Chapter 3

"No woman in this village is as beautiful as you are, you know that right. The only problem is that you're mute. I've heard a few gossip here and there talking about how you might be cursed or touched in the head. But me… I don't care about those rumors."

The words came out casually as though they were close friends.

Serelina steps faltered a little bit shifting the thin bundle of firewood on her shoulder. The sole of her shoes crunched softly over the frozen ground behind Maela's little house as the sun slowly started to set below the horizon casting long gold and rose shadows across the trees.

Serelina didn't bother turning to look at him,her gaze focused intently on the narrow path.

She found it difficult to stare at someone for a long time.

Maela's neighbor, Joran has made it a point of obligation to follow her around the village like a hawk causing a few villagers to think that she was engaged to him. He smiled cheekily at her, dropping the heavier logs off his shoulder before stacking them beside the chopping block.

"See how fast time flies. A year has passed since you arrived in this village. It's just like we were destined to meet" he joked,his voice smooth and deep like honey that has been poured over steel. "It's a pity that a beautiful woman like you has lost her voice. I know for a fact that your voice is as beautiful as you are"

A tight, practiced smile appeared on her lips. The smile she always has when talking to Joran as he tended to talk a lot in an attempt to be funny. She disliked how loud he could get, trying to show the villagers that she belonged to him.

She was scared. Not of him. But of the way he always reminded her of a past she was trying hard to forget. It was obvious that he is a narcissist.

It was hard to believe that she wanted to forget her family. Her father. Her siblings.

Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, Joran wiped the sweat from his brows with a huge grin on his face as he admired her. He was always watching her. He didn't live that far from them and she always noticed the way he watched her through the window whenever she came out of the house. He wasn't unattractive. In fact,a lot of women in the village had tried to get his attention. He was tall and broad shouldered with a head full of dark brown hair that curled slightly at the end. He had dark forest green eyes and his hands, though rough, were skilled—he was a hunter, known for bringing down wolves and skinning deer with the precision of a craftsman.

Serelina had gotten threats on different occasions from other women in the village to stay away from him but he remained attached to her like a moth to light.

She hated his attention. The way he watched her scared her. There was something possessive about it. Like he had already claimed her as his.

Making friends was already hard and he was making it more difficult. He had warned other men that ever tried talking to her to stay away from her. She had seen on several occasions where he had gotten in a physical brawl with other men just because they stared at her too long at the market. And the gossips of the women as she walked past them weren't oblivious to her whenever he walked beside her, carrying her basket or brushing his hands a little close to her waist.

At first,she had thought that he was just being helpful since she was his neighbor and she was new. A neighbor being neighborly. Until it turned into something dangerous.

That look that he had. She knew it all too well. He wanted something so bad from her. Something she'd never give to him.

She clapped her hands together as she dropped the last log where it's supposed to be, brushing the loose strand from her face. The winter has been very unfavorable for her skin but she was slowly getting used to it. She had slowly gotten used to walking,her legs no longer feeling like a borrowed body part. There were still days when she woke up from the nightmares that haunts her night.

She hasn't said a word since that day. She had even forgotten the sound of her own voice.

"Do you know that you're very strange?" Joran asked, putting hands into the pockets of his shorts. "I mean that in a good way though. I had thought that you were an angel the first time I saw you. You're as beautiful as sin but yet so quiet. You're not like the other girls that keep throwing themselves at me. They don't understand you,not the way I do"

Serelina tilted her head to the side slightly as though she was interested in what he was saying but the truth was that she was mentally counting how many steps she had to take to get back into the house and away from him.

"I mean look at you. Who wouldn't want you? Imagine how you'd look beside me…perfect" he continued,his eyes glistening as though he was mentally picturing the image. "I know that a lot of men have proposed marriage to you but you're too good for them. Imagine the audacity the baker's son had to offer Maela a whole cow for your hand. Even after I had warned him to stay away. Can you believe it? You're worth more than just a cow" he scoffed in disbelief, shaking his head. "I'm sure he'd never come close to you ever again."

The polite smile on her face disappeared instantly.

He noticed.

"I'm actually not this way but people always tempt me" he said almost immediately,his tone softening. "I don't want you to feel like I own you. I want to show you that I love you. That I cherish you. I want to prove that I'll always take care of you. I already do, don't I?"

She looked at him now—really looked. And for a fleeting moment, she saw that he was just a weak man trying to hide behind his brave mask. He wasn't someone she'd want to be with.

She gave him another faint smile.

A smile that silently told him that she needed to head back inside.

A thank-you smile.

Then she walked past him towards the door not bothering to look back,her skirt swaying gently behind her in the cool breeze.

The sound of his voice reached her ears, cutting through the calm silence of the village.

"You won't even give me a goodbye hug? Totally harmless"

She ignored him.

Pretending like she hadn't heard him.

Serelina froze.

"You'll be my wife one day, Serelina. This is a promise" Joran said quietly to himself as he walked away towards his house.