Chapter 3

I jumped down from the branch of the blue tree, taking a few light steps. Then I suddenly stood still, feeling my surroundings and listening to the breathing of the forest.

My thoughts were obviously dragged to the present when I felt I wasn’t alone anymore in the Aiglean forest. I could just tell it right away as I could sense another presence. An unfamiliar aura.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier, Xerra, but you were so busy with your own thoughts,” Ponpon pointed out when I took my poniard out of its small scabbard that was securely tied around my left thigh.

I revitalized myself using my own violet aura. My heart rate was then back to normal like I never ran for miles.

I smirked at Ponpon, then I looked around us. That was when I saw him, alone.

He was perhaps a few years older than me, tall, like six feet and six inches; he had broad shoulders with well-built body that anyone would want to ogle on. And yet, he was graceful as a feline—a type of animal on Earth that my father told me about. He was gifted with long reddish brown hair that was in a neat man bun. From this distance, I could see his green eyes well and the way he looked at me, which was smoldering. It affected me by making my heart flutter and my stomach feel giddy.

I’d never seen such a beautiful creature in my life that was of my opposite sex. Hence, I was like a statue in my place, staring at him.

The Aryan stranger was slightly smiling at me, or so I thought. And my heart jumpstarted at that; it was curious. I never felt something like this before. Yes, definitely bizarre. No one had made my heart race like the way he did.

I frowned a little; my beautifully arched brows furrowed. I never saw this Aryan before. Not in this area, that is. I am so certain that he is not from my tribe, the Aigleana, as I could clearly sense the negative energy coming out from his person. My people would emit only positive energy from their auras.

“Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?” I asked him.

He looked at the poniard in my hand, seemingly fascinated. He slowly walked toward me with his long muscular legs. I couldn’t probe into his thoughts even if I wanted to. As it was, I could only probe other people’s minds when they were at the most four or five paces away from me. And he was farther than that at the moment. Perhaps he knew about my ability? But how? And he looked quite stronger than any other Aryan I met. He indeed gave a different vibe from anyone I met before.

“I’ve been watching you for a while now.” He smiled crookedly, with those pale but sexy lips of his. I noticed some beads of sweat on his forehead like he was running for miles. I also noticed that he revitalized himself using his gray aura. Then, he gained back his strength and breathed normally, gazing into my blue-green eyes with awe and admiration.

I raised an eyebrow. That sounded creepy, normally. And yet, I wasn’t feeling something like that. In fact, I was intrigued and maybe even… fascinated by him. I noted though that the stranger only answered my third question. Why was he watching me for a while now? What did he want from me?

For the moment, I decided he wasn’t a threat and I put back Ponpon into his scabbard. If he were, I would know it from his aura and intent.

“Pick me up now, Xerra! You don’t know this being!” Ponpon protested.

The stranger’s eyes looked at my weapon with amazement. Well, he was not the first one to react like that. All others did.

“Keep silent, Ponpon,” I told him, aplomb, without looking away from the stranger.

“Does that thing just talked?” he asked me. His eyes were transfixed with my poniard.

“Oh, sure. I do. You see, I’m unique, stranger. No other weapon like me in this entire Aryan world can speak as I do,” Ponpon bragged. He rolled his eyes afterward.

I ignored him. “I asked the questions first. You must not be from around here as you don’t know the rules,” I remarked. I crossed my arms under my small breasts.

The stranger chuckled. He stepped closer to me, reducing our distance. “Judging by your almond-shaped eyes, blue-green eyes, positive aura, and long and violet hair… you’re not a pure Aryan. And I heard all about you for a long time now.”

I blinked once, twice. There was something in his tone, which set him apart from an ordinary Aryan. No one had ever spelled out my uniqueness in front of me and so arrogantly or carelessly at that. He wasn’t the only one who could be arrogant here. After all, he was in my territory. He was on the Aiglean land. Even the King himself would have thought twice to step on this land. That was the reason why he only sent his soldiers to our home to send our mother’s remains and be laid to rest. He was smart enough to do that. Otherwise, there could have been a bloodbath.

The King knew that he was never welcome in our land. And by marrying our mother to become his Queen, he thought that Aigleans would welcome and accept him then. But he was wrong. Our people didn’t want to get involved with his being a warmonger. He’d been fighting with the rebels, the Furezos, up north for decades—since he became the Aryan King, which was even before I was born in this world.

“What do you know about me?” I asked the stranger with puzzlement.

He laughed. “About everything. I just told you that… Xerra…” And with that, he hid behind a green tree and was gone.

I cursed in my head. I still had many things to ask him. Like his name, perhaps? Who is he anyway?

I wondered why he approached me like this today. I wondered what his purpose was.

Huh! There are just some weird Aryans here, too.

But I was puzzled by that Aryan stranger.