Romanoff Dukedom: Eschira Forest (3)

Ivar met the gaze of Ulysses, urging him to utter an excuse.

To his dismay, Parvor kept his reticence as he looked down on the ground to cut off their connection. Sparing the young man, Ivar just moved on to Aaviren. Withal, Aaviren Brosch was quick to close his eyes to avoid the impending interrogation.

"What should I do to the two of you? You had the knack to fight in the middle of our mission? If Ius knew about this, it is for sure that you wouldn't be earning his compassion. Or would you like it if I inform him regarding this little fight of yours?"

Remarking his words, a cold shiver ran down the spines of the troublemakers. They didn't even resist the crushing sensation on their skulls to not anger Ivar further. In that instant, they simply wanted to beg for his mercy, given that Ius' rage was the most difficult thing in this world for them to handle.

"I hope you won't be distracted again, alright? Because, the next time that the both of you do this, I will not hesitate to report it to Ius. Now, let's make our way to where Ius is. He's waiting for us."

More than overjoyed, Ulysses and Aaviren felt that their eventual end was set aside for another time. At any rate, they heaved a sigh of relief when Ivar freed them from his hold. They looked at each other and nodded, agreeing to make peace through their thoughts.

Soon afterward, Ivar began his stroll en route to the entrance of the forest. His comrades trailed his track, integrating themselves within the hushed harmony of the forest. The distant chirping of birds and the occasional growling of the beasts, the whistling of the ever gentle wind as it rocked the leaves, prompting them to rustle their feelings of comfort, milled to and fro, intermingling with nature.

Concurrent to completing half of the distance they needed to travel, Aaviren lowered his gaze to monitor what he was walking on. Though, once he did, his eyebrows furrowed so deeply that their near ends could've grazed each other.

Underneath the scarce moonlight, seeping through the spaces permitted by the greeneries, he perceived the shadow of Ivar and spoke regarding his observations, "Sir Chroly, why is your shadow not concordant with your movements?"

Darting his gaze towards the young man behind him, Ivar queried, "What are you trying to say, Aaviren?"

"Sir Chroly, I was watching your shadow. I noticed that, whenever you move your arms, it doesn't seem to be following." Aaviren proceeded to lift his arm, pointing a finger at his shadow that was plastered on a tree trunk. "See, my shadow's arm is moving too. It's just strange that yours is unresponsive."

It was not farfetched to say that Ivar was weirded out by his comrade's remarks. Thinking logically, the shades of the leaves might solely be obstructing Aaviren's view of Ivar's shadow. That being the case, Chroly heaved a frustrated sigh as he prepared to reprimand the young man, who he thought was being absent-minded.

"Aaviren, you've been disobeying everything that Ius had ordered for us to do. Do you loathe the mission that much for you to bring up all the trivial things that you see?"

As Ivar raised his right fist, Aaviren flinched, cowering afore the impending hit that he was bound to get. Brosch quickly shut his eyes and waited for the pain to assault him.

But after a few seconds had passed but no punch landed on him, he obtained the courage to open one of his eyes slowly.

The instant that he did, he saw Ivar who seemed to have become a statue with his arm still above his head. Aaviren then blinked a couple of times, bewildered by what he was seeing.

"S-sir Chroly, are you alright? Are you not going to hit me anymore?" Aaviren tried to lead the conversation into one that would favor him.

Ivar, for the time being, merely stared at the ground. His eyes gave an impression that he was incriminating the sinless gibber stones and patches of grass and dirt. He was not the sort of person to suddenly turn cynical, the reason why Aaviren and Ulysses began to ruminate about what was happening to him.

The two looked at each other and nodded, uniting their thoughts on how to approach the situation.

Together, they took a step forward and poked Ivar's shoulders with their index fingers. To their delight, Ivar did notice their actions and addressed them right away, "What do you think you're doing?"

"You stopped moving, Sir Chroly"

"We're wondering if you died while standing or something."

Aaviren and Ulysses raised their sentiments respectively, quickly retreating out of the range of Ivar's arms in fear of his retaliation.

"It's nothing. Let's get a move on. I'm sure Ius is going to fetch us himself if we don't arrive at the entrance by the ensuing minute." Ivar said as he turned his back against the two.

He began his stroll without elucidating on things any further, leaving Aaviren and Ulysses all the more perplexed by his strange demeanor.

Nevertheless, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it if the man himself wasn't willing to let them know what the problem was. The two simply settled on clicking their anxious tongue to their lips as they trailed Ivar's steps sans uttering a word of complaint.

Once he made sure that Ivar wasn't paying attention to them, Aaviren tapped Ulysses on the elbow. The latter just returned the gesture with a glare, urging Brosch to speak up.

Aaviren began to mouth what he wanted to say, 'It's weird. Why is Sir Chroly not saying anything.'

Disappointingly, Ulysses appeared to be struggling to decode his inaudible way of communication. His shoulders slumped back as he heaved a sigh, restraining himself from initiating another bout of bickering with the young Parvor.

With that, Aaviren gave up on letting Ulysses know what he was thinking.