In which a young woman tries to avoid her so called destiny and finds herself uncovering family secrets all the while she wonders if a man is worth saving.
OcxThe Weeping Monk
(I found the cover on an app and photoshopped eyes and the title into it...
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She hated swords. While she could wield one Eleanor found them to be a complete nuisance. The fey woman preferred her prized possession; the bow that was gripped tightly in hand and quiver of arrows that was strung over her shoulder. It made it easier to hit targets from afar without getting too close. Though it also made it trouble-free for her when she had a day or two to familiarize with the grounds and trees. Then find spots where she considered good and was sure would never be discovered.
The woman would also put her magical abilities to use, but not so much as it would drain her energy. The paladins had started to call her the Winter Demon, because some had witnessed her turn a hot summer day into a cold one.
The sun has risen only hours ago, she has been following deer tracks after tying her horse in a hidden place that would not drag attention to her animal companion. She has not eaten in days. The woman fears if she let her guard down she would be killed. Eleanor heard whispers that the Weeping Monk was accompanying one of the troops of Red Paladins. There wasn't much about him that she knew only that somehow he can snuff out fey kin. She had a run in with him a few times. They seem to always cross each others paths, because he'd either shoot an arrow back at her causing her to fall from the tree she perched in just narrowly escaping her death.
Or she'd taunt him. He is good at fighting but knew her strength and weakness anyone could put together why she liked fighting from a distance if you had the common sense. He managed to fight her up close where they got a much better look at one another. Even though his appearance was almost entirely hidden under that cloak of his that he seemed to never take off.
A twig snapping pulled Eleanor from her distracting thoughts, she notches an arrow with unimaginable speed. She pulls back the string, the feathered end of the weapon skims her face. There it is a female deer, eating at a fresh patch of grass. The beautiful creature is distracted which gives her the perfect opening for a kill shot. She could already taste the venison she would make. She could even save some of the leftover meat to dry, it would last her a few days.
But, she suddenly could not find it in herself to bury the arrow in the animal when her gaze fell upon her belly. It is rounded more, gave the impression that she is..
"Pregnant." She whispers to herself. She lowers her weapon and ignores the hungered sounds her stomach makes as she watches the deer prance away deep into the bush. The flapping of wings brings her to look up above, a single croak falls from the bird's beak as El allows the Raven to land on her shoulder.
If you keep going soft hearted on every single animal, El. You will starve.
"I am aware of that, Raphael." She says to her bird companion. She remembers when she had saved the poor bird when he was only a small chick. The woman nursed him back to health, but when she tried to release him back into the wilderness he seemed to not ever want to be removed from her side. She later started to sense a new found connection to the intelligent creature, somehow their minds had been linked. She first realized this when he first spoke to her in her mind. It was quite alarming. "But imagine when she gives birth, more food for others who need it. Don't you have some mice to hunt?"
