Page 35 of A Soul to Embrace

She desired to worship this beautiful male creature with gentle touches and hoped he might do so in return.

Seeing she had removed her beloved grey dress, he turned his back to her even more. He often avoided looking at her when she was unclothed, whereas she had little desire to avoid looking at his naked body.

And when her gaze slipped down the deeply arched curve of his back right before his round backside, she wanted to follow that cavernous, muscled spine with her fingertips... or even tongue. Her abdomen tightened in response to her thoughts, although she didn’t tear her sight away from him in the darkness.

The scar on his lower back and the claw marks on his thigh were more prominent in the moonlight, as were the strange black symbols across his skin. They looked like letters and shapes, but in a language she didn’t comprehend.

Jabez didn’t wet his hair. Instead, he wrapped the long, thick length of it around his horns to keep the silky strands above the water as he washed his face. Droplets sluicing off his strong body glittered, and suddenly her tongue dried.

He was quick to leave the water, as if the cool temperature was unbearable for a long duration. Zylah was forced to remainbehind in order to scrub at her fur – although it was, thankfully, short in most areas except around her neck and tail.

Once done, she exited the slow-moving river on her hands and feet, the pebbled bank crunching beneath her footsteps. She shook the excess water off while a safe distance from him.

Jabez sat on the grass naked except for part of his cloak covering his groin, waiting to dry before dressing again. Zylah didn’t mind the wet, and placed her dress back on simply so he wouldn’t avert his gaze from her.

It hadn’t taken her long to notice he was uncomfortable with her nudity, although she didn’t know why. His eyes constantly flicked away, as if he’d found them drawing back to her without his knowledge and he caught himself.

He’s staring up at the moon again.He did this quite often. His chin would lift and his brows would furrow in deep thought.

She did the same, wondering what he saw in the brightly lit hovering orb. Was he receiving answers, as if he could hear its whispers when she couldn’t? Then again, she found it quite mesmerising. The stars twinkling around it and the blue dust in the sky made it even more hypnotic.

After a little while, he placed his clothing back on and finally released his hair from his horns. Her fingers itched so badly to touch those white strands to know if they were as soft as they appeared.

To quell that itch, Zylah stroked her damp collar of fur.

When he sat back down, Zylah remained where she was. The distance between them was wide, and she looked up at the sky once more as her questions bubbled up her throat and got stuck.

How should she pose her questions? Which ones should she start with? Would he... even answer them?

The teal in her orbs slowly morphed into blue in sadness. He’d never once spoken about himself, and she feared that was entirely intentional. He may not like her prodding for answers.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried anyway.

“Jabez...” she started, before having to quieten her nervous chitters. She refused to look at him, despite knowing he’d lowered his gaze to greet the side of her skull. “Why are you here?”

Silence greeted her. It hollowed out her chest the longer it dragged on. In her peripheral, he raised his hand to cup his chin.

“I don’t understand your question,” he eventually stated, making a soft whine escape her. She’d asked the wrong thing. “Are you asking how I came to be here with you?”

The hope that filled Zylah had her twisting towards him slightly, and she placed her hand on the ground for balance. “Yes. How did you come to be here? Why did I find you...hurt?”

When her sight landed on his eyes, she found herself incapable of drawing away from them. Perhaps if she matched his confidence, it would force him to speak.

He was the one to break away to look up at the moon.

“I’ve told you that I am part Elf,” he started, while touching the tip of his pointed ear, then running his hand along the horn above it. “And that I’m part Demon. I’m not from this world, Zylah.”

Her orbs shifted to a dark yellow in curiosity, and she gestured to their surroundings. “But this is the only world.”

He huffed, which she took as a short laugh. “There are many worlds. This is Earth, and it belongs to the sentient humans. Where I’m from belongs to the Elysian Elves. They’re a single species of Elves, and all others come from different worlds and look different.”

He stood, approached the riverbank to pick up a jagged stone, and then came to kneel in front of her. With the stone, he drew a circle, and in it drew strange, uneven shapes.

“From what the Elvish learned hundreds of years ago, Earth is large and holds many continents. Each one is surrounded byoceans, which are the vast bodies of water you see when you reach the end of land.” He pointed to one large mass. “We are currently on Austrális. This landmass is roughly the size of my world. There is only one continent, and our only ocean is freshwater and technically a gigantic lake you can’t see across to the other side. It would only take a person an Earth month to walk its entire distance, just like Austrális. A year in Nyl’theria, the Elven realm, equates to fifteen here, although we have quadruple the amount of days in comparison.”

Zylah looked down at the new world he was drawing, which only depicted one landmass. He drew a circle near the edge of its shoreline before lifting his face to hers.

“The Demons came from another world and began taking over a very long time ago. They destroyed every village, every city, every Elvish population until only one remained. This one – Lezekos City. It’s where I was born, and it’s the last stronghold for the Elysians.”

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