Renaissance fair
Elara
Five minutes earlier
I was minding my business, quite literally. I had nothing to do after all, save to plan my escape. Of course, I couldn’t find a bolt, neither could I find screw to try and finagle around the door. Then again, the old rusted doorwhich should have at least allowed me some leeway to bend something—but no. It was just the outer coating of the steel that was rusted, not the part of the bar that kept me away from my freedom. It was just fine.
I held on to it, frustration brewing even more ever since Lucas told me the pathetic sad story of the Alpha.
“Poor little Alpha,” I mumbled to myself. “Too bad for him his day just keeps on getting better and better.”
I chuckled, literally.
“Mine not so much,” my mind whispered back at me.
I held on to the steel bars again, my eyes darting around the edges where the steel had been formed into a door, and then the door into the frame. I reached for the handle that was outside. The lock, but I didn’t seem to recognize. Seriously, have these people ever heard of a normal lock and key? This one was overly complicated. It looked as though it was made by a mad magician who had a knack for trying to free themselves from the worst kind of prisons. This lock had external gears and an ominous looking keyhole that was protruding out of the left of it, just about as normal a lock as every other normal door.
I let out a long groan, cursing my fate.
“This is what hunger makes you do, you foolish human.”
I smiled at myself, thinking my own state was now an endearment.
A strange sound came to me, the sound of clanking heels against stone, storming towards me. No, seriously, I had heard it before—the all too familiar sound of heels and an angry person.
The door burst open, revealing the sour face of a rather pretty woman. She was blonde, like stupid blonde. She had that golden sheen that influencers killed for. If it was natural, she’d be famous in human terms. If it was fake, her stylist deserved a raise. She was also quite tall. I had gotten to the conclusion that everyone here was tall—needlessly so, in fact. Because as soon as she opened the door, she folded her arms over her ample chest. Her clear icy-blue eyes scanned from my form.
“You have got to be kidding me. She’s smart. You’re human,” she said, as if trying to convince herself.
“No shit, Sherlock.” I mocked, loud enough for her much-too-sensitive ears to pick up.
Her arms dropped. “You’re one of those types.” She flipped her hair over one slender shoulder, her expression changing.
“You are treading on thin ice.”
She stepped closer.
“Thin ice? Funny, I always had the impression I was walking a tightrope.” I chuckled to myself. “And the award for stating the obvious goes to…” I said outloud, gesturing to her person.
“Let me guess, you want to join the ever-increasing line of those who want to kill me?”
She frowned. “Not many people should know of your existence,” she said.
I shook my head. “Well, I made myself known. Just as I was being dragged away, I imagine pretty much everyone knows by now.”
I raised my eyebrow. Suddenly it clicked. The angry face, the forward eyebrows, the gaze that demanded I tell her something. The implied venom that she used. Oh, how I wished to douse her with a bucket of cold water and see if her mascara would droop down the side of her face.
“Oh no. Don’t tell me—you’re female antagonist number one.”
Her eyebrows furrowed still. Suddenly she shook her head, cleared her throat, and stood up straight.
“You’re walking on paper thin ice, human.”
“I have a name,” I cut her off.
“…and the more you do,” she continued, ignoring me, “the more satisfactory it would be to kill you. You should know, it’s against the pack law. Humans like you should be executed on the spot. I wonder why he keeps you alive.”
She mumbled something under her breath, something about keeping him on a something. “Perhaps I’ll just have to do it myself.”
She stepped closer.
A different type of fear hit me. This was almost cold, calculating. She was very similar—no, she was very similar to him. Her eyes were emotionless. She would feel nothing from taking my life. In fact, I wasn’t going to doubt for a second she could easily snap my neck and behave as though it was an accident.
“What will you tell him? I mean, he’s obviously keeping me alive for a reason,” I said, just as I was backing up against the wall.
“Doesn’t matter.” She took another step closer. “So long as you’re dead, either way it’s fine. I can apologize later if need be.”
She held up a hand, showing me a rather impressive manicure. The manicure, however, then turned into two-inch-long sharp nails—scratch that, claws—claws that would reach into my neck.
“Oh, but you don’t want to do that now, do you?”
“I’ll take my chances.” She stepped closer again.
Suddenly a hand pushed her away, pulling her back. Lucas stepped between us, holding out his hands.
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
She froze suddenly, her head turning to the side. Suddenly her cold expression changed. Her eyes grew wild and frantic. She began to breathe louder, nearly uneven.
“She’s crazy! I swear, all humans are like that! Don’t you know what they did? Do I need to remind you of what she is? She belongs to a race of power-hungry people who continue to encroach on our land and take our resources. She used to be killed—that’s what she did anyway!”
My eyes were wide.
“Okay… what was that?” I asked myself.
