, the fields bare, skies white and grey. The grass gradually started to beco solid, crunching beneath their feet.
Evanna glanced at the ground and back to Arawn, who had been watching her. She blinked up at him, wondering what he was thinking. Instead of his usual stoic and emotionless self, the prince was looking at her with warmth, lting the iciness usually surrounding him. He even seed more approachable to others, that was. Evanna had been approaching him for so ti now.
"Have you ever seen snow before?" Arawn questioned.
Evanna shook her head. "Only in a dream," she trailed off, rembering the dream she first shared with her mother at the beginning of this quest.
"How did your mind conjure up snow if you had never seen it before?" Arawn asked, watching her carefully as his boots crunched into the earth. "*Unless.. your mother dream walked with you?*"
Evanna nodded with a small smile before her gaze scanned their surroundings again. It was embedded in her, in all of them, to stay sharp.
"I know what it looks like and that it is cold.." Evanna slipped slightly on the ground and stopped walking to assess it more. "Why.." She kneeled and ran her gloved hand along the shiny ground.
"Ice. Did you not get it in Dunhurst?" Arawn lowered his hand to assist her to stand again.
Evanna continued to stare at the ground, a little fascinated by it, as she took Arawn’s hand. When their fingers touched, the princess t his burning gaze and was pulled into him more, absorbed in those crystal blue eyes.
"Dunhurst was never cold enough," Ger growled from behind them. Evanna snapped out of her trance and glanced at her friend; he scowled and looked away. Evanna repressed a sigh from leaving her lips.
"That’s right," she agreed politely, nodding along.
Ger’s gaze slithered back to Evanna, his chest tightening and hands fisting. Arawn and Evanna were smiling away at each other, the princess with hearts in her eyes. He’d been watching them ever since they left after eating. Even when they weren’t interacting, Evanna would sneak a glance at Arawn, or the prince would randomly whisper in her ear. Evanna’s cheeks would grow a beautiful rosy hue, her eyes twinkling at the prince like he was so sort of god.
When Evanna was engaged to Conrad, she didn’t look at him the way she does, Arawn. Sure, Ger could see Evanna liked Conrad, which aggravated him to no end, especially with the rumours he’d heard about the northern prince and his philandering ways. Evanna deserved so much better, and this white-haired elf was not up to his standards. He waltzed in, charming her into acting like a silly girl, love-struck enough to allow him to sleep beside her last night.
Ger couldn’t imagine if sothing had happened between them, and the prince then left after having his way with Evanna. Ger hadn’t made advances on the princess because of who she was and the responsibilities that lay on her shoulders. He wanted to be that man for her to alleviate such pains, but he had barely brought his title back to that of nobility. Growing up with Evanna, Ger knew they could be great together, and although he hadn’t stepped forwards to be thee man, for her, it was as though a cloud of thunder and lightning remained over his head, keeping him in a foul mood. A mood that grew worse with the crippling hate towards himself and what he could see in front of him.
Even now, Evanna giggled about sothing Arawn said. It probably wasn’t even that funny. He had made her laugh many tis over the years. He had brought a smile upon her face during tis of struggle, not Arawn. Yet, this prince had swooped in and was taking her away from him.
"They make it so obvious," Ger snapped, his irritation growing the longer he continued to watch them. "Flirting so shalessly in front of us."
Axel followed Ger’s gaze, looking at the elven prince and their princess. They walked side by side, discussing Lyvaria and the mountain range the Lyvarian’s palace resided alongside. Evanna looked intrigued and a little startled. It did sound magnificent and purely outrageous with so of the prince’s descriptions. But Axel didn’t see the pair flaunt what seed to be the beginning of a relationship.
Unlike Ger, Axel did not hold such feelings for Evanna. For one, she was too young, and for two, she was more like a sister, a sister who lived in the palace and not from the poor origins he was from. Axel still felt conflicted towards prince Arawn and Evanna, they t under such circumstances that might make the princess more inclined to accept him, but after spending ti with her, he knew Evanna was the most capable, strong-willed and mind not to fall into so type of trap. She had also shown how skilful she was with a blade or two, and although Arawn was also skilled, Evanna could put up a good fight against him.
