Ara sat beside the fire, it happened once a week, he had been there for months now, he was a different man. No, he was a male his birthday had passed and he came of age to inherit his father's gift or his mother's he did not know. Nova told him the blood that flowed through his veins is Dragon blood. He could shift, and Nova told him he would one day find his mate. He did not believe in it. Ara lived with the people of this forest long enough to learn....to learn what it meant to love and he knew, he knew that he loved Ryla and it did not matter what she was, or how cold she seemed to be, he loved her. It took him months to learn there was a difference between thankfulness and love.
"Could you know your mate before you come of age and not know?"
"Yes, but the chances are unlikely"
Love. something Orphans like him did not deserve.
Or so he thought.
He remembers the day he turned of age, the summer solstice. He felt it flood his veins, it was fire and glory and justice long overdue, he felt the bond form, made of magic and of blood and of destiny twining two souls. His magic surged and surged down that newly made bond and screamed its defiance to the stars, he would not allow it to disappear.
Nova stalks around the corner, heading to the fire, its a tradition for the forests inhabitants to gather around a time of remembering and bonding. Nova passes many while she heads towards Ara as he plays his guitar, an instrument he had only recently learned to play. He had only recently learned a lot of things, how to feel, how to fight like a true battle honed warrior, his whole life had been a battle so his mind had been honed but his body did not reach the standard of these glorious people. Nova knew something that he did not, she knew his father, he was one of Soren's closest friends and he was the last living Dragon. His spirit still visited this realm from time to time. Lucien, sat on one of his sides as Alistair sat a few feet away, their reunion had come with tears, tears that could only come because of war. Lucien and Ara, two males only a few years apart.
Nova sat beside Ara as he once again began his tribute....... To remember her.
Warrior of gold struggling to hold as she wandered on her way
Wounded she lay as she opened a way for them to burn
Soon they would learn it was time to turn
She gave it her heart for a new start
Soon so very soon would she lay it to rest returning to the mess
Sorrow would burn and motionless would she turn awe hiding her face
A hero and a Queen one who pounded to the beat victory left in her wake
A love so bright it would strain tight and delve deep within that lake
A kingdom to make and life to take
Soon so very soon
Nova sat and she listened as he shared his story,
Nova distinctly heard screaming so she jumped out of her bed and as fast as the wind she slammed into Aras cave to see him thrashing around a nightmare awakening his magic fire spreading around the cave walls hissing. Using her magic, Nova walks forward and leans down speaking into his mind she says
"Ryla, Ryla, RYLA" and his heart reacts before his body can. His magic dissipates, confirming what Nova had already known. Ryla is his mate. Ara wakes up his eyes wide and jolting forward he throws up.
"How long"
Meeting her eyes, "As long as I can remember" he looks away when the fire in her gaze becomes too much.
Ryla stands on the edge of the hill miles from where she had come and she could not breathe and she could not move. She was almost home. Ryla Odessa with braided midnight hair and golden eyes looks down a small door stands before her. Blade and Ikari stand behind her, giving her this moment. Placing her hand upon the door, she utters in a quiet voice so very much like the wind, "Arisica" and the door grows and creaks open. Taking a step inside she breathes out as ten years of trauma flood her. The cracks shedding the spell around her heart strain, but not yet broken. So Ryla runs picking up her pace until she stops dead in her tracks, Ara stands shirtless wielding tribal blades, one of which she gave him for his birthday. His blonde hair runs wild as he dodges and jumps slicing at a male she did not recognize. She sprints darkness with her she runs at him twisting she disarms his opponent and slams into his chest breathing him in. Ara pushes her back only to meet her eyes, and the spell breaks, it breaks completely. Twelve years of rage and pain and love come flowing back. Flowing through her body is immortal strength. Immortality coats her bones and Golden shines everywhere her wings flare back, midnight tinted with gold, and a crown sits upon her head made of Darkness. A Queen stands in the place a knight had just stood. With shaking shoulders tears flow freely down her face.