She was either suffering from an unfortunate case of being bipolar, or she was just a really good actress in her own mind. Surely Lucas wouldn’t believe her. Right? I looked at Lucas, cocking my head to one side. He looked down at the floors and then away.
“Luna, this isn’t the way to go,” he said. “I understand you have concerns.”
“Concerns?” She raised her voice yet again. “She could be an agent of the goddess! The fact that we even have to consider that is more than enough to tell me. She’s a risk, and if you can’t see that, Lucas—”
Okay, I thought to myself. Two can play that game.
“Oh yes, I’m a spy, you know, from the CIA and stuff. They sent me here to check out your dealings, and I must say, it’s quite impressive what you have going there—considering we’re sending a strike force to, you know, neutralize you for the greater good of humanity.”
I was about to tear up on the inside. Her eyes found mine, cold, chilling, as though I’d been dropped in the middle of winter. But I wouldn’t let the blizzard that was her blow me just yet.
“So what are you going to do about that, huh? Luna, if that’s your name or whatever?”
I rolled my eyes. She nearly launched at me, her mouth moving in rapid English, barely forming the words she said. Her long claws stretched towards me, held back by Lucas’s strong arms. It all would have broken to shit one side saw him.
I felt my breath catch again in my throat. Seriously, what was it with him and getting that response from me?
Behind them were two strangers. Then again, I was surrounded by strangers. Both dressed in cloaks as though they were going for some medieval Renaissance fair. The man with silver hair and silver eyes had his ears poking out at 90°—legit like those game elves. And the lady, however, had normal ears, albeit slightly pointed.
What the heck were they? I opened my mouth and closed it, genuinely trying to decide if I was aware of what was going on. Words were spoken, fingers were pointed at me, someone even laughed here and there, speaking in cryptic forms, but I couldn’t be bothered. All I could do was calculate whether or not I could sneak out.
Snap. It was pointless. The weird lady with the weird forest-green eyes was looking right at me. She smiled, shot me a strange wink, and tore her face from mine, looking rather amused at the one they were calling Luna.
Oh great, I thought to myself. It was from one madness to the other now, whatever the heck she was about. Strange, the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. It felt as though I was being gently tasered, if that was even a proper expression.
In any way, I couldn’t sneak out from anywhere. We locked eyes briefly. I shot him a wink, but he turned too quickly to catch it. I rolled my eyes. Either one way or another, I’d be gone.
Eventually they all left, leaving me in ambiguity, leaving me finally in solitude. I walked again close to the door, began to finagle around with the bars of the cage. The steel was hard enough; it wasn’t going to budge anytime soon. In fact, it was involving the worst thing at the right time. But it wasn’t in me to give up. You know I would sooner end it at a point than let them do whatever they wanted to do to me.
“What are you doing?”
I heard a male voice. I hadn’t heard any footsteps. I tilted my head to the side. Even though I was deep in thought, I would have heard him. It was the same silver-haired and silver-eyed, pointy-eared elf from earlier.
“What do you want?” I folded my arms across my chest, giving him my best representation of a stinky eye.
He chuckled.
“What are you?”
“Human,” I said quickly.
“What are you, a fairy?” I mumbled under my breath. His long pointy ears flicked at the sound of my mumble. Damn it, it was the cutest thing I’d seen in a while.
My fingers twitched. I wanted to touch it.
He cocked his head. “I am an Elf.”
“So what does an elf want from me? Existence? Get in line. You want to kill me? You should get in line too. In fact, there’s like a thousand people who want to do the same. There’ll barely be any part of me left by the time it’s your turn.”
He tilted his head. “No. My master sent me to come watch you, look at you. She wants me to form an opinion.”
He looked at me. Really looked.
“I don’t have an opinion,” he said after a good moment of silence. “I don’t have an opinion over lesser creatures.”
I chuckled. “Yeah right, Legolas.”
He frowned.
“You know, you would make a perfect stereotypical elf. If you had a bow and arrow, it’d be perfect.”
He frowned a bit. “I’m not quite taken to your humor. But my master did send me to do something. She believes that you’re going to try to escape, and I… well, I see death in your future.”
“Yeah, well, get in line like I said. You can join the very vast amount of people that want to kill me.”
“You don’t belong here,” he said in his rather silky voice.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” I rolled my eyes.
This was getting old, I thought.
“You know, if you’re not here to release me or whatever, you can literally just go and stop standing and staring at me. Unless of course you want it to be your life’s mission.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “My master gave me one directive. I will do as she says.”
His eyes glowed faintly. Suddenly he reached for the door, mumbled something under his breath, and it opened.
“Leave,” he said. “I do you a favor and I spare your life.”
And so there I was, standing literally at the cusp of freedom. I’d be damned if I didn’t take it.