I Think I Win This Round, Milady
A pearl of sweat finds its way down my crimson cheek to my chin and finally disappears on the floor below us. An annoyed groan escapes my lips when I have to give in one step. The only sounds in the room are our harsh breathing and the clinging sound our swords make every time they collide.
I breathe in the warm, clammy air surrounding us and twist myself out of our swords' hold. I spin back around and barely manage to dodge Therion's longsword engraved with a whirlwind called Windsong – by throwing myself on one knee. Therion puts so much power behind his charge that he stumbles forward when his sword only cleaves the air.
A sly grin makes its way onto my face, and I tackle my husband to the floor. I spin myself back up and hold the tip of my black iron longsword named Heartstriker against my husband's chest. Right above his beating heart. "You're dead," I smirk.
Therion rolls his beautiful onyx eyes and hits away my sword with the back of his hand. He pushes himself into a sitting position with a calculating expression. I roll my eyes. Knowing him, he is trying to devise a tactic in which he is the one coming out of our sparring match as the victor. Well, I call that tough luck.
After a little while, his expression relaxes, and it seems like he accepts that he has lost. He pulls his messy, night-black, shoulder-length hair out of the bun he bound them in before training and runs his fingers through them while staring me straight into my eyes. His full lips twitch into a smirk. "Please," he starts, "I went way easy on you, Nives Darling."
Now it is my time to roll my eyes – arrogant prick.
I spin around on my heel to get some water, but before I can even take a step, Therion gets ahold of my ankles and pulls. A surprised squeal, followed by a painful groan, escape my lips as my body collides with the cold, hard floor. I roll myself onto my back but am unable to do anything else as Therion pins my wrists above my head.
"I think I win this round, Milady," Therion breathes into my ear. The small hairs of his neatly trimmed beard tickle my skin.
"Cheater," I grumble, before closing my eyes and sighing as he starts to plant a trail of soft kisses on my skin. Starting with my earlobe.
"Oh, Nives Darling, the enemy never plays fair," he said between his kisses.
"But you happen to be my husband, not my enemy."
"That's right. But I happen to be very attached to winning." I gasp, as he slowly moves downward with his kisses. I have to bite my lower lip to keep myself from making any noise. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. My toes curl and uncurl repeatedly in my knee-length leather boots.
"Are you enjoying this, Nives Darling?" I can feel him smirk against the skin of my collarbone.
"It's still cheating. But," I say as I curve my back to feel him closer. "I can't deny that it is working. Or not enjoyable." Therion chuckles at my response and presses his soft, pinkish lips on my own.
A terrifying loud rumble is audible in the far distance. Making the both of us shut up straight. It was like an earthquake, but without its shaking. "What was that?" I ask, my words drenched with worry. "What was that sound?"
Therion cautiously makes his way over to the open balcony doors. His sword in hand. I take him as an example and get up from the floor on which I was still sitting. I pick up my sword and quickly reach my husband standing on the balcony overseeing our kingdom.
"Where do you think it came from?" I ask softly while gazing at our surroundings. The streets of Karmina, the Capitol of Rolyra, were mostly deserted. The few people walking the streets rushed inside. Away from that terrifying loud sound. And whatever produced it. Others stared into the distance.
Therion nods towards the east. Towards the Malsonee Mountains. The same direction the others are staring. I follow his gaze. The Malsonee Mountains reached as far as the eye can see, and beyond. The mountain passes are endless and, above all, dangerous beyond comparison. If you enter the passes, it is guaranteed that you'd get lost. Most passes are blocked so no one can get lost in them again. It's been that way for years now. Four years to be exact.
There are no more teenagers wanting to prove themselves brave and venture into the passes just to get last and never return. There are no more mothers that had to mourn the loss of a child who no longer returned home because they had been stupid enough to try and prove that the passes everyone warned them about were just passable.
They are not.
Even the best navigators got lost in the maze. The only known survivors to ever cross the mountain passes are the Gufla. A tribe of wildlings who're actually living in them. They're the guardians of the Iron Cave. A cave deep in the Mountains that buried a great evil. Or so, the legend of the Iron Cave goes.
Therion keeps on staring into the distance, trying to figure out what that loud rumble from before is. Knowing him, he even lets out a glimpse of his powers to get a better taste. A power with which he can control air. He can't just control it. He can make it do whatever he pleases. He can make hurricanes as big or small as he desires. He can suck the air out of people's lungs and let them drop dead on the ground with just a slick movement of his hand. He can even feel detect any sort of disturbance in the air. That's how he always knows when the weather is bad – or really good. He can do all that, and my guess, he is doing just that. Trying to detect a disturbance in the air to figure out what, in the name of The Mother who birthed the Nine Gods, that loud rumble was.