Chapter 7: Grace and Halvad: Hidden Danger

Lysia came running into Grace's embrace. There was a wide grin across her face.

"G-grace! I think he's in love with me, he's in love with me!" She said this with the widest grin on her lips that Grace felt a foreboding at the pit of her stomach.

"Hisin! Oh! He's so dreamy…"

Lysia stared off, as if momentarily lost in her recollection of that moment.

Grace's stomach dropped. Her face turned a deadly shade of white.

Lysia cradled in her hands a core that shone like her eyes, vibrant like her eyes.

Oh gosh, poor innocent Lysia…

Sophia and now Lysia as well…

Her teeth grinded in anger.

"LYSIA! He is lying to you! He is lying!"

She spoke with complete confidence in her words.

Her words were abrupt. That they stunned the grinning girl, the wide smile frozen on her lips.

Her happy expression turned despondent in an instant like a tide of sadness had washed it all away.

"Oh… Yes. Why would someone like him care about someone like me..? I was too ahead of myself." her words grew fainter with every passing syllable like the last fading light of sunset.

"There are so many pretty girls around him, grace, Elizabeth… Sophia… ah! There is pretty Emma as well" the faint whispers could be heard in the silent room.

Brunette and green eyes perhaps the most average amongst their group of girls.

"Yes Grace, I'm an idiot." She squeezed a smile.

"Nooo, Lysia… I didn't mean it that way… I meant Hisin isn't to be trusted… that he of all people has ulterior motives for his actions."

"Why did you not say the same to Sophia?" She tried to say in her usual tone of cheerfulness, but her words broke and twisted as she held in her tears.

"Lysia… Sophia, I've known for a long time held some feelings for Hisin… you on the other hand… I don't want you mistaking a momentary act of kindness from a man as a sign of love."

Lysia gaze at the emerald core nestled in her hands.

"Yes." Lysia said; She said but a single line of word.

Graze sighed in relief. It is better to be disappointed here than later.

"Was there something you gave him, in return for this core?"

"Yes… I allow him to hunt in the deeper parts of the Lavdrianna forest."

"Yes, that must be it! Otherwise why would he bother."

"Here." Grace grabbed at the core nestled in Lysia's hands and threw it into the trash.

"Thud!" The sound of the object falling sounded so heavy in the silent room.

She clapped her hands at a job well done then walked away.

Hopefully Lysia will get over it soon. Hisin could not have done that with any good intentions…

___

In the Lavdrianna forest, Inner rings.

Near the cries of water.

A low rumbling, falling and a torrent, impacting the rocks beneath, pooling in a lakeside hidden in the groves.

Scattered howls of the primates, songs of birds and the chirping insects surrounded them, hundreds of men stood by the waters shore's overlooking a drop into the waters below.

"Marquise Vissaye hasn't cared for this forest at all. The monsters and beasts are more numerous than imagined. The beast even… had begun mating the animals."

"Forest?! You might as well call it the Lavdrianna Jungle." A gruff voice spoke.

Chuckles broke amongst the men.

It was true. Halvad gazed around him at the low hanging vines and the high crowns, barely allowing any light, despite it the vegetations beneath wrestle in a fury of limbs and branches twisting haphazardly.

There was dampness, a humidness, that clung to his skin like a sheen of sweat, the air was thick with water.

Mist and the darkness, the only light was the sunlight above the skies of the water where the trees could not grow.

"There are civilians here?"

"Few towns, perhaps too small for his notice, but it would not be safe to hold hostings in these parts, perhaps some years back but this state of the forest…"

"Lysia had been quite naive to hold huntings in these parts…" a low smooth voice spoke from his general.

"General what should we do?"

The general smirk, "Halvad you're still calling me general. Call me Hisin. The war is over."

His general was in dark armor, as dark as his hair. The magic in his blood shone in his eyes a crimson glow that seemed to pierce through the shadows of the forest.

He leaned against an old gray tree that had seen better days, he continued in his low husky voice "Lysia has allowed us to hunt in her territory, the least we can do is help with their problem."

Halvad Groaned.

The general let out a chuckle, "Halvad, is right. You've helped enough as is."

A smirk lifted the corners of his lips, "I will clear this 'jungle' alone."

"General! I am sorry!" Halvad stood.

The general shook his head slowly, and Halvad frightened plopped back down on the rotten log, filled by moss.

The men clatter to change his mind.

"General you can't! It is too dangerous!"

"Please! General it is too dangerous"

"Halvad you idiot,"

He stared down on the men, dragging his long sword from its sheath. The ring of metal shrilling rang against the sounds of nature. He ignored their plea, instead spoke, "That said. You are not without a task… I require 40 carriages by the end of today," he swung behind him in an arch. There was a sick wet crunch of metal on flesh as a massive snake crumbled like a limp rope against the foliages.

"Go!"

Halvad stood, "Men! We're heading out! The general's orders…"

Several of the men closest to the general side stood imposing.

"Men! We set off!" they ordered the men around them.

"Halvad!" the general called, "send more troops"

"Understood!"