Bloodmoon

Part 8

"How did you find me?"

She spoke without looking up from where she crouched on a stump of a wide, cut tree. At the center of a small clearing just into the forest, she sat alone, her folded wings and black hair illumined by the silver sheen of the large moon overhead.

Looking up, Ivar answered by jerking his head toward the flock of circling ravens. The unkindness soared above the clearing, holding their calls and ramblings, the sound of their beating wings silent to their ears below.

"You should not be here," she continued in a low voice, her eyes staying fixed on the dense forest ahead.

Scowling, frustration flashed across his face, his jaw cocking to the side. "There is so much for us to say!"

Shaking her head, Lofn, looked down. "It is too late for all of that."

"Why? Alle is dead. We have the castle. Come back with me." Frowning, his eyes searched her crouched from. "Lofn?" he pleaded, the softness in his voice causing her to close her eyes, willing back tears, refusing to let him see her cry a second time.

"I have to go, Ivar"

"Where?"

"Away."

"What are you talking about, woman?"

"It is the cost of what I did today."

Scrunching his nose, he shook his head, clearly not following. With a huff, he started moving toward her, crawling through the underbrush. The swishing of his movements sounding unnaturally loud against the backdrop of quiet. Stopping below the base of the drunk, he reached up and snatched her wrist, nearly pulling her off balance.

"Do not," she yanked her hand back, the sharpness in her voice making him to stop. "Please Ivar," she said in a gentler tone, staring down at his startled eyes. "Do not make this harder than it is."

"Stay with me," he peered up, his eyes round and innocent.

Stepping down from the stump, she settled into the grass facing him, her wings folding behind. Pushing himself over to sit, he leaned against the stump, straightening his legs out beside her. There was no wind and no night calls from the animals of the forest, only the faint rustling of them shifting on the cold ground.

"We were victorious today. What you did...." his voice dropped off as if replaying it in his mind.

Looking up, her eyes met his for the first time. Licking his dry lips, he continued feeling as if they might run out of time.

"I do not want you to go. I want you to stay... with me. You and I together, what we could do..." his eyes flashed wide, the whites around his iris glowing under the light of the moon.

Shaking her head, she looked down into the palms of her slender, pale hands. "It is underway. You are where you need to be and you no longer need me to achieve anything now."

Pushing his knuckles into the ground, he shifted closer, the sides of their legs touching.

"I do need you," he whispered.

"Ivar," she squeezed her eyes closed, her face contorting. "I am leaving."

Growling in frustration, he looked away, swatting a tuff of long grass. "I did not mean what I said, okay? On the boat. I do not think those things. I...I want us to be together," he looked back to her. "It is what I have always wanted. I want you," the volume of his voice lowered, "as my woman."

"And I am a woman to you?" she looked up at him.

"Yes, well...whatever you are, I want it."

Air shot through her nose with amusement but her smile quickly faded. "I am being sent away as punishment for interfering. For protecting you."