Tales of Eldelórne Page 12

  “Oh, everyone has a destiny EJ,” Farghal chuckled at him, “it is only a figure of speech.”

  The Lion Heart

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I cannot go now... I mean yet...” Roevash said to Fionna. “I have been thinking, I do not want to hurt my brother any more than I have already. I am afraid he would run away at the sight of me. It has been such a long time. I am even hairier than before!”

  He rubbed at his beard anxiously and thought to shave it off.

  “My friend,” she countered, “you are not going to scare him, and your face looks fine.”

  She reached over and put her hand on his arm to stop his fidgeting. He quit dragging at his hairy face and looked at her as a fearful little boy.

  “Believe me when I say this. I have seen your brother's kindness, and I have seen his wrath, and it is quite a sight to behold. You would never be able to scare him,” she tried to coax the blubbering commander. “Think on it some more,” she sighed, tired of this debate. Fionna threw her hands up and decided to go outside to breathe some fresh air.

  This conversation has been going on and on with the same answers day after day. The giant and very stubborn commander was just a rabbit at heart when it came to his brother.

  “Oh for gods never-ending,” she shook her head.

  His stubborn behavior reminded her of the other one.

  “You are both so alike,” she grumbled under her breath as she rolled her eyes in exasperation.

  It was an early spring morning, and the blossoms and buds were opening on the trees. The smell of green and flowers filled the air. She let out a deep, pensive breath remembering Eijlam’s smile.

  Fionna decided to walk out to her favorite perch among the boulders on the edge of the cliff that looked out over the western shores. Sometimes she could see the creatures of the dark scrambling to find their caves as their craven souls sought to avoid the light of the coming day.

  It was here that Eijlam found her. He was walking up the lower cliff road when he saw her from a great distance shining like the red-orange of the sunrise. He honed in on her, like a moth to a flame — the sound of his heart beat louder in his chest with every footstep he moved closer. Unable to endure separation from her any longer, he quickened his pace across the closing distance.

  Fionna’s eyes narrowed, seeing a figure striding up the hill. The pounding of her heartbeat felt loud in her ears as he drew closer. Time slowed, and a light breeze blew her long hair out, away from her face. There in her mind shone his eyes, one blue and one golden brown, and they were fixed on her. She knew the traveler coming towards her was EJ, and her heart nearly burst to find him so near to herself.

  As if to ask permission, he paused a few lengths away and just stared at her. He was suddenly afraid she would be angry and accuse him of not waiting for her and breaking his vow.

  She could see his maleness had filled out by the muscular look of his sinewy arms and face and his skin was tanned and healthy-looking. Fionna opened her arms to receive him, and he quickly flew into her embrace.

  “Anthon ûr nîn anden,” he said. His voice timbre, lower and more beautiful than she remembered, poured over her like warm honey.

  “You are my heart,” she cried, echoing his words and losing all the strength in her legs.

  They both fell to the sandy-loam ground, kissing with tears, and love, and wholeness in their embrace. What had been missing from them while apart felt whole again.

  “I cannot take my eyes off you. I am afraid I will wake, and this will only be a dream,” Eijlam whispered to her.

  “It is a dream that I would choose not to wake from,” she said, touching his cheek with her fingertips.

  “Hear me, my beloved,” he looked ardently into her eyes as he spoke.

  “I will not breathe again without the joy of you in all my days. Please tell me you will be forever mine as elvenkin have been throughout all time. Betroth me, my love. My heart is at your mercy…” He suffered heart-crushing anguish as he waited for her answer.

  She could see he was dead serious in his proposal.

  Fionna never broke his gaze as she replied most solemnly, “You are all of my heart my most beloved one. Your voice has been with me since I left you behind. I yearned so much to see you here by my side. I desire only to be your betrothed and to love you throughout all times.”

  “Then so our bond will be.”

  He smiled, and she could feel his love pour into her heart as if it had never beat on its own before that moment.

  “We are together then as elvenkin?” Fi asked.

