The Hair Hoarder

~•Rialdus•~

The excruciating pain made Xaldrius fall into sleep. I saw my brother agonizing in pain and it shattered my soul. He's the only one I have, and every time this immortality of suffering terrorized us, we're more than a prisoner in the Vampre, there's no way out.

I can't stand to see him hurting with me, if only I can assume duties of the Queen's thrall, but it's against bylaw.

I looked at my burns, the flesh are swollen; penetrating the underlying bones, and charred, as if we were scorched by the flame of fire.

If this is just a wound from any object without silver metal in it, it won't take a second to heal on its own—it's a Vampires ability. But look what a silver metal can do, way worse we'll turn into dust particles of ashes vanishing into the cold breeze of nature.

My attention suddenly diverted to Xaldrius when he groaned. He's sweating. I need to find remedies to at least lessen our pain. I'm about to stand up when I saw Xaldrius necklace gleaming.

Out of curiosity, I slowly put my finger into it.

"Ah!" I groaned when I feel its searing, and swiftly saw mine gleaming, but it didn't burn my skin like what Xaldrius necklace did.

I am about to hold it but rustling of leaves got the attention of my hearing. My eyes travel and study the surroundings. Danger is watching us.

Still in agony, bearing so much pain in my body, I limped off outside our home, carrying my crossbow.

As the night falls, darkness descended, owning the land of Hestiral. Howling of werewolves and beasts in a distance can be heard. Birds chirping, embracing the cold foggy night.

"Reveal yourself, creature!" I said with authority.

I can sense it traversing around.

"You wanted to play with me, huh?" I get my crossbow's bolt and my vision travel around to aim for my target.

I hit my bolt when I heard the rustling on the treetop, but the my bolt just vanished in the dark. I hit another one when I heard something on the left side and I almost hit someone, good thing she made it stopped, and it remain floating in the air.

Our faces were both astounded.

"Nara!? What in the world are you doing here!?" I asked, my eyebrows almost meet in shocked.

"I wonder how many you killed with that bolt. For nature's sake, that was rude!" she exclaims and bring back my bolt in my crossbow. I sat down on the ground due the unbearable pain I can't deal anymore.

"Rialdus!" Nara run towards me with concern.

Nara is our friend, from the Kingdom of Letori, she's a little naughty child that doesn't grow in years, but she possesses one of the special magic. Granted with the magic of nature, she can heal immortals.

"Glad you're here. I'm about to look for you," I mouthed.

"What happened?" she queries, looking at my wounds.

I didn't answer her, I'm already losing my strength and my vision.

"I smell metal," she wondered. "Stay still, Rialdus." She closed her eyes and started absorbing energy from nature. Her hands started gleaming in chartreuse, with sparkling powdery green, now floating in the air.

I screamed when I feel the pain on the process. Healing indeed comes with a pain. I slowly regain my strength and I feel the flesh of my wounds closing. The sensation of healing that comes after the pain feels like you've been reborn.

I gasped for breath when I regain my strength. At the same time, I watched Nara's body fall into weakness. I hold her when she suddenly lay on my shoulder. I've also seen a single strand of her hair turned black and falls. It's true, that magic always comes with a price. Every time Nara uses her healing magic, she became weaker, and ages causing her to lose a single strand of her white hair.

"Can you still make it? Xaldrius needs you, Nara." I know this is too much to ask and how abusive it may get, but I can't take Xaldrius suffering in pain. Nara is the only one who can cast it away.

"Where is he?" I led her inside.

She immediately started to heal Xaldrius.

After consuming almost her magic, I hold her when she's about to fall on her knees and let her sit on the chair.

Xaldrius yawn loudly as if he didn't almost die, and just came straight from sleep.

"Nara!?" Xaldrius almost jumped off the moment his eyes met Nara.

"What are you doing here? What happened to you?" I looked at him seriously, giving him a sign that Nara healed us. He sighed when he realized that.

"I'm so sorry, Nara," he apologized and felt guilty. "And thank you for saving our lives again, we owe our immortality to you."

Nara gave Xaldrius a big smile.

We let Nara rest for an hour to regain her strength, we also served her favorite food, a blueberry we stole from the mortal world.

"These tastes really good!" She giggles, she's now cheerful as before.

I approach her seriously. "You shouldn't come here alone at midnight, Nara. You know what's lurking into the wild when the night falls," I spoke with concern, she continued to eat with joy in her face.

"Don't worry, Rialdus, I can handle myself." She showed us her magic.

"Even with magic, you're still powerless in the spell of the dark," I warned her. She just sighed.

"What brought you here, Nara?" Xaldrius asked.

Nara faced me excitedly, "Rialdus hair!" She giggles and stands up. Xaldrius chuckled.

"You should've cut your hair long ago, brother," Xaldrius said then tapped my back.

"I'm out of hair for my experiment, I need your hair, can you hand me some?" I will probably fall into Nara's scheme, with those pitiful sparkling eyes.

Nara always love to collect my hair for her experiments. She's known for being a hair hoarder. Without hesitation, I grabbed a dagger and cut a strip of my long hair.

"You pledge to us, not to escape again the Kingdom of Letori alone, especially at night, Nara," I said and and gave it to her.

"But if I didn't come here, you both have died in pain," she sarcastically responded.

"Still not an excuse. We're more concerned about your security, Nara. Your father will probably cast a spell on us, if something happened to you," I insisted, Nara is really hardheaded as always. Nara is the daughter of the King of Letori, King Gavlorn.

She took a deep sigh. "I pledged." I gave her a smile when she said that and forced her to leave.

"By the way, there's really a reason why I'm here, except from your hair," she said, and that made Xaldrius and I lend her our ears.

"What is it?" Xaldrius asked.

"You know I can sense danger, right?" We gave her a look to continue her statement.

"It's about the last quest."

"How did you know about that?" I asked curiously, that's impossible.

"I told you I can sense it, it's nature!" She irritably uttered.

"Continue," I calmly mouthed.

"The two of you needs to be careful, they're watching every actions you made." The moment Nara said that I already felt haunted.

"Who's watching us?" Xaldrius curiously asked.

"The Queen," she whispered, "her disciples are everywhere, eyeing on you, Rialdus and Xaldrius." I diverted my gaze at Xaldrius, a gaze that call to prepare for what might happen.

Nara grab something from the pocket of her dress.

"Here take it. In case you'll get wounded again." He handed me a small bottle with floating dust inside it—her magic.

"Where can we be without you, Nara," I said, saying how grateful we are to have her.

"I'll come back for your hair after the victory!" she exclaimed and go near the door then prepare herself for leaving.

Before she leave, she gave her last word. "The portal to the world of mortals will open before the night falls. You need to go out before the darkness folds, or else you won't get any chance and we'll all be trapped with the Queen's rule forever."

"We?" Xaldrius and I asked in unison.

"It's not about the Kingdom of Miranya anymore, it's all about all Kingdoms. Your last quest is also Hestiral's hope to not fall into chaos and abyss." And then she transformed into thin air and vanished. We were left with many questions with her statement.

Xaldrius and I exchange look.

"Prepare yourself for the last quest," I advised.

~•~