Bloodlines

Chapter 5

It was evening, but she wasn't at peace. That was wrong.

A light breeze teased the strands of Layla's curly black hair, as she wondered how on earth she got here, wherever here was. Sitting in a meadow covered with wildflowers, their perfumes filling her, making her lightheaded. It had to be a dream. But her dreams were never this vivid, this realistic. Even her boots were scuffed.

"LAYLA!"

She spun around -- when had she gotten up? -- and faced Xander. He looked half-crazed with fury, but she knew it wasn't at her. She just knew.

"Where is it? Where is it?"

"Where is what?"

He knelt down, oblivious to her words.

"Xander! What is it? What ails you?"
She asked, even as he began to dig at the earth with his hands.

"I need to find it. I need to find it. I need to find it." He chanted on and on, even as his nails broke and blood and earth mixed together. His hair was longer, and it fell in his face, making him look wild, alien, not from this world.

Shocked, yet morbidly curious, she knelt beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

The hand went straight through.

She shrieked and fell on her bottom, staring at her hands. Why couldn't she touch him? What was this?

"You are not of his world, child. You were not even supposed to meet."

A woman sat nearby, her feet crushing the flowers. Right before her eyes, the flowers began to dry up. Looking up from the dying plants, her eyes traced up the robes of the odd lady, her blood red nails glinting oddly against the grass, her pale neck, her blood red lips.

Her empty eye sockets.

Biting back a scream, she got up from her sprawl and began to edge away from the woman. She was very tired of this dream.

The woman got up, her movements akin to water.

"Tell me, and you won't have to suffer. Like him." She jerked her chin at Xander, who was now screaming in frustration at the grass as he kept clawing at the earth.

"I don't know what you want!" Layla gasped out, as the woman flashed in front of her and squeezed her fingers round he throat.

Leaning in, the woman whispered, "Oh, you will. Very soon."

Then she slit Layla's throat with her claws.

Layla woke up gasping, her hands clawing at her throat.

A dream. It was just a dream.

But as she stared at her bloody hands in the early morning light, she wasn't so sure.

****
Shaken from the nightmare, Layla was very subdued later on. She didn't even exchange words as per usual with Eunice.

Eating her warm porridge (ew) in the inn's dining room, she tried to make sense of the dream. Her mother had always told her dreams were the magic of humans, their very own wonderland.

She always thought that was stupid, especially now.

She didn't even want to imagine that... that... bloody meadow as her wonderland.

But Xander had been looking for something. What?

And who was the demonic woman?

She was wearing the oddest shoes she had ever seen, with tall thin spikes as the heels. They didn't look very comfortable.

"We leave in 10 minutes, Miss."

Layla thanked the soldier --Mark? Mateo?-- and got up, grabbing her satchel from the floor beside her boots and making her way out of the inn to the stables. The street was already filled with minor aristocrats in their carriages and strolling commoners on the streets.

Odd, she hadn't seen Xander this morning.
Spying Eunice's odd grey hair by her stallion, she made her way towards her.

"Eunice. Have you seen Xander? I haven't --"

"No. And you're no his mother nor his lover, as much as you want to be, so I do not think it is your business where Xander goes. He'll show up as we leave."

Layla blinked.

"I'm just worried, girl. We shall soon leave, and it is quite rare for him to vanish like this." Layla shot back, irritated by her tone and her nonchalant attitude.

Eunice laughed as she mounted her steed.

"Xander is one of the best warriors in the mage army. In fact, the only just reason he has not attained the lieutenant status is because he doesn't want it. And what exactly could attack him in this mundane town? Pray tell, a human?" With that derogatory note, she trotted off. "The human called me girl." She muttered under her breath.

Silently gnashing her teeth, Layla went to her horse, a pretty mare named Feather.

From the very beginning, Eunice had never liked her. Layla didn't mind most times, she was used to not being liked, especially in a closed-minded village like hers where a woman wearing men's clothing was seen as scandalous. The fact that she do what men could do, and even do it better, wasn't counted as important.

Nope.

A woman's place was in the kitchen, and her position should be below her husband, in life and in bed.

So she could handle Eunice on the best of days, but this wasn't​ about her. It was about Xander and...

...and the contrary female was correct. She was attracted to Xander.

It did not mean she could not worry about him.

Xander appeared as they were leaving, not saying a single word. He was already astride his grey stallion. Guiding her horse to trot at pace with his, she said nothing as they made their way to the gates of Claudestown.

Many times, she wanted to ask him where in tarnation he had been all night, but Eunice's words kept ringing in her head.

...you're no his mother, nor his lover, as much as you want to be, so I do not think it is your business where Xander goes...

It really wasn't her business. The goddamned mage was kidnapping her. She should hold all the mage in contempt! The mages were all bloody insane!

However, as their party rode deeper into the Whispering Forest, Layla knew who she was deceiving-- herself.

The mage clearly had no issues with powerful woman, she mused, judging by the amount of women in their army.

Humans saw women as weak, spineless creatures who were meant to bear children, take care of their husband and be domesticated.

But here was Mae Sterling, Lieutenant of The Great Mage Army, and she was a great warrior, celebrated amongst her people, hence the lieutenant status.

Focusing on the issues again, she decided. She would ask Xander, but as a friend. Once they left the city proper. When they'd have no prying eyes.

******

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