Drethia Castle (Part 3)

Entering the room the servant girl was guided over to a chair carefully by General Vulen. Her eyes were a jade green and the elf girl had long hair the color of a beautiful sandy beach. Once she was sitting down General Vulen turned and stepped away from her to rummage through some things inside a desk.

"What are you doing?" The girl asked him.

General Vulen did not look back at her as he continued his search til he eventually pulled out a roll of bandages, "If you don't wrap it properly it will worsen. You shouldn't needlessly move around for a while."

"Pfft." The girl tried to hold in her laughter at the sight of the general acting kind. Realizing she was rude she quickly spoke a few words to him seeing his face had darkened, "I'm sorry."

"Maybe I should have just ignored it after all.." General Vulen mumbled to himself as he felt like he had picked up something bothersome. He knew the rumors about himself were not kind outside of his home kingdom. Covering his face with the palm of his hand he sighed deeply with exhaustion from dealing with everything.

"Hey," General Vulen spoke up to her as he walked over, knelt down I front of her, and began to wrap the girl's twisted ankle. "I don't know what you find entertaining about this but you should be more cautious in the future if you intend to work for the vampires here in Drethia."

"I think I know them better then you, General Vulen." She smiled cheerfully down at the kneeling general. She had lived for years in Drethia so she was not worried about how difficult things were for her. However she could understand how the general was only looking out for her in his own way. "Thank you for your worry. You are different from the rumors but something tells me if you came all the way here they still hold some truth."

General Vulen's hands froze while wrapping the bandages before speaking up, "What are you referring to?"

"The only reason people attempt to meet with the king of Drethia is when they feel as if they have ran out of other options. You came for Queen Lyra, right?" She asked him openly about her assumption.

"Mind your words, m'lady." General Vulen finished wrapping her ankle and stood up. Turning away from her as he'd left her sitting in silence. She felt embarrassed for upsetting the general as her question had held no harmful motive. It was something she had simply been curious about and could not refrain from asking about directly when faced with him.

"Why did you help me?" The girl asked him after a long pause while staring at General Vulen's back from where she sat.

"Do I need a reason to help someone having a difficult time?" General Vulen asked her in return. "Name?"

"Huh?" The elf girl suddenly was caught off guard as she realized her name had still not been given to him. "Oh.. My name is Solana"

"... Miss Solana," General Vulen spoke slowly as he glanced over at her, "should I have something brought for you to eat?"

The best thing to help calm someone in a troubling situation was something to eat. That was something he had learned from years of experience in dealing with people. General Vulen while working in his home kingdom of Yiven often found himself in awkward situations with people. It could have been something as simple as calming down someone he helped out of a troubling situation or in dealing with his king when he was upset over the kingdom's affairs. Something delicious always seemed to help calm their nerves.

"Did you help me because we are both elves?" At her sudden question she could see the general pause. His hand sliding against his forearm as he gripped it in hesitation to answer her.

General Vulen thought carefully about how to answer her sudden question before opening his mouth, "Does my reason for helping you really matter that much to you?"

"Is it really wrong of me to want to know why?" Solana had heard the rumors about the one known as General Vulen. Everything from the rumors of him being in love with the queen of Ethiadan, Lyra, to the rumors of the terrible things he'd done for her over the years. The people of his own kingdom knew of him as a general that respected and thought highly of however when you left the elven Kingdom of Yiven and went beyond his home kingdom he was only seen as a ruthless killer, a savage dog of the ice queen, and the silent butcher who could slaughter a village in the dead of night without notice.

The rumors and what she saw in front of her seemed too polar opposite. She could barely contain her curiosity in what drove the man before her. To love someone to the point of being willing to face treason against his own king by making a deal with the king of Drethia in order to give the person what they wanted.

That is not love.. It's just an obsession. He has become so blinded by his loyalty to Queen Lyra that he can't even realize it. It'll be disastrous for him. Solana thought to herself as she watched him preparing a response to her question.

"How about we get something for you to eat first," General Vulen felt strange with the way the girl was staring at him, he could not understand what she was thinking about, "once you've ate you can ask me whatever you want before you leave."

Solana thought about it for a moment before nodding her head in agreement, "Alright, you must remember those words."

General Vulen flinched as he felt like something uncomfortable was about to happen from her response, "I'll have someone prepare something for you. While they take care of that and you eat I will be taking a moment for myself as well."

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"... I was training earlier. What else could I want to do right now? Bathe." General Vulen spoke plainly as he headed towards the bedroom door. His response left Solana with a feint rosy tint to her cheeks at the embarrassing images of the general flashing through her mind.

General Vulen was not aware nor did he have any interest in Solana's embarrassment towards his response. Even if she was a beautiful elf his mind was still filled with thoughts of fullfilling his task while he was in Drethia. He wanted to get things done as quickly and perfectly as possible. It was not time for him to waste thoughts about other things. "Did you help me because we are both elves?" Her question echoed in the back of his mind like a ghost. He could not deny the fact that he had helped her because she was an elf. It was true that he had helped many people over the years when he saw someone in trouble. General Vulen was not someone who was incapable of being kind to others no matter how desperate he was to do even filthy tasks to gain praise from Queen Lyra.

The reason that question haunted him was because at the time he had stepped forehead because the sight of a fellow elf being bullied had bothered him. His kind were not more then servants to the vampires within Drethia's castle. They were treated as a source of food. It made his stomach feel nauseous. However that was not the only thing that bothered him when he saw Solana being harshly scolded by that other servant.

General Vulen realized that there was a sliver of guilt inside him towards his own decision to go through with his task for the Ice Queen. A tinge of guilt and pained him when he thought of how he was betraying his own kingdom for her the more he came to understand that no matter the outcome she still would never cast a glance in his direction and accept his heart. It was suffocating and heavy in his chest. He could not understand what the feeling was that was slowly growing in him over the past months. Ever since that beast had showed up it was like a fog covering his eyes was slowly drifting while he was slipping and drowning in a cruel reality that his queen was getting further and further from his reach.

No perhaps she was never within his reach to begin with. However General Vulen could not abandon her.