[Cover made by @-pureblood !!! I love it so much omg ❤️❤️❤️]

Byhron

Back at the Dralan's castle, Byhron remained as one of the Lathras who didn't accompany the Dralan on his big journey to the southwest. It had bothered him to not get picked, especially after hearing how his sister was joining them. He had even tried volunteering, but the Dralan's personal Kathmir - the male in charge of selecting the Lathras accompanying the Dralan - had given him a terminal no. Why the Kathmir didn't like him or didn't want him going along with his sister, Byhron couldn't tell. All that he knew was that the Kathmir told him he had to stay behind and run his patrols with the others who were also staying.

And even as much as it angered him, Byhron did as he was commanded. He had patrolled the towns and villages and kept and eye out for Mihr hunters. Each night, he had come home with blood on his hands.

All except last night. It was unusual. Byhron had a very aggressive approach when it came to hunting out the Mihr hunters, but last night, not a hunter had been a sight. It was as if they had all vanished or gone some place else. The streets were empty for once - safe.

He didn't like it. Something seemed fishy. If the Mihr hunters were gone, it meant that Phlague had ordered them to vanish, most likely because he had come up with a new plan. And how coincidental was it that the very week the Dralan left the castle with his Mihrisa, was the same week Phlague chose to do it?

Yeah, Byhron definitely thought something was way off. Now more than ever did he want to be close to his sister where he could protect her. She had been through enough, she couldn't go through it again. In the midst of a war, nobody gave a rat's ass about a lowly Kischmir, caught in the crosshairs of the battlefield. And the road to Amaschar was dangerous. Byhron swore that if anything happened to her while she was away, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. It would make it two times in his life that he had not been there when she needed him. And he couldn't live with the guilt.

All these thoughts were what plagued Byhron as he came back to the armory that night, after a whole day patrolling the city. While he hadn't found any Mihr hunters, he had stopped a couple of thieves, one of which managed to graze him in the side with a dagger. The wound had dried up by now, but it stung like a bitch. As he peeled off his body armor and pulled up his tunic beneath, he inspected the wound on his right ribcage. Luckily, it didn't seem too deep. Only a shallow cut that would be healed in a few days, if he nourished properly.

So of course he didn't. The pain was his only punishment for his failures as a brother. His sister had gone through much worse, so this was hardly anything. He could live with a stinging wound for a small week.

Pulling down his tunic again, Byhron stood up just as the doors to the armory opened. Carrying a large pile of polished boots, the last person he wanted to see came into the armory. Clearly, he didn't expect to find Byhron there as well. He stopped up and glared at him in shock.

"I thought you weren't allowed to leave the kitchen," Byhron snarled at Ahrron when the male didn't move. Why out of all the Kathmirs there did it have to be him?

The Kathmir cleared his throat and slowly unloaded all the boots onto the bench besides him. "With all the Kathmirs joining the Dralan on his trip, we've been short-staffed. The head Kathmir assigned me boot-polishing duty for the Lathras which I could do while inside the kitchen - with the exception that I could leave to bring them back. Just call me lucky."

Byhron scoffed. Polishing boots. Why didn't they just cut off his cock and be done with it? By now the male's pride had to be the same size as a pea.

He grunted at the male, but then turned to finish taking off his armor and putting away his weapons. "Whatever. Have fun."

"That cut looks bad," The Kathmir noted and made Byhron grit his teeth. "You should have that looked at."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion."

"And I don't recall asking to be saved either," Ahrron rebuffed. Byhron's body stiffened at that. "But you still did, even when I pulled away from your vein."

Byhron clenched his fists and glared with a piercing stare over his shoulders to the male. "I told you; I owed my sister."

"And now I owe you," Ahrron countered and crossed his arms. "You must know how hard that is to let go of, if you go to such extreme lengths to even feed a male to square a debt with someon--"

"Shut... up," Byhron growled and breathed hard through his nose. Anger raged inside his body, made his bones shake. He slowly turned around and faced the male full front. He was a head smaller than him. He could easily snap him like a twig. Nobody would have to know. Nobody. "Go away before I do something I'll regret."

The Kathmir did the opposite and took a step forth. "Try me. I doubt you'll get much damage done with a wound like that."

Byhron gritted his teeth again. His hard, angry pants was making his chest rise and fall, ergo making his ribs expand and deflate. The wound opened further and now he could feel how new blood began bleeding from the cut. If he indeed begun fighting this puny, but albeit not entirely muscle-free male, he would only make his wound so much worse which would mean mandatory bedrest. And he hated that.

"So what do you want?" Byhron therefore snarled, stepping up to the male. He didn't shrink below him as most common males did, he met his gaze instead. "To treat my wound, is that it? If I let you do it, will you leave me the fuck alone and call it even?"