If it were ever to get to such a stage where Evanna needed help, Axel and the others would be quick to follow whatever path she took. For now, he would protect her from afar. But sothing in his gut told him Arawn was sincere towards her.
Axel clamped his hand on Ger’s shoulder as he watched the young man’s nostrils flaring. "They are talking, Ger. Whatever anger and hurt you feel towards them, let it go." He squeezed Ger’s shoulder after the man still glared in Arawn and Evanna’s direction. It didn’t help that Arawn saw Ger and smirked at him.
Ger jolted forwards, but Axel’s firm grip held him in place. Ronan popped up by Ger’s other side and gripped his upper arm harshly, halting their walk. "Get yourself together, man. Are you really going to fight the Florian prince?" He growled harshly into Ger’s face. "I saw them last night. This is happening whether you like it or not. Now get a grip before that scary elf, Garrett, decides you’re too dangerous to continue on this journey."
Axel and Ger followed Ronan’s gaze as the elf in question, and Fiza walked around them. Garrett watched them suspiciously while Fiza shook her head, her lips pulling up in amusent. The night fae found it highly amusing to see these ’n’ fighting over the princess. Neither of them was worthy.
’Raven’ was no ordinary elven-fae. She held such powers that many would kill for. In the fae lands, many had killed for. Raven was precious, so precious, and she didn’t even know her origins. It made her wonder how much the prince knew about her.
Fiza could see his feelings were true. If they were not, she might have sunk her stars into him the first mont she’d seen him.
"Fiza," Garrett’s voice pulled her from her reverie. They walked behind the lovebirds she’d seen the night before under the stars, bathing in the lake.
"Hmm?" Sohow the elf had engaged her in a decent conversation. He was skilled enough not to press for answers. Had he dealt with her kind so much before? She eyed him speculatively again from the corner of her eye before looking at the frost sparkling back at her along the flattened, frozen grass.
Garrett was brown-skinned, an elf not from these lands, yet sohow he ended up as prince Arawn’s right-hand man. She wondered if the Flori took in the refugee when he was young. From what he’d answered of her so far, from her trickster ways, he did not rember the dragon tars of his people. That’s right. HIS people that had long perished under the flas of the dragons fleeing his lands.
"*Do you miss your ho?*" Garrett asked, holding her gaze. "*Or do you prefer spying?*"
Fiza’s eyes twinkled at his attempt to reveal her intentions and who she worked for. "*Ho? I wander of my own accord. Spying? How could I spy when I am in your company. Tell , Garrett.. When was the last you lay with a woman?*" She eyed his muscular form and smirked as his lips thinned and eyes hardened.
"*How is that of your business?*"
Fiza shrugged, eyes wandering to the skies that were not so bright as to blind her now. Still, she squinted slightly and lowered her gaze. "*Because I want your attention, Garrett.*" She stepped closer to him, her hips swaying as she did so. The fae knew her outfit was scandalous to those born of these regions, but where she hailed from, it was normal.
But to these n, it was teasing and an easy distraction to their tiny minds that were fixated on silly personal questions about her. To use one’s womanly charms was not looked down upon in fae. "*It could be my business if you only.. say... it.. so.*" Her fingers walked up his muscular chest muscles that she almost needed to stretch to reach.
Garrett caught her fingers in a tight grip and lowered his face close to hers. This ti the n who had been discussing the princess earlier walked around them, but she did not pay them attention. She wondered what this brutish elf might do. "*Watch yourself, fae. Or I might start believing your lies. Then how will you wiggle out of my arms then?*"
"*Aww. Don’t worry. I have my ways.*" Fiza’s eyes glinted dangerously then, and she tapped the throwing star on his crotch. She smiled mischievously at the shiver that ran through him, and she turned from him, letting the elf’s gaze burn into her, lowering and watching the sway of her hips as she sauntered away.
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