Yearning for the Moon

Chapter Twenty

"You're asking if we're okay? Are you alright? You're covered in blood, Elianna!" Andreas looks at me with worry, but I glance down at my blood covered arm, and blood drenched clothes.

"It's fine, none of it is mine." He looks even more worried by that, as if wondering what I did, the consequences that will follow.

"What did you do to get covered in blood, Elianna?" I open my mouth to respond, but pause as I am unsure what to say, unsure how he'll take it, but I am spared from having to speak, as someone else does it for me.

"She got it from tearing your captors to pieces, even enjoyed it quite a bit if the excitement on her face while doing it is anything to go by." I whirl around, staring with wide eyes as Orpheus strolls casually into the courtyard.

"You're the one who freed us! Who are you!" Darian looked both relieved and worried to see him, which is fair I imagine Orpheus was quite violent with his rescue, he did enjoy bloodshed after all.

"Why don't you ask her, I came to you upon her request." How quick he was to shove everything on me, then again I knew he never would have saved them if it wasn't for me asking him to, he cared nothing for them, their lives meant nothing to him, I was the only one he cared for, and I think it had more to do with the blessings, I carried within me, then me personally.

"This is Orpheus, the fox you've seen following me." They stare at me with confusion and then glance at Orpheus with horror, realizing who he truly is.

"But that fox only had one tail, they can't shift into human form with only one tail." Orpheus winks at them, looking positively gleeful that more humans feared him.

"Well, he has got a lot more tails than that, and the power to conceal them as he wishes. Don't worry about him, he won't be an issue. But know that I think my time here in the outpost is finished, I've killed the city lord, you can take the outpost as your own if you wish, but I will move onto my own city." Andreas looks at me with shock, as if only now realizing the blood on my hands was the city lord's, but then the shock fades away and he stares at me with determination.

"I've said before that I intend to be by your side as you change the world, and this only makes me more confident of the fact that you will change it, if you are leaving the outpost, I will follow you." I am not quite sure how to respond to his unfailing faith in me, that I will change the world and it will be for the better.

I hope it will be, but there was no guarantee that I wouldn't become dark, I was no saint, I had hurt people, and I would likely hurt more in the future, I cared little for those who were harmed and did nothing to defend themselves, the only way to survive was to defend yourself whenever you had the strength, to force anyone who stood against you to stay away, then you could only truly live, once all your enemies were dead. Having grown up in the Dagon family twisted me, made me dark, and evil, possibly, but I am what they made me, their own hate and darkness forming me into the person I am today.

And while I may not be the good guy, I wasn't certain I was the bad guy either, if I had been the bad guy I would have killed all the guests at that farce of a wedding, I had thought of it, but I hadn't given it more than a passing thought, they had done no wrong to me, they didn't deserve to be harmed, so no I wasn't the good guy, and I wasn't the bad guy, I was the person who returned what others gave me, if they gave me kindness I would show them how good of a friend I could be in return, and if they gave me hate, I would show them my fury.

I wasn't sure how the Queen would react once she found out I killed the city lord, I don't think I did anything wrong, he had made a move against me first after all, but still if I remained on her land, then I just gave her another reason to move against me. "We will stand with you Elianna." I stare at Darian with shock as his family stares at me resolutely, determined to follow me, even though I hadn't known them for that long.