“I still don’t trust you,” Xander said, coming up beside me.
Trying to balance myself over the saddle, I looked at Xander. Tarina had lent me her horse. I had never ridden a horse before and it was proving to be a herculean task now—my hair was all over my face, my legs burned, and my back hurt from my weak attempts to sit up straight on its back. I was really missing Kia at the moment.
“What were you saying?” I asked him, tucking strands of hair behind my ear. It was a wrong thing to do at a wrong time as the horse jumped over a puddle of water and I nearly fell off the saddle.
Xander regarded me and my pathetic situation. His nose wrinkled a bit. “Ryan may have been able to tell you the spell, but I don’t realize how you can be trusted,” he said nonchalantly.
When the horse strutted along at a normal pace, I said, “The lack of realization is mutual. However, do tell me the reason of so much hatred directed towards us by your kind.”
Xander cut a sideways glance at me. “The humans may be unaware of our presence,” he said. “But we are told about your kind since childhood. The way you lie.” Xander looked forward as he spoke, “The way you revel after destroying the nature.”
I huffed. “Humans may be able to lie, but the faeries are deceptive, benders of the truth. Xander, while it does not bother me if I have your trust, I must say that I have no reason to lie here. And if I am willing to trust your words, I would expect you to trust mine.”
Xander barked out a laugh, his teeth bared in an almost vicious manner. “It doesn’t happen that way, Venus. You cannot,” he shook his head. “You cannot expect people to do things your way.”
I shrugged and sat properly onto the saddle. “Did you come here yesterday, after Ryan did?”
Keeping his eyes fixed on the road, Xander kicked his stallion on the side and moved forward. I kicked mine on the side well and with a neigh, it galloped forward, moving ahead of Xander.
I heard Xander chuckle from behind, and after a moment he came beside me, sitting peacefully on the back of his stallion. Ignoring him, I pulled the reins of my horse till it calmed down.
“You need to take lessons on horse riding,” Xander said, mocking me.
“So, did you come here yesterday?”
“Are you not going to stop asking till I provide you with an answer?” he mused.
“And if you don’t, then I’ll ask someone else.”
Xander gave me a lopsided smile. “Well then. To save you the misery, no. I’ve been living here for quite a few months. Meeting Ryan here was a nice coincidence.”
I let out a sigh and we fared in silence, the rhythmic strutting of the horses and enthusiastic chirping of the birds being the only sound accompanying us. The fields on the sides of the road were starting to cease and small cottages started to appear.
After a few moments, we were in a more crowded place, with houses and lush courtyards serving as our scenery. Small flowers and decorative vines hung from the roof of the houses looking beautiful and not wild at all. A few witches lounged on wooden chairs in their gardens, but most of them scurried along the road and in and out of their houses — a normal, busy day for them.
I saw a male witch pluck some herbs from his garden, he then poured them into a glass vial. As the content inside the vial turned red, the witch threw the vial onto the ground, shattering it in the process. My nose scrunched up automatically. What kind of mad witch was he? As I pondered upon his madness, I saw the witch utter a spell and join the pieces of glass back into a vial, albeit a bit deformed.
YOU ARE READING
A World Of Treason and Tides
FantasíaA few dreams and a note were all it took for Venus's life to change. A note telling Venus that her family was whisked away to a place unknown to her was all it took for Venus to decide that she is going to go to that place- to that world- to Odalis...
