Aryana jumped to her feet excitedly and hurried towards Peregrine, her apparent joy of seeing him winning over her shyness when she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest for a long moment, remembering herself when he returned her greeting by a brief embrace followed by a fond but carefully measured caress of her long hair.
Gilderoy's mind worked overtime as he observed the two, gleaning quickly that whatever Aryana felt for his dark companion, his heart did not return in equal measure. But it pained his heart to admit that they would make a stunning couple; the delicate, golden haired beauty seemed to be made for the tall and well-built dragon shifter.
"Fair Aryana," Peregrine said, scattering Gilderoy's thoughts. "It's a pleasure to meet you again. Thank you for preparing the beds for us."
Finally, she took a step away from him, shaking her head. "It's nothing. I'm truly glad that you finally agreed to accept a bed, I always feel so sorry to see you sleeping by the fire, outside, and all alone at night."
"Well, you know my ways, if it wasn't for my companion, I would happily sleep outside again."
Aryana looked at Gilderoy, and the blush suddenly flooding her cheeks told him that she had quite forgotten that he was there with them.
"I... I should go. Father will be looking for me," she said, still looking at Gilderoy. "Good night. It was a pleasure to meet you..."
"Gilderoy, my name is Gilderoy," he said, standing up and bringing her proferred hand to his lips, noticing how small and dainty it was, how cool was her alabaster skin.
Peregrine cleared his voice meaningfully behind them, making Gilderoy understand that he had kept the girl's hand in his for longer than good manners permitted.
"Good night, and thank you, fair Aryana," he muttered, finally letting go of her and retreating to his bed even as the girl turned back to Peregrine.
"Should I walk with you to your cottage?" he proposed gallantly, and she nodded, preceding the dragon shifter out of the hut while he wrapped himself in his black cloak.
Gilderoy, lost in thoughts, washed and undressed while Peregrine was gone, and lay stretched in his soft bed, fighting the sleep that threatened to close his eyelids, when his companion returned.
"Is she all right?" Gilderoy asked, surprising himself, the question floating up to his lips without his mind's permission. Like a dream, the werewolf girl entered his thoughts and settled there, and he had a feeling that she would never leave...
The half smile that tugged at Peregrine's lips as he removed his cloak again and sat on his bed to remove his boots, made Gilderoy blush.
"She told me you have spoken. Aryana doesn't like to talk to strangers normally," Peregrine said, lying down and pulling his covers over himself.
"She only spoke to me because she considers me your friend. She loves you?" Gilderoy simply meant to state the obvious, but he couldn't stop the hopeful question mark from creeping to the of the sentence.
"Aah... it's not like that." Peregrine sighed, and Gilderoy caught the real meaning of the line beyond those words. Peregrine didn't want it to be like that.
"Tell me," Gilderoy demanded simply.
"Didn't you want to talk about the politics of the pack, dwarf?" Peregrine asked, apparently reluctant to talk about anything that concerned him directly.
"Later," Gilderoy said, hoping that Peregrine would not refuse to explain the girl's feelings for him.
"Very well," Peregrine sighed again, blowing out the candles, the sudden absence of the flickering light making the room around them look pitch black for a long moment.
Only when Gilderoy started to register the weak haze of moonlight seeping inside like silvery mist through the cracks and spaces between the wooden logs forming the walls of the hut, Peregrine's voice shattered the near perfect silence composed of their breathing, the whisper of the breeze caressing the nearby trees and the faint murmur of the remote river.
"I don't think she loves me, not really... not like that. She just thinks she owes me everything she has, her love including."
"Why?" Gilderoy asked, intrigued.
