Frostbound love

Chapter 1

Hunted and hounded

Thranduil followed the leopard through the trees. It moved fast and graceful not many elves could match this cats sensuous movement. The female had been hounded the deer herd, his favored mount was soon going to breed the herd's females.

The stags were mounts fit for his forest kingdom and were protected by the throne. This cat had been hunting in his domain for some time now. The ease at which it moved through the terrain spoke of its comfort wwith his forest.

Despite the cats ease he had felt a new prescence in his wood. An apex predator that even the forest tried to help hide. He had begun taking trips about the wood. Finding barely there traces of the animal here and there. As he tried to trace the animal back to its den the signs seemingly vanished.

This thing didn't want to be tracked back to its territory. What did it want to protect from them? Where did its weakness reside? What would make the creature distraught enough to mess up?

Late evening turned to night as their haze continued. Having long lost sight of the beast they were tracking it with small signs of its passing. The mist moved in making the darkness even harder to see through. Even for elves.

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Silently she moved through the forest floor. She had long since backtracked and had been studying the elves. One kept her focus he was the main threat to her. He was the wild thing to be wary of.

He ordered the others to continue on in their search. The hunters widened out and he was left to study more closely where her tracks stopped.

'Go on let them leave you I will finish this soon enough.'

She crouch amongst the bushes cover. She was invisible in that moment. She was hunting once more and her quarry was within sight. How to disarm him? How to draw him far from the others?

She let out a rasping feline cough. His head snapped toward her. She let her tail poke out and twitch. She walked away without rush hoping he would wait to take the killing shot.

She sensed him following. Her whiskers connected to her nervous system told her of his smallest position. His every movement was known to her. He was playing beautifully into her clutches.

'come come follow me. follow me to your doom'

She made her way to the more tangled foilage. She let him see her enter the brush and sit. She waited until he was certain then moved and let him think he had her in his arrows path.

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He had the beast in his sight his shot had come. This creatures killing would end before it began. Leopards were beasts without morality. Beasts that killed at its own behest.

He took a breath in and let it out slowly then his fingers released the bow string. His arrow was loose and its target was nigh to being hit.

'This ends now'

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'You are mine!'

She sprung from the brush just below him on his low branch. His position was perfect her spring perfectly timed. Her body was a blur and it hit into him knocking him back toward the ground.

His bow was dropped though he was quick to pull his sword. She swiped it away from him. She settled on to his chest eyes locked onto his.

Some say a cats gaze can hypnotize you. It wasn't that or any other mystical thing. It was the knowing they saw there. The wildness in their eyes that froze you. The fact they saw deep into your soul.

Her muzzle centimeters from his face. Her lips drew back into a silent snarl. Even now she was careful of making a sound. She wanted privacy for this moment with this king. Only the rumbling of her breath filled the silence.

Some deeper instincts came from deep within her. The instincts to purr and comfort this frostbitten king. This king with no heart. The king who wanted isolation. These instincts were undeniable and yet she ignored them. She would get her message across.

She stayed like that her head leaned forward to sniff him. Testing his fear. Leopards were creatures of thought as much as instinct.

She let her jaws open and gently clasped upon his throat. Proving to him that he was not beyond death. Proving to him she was no one to trifle with. She released him and left.

She turned and glanced at him once more giving him a long studying look. Then she was gone disappearing like a ghost. A phantom in the night. Almost as if she was moreso a dream than apart of reality.

She left the frosty king to his troubled thoughts. Going back to reclaim her kill and disappear toward home. She walked unhindered by the elves hunting her. She was betide their control.

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Thranduil was agitated everyone sensed this. He didn't pace, he didn't move at all. His gaze remained fixed and steady upon a tapestry across the audience hall. The dragon embolized there made his cheek twinge in memory.

Once before he remembered a beast that was arrogant and defiant. A beast that was smart and had easily free him out like the she cat had. The heat of dragons fire could still be felt at moments a millennium later.

This beast would be hunted and destroyed. Nothing else would be satisfactory. Nothing else would do. A creature like it was too lethal and smart for its own good. There was only one coarse for it. Death to the thing.

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Navea pulled the deer carcass to the butchering area. Most of the hunters were back long before now. The first streak of dawn was seen across the eastern horizon. She tied the deer to the wooden structure.

Her limbs were heavy as she went toward the large overhang of rock. It was under the tall rock formation that sixty or so leather bound shelters were built. Inside were her clan mates.

She went into her own shelter seeing that her brother and his family were there. They cubs fast asleep in their pile. She grabbed  clothes and then went back deeper into the over hang.

The water fell and pooled there. She bathed and then put on her clothes. She made her way toward the hut and laid herself amongst the three cubs. They cuddled close to her giving her warmth.

'This is what Im willing to die for.'