Page 38 of To Free a Soul
She only seeks to make the process of conceiving offspring more enjoyable.She’d never reached out to Weldir otherwise.She isn’t here for me, but for them.
For their Mavka offspring, and to watch over Orpheus in particular.
Surely if Weldir touched her with the intention of pleasure without the result of another growing within her, she’d reject it. She may even leave, wary of being in his prolonged presence once he made his yearning known.
He didn’t want to ruin this. He wanted her to stay for as long as she permitted it, in hopes that she would do so again in the future.
Even when she drifted her gaze around as if to look at the disc next to him, and halted when she found him staring at her, Weldir said and did nothing. Not even when her eyes locked withhis as he tried to find out the answer to an unasked question did he dare falter.
Her eyelashes flickered. Then her heart accelerated, thumping louder and more rapidly within his void. He thought the swelling pink of her cheeks was a mistake, or he worried he’d misinterpret what it meant.
March 23rd, 1832
Lindiwe situated herself upon a sturdy tree branch, which creaked under her weight. Settling in for comfort, she flapped her wings and lowered her feathery tail so her knee joints were bent. Then she inspected the creature below, who sniffed at the dirt and grass as he moved through the forest.
Luckily for Orpheus, the forest above the Veil was abundant in wildlife. The animals were wary of anything approaching, but less so of him, as he lacked the pungent reek of unevolved Demons.
Her children had pleasant, earthy smells to them. Orpheus in particular smelt of mahogany and pine, and she would have buried her nose in his fur many times had he let her.
He lifted his wolf snout up to her, and proceeded to release an annoyed, snorting huff. He deviated from the path he’d been making through the forest to avoid coming near her.
When he was out of sight, Lindiwe released her talons and swooped through the air to follow. She landed upon another branch to watch over him.
“Go away.”He swiped his right hand backwards through the air in her direction.“Bad Witch Owl. Evil.”
Lindiwe felt nothing regarding his words, as she knew they weren’t truly his thoughts. They had to be Katerina’s. The fact that he hadn’t immediately attempted to climb this tree to kill her proved he still trusted her nearness.
She readjusted her grip from where a sharp knob of tree bark pushed into the middle of one of her four-taloned feet.
He halted to sit on his rump and puffed his fur in aggression with a quiet growl bubbling past his fangs.
“Smells sickly sweet. Magic?”he continued, as his claws gouged into the earth.“You give Katerina rotten things to eat.”
That’s only because everything I gave the stubborn woman spoiled after she rejected it for too many days.
“Now Orpheus leave to hunt.”He gave a whiny groan.“Orpheus want to stay, but Katerina hungry.”
With frustration bubbling in her stomach, Lindiwe lifted off once more. She swooped at Orpheus and kicked one of his impala antelope horns.
Be quiet and hunt. You’re scaring off prey with your needless talking.He’d grown rather chatty now that he had someone he liked talking to.
Orpheus yelped, swiped his arm above his head, and continued on.
A hare popped its head up in the distance, and he got too excited, lunging for it with a roar. The noise he made scared it off. Within seconds of it zig-zagging through the forest, Orpheus took off to chase it in a mindless bloodlust.
His side crashed into tree trunks, and he barrelled through shrubs and bushes when it tried to use them as temporary cover. He snarled and snapped his bony wolf snout like a mad beast and then dug at the burrow it’d darted into.
He never saw it poke its head out of the ground behind him from the other side of the burrow a few seconds later. It fled while he hollowed out the hole until he could stick his head inside it.
For a little while, his orbs remained crimson with bloodlust as he searched for something else to eat and chase.
When he finally calmed, he sat down on his hind legs and lifted his right clawed hand to scratch at the top of his skull. He appeared unsure about what just happened, his dark-yellow orbs a further indication of his confusion.
Shaking it off, he pushed on in search of food for his woman. He eventually stopped talking after Lindiwe kicked one of his horns repeatedly for doing so, which sufficiently annoyed him into silence.
It didn’t take him long to realise he needed to approach his prey quietly and to skulk low as he did in order to stay out of sight. Unfortunately, his size and weight were unwieldy, and he hadn’t learned that even the smallest twig snapping or leaf crunching could give him away.
Each hare, deer, and bird was frightened off quickly, and their smaller, more agile bodies made it easy to escape. Any that didn’t, and were eventually caught by him, were consumed in the excitement of the hunt.
