Walking Into The Lions Den
1179 Words
Seniya had decided to do a little location spell for us to find Shadowbane, he was in the city of Port Yale. I had only ever been there during a royal visit so it was interesting to me to see the city, not through carriage windows. Ayla didn’t seem too impressed we were going there, she told me there was a lord after her for something she did to one of his men. It didn’t surprise me she was a wanted lady, after all she could be too happy with her daggers and plus she hated men who would try and woo her even after being told no.
The walk to Port Yale wasn’t going to be easy, it would take us at least two days to get there so Seniya acquired us some horses so we could get there faster. Mine reminded me of my beautiful stallion Gabriel back home, the reminder of him caused me great sadness as I wondered if my father had harmed him or if he had escaped that night, perhaps he was enjoying the great outdoors meeting as many mares as he possibly could. Seniya had given us a map to guide us on our way and we’d left our home at once, we were unsure of when we would return to it and this pained us both deeply. Echo stayed with us keeping out of sight as she would spook the horses but returning to us during nightfall when we camped out under the stars.
“I’m surprised you didn’t tell me about him.” Ayla had barely spoken throughout the journey so I was pleasantly surprised when she did.
“There’s not much to tell, I’d met him a couple of times at royal balls and he stayed at the palace one summer when I was growing up. I had no idea I was marrying him until mother told me that very day.”
I was cooking some hot soup over a camp fire while Ayla sat there carving an animal of some sorts from a piece of wood she’d found. We didn’t often speak of our past, the reason why we lived the way we did was so we had the chance to create new lives for ourselves. I only knew Ayla was brought up by a farmer and his wife when she was dumped at his doorstep in the middle of the night in Zenfira. She’d ran away from the farmers home after his wife had died. He became overbearing and abusive towards her. Afterwards learning how to survive on the streets, she met a young solider whom she fell in love with, he taught her how to fight, hunt and how to use a sword. After he died in battle she was left alone once more and that was when she became the greatest thief Nimra had ever seen.
“Do you have feelings for him?”
“How can you have feelings for someone you barely know? This isn’t some fairy tale story Ayla we learnt to read as children. There was no love at first sight for me, no grand fireworks, if anything I didn’t really have chance for that. And anyway, I was a lot younger when I first met him and I didn’t see him before the wedding.”
“I don’t mean then Giselle, I mean now. Seniya said you longed for him.”
“There is no denying he is handsome and any woman would most likely swoon for him but I am not any woman. If we are to find him then I can talk to him again, understand what has happened back home, learn as to why he is searching for me.” I paused pouring some soup into a bowl and handing it to Ayla. “But he’ll be a means to an end and if at any given moment I feel he is a threat to you or me, I will kill him myself.”
I had never harmed another human being in all my life, I have of course hit a few in order to escape but I have never activity felt the need to kill someone so it was surprising to me how real this threat was. Ayla meant everything to me and I knew deep down she was going to get caught up in the cross fire of the battle I was going to face sooner or later and if before that battle Shadow turned on me or her, I would run my sword through him before he had the chance to strike at us.
The evening quickly escaped us and we didn’t speak much of my feelings afterwards, we just settled down to sleep, allowing the fire to burn out. We were forever grateful for having Echo around us as she kept the horrible creatures away from us and in some aspect, we believed the trees had something to do with it to. Nimra use to be filled with magical forest creatures during the days of old. Nymphs, they were guardians of the forests and I still believed to this day they were the reason the Kings Guard did not chase after me when I escaped the palace and hid in the forest.
I awoke when light began to rise and fill the area we were sleeping in, Ayla was already awake when I opened my eyes. She was adjusting her horse’s saddle and then held a fresh green apple out for hers and then gave my horse one. Standing up, I brushed off any dirt on my clothes and swung my cape around to tie it up, Ayla just glanced at me before putting our supplies back in the sack we had brought with us and tied it to her saddle.
“What do you think he’ll be like when he sees you?” She was so eager to know more about Shadow and it was starting to get on my nerves a little.
“Shocked, after all I did run away from him and now I’ll be walking right into his hands.” I said mounting my horse and watching as Ayla did the same.
“Do you think he’ll take you back to your father?”
“Honestly I’m not really sure. Like I said I met him when I was young and he was a very gentle person back then but now he may well be a completely different person.” Kicking my heels into my horse’s side we began a slow trot. “We shall have to wait and see.”
Tapping our heels again into each of our horse’s side we turned our trot into a fast pace and carried on to Port Yale hoping to get there by tonight.
- Writer
