Return to Jorgaldur

“And that scar, how did you get it?” a black-haired woman-wolf named Svarlfa whispered into his ear, deliberately blowing softly there, pressing her body against his, and slowly stroking the scar with the tip of her fingers

The merchant openly showed that she was attracted to that silver-haired adventurer, who, like her, was a demihuman mixture of man and wolf. His smell was something strange, and therefore mysterious. In addition, his distant attitude made her to approach him instead of turning away, to try to discover the mysteries he was hiding.

Eldi, for his part, was feeling very uncomfortable. On the one hand, he feared his identity might be exposed. On the other, he felt intimidated. No woman had flirted with him for a long time, and none had done it so aggressively.

It isn’t that he didn’t find her attractive or seductive. However, he should not only safeguard his disguise, but that there was another person in his heart, a dryad that he hadn’t seen for more than seventy years.

“It’s something that doesn’t bring me good memories,” he replied coldly, trying to discourage her, while protecting his face with his hand.

However, the effect was quite the opposite. Far from being discouraged, she became more interested, wondering what those bad memories were. Meanwhile, the others passengers in the carriage were glancing at them, not knowing very well what to think.

The woman’s brother, also black-haired, felt sorry for the silver-haired adventurer. He knew how insistent and stubborn his sister could be, and he suspected that she had decided to give him a nephew with silver hair. He sighed and looked away, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

About the passengers, on the one hand there were those who wondered how the woman didn’t get his hints. On the other, those who wondered why this Silverwolf wasn’t a bit kinder. After all, for many of them, it was more than welcome to have the attention of an attractive woman on a trip with cold and lonely nights.

Everyone suspected that something would happen between them that night, whether it was the surrender of the adventurer to the merchant’s charm, or his refusal, against which they didn’t know what could her reaction be. Except for his brother, who feared a good uproar. Her sister wasn’t a bad person, but she could hardly bear to be rejected, and it was a bad idea to try to dissuade her from trying.

So, that night, she waited for Eldi to finish the guard duty. She had tried to approach him during it, but he had kicked her out, arguing that his work was too important, so he couldn’t be distracted. After hearing that the guard had shifted, she approached his target’s tent, unbuttoning her shirt, with the intention of not giving him a choice. However, it was empty.

The woman looked back and forth, confused. Then she approached the tents of other women, believing angrily that someone could have stolen him. But there were no noises or movements, maybe some snoring, and she couldn’t just break into them. Frustrated, after a while, she returned to her tent, although without giving up.

Meanwhile, Eldi was watching her from the safety of a Sleepyhead’s Shield. He had to admit that it was tempting, but he wasn’t willing to sleep with her. On the one hand was his disguise and, on the other, Melia. It is true that he wasn’t engaged to her, that he hadn’t promised her anything, but it would have been a betrayal of his own heart, as well as cheating the woman-wolf. After all, that wasn’t his true appearance or race.

I wasn’t against the relationships of a night or a week, but of the lie and deception, since he knew how painful it could be. And agreeing to spend the night with her, would have meant to deceive himself, her, and the not spoken promise to the dryad.

The next day, Svarlfa sat next to him, trying to discover the smell of another woman, but she didn’t find anything. She was angry, but she could do nothing to release her frustration.

Meanwhile, Eldi sighed to himself. He had sat next to two other adventurers, trying to get away from danger, and was talking to them about work, but she had forced her place next to him. He didn’t know how to deal with her, although he was grateful that, for the moment, she was only staring at him intensely.

The others didn’t know what to think. They couldn’t know what had happened last night, but it didn’t seem that the maybe-couple had spent the night together, or that he had rejected her. They looked the other way, but attentive to what might happen. After all, both adventurers and merchants also have the right to be gossips.

Eldi ignored her and looked the other way, listening to a conversation about the terrain that they were going to cross later and, from time to time, asking some questions. When Svarlfa finally couldn’t hold anymore, she approached him and stroked the scar again.

“You have to tell me about those bad memories. I’ll help you forget them,” she flirted shamelessly.

To her surprise, the silver-haired adventurer turned sharply and grabbed her hand. She widened her eyes, frightened, fearing that she could have said something she shouldn’t, making him angry. She knew that some adventurers could be violent.

But Silverwolf’s serious face wasn’t looking at her, but beyond the driver. Just as he had grabbed it, he released it, walking with extraordinary skill along the carriage’s swinging floor, toward the front. No one knew that he was using Stability.

“Prepare the weapons,” he ordered in a tone that no one dared to disobey. He was obviously not kidding.

He arrived next to the driver and ordered her to stop, while making a signal to the carriage before them. It was an emergency signal, to stop them, a signal that, if done without reason, would bring him troubles, and the caravan’s distrust.

“What is going on?” asked a human magician.

“There is something ahead, something dangerous. We better pretend we know nothing. If it’s an ambush, we don’t want them to know that we have discovered them,” answered Eldi, to whom Bat’s Hearing was buzzing insistently.