The Kathmir's lip curved up into a little smile. "Yup. If you let me heal you, we're even. I promise."

"Fine," Byhron angrily growled and then reached for the hem of his tunic to wrench it off. He peeled it off his body and threw it away on the floor. "Then heal me. And then you better not fucking show your face around me ever again. I'm getting real tired of you messing up my life."

To his surprise, the Kathmir's lips twitched again. He looked down at Byhron's chest, focusing on the slice right under his right pec. "Life's messy, deal with it. Take a seat on the bench."

Byhron curled his lip with a respond, but kept it on his tongue. Reluctantly, he sat down on the bench and leaned backwards a bit, just as Ahrron crouched next to him to get a better look at the wound.

"It doesn't look too deep," He said after a moment of inspecting, just looking.

"Told you," Byhron flatly replied.

"But it still needs cleansing and bandaging," The Kathmir said and stood up again. He walked two paces to a shelf where - in case of emergencies - the Lathras kept their first-aid kit. He pulled it off the shelf and opened the wooden box, only to pull out a strip of bandage and a bottle of cleansing water with healing herbs infused.

"It'll be fine in a few hours, I don't need all that shit," Byhron protested and had already begun sitting up when the Kathmir surprised him by turning and pressing a hard thumb to his wound. Byhron hissed and cursed loudly, immediately sitting back down again.

"Mm-hm, can I get you to repeat that?" Ahrron sarcastically voiced and crouched down in front of him again, holding the bottle of cleansing water ready in his hand. "I think what you meant was; 'yes I do in fact need all that shit, otherwise it'll get infected and I'll die.'"

Byhron scoffed, but then hissed again when the male poured some of the cleansing water over and into the wound, disinfecting it. The pain stung like a bitch, but he chose to bathe in it. "Just shut up and do what you have to do."

Ahrron sighed, but then silently continued his work. He cleansed the wound carefully with a clean cloth a few times, then made sure to wipe off the blood that began pebbling out from the corners. Through it all, Byhron also kept his lips screwed shut and focused on a spot in the ceiling. If he did that, he wouldn't have to focus on the male currently attending his wound. The stain on the ceiling was a perfect distraction. It actually resembled blood if you squinted--

"What the hell are you doing?!" Byhron jolted when Ahrron suddenly placed his hand flat on his side, right over his muscles, and pressed down. "Get your fucking hand off me--"

"Relax," Ahrron growled and met his eyes. His green irises paralyzed him for a moment. "I'm checking for cracked or broken ribs. It's so that I know how hard I can wrap the bandage."

Byhron's jaw locked. For a moment, he thought the male tried to... touch him. And that was so beyond wrong, he would've literally ripped the Kathmir's head off without hesitating. Without second guessing his actions. Without regret.

"You don't appear to have broken anything," Ahrron finally said and stood up. "Just a cut that'll heal properly if you feed tonight."

Byhron snorted lightly as he stood up as well. "That mean I'm free now? Will you leave me alone?"

"Bandage first," Ahrron told and unwrapped the strip of bandage before him. "Arms up."

Byhron had just about reached his limit. He told himself, if he did this, the male would leave him alone forever. That was worth a few more minutes of torture if it meant a lifetime without his company.

Therefore, reluctantly, Byhron raised his arms above his chest and allowed Ahrron to wrap the bandage around his body. The closeness between them made him uneasy, but Ahrron didn't seem to pay attention to it. He simply tied bandage tightly around his wound, securing it as he went along. Several times, he grazed Byhron's skin and made him twitch in discomfort, but again, the Kathmir never said anything. When he was finally done, Byhron exhaled a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.

"There. All patched up," Ahrron announced and looked at him for a moment. "Don't forget to feed. It'll help it heal faster."

"Whatever," Byhron replied and turned to pick up his shirt. He had no intentions of feeding tonight. Just because the male treated his wound, didn't mean he didn't want to revel in the pain. He needed it to function. "So we're even now?"

"Yeah," Ahrron said, looking at him with a small frown as Byhron pulled on his tunic again. "You won't see me again. Promise."

"Good," Byhron growled. Without waiting another second, he marched past the Kathmir and left the armory. He headed straight to bed and forbade himself from ever thinking about what had happened tonight.

Leyla

As the Dralan shut the door tightly behind them, inside his chamber, Leyla prepared herself for the worst. She waited for the Dralan to explode in white, hot rage, waited for him to yell at her or maybe even just speak silently to her in that lethal, deep, threatening voice he so often preferred to use around her. The one that brought shivers up her spine and wetness between her legs.

