Chapter 11: Drawing Closer

The cold water of the spring made his spine shiver as he scrubbed the pot roughly. The sound of her voice asking him questions still rang in his ears. An innate part of him was reeling from the sudden show of interest she gave him.

Another part of him wanted to scold that part of himself and remind him she was a human. There was no doubt she was much younger than his seventy five years.

However, humans aged quicker than elves. Meaning she was too old to be considered a child, but young in maturity to understand relations between males and females.

Why was he thinking about this? It was the reflex to put his cloak around a shivering girl that brought him to this point. He had been with Eva long enough to know she didn't think there had been anything special about that action.

In truth, the usual actions taken when an elf offered their cloak to someone had totally slipped from his mind when he decided to step in and help her. It was one simple action.

At first, it was simple curiosity. Why was there a strangely dressed human girl walking so deeply in the woods? That was all he thought about as he waited patiently and hidden amongst the many trees surrounding his usual hunting grounds.

The girl had scared away all the usual forest life. So Lucas only had her to watch as she loudly tramped through the underbrush. He liked to take the path of least resistance. No one would have faulted him for taking out any humans who got close to the village.

However, for some reason, he could not knock the arrow onto his bow to take this action. Maybe it was because she just looked so helpless? No, it had to be more than that. It was the lifeless look in her eyes as she struggled to take each step.

A singular purpose was in her actions and the total luck she had in the regards of not encountering any monsters made him feel like he must help her. No matter the cost. He had never felt so strongly about something in his entire life.

But what was it that compelled him to act his way? He had no way of telling now. He had made his choice and he would complete this task. Even if it meant that he would eventually need to separate from Eva at the end of this journey.

He gritted his teeth and felt a sharp ache in his chest. A sharp breath reminded him of where he was and he dried the pot he had been roughly cleaning with a spare cloth he had remembered bringing with him.

'I must get back to the camp.'

Leaving Eva's side was becoming more and more difficult as his imagination of the men or a monster discovering their campsite played over in his head.

'Will I feel better the more distance we put between us and this place?' he wondered.

He shook his head and quietly made his way back to the campsite. A small smile was on Eva's face and Lucas felt an entirely new and different type of attack.

The way her lips curved upward softened her petite face in a way that caused his heart to stir. If it wasn't for her rounded ears, perhaps she could pass for an elf.

'What am I thinking?' he thought. 'You are just seeing what you want to see!'

He felt the burning sensation at the tips of his ears and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head as he sat near the fire. Using a nearby stick to adjust the logs in the flames he tried to make himself look busy.

As Eva sat by the fire the sound of birds chirping around her filled her ears. Usually when they had gone out into the forest to train all she could hear were the sounds of the horses and the gruff voices of the knights. It was almost calming to hear the nature around her.

It was certainly more relaxing than the silence that surrounded her in the house that used to be so warm.

'I never have to return to that silence again,' she thought.

Just as those thoughts ran through her head she felt immensely guilty for thinking that. Her parents had been murdered right in front of her.

She was supposed to be the good daughter that got revenge for her parents murder. Almost giggling at the thought that her life had become some plot for a novel that she had read in her spare time, she looked over at the elf tending to the fire.

'He promised to help me. To teach me how to hunt.' In her mind she knew an elf would be a better teacher than any human teacher she could have asked for.

'But then, what does he get from all of this?' she thought despite herself.

If Hanz had taught her one thing it was that everyone had their own motivations. Even elves must have their own secret motivations.

Some part of her did not want to think of Lucas in this way. He had been kind to her. Given her food and protected her from the reality of the forest. She knew that it was some sort of miracle she had made it as far as she had on her own.

She was meant to die in the woods and her story was meant to end on that day. Her life would have been forfeit and these thoughts of revenge and relief would not have been able to come into existence without this elf. No, this man.

Lucas had earned the right to be more than just a separate species to her. She couldn't quite understand the feeling she had for him, but she knew that he deserved more respect than that. As a noble she must pay back the kindness shown to her.

'I may have lost my family, but I am still a noble's daughter.' Eva clenched her fist and vowed to live up to the noble ideals her father had taught her as a child. 'This is but a bump in the road in my life,' she thought.

Eva watched as Lucas began to pack up the camp site. "Are we going to be moving again?" she asked.

Lucas paused before rolling up the bandages that had finally dried in the sun.

"It will be safer for you if we move further away," he said.

"My foot, I don't think I can walk on it," Eva said. She bit her bottom lip worried.

Lucas threw the two packs over his shoulder. He walked over to Eva's side. "I will carry you," he said.

Eva looked down in dejection. "I am sorry I am so useless."

Tears formed in her eyes. She wanted to be able to walk on her own. Not because she was too proud to be carried, but because she felt like a burden to Lucas.

Lucas paused, not sure how to reply to this statement. For him, it was not about how useful someone was. You simply did what you were able to do to survive. Maybe this was another thing that differentiated humans and elves.

He stared down at the ground puzzled about how to answer her. A cute giggle escaped Eva's lips as she watched the strange expression cross Lucas' face.

"You look like I just told you something shocking. Forgive me. I haven't had much to laugh about in a long while.

"I suppose it is more useless to feel this way when I can not even stand properly. I thank you for your assistance," Eva said.

Her thoughts became calmer. It seemed that elves were not as critical as the servants from which the house she grew up in were. She could relax around Lucas. He would not judge her for every little thing.

Lucas seemed to come to a conclusion in his head and gently picked Eva up in his arms with the blanket she was sitting on.

Eva was on the smaller side, but it was still embarrassing for a man to be able to pick her up so easily. Even the knights who trained for a living would find carrying her for so long in the woods a tough job.

Lucas didn't make any noise when carrying her and he walked for hours without so much as a complaint. He seemed relaxed like he was just casually walking without the added weight.

It was at this point that Eva realized she had been staring at Lucas' face for quite some time now. He was so focused on the forest around him, that she felt he had not even noticed.

'You should at least notice when a girl is taking interest in you!' she thought and then blushed at her thoughts.

However, she could not avert her gaze. How many humans got the chance to examine an elf so up close?

His face seemed similar to a humans, but it also felt foreign to her. What drew her in the most was his eyes. The light blue contrasted greatly with his dark hair. His skin was pale and unmarked. Most of the knights she trained with had a scar or two that were visible.

She briefly wondered if it felt as soft as it looked. Her hand ever so slightly started to reach up as if to touch his cheek, but she was able to stop herself. A line from a book fluttered into the back of her mind.

'Elves so fair that the gods themselves would bow to their beauty.'

It was written in an old book that was shoved to the back of a bookshelf in the study. 'I wonder if this is what that line meant.' There was almost a sparkling glisten to his skin.

It was in these thoughts where the steady motion of walking began to make her eyelids heavy. The scent wafting from his cloak calmed her mind and she once again fell asleep in his embrace.

When Lucas looked down to check on her, he noticed she had fallen into a deep sleep again. He smiled at her calm sleeping expression and pulled the blanket tighter around her.

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