Your window had been left open to let the night breeze roll in. Some fireflies had taken it upon themselves as an opportunity to enter the space and flittered like specs of glitter around your bedroom. The coolness had been enough to wake you from your light slumber. You blinked the tiredness from your eyes as you looked around the room. It had to have been sometime in the early hours of the morning.

You shuffled free from the sheets and glanced outside. Beyond the garden, you could see the village spots in the distance. Most of the lanterns and torches were out, enforcing the idea that it was early. The thick forest canopy blocked out the sun, so telling what time of day it was came down to the routine the elves had established.

You moved towards your wardrobe and opened the dark oak doors. Beside your dresses hung your old cloak and the little clothes you brought. You grabbed the dark green cloak and flung it over your shoulders. You pulled the hood up to cover your head and eclipse your face from the little light around. Your bag, packed with jars to collect the flower you are after and the book you need with your journal, was waiting on the table where you would break your fast. If you were correct on the approximate time, you could sneak out and back before Amara and Liriel came to rouse you for the day.

The plan was set into action.

You moved to your open window and flung the bag down first which landed in a bush. Putting your right foot first, you made your way through the window and into the garden. You crouched down and looked around. Though this garden was specific to growing supplies for the healers, occasionally a guard would walk through. You knew other elves were not privy to this area - a prestige you were happy to be granted. However, it did not stop the guards from checking every once in a while.

Navigating the area was easy, as you were familiar with it. You moved quietly and swiftly. This plan was not the smartest, nor the best in regards to your fragile status here and its ability to end your stay shortly at the hands of the king lest he find out. The hunch you had on how the flower - Mortua terra - could be a breakthrough in your studies was emboldened by the passion of furthering your father's work, but also for all the faces of the sick elves you had treated. This was for them and you would not back down.

You reached the outer wall with vines and branches surrounding the dark stone. You glanced back once again to scan the area and found nothing. You turned back and tugged at one of the thick hedge branches. You pulled yourself up and placed a foot into a crevice between two stones. On and on, you repeated the process until you were up and over the wall.

Once on the other side, you pulled the dark magic book out of your bag that hung from one shoulder, across your torso and rested at your hip. One of the pages had a map and you flipped to it. The drawing was vague, but enough for you to gain your bearings after a few moments. The darkness was not easy to navigate in, but you had a lantern packed and ready to use once you were well enough away not to be spotted.

You took a deep breath and began your tireless trek into the dark abyss.

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It had been upwards of two hours. An hour into it you had lit your lantern to view what was in front of you. You had made significant progress. The atmosphere of the forest around you had gotten visibly more menacing the further you got from the castle. These forests were older than memory, largely untouched the whole time. It was equal parts mystifying and chilling.

You had scanned the foliage in the area and glanced down at the book that was in one hand, the other holding the lantern of fireflies. The flowers were sure to grow around here. You turned around in your spot, scanning the low foliage. It was in the distance - in what little light you had - that there appeared the vague shape of the flower. You scrambled forward with excitement. When you got closer, the light from your lantern illuminated the space.

The flowers, Mortua terra, were in front of you. You sighed with relief and sank to your knees. You reached into your bag and pulled out some gloves and carefully put them on your hands. You used a small dagger you had packed to properly harvest the flowers, following the instructions in the book. The next few minutes were spent properly storing the flower cuts in small glass vials. Once done, you took off the gloves and pulled out your journal.

While you scribbled down notes and rushed sketches to label, the sound of movement near you caused you to hunch further on the ground. Your head swivelled back and forth to try and pinpoint the sound, but it was silent. You slowly moved your journal back into the bag strapped to your side. Your hand grasped the handle of your dagger and you held your breath. Another branch snapped to your right and had you turn in your spot. The lamp you had was knocked over by your cloak, not only some stray fireflies lit the area just barely.

A low growl hummed through the stagnant air. A silhouette, large and imposing, moved towards you slowly. You could smell it before you could properly see it. The odour, foul like rotting meat, permeated the surrounding area. Your free hand reached up to block your nose, but by then it was too late. Bent down and hunkered, a beast of large proportions - larger than any you had ever seen - dragged its heavy claw-ridden paws across the exposed dirt of the forest floor. The upsticking roots of trees were met and marked with deep cuts.

The beast's eyes glowed yellow and flickered like the fireflies around you. As it got closer, you could see the scars that cut through its thick fur. A permanent snarl was etched onto its grotesque face. Your heart thumped so quickly and loudly that you were confident the beast in front of you could hear it. A low growl emitted from its slobber-covered lips and reverberated through your bones.