"Ry-Ryla" his voice cracks and he crushes her to him breathing in her scent, he knew it was her in the same way he would always recognize her no matter what form she wore
"Sola" shaking Ryla Nova's heir turns around to meet eyes with the Queen of the Damned heir to Hades throne by power alone. Nova meets the eyes of the one she holds so dear. And falling to her knees Ryla sobs. Nova steps forward and kneels before her heir and embraces her.
"Shhh my Sola, it has been a very long time but I am here now, you only have to be strong for a short while longer. Do not give in now" her voice becomes a command looking up into those blue eyes she found a fire had begun to burn. They sat like that for a while longer. The sun had set,bringing about the most beautiful time for the damned forest. The tree's glowed casting the village in light. Ryla would not leave Ara's side, they joked that it was the opposite of all those years she spent as a Knight.
She told him everything, including the emotions she now bore. It was a new era, a time for war.
Lucian runs, he runs and slams into Ryla, and he sobs, his heart screaming at the sorrow that clouded his soul. With a smile Ryla wraps her arms around the male that has grown so very much since the day she sent him to safety, but not to the person she expected. A male steps out a male she had not seen since her young days here, a male that does not know what blood coursed through her veins.
Dropping to one knee, the people of the damned forest surround her, Alistair still standing a confused look on his face. The people call out, Ryla, Elven Queen, Odessian Heir
Her majesty she runs from has not escaped the only true home she has ever had.
Those eyes and those wings told them everything, Alistair looked at his Queen and with everyone else he kneeled, he bowed before the Queen who would give everything to win this war.
Kneeling, Alistair with a name he did not want, began to recite a spell in the old language. A spell of request, a spell to show this Queen the people who await her return, as he was always meant to do. So he bowed and so he spoke until the night began to wane and branding her soul was visions of her elven people, where they cowered and those who still prayed for her return, and the one that was glimmering was familiar because it was her room here in the damned forest. She ran dodging and sinking until she found that secret passageway, sinking down into it she twisted and she turned until before her was a small door one that was meant for someone so very small, one that was meant for a girl the world had broken, a girl that never thought she would see the light of day again. A girl that didn't want to see the light of day again. The door filled with old magic recognized her and slowly creaked open, her wings barely touching the floor but feeling so uncomfortable with the closed space, sitting on her old bed with the room completely unchanged sat a woman who was weeping. With a crown of darkness she kneeled to this fallen child of her kingdom and began to recite the prayers of old, the same ones she should have recited ten years ago, the same prayers she would have knelt before her kingdom and sung the day she became of age. Poking out behind this woman's dark brown hair was pointed ears, so very precious to this heir, a member of her kingdom. Gazing down at her through muffled sobs bright green eyes met her gaze. This woman fell to her knees, begging Ryla to rise for the Queen of Elves knelt before a beggar, the lowest of them all.
The girl did not expect the Queen of Elves to walk through that door, and as she knelt this girl breathed, "Asteria Eliza" there was no doubt in this young girls eyes because a face more beautiful than she had ever seen was warped with sorrow and beautifully curved ears peek out from hair of the darkest shade and glorious wings darkness laced with gold and eyes of the brightest gold. The sacred color of the Elven Kingdom.
"My name is Ryla, My birth name is Asteria Odessa." The Queen of the Elves decided in that moment she could no longer hide from her throne.
Asteria Odessa had returned at last.
Emerging from the ground, Ryla held a woman in her arms who had been scarred and frightened, all this woman knew was that her Queen had come for her and it was all she needed before she fell into her arms barely able to stand.
She had never been to her land of origin, the Elven Kingdom, the land that was claimed by Odessa's king.
She woke up after Serela's care and they learned, the forest had brought her here, she was running from Alastor he had stolen her at such a young age, she was beaten and most of all she was scared. The elves were known for their pointed ears and strange sense of beauty. And this woman was striking in the tilt of her chin, it was not societal beauty but tragedy that lined her face, the weariness in her eyes and the scars that covered her.