"Should we get in the water, it seems fine and the waves are not bad," Leo looked at Lily waiting for a response. Lily nodded and smiled slightly. The smile made her look so relaxed and so charming. Leo could not take his eyes off her.
Lily took her shoes off and ran inside the water splashing it playfully with her hands. She went in further and settled where the water leveled to her waistline. Leo watched her graze the surface of the water softly with her hands.
The slight breeze gently blew off her raven hair and it left trails of it on her face. Leo slowly watched her as brushed the hair off her face gently. Lily flashed little smiles while she looked further to the horizon. The ocean sure was a beautiful sight to behold especially on a calm day like this.
"Are you coming in or do you prefer going back to the tavern?" Splashing water blithely, Lily interrupted Leo who was now gaping at her enthrallingly. Leo was snapped out of his trance by what he heard. Tavern? Him? He was amused by how Lily could mention him being in a tavern out of all the places he might decide to go to.
"You look more shocked than I was," Lily added after realizing that whoever she saw was not Leo but rather a mistaken identity. She couldn't help but laugh at how amusing Leo's face looked at the moment.
Leo made his way into the water, the look on his face selling off how confused he seemed with the thought of him drinking at that time of the day or even drinking at all. He swam a little closer to Lily but kept a safe distance from her just in case she might at all feel uncomfortable.
Lily glanced at Leo as the waves softly rocked against him. Leo saw the movements of Lily's eyes and he could not help but feel the intensity of her glance. The mood was so calm and yet so intense at the same time. The sudden silence kept growing until Lily and Leo locked eyes.
Never in either of their lives had they felt so exposed, them staring deep into each other felt like they were glances away from clocking into each other's mind. Leo noticed the shift in Lily's eyes, as though she wanted to break off whatever that was.
He trailed his eyes down her face to her cleavage and paused, "that pendant, it's ancient." Leo voiced breaking off the silence. He looked at the tiny pendant that Lily wore around her neck. It sat delicately around her neck hanging gracefully on her cleavage.
"It is a family heirloom, it has been in my family for a long time. It was in the possession of my mother and her's, now it's in mine." Lily answered holding the pendant and slightly rubbing it. Leo continued staring at the pendant, the ruby stone at the center of the pendant was what caught his attention most.
He felt like he recognized it, as though he wasn't seeing it for the first time. He saw the protective nature that Lily displayed the moment he focused on the pendant. He concluded that she must have had a strong attachment to the pendant since it was their family heirloom. He knew how important those were.
Before Lily could speak again, a sudden breeze with a whooshing sound swept over the surface of the water. Lily instinctively shifted her gaze towards the rocks not far much behind them. The same spot near where she was found a few nights ago.
Leo didn't catch her movements as he simultaneously turned and glanced straight at the leather bag he left on the shore before he got inside the water. Inside the bag was the athame which he had tapped a connection with the moment he felt the breeze.
Leo knew very well that there was a presence surrounding them or around where they were. He stared back at Lily who had a serious calm face. The truth was that Lily did not want to make a move now that she wasn't alone. She knew clearly that she couldn't let anyone find out her true identity.
The only reason why Leo had not sensed Lily all this while even though she was a dark creature was because of the pendant she wore around her neck. That pendant was the item that was keeping Lily disguised in the human world.
The pendant had both strong magic and dark elements that made it easy to help her contain and hide her energy. If by any chance she was to take off the pendant, any dark or magical creature could detect her presence.
This way, she would easily walk amongst humans and move freely without alarming anyone or being detected in any way. The pendant however limited her in various ways. With her wearing it, she could not easily detect dark creatures especially if they were strong or highly ranked.
However, the matter of her detecting creatures was not that of a challenge since she had Titus by her side. With his help, she could easily get to spot members of the dark race in the human world or whichever place they ventured into.
Nonetheless, wearing the pendant did not mean that all her abilities were suppressed. She could still feel the presence of humans however far they could be as long as it was a certain radius around her.
She could also still be able to teleport to whichever place as long as she remained discreet with it. She could still also have a telepathic connection with anyone. He abilities were vast, some of which she deemed useless now that she was limited here in the human world.
But right now, there was nothing that she wanted as much as finding out what was hiding nearby. The presence felt like it shouldn't have been there to begin with. And that could only mean one thing, something was definitely so wrong somewhere.
Lily even while wearing the pendant, could still feel the presence, meaning the creature in hiding wasn't that strong. What alarmed her was why the energy was within the space that they were. Could it be that the creature had secretly used the passage that she used to enter the human world? Wasn't that passage out of bounds for mere low creatures? Or better still, wasn't that passage blocked?
That passage being mistakenly open would pose alot of danger to the human world, especially now that she was yet to find the key. Lily cursed inwardly at the thought of her cultivated plans being jeopardized even before she could complete a single task.
On the other hand, Leo instantly frowned and slowly walked out of the water. He thought of Lily being in danger or witnessing whatever it was that might be around the waters and the fear she might experience. He immediately continued walking out of the water and signaled Lily to follow behind.
Lily was confused by his movements and how he timely wanted to get out of the water exactly when she was hopping to make him do so. "You can go ahead, I still want to stay a little longer," Lily stated calmly.
Leo looked at her and was amazed by how stubborn she was. If she could only know what grave danger they might be in, she wouldn't be acting all stubborn right at this moment. Deep down he wanted to drag her out of the water as fast as he could but he could not do that, so he had to use another means.
"You might catch a cold if you stay in the water too long, what if we get out and go back in the town square, I hear there is a magician who will be performing there this afternoon." Lily looked at Leo in disbelief. She wondered if Leo thought she was a child who would run to watch a magician performing tricks.
Before she could dismiss his words, she paused midway after hearing what Leo said next. "There will also be a fortune teller, she is the most famous across two towns before you get to this town. Maybe she can tell you if you're fated to be a forest fairy," Leo continued, staring at Lily impatiently waiting for her to give in.
Leo noticed the sudden shift of expression on Lily's face. "So you are a fan of fortune telling," Leo held out his hand to Lily as she made her way outside the water. Lily was quite careful not to give any information out by accident to anyone so she looked back at Leo and taking his hand she replied, "I like magicians, I love watching their tricks."
They both reluctantly walked away from the shore without showing it on their faces. Both of them had the intention of remaining behind to find out what they sensed. Leo has always had a strong connection with the atheme to the point that whenever there was a strange presence in the surrounding, the athame would sense it and somehow Leo would feel the response of the athame.
And consequently at this moment, Leo clenched his fist cursing on the thought that there was looming danger in the surrounding. He knew that the next target of whatever that was would automatically be town's people or it would soon use the woods as a hiding place. With that though in mind, Leo had to ensure that he remained on the lookout for any sudden incident.
His target right now was to get Lily as far away from the shore as possible. He didn't want her to face any danger whatsoever. So at the moment, he had to hurriedly ensure she got to the town square safely and stayed there.
Only then would he be able to rush back here before any other thing happened or appeared. On the way, they were both quiet and none of them spoke as each one of them was lost in their own thoughts.
It was not long till they finally got to the town square, Leo had to find a very good excuse that would help him get out of the situation and go back to the shore without Lily being alarmed.
Just when he was about to fake an excuse, he thought of the perfect of them all, " I'm so sorry forest fairy but I have to go find my mother before she gets too worried." Lily watched Leo walk away with a guilty smile on his face.
"Hey, I'm Lily," Leo heard her speak. He smiled and stopped for a moment, "Lily, see you around." He then turned around and walked away disappearing into the crowd that was now gathering awaiting the arrival of the circus that was to be in town in a matter of minutes now.