Chapter 153: Chapter 153

153 Chapter 153 : Departure

Gareth put on his boots and tightened his cloak. Finally the news that he had been waiting for for the past forty seven excruciating hours had finally come. Finwe watched his brother frantically shove his belongings into his satchel and then when he was done, he took out a beautiful gold ring with an aquamarine gemstone and gently placed it in his pocket.

“Brother?” Finwe spoke with a stutter. He didn’t pay attention to the ring the first time Gareth had proposed to Melissa but now that he could see it clearly he was stunned. “Where did you get that ring?”

Gareth looked up at Finwe in shock, “wasn’t it you who placed it in my chambers the day I wanted to propose to Mel?”

“Me?” Finwe responded surprised, are you sure of this.

Gareth dug into his other pocket and handed a piece of parchment to Finwe. “That was the note that was with the ring when I found it.”

Finwe began to read the note and furrowed his eyebrows in the process. He had seen this writing style before somewhere but he couldn’t remember where. The note read;

‘This is the family engagement ring. Give it to her, it doesn’t matter who it is, as long as you feel it in your heart that you cannot live without her, put this ring on her finger. You have my blessing.’

“This was you wasn’t it?” Gareth asked his brother.

“No,” Finwe responded, “this is the ring that has been passed down from our ancestors, as far down the line as king Sephlon. It’s the same ring our father gave to mother. When they married it was stored away in our vaults for the next king to present to his wife.”

.....

Gareth pulled out the ring again and inspected it, “do you think it was mother?”

“I highly doubt it,” Finwe responded, “at the time you found it, mother was totally against you and Melissa, I doubt she would give you a family heirloom like this to propose to her.”

A knock at Gareth’s door reeled the men out of their separate reveries. The door swung open and Zander walked in, “your graces, sorry to interrupt but Dvalin and his men are ready to proceed to Gavaria. The faster we move, the quicker we accomplish this mission.”

“Thank you Zander,” Gareth replied as he threw his satchel over his shoulder, “let’s move out.”

Finwe stood frozen in place for a few minutes as Gareth exited the room, still looking at the note. Who could have left this for Gareth? And the way it was written, as if whoever who wrote it had a hunch Gareth would propose to a woman who wasn’t an elf. “Hmm strange.”

“Brother!” Gareth’s voice came booming, making Finwe jump.

“I’m coming!” Finwe responded and rushed out of the room to where the men had gathered. He stood beside his brother and noticed Dvalin was standing in front of them with a large golden chest that contained different weapons.

“I understand war is not what we’re going for,” Dvalin spoke, “and honestly that pisses me off. But still I can’t let the lot of you go out with those pathetic excuses for weapons.” The dwarve king gestured one of his men to begin distributing the weapons to the eight men.

“Ozias, I noticed the clab is your weapon of choice,” Dvalin spoke as his soldier handed Ozias a shiny club with spikes at the tip. “Toss out the wooden one you have and take that. It is made with a metal called aluminum. It is extremely light but ridiculously durable.”

Ozias swung the club back and forth and smiled, “it’s so light, than you king Dvalin.”

The soldier then handed Odran an axe with a silver head.

“The handle of that axe is made from an iron wood tree called buloke, toughest wood out there,” Dvalin explained, “and the head is made of silver, keep that away from Gareth’s sweetheart.” He added on with a chuckle.

The group snickered while Gareth rolled his eyes. Having seen Melissa in battle he knew she would probably decapitate Odran before he even got the chance.

Next the soldier walked to Roland and presented him with two twin daggers.

“Those daggers are as a result of a little experiment by my highly skilled forgers,” Dvalin explained, “with a hilt of aluminum and a blade of what we call carbon-steel, those daggers can split a hair into two strands if wielded properly, use them well.”

Next, Beric was given a spear made of iron wood and a head of steel. “This is beautiful, thank you king Dvalin.”

The king nodded and turned to Ivan, “and for you Ivan” the dwarve king spoke, “I have to say, I find your weapon of choice very odd, but I admire it nonetheless.”

