tbate | The Storm Gods Chosen [Dropped]

Ch 14 Tessia

Arthur Leywin pov

"W-What happened to those bad guys?" the elf girl sniffled from the carriage, her voice coming out a bit nasally.

Not knowing if telling the little girl about killing was appropriate, I simply dismissed it by telling her, "Er... they ran into a very unfortunate accident."

She studied the hesitant expression on my face with the rise of a brow, only to look back down and whisper, "Serves them right." Looking closely at her now, I couldn't help but notice that she carried all of the necessary features that would allow her to blossom into quite the beauty later on in the future.

With long gunmetal gray hair that I mistook for silver in the sunlight, the girl's disheveled state couldn't mask the innate beauty that she seemed to radiate from her pores.

A pair of gleaming teal eyes shaped like perfectly rounded almonds quivered as her perky nose was so red from crying that it matched the color of her rosy lips. While all of her individual facial features seemed to be carefully molded gems, on the fair creamy skin of her face that was the canvas, it brought her features into a surreal, almost phantasmal work of art.

Of course, this was me just observing her from speculatively as a gentleman and king who enjoyed the beauty in the world. I wouldn't go as far as to say I was "checking her out".

I helped her up to her out of the carriage speaking again.

"Those people that tried to kidnap you aren't going to chase you anymore. That being said, do you think you can make it to your home by yourself?"

Instantly, her eyes retracted in fear as a panicked expression spread throughout the rest of her face. As tears welled up and both her hands clenched tightly to my shirt, even an infant would be able to tell what her answer was through her actions.

"Look, I need to get home too. Aren't elves generally safe in this forest?" I let out a sigh, trying to pry open her claws— I mean fingers— from my shirt.

but suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulders I turned to see Al with that same smile Durden had when he nearly killed Adam.

"Arthur, she just got kidnapped and you saved her only to abandon her? all alone in this forest?" he said with a happy expression on his face but his tone was far from happy and closer to a psychopath's.

"Also what did we agree upon?" his voice threatening but with a happy tone that only people that knew you could tell you were pissed.

I may have been a king, unfeeling and ruthless, but Al had terrified me at that moment.

She violently shook her head, much like a dog drying itself, and rebutted, "Beasts only scared of adults...Parents warned me that children will get eaten by hounds or tree golems."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to come up with a solution for all of this.

"How long does it take to get to where you live from here?"

"..."

Still holding onto my shabby shirt, she looked down and admitted, "... I don't know."

I held in the temptation to let out another sigh, since the poor girl looked like she was about to cry already, and we agreed to take her back home.

The Kingdom of Elenoir was quite a long ways north so my only hope was that there would be a teleportation gate there that can could me back to somewhere, anywhere, in Sapin.

I thought briefly about riding the carriage to the elven kingdom but thought it was too dangerous and we would stick out like sore thumbs in the forest.