Chapter 32: Blood On The Snow[5]
Kayla sat with her back against the wall, Tarlock’s knife barely missed her heart as her body moved on its own to save her.
Tharnak sat opposite to her while Xior and Alice sat next to him. It was night now, Xior and Alice had arrived with the Rabbit warriors a few hours ago, just after Tharnak finished the execution.
They sat their silently, the only sound in the room was their breathing. Kayla looked from left to right and frowned.
"Why are you all so damn quiet, as if you’re mourning me?" She questioned.
Her voice took all of them out of trance as she chuckled seeing their reactions. She knew that all of them were worried for her.
"Thankfully, we are not doing that dear." Alice replied with a smile.
Xior’s lips shifted but he didn’t speak. Kayla was interested to know what he was thinking, he often just sits silently and observes.
’They fail to see through him, his way of talking and how he treats most people. He is a man of few words but he is not cold, rather he is a man who is compassionate when it comes to people he has grown close to. I really want to know what happened in his life for him to be like this...if only he would sit and talk with me’
She thought as Rain entered the room, he was not wearing his usual clothes. Instead he wore silver armor and had his swords strapped to it. He looked more like a knight than a Vice-Guildmaster.
"Let’s get ready everyone, by now the recon team would be on their way back with Lady Fenra while Tigers would be chasing them with their militia. We need to be prepared." Rain declared.
Apart from Kayla everyone stood up from where they were and moved out to prepare and change, only Xior didn’t.
"Kayla, is Beatrice behaving?" Xior asked as he was near the door.
"Yeah, she’s behaving and has learned quickly these past few days." She chuckled as she remembered all the pronunciation mistakes Beatrice made.
"That’s good. Is she in her room?"
"Yeah she is, she’s probably sleeping right now. I was meaning to ask you that how did you manage to make a nameless so docile?
In history books and legends, they’ve been described as inherently evil and being of chaos." Kayla questioned.
Xior looked at Kayla before as his lips curved up into a small smile and said, "I just killed its sibling in front of it. That’s why."
Kayla got distracted by his smile, her opinions of him clashed against each other. The man who had a gloomy expression on his face all the time was now smiling. It was nothing less than a miracle.
She was lost in the moment, he was not ugly but his gloomy expression didn’t help but his smile...it was beautiful.
Innocent, playful and genuine. Xior finally left the room, and walked out of the building. As soon as he came out the two wolves who accompanied Becca came running.
Tharnak saw Fenra on the back of the young wolf in front while the other one trailed behind him slowly, his body was full of cuts, staining his light grey fur red.
Tharnak ran towards them and grabbed his wife from the young wolf, he hugged her limp body tightly, she was still warm.
"T-thank you, young warriors" Tharnak said as his voice trembled, he was on the verge of crying but he tried his best not to.
The young wolf nodded as the other one walked past them and towards Xior, he bowed down in front of him, blood dripped down his wounds onto the ground.
"Lady Rebecca asked me to tell you that she is waiting for you, the Tigers ambushed us. We made a slight error in our operation.
They were all ready to charge towards us, she bought us time as she faced on the Tiger horde herself. The last I saw her was being captured by the Tigers."
Xior’s eyes widened, the nerves on his forehead popped up as an intense bloodlust erupted from him, thick and full of hatred.
He didn’t look around, nor said anything to anyone. They knew how important Becca was to him. He started walking towards the exit, each step of his was heavy, full of intense loathing.
*****
The Tiger horde ran towards the mountain of the wolves, around five hundred Tigers were present. In the front was their chief, he was bigger than the others and had more intense scars on his body.
Becca was tied to a pole which a couple of Tigers held and ran with at the same time. They were near the base of the mountain when from the darkness emerged hundreds of wolves.
In the front was Tharnak, wearing nothing but trousers his body covered in tattoos and scars was in its all glory.
Besides him was Alice, she wore light silver armor and held a spear in her hand and on her left was Rain, in his silver armor and both of his swords in his hands.
Behind them Rabbit and Wolf warriors stood, they were about three hundred in total. The Tigers stopped. Their Chief slowly walked forward and so did Tharnak.
They came face to face against each other, the Tiger Chief was tall and bigger than Tharnak but Tharnak wasn’t intimidated by the size. He knew how big of a coward he really was.
"Surrender Tharnak, that would be better for you and your pups." The Tiger chief mocked.
"Surrender? You’re mistaken you bastard. We’re not scared of you and your little band of kittens." Tharnak mocked him in return earning a chuckle from Rain.
The Tiger Chief didn’t find it amusing as he unsheathed his blade. He looked towards the tied up Becca and signaled the Tigers to bring her forward.
"If you give up, I will set this human free. Otherwise I will rip her to shreds right in front of you."
Rain looked at Becca as her eyes scanned the battlefield for Xior, but he was nowhere to be found. Rain decided it was enough.
This was bad, Xior had gone out to look for her while they came here with the captured Becca. He cursed himself to let variables like this slip out of his calculations.
He had to do something to keep Becca alive during this conflict until Xior arrives. So he took off his glasses and started walking towards the chiefs.