In fact, she pretty much expected him to do anything but what he did, which was turn around and look at her with burning eyes. She felt her throat bob and heard the sound of her heavy gulp echo through the room, but nothing else inside her moved. She was calm and steady, until the act of what he would do next would shake her to her very core. Or at least that's what she expected.

But again, the Dralan chose to surprise her. One moment, his whole body was tense and his jaw was clenched, but then he suddenly eased. As if untying a tight rope, all his muscles laxed. His growling mien turned flat and emotionless and had to Leyla blink confused.

What just happened?

"This is a game to you," He then spoke, his voice deep and serious. "You want a reaction from me because I've been neglecting you while courting the Lady Kahtrina." He took a step closer, then another, slowly stalking up to her. Leyla's body stiffened. "You think that I'm treating you poorly, don't you? Trust me when I say," He now growled and stopped right in front of her. He leaned down to her face and stopped just once inch above it. "If I was really treating you poorly, you'd know. In fact, you wouldn't have even a ounce of doubt in your body."

A shudder ran through Leyla. Her eyes glipped and looked down, the Dralan's piercing, electric eyes becoming too intense for her. They were almost luminescent, glowing.

"This," He continued and referred to her disobedience, "This little stunt is not going to distract me from what we're here for. What I'm here for," He grabbed her chin when she looked away and yanked her head up. She met his eyes with widened ones. "To get myself and my kingdom a Dralaq. You distracting me and thinking I'm treating you unfair, simply because you're not my center of attention anymore..." He paused and curled his upper lip, "Is selfish. While you concern yourself with loneliness and boredom, I concern myself with my kingdom's future. And I'll be damned if some attention-starved, little... jealous female is going to distract me from that," He spat and then let go of her chin, taking a step back.

Leyla stood absolutely frozen as he continued to back away. She had things on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to say, but they didn't get out. They were stuck, just like the rest of her was.

"I'm not going to punish you this time," The Dralan growled, sticking out his jaw. "You'd only like that, wouldn't you? You're a pliant female, so I know you'd probably take it as one. But you don't deserve it," He snapped and now turned to face the door again. "Instead you get to stay in here and think about what exactly it is you're doing. And if you distract me from fulfilling my duties again, I'll give a whole new meaning to the word punishment - am I making myself clear?"

Leyla couldn't move a muscle. As the Dralan glared over his shoulder at her, all she could do was stare back, mouth slightly open. With a last final scoff, the Dralan then yanked the door open and slammed it after himself as he left. The bang startled Leyla out of her shock and jolted her back to life.

That... had not gone as planned. Now, Leyla shakily stumbled up to a chair sat down, her body trembling.

In just one speech, she went from feeling confident and headstrong, to guilty and ashamed of herself, and even more hurt than she was before. She had no idea what to do with herself now. All of a sudden, everything just seemed... empty. She had turned into the exact kind of Mihrs that he had had before her, the kind Bhria had described; the attention-demanding one.

And now... now she felt truly worth nothing.

***

I'm seriously loving how you guys are hating Dohmenic so much right now 😂💗 He's still my boo in my head, but maybe that's because I know exactly what's going to happen later 😈 *manical laugh (more like nervous, hysterical laugh)*

So hey, in case you guys were wondering how I made the map of Drala, I wanted to show you how I did it! (You can skip it if you don't care)

I started out by drawing on some cardboard (actually the back of a A4 paper block), how I wanted the map to look. Shading and all that stuff. Then I obviously took a picture afterwards 😛

Then I cropped it into right shape on my phone, enhanced some details, like sharpness and contrast and such, using some apps, though actually mostly my good friend, Instagram. 👍

THEN, I actually just ran the picture through some apps and used some fancy filters to make the map in the colors I liked. There were a few different samples actually, let me show you.😅

Finally, I landed on the last one, and then applied a second filter to make the compass rose stand out as well. Then, at last, it was time to put in the cities and other locations on my map.

Finding the right font took me some time, but in the end, I settled for the one you see there. Kind of crooked, but not really. More oldfashioned, but not so old that you couldn't read it. 😜
When I had done that, I had actually planned that the map was done, but it just seemed unfinished to me. Like something was missing. The top right corner seemed too naked, so I thought for a while and then decided to add the last text. 😁

And again, after that, I thought I was done, but nope. I decided to add one last little detail that I think really completed the whole thing; dots (and a line)😝

AT LAST, I was done. I did some minor emphasizes again on the sharpness and contrast and such, but that's pretty much it. That's how I made the map of Drala 😀 it took me just about two hours all together, with drawing it and filtering it and such. But now I'm very satisfied 😁

Oki-doki, that's it! Until the next time!
- Karin 💗
Xoxo