When Alarick told Thorne that he had decided to hear Erriene out about this mission, the man winced in sympathy.
Thorne, who had a long hair that he kept tied and a black beard that he trims, trotted his horse along with him in the front line. He supposed his party of soldiers was too big, but you never knew with Southerners.
It wasn’t as if he was showing off.
Maybe he was, a little.
“Det taj aquele, hein?” Thorne said, walking on thin ice.
(That one, eh?)
No one ever knew where the line crossed when the subject was Erriene.
Alarick was confused himself.
One thing was for sure, no Northerner ever wanted to speak with Prince Erriene.
It wasn’t because he was rude and spoke nasty about them, no.
It was because the prince could be extremely pleasant, and use that against you. Also because he could manipulate and twist your own words when he wanted something from you, and he would never tell you what it was.
Any other person like that wouldn’t survive a week in Maud because they tended to kill first and question later. Erriene, however, had a way with Maudians that no one else has.
Maudians in general descended from mountain giants which was why they were taller than the average human, and the grunts and growls meant more than it seemed to.
Most noble blood Gythaeans, if not all, descended from elves, and while most of them had the same height as any average human, some still were a bit shorter and had ridiculous pointed ears. Also their language was more sung than said.
The Maudinian language was a pride to their country, because it was the hardest to non-Maudians and downright impossible for Gythaeans.
Aside from his mamkka, the damned Prince from Gytha managed to not only learn the language in two months, but to make it sound soft and pleasant- the growls more like moans, the grunts more like sighs- and no Northerner that met him ever forgave him for doing that.
“Mate ele.” Alarick had said after Erriene walked away from the hall of the castle, looking the ever dignified prince in those ridiculous druid clothes that were in no way woman-like, but Alarick made a point to tell him that every time they met just for spite. “Han omoara lipsit dur.”
(Kill him.)
(He disrespected you.)
“Dintre pe le ai du grozav nu,” Randal had drawled with a pensive expression, “Det ai vrut spui dur rudan mhotha koju niste.”
(Of all the things that you had said)
(That was the greatest one that you did not meant.)
That day, Alarick decided that he hated Erriene.
Sometime later, he decided that he was also irrevocably in love with him, and that’s how he felt about the subject ever since.
It took some time to realize that he craved Erriene. And when he did, he tried to convince himself that it was just the male body, and not the person.
The whores that were sent to him as gifts to pacify him were used to experiment with a man. The ones that looked wanton, he fucked. The beaten and scared, he sends away or made servants out of. There was only one thing that he wanted to hear when he was inside of a man, and it wasn’t crying.
But every time he lay down with a whore, it was Erriene he was thinking of taking, possessing his small body with all he had, giving him no choice but to enjoy it.
Dominating him entirely.
Trying to get it off with a whore to forget the Elf prince or to at least vent his frustrations to someone else only lasted for about a week before he could not even look, let alone touch anyone that is not Erriene. Even imagining that the whore in front of him is the prince isn’t working anymore.
If it isn’t Erriene, then it can’t be anyone at all. It’s sad but it’s true.
If Erriene was a woman, or any low citizen, Alarick would have bought him a long time ago from his family, and tried to win him when he was secured in the castle.
With the way fathers in Gytha married off their daughters like insane men looking for money and status, it would be an easy deal.
But that wasn’t the case.
Erriene was a Royal Prince, so Alarick couldn't have him.
And if he couldn't have him, then he should ignore him.
But at the end of the day, his heart was in such a fragile situation with Erriene. He didn’t think even the Prince knew how much power he had over him, otherwise, he would surely be using that to his advantage.
Alarick never really understood why he had to want the Prince for himself of all people.
How could anybody actually like that man?
That annoying, disrespecting, untamed and uncontrollable creature.
Especially Alarick, who liked to control everything he owned.
Thorne cleared his throat, startling him from his daydreams. The snow was ending in the surreal way that gave Maud Country it’s fame, and they were entering Kalise’s territory.
“Maudian temper, I suppose.” Thorne said in rough Gythanean. “Prince Erriene, I mean.”
All of the soldiers and servant in Maud knows how to speak the common language, albeit not smoothly as the language requires. It was like an unwritten law ever since Aefstine married Randal years ago.
His mamkka was not familiar with the Maudinian language at first and thus, needed a translator to talk to his vaderkka. Miscommunication and misunderstanding used to occur because of it.
Alarick nodded.
“You’re right. Maudian temper, mind of a Southerner. He has always been trouble.”
“Would make a good Queen, though.” Thorne grinned, using the Gythanean term.
Alarick shook his head, smiling softly.
“Make me crazy, that’s what he does.”
