Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty

I was strolling down at the gardens when I noticed a pair dark eyes from the shrubbery that separated a forest and ATI staring at me.

Cold washed down my spine as I recalled Cirdan's warning of that morning about always carrying a friend with me when I walk through unfamiliar grounds. He seemed not forget that I have only one friend that I would not monopolize his time. I was not that selfish.

And from all that I have experienced in faery, I was willing to bet that whatever those are, they will not be friendly towards me. I was trying to act as calmly as possible while I still went about, this time trying to act like I was more interested at what was being seen at the side closer to ATI. I couldn’t very well turn back and start heading back to the gate which I came from, that would be a dead giveaway to whoever that owns that pair of eyes that I was running and then it would give chase.

My heart was thrumming loudly as I spied the gate, it was still far off but if I could walk slowly, I would get into ATI before whatever that thing was would know better.

A growl sounded behind me as I could hear the crunching of leaves as steps started coming closer.

My heart stopped then picked up frantically and with it my fight or flight instinct went into overdrive, and I ran.

I am usually not a coward but judging by the sound of the growl and the fact that this is Faery, and it has bigger monsters than what exists on earth, I was not ready to risk attempting to fight this thing only to make it angrier, my sense of survival was ready to kick it when danger was not wearing the face of teenaged mean girls with pouty faces even when they were being serious.

I was close enough to the gate when the thundering footfalls behind me caught up with me and leaped on my back making me fall face down. My face smashed hard with the ground, but I could barely feel the pain as I rolled to my back, attempting to look at what was after me in the eventuality that if I would survive, I could at least give a description.

The beast of a wolf was snarling at me with foam dripping from its mouth like it was feral. He had a crazy look in his eyes. I knew the difference between dogs and wolves because this wolf looked a lot like the Siberian Husky found on earth but the eyes. The eyes were a dead giveaway that I was dealing with a higher form of intelligence, one that was not tamed.

The wolf stopped snarling at me to crouching for attack and I discovered that the phrase of one’s life flashing before your eyes, doesn’t exist in my case. All that was flashing from me was my increased heartrate that was making my chest pain me while I froze with horror filling my blood with chills.

The wolf came at me and snapped his teeth at me only for me only for it to shake its head confused and then he rounded up to come at me again.

This time, I knew he would really hurt me. I closed my eyes tightly only for me to hear a loud howl. “Bad dog.”

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Cirdan:

I watched as the council in front of me argue about the theme of the dance and I could not help but sigh. I should be spending this time with my mate but somehow I was roped into helping the student council as the principal put it then only for me to arrive in the student council office to discover that I am the president of the council.

All my job entailed was that I should be present as that will assure compliance from the student body since I am the highest-ranking student. That I agreed with and was all I have ever done but I have never been tempted this much to involve myself in decision making and that is because their decisions were nothing but really bad suggestions.

“I honestly cannot believe you all.” I snapped, already at the end of my patience, for being quiet for so long, I should be labeled a saint. “These are the ideas you come up with for a formal dance where the school will be having lots of visitors… this is the best you can come up with and still somehow you are still choosing the worst one in the brunch of stupid ideas.”

“Well, if it is so stupid, let's hear you suggestion then.” One man replied to me and when I leveled my glare on him, he added on a whimper. “Please.”

“You can use the theme of Angels if you are going for an ethereal look, saying crossbreeds means two things to outsiders, one you are laughing at the Folk princess.” At my words, denials rang out. “I said to outsiders not me, if I had the inkling that you mean disrespect to my future queen, let’s just say that you guys will be scraping yourselves of the floor.”

“The second thing it would mean is that you want them to use their basic self as costume…”

“The point is to get them to decide to go for another race other than theirs, if they use their race it defeats the reason.” The person who brought the idea countered defensively.

“Why will I spend money trying to purchase dark fae items of clothing when I can just go in my own court clothes while hiding my aura?” I pointed out and their shoulders drooped. I really wonder why they had not to think about this plausible problem since, something that can easily be solved but since I was pointing holes in their plans, I did not want to be the one to offer the solution too.

“What’s the angel idea you have?”

“Whit fog, everybody wearing wings for a chance at the costume, everybody wearing the same costume will take care of the unity theme you are going for, everybody will prefer that rather than being in someone else race costume and angel theme will be very easy to decorate and find things to match with.” I watched as they looked around, nodding their heads in agreement to my suggestion.

“So, wanting to ask, if we choose this idea, who will manage it…” The man from earlier started but I was quick to put an end to the direction his thoughts were going.

“Please stop with whatever you are trying to guess there.” I answered. “I just offered the idea, don’t expect that I will do anything more than that okay?”

That was when I felt intense fear coming from my bond with Iris.

“Iris…” I whispered, realizing that she was in danger before I shot up from my seat and raced out of the room, using the bond to trace her location.

Please I cannot lose her.

I just can’t.