The Elven Curse

Chapter 14

As Vienna's sword lowered Aerin closed his eyes as he braced for impact.

His eyes were tightly shut and his arms rose to cover his head in instinct.

He'd seen how the tall woman's muscles bulged beneath the thin white blouse. He had no doubt that if he was hit by her, his bones would be shattered as if they were made of glass.

The sharp pain he expected to flare in any place of his body as the sword made contact with him never came.

Instead, the whistling sound of the sword being rapidly lowered was cut off by the clank of silver.

He slowly opened his eyes and loosened his arms to create a gap to look through. Right in front of him, Rowan had revealed a sharp knife that now separated the sword just a few inches from Aerin.

Rowan's face was terrifying to the group's eyes, Aerin could see a man in the group almost trembling in fear. Rowan's eyes were shining in a golden hue, bright yellow specks swirled in the golden pool.

His sharp teeth were on display and his wolf ears were held back resembling a feral wolf.

The whole new image of the man surprised Aerin, he wasn't scared of him for some unknown reason, but even he could smell the threatening scent coming from the man in front of him as he glared at Vienna.

Vienna glared back at him with a challenging stare, her eyes soon traveled to Aerin, and smiled.

Rowan must have not liked the way she looked at Aerin because he growled in a deep rumbling tone making Vienna smirk at him.

Rowan was prepared for her to use her sword to continue her attack, but he was surprised by the quick blow directed to his throat, making him gag and step back clumsily.

Aerin stood still, astonished at the tactic the woman had chosen and who now stared at him.

She lowered her head towards his neck and Omar jumped from behind trying to pull her back, his attempt fell futile as she just huffed and swung her fist behind her, hitting his stomach with a sickening dull sound.

Omar crouched while holding his stomach, his eyes tightly shut while moaning in pain.

Vienna turned back to Aerin who was now trying to hit her with a stick he'd picked from the floor, trying to gain time while Rowan recovered from the blow.

But Vienna just laughed under her breath and let go of her sword. She lowered her head once more while holding both of his wrists with one hand, her nose pressed against his neck once more and breathed in.

She whispered against his neck.

"It's the sa-", she was quickly cut off by a large chunk of wood being swung at her head, she stumbled while trying to catch her steps.

"Who did it?" She roared and looked around while warm blood trickled down her cheek from the wound on the left corner of her forehead.

The group stood silently. Hugo was now rubbing Aerin's head comfortingly as he glared at Vienna. There was something menacing in his eyes but also somehow told her it wasn't him who had hit her.

She looked around, Rowan was coughing and Omar was still holding his stomach while trembling in pain. Her eyes moved towards the group and saw Noah looking down at his feet, she smirked.

"How come you're brave now, Noah?", she spat, "You hit me and stand there in silence? You coward!".

"Vienna stop", Hugo stood between her and Noah, "What's gotten into you?" He asked.

She breathed out, her chest heaved painfully. She turned to look at Aerin, ignoring the older man, and saw the frightened face in the elf while he looked at Rowan worriedly.

Her eyes studied him, from the pointed ears and flowery hair to the rest of his body, which was delicate but in a way masculine too. She'd also smelled the scent coming from him, an earthly and fragrant scent that reminded her of a forest. She needed to know something from Aerin but was interrupted by the dramatic reaction of the group.

She rolled her eyes.

"Stop being so dramatic, I was just trying to smell his scent. I heard Rowan had invited him and I just wanted to get to know him", she shrugged.

Rowan, who slowly rose from the floor while dry coughs escaped from him, glared at her along with Omar who was now sitting on the floor.

Omar seemed to have no intention of moving so he didn't provoke any pain to emerge from his stomach.

"R-Really? What was t-the sword for Vienna?", Rowan asked with a dry voice that was soon followed by a series of coughs.

Aerin walked up to him and stared at him with big eyes, Rowan could see the worry in them and ruffled his hair adoringly.

Vienna shrugged again.

"It's the first time I've seen you captivated by someone. I was just curious as to what your reaction would be." Vienna turned her eyes at Aerin and grinned, "I was also trying to see if he meant any harm. He's weak".

The way she spat the word and pronounced it sent a weird feeling through Aerin.

Of course he wanted to argue with it, but the way the word had been said by the woman gave him a feeling he'd heard the same essence in the word from someone else.

"Nice to meet you elfy, Vienna here". She said while pointing a thumb at herself.

"This weakling like you is Noah", she said pinter her index at him, she then moved it down to Omar's direction, "Omar on the floor, you might want to talk to him if you get injured, if he doesn't get hurt before you of course, which is very likely to happen with how incompetent he is".

Omar glared at her with sweat at the roots of his hair.

"That old man is Hugo, the twins, Frode and Gorm, the two women behind Sven the redhead are Venus and Helen", she breathed in and squinted her eyes at the last three people she was missing, as if trying to remember them, "they're the quiet ones, but if I'm not wrong they're Freya, Ulrik and Jo".

When none of the three complained she smiled proudly and turned to look at Aerin. Her smile soon dropped when she saw him talking to Rowan in a soft voice. Rowan whispered something in Aerin's ear that made a soft giggle escape from his lips.

Rowan smiled endearingly.

Vienna glared at them, she crossed her arms waiting for them to notice her.

When they didn't she turned around, her short hair flipping dramatically over her shoulder as she left the group and entered the dead forest behind her.

Aerin's eyes followed her until she was out of his sight, he looked at Rowan with raised eyebrows.

"We were supposed to go to the castle today, but I suppose there are some changes of plans", Omar spoke from below.

Rowan nodded.

"We can go tomorrow, he can talk to whoever is in charge", Noah spoke shyly from within the group while gesturing at Aerin.

Everyone nodded and started to head back.

Omar started complaining from the floor about something not being fair until Rowan grasped his ankle and started dragging him, following everyone else.

Aerin sighed and looked around.

The shadows of the trees were growing larger as the sun started to set. A cold breeze passed by and a cold feeling overwhelmed him. His toes curled and the soft grass curled in response too.

He'd been outside for a whole day already.

The last bits of sunlight were disappearing and a deep sense of fear surged from inside him, he looked around uncomfortable.

"Aerin!", Rowan called out.

Aerin turned around and saw Rowan moving his hand, motioning for him to come back.

He looked back for a moment in the direction where the castle was located.

The place he'd run away from.

I don't want to go back.

"Aerin, come!".

He whimpered and ran to Rowan, oblivious to the eyes that stared at him within the shadows far away.