  “Yes, my love...” he said softly, and she kissed him harder than he expected, accidentally knocking him over.

  They rolled in each other's embrace again laughing in sheer joy. Eijlam smiled his great big sparkling smile. She broke into more tears as, for the first time, she let the whole force of it melt her in his arms.

  “It has been too long,” he said, shaking his head.

  He could only gaze lovingly at her.

  In their distraction, the couple sitting on the ground did not see the great lion stalking in the shadows of the cliffside forest.

  “The sun is high now. Let me take you to where I work so we can get some breakfast. Then I will tell you all that has happened, and there is someone you need to see,” Fionna excitedly said, thinking she could not wait to see the look on Roe’s face when they walk through the door.

  They kissed deeply again.

  “I do not think I can move yet,” Eijlam said, “so stunned am I by my Fionna’s beauty.”

  He gave her his cute face.

  “If you do not stop doing that we will die of starvation out here,” she giggled joking around and poking a finger at his arm.

  A blood-curdling roar and the sound of brush breaking right next to them took her breath away and brought them both to shocked attention. EJ leaped up off the ground and drew his short swords, knowing he had no time to arm his bow. Whatever the monster was, it was bearing down on them fast. Fionna screamed out of sheer terror as the head of the lion was upon them.

  It was as big as the side of a building with teeth and claws bared! She had grabbed her staff off the ground and was already shooting flames into the lions face slowing it down, giving Eijlam enough time. EJ dodged left and slashed at the beast. He had never met with a brute such as this before. He looked for any weakness as he lunged forward.

  One of his swords connected across a huge arm and the other jabbed between the ribs. In another quick motion, he was on top of the monster drilling down hard with fang-like twin blades, but the skull was too thick. EJ’s swords glanced off as if the animal were made of stone. Realizing his mistake too late, he lost his balance. The lion pounced to where its prey was a second before. Fionna blasted more flames on its backside. The giant spinning cat threw EJ flailing down over the cliff’s edge.

  Fionna screamed in disbelief, hoping she had not just witnessed him falling to his death. She ran to the side where he’d disappeared. Stumbling, Fionna went down hard near the claws of the scrambling beast. The stench of its hot panting breath nearby, nearly made her faint, as she turned and saw it so near, preparing to take her as its next meal.

  Having heard her first screams, Roevash and four of his guard ran down the path toward the edge of the cliff to her aid. Fionna was in the bloody stalking lion’s sights when Roevash arrived. He came full-on, leaping through the air with his two-handed blade flashing. With both hands on his deadly weapon’s grip, he bore down hard into the hairy back of the beast. The blow cut through its neck and shoulder with a gush of fresh blood. The guards who were hot on his heels shot arrows and continued to shoot more into it, but the massive beast would not be put down. Fionna had managed to get to her feet and crack it across the face with her staff. The lion flinched and lashed out at her. A claw tore across her leg, causing her to cry out in pain.

  +++

  Eijlam twisted painfully on impact and lost his grip on one of his sword
s. It clattering down the cliffside into the trees far below. He shaded his eyes with his free hand, as he peered into the light that surrounded him, trying to reorient himself. Eijlam’s fall was stopped abruptly by the thin trunk of a young sapling tree. It happened to be growing in just the right spot on the side of the tiny outcropping where he lay. The fall had knocked the wind right out of his lungs, stunning him for a moment. Sounds of Fionna and the lion far above shook him back to action. Clenching his last sword in his teeth, he struggled to climb the steep cliff wall in front of him, back to the top.

  +++

  Gritting her teeth against the pain, Fionna’s eyes flashed with anger and stubborn determination as she faced down the lion. She was standing her ground with only her staff to shield her. Growling under her breath, she hit it hard again.

  Roe launched himself across the front of the animal to attack its eyes and distract it from mauling her. Its mighty paw opened with talon-like claws swiping at him midair. The big man was knocked down to the ground like a rag doll. The smell of blood drove the beast to a frenzy as it pounced on his prone body. The horrifying sounds of Roevash’s muffled screams paralyzed Fionna as the giant cat clenched him with its claws and ground him in its jaws.

