Secrets of the Realm Series: The Dark Knight

Chapter 3

Songs to listen to white reading:

Emotional Music: WITH YOU / by Arend Erasmus

"Gloria Regali" (feat. Fleurie) // Produced by Tommee Profitt

We have been walking through woods for hours.. again in silence. I want to understand what happened between Ruven and Raysalor. Why were they always so cold towards each other? We stop near a river to get some rest and water. The days are beginning to grow warmer. I can feel sweat roll down my back. I walk to the river and place my bow and arrows down. I take my vest off and untie my blouse. I have another undergarment underneath and no one is near by so I take it off. I use the water to cool myself off. I s***h and rub water on my body to cool off. I hear rustling in the bushes but do not tighten. Ruven sees me and stops dead in his tracks. He too has taken his vest and shirt off. His eyes look differently at me but he is too quick and changes this expression.

“The water feels good doesn’t it?” Ruven is by my side his musky smell makes me dizzy and I feel as if I am intoxicated. He settles in near the water splashing some of it on himself. His skin looks flawless. I feel flustered. He is so handsome. His muscles are sculptured perfectly. He looks so… but I stop myself and instead, smile.

“Yes, it feels refreshing” I put my blouse back on feeling exposed. We hear rustling in the woods and automatically I rise to my feet.

“Stay here.” I whisper to him reaching for my bow and drawling my arrow.

“No chance.” He says already behind me with his blade. We quietly creep down and see trolls. They are always considered brute creatures. We are told that they kill and eat anything in sight. I draw my arrow but Ruven stops me. I slowly put down my bow and arrow but do not put it away. Ruven begins to walk towards them and I follow closely after still holding my arrow.

“Ahh, so you found us! Ruven! Its been so long! And who might this beautiful lass be? This is my brother Jome and I am Livo.” He pointed indicating who is who. Livo is larger than Jome but he seems more happier and there is kindness in his face. Jome is more brute but there is gentleness in the way he moves and speaks. Both are dark with slight variations of the color brown. The trolls look at me and smile. Also, a very surprising thought.

“Veara, why don’t you put your weapon away. They will not harm you.” I listen to put my bow and arrow back. I begin to step forward but Reysalor stops me. I do not remember when Reysalor came but he seems angry.

“Are you crazy? We do not know if they will harm us.”

“Reysalor, I think it is safe to say that they will not hurt us.” He grabs my arm painfully and forcibly.

“You trust Ruven too much! He will be your downfall.” He says so that only I can hear.

“Ruven, let go.” I say angry. “I am not mere woman that has no sense. I can think and make decisions for myself.” Reysalor removes his grip but still seems angry. He looks at Raysalor, pure hatred coming from his gaze. He walk away abruptly. I walk towards are new friends and reach out to shake their hands. They each take a turn taking my hand and bowing. They are so polite.

“I apologize for that,” I smile, “my name is Veara.”

“Ruven, she is a beauty don’t loose her.” I chuckle and blush, but Ruven tries to hide it. He does a good job because I feel a pang of hurt that he has said nothing. I shouldn’t read into anything we are only working together to get the medallion back.

“We are traveling together. We need to go to the dwarven realm. We need an escort.”

“Ruven, on one condition,” Livo, responds. “You have to loosen up a bit. This trip will be no fun if you continue to act like a troll” everyone laughs. I look around me to find Reysalor but he is nowhere in sight.

“Okay Livo, I will do my best” Ruven responds, looked up at me and smiling. I feel a flutter in my stomach but ignore it. I hate that he does this to me. I know he doesn’t see me that way. I need to get it out of my head.

“Can you excuse my for a minute.” I smile getting up.

“Of course dear.” Says Livo. I walk around until I find him slumped down near a tree. He looks up at me, eyes soft and regretful.

“Hey,” He says.

“Hey yourself.”

“Veara, I…” he sighs and I raise my hand.

“Rey, it’s okay. You and Ruven obviously have some kind of history and you do not want to talk about it.”

“It was a long time ago, but neither one of us can let it go. I will keep myself under control.” I crouch down and lay a hand on his shoulder as a way to reassure him. It seems to do the trick because he smiles and warmness has came back to his eyes.