As if hearing a noise you had failed to catch onto, the beast turned its head to the side and narrowed its glowing eyes. You were unable to look in the same direction. Your gaze was locked on the monster and its menacing form. You felt nothing but fear. Not the rush of a thrill and spike of adrenaline. It was the pure unbridled kind of terror that paralyzed you. A chill seized your spine, crawling up further as beads of sweat ran down your neck. This was not a fear that made you feel alive, it was the kind where you wished you were dead.

The kind of fear that would make said wish come true.

The storming of hooves and a whistled neigh shook you from your petrification. The beast in front of you crouched down before bounding off into the darkness. You backed up into a tree, the rough bark scraping against your cloak. As quickly as the monster was gone, was as quickly as its large body was flung back into the illuminated space. It landed on its side, wounded and growling mad.

A figure moved from the darkness.

Aemond stepped forth, clad in nothing but boots, pants, and a black linen shirt with loose lace at the top. His hair was down, only held back slightly by the band belonging to his leather eyepatch. He clutched a longsword in his grasp. The shiny light steel was coated in thick blotches of dark blood. His chest rose up and down in heavy controlled breaths. Like the beast, Aemond prowled across the forest floor towards the wounded monster.

The animal moved to get on their feet, but their stomach was exposed and Aemond took that as an opportunity to drive his sword into its stomach. You watched as his strength was used to pull the sword out and plunge it in again, the second time in the area you believed was the heart. With a final roar, the beast gave out and plummeted to the ground.

You moved so slightly from the tree and looked at Aemond. His one eye was staring down at the creature with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I-" You were just about to speak when Aemond cut you off.

"Do you honestly think you could sneak out of my castle without being spotted?" His agitation came off of him in waves.

"I can explain." You needed to tell him how vital this mission was for your research. The flowers you harvested have the potential to make progress - real progress.

"I care not for your explanations," Aemond dismissed while glaring at you, "What I do care about is the sheer stupidity in which you carry yourself. It is one thing to be curious, it is another to entirely disregard all manner of intelligence and venture off into a dark forest to which you know nothing about." His rant happened to be the most you had heard from him in the last two weeks of your stay there.

"You seem entirely too invested in my own interest. My life is of no consequence when others are dy–" Aemond cut you off by swinging his sword up to your throat. It was just a sliver away from your skin and still covered in the foul-smelling blood from the beast. You had backed up into the tree again, your hands clutching at the bark by your sides.

"Well, if your life is of no consequence..." Aemond's voice had dropped an octave and you saw this lethal look in his eye. Deep under that, he had an unreadable feeling in his eye, which you could not decipher.

"I needed to collect something of vital importance. I did not think there would be things out to kill me." You reasoned.

"Every little thing is out to kill you," His grip on the hilt adjusted, "I could kill you. It would be fitting with your transgressions."

His voice was laced with venom, and the truly unsettling part was how you found yourself willing to drink such poison.

"The only reason why I am sparing you is for my sister." His words cut deep, but there was an edge to them that sounded as though he did not entirely believe it. In his eye, you could see a storm clashing amongst the blue hues and hitting the dark rock of his iris.

Aemond gave a low whistle while he dropped his sword from pointing at you. In response to the sound, a horse came from the darkness and in the area. A lantern was hanging from the side of the saddle. Its coat was a chestnut brown, much like the bark of the elder tree that the castle was built upon. The steed trotted forward and stopped just short of where Aemond stood. He made a gesture as if he expected you to follow.

You moved forward, making sure to keep some manner of distance between the two of you. He turned to the horse and nodded for you to get up onto the saddle. You flung your bag over your shoulder to secure it to your body and stepped into one of the stirrups.

Shortly after you sat on the horse Aemond followed, urging the horse to move into a canter. You could feel his burning anger that came off him in waves. It was like ripples in water or the mirage you would see on a hot day. An intense heat cut through the chilly dark forest. This was the closest you had ever been to the king, and it was then that you truly realized the differences between you two.

He was larger than you, that much was easy to see. However, the aura he held was shrouded in a form of benevolence that was both divine and sinful. He held himself with the ages in which he had lived. Whatever knowledge he had was far superior to yours. Except for manners or general politeness; in that you were sure you held the upper hand.

The forest moved past the two of you as you ventured on. You were far too nervous to speak. You even suppressed your breathing to the best of your ability, lest he get even more irritated by your presence. Your hands clutched the saddle. There was no way you would hold onto the king, though with each unstable step the horse took on the root-ridden ground, you contemplated wrapping your arms around his middle for stability. You chose not to. A fall to the brutal ground would be far better than being killed by Aemond if you even moved to hold on to him.

The ride back had been painfully slow, despite it being faster than the time it took you to walk that far. It was quiet, with nothing but the sound of foliage crunching underneath the horse's hooves. You had difficulty keeping your eyes on the forest around you. On occasion, you would find yourself looking at Aemond's back and his silver hair that glowed in the low light of the lantern.

