"Kaida lets hide somewhere quick!" whispered a concerned Firion.
He knew exactly who these intruders were!
He collected himself, ("There is no doubt in my mind, its the Lustrodos army! But why have they come now? Its been months since they nearly killed me...did they want to confirm my death?")
Kaida remembered what her mother told her to do in a situation like this....
("My daughter...the woods are our realm, when you feel unsafe, ask the trees to protect you...and they will! We are loved by the forests! Never forget that") her mother's wisdom echoed.
She took a gulp and composed herself and looked around, then she saw a thick oak tree with a partially opened tree hollow.
"Quickly Firion!" she whispered..."This tree will protect us! Trust me with this!"
He nodded his head in assurance, so he and Kaida crawled inside and hoped that it would shield them from the eyes of the approaching soldiers.
But Firion was still concerned about their heartbeats being too loud, elves have powerful hearing, and if they did not remain calm, they might give out their location.
He could hear Kaida's heart pounding incredibly fast and the fear she must feel, he pulled her closer to his chest and held her tightly.
She felt herself calming down as her husband's warm embrace and his own steady heartbeat made her feel secure and safe.
She closed her eyes, and in her mind she also made a prayer, ("Please spirits of the wood, keep us hidden!")
They knew they must not speak no more. Firion was wiggling his ears however, one thing forest elves had over others, is that they're hearing is far superior.
He determine that there were at least 3 soldiers about 20 meters from their location. Soon he could make out voices.
"Oi! Where is this little, cheeky girl that Magnus sent us here to retrieve? And is she gonna come willingly? We've been out here for hours already!" cried a man's voice.
Suddenly he heard another man's voice, "Shes a blue horn deva with red hair right? Never seen one with red hair...but the good duke said he would pay us handsomely if we got the girl for him, she must be a real looker!"
("Magnus...they're not talking about Archduke Magnus are they? He's one of the candidates next in line to be emperor of Aldenburg!") Firion was bewildered, why does a royal duke want Kaida?
He felt an incredible surge of anger, Kaida sensed this and put her hand on his face and her gentle, blue eyed gaze immediately brought him back down to his senses, he must remain calm.
Then a female elf's voice chimed in, "I don't get it, why don't we just tell everyone in Aldenburg that demons don't actually exist, why do we have to lie to the general populace? Even most of the army doesn't know!"
"Because then every horny, sad, and pathetic male elf would demand a deva wife and wouldn't bother ever touching a female elf like you ever again! And there isn't enough female devas to go around! Plus the highborn would have our heads if we said anything!" the male solider replied.
The deeper voiced elf chimed in, "Only the highborn nobles are allowed to have deva wives because only they can conceive pureblooded elves! Who would have thought that these devas actually have more pure fae blood than those self-absorbed nobels!"
Firion's eyes widened...everything he theorized was true!
The higher authority of Aldenburg knew the truth about devas!
"Those heretics of Eurelca have known this for eons! But they never wanted to share those secrets with us! Until a spy eventually found out! All we needed was a little diplomacy with Mycean to discover the truth." the other man said.
"But they only permit so many deva women to be taken! I heard that one of those blue horn wenches even ran away from her betrothed, we believe that she was the mother of this red haired blue horn, their holy priestess Amara, a woman of incomparable beauty!" said the woman elf.
("Amara...so that is the name of Kaida's mother...") Firion realized.
Suddenly he could hear another soldier approaching.
"HEY GUYS!!!" He said gasping for air. "This is real bad! Look at what I found! This was lying around that girl's home!"
"That is a piece Lustrodos armor! Why would that be at the girls home?" the female elf questioned.
"Hey remember what happened a while back? That moron Adan wanted to marry that whore Isa, so he had her former lover killed allegedly! What if he survived and found that girl before we did?" said the deeper voiced elf.
"Shit this is bad! What if they already took off? Magnus is gonna be pissed that someone ran off with his prize! Should we look around for them?" suggested by the 4th soldier.
"I don't know about you 3, but I am not lingering in these woods, they say they're haunted and if you stay too long you turn up dead within a day! Besides Magnus isn't gonna be mad at us...that lowly baron is the one whose head is gonna roll." claimed the deeper voiced elf.
The female elf chimed in, "He's right, this is Adan's fault, he may be hignborn, but no true noble would kill over a highborn slut like Isa who even sleeps with humans!"
"He will probably send out a search party to tear up this place, if the girl or that forest elf are indeed still here then we're gonna need a bigger search party to cover this place! Its massive!" the fourth solder said in agreement.
The other male elf said something, "Lets head out, I am starting to feel sick from this place anyways, and you saw those massive wolves, the 4 of us are gonna need more people."
Firion could hear them walking further away, then he heard a few more things.
"Ahhh...I really wanted that ransom, plus I really wanted to see this deva, I bet she's really easy on the eyes, and they say sleeping with one is like having sex with a goddess!" he moaned.
Then Firion heard a smack in the distance.
The female elf starting complaining, "Oh shut up! You make it sound like deva whores are more chaste than us! There are still virtuous elf women like myself!"
Laughing ensued in the distance and began to gradually fade, but Firion and Kaida were gonna wait until they knew it was safe!
After a few hours of resting Firion wiggled his ears thoroughly, he could not sense anything nearby.
"Kaida I believe its safe now." he cooed.
She rubbed her eyes a bit, she had fallen asleep, and slowly they walked out of the hollow.
The red hair maiden put her hand on the tree and offered her gratitude, "Thank you, for protecting us."
She and Firion exchanged glances, then carefully crept back to their home, they knew they must leave tonight, the forest was no longer safe!
"We must determine what we will need to take with us, I will tell you my plan, also I heard some rather interesting conversations Kaida, including something about your mother..." Firion revealed.
"My mother?" her widened.