“I know you may not see eye to eye with Ruven.. but he is right he need an escort. They seem nice. Let’s give them a chance.” I say, hoping he will not argue.

“I trust you Veara.” He kisses my hand, I feel weird. Its a very intimate gesture but I do not feel like I deserved it. We head back to camp and Reysalor joins the group. Still silent but he has joined us, which is more than I can ask for.

We talk and laugh, telling stories. Livo and Jome tell us tales and news that has been spread through the land. He mentions wizards and it peaks my interest.

“Jome, hold on, wizards? I have heard they live past the mountains somewhere between the Dwarven kingdom and the Human Kingdom. What are they like?”

“Ahh.. they are nice.. if you ever see them. They like to stay away in there hideouts and keep to themselves. Not many venture out into other realms. We so happen to meet them with Ruven.” Jome gestures for Ruven to take the conversation.

“They are very powerful. They do not take sides which is why they gave a piece of the medallion to each kingdom.”

“Wait… I am confused I though these were all separate medallions.”

“They are but when collected they summon the medallion of destiny, wherever it is. It’s important for all the kingdoms to work together to in order to summon it. That is why we are heading to each kingdom to gain the medallion and a representative of the kingdom, who will travel with us so we can go to the sacred ground on which the medallion of forged in hopes to…” He stops to take a break, “summon the medallion to appear and lead to its location.”

“Wow, the wizards really thought this through. This must be a very powerful medallion.”

“The only issue now is that once the medallion is summoned all will seek it power, which will start wars.”

“What kind of power?” I say my curiosity peaked.

“Unspeakable power. No one know who will wield this power. The power is so great that no elf or wizard could even hold the power.”

“That’s incredible. How come we have never heard of this medallion until now?”

“It is dangerous. I am sure the more people know about it the most people will seek to get it and its power. In the wrong hands it can be catastrophic.”

“Livo, Jome, do you not seek the power of the medallion?” They chuckle.

“Oh lass, we just want to live in peace. We want to come to our home, have food, sleep. We have no need for such power.” Livo says.

“We also do not have a kingdom. We usually roam alone, or like me and my brother, stay in small groups. Never more than three. Our lives are simple and so are our hearts.” Jome says taking my tiny hand into his very very large hand and placing a flower on my palm. I smile and put the white flower in my hair.

“Beautiful.” Jome says and Ruven looks at me with those eyes again that makes my heart, stomach, and whole body flutter. But he quickly looks away.

“We should rest.” Reysalor interrupts.

“Yes you are right.” Ruven agrees, which is a first.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

The next morning we set out and walk a great distance in the heat. Today was exceptionally hot. I see that everyone is tired and needs to rest. The sun was setting and we needed to set up camp.

“Ruven, we need to stop. Everyone is tired.”

“We will walk a little further.” I suddenly feel angry that he isn’t listening.

“Ruven, do you not see how tired everyone is? Look!” I stop him and he turns around. Rey’s eyes look tired and every step we take Livo holds his back.

“A little longer will not hurt anyone.” He says in a stern tone.

“Everyone stop, Ruven wants us to rest.” I shout while glaring at Ruven clearly defying his order.

“Oh thank goodness.” Livo says, stopping and sitting down.

“No we will move on some more!” Ruven shouts glaring back at me. But I ignore him and begin to walk away.

“Sit put everyone.” Ruven is angry and grabs my arm, swinging me back around to look at him. He has a blade at my throat.

“You will not defy me, do you understand me? Or I will leave you here.” Out of angry I defend myself and manage to knock the blade out of his hand into my own and then have the blade at his throat.

“Do not underestimate me.” I say through gritted teeth. I drop the blade and storm off into the woods, not sure where I am going but full or rage.

I walk for quite a while and when I stop I realize I do not know where I am, but I do not panic. I will find my way back by tracking. As I begin to look for my way out I hear shuffling and noise. I look around to see ghouls. They begin attacking me and I fight them off one by one, but some of their attacks hit me and one of the ghouls hits me in the back of the head. I drop to the ground and a very beautiful man stands in front of me. Everything is hazy and I can make out white eyes but his hair.. it the color of fire. I am confused.

