The King Returns

Chapter 20 - Warning

After the hundredth hard knock on the door, Almar finally opened his heavy eyelids. He yawned widely as a knock so hard came down upon the door, he thought it was going to break. He was jealous of Eira who could sleep through all that noise, snoring soundly at the foot of the bed. 

  "Coming!" He yelled, rather annoyed at whoever disturbed him like this in the middle of the night. That worked and there was no more knocking as he put on his clothes. When Almar finally opened up, he was met with a rather uneasy-looking Eir and Sylvina. Eir's long blonde hair had been hastily but up in a messy bun. her shoes were tied so that most of the laces hanged loose at the sides and she wore her shirt backwards. 

  "You are aware that you look like a mess at the moment, right?" Almar said jokingly but that only made Eir frown. 

  "Nevermind my appearance! Almar, I dreamt of you!" she said in an annoyed voice.

At that, Almar blushed a little. Not knowing how to respond, he scratched his head and said, 

  "Uh, I'm flattered Eir, but do you really think that's worth waking me up at three in the morning for?" That only seemed to make the elf frown even more. She looked really mad, actually. 

  "NO! I meant a bad dream! A premonition!" Eir almost yelled in frustration. 

  "Well, sorry. You should have just said so then," Almar said in defense. 

  "Sigh... No, I'm the one who should be apologising here. It's just, my thought are kind of in a mess right now," Eir replied in an apologetic voice. 

  "It's okay but, what's this about a premonition?" Almar asked, sounding confused. 

  "It's a dream of a possible future," Eir explained to him with a serious face. "In it, you were being tortured in the dungeons of King Zyrons castle. They kept asking about the dragons but you refused and they..." Eir stopped, as if unable to say any more. 

Almar had never been much of a believer in those kinds of spiritual things but somehow, Eir's expression told him this was serious.

  "Do you mean to say I'm in danger?" he asked. 

  "Yes!" Eir replied with a scared expression. But no matter how Almar tried, he couldn't imagine being captured. After all, he and the others were safe here in the rebellion. 

  "You spoke of this as a possible future, right? That doesn't mean it will actually happen. I mean, after all, how could anything like that be possible when we're here, haha?" Almar laughed, trying to be positive. Eir went silent for a while and the air became stiff. 

  "It's always like this with you!" she suddenly bursted, looking up at her friend with a pained expression. It took Almar by surprise. It seems he did something wrong yet again. "Why won't you ever take things seriously? You won't think about the fact that you're a prince and that you have responsibilities towards your people! Hell, you won't even think twice about this whole thing with me and Lusha, won't even consider how you've made me feel!" Eir cried in a strained voice, her expression twisted in pain. 

Almar was in shock. What she had said struck something deep within him and Almar was immediately struck with guilt.

  "Eir I-" he began but was quickly interrupted. 

  "No! Don't! I'm over it already!" Eir responded, wiping her tears with a sleeve. 

  "In any case, that's not what's important right now. Just shut up and listen to me for once and believe that I only want what's best for you because I'm worried as a friend!" she continued, looking up into Almar eyes. 

He was surprised but decided it would be best to listen and so, he just nodded in agreement. 

  "Good. I see you're already dressed so come with me," Eir said as she turned around and started walking. 

  "Where are we going?" Almar asked as he caught up with her. 

  "We're going to tell Sasha about this, just in case," Eir replied as she kept her gaze onwards. 

Almar didn't say anything and just kept walking alongside Eir down the wooden road in silence. 

_________________________________________

Let's go!

//DragonChildren