Betrothal's Price

Chapter 13: To Know Or Not To Know

Brooklynn ran into the Library, knowing who would be here and could quite possibly know what Leo had seen. She held the bottom ends of her gold and white detailed skirts up as she searched around the huge Library.

Finally tired of looking, she called out his name, “Liam!”

Alas, he showed up… at least she heard him shushing, so she followed the sound of his shushing. Once he was in sight, Brooklynn ran up to him. “Liam! Liam! Liam! Liam! LIAM!”

Liam’s eyebrows shot up in surprise only to sink to his eyes as Brooklynn repeated his name more than he believed was necessary with an even more unnecessary volume. “Brooklynn, does silence mean anything to you? What do you want?” He was unimpressed by her antics.

Brooklynn stopped and smiled her quirky smile. “Okay, here’s the scoop: I have a question for you, since you’ve practically memorized the ‘Silvestrian Book Section’. So clearly, you gotta know something, right? Right! So I was wondering if you know any kind of elf and/or Silvestrian that shapeshifts. Maybe? No. Or maybe possibly takes over bodies rotting or turning into dust, the person it controls or whatever.” She spoke rapidly. So rapid that Liam could barely hold onto a word that left her mouth. Muchless process the meanings or point to her words.

Her rambling sounded more like,
“SoIwaswonderingifyouknowanykindofelfand/orSilvestrianthatshapeshifts.Maybe?No.Ormaybepossibly–takesoverbodiesrottingorturningintodust,thepersonitcontrolsorwhatever.”

Liam hated it when she got like this. He shook his head trying to process everything. “What?”

Brooklynn rolled her eyes and relayed the information at a slower pace.

Liam simply told her as he turned back to the bookshelf, “Brooklynn, no elf does that. There are only 9 kinds of elves. Those kinds being; Moon, Avain, Night, Aqua, Snow, Spring, Sun, Fire, and Forest. None of them are black like that. Where did you hear about this?” He pulled a book out and flipped through the pages.

Brooklynn pouted, “I told you, Leo-Lion did.”

“How exactly?”

She looked from her left to her right as if dramatically looking for witnesses, “Well, Leo saw that happen to Silus. He was just training and Boom! He saw it. He said it looked painful. I promised I’d find out for him.” She yelled the word “boom” as if excitedly explaining an explosion.

“Shh! So you came to me?”

“Well, yeah, you’re the one who knows about this kind of stuff, and I figured I could save the time I would be spending reading by asking a living Silvestrian encyclopedia.” Brooklynn shrugged.

It was Liam’s turn to roll his eyes, “You could’ve asked Isla about it. She knows more about Silvestria than the two of us combined, for one. And secondly, it would probably be helpful if you read a little less fiction and a little more fact-filled books.”

“Why waste time doing that, when I can just ask someone like you who has read the books that answer these types of questions?”

“Nevermind. Point is, I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Hmm. Oh! Can you ask Isla about it for me, then tell me?”

Liam’s shoulders sank, “Fine.” He didn’t mind going to see Isla; it was the fact that Brooklynn’s methods in finding something out was asking someone else about it, instead of doing the research herself that annoyed him, and not in the way Isla would annoy him.

“Great!” Brooklynn perked. “Thanks! I’ll go see if anyone else may know about it. See ya!”

Liam waved as he walked out, “See you later, I guess?”

Brooklynn ran off past him. Liam decided he might as well go find Isla, and ask her Brooklynn’s question before he just wanted to decide against it.

In looking for her, Liam came to the courtyard, finding Leo. He hated to imagine Leo and Isla were talking anymore than necessary, considering the way they were flirting the morning she’d arrived. It still agitated him, to this point.

However, thinking about Isla made his brain feel fuzzy in a smitten way. Thinking about her, reminded him that just a month and a half ago, she kissed his cheek. Feeling her soft lips on his cheek awoke the nonexistent butterflies in his stomach. Feeling her cheek nearly brush against his and smelling her so close to him, gave him a bold wish to bring her full lips to his and kiss her.

A want to even tell his step-dad to prepare the wedding already. He would’ve done anything to prove to her that he cared about her. He accepted her exactly as she was. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let her go.

Lost in thought, Liam didn’t notice when Leo called his name in question. Leo called out to him, until he lost his patience for him to snap out of it. He tossed a wooden sword to him and Liam caught it, finally snapping back into reality.

“There he is!” Leo cheered with a sinking smile.

“Oh! Leo, what’s wrong?”

“‘Wrong’ isn’t exactly the word I’d ask about. More like what’s right with you. Are you daydreaming or something?”

Liam blushed, “What- no, no. Of course not, why? I didn’t say any names, did I?”

“No, but you looked weird for a minute. Oh! And you didn’t respond when I called you the first 37 times.” Leo explained.

“Sorry, Leo. I- I’m just kis- hold- Looking for Isla. Do you know where she is? In an hour or so dinner will be served, then another session of dancing lessons for us.”

Leo lifted an eyebrow, “Uh-huh. What were you going to say?”

“Noth-nothing! I-I wasn’t going to say anything. W-Why- why would I say anything else? That’s crazy…”

“Okay, I get it, Man. I’m not sure. She kinda stormed off a bit ago, I haven’t seen her in a while. Maybe she checked out the forest I told her about last month.”

“Great! Thanks.” Liam smiled half-heartedly and headed to find Isla. It was probably wrong, and maybe even really mean of him, but it aggravated him, knowing they were talking alone together. He just wished they hadn’t flirted that morning that way he’d feel more at ease with the idea that they interacted.

                                                             
~*~

After reaching the forest, Liam dismounted his horse and searched for any sign of her. He looked for her, figuring she wasn’t one who would say “Hey, I’m over here!” if someone called after her.

He spent an entire hour searching, then decided on the possibility that she didn’t want to be found.

At last, he gave up. He sat down against a tree trunk that overlooked the stream that always surrounded the cliff, the castle and villages sat upon. Liam watched the stream as it just flowed the way it was peacefully designed.

That was when he noticed it.

A small stone was thrown into the stream.

Then another.

And another.

They certainly weren’t throwing themselves.

Liam looked above him; Lo and behold, there she was!