Her Darkling

Chapter 11.

At the sound of wood snapping, I suddenly became alert, my body turning as my shin created weak waves in the water.

Oh.

Realization hit me so hard that it had me nearly reeling backward. I was fully aware of the fact that I was naked, with nothing to cover up. Turning immediately, I sank into the water, stupidly forgetting that it was as clear as day in here before swimming over to the rock and hiding behind it. I quickly grabbed my pants and slipped my legs into it, not minding if it was slightly torn and bloodied. It was also wet. Thankfully, it was only at the tip. I bent over and rolled it to my knees before straightening back up to see him standing there.

Under the sunlight, I could make out his features. Pale skin, almost looking like the insides of an oyster shell. Soft features. Too soft for a man. But his arms were defined. Not too muscular but toned enough for me to know he was good at using swords.

Fuck.

I was just slipping my top back on when he waded into the water and immediately, I pushed the fabric into my chest to conceal my breasts. It did no justice but at least, I already had my pants on.

"There's nothing to worry about. No need for you to panic over nothing." He said, sounding so nonchalant it made me uncomfortable. I'd met my rival.

I swallowed but I gave him no reply. I remained there, watching as he waded deeper into the water.

He stopped in the middle of the water and my eyes darted to his bare feet. His skin was paler under the water, like pink milk. I don't know if that made sense.

Raising both of his muscled arms, he untied the rope that had been used to hold his hair in place. I stared, eyes wide in surprise as his thick, long mane of hair fell back in curly tresses, moving with the morning wind and billowing into his face. He suddenly became more feminine in my eyes. The thick volume of his hair outlined his face, softening his features the more.

It was definitely not him morphing. This was a woman. I knew that jawline was too unmasculine but I hadn't dwelled so much on it last night.

She was a woman. But it still had me confused. My brows furrowed in askance but I said nothing in reply.

She must have seen the shocked look on my face, because she briefly glanced at me, blue-gray eyes, almost as clear as the seas, drawing me in before she continued to wade through the water, avoiding jagged rocks and boulders, fighting with the current of the water that moved in the opposite direction as she crossed over to the other side.

When she finally stood on a dry rock, she turned, her eyes trained on me. I could see the question swirling in her intense eyes, like she wanted to say something to me. I watched her throat bob up and down as she made to speak, but she swallowed her words and continued on her way in the western direction of the river bank.

And soon, she was gone, with no traces of her presence here, save for the jagged mark of her boot print on the dry stone she previously stood on.

Thankfully, I had fully cleaned up my body. I slipped my shirt on quickly in order to avoid a similar encounter with a man this time.

Bending slightly over, I cupped my hands and scooped water into my palm, washing my face of its dirt and oil. I scrubbed a dried flake off my forehead before scooping another into my mouth and washing thoroughly.

As soon as I was done, I waded out of the river, water dripping from my skin, creating mini craters in the beige-colored sand as I rolled my pants down.

It was still very bright. The sun was shining more intensely than it did about thirty minutes ago and I could hear the voices of warriors speaking and metal clanking. Someone whistled and a group of people began to yell over their voices, laughing like someone had cracked a joke. Everywhere was alive compared to last night and I sort of liked it. There was rustling in the bushes behind me and I heard the cry of a squirrel as it jumped from branch to branch, in search of nuts.

My boots lay on a rock and I went over to pick them, turning them over to get rid of dirt that might have gotten into them before I briefly rinsed the white-washed sand from my feet. I slipped my feet into my boots and shook more sand off.

Laces tied and hair properly tied up in a pony, I trudged back up the plateau, returning the nods of other warriors who walked past me. A few of them stared at me longer than they should have, but I was the least bothered, knowing fully well that they were probably questioning the fact that I was an outcast and now living amongst them.

I finally got to the large clearing. Tents were perched in different parts of the plateau; large, medium, and small and I believed it was allocated to warriors according to their ranks.

I searched around for the tent I had been in, surprised to see that it was a large tent. It wasn't a mistake, right? With our status in society, I and Eldrion deserved to live outside the tent, sleeping under the night skies but I guessed it didn't apply to us here. I was slightly grateful for that. Eamon wasn't as bad as I thought.

I had just started walking towards the tent when Eldrion came out of the corner and I was suddenly aware of the fact that I had limped to the river.

I stopped walking, watching as he walked in the direction of our tent. He slipped inside and I began to limp my way toward it, wondering if anyone had noticed that I wasn't at all limping.

I was still very much confused about my wound suddenly healing. I had pushed it to the back of my mind at the river but now, it slowly trickled back into my head, boggling me and confusing the hell out of me.

Slipping into the tent, I realized that Eldrion wasn't alone. Eamon was standing before him and as soon as my presence was made known, Eamon patted Eldrion's shoulder and slipped past me, out of the tent.

I looked back, watching him leave before I turned to Eldrion.

"Feeling better?" He asked with a smile as he walked towards me. Surely, he was over the argument we had. He barely held grudges and it was one thing I envied about him.

But I was too bothered about my wound suddenly closing up to entertain him.

Pushing past him, I still limped, hating the fact that my limp was faux-burnished in my mind. I took a seat at the edge of the bed, groaning softly and wincing so he could see that I was still wounded.

Eldrion, seeming like he had nowhere to go, took a seat on one of the boxes and leaned into the ones piled behind him. I looked down at my fingers, frowning in utter confusion as I still tried to make sense of what happened. My thoughts were everywhere, flying like papers behind the desk of a man trying to decipher a cryptic code.

I looked up at Eldrion to see that he was leafing through a book. I weighed my choices; to keep this from him or to tell him?

I knew I couldn't hide it from him. He was the closest thing to me and gods knew he was going to notice before anyone did. Which was why I had to tell him.

But how the hell was I going to do that? What exactly was I going to say?

That the arrow wound on the side of my torso had healed with amazing speed? Almost three times faster than his? It sounded ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

"Something wrong?"

I flinched at the suddenness of his question. "Yeah? Not at all."

"You look bothered."

Of course, I did. I was concerned about the f*****g wound that had suddenly closed up. It had me questioning my identity. Was I a werewolf? Like Eldrion? Like my brother, Aricen?

I didn't think so. I'd seen Eldrion heal his wounds and it wasn't as fast as this. I couldn't even compare its speed to this.

"Nariel?"

I sighed. "It's kind of complicated, Eldrion. I don't even know where to begin because I am really confused."

He c****d his head to the side and slowly dropped the book on the box. It tipped over and fell to the ground with a thud but he ignored it and walked over to me.

He took a seat beside me and brushed my hair behind my ear. "Talk to me, Nariel. No matter how confusing it is, I'll understand in the best way I can."

My eyes darted over to the entrance of the tent. No one seemed to be coming towards it. I snatched the hem of my leather jumper, pulling it high enough and pressing it into my ribcage.

Eldrion frowned in confusion, tilting his head to the side as he narrowed his moss-green eyes. "Wait. Something isn't right here. Where's the arrow wound? I'm sure it was right here, on the left side of your gut. So where's..."

I blew out a breath and quickly covered it up before leaning against the wall. "It happened at the river. I'd gone there to wash up. Right after I cleaned the dirt and blood off, it began to heal. Rapidly. I hadn't even constructed a train of thought when it healed. It just...disappeared, leaving my skin clean, without scars."

"Like it was never there," Eldrion muttered, his eyes wide in shock.

I reiterated softly. "Like it was never there."