Chapter 25 - Aola (1)

Fairies have different shapes of wings for each of its kind, but colours represent their deepest thoughts and feelings. Pure for lights and hatred for dark. Thus, fear those with black feathers and delight upon white pure ones.

-Excerpt from 'The Essential Book of Human Survival'.

Jonathan Lorth.

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"Is it true?" Elrin tilted her head to the side, eyes staring at a corner on her left side, facing a single tree standing high and proudly amidst thin trees. Biting her lips, she gazes down at her bare feet, playing with the colourful pebbles scattered near the edge of the lake.

Elrin seems hesitant for a bit, she raises her head and sees her mother's beautiful orbs, the same colour within hers. 

"There's a rumour," Elrin turned around once again, a little perturbed at the prospect of getting the answer she had desperately wanted, "The reason why you like this, because you save a human."

There's silence in the night and Elrin gathered her courage to find her mother's face. Only to meet with a warmth smile of hers that Elrin remembered clearly.

True was the words she uttered.

Silence and stilled in place.

"Then, is she living peacefully now?"

Her mother smiled once again, before shaking her head and whispered.

I don't know.

Elrin seems troubled by her mother's reply, "Then, will she live peacefully from now on?"

Lights flitted across her mother's orbs, finding the words her daughter uttered quite amusing.

Perhaps.

Elrin nodded her head, then clasped both her tiny hand before closing her eyes and whispered in the night.

What are you doing?

She opened her eyes, face lit up like the stars.

"Praying," her breathtaking smile stretched on her face.

"So she can live her life happily. She won't have to seek you once again in the future."

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The flight from the forest to the nearest village takes approximately fifteen minutes with frequent flaps of black wings. The entire time Raiene couldn't find it within herself to close her eyes and miss a single detail of enchanting and mesmerising scenery beyond her. It was truly breathtaking.

Once they descended from high above, she could feel her teary eyes turn sore, only when they touched the ground did she blink rapidly.

"We need to walk from here."

Artha let go of the girl from within his embrace, he could feel the slight itch of regret from doing so, the urge to once again breathing the floral scent that came from her hair or feeling her soft skin within his palm had rendered him stunned. But he suppressed that ridiculous desire, despite his skin feeling cold afterward.

However, he wasn't alone, Raiene feels the same way. She felt regret taking over her entire body, the feeling of losing that touch and warmth had greatly disappointed her. She was about to pout and recklessly demand to be held, when common sense hit her tenfold, right into her mind.

Have I gone mad?

Flustered, she managed to nod her head towards his cold voice from above her, but upon taking a glance at Artha's perfectly structured face, she found his eyes had turned its colour.

Instead of the astounding light purple orbs, black pair of pool obsidian stared right at her eyes, mighty and dark.

"How? Why? Your eyes?" Raiene could only mumble in both mesmerise and confusion. 

Artha realises once again, she truly isn't aware of basic knowledge about creatures or else how come she didn't know about the colour of destruction? 

Don't they teach everyone from a young age at Fussyorl?

She did mention this was the first time she's visiting Qye, but it was quite absurd and hard to believe the fact she isn't aware about colour interpretation within creatures.

Though duly noted, the Land of Qye is known as the only region that welcomes every creature into its civilian population, which is why the probability of runaways or lone creatures roaming the road was quite high and lack of strict measures upon those groups are quite prominent around here.

Perhaps she is a daughter of a runaway prisoner?

Or else, how come she seems to question almost everything she witnesses.

This is my first time here in Qye.

I want to see the lantern festival.

I want to visit Qye's Market.

Her words drifted through his mind, her simple wish echoed clearly, thus he promised himself that he will make her happy the entire night of her visit inside Qye.

This is just repayment, nothing much to it.

Artha tries to convince himself, but he can hear his wolf scoff at his thought, mocking him for even trying to go against the truth. Dismissing his wolf, Artha finds the girl expectant eyes only to realise that he hasn't replied to her questioning gaze just yet.

He found it hard to reply and explain to her, so he just walked forward and left her where she stood, leaving Raiene confused and surprised. The girl followed him closely afterward, though she started to whine a little under her breath.

Meany!

Believing that Artha couldn't hear her, but he did hear her words clearly. A smile stretched on his lips but disappeared within seconds.

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Crion grumbled, feeling perturbed by the Royal before him. He followed the guy to an inn not far from the port. Then he served himself some cuisines supposedly originated from Wasteland.

The dish that was served doesn't deserve to be called cuisine, Crion believed his mother potato plain soup was better than this meal. It was a type of tough tiny bean grown from this land served with expensive juicy meat which needed to be shipped off straight from the mainland. The small serving of the so-called cuisine cost 1 silver, his entire month allowance.

Crion tried to suppress his anger and force himself to smile at the guy. He needed this Prince's ship to reach Qye, the only available one at the port.

It'll take a while for him to reach the other side of the land in order to catch a ride with a dragon. Not to mention its high price and his fear of height, this ride will be considered as the last measure possible.

The only thing he could do at this moment is follow and keep the man before him informed. However, the thing he did the entire time was shoving his mouth with a crazily expensive treat, funnily enough taking his sweet time as well.

Feeling hungry, Crion reaches inside his bag and takes one of many loaves of bread his mother had prepared for him.  When he was about to take a bite of it, he saw the guy opposite of him staring quietly right at his bread.

No way. This man wouldn't dare.

But he offered him one anyway and the bastard had the nerve to smile and steal his bread.

Crion takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself once again, trying hard to conceal murderous intent leaking from his eyes. Although if he had to be honest, he wouldn't even be able to hurt a finger of the noble before him.

"I need to leave this land as soon as possible, Your Highness."