The Tale of the Huntress

18. A Tense Dinner Party

With her head held high, she strode down the hall with a guard to accompany her. Armageddon stuck close to her side up until the moment they arrived in front of the large dining room doors. The guard standing watch held out his arm to stop them and stared down at the Axius.

"Lady Perrice asked that the animal stay outside of the dining area miss," he said to Nova but didn't take his wary eyes off of the creature. Armageddon turned his head to his companion for her reply and her brow twitched in displeasure.

"He stays with me," she retaliated and attempted to go by when the guard that had escorted her to the doors placed a hand on her shoulder. She tensed and her fists balled up, prepared to strike at the sudden contact.

"Then you will stay outside as well," the man said under his iron helmet. She scowled and nodded to her friend whose claws extended in annoyance as he scraped them across the floor in his retreat back to their room. It filled her with guilt to tell her best friend to leave them but she had to obey the rules of the house if she was to stay with them. Her hand went out and she pushed open one of the doors herself, ignoring the attempt of the guard to open it for her. Only Iridian, Lilium, and Kai were seated at the long table as the rest had not yet arrived. Iridian was rubbing his temple as his brother seemed to be chatting his ear off while the little one stared in her direction with a bound sketchbook clutched tightly to her chest.

"Momma!" She exclaimed and bounded out of her seat towards the green eyed woman. She presented her work to Nova with a proud smile as she examined the sloppy lines. The shape of the lion appeared between thick black lines and messy stars were strewn through its mane. A smile came to her mother's face as she handed it back to the child.

"Exactly how I described it. Very good Lilium," she spoke before leaning down to plant a kiss on her forehead. Then they returned to the dining table together as Marissia and a new face seated themselves across the way. She cleared her throat when they were both settled and turned her attention to the family of three.

"This is my husband, Tadonis," she introduced and he pleasantly smiled while nodding his head in their direction as a greeting. He was another elven man but his hair was blonde indicating that he was more than likely a high elf or one of pure noble blood. He was a rare sight indeed but she didn't stare unlike her daughter who was fascinated with the longer ears and sharper features as well as the unusually colored hair. In order to distract her, Nova took the sketchbook from the table and began to leaf through the pages and the little one turned to eagerly await her mother's compliments.

"Nice to meet you Tadonis. I am the youngest in the family, Iridian, and this is my wife Nova and our daughter Lilium," he said with a small smile. The high elf's eyes scanned over each of them until they made their way back to meet Iridian's.

"And how come I haven't met you all sooner? We have been married for 3 years already," he questioned and Marissia placed a hand over her husband's. Iridian seemed to have planned out answers to all questions as he was quick to respond.

"Well after I married Nova we decided to travel and Lilium was born somewhere along the way," he chuckled to make his story seem more genuine. Even the huntress's trained ears could have been fooled by his lie as he continued. "We never thought to come here until we had had our fill of adventure and saw the need to settle down for a bit."

Lilium scrunched up her nose realizing what topic they were discussing and nearly ruined their cover story when Nova pointed out how wonderful her drawing of Armageddon was. To that she smiled brightly and then began to search the room for her trusted babysitter. The huntress thought it better that she find out for herself that he was missing rather than telling her and bringing her attention back to their conversation.