Chapter 4
So Cool
With Karim in front of me and Deidre close behind, we progressed quickly along the corridors that I had already seen.
We eventually took a sharp turn to the left that led us into a grass-covered street with many doors.
The few elves we met wore fancy floor-length dresses, so we were still in the neighborhood of the high-ranking locals.
“This is so cool,” Deidre exclaimed after several shocked reactions at our little procession. “We should walk through here with a human more often. I love the pompous asses’ faces.”
“Deidre.”
“What? It’s fun,” she continued, the warning in Karim’s tone completely ignored. “You know what will be even more fun? Putting Jasmine at the front. That way we’ll ensure our precious aristocrats with their fragile minds are plagued by nightmares featuring hairy legs.”
Wait. Elves were that scared of body hair? Could I use my post-apocalyptic unshaven legs as a weapon? The idea made me giggle. To my surprise, Karim made a sound a lot like a barely contained chuckle. Was his serious face just a facade, like his poor English back in the flower garden?
“Sabati, Deidre.”
“Why?” She just wouldn’t give up. “Jasmine here gets my jokes. You, on the other hand, are no fun today at all. You wake up with an arrow up your butt or what?”
He sighed. “She stays between us at all times to be safe. Her gardening skills are the best I’ve seen from a human. Better than some of our gardeners’.”
O-kay… That was a huge compliment coming from an elf, but what impressed me more was the idea of me being kept safe. Did he mean that literally, as in protect me from the dangers on the surface, or was he implying I had to be kept from escaping?
Since I’d learned we were going outside, all I could think about was the sun and the sky and the fresh air.
The caves were well ventilated and kept warm through a system I wasn’t able to comprehend, but I needed the real thing.
I also felt trapped within the walls of this underground world that I hadn’t left for weeks now.
The need to be outdoors had become even sharper when I’d learned I would be going to the surface.
So the idea of attempting an escape? It hadn’t occurred to me at all. Was an escape actually achievable, given my hosts’ speed and strength? Even if I could outrun them somehow, there were so many monsters out there. I probably wouldn’t last a day on my own.
“Why have you left Jasmine in this indoor dress, then?” Deidre asked at that moment, bringing my attention back to the present. “The restricted freedom of movement could get her killed on the surface, just so you know.”
Oh gosh.
“We will protect her, Deidre. She stays between us at all times.”
“Fine, fine.” She huffed. “Why not make things even more difficult for me, right?”
“Do you understand, human?” he asked me, ignoring Deidre’s sarcasm.
“I’ll stay between you at all times.” I could have answered with a simple yes, but I wanted to assure him I was going to do exactly what he expected of me.
That way, if out there I saw an opportunity to escape and decided to take it, he might not anticipate my move.
“See? Jasmine is both fun and smart,” Deidre declared. Then she appeared on my right side, a smirk on her face. “You’re also gifted with good taste.”
“Hm?” What?
“By walking behind him,” she explained, “you get the best view in the Kingdom.” She nodded toward Karim’s bare calves and winked at me.
Heat rose to my cheeks and ears. Had I been ogling those toned legs that much for Deidre to have noticed?
Karim eventually stopped in front of a door and pulled the single vine to the left of the greenery.
I stayed back to give him space, while Deidre leaned on the wall by the door and crossed her arms over her chest, throwing a smile my way.
“Don’t get attached, Deidre,” Karim told her, a warning in his black eyes. “Once our task is completed, the human must resume assisting our gardeners.”
“Is that why you keep calling her human instead of by her actual name?” Deidre arched a brow. “Afraid of getting attached?”
His look hardened.
She kept going, regardless. “I have nothing to worry about, since I’m into males. You, however… It would be easy to succumb to the curse of your father’s blood and–”
He moved so fast, I jumped back only out of instinct; my mind was too slow to register his motion. One second he was steps away from me to my left and the next, he was to my right, backing Deidre further into the wall without laying a finger on her.
His large body completely took over her personal space. Being half a head taller than her, he was looking down at Deidre, his face a breath away from hers. His arms were hanging loose at his sides, but his gaze and posture were enough to pin her in place.
After all the playful banter, this was a sharp reminder of elves’ predatory nature.
Dominance displays were how elves solved their arguments in the gardens as well, regardless of gender.
If one side didn’t back down, honest fights ensued, albeit with the precision and controlled moves of a hand-to-hand duel.