  “Noooooo!” her high pitched scream rose up out of the ground and exploded from her lungs in a wave of shock as she watched the lion tear up the helpless Roevash in its grip!

  Suddenly, as if propelled by godly force, Eijlam appeared, leaping past her at great speed. His single blade plunged deep between the ribs of the beast until it reached the heart. The lion stood up from its meal as if to look at him in surprise. It made a last growling gasp as it fell over dead.

  Fionna ran to Roevash. He was unconscious, barely alive. The side of his face was severely clawed open just above the left eye. His ribs were crushed. An arm and leg were broken, and the full extent of the damage was yet unseen as his body lay in an unnatural heap. Fionna frantically reached to stop his draining arteries from bleeding out, but he was going fast. “OH, gods, oh gods, oh gods, noooooo, Eijlam,” she cried out at all the slippery flow of blood on her hands, seeping into the ground surrounding her, as she tried to apply pressure to the wounds.

  "This is your brother... Roevash! EJ, help me!” she screamed.

  Eijlam was shocked at the sight of so much blood mingling everywhere. His ears were still ringing as he heard his Fionna call him to aid. He knelt and placed his hands where Fionna was holding the flood back. The shouting men and outside noises faded back into an ethereal haze, and there was only the three of them and the sound of a heartbeat pumping to a stop.

  Eijlam turned sharply towards her.

  “Hear me, Fionna...” the whisper of his voice pierce through the waves of panic crashing inside her head.

  Brightness filled in around them. Eijlam's sorrow-filled eyes were determined, and she somehow knew what had to be done. A brilliant light surrounded her as she concentrated her magics on holding the blood still. The glow came from everywhere and nowhere. Roe’s last thoughts lingered and echoed strangely in the thickened chilly air.

  “So it is you, little brother. I thought I saw your golden hair fly off the cli… fuf…uf…uf…” Time pulsed with the irregular sound of a heartbeat as darkness pressed in. The sensation of suffocation clutched at his throat and his chest, and he wanted to choke to clear his lungs, but Roevash could not move. He felt no fear as he let his body go still in this place. He was lying down in a pale glow with no walls or corners that could be seen.

  “Where am I?” he somehow spoke with no breath.

  “You are with us brother,” Eijlam said, his silvery voice, calm and soothing.

  “Oh...” Roe said as if that was answer enough.

  The room felt surreal for a moment as the place shifted like churning waves on sand. Roe felt weightless and drifting in irresistible darkness, and then it all shifted into bright light.

  “I am dying then...” Roevash felt tired and wanted to go to sleep, but he kept hearing his brother’s voice. The room shook as dark shimmering black flakes lingered on the edge of the light. Roevash closed his eyes against it, feeling nauseous.

  “Not unless you wish it... ” Eijlam’s persistent, soothing voice resonated. It seemed too far away. “I would think you would like to embrace your new-found brother before you go ... after waiting for so long ...” Eijlam breathed the words directly into him.

  “Yesssss...” Roe said, focusing on that one desire. “Can you grant me one thing, nîn hawn?” Roevash knew blissfully in his heart that he had been forgiven for their past as he asked, “Leave a scar on my face so I may see in my mirror every day how much I truly love my little brother.”

  “As you wish...” His younger brother’s voice made him smile. Tears flowed out of his eyes down both sides of his cheeks, draining wet over his ears. He could feel his lungs fill with breath again, and the searing pain of it overwhelmed him.

  “He is going to stay,” Eijlam announced to the worried men who had gathered around their fallen commander. “The bleeding has stopped,” he mumbled with an exhausted sigh as he looked to Fionna to see how she was doing.

  She was still kneeling, paralyzed with her hands still holding where the blood had previously gushed. Roe’s bones had moved back to normal, his wounds, though still oozing, were partially knit closed, and he was breathing. Eijlam knew the common tongue just well enough to get his orders across.

