Fangs and Thrones

Chapter 11

     Rai listened as Lyra paced near his tent. Katsu had shown up just moments before and dragged Hiroki out while telling him that Lyra was heading his way. The two were chatting some more about what had all gone down while the battle had raged when Katsu had burst in and told Hiroki to come with him, the poor child wanted to stay and see Lyra but Katsu told him that they needed time to talk amongst themselves. Katsu ended up tossing Hiroki over his shoulder and carried him out while the boy tried to fight back.

    Six years.

     It had been over six years since he had last seen her. Since the last time that he held her in his arms or heard her voice. Watching her dance with the Fae during the festival almost made him broke his promise to himself to not run to her and risk frightening her even more. Seeing her fight those men had made him worried for her safety, but it was quickly squashed when she proved she was more than capable of taking them on by herself.

     When she finally pushed back the flaps of his tent, he couldn't help but smile at her. She was still wearing her armor and had some dirt and ash covering her in some places.

     "Welcome, to what do I owe this honor?"

     "I was hoping that we could talk."

     He motioned for her to come and sit. Lyra stayed standing but moved further into the tent. "I'm assuming you want to know about your missing memories, do you remember anything at all?"

      She shook her head. "I keep getting a few flashes here and there, but I can't piece anything together. I was told that you could help."

Rai nodded. "Maybe I can. I'll start from when we first met. My father was once again taking me to visit my grandfather in the Netherworld. I was never a big fan of his castle, way to many people around and everyone wanted to know what I was up to." Rai laughed. "After I matured, so many of the nobles and royalty wanted me to meet their daughters and I would always end up having to hide out either in my room or in the underground caves. I noticed that the energy was different that time that we visited. My grandfather forgot that we were coming, if he remembered he would have told us to stay away due to a new guest of his that was requiring all of his attention."

Rai raised a brow at her. "Care to take a guess on who that turned out to be? The servants were all rushing around and looked frightened, the guards were under heavy alert and were closely monitoring where everyone was. They were so focused on the maids and other nobles that were being nosy and wanting to see what was going on, they didn't even notice me slipping into one of the entrances of the caves."

"Why were you going down there?" Lyra asked.

"I was going down to the healing pools that the castle was known for, but something caught my eye. I noticed a heavy door that had a lot of locks keeping it closed. There is wasn't a door like that the last time I was there, so I decided to find out what was hiding behind it. I did what any young vampire would, I picked the lock. Not the wisest decision, but it worked out for me in the end." He winked at her. "I was expecting to find treasure or some mystical weapon, not a two-hundred-pound wolf pinning me to the ground."

"Huh, I was skinny back then." Rai gave her a confused look. "I'm probably closer to four hundred now."

He chuckled. "I can't imagine your wolf being any bigger than she was, I think I cracked a rib or two with how hard you pinned me down. Anyway, I guess the noise of me landing on my back brought everyone running. My father, naturally, tried to rush in and help me, but my grandfather stopped him. He had seen first hand the damage your wolf could do and didn't want to risk anyone else getting injured. And you weren't attacking me, just pinning me down. I didn't know what to do, strong as I am, you were determined to keep me down. You weren't trying to attack me though, which I found really strange. I started talking to you, and it seemed to be working for a bit. You would tilt your head differently or your ears would twitch as though you were listening to me and every few minutes you would lift a bit off me. As soon as someone got to close? Back down you would go, pushing me into the floor. I couldn't figure out why you kept doing it, but my grandfather did. He's wise like that. He told everyone to leave until it was just the three of us. He started explaining that it seems like you were protecting me, you viewed everyone else as a threat but not me. Now that, neither of us could figure out why. Any ideas? I'm still at a loss."