BLUE VENOM

Fifteen - Alba. The land between the boarders.

The sunlight gleamed on his armour. Silver and bronze. Red, almost reptil like fabric covered his arms. Black spikes. A huge strap across his chest held a bright emblem with three triangles.

A thick black cape that could be made out of unknown leather fluttered behind him. Silver runes were on it. His feet stuck in massive black boots with metal heels. He had a black whip and his hair was also ink black and blew in the wind behind him.

On his face sat a silver helmet that covered most of his face and only left room for the... gleaming black eyes. Which, for whatever reason, were directed at me. Blazingly, hatefully.

"Holy mother of crumbs, no", groaned Joon. He covered his face in his hands.

My heart instantly picked up it's pace, alarmed.

I eyed the approaching stranger with vivid suspicion. "What? You know him? Who's that?"

His horse was mighty and white. It had silvery stripes, a very slim face. It actually looked kind of similar to Jia.

"I might have stolen his horse", admitted Joon.

My head snapped a hundred and eighty degrees around. "What? Which horse?"

"The one you are sitting on", grumbled Joon.

So that why he was staring at me this intensely. He wasn't staring at me. He was staring at my horse. His horse.

"Hey, Kor!", Joon called out to the approaching man.

Kor. The name rang a bell but I never had the best memory for names. Where had I heard that one?

"Who is he?", I hissed.

"Syrens Royal family", whispered Joon back. "Well, not really. Everyone knows he is adopted, but that's a long story. He is the first knight of the Syren.

I don't think they could have made a worse choice. Dude's got anger issues."

He hid his face behind his palm.

"I can hear you, you dirty, underground reeking, frog eye eating, flea hosting, human tinted, blood sucking creature" Kor's voice was rolling over the field in open hostility. He unsheathed a long, gleaming ivory blade that reflected in the dim sum shine and lifted it high over his head.

"I will kill you!"

"Let's not rush into things!" Joon held up his hands.

"You stole my horse!"

"You have found another one, yay!"

Kor reached us and pointed the tip of his blade at Joon's chin, forcing him to look up at the sky.

"I'm sorry!", exclaimed Joon. He peeked down at the blade on his skin. "I really needed a way to get back home and you know one of these Girgit Trolls killed my Effie."

"That's not my problem." Kor grunted. "Name me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right here, right now!"

A drop of blood formed on Joon's neck, where the tip of the blade pricked him. The tiny red pearl ran down into Joon's black collar.

Joon was too stressed out to even make a sound.

"Stop it!", I barked at the tall strange man.

He completely ignored it and I took together one of the empty biscuit packets, crumbled it together and shaped it into a perfect paper ball. Them I flung it right at his head.

The ball hit the man at his helmet, by his temple. It sprung off and rolled into the sand. I almost thought he hadn't even noticed.

Then the black eyes slowly swung around, meeting mine.

There was something extremely intense about his stare. Like he looked at you once, for the momentum of just a split second, and he knew everything about you. Everything there was to know about you at all.

He didn't speak, just stared at me in full intensity and hatred. It was near impossible to meet his gaze properly, but I forced myself to. Never let the predator know you would be easy prey.

"Leave him alone", I huffed. At last, the tip of the blade had eased away from Joon's throat.

A tiny bit.

But it was something.

"Yuh", coughed Joon. "Don't kill us Kor, we" The blade was back at his neck in an nstant.

Kor didn't seem to like Joons mouth open.

"Hey!", called out Joon in protest. He lifted his hands over his head. "We're here on royal duty, you total knob head. Want to risk a treaty breach?"

Kor looked like he actually wanted to kill Joon.

"Joon", I whispered.

"Don't worry."

"She is human", growled Kor. He was staring at Joon.

Now that his piercing eyes had finally lifted from mine, I dared to take a breath. Breath that I hadn't even been realizing that I was holding. Air flooded into my lungs and I sighed quietly.

"Yes. Yes, she is", said Joon.

"She came here accidentally. With some of her friends. Little human teens, ring any bells? You guys took them hostage and we came to get them back. Signed by king Silas. Wait- WaIt for it!"

Joon hastily rumbled through his backpack, in search for a scroll. He pulled it out and Kor ripped it from his hands. A deep frown shaded his bleak white forehead, as he narrowed his stormy eyes down to the black seal.

His eyes wandered up and went back to my face for a split second. Instantly, a shiver of fear went through me. But he looked back down, read through the scroll like it was a piece of annoying homework and then he crumbled it in his rough hand.

Next to me, Joon gulped audibly.

Slowly, Kor let the scroll fall back into Joon's shaking hands and looked at him in open resentment and scorn. "Any other occasion", his powerful voice said. "And I would have used the tip of this blade to perforate your testiness. Are we clear? And I want the horse back."

"But-" Joon froze under Kor's cold eyes. He sighed. "Fine."

"What?" I looked at Joon. "How will we move?"

"We can share Sara"

I hesitated, but I didn't want to dare to bring the huge man's cutting attention back to me. So I quickly jumped down from Jia.

I anxiously walked over to the bigger horse with the dark knight on it. I handed over the reins and as he took them out of my clam fingers, I met his blazing black gaze again and tried not to start crying in panic the second it happened. Holy abyss, he was menacing.

I quickly stepped back and returned to Joon who had unsaddled from Sara and beckoned me to climb on. I followed, and he saddled back up behind me, reaching around me to hold the reins. It was actually kind of comfortable.

"Will you pass on the message of us coming to release the humans to your Syren friends in the city?", asked Joon as he glanced at Kor.

Kor's powerful presence had quietened the otherwise bubbly boy down quite a bit.

Kor's eyes shot over to him. "Do so yourself", he said icily.

His deep voice cut the air like steel, slicing open the tension.

He clicked his tongue and spoke Syren language. It sounded rude.

His horse galloped past us, off to the right and I looked back in sorrow as mine galopped behind them. I had known her for a short time, but I had really liked that horse.

Joon sighed. "I'm sorry. That whole incident was my fault. I accidentally made him mad."

"By stealing his horse", I said dryly."Accidentally"

Joon grumbled. "He totally lost a bet. It's just, that he has a different opinion regarding this... Nevermind. Let's get to Syrenith and free those otherwise helpless friends of yours."