  “He needs time, take him ever so gently,” Eijlam urged the men who had fashioned a stretcher to carry his brother’s body.

  The men seemed to understand and continued their work to move them all to safety. EJ pulled Fionna up into his arms. They were all drenched in crusted drying blood. Fionna broke down in sobs against his chest.

  The men kept watching the brush wary of dangerous scavengers that may come with the smell of fresh blood. They walked back to the fort slowly.

  “So this is where you have been,” Eijlam said soberly, “...and you found my brother for me.”

  “Yes, I had not persuaded him to return with me to see you yet. He was afraid you would not forgive him. He blames himself for what happened to you that day." She paused, looking strangely at her hands and forearms covered in Roe’s blood. “He has spent his whole life looking for you,” she mumbled almost incoherently. Her perception lingered surreal as they moved forward towards the fort.

  Ej answered her, “To be so afraid when the path was made clear. I will never let him forget this one.”

  “Ej,” she cringed, “what are you saying?”

  “Only as brothers know, Fionna. It is okay to be fierce or happy with each other. It is expected!” He looked serious in his weariness.

  “I have no idea what you just said to me.”

  Fionna shook her head utterly confused.

  “I am sure I will figure it out someday…” She threw her hands up and then found herself leaning over to pick up her staff that had slipped out of her grip. They continued the slow procession stumbling exhausted.

  Once inside the safety of the compound, Fionna felt more than just a little light-headed. She found herself leaning on the staff as if her life depended on it. Her eyes narrowed onto her legging that was soaked and dripping with fresh blood. She saw EJ glance over at her. Smiling at first, he got a blurred look on his face.

  Her eyes went dim and rolled up as she slumped down towards the ground. Eijlam quickly caught her in his arms just as she collapsed.

  The Great War

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Well, you are no help at all,” she heard Eijlam saying as she opened her eyes and found herself washed clean and naked in her bed. “I am turned into nursemaid to all of my kin just by virtue of my timely visit.” He didn’t seem too disturbed by it as he smiled happily at her. She tried to chuckle, but it hurt. She had a torn rib or something in her back.

  “You have sustained some bad cuts and bruises from the lion, my love. I have slept with you to make them heal faster,” he gently sp
oke as he patted her on the shoulder with his hand. He was also naked and propped up on one elbow next to her.

  “I have never seen ... been nak ...” she decided to stop talking and pulled the blanket up towards her chin a little more while she stared at him, suddenly feeling the need for modesty.

  “Oh, the blush of my betrothed delights my heart.” Eijlam’s long eyelashes made him look even more handsome as he smiled at her. She smiled weakly back.

  “...So what is this?” She could feel something gripping her thigh.

  “It is my coil... you do not know?” he was dumbstruck.

  “What?” she started to run her fingertips on the length of it absently. He gently grabbed her hand. “Aaaaaummmm, that tickles!” he laughed.

  “This is how males comfort their closest kin ... and when it is time make little ones,” he spoke through half-closed eyes trying to keep his composure.

  She tried to look unconcerned. “I have not known any of this... EJ, be kind and tell me. No teasing please,” she blinked her eyes innocently.

  “The coil…” he breathed out, “it resides inside the body. Edhellen males are sometimes mistaken for female by humans because unlike humans, it is kept comfortably hidden. Strangely, humans think we all look alike.”

  “Noooo...”

  “Yesssss...” He echoed her with his eyebrows lifting in surprise.

  “Some other time, we can talk about this. When you are well.” A tiny wanton flash crossed his face. He bit down hard on his lip as he gazed at her innocence, staring blatantly back at him.

  “It is not always easy to have to explain such things, my love,” he spoke calmly through the pain.

  Fionna could see his face had turned a light pink blush and she pulled herself up closer to get a better look at him. He grinned at her being so close, and she playfully rubbed her nose on his.

  “I do not think the soldiers would have left me alone in this room with you if they knew I was male,” he whispered, “but all the better for me is their ignorance.” EJ grinned shamelessly.