The soldier walked over to Ivan and handed him a steel flail whose handle was made of iron wood and spikes made of silver.

“Use it well Ivan,” Dvalin spoke.

“Thank you,” Ivan responded as he admired his weapon, “I will put it to good use.”

The way Ivan said that last part made the other men shudder, someone should definitely take that weapon away from him.

Next was Zander was was given a bow made of of three types of wood; cedar, maple and bamboo, glued together. And a leather quiver stacked with steel arrows.

Finwe was given a pair of steel sickles and finally, prince Gareth was given a black steel sword that had a hilt of cedar wood.

Finwe looked at the sword his brother was holding wide eyed, “is that..”

“Yes,” Dvalin spoke proudly, “it belonged to your father, it is called the night fang. An unbreakable sword that turns silver in the when it senses bloodlust.”

Dvalin walked to Gareth and pat him on the shoulder, “he told me to give it to you a long time ago,” the king spoke, “may it serve you well boy.”

*

It seems Carol was right, Melissa was experiencing nausea most of the days, early in the morning and late in the evening. But thanks to Carol’s ginger teas and scented baths, she was able to get over it as quickly as it would come.

The red head sipped the last of her ginger tea and put the cup back on the tray, “thank you Carol,” Melissa spoke in gratitude. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Don’t mention it your highness,” Carol responded as she lifted the tray, “it is my duty to serve you. Now please relax, or is there something you wish to do today?”

“No I’m alright,” Melissa responded and dismissed the maid. She sat down on her usual chair near the window and admired the beautiful garden below that was slowly changing colors to beautiful shades of brown, gold and grey. The fall was always so beautiful to Melissa for some reason, ever since she was a child. Maybe it was because it reminded her of something she could never obtain, death.

“Winter is quickly approaching.”

The red head turned around and came face to face with Elric who was squatting by her side.

“When did you-”

“Lycans are very light on their feet,” Elric responded and tucked a loc of hair behind the woman’s ear. “I hope you’ve had your tea my wife, because I wish to steal you for a moment.”

“And take me where?”

“Do you remember me mentioning a surprising that I had for you?” The handsome king spoke lovingly, “it’s ready.” He stood up and reached for the woman’s hand. “Shall we?”

Melissa nodded and took one last look out the window, her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of the woman who had tried to kill her at her wedding, she was sitting on a bench next to a man who looked a lot like Elric, was that one of his brothers? Well that was a very unlikely pair, she wondered what they were talking about.

“Come along beautiful,” Elric spoke as he pulled Melissa out of her seat, “you’re going to love this.”

Outside the palace in the gardens, Clovis and Julia were sitting in an awkward silence. Julia was confused as to why the prince still insisted on being around her when he barely said a word to her these days. She had tried avoiding him but he would always send for her whenever she did, and would sit with her in silence just like this.

The man was very strange, were all lycans so weird.

“Julia,” the man spoke while pointing at her cup, “you’re drenching yourself in tea.”

Julia looked at her hands and noticed she was spilling tea on the neckline of her dress. Had she gotten so absent minded that she had missed her mouth entirely? She put down the cup and stood up. Well this was embarrassing.

Clovis put done his own cup and walked towards the woman. He pulled out a napkin from his pocket and proceeded to dubbing the tea stain gently. For some reason the gesture made Julia blush but she immediately chided herself. Hadn’t she learnt her lesson about men , they were all just out to use her.

“That’s a little better,” Clovis spoke as he tossed the napkin onto the table. “You should be more careful next time, the tea could have burnt you.”

“T- thank you,” she muttered incoherently.

Clovis was about to walk away when his eyes landed on her emerald green orbs, he had never noticed the color of her eyes before, they were very captivating.

“You have such beautiful eyes,” the man uttered without thinking, making both of them freeze in place.

Clovis quickly stepped back and turned around to hide the pink that had dusted his cheeks. Had he really just said that out loud? What the hell was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he able to stay away from this woman? Why was she constantly on his mind? And why was he unable to control his speech around her? This was madness.