The Tragedy of Yinx - 3. The Bet

Laneer

Wait a minute.

The fuck did I just do?

My eyes widen at my own actions.

I have been scared to speak with this person for about two weeks. All of a sudden I kiss his hand? Where did that even come from?

I mean...I would like to think I did that on my own, but I just know I didn’t.

Pulling the blanket around me again, I stand and follow Lleros inside. I would very much like to apologize. I should not have done that.

Lleros is placing blankets on the floor. He has placed around six or seven blankets. I am guessing to deal with the hard floor?

His hair is honestly as white as the snow outside. That combined with his brown skin is interesting. I wonder how his hair is white. Surely that isn’t normal. Or maybe it is normal among the desert people? I haven’t really met any to tell for sure.

“Do you need anything else?” Lleros says without looking. I wonder if I can get him to tell me his real name.

I shake my head from my thoughts.

“Uh, no. No, I am fine.” I say. “I just wanted to apologize for before. I was uncalled for and I am normally not like that.” Wait, does that sound bad? “I mean, I can be like that, but I just wouldn’t with you.” Oh that sounds even worse. “Not like that I don’t want to! I would do it again! I...uh...”

Lleros turns to me with a smirk on his face.

“I see. If it makes you feel better,” He says while walking towards me. He stands close in front of me and stands on the tips of his toes to bring his mouth close to my ear. “I found it rather sweet.”

He whispers the last part and I feel his breath brushing against me. I shiver at the sensation and close my eyes. That spicy honey smell is just intoxicating right now.

“I-I see. You’re welcome?” I ask more than say.

Lleros pulls back to look up at me. His smirk falters for a moment and it really feels as if he can see through me.

He steps away and turns to grab a pillow from his bed. “