"It doesn't look so at first sight, but peace is fragile in Alaric's kingdom, and here, in the Black Forest especially, dwarf," Peregrine muttered. "The vampires can't support the centaurs who keep crossing their borders as they like, the dark wizards hate the vampires for choosing their occasional victims from their ranks and no one likes the werewolves who pretend to own the whole forest because there's so many of them, a thing they'll never achieve because they can't stand united as the packs keep fighting among themselves for territory." He shifted slightly on the narrow bed, collecting his thoughts, before he continued. "Aryana had almost become a victim of one of such useless battles-- Wilbur stole a stretch of land from the neighbouring pack, and its alpha had his daughter kidnapped in revenge. Wilbur was on a verge of declaring war to the other pack, the incident dividing the werewolf population into two groups, with Alaric and his councillors observing the events from the safe distance of the castle, when I happened to be passing through on my way back from The World Beyond The Stones. I had no idea of what was going on until Wilbur told me, and I asked him to let me speak to his neighbour before they attacked each other. And, well, he listened to me, and I was allowed to deliver Aryana home, and Wilbur, happy to have her back, restituted the land." Peregrine inhaled deeply. "Poor girl, in the end, it was she who suffered the most that time. It's been a few years now, she was still a child back then, and she's been so shy and silent ever since. Wilbur said that she flat out refuses to look at any werewolf he introduces to her, and she's reaching the age when most of them mate..."
"You saved her life, no wonder she sees you like her hero," Gilderoy muttered, feeling his admiration of the dragon shifter grow. Under the layers of darkness and indifference he used to shroud himself in, the man had a great heart.
"I want to think that they would not have harmed her, but yes, I brought her home. However, I've never given her a reason to think that I expected anything in return."
Gilderoy chuckled. "You must know that it doesn't work like that. She'll feel obliged to you forever, just like Wilbur-- you have most likely prevented a werewolf war. I think that he would love to see you marrying Aryana," he mused, remembering the fatherly treatment Peregrine received from the alpha.
"I'll never marry, dwarf, I can't afford to settle down. I wouldn't put a woman in danger by staying around too long..."
"Well, it doesn't mean they can't hope that you'll change your mind or that your circumstances will alter," Gilderoy concluded.
"Speaking of weddings, dwarf, have you thought of your friend? Wilbur knew well what he was doing by making Leodhais meet Auriel tonight."
"What do you mean?" Gilderoy asked, Peregrine's ominous words scaring his previous thoughts away.
Peregrine groaned in the darkness. "Think, dwarf. Before the news of Alaric wanting to bring his lost heir from the other world spread throughout the kingdom, his preference of the elf was well known. People, whether they liked it or not, spoke about Alaric electing Leodhais as his heir, sooner or later." Peregrine remained silent to let the information sink in.
"Go on," Gilderoy said after a while.
"Think about what I told you about Wilbur. The man risked to lose his daughter for a piece of land... What do you think he would do to gain the kingdom?"
"I don't know, you tell me, Peregrine," Gilderoy said exasperatedly. Next to the dragon shifter, with his vast knowledge of Silmarea, he was beginning to feel uninformed and naive.
"In simple terms, I wouldn't be surprised to find Auriel paying a visit to your friend in the castle in a few months' time with an armful of babies with very conspicuously pointed ears. And I don't suppose either Alaric or his daughter would appreciate that." Gilderoy heard him turning away from him on the bed before he added. "Good night, dwarf. Try to get some sleep; it will be another long day tomorrow."
The simple and obvious truth of what Peregrine had just said crushed Gilderoy like an invisible avalanche, taking his breath away momentarily. It would be a very long few months of waiting to see what would come of this night... He felt ashamed of his lack of judgement and even more of Leodhais', he felt sorry for Peregrine for having to accompany the two of them on this quest.
"I wonder why you even bother to come with us," Gilderoy muttered into the darkness.
"I owe Alaric a favour," Peregrine muttered back, surprising Gilderoy, who didn't quite expect an answer. "I met him once, years ago, in the other world, and he and Emrys helped me get out of a mess with the police."
"Police?"
Peregrine sighed. "The human... guards that maintain order and deal with crime."
"Tell me," Gilderoy begged, eager to hear about what he supposed had been a great adventure.
Peregrine shook his head, the movement translated by the darkness into the sussurrus of his hair against the pillow. "Maybe I'll tell you another time. It's a long story, and we need to sleep so at least the two of us are rested tomorrow, we might just have to tie your friend to his horse and drag him behind us, sleeping."
Gilderoy chuckled. "You are right. Leodhais is not used to lack of sleep. Good night, Peregrine. And thank you."
"Sleep well, Gilderoy. Our journey has only just begun," Peregrine replied, his mind strolling to The World Beyond The Stones.
He had a feeling that bringing Alaric's daughter home wouldn't be as easy as his two companions believed.