Fae Woods Ch. 08

At some point, all the people that had gathered filtered away. The only ones still there where the men, who were under orders to do so, had a make shift stretcher at the ready, and kept trying to remove the now dead Leila from Zhana’s grasp. Sienna, who keep herself a safe distance away, no longer hovering but her empathy for Zhana’s loss plain on her face, Ayla, perched on the branch of a nearby tree, no doubt for the clear view the vantage point gave her, wore the same pained expression as Sienna, and Ryzhan, who continued to speak softly to her unresponsive daughter.

The pain radiating off of Zhana touched Dillon in a way that had him thinking of his own recent loss of his mother. In that moment, something inside him connected with Zhana. Staying crouched, so as not to present a threat to her, Dillon slowly made his way behind her. Ryzhan stopped her hushed whispers to give him a look that definitely said he needed to back off. The look had no effect on him, came closer to Zhana’s rocking frame. He came so close that he could feel the heat and grief coming off her body. It made his heart stutter in his chest. He reached out to touch Zhana’s but his arm deterred from its path by the painfully tight grip Ryzhan had on his wrist. Dillon didn’t even see her move he just felt the painfully tight grip she had on him. Dillon looked her in the eye once again holding her angry gaze. Something in her gaze changed and she released him recognizing that his purpose was only to comfort Zhana. Dillon gently put his hand on Zhana’s shoulder, and she tensed at his touch but did not move away. Dillon ran his hand down her arm sure that she was going to snap on him at any moment. When she didn’t he sat on the ground behind her feeling her need for physical contact. He spread his legs and scooted his body as close to her as he could get. With his body pressed behind her she was still tense. Going a step further, Dillon tried his luck, and wound his hand around her waist the fur of the dead tigerwud still warm from being held against Zhana. Dillon wound his other arm around her shoulders, his fore arm resting just beneath her chin.

Dillon just held her. He didn’t know for how long, but he just kept holding her pouring all the comfort he could muster into his embrace. Eventually, she slowly released the tension she held in her body. At some point Zhana leaned her chin on his forearm and the warm rivers he felt running down his arm could be nothing but Zhana’s tears. Each one wrenched at his heart and he just redoubled his efforts to pour comfort into her.

Exhaustion taking its toll on her, Zhana finally released her burden, her hands falling limply to her sides. Knowing the strength it must have taken her to do so Dillon tightened his arms around her. The men were finally able to load Leila’s body onto the stretcher they had waiting. As soon as the body had been removed from her lap, Ryzhan knelt in front of her daughter paying no attention to the blood that covered the ground and he daughter an embraced Zhana from the front briefly. Dillon felt the pulses of power that ran off of her from the brief contact, she was a powerful being indeed, but still refused to let go.

Ryzhan tilted Zhana’s chin so that she could make eye contact. “Daughter, you need to rest. Your grief is pulling on the collective strength of the pride.” Zhana tried to make a weak protest but it came out as weak mews. To which Ryzhan ran the fingers of her other hand, to which she had gathered some glowing power that neither Dillon or Zhana had noticed, gently down Zhana’s face and she instantly went completely unconscious. “By the gods, this has been a trying eve.”

Ryzhan stood and called to more men to attend to Zhana but Dillon still refused to let her go stating that he would take care of her. Something about this whole situation had made him feel an intimate closeness to her. Dillon gathered Zhana in his arms looking to Ryzhan expectantly; she stood and walked away clearly expecting him to follow. Before leaving the clearing he made eye contact with Sienna who seemed to give him her nod of approval and he returned it.

In the queen’s chambers everything seemed to have already been prepared for their coming. Hot water and soft towels awaited them. Along with fresh clothing and bedding for Zhana. Dillon took his time attending to her all the while Zhana made not a peep for the duration of him taking care of her. Ryzhan though in human form prowled the room totally lost in thought the whole time. After tucking Zhana in, but not really wanting to, rose to leave and though Ryzhan seemed to be lost in her own thought she called to Dillon before he could leave the room.

“Chosen,” he turned to her, “you have my gratitude, for Zhana, Leila is… or was very important to her. She will take her death to heart.”

“I can tell” he said.
“But it is more, Leila was her God mother, should anything have ever happened to me while she was a kitten, Leila would have been the one to rear her. As it is, the majority of her training as a warrior was at Leila’s hand as is our way. But more to that even, Leila is my sister.” At this there was pain etched in each of her words. “Not in the since that we call each other sister because of our relation to our god Cernunnos, but we were born of the same litter. We raised, trained, and even fought together….” Realizing that she was getting too caught up in her memories, she turned her gaze back to Dillon tears shining in her eyes, “My thanks to you. You are a good male indeed.” And went back to her prowling. Dillon turned to leave again but Leila’s last words rang in his mind and”

He asked, “What did it mean?”

“What?” apparently thinking Dillon was gone was confused by the request.

“Laila, her last word, what did it mean?”

Greif quickly morphing into anger and she spat the word “Darkhuns!”

“Yes that’s it, what does it mean?”

“Harvesters,” and she stopped in her prowling to pin him with a pointed look that was filled with barely contained rage.

“Tomorrow, the hunters become the hunted.”