Alarick’s party arrived in the Temple of Cyndel with very low panic from the citizens. Actually, most of them bowed for him, and even said some Maudinian words of praising. Interesting, but supposedly expected since Cyndel was joined at the hip with Maud.The temple was a big building made to train druids and hunters, different from the ones where priests studied the old books.Alarick saw the people gathered in front of the temple moving inside, while some of them called Erriene's name. They seemed wary but trusting all at the same.Alarick watched a familiar figure walking from inside of the temple, and the afternoon sun lazily shone over the silver white hair.Those violet suspicious eyes narrowed over the amount of soldiers Alarick brought along, but Erriene’s expression and slight nod said he was already expecting it.The regal creature waited for everyone to settle with a patience Alarick didn’t had.Erriene was always so proper, so put together. The right rings on his long ar
They entered through the temple and Alarick noted that a lot of people from Gytha were laying around, completely at ease.Something else he noted was that almost all of them had bruises and wounds all over, some still in bandages- still healing.Erriene showed the dinner spread around in low tables by the floor to the soldiers and Alarick’s mouth watered at the sight of food.They ate in the travel, alright; they were good hunters. But it was something else when it was done with vegetables, herbs and whatever it was that Erriene and the others put in the food to make it smell like that.“Don’t worry. You are free to eat now if you want to, but I saved some for you,” the Prince said, an urgent tone in his voice. “I wish we could talk first, if you don’t mind.”Alarick looked at him. “I don’t mind. Let’s get this over with.”The temple was a very solid construction made of wood and rock, and the floors were clean as if they spent the whole day mopping it. It was dirtier now with the so
Alarick nodded slowly while Erriene trembled and tried to gather a little of his dignity. A troll invasion was more like a plague taking over than anything else. They were dumb, ugly,hairy creatures that moved around forests, and when they grouped together, usually to the command of a big leader, they went to the bigger cities to find food. That could be anything from bread to vegetables and meat. The more crazy ones would even eat humans, but it wasn’t their preference. Trolls could take over an entire country given the time and the right luck. They reproduced fast and the younger ones were ready to fight pretty quickly. It was unlucky that they caught the little villages because they couldn’t defend themselves. A city would handle it better. If the invasion of the land wasn’t contained fast, they would leak to other places and then it would be impossible to track them all. On the other hand, Alarick thought troll
Two YearsAgo… Alarick found a nymph on his garden. Or so he thought, at first glance. It had been a tough afternoon; his father hadn’t joined them at yet another hunt for a couple of ogres trespassing the forest ever since his mamkkadisappeared a couple months back. He was angry at the world and depressed. They both were. But instead of locking himself in one of the rooms in the fortress like his father, he was out there, raising his sword and killing everything in his way. They may be father and son and share the same blood, but right now, the both of them have different ways in coping up with the devastating loss. His clothes were damp, there was mud in them, and he’d been circling around the fortress trying to find anything he could show his wrath toso it wasn’t too far off to saythatstumbling acros
Back to the present… “Clay-brained orc,” Errienemurmured to the empty room. He closed his eyes and breathed one more time. Alarick’s scent was still in the room, making his head spin. A leathery smell, mixed with an animalistic scent. It had something to do with his confidence. Alarick had a presence that often muddled his string of thoughts. His figure much reminded him of Fourthly, the ogre that worked in the well who had a thick neck and broad shoulders like a bull. Alarick was built like a strong bull, but way taller than Fourthly. A giant. A young, reckless and inconsequential giant bull. It unnerved Erriene how tall he was, how strong he was, how he treated him like he owned him. Alarick wasn’t ugly exactly. Far from it actually. It shouldn’t matter to him but one may argue his strong jaw and straight nose were attractive, if one was slightly drunk. Or so he wan
Erriene stood in front of Alarick, hands firmly clasped behind his back as his soldiers stood outside ready to leave.“Is it done?” Alarick asked, watching the blue magic that surrounded them minutes ago disappearing.The words were a little tricky to say, unknown to him, and the thrill he felt at his guts when the magic circled him and Erriene was overwhelming, in a good way.Erriene had handed him the contract and he had dropped a little of blood on it, and it was a little unusual with land binding contracts. But he would send it to Maud, and it would be protected.“Yes, yes,” Erriene said with impatience. “Now tell me, why are there soldiers all over the temple?”Alarick had spent the last two days sending letters to Maud to let his father know of his plans, and waiting for a good amount of soldiers to travel to the Temple of Cyndel. He had sent some men around to find the trolls’ positions
Two days later, Alarick found himself riding his horse in a forgotten part of Kalise- the poor, unkind part of the land.It was said that Kalise was a holy ground, where supposed gods have been killed and born, but despite being pleasantly warm most of the year, it’s soil wasn’t good for growing.Thorne was making suggestions though, about some places that could be salvaged.Alarick circled the camp one more time. He had groups of men protecting the abandoned villages after making themselves the plague against trolls and killing anything they found in their way, and they were making camp after the archers took care of a large batch by the forest most of the trolls were coming from.It would take some time, letting the trolls regroup and then following the trails, but Alarick felt calm.Fighting in Kalise feels like protecting Erriene, and wherever Erriene was at, that was Alarick’s territory.Those were the th
It was done.And it was as easy as Alarick thought it would be. They had gathered their things first thing in the morning, and up on their horses as they were going back to the temple.The trolls were not all dead, but what was left of them could be dealt with by the men he assigned to take care of them, in different places.They were building posts, and there was a constant stream of food being delivered by his hunters to those posts.It would take some time to build a good watch, good fences and traps around Kalise, but the land wasn’t huge by any means, and they were all pretty used to the old routine they made in the villages of Maud.The villages were being reconstructed. Soon, the families that took refuge in the Temple of Cyndel would be going back to their homes.Alarick had fulfilled his promise. It was time to go back to Maud.Time to let Erriene go again, but not before collecting one more promise from t