Under the moonlight

Leap of Faith

“What is the meaning of this?” Alexandria lowered her voice, still staring at the ground. Even in her the soft volume the dangerous spite that lies around the edges are loud and clear, as she tried to process the news. I can’t believe this…

“Everyone, leave.” At that order, people started gathering their possessions and scattering to leave the room. King Azar knew it would take a while to get through his daughter, that is, if he could. He closed his eyes preparing for the inevitable. Her raging anger, after all, is rightfully valid.

“I’ve lived my whole life,” She snarled, clenching her fists under the table while now looking straight back at her father’s eyes, “slaying those creatures to give justice to mother and the lives those beasts took… and you tell me to act friendly around them? I can’t even look at them without seeing my mother’s eyes!”

“I know how hard this is, my daught–“

“Don’t call me that! Don’t you dare… I haven’t been your daughter since you’ve forgotten you had one.” The harsh words went straight to the king’s mouth and into his throat, clogging him silent as guilt passes of over his face.

“Did you seriously think that we can have an alliance with those beasts? We have years of visible scars over us, of mistrust, and of hatred… We wouldn’t be lasting a day without gripping the other’s throats”

“We have to, Alexandria... I’ve seen our enemy myself down the south. It is only because of luck that I am alive.” Alexa’s anger wobbled at the mention of his near-death experience, as much as she tries to pretend she doesn’t care. “I’ve never seen such horrifying beasts”

It doesn’t escape Alexa’s eyes the slight shiver that King Azar tried to contain, coupled with that look in his eyes is alarming to say the least. He has always been a tough man and she’s never seen her father like this. Like the beasts he has seen did not take his life, but his strength instead.

“What happened?”

“There was an abundant new source of coal near a small village down the South. I was supposed to meet the landlord to discuss trade routes and taxes, but when we got there in the night, bodies lay lifeless on the streets. Their bodies bloody ripped open…” Alexa’s mouth dried when unwanted images appeared in her mind.

The king took a sit down, calming himself as he continued, “Then as we went on inspecting the place, there was this giant beast, the size of a werewolf, hunched over a human body. Dormant wings on its sides, pale skin and the spine visible like a map on its body. That thing was feeding on it, Alexa. The moment it noticed us, it shrieked a terrible one, and then there were many…”

The creature already sounded dangerous as one, let alone many of them, she shivered at the thought.

“It was something we knew we couldn’t fight so we rode our horses as fast as we could, never looked back. By the time we did, I lost half my people who went there. Those things were snatching our people, like eagles and worms.” He added the last thing bitterly.

“I’m sorry for your loss” Alexandria said genuinely. They may have a terrible past, but the lost lives were never a joyful thing. So she sympathized, after all, she was a warrior and to be one comes the inevitable fate of losing those who have come to be her brothers and sisters.

After a few moments she adds, “But the 5 poleis are strong, we can eliminate those– “

“It is not enough!” The king snapped. Alexandria knows she is already pushing, but she can’t help it. She hates the alternative, and even if it works at the start, who’s to say they won’t end up betraying one another. “and if it is, we’d lose more than half our people fighting something we do not know!”

“Selene have reached out as well” He lowers his voice after the silence that comes, recovering from his own outburst.

Alexandria looked up at that in disbelief, truthfully surprised, “The Alpha?”

“Yes. A week ago, our scouts in Helike have reported a chaos within the fallen castle, claiming that winged beasts were abducting werewolf children. The streets filling up with grieving parents, those who survived at least.”

He gazes outside the window overlooking the kingdom, “So I took a chance, I sent them a letter for negotiations. With their formidable raw strength and our numbers, our combined resources and knowledge, we have hope.”

“So we just forget the deaths on that village then?” Alexandria getting angry at the prospect.

“We don’t forget about them,” The king snarled, “We do all the things we can to protect those they had left. Their sons and daughters, and even their grandchildren.”

“You mean those they haven’t lived enough to see?” Her eyes glints with challenge.

After a moment of silence when it became clear the king won’t answer, she stated, “If I can’t change your mind… send somebody else.”

“You are the huntsmen’ most formidable,” The king said with a hint of pride, a thing she doesn’t know how to feel about, “Selene personally wants you to always be in their line of sight, to keep an eye, I reckon.”

“What if it’s an ambush?”

“I am not stupid Alexa, I’ve positioned men to surround the bridge where we’d negotiate, in case trouble occurs.”

Alexandria’s eyebrows knit in frustration, clearly unaccepting of the change of events.

Azar sighed at his daughter’s stubbornness, a trait that mirrored her mother’s. “You will ride with us towards the fallen castle at dawn, it’s the only way this would work,” he added, “It’s an order”.

She grits her teeth as she answered, “Yes, your majesty”. Alexandria left the room without another glance. She knew she didn’t have a choice. As a warrior, it is in her duty to protect their people, and she would never turn her back on them. If the king thinks that uniting with the werewolves is the only way to save humanity, albeit begrudgingly, she would do it. She may not trust the father in him, but she would trust the king, after all, he is anything but naïve.

So Alexandria went back to the lodge for a much needed sleep, if she can that is.

In the end, she couldn’t even calm her mind, too much thoughts invading her head. At some point, the silence of the night was disrupted by the clucks of the roosters, indicating dawn.

“Wake up, Riv” Alexandria banged on Riven’s door to wake him up. Because of the nature of their chosen profession, they were always on the go, whenever and wherever they were needed. “We’re going”

“Where are we going?” Riven squints his eyes, the light in the hallway blinding.

“To Helike.” She’s never actually had a conversation with him when she got back, too tired to deal with the myriads of questions that she would surely receive.

“What?” Riven’s eyes went wide, drowsiness gone in an instant. He went back inside the room and immediately grabbed his own belongings, packing all the necessary items. In a minute, he was ready, in hand was the sword he brought from the finest blacksmith right inside Poleis of Lecouth. It is a forged cold iron, like all huntsmen’s swords. These are the ones specifically made to slay dangerous creatures, it burns through their skins, and pierces through werewolves’ thick flesh. That, and a plant named wolfs’ bane. A lethal herb that’s applied on the tip of the huntsmen’s arrows. These are the weapons that have given humanity the ability to fight back against the physically stronger foes.

What Riven doesn’t yet know, is that this time, they would no longer use it on werewolves. That time has come and gone.

By the time he closed the door, he asked, “are we going to war?” An assumption she had made back at the palace as well. It was the only plausible explanation, after all, who would’ve thought they would be making alliances with the werewolves.

“No.” Alexandria could see the barrages of questions coming her way, comically looking like he had question marks perched upon the top of his head. “I’ll explain on the way” she immediately added before he started interrogating her. They needed to be at the palace as soon as possible to start traveling.

She had three days’ worth of journey for the conversation anyways.