Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 176: Storm on the Horizon

"Let's go," he said softly. "I'll tell you on our way back, okay? I need a bit more time to gather my thoughts... but I have something that needs to be said."

"All right," she murmured, smirking with a shrug; without another word, she stalked off, drawing her cloak around her body for warmth. She heard him walking beside her, felt his presence and his nervousness through their link. "Today was a good day."

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "It was."

The stillness came in again with that strange amount of tension when he stopped speaking.

She frowned.

A cold silence had settled over the countryside.

Not even the breeze moved.

It was as if the land itself had begun holding its breath against a coming storm. 

She didn't really think much of it until she was outside the walls, because it was only then that she realized she couldn't even hear the trees stirring; not a single blade of grass moved, not a leaf rippled. The air was so quiet that she could hear her own ears ringing.

Her hair rose a little.

"Do you feel that?" she asked, a little uncomfortable. "Xaphile... the air."

"Yeah," he said a little slowly, giving her a confused glance, "I felt it the moment I stepped outside. Why?"

Ella couldn't put her finger on it, but the sensation bothered her.

It was strange.

"I don't know," she said slowly, putting two nervous hands on her daggers. "Let's just get this check on the fort wall over with. I have a strange feeling in my stomach. The air feels wrong." 

"Wrong, how?" he asked, even more perplexed than before. 

Ella thought deeply, trying to figure out why it was familiar... but then it hit her.

She froze mid-step, every part of her body prickling madly.

"The griffin," she whispered weakly, eyes wide and blank and senses going on full alert. "Right before it came down at me... the air felt exactly like this. Xaphile, something is very, very wrong."

"Huh?" Xaphile asked, staring at her. "Ella... are you sure?"

Her hair stood on end when she finally heard a noise from off to the left.

She drew her blades in a flash and lunged in front of Xaphile, eyes flicking around.

"Who's there?!" she shouted fiercely. "Show yourself!"

Silence made her heart pound.

"My, my," an oily voice finally sniggered. "She's far more perceptive than I would have assumed."

"Indeed," another voice agreed, following the first one. "Shall we play with her a little?"

"No," the first one whispered. "I don't play with my targets. It's cruel."

Ella gasped when two cloaked figures flew out of the darkness, both of them wielding swords.

Shoving Xaphile backwards a step, she parried both blows they sent at her with two different guard blocks, then spun on her heel and slashed out in a vicious spiral, aiming for their throats; she missed both attackers by a hair, but easily kept her balance.

She spun into a battle stance, holding her blades at the ready.

"E-Ella," Xaphile hissed, slanted eyes wide and pupils thin with startled shock. "Who the fuck are these guys?!"