ECLIPSE, grishaverse

vi. pretending

                    HER HEAD HURT TERRIBLY AND she raised her hand to touch her forehead. Yelena opened her eyes slowly, moaning in the process, and when her gray ones focused she found Mal pacing back and forth in a simply furnished tent. Yelena sat straight on the black divan as memories flooded her mind. She remembered her fist colliding with the privateer's –and now, prince– face, then people screaming and blackness.

"What the hell happened?" she muttered.

"What happened? You punched a prince, Yelena! They knocked you out. And you are bloody lucky you didn't get shot!" Mal said angrily as he stopped pacing to face her. Alina was seating at a rough-hewn table and glancing outside to where two figures were standing in the entrance of the tent.

"It was so worth it." she whispered.

"And no one's going to shoot the Moon Summoner, Mal." Alina added.

"Well.." Yelena narrowed her eyes, thinking about that possibility.

"Are you two kidding? This is one more act of treason we can add to our list."

Yelena dismissed him with her sore hand, her knuckles were starting to get bruised. "You are just jealous I got to punch him."

"Like hell I am!" Mal exclaimed.

"So, now what?" Yelena asked.

"He told us to wait here and he'll come back to explain." Alina muttered.

Their conversation stopped for a moment as a servant entered with a large tray with water, kvas and small plates of zakuski, all dishes bordered in gold and emblazoned with a double eagle. When they left, Mal kept on asking.

"What happened out there? In the Fold?"

Yelena hesitated. She didn't even know what had happen. And she definitely wasn't telling them she saw the Darkling.

"I.. got scared." she whispered, and lied.

"You? Scared?" Mal asked, incredulous as Alina raised an eyebrow. "We fought far worst on the Whaler and in the Fold, twice!" And Yelena had way more fights in Ketterdam, but she wasn't going to tell them that.

"I know Mal, I just got confused. I don't know." he opened his mouth to speak again but Yelena was quick to shut him up. "And that's it."

"Fine! If you want to lie to us, go ahead. But I'm not going to sit quiet and believe you." Mal said.

Before she could fired back, another voice sounded through the tent, and she saw his blond hair from the corner of her eye. Yelena looked away. "Why not? It's only common courtesy."

Mal and Alina were soon on their feet, ready to fight. Sturmhond stopped short and left his sword on the tent's corner, then he lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. Meanwhile, Yelena was sitting quietly sobbing her head and looking everywhere but at him.

"I'm just here to talk." he said.

"Then talk. Who are you?" Mal retorted.

"And what about Sturmhond?" Alina asked.

"Please," the privateer said. "I don't know about you, but I find everything much more understandable when seated. Something about circulation, I suspect."

Yelena ignored him, and Alina and Mal didn't budge. The latter crossed his arms.

"All right, well. I'm going to sit. I find playing the returning hero a most wearying task, and I'm possibly worn out." He crossed to the table and poured himself a glass of kvas, then he settled into a chair. "I'm Nikolai Lantsov, but please don't make me recite my tittles again. The only important one there is 'prince.' And I'm also Sturmhond, commander of the Volkvolny, scourge of the True Sea."