.The Child Of A Goddess.

-86-

Aura's pov:

I followed behind Amata, sighing sadly but quietly to myself as I stared at her back. us elves see, hear, feel and such much more than other races do you already know that... That meant I could pick up on the subtle hints in Amata's body language she might not have noticed herself, all those little things pointing to the fact that even from the start I had lost out to Custos.

I had refused to believe it at first, thinking I still had a fighting chance when I could see her was similar reactions towards me as well as Custos but I saw how slowly they faded to the point of today, I had given up but it did hurt to see I wasn't even making her blush anymore, that I'm not even able to do this, I had truly lost so it was better for me to tell Custos she didn't need to fight on against as I was not competition anymore. I sighed silently again, if not me then you Custos better give her your all... Tt doesn't matter if I give up, if you hurt her, I'll make you pay...

Custos' pov:

I had glared for I don't know how long at these monks, it would have been alright if they told us Amata wouldn't drown and die despite being in the water and I might have been worried but not to this point because I'd have known she'd be fine... But no they said nothing. Fortis got his ass burnt all over by those blue ball thingies as he dragged her out of the pond, despite the fact they both always fight they are like a dysfunctional best friend duo of sort even if both you heavily deny it if I told them this. I was just so damned worried for her, so much, I hadn't said a word to the monks since then and as I said before, only glared.

I was reading this book I had gotten from the elves on relationships and such, let time I opened it was the day Aura joined out little group in the elvish town I somewhat confessed, I needed to be sure on stuff now that she just outright gave up the competition. I still didn't really get why so that's what I was trying to find in the book, why would someone give up like that? But found nothing clearly stating a reason and it was annoying to say the least.

Fortis was fixing his clothing right now; he has been at it for a long time saying something was off with it.

"Yo cat I have a question." I turned to him, I was sitting at a table with food but the monks insisted that we wait for everyone so I had started reading instead of eating.

"What's it?" He said a bit harshly, messing with the top part that covered his shoulders and moving it around, he was sitting right next to me so I didn't need to yell for him to understand me. I closed the book with a sigh and rested it in my lap as I stared at the cover of it.

"You know how royal guards are taught to not feel? Like before leaving I didn't even know what love meant and felt like, I even went to ask an elf if I caught a disease." We both chuckled at that. "And well I suck at it, all I know is from this one book... And well despite not telling you I know you know about my problem with Aura right?"

"The love triangle? You were not discreet."

"Yeah I guess you can call it that... While coming up to this temple we fell behind to talk and she just outright declared she had given up because of things only elves can see and that I had won... I don't understand why she would give up."

"Well let me think here since I'm not master of love, no one is other than these people that know the answer to every question in the world... So I had a friend once that worked with his parents in their blacksmith shop, the mother filling up the coal and such, the boy keeping the forge hot and going while the father made the swords, armor and all that stuff, he had friends and was in love with one of them but the girl loved his older brother that worked as a waiter in my parent's inn... Despite how much he loved her and always did as he could to try to win her heart like buy her flowers, make her a necklace, hang out or even just listen to her talk about his own brother... Despite all this he wasn't the one she liked, so he backed down, knowing she'd only truly be happy with his brother and not him. No matter how long he'd have tried for he just knew that despite thinking she was made for him, she wouldn't think the same... So as I said he backed down, suppressed his feelings, because he knew that was what would make her happy and that's all he wished for her." I had silently listened to his story he seemed immersed in so much he forgot where he was.

"What is up with him now?" I wanted to ask something else but still wanted to answer to this question.

"He found another person to love while his brother married the girl, they are still friends but where never meant to be a couple."

"So." I crossed my arms as I leaned back in the chair and put my index finger under my chin. "Aura gave up despite liking Amata still because she can see she'd be happier with me because she likes me and not her, or at least not in the same way?"

"This does play out really similarly as it has with my friends so I'd say that is what is going on through her head, giving up on winning her heart for her happiness." I smiled at him.

"Thanks man, you can be an ass at times but you're a good friend." He punched me in the shoulder with a fake angry look before a smile came on his face.

"I could say the same to you, clueless lover." We ended up laughing at that despite it being the truth.

"Heya we are here, sorry for the wait but we have a new friend." I heard Aura say and I look up to see her and Amata getting close, I raised an eyebrow as I saw a look on Amata's face I've never ever seen before but it was soon gone and replaced by a smile, what the hell was that?

"Look at this cutie." Fortis said, poking the cheek of what was like a living ice cube in the form of a dragon sitting on Amata's shoulder between Viridi and her neck, I chuckled when it bit his finger. "Why do all your freaking dragons hate me?!"

"You annoy them more then you annoy me that's why... But sure it is a cutie and so small over all." She said sitting down to my right and Aura to her right. "You should see how it walks, it's the cutest waddle ever."

"Hello there." I carefully pet the dragons head with a finger and pulled away twice before it could bite me before it let me do it. "What its name and where did you get it?"

"Frigus, it means cold if you don't know and it was in the crystal, the monks did say my mother made me a companion and this cutie is it." Amata said with a smile, this time a real smile not the one that covered up that strange expression... I'll need to ask about it later, I don't wanna put her on the spot before the others as they didn't seem to have noticed this happening. I zoned out right as the elvish monk opened his mouth and started eating since I was hungry and flipped open the book, maybe I can find something in this... Let's see... Oh...