Deidre lowered her gaze, admitting defeat. And yet, she dared a small smile, as though the palpable tension in the air was rather amusing to her.
He told her something in Elvish, which sounded melodic despite being pronounced in a reprimanding tone.
“Ain’t that why you love me, Karim?” she replied, still smiling. “Like a sister, unfortunately?”
He sighed and pulled back just a fraction. Then his hand shot up and tugged Deidre’s braid.
I released the breath I had been holding. With his body as tense as a wound-up spring, I hadn’t expected something as innocent as a hair tug.
Deidre huffed with annoyance. “You know I hate it when you do that,” she muttered and smoothed her braid with a hand. “I’m not a child.”
“Then don’t act like one.” His tone was no longer so firm, and his body finally relaxed into a normal stance. At Deidre’s subsequent exaggerated pout, he went as far as to smile a fraction.
She shot him a tiny smirk. “At least the arrow is out of your butt now.”
“Butt? Whose butt are you talking about?” a male voice boomed from nearby. Then the biggest elf I had ever encountered appeared in the doorway.
My eyes widened as I regarded him. He had waist-long green hair the color of peas. He was dressed in nothing but a tiny drape of what resembled algae over his groin, leaving fully exposed a bodybuilder-like physique that looked nothing like an elf’s.
The giant stared right back through wide-open black eyes. “Jesus, who’s this?”
“Jesus ain’t gonna save your butt, Tisvali,” Deidre quipped. “You made us wait this long and you’re still not dressed? What have you been doing since we rang the bell?”
Mr. Olympia snorted. “I was showering. How else could I wake up in the middle of the day? I fell asleep immediately after the guard told me to come over to Karim’s.”
“Go and get dressed,” Karim ordered, his serious expression back. “Now we know we will be waiting ten more minutes.”
“You don’t have to–if the Lake Lady braids my hair, I’ll be done in a jiffy.” The giant flashed Deidre a toothy smile.
She glared at him. “Borella is in there, ain’t she?”
He chortled.
“Of course. Just dying to watch us fight again, huh?” Deidre poked his left bicep with a finger bent in the middle, probably to avoid stabbing him with her extra sharp nail. “Idiot.”
“Fight?” Karim chimed in. “What have I missed?”
They seemed to have totally forgotten about me, lost in their friendly banter. Maybe I could have easily bailed, were I not so engrossed in their conversation. Then again, where could I possibly find escape in this underground maze?
“Borella found Deidre braiding my hair the other day,” Tisvali explained, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “I told her that Deidre and I have been doing this since we were much younger than the cherry seedling in the Great Cavern. But my Borella wasn’t having any of it.”
Deidre rolled her eyes. “Tisvali barely told her anything. He just stood there, laughing his hair off, while she was chasing me around with a pair of scissors.”
“You let her threaten your hair?” Karim sounded incredulous and amused at the same time.
“I was trying to explain to her what her idiot of a moss partner was supposed to tell her.” A smug smile tugged at Deidre’s lips before she added, “When trying didn’t work, I twisted the pair of scissors out of Borella’s inept hand to improve her hearing.
Me shoving her face in Tisvali’s moss might have helped, too. ”
“In the moss?” The corners of Karim’s mouth curled ever so slightly. “You were gentler than usual.”
Deidre shrugged. “Tisvali would have been grumpy had I introduced her face to the wall. This way I kept her nose intact so she could smell that I hadn’t been anywhere near her partner’s gross moss.”
Yet another snort from Tisvali. “I keep my moss perfectly fresh and soft, Lake Lady. You’re just jealous because yours is getting dry and cold.”
One of Deidre’s eyebrows shot up. “Maybe I should invite Kassium to freshen it up for me?”
“Sabati, sabati.” Karim shook his head, but that fraction of a smile was still there.
I found myself staring at the upward curve of his dark silvery lips despite the fact that there was a hunk of a half-naked male right in front of me.
“Go get dressed for the surface, Tisvali,” Karim instructed, “and have Borella help with your hair. We’ve wasted an hour of daylight already.”
“We’re going outside while the sun is up? Jesus… I can’t wait.” With an ecstatic look on his face, the green-haired giant went back inside.
“See, Jasmine?” Deidre noted with a smile. “Idiot.”
I couldn’t help but smile back.
She winked. Karim sighed yet again, but his expression softened as his gaze lingered on me.