In the Land of Fae 2: Return to Ice ♔ (gxg)

13. motive

Mabuz outstretched his hand.

"Get up," he demanded.

Eira had gotten even stronger. The color had returned to her face, although she still had that natural ice pallor to her cheeks, and she didn't look quite as skinny with all the food Mabuz had been bringing to her. She'd been sitting up more and had managed to crawl once to reach a nearby berry bush when she was feeling snackish, although that was too embarrassing for her to report to Mabuz.

He also had gotten her some new white robes to wear, and she felt much better after he had brought her a bucket of water and gave her some privacy to bathe herself. She was even able to form ice now, having decorated her little leaf shelter with icicles to keep her shielded from the heat of the day.

Sighing, she took his hand and held her cane in the other, propping the end of it firmly on the dirt. Taking a deep breath, she hoisted herself up with her one good leg all in one go. Having stood up for the first time in months, all the blood went rushing from her head, and her good leg, weakened from atrophy, faltered. Unbalanced, she went flying forwards into Mabuz who caught her with his arms, his black wings encompassing her to keep her from falling.

"Woah," he cried, as if talking to a horse. He steadied her, and helped her to stand up straight as she held onto his shoulder.

"What's the point in walking when I can fly!" she exclaimed, already ready to drop back down onto her bum. Truthfully, she had been too weak to even fly.

"Because you gotta land at some point, right?" Mabuz said, moving to the right side of her and tucking his arm under hers. "Steady now, take a step."

Accidentally putting too much weight on her injured leg, she winced and leaned more to her right, pushing right against Mabuz. She tried to put her cane into a comfortable position so that it could be her second leg. Her right leg was trembling from all her weight being put onto it, so she tried to shift more to the left. Surprisingly, her cane strongly took the balance of her weight, and she felt a little more confident.

Her cold hand grasping Mabuz's shoulder rather painfully, she moved her right leg forward, Mabuz moving with it. "There ya go."

Inhaling deeply, she prepared herself and moved both the cane and her mangled leg forward at the same time, letting the cane catch her weight instead of her leg, only lighting putting her foot on the ground. She was leaning forward too much, so Mabuz straightened her.

With another step, they made it out of the leaf enclosure. Mabuz just held onto her, letting her figure out how to balance herself. While she very slowly took her first steps, his mind began to wander.

"I've always wanted to know," he began, looking out at the forest around them, the sun splitting through the trees. "What was your motive?"

"What?" she grunted as she took another step on her left side.

"Well, my motive for helping you is power. I've heard whispers in the village that yours was the same. I've heard it was power, or that it was because King Nikolaus was having an affair, and I've even heard that you're some kind of sorceress."

Eira scoffed as she hobbled a bit, Mabuz easily catching her. "I could have cared less about Nikolaus," she spat. "Only that he was so stupid."

"So it really was all for the crown, then?" he questioned.

Pausing, Eira turned her head up and looked out at the forest, catching her breath and watching a squirrel run up a distant tree. Although she had been withering away in that forest for many months, it was awfully peaceful.

"Not at first," she began slowly. "That was sort of just a formality. It was a consequence."

"Of what?"