Time passed slowly, too slowly as the journey commenced with tension and quarded eyes.
Quilt had shimmered in his father's eyes, everyone could see it but no one commented. And as they left his eyes didn't stray from their carriage.
A carriage filled with him, Dawn aside him, who was shaky and pale.
Aethelstan sat directly in front of Adrian, beside him the leader Avery Emmerson. Who had obviously entered to coach with the intention of gathering any information he could.
His warriors surrounded the coach from all directions, tense and reacted in seconds at anything they found out of the ordinary.
Adrian had tested it, hands reached out to grab a passing fruit , only to have it knocked out of his hands with a gruff voice demanding him to stay put.
No respect or care for the child he so seemingly was.
He had expected nothing else, paling considerably at that he meekly sat back down. Closer to Dawn than before, hands softly grabbing the other's.
Squeeze he got in return, only proved that Dawn believed it. Even Aethelstan comforted him with soothing emotions that came through the bond.
''Don't blame them, they are all a little tense. Just to escort you, they lost a lot of sleep."
Wary of him was more like it, the implications of escorting him too.
Shifting uncomfortable, a nod went Avery's way, his hands grabbing dawn's tighter.
Once more no words were spoken and wariness only grew.
Avery was taking everything in, the small touches shared between him and Dawn. The way the elder vampire didn't mind it, in fact there was only relief in his body as the tension slacked.
Was it the boy who needed comfort or was it the elder who benefited more from the touches?
The frightened look after the boy got snapped at was somethingAvery had carefully noted.
That combined with the rather unimpressive introduction, made it more and more obvious that the boy was just a shy ,even oblivious, boy.
Dawn was traumatized. That much was clear as he kept clutching that pad.
Golden hair fell over his eyes, hooded, hiding away his features.
The existence of that vamp didn't interest him...much unlike the rather fetching elf next to him.
Who hadn't said much at all, besides announcing his name to be Aethelstan. The elf was..rather nice? He had introduced the golden haired vamp.
Eyeing him up, Avery noted that the blue hair suited the elf's looks perfectly, one would expect them to be made out of marble.
Elf's were famed for their beauty and seeing the perfect body proportions, combined with the startling eyes, it would make sense that this one was the top one beauty in the elven realm.
But he wouldn't know as he hadn't seen a lot of elves.
And this one didn't even say anything, Avery couldn't even read anything off of him.
He wanted to know why the elf was even there, accompanying a pureblood vampire while he was a pureblood elf.
The two of them combined, what would that even mean for the future?
A future long and strenuous, for him merely annoying as he needed to keep them safe; wich was only a matter of who would be stupid enough to try something after hearing the rumours.
No doubt a passing carriage with the symbol of Aurelia would be hard to miss, especially when it came from Aesteamore.
Unconsciously he had stared down the boy, who flinched and looked down at his lap.
At the boy's age, his hands had already been drenched in blood, soaked in them yet the little vampling couldn't even look him in the eyes.
How disappointing.
''Let's take a break here."
The sudden disturbance caused the boy to pale and the elf kept his quard noticeable up.
''Yes sir.'' The same gruffy voice from before had answered.
Coming to a halt, Avery was the first to leave yet never let his eyes stray from the carriage. Where the three of them had stayed, the little vampling resting while still surrounded.
Dawn encouraged him to drink with a mouth that didn't move ,at least that's what it looked like, he was probably being as supportive as he could. Trying to ease the boy's discomfort and with that his own.
Unlike the elf, who was still seated in the same position as before. The only difference was the narrowed eyes.
Like he wasn't interested and he hadn't been interested the entire ride. No words had left him, no soothing words for either the boy or Dawn.
This was making less sense by the second.
Before long they were once again back on the road, still shrouded in silence.
Complete silence.
Of all places he had to be here. Infact Avery had quite some business to do. For one he needed to visit the swamps of Erelia, within the next two months.
But no, he had to be here.
Taking care of Adrian Amdis Acheron, an abomination that shouldn't exist.
Not like he could even quit!
Failing would give the princess a reason to walk him like a doll!
That family...they didn't even try to hide their weird antics from him.
Not like they could, not a lot of things could get past him anyways.
Duped hawk like eyes and batlike ears as the princess named it.
It was because of that, he always got involved in power plays, digging up information left and right.
It didn't matter as they finally approached the place they would stay for the night.
With the sun almost settling it gave off an eerie look. Glow surrounded the village, like it was covered in gold.
It didn't feel ephemeral, about six vultures flying unnaturally above it.
It wasn't the only thing that caught his attention and neither was he the only one as silver eyes glinted dangerously.
A blackened scorched landscape flanked the carriage on both sides, a heat wave could explain it just fine.
Illuminated by the sun was a cemetery with way too many headstones. Some barely months old yet there had been a drought not too long ago.
Another thing explained with the research he had been forced to do, as the best of the best he wasn't allowed to do anything less.
Now he was only relieved that his boredom would end.
"We will be staying here until morning."
The elf looked serious as his gaze flickered over the village, a village where not a single sound came from.
Galloping horses and the weight of their moving coach was the only noise.
There wasn't a single person in sight, much less a child.
''You're kidding, right?"
Voice was soft and silky and about the only words the elf had spoken, he really should speak up more. Might lighten up the boredom that Avery was experiencing.
"It's just a night, princess."
"You must be aware of the happenings in this particular village.'' There was just a flicker of a frown before the face turned back into marble.
"No worries, I'll protect you just fine.''
His smile had been met with a scoff, causing his own features to twist and turn sour.