245 Chapter 245 : Why the change of heart

Eira paced her room as she waited for noon, she was to convene with Zhelimir in a few minutes so they could both go and see the silver haired lycan again. The last time she had spoken with her cousin he insisted that he tag along and insure her safety, Eira understood that some strange man who lived in the middle of the forest wasn’t the most trustworthy figure out there, but she was now having second thoughts about it.

She definitely wouldn’t be comfortable if someone came to her home unexpectedly and on top of that brought a guest with them, no one in their right mind would be happy about that. That was it, Eira had made up her mind, she would go and see him on her own today, and maybe try and take Zhelimir along another time, if she wanted to know more about him she would want him to be comfortable.

Janis knocked on the princess’ slightly opened door and peeked into her room, “Eira?”

The redhead who was just about to teleport out, turned at the mention of her name and saw Janis walking into the room.

“Janis.. what’s going on?”

Janis walked towards Eira and took notice of the dress she was wearing and how her hair was done, she looked pretty, a little more than usual as a matter of fact. “You look really nice today, are you going somewhere?”

“Ummh..” Eira looked at her dress and creased it down. “Yes actually, there’s a few errands I need to run, no harm in looking nice once in a while.”

“Running errands on your own?” Janis walked around her beautiful friend, admiring her get up before halting behind her and securing the bow in her hair. “What happened to using the royal procession? I swear you royals can be so modest sometimes, if I was a princess, my feet would never touch the dusty ground”

Eira turned towards Janis and took a step back, “my ability to teleport happened, it’s much faster and more convenient unlike being hauled around like a sack of hay. Is there something you needed Janis? I’m in a bit of a rush.” The princess didn’t take kindly to being questioned about her movements, actually she didn’t take kindly to being questioned at all, especially considering how monitored she already was by her father, she really didn’t want that from her friends as well.

.....

“I just wanted to check up on you is all. I mean after what happened at the party you should be pretty traumatized.” The dark haired elven woman gave Eira a small smile, “Jacob is worried about you as well, he blames himself for what happened at the party, so much so that he can barely face you right now, it’s really quite sad.”

Even though Janis was aware that no feelings existed in Eira’s heart for her brother, her sisterly side couldn’t help but vouch for him. She saw how Jacob looked at the princess, how irrational he got when she was involved, and noticed all those other half minded things men did when they were in love. The poor young man was completely smitten with Eira and if Janis could help her brother be happy then she would definitely try.

“I told you, you all have nothing to worry about,” the princess responded, “I’m perfectly fine. And if you all don’t mind, I’d like to forget about what happened at the party and move on, the past is the past.”

Janis’ smile faded a little, but she nodded nonetheless. “So do you want me to accompany you to run your errands? I’m pretty free today, and a little bored frankly, I wouldn’t mind going shopping together.”

“No.. no thank you. I appreciate the offer Janis I really do, but I already have Zhelimir to accompany me for the day, and you know how squirmy Zhel gets when you’re around. Maybe some other time.”

“Oh I see..” janis put on a fake pout, “well guess there’s always next time. I’ll hold you to that.”

“Of course, anyway Zhel is probably already waiting for me as we speak,” Eira lied, “I should get going, see you later Janis, please do close my door on your way out..”

As the princess teleported out of the room, Janis noticed that she had also put on more scented oils than usual. What kind of errands warrantied getting dolled up like that? What was really going on? And was Zhelimir in on it?

Janis walked out of Eira’s room, and as she moved down the hallway she saw someone that made her interest in Eira’s supposed ‘errands’ peak even more. In front of Janis was Zhelimir who seemed to be in a rush to get to Eira’s room, wasn’t he supposed to be meeting up with the princess already? Had they perhaps missed each other?

“Zhelimir good afternoon!” Janis greeted the hybrid with a sweet smile.

Zhelimir came to a stop and bowed slightly to the elf while trying hard not to blush at the sight of her, gods Janis was so beautiful it was almost intoxicating, just her voice alone was enough to melt his hard exterior away, leaving a soft pile of mush in its place. “Good morning Janis.. what brings you here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Janis responded, “I’m just from seeing Eira off, she says she has a few errands to run so you won’t find her in her room.”

Zhelimir knitted his eyebrows looking a little confused, “she has left already? Are you sure of this?”

“Yes, you just missed her,” Janis responded while carefully studying Zhelimir’s expressions. “Was what you wanted to see her for important? Maybe you can wait for her, I doubt running a few errands will take more than an hour or two.”

historical

Zhelimir cupped his chin with his hand and shook his head slowly. He was saying ‘no’ but his facial expression was telling a different story. “Did she say where exactly she was going? I think it would be better to follow her.”

“All she told me was that she had some errands to run,” Janis responded. Now she knew that Eira was definitely hiding something, because right now Zhelimir looked pretty worried, where was it they were supposed to go that afternoon?

*

When the red haired princess arrived at her savior’s homestead, she was a bit surprised to find him outside, shirt off, hair tied, with an axe in hand chopping up some firewood.

Eira’s eyes followed his motions intently as he lifted the axe and plunged it downward to cut a peice of wood into an almost perfect half. He then put the axe aside, grabbed the partially broken piece of wood and ripped it in half completely with his bare hands.

Eira gulped.

The silver haired man tossed the pieces of wood towards the rest of the pile before turning to face the young woman who was standing not too far from him. He grabbed his axe, put it over his shoulder and walked towards Eira who seemed to look a little nervous.

“Well hello there,” Elric muttered softly with a smirk on his face. “I didn’t expect to see you back here any time soon.. actually I didn’t expect you to come back here ever.” He inched closer to her and studied her, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”

The redhead head cleared her throat and averted the man’s honey brown eyes. “I’m here to talk, you said some things last we met that peaked my interest, and I would like to discuss them with you.”

Elric raised an eyebrow at the woman, “I got the idea that you weren’t interested in anything that I had to say, why the sudden change of heart?”

Eira folded her arms and briefly glanced at the half naked man before averting his gaze yet again. “Look, do you want to figure out all these anomalies that have occurred between you and I or not?”

The lycan thrust the axe into the tree stamp by his feet and wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. “I would indeed like to know what the connection is between me and a woman who clearly didn’t know I existed until a few days ago. But how are we supposed figure it out? Are you going to use your magic to try and pry the information from someone?”

Eira scoffed and moved to the man’s side, having felt uncomfortable with how close he had gotten to her. “That’s not how magic works.. umh..”

“Elric..” the man finished the woman’s statement. “You can call me Elric, I was wondering when you would ask.”

“Of course..” Eira said bashfully, “I’m Eira-”

“I know,” Elric responded before taking a seat on the stamp next to his axe.

The hybrid looked at his smirking face and scoffed a second time, “...as I was saying, magic doesn’t work like that. If it did I wouldn’t even be here, there would be no need for us ever having a conversation like this.”