Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Chayton

"Are they a pair?"

"How common is it for a werewolf to let a weak little human ride on their back?"

"I like her eyes. They remind me of poison, all the best poisons are green."

The whispers swirled through the air. Occasionally trying to blow my confidence away but only managing to brush my cheek, stinging with its frigid touch, not doing any real damage. 

I held my chin up slightly higher as the laughter kissed my ear like tiny bells. 

Finally, we approached a wooden castle. It looked like trees had been planted close enough together to make a solid wall, they seemed to grow around each other some how. I could tell that they were trees, because their roots reached out in every direction. However, the wall of living wood in front of me seemed to be a solid wall. The trees overlapped flawlessly, creating a smooth surface with no distinguishable change from one to the next. 

Mingan walked up the web of roots and knocked on the wall. For some unknown reason that section of the wall moved aside for him. Granting him entrance to the castle. 

Eros hesitated for just a minute before crossing the threshold behind Mingan. 

A wave of warmth washed over me as we stepped into the surprisingly alive fortress. Lush, green grass was just brushing the bottom side of Eros's feet as he picked them up for each step. When I looked up I could see the interwoven branches that still had a surprising amount of green leaves clinging to them. There seemed to be lantern like lights hanging from some of the lower branches. These were probably purely for my benefit. The elves could see in the dark just fine.

"You asked what the king of elves was like, did you not?" Mingan asked as he lead me and Eros down halls of living wood that were decorated with flowers of every kind.

"I did."

"I can tell you little that you will not see in eight minutes. I can tell you that he, like the rest of elfin kind, is incapable of saying something that is untrue. That does not mean you can trust your interpretation of what he says. I tell you this because he wanted me to. He wants everyone that he deals with to have a disclaimer of this sort. King Chayton is nothing if not fair to the people he deals with."

I thought about what Mingan said for a second. He was fair to the people that he dealt with. Would he be fair to the people that he does not see in his fortress? All the evidence said that he probably wouldn't be.

"He is a lot like you in many ways. You are both good leaders, you are both determined to do what is best for your people."

I could feel tension building in Eros when Mingan compared me to the king of the elves. There was a slight hesitation to his next step and his muscles seemed to go stiff for a fraction of a second. Absent-mindedly I started to stroke the fur on his neck. Almost instantly, the tension in his muscles eased. He lifted his head just a little higher and his steps evened out.

"As I mentioned before, you will be fine Rosie."

I nodded my head, forgetting for a second that Mingan couldn't see me.

"Here we are," he said, stopping in front of a wall that was strangely absent of the flower decorations that covered most of the other walls.

Mingan knocked on the wall.

After a few seconds of inactivity he knocked twice and said, "It is Mingan, guiding the alpha werewolf and one of her companions."

The wall split in two and the two sides swung open on hidden hinges.

I let a small smile slip onto my face as Eros walked through the doors. If the elf king thought I was going to be intimidated by the fact that he was an actual king and I was not he was mistaken.