“Veara, you do not remember me.. but you will soon.” And he kisses my forehead, his lips warm and moist on my skin, familiar. I black out.

*

*

*

*

*

*

I wake up, it’s dark and see Ruven is tending to the fire. I try to get up but my head is pounding.

“Easy there, warrior.” Ruven says lying me back down. “You took a pretty hard hit to the head. I tended to the bleeding but you need to rest until the swelling is slightly down.” He is quiet for a minute. “What happened?” He doesn’t look at me but I don’t need to look to know that he feels guilty for our argument before.

“I was attacked by ghouls.” I say plainly. At my answer Ruven’s head jerks abruptly into my direction. Shock and anger on this face.

“How?! They never roam around this area.” I do not want to tell him what I saw. I may have been dreaming. “Veara.. this may be a bad time to tell you.. I can read your thoughts.” I am shocked and angry.

“You can read thoughts and you only tell me now!” He scratches his head. I feel flushed, oh no. He heard all my thoughts about him when I was looking at him and everything else. My face feels hot I can feel my face turning red.

“Look I use it when I need it. Its not that I head what you say in your head but more I can feel what you are feeling. I have learned when to turn it off an on. I am able to sense when people are coming I can sense things. So it’s not really hearing your thoughts but I can sense when you lie or how you feel. I cannot hear what you think but feel what you think.”

“Elaborate.” I say sternly looking at him.

“Well I could feel that you were hesitant. I do not know why but I know you are hiding something from me.” I bite my lip knowing I have no where to escape.

“I do not even know if this was real or just a hallucination. I do not want to look weak.” He begins to place his hands on my head, but I jerk away. “What are you doing?” I say raising an eyebrow. He smirks, coming really close to my face.

“Taking your soul.” He says in a deep sinister voice and then begins to laugh. His laughter sounds so beautiful and contagious that I begin to laugh as well. I punch him in the arm to which he mouths “ow” but smiles. “I won’t hurt you. I am sorry for getting out of hand earlier. I do not understand why I was the way I was. But I know I am sorry.”

“Its alrght. I should have listened. apologize.” We smile at each other. I feel relieved at our reconciliation.

“There is another perk to my abilities. I can see your memories, but only one at a time and only the one you let me. So if you try to remember what happen I can see things you might not remember.”

“Why only one?” I say curiously.

“We can talk about this later, right now I need to know what happened.” I nod, and he places his hands on my head.

“Try to remember what happened. Focus on only what happened.” I try to think hard and the memory being to flow. I feel an external presence in my head and feel a pull on my mind. I am walking and I am attacked and knocked down. I fight but now I see that it is not a ghoul like I thought but its a man. He has elf ears but hair has orange as fire. He is gentle but forceful. I cannot fight him. He jumps off and ghouls attack me. I fight hard. I do not see the man anymore. I am hit from behind but I do not fall to the ground but rather into someone’s arms. I see the man’s face again.

“Veara, you do not remember me.. but you will soon.” And he kisses my forehead and that is where my memory ends. I feel the pull leave me. I open my eyes to see Ruven. He looks concerned.

“I do not recognize him; this is concerning. We need to get back and tell everyone.” He helps me up but he wobbles a little, I place my hand under his, to help him steady.

“Can you?” I say looking at him my heart flutters and he smiles.

“Stop understanding me!” I say letting him go and marching ahead, but he grabs my arm and pulls me back. Although he doesn’t embrace me I am still awfully close to him.

“I understand you.. because I feel the same.” He says, leaving me in a state of confusion. “Don’t lag behind, we need to go back.” We walk back to the camp. It takes us a couple hours, I feel tired and dizzy. We are not too far from camp when Ruven stops me.

“Look this needs to stay between us. We cannot tell Reysalor.”

“Why? He is our future king.” Ruven seems as if he is struggling internally.

“Please, Veara.. Trust me.” He says pleadingly. I nod and we walk over to cam where everyone greets us.

“Thank heavens!” Reysalor runs to me and embraces me and kisses my forehead. He grabs my hand and leads me to sit. Instinctively I look to Ruven who is watching my every move. His eyes never coming off me. Once we are settled I lay to sleep but the intruders face keeps popping into my head. Who is he and how does he know me?