Chapter 232: Chapter 232

232 Chapter 232 : Her voice

The beautiful hybrid rolled her eyes at Jacob “I don’t need you to go with me.” She turned around and flipped her hair making the elf smirk. “I’ll be fine all on my own.”

Jacob quickly moved from his place and stood in front of the beautiful woman. “And why is that? What’s in the forest that you can’t seem to get enough of?”

“It’s none of your business Jacob now move..”

The truth is that there was nothing in particular that peaked Eira’s interest in the forest, she just loved being surrounded by nature and felt at home in the forest. The fresh air, the crunching of brunches and leaves under her feet, the sounds of birds and even the flattering of the wings of butterflies, she loved it all. But for some reason her father was very strict about her going into the forest, in fact, he was so against her going there that he had erected a fence at the back of the palace where the woodlands spilled in. Not that the fence did much to stop Eira, she was able to teleport. Sometimes Eira wondered if there was more to it, maybe he wasn’t just trying to keep her out of the forest, but was also trying to keep something in the forest right where it was, but whenever she would ask him about it he would always dodge the question.

Jacob took Eira’s hand, “there’s only two options Eira, your father gave me specific instructions to keep you away from there. Me escorting you is just a curtesy.”

Eira’s perfect eyebrows arched in surprise, “my father..?” She was surprised that he would actually ask people to make sure she didn’t go out into the forest. What was in there that he wanted to keep her from so bad.

Suddenly, Jacob felt a hand grab his shoulder, that grip was all too familiar and he didn’t like it when he held him like that.

“No need for your curtesy Jacob, I will escort princess Eira into the forest if she so pleases.”

Jacob let go of the princess’ hand and turned to look at Zhelimir. It always stung Jacob at how much Zhelimir had changed over the years from the small timid boy he had first met. The blonde hybrid was incredibly tall and well built with a firm chest and chiseled jawline. His eyes were still soft but his facial expressions were always serious, well, until and unless he was speaking to Eira.

.....

Zhelimir, just like his father and Damien had anticipated, had become an unbelievably excellent swordsman and knight in training. He had remarkable strength that made all his opponents tremble, and he had a swiftness and speed that was almost unreal. Even Jacob who was a considerably great knight in training, felt just a tad intimidated by him.

“Zhel..” Jacob mumbled with a smile, “of course you would show up. Just like the loving older brother that you are.”

Another thing that Jacob did not like about Zhelimir was that he was incredibly handsome, and even though him and Eira were cousins, Jacob still felt like he was a bit of a threat.

Zhelimir lightly pulled Jacob back and moved to stand by Eira’s side. He knew that Jacob was a bit smitten with his cousin, in fact one would say he was almost in love with her, and Zhelimir was not comfortable with that. Jacob was not the most noble man in the kingdom, and him and Zhelimir had never been in good books hence the blonde hybrid did not approve of Jacob for Eira. When they were younger Eira would always look out for Zhelimir and that made him very overprotective of her, especially now that he had the strength to keep her from harm’s way.

“We’ll be leaving now..” Zhel turned to Eira and cocked his head towards the forest. “Come Eira, the sooner we leave the sooner we can return.”

Jacob knitted his eyebrows as he watched the two vanish form sight. He knew Zhelimir deliberately got in the way of any attempt at him spending time with Eira. That bastard.

*

When Eira and Zhelimir materialized in the forest, the blonde hybrid stepped back and gave Melissa a disapproving glare. “Eira..”

“I know I know.. I’m not supposed to be here..”

“You know your father doesn’t feel safe about you venturing the woods,” Zhelimir explained. “How long have you been sneaking out to come here?”

Eira scoffed and walked passed the blonde elf, “I’m not a child Zhel, father is just trying to be overprotective over nothing. The worst I can come across here is a deer, you have nothing to worry about.”

“It doesn’t matter his intentions, he is your father and what he says is always in your best interest.”

“Thats just the thing,” Eira spoke as she continued walking further into the forest, “that’s all he ever says, that it is in my best interest, but he never really did explain what he’s protecting me from.”

Zhelimir followed her closely, pushing the vines, leaves and branches from his face as he moved. Why did it seem like she knew this place well? Had she really been sneaking out here when no one knew?

The blonde walked hurriedly to keep up with her until the narrow forest path opened up into somewhat of a clearing. He stopped and gaped at Eira in awe as she floated around the clearing, as she did, pixies rustled out of their hiding places, animals also crawled out of their burrows and little shrubs, surrounding her and swaying with her as she pranced around. What were pixies doing all the way here?

“It’s beautiful out here isn’t it?” Eira giggled as the pixies swirled happily around her, “how could such a place ever be dangerous?”

A smile tagged Zhelimir’s lips, and before he knew it he found himself sitting down on a rock and watching her joyfully prancing around the woods. It seemed she really did just enjoy.

*

Elric finished cutting up the venison and packed it in his satchel. It had been a while since he had some fresh meat and he couldn’t wait to make a good stew and relax. He got up in readiness to leave when he heard a sound he had not heard in very long time. The sound of laughter.

The silver haired man secured his satchel over his shoulder and walked steadily and slowly towards where the sound was coming from, what made it even more intriguing was that it was the laughter of a woman. What was a woman doing all the way out here?

He approached a shrub and hid himself behind it before peeking into the clearing ahead, and what he saw drew the very breath from his lungs. There, not too far from him, dancing and laughing was her, the woman that he used to see in his dreams and hallucinations.

Elric took a step back and rubbed his eyes unable to believe what he was seeing but then peeked a second time.

“Princess it’s time for us to leave now,” a blonde man Elric did not recognize spoke to the red headed woman.

“You are such a bore Zhel,” the woman responded with a giggle.

Her voice, it was the most mesmerizing thing Elric had ever heard, never before had he heard her voice before, even in his dreams she would always just lips her words. As a matter of fact, he had not seen her in over sixteen years, why was he suddenly seeing her now? Was she still a figment of his imagination? Or was she real? And if she was real, who was she? And why had she been constantly haunting his dreams?

The man took a step forward to try and get a better look at the woman but accidentally stepped on some brunches making the redhead pause and turn towards his direction.

Elric was at loss for words when his eyes landed on her face, it was definitely her, and she was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. The silver haired man was conflicted, he wanted to approach her and speak to her, ask her if she knew him, but at the same time he wanted to turn away end flee, afraid that interacting with her may trigger some old memories he did not want to uncover.

“What’s wrong Eira?” The blonde man spoke. He slowly got up and placed his hand on his sword before taking a step forward. “Do you sense something?”

“I.. I’m not sure.” Eira took a few steps towards where Elric was hiding. Upon seeing her inching closer, the man panicked and transformed into his wolf before dashing away.

“Wait!” Eira ran towards the bush but only saw a glance of the silver wolf that was disappearing into the thickness of the forest.

A hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. “Eira we need to leave now!” Zhelimir demanded, he had sensed a foreign presence in the direction the princess was heading and his senses were screaming at him to leave. “Let’s go.” He pulled Eira onto him and they both vanished.