Beneath The Water (Complete)

Fourteen

When we arrived in Aken, everything which followed was a mess. The group split up and the slaves went one way with the larger group and Captain Laritus lead Kane, Thalian, and myself through the town. We had to dismount the horse, which Kane was more than happy to oblige and Thalian was allowed to come with us. It took some arguing, but we came to the agreement on him staying on the leash. I made Kane carry it because I refused to treat someone I called a friend like a dog, especially the long walk he just had behind our horse.

Captain Laritus talked a lot for an older soldier, he seemed almost excited to be bringing us to the Duke's manor. It was practically a castle which stood right beside the ocean. It would have been a gorgeous sight if I knew we weren't walking right into the lion's den; it wasn't like we had any other choice though.

When all was said and done, Kane and I had adjoining rooms, because it was wrong for us to share a bed before we were wed, and Thalian was expected to sleep on the floor. The moment we were alone, I had the adjoining door open and the chain off from around Thalian's neck. It took Thalian a minute to adjust, but once he realized neither Kane or me planned on treating him like a slave, he drew himself a bath, leaving Kane and me alone.

"This is insane," Kane breathed as he looked around the room.

Sitting down on the king size bed, I couldn't argue with him. The inside of the grey-stone castle was just as impressive of the outside. We were in one of the twelve towers, said it was completely ours as honorary guests to the Duke and to Aken. Kane paced between the two rooms, scanning every detail, trying to take in the beauty of it all. The floors were hand-cut planks and the white-stone walls were dyed almost a plum colour which would have taken an eternity to do by hand, which was obviously the case.

The windows ranged from large bay ones to small slits which almost looked like a defensive spot for an archer. The view overlooked the ocean and I had never seen something so bittersweet. I knew, despite its beauty, it wasn't the home I left. Even from here, I couldn't hear the sonic call of my people, begging me home, just the waves and the pull of the water. I wiggled my toes and didn't recognize that Kane was talking to me until he was standing in front of me, waving a hand in front of my face. "Sorry, what?" I asked, shaking my head.

"I asked if you're okay," he replied with a frown.

I honestly didn't know how to answer that. Though my brain couldn't formulate an answer, I found myself nodding, "I think I am getting there." It would take some time to accept this was the new norm, but I had experience being forced to accept a reality.

Kane sat beside me and leaned back a bit, "So, how do you know Thalian?" He asked, trying to change topics to a less painful time.

Smiling, I laughed a bit and shrugged. "Our journey is not all that different from yours and mine," I said teasingly as I leaned into Kane and bumped him before straightening up.

"Oh ya? He wanted to arrest you?"

"Kind of, yes," it felt good to laugh. "He is a Root Elf, but worked for the Hydro Kingdom-" Kane cut me off to get clarifications. "There are four types of Elves, each one worships a different God from a different element. He was raised as a Root Elf," I paused when I realized he didn't understand. "Oh, I do not know the word, terra, ground?"

Kane titled his head, "Earth?" he suggested.

I shook my head, "That is what your world is called," I pointed out with a weak laugh and he nodded. "Here we just call them Root Elves and he worked for Hydro Elves."

"Water?" Kane assumed and I nodded in confirmation.

The door to the bathroom opened and I didn't turn back to know Thalian was now listening. "Yes, they viewed my kind of demi-gods and it was requested for a representative to come to the Hydro Kingdom for a large celebration of the new season. My mother tasked me with going and I was going through a phase of rebellion."

Thalian was leaning in the doorway, listening as he dried his shoulder-length silver hair, observing us with his golden eyes. "You were a real tikor."

"A what?" Kane chimed in, not understanding the Elven insult.

The word didn't really translate, so I paraphrased, "Pain in the ass,"

Thalian pulled on a white shirt to covered his bare chest which was almost the same colour as the material. "Since when did you have such a human commoner potty mouth?" He hummed as he meandered over to the bed.

Between the two of them interrupting, I was never going to get to the end of this story. There was just so much to catch them both up on. "Since I was in his world and that is how everyone talks."

"Which you never fully picked up!" Kane interjected once again, making room for Thalian to come join us on the bed. He was hesitant at first, but sat down cross-legged and completed the triangle. Before Thalian had time to question it, Kane raised his hand. "That accent of yours is weird, but what is weirder is your refusal to use contractions. You can't tell me there hasn't been a single time that you haven't just wanted to squish your words together."

Thalian blinked before starting to laugh, "You speak like such a hooligan!" He had a deep belly laugh, one that made you want to laugh along, and soon we all were. "She is royalty, one in a respectable position should never put words together. Them speaking is something which demands attention and every word is important."

Kane leaned in and narrowed his eyes, "You smooth talkin' Elf think that you're so hot, but you ain't." He joked and I rolled my eyes; these two boys would be the death of me. "Don't think you don't have a weird-ass accent and speech pattern too. You sound like a New Orleans Leprechaun."

"A what?" Thalian sounded insulted even though he didn't know what it meant.

My eyes were watering from laughing so hard as I hit Kane in the arm, "Now you stop it! His first language is not English, he does not know Americans, nor your stereotypes, so let him be. He is a smooth talker as all Elves are, their language demands it of them." Thalian's perplexed face about the strange words I was saying made me laugh harder. It would be forever before Thalian and Kane would be able to understand each other. "Look, do you want to know how we met or not?" I finally asked, trying to get to Kane's original question.

"I would like to know how you met the peculiar human," Thalian interjected.

I waved him off, "That will come after. Kane asked first, he gets his story first." I explained before I told him the interesting story of how an Hydro-hired guard hunted me down, dragged me onto shore before falling into my enthral. He, just like Kane, lost control of all self-restraint. Once I had gotten him off of me, I found myself interested in the Hydro Elf who didn't have enough respect for my kind to make sure he didn't shove his tongue down my mouth. I was so intrigued I even let him take me to the celebration, after making him promise to be on my arm the entire night.

Thalian argued how I had a crush on him, that he was the one who started my so-called "Elven Phase". The reality was I didn't know why I was drawn to him, just happy that I was. We turned out to be wonderful friend, he often helped me with my transformation when I came out of the water, for his people or not. I, of course, said none of this to make sure I didn't inflate his ego.

I did, however, tell both of them that Thalian was the last person I had seen from my world before I ended up in Kane's, the joking stopped a bit then. The mood did pick back up when Kane began to tell the story of how we met from his point of view. It was certainly not how I remembered events, which only made everyone laugh more as we argued through the night.