Something you hated to admit was how beautiful he looked. As an elf, he was afforded heightened beauty - but that was not the whole tale. Despite his untoward attitude and menacing presence, he was shaped like an ethereal being. There was no trace of the brutal, monster-looking king you had heard so much about. Aemond was a vision, beyond that of the other elves you had seen.

Even his attitude was not in line with the stories - a recurring thought you had almost daily. You had yet to see him kill a random servant, torture anybody, or even terrorize anyone. Although, you could not help but wonder how much of that happened in secret. The whole time you had been there was spent in such a small portion of the castle. There was no way to verify that he was not like that.

Stories had to come from somewhere. The tales were too brutal to be fabricated. So why haven't you seen that barbarity?

With seemingly no answer to your question, the two of you arrived at a gated area. It was not the front entrance of the castle, but rather a side entrance. A short distance away was a large stable, with some horses milling about in a fenced area. Attendants descended immediately. They took the reins of the horse. Aemond stepped down, his lithe frame moving with agility. Once he was down, you moved to get down as well.

You had lifted one of your feet onto the same side as the other, but before you could properly jump down a pair of large hands gripped your waist. Aemond had pulled you down to the ground as if you weighed nothing. He immediately retracted himself after, casting a glance at his hands as if the move was entirely unplanned and caught him off guard.

Two guards had approached. Aemond did not glance your way as he addressed them, "Take her back to her room and resume a rotation of escorts. Do not be lax again." It came as a surprise when you realized this was the first time he addressed you as her, the other times you were just 'human' or occasionally 'it' according to Daeron and Helaena.

You spotted Criston for the first time in a while. He stood off to the side with a sharp stare directed at you. While he stood with the attitude of self-importance, he looked exhausted. It was as if he was currently being drained of energy at the moment. Aemond stalked off, his gait swaying sharply.

You fiddled with the strap of your bag and sighed. Out of all the outcomes from this, you had to bet this was the most favourable. He almost killed you, but the look in his eye was not something you would forget. It almost looked hesitant. Perhaps that was the moment he thought of his sister and chose to spare you, as there could be no other explanation.

With two guards walking with you, you went back to your room.

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An hour had passed after you arrived at your room. You had been pacing the length of the floor between your bed and desk in front of the wide windows. Your bag had been discarded on one of the couches. Thoughts swirled in your head as the moment of the cold steel of Aemond's sword at your throat seemed stuck in your mind. You could recall the rapid thumping of your heart at the danger you were in and the quiet thrill of it all.

There was a precipice you had reached in your thoughts on Aemond. Over the last few days, you had tossed and turned over the conflicting reports you had received growing up. The stories told over fires late at night or in the corners of pubs about his cruelty were whispered with such conviction you had believed them wholly. Yet, there was no example of any of those stories you had seen.

Due to that, he intrigued you more than ever. You pinned it on his mysterious personality and your insatiable curiosity. Aemond was a compelling being, one which you wanted to know more about but knew you would never. The year of your stay here would pass quickly and you would be gone. That time would be short for you but significantly short for an elf. Aemond, and all the other elves you had met, would forget you quickly. You were nothing but a blink in their lives, a thought most disheartening.

The low creak of your door opening broke you from your thoughts and you stopped pacing. Helaena stood in the doorway, a neutral expression on her face besides the slight twitch at the corner of her mouth as if holding a quip back. She walked in and the guards outside closed the door behind her.

You were stuck on what to say. The whole time you had been pacing the thought of apologizing to her for your stupid and impulsive decision to sneak out never once crossed your mind. You had spat on her good graces of contending for your stay in the kingdom, a gift so great it could never be paid back in full.

"Helaena, I-" You began but stopped once she held up one of her hands to silence you.

"I'm curious about why my brother is on a rant about 'that stupid little rūklon risking her life' as we broke our fast this morning," Helaena spoke. She moved forward to sit on her designated spot on one of the couches. She had always claimed that spot when visiting, the outer edge on the right wherever the couch faced - the same way she sat on the couch in your home when you brought her back to take care of her cut.

"I'm sorry for disrespecting you and the opportunity you have given me here," You communicated as you went to sit across from her, "When I get an idea in my research it's like I'm enchanted. I cannot think of doing anything else but that, regardless of anything going on in my life. That is no excuse, I know it, but truly I feel so terrible."

"I am not looking for an apology, nor will I deny what you did was incredibly stupid." Helaena gave you a gentle smile, "I support you in the work that you do, but I can only advocate for you so much with my brother."

"I know. I will not do anything like this again, I promise." You told her while shaking your head in disappointment at yourself.

Helaena nodded, "I believe you, but others may not," She leaned forward and looked you directly in the eyes, something she had never done before, "Prove it with your actions."

"I will." You respond. Helaena then leaned back into the plush cushions.

"Now, I would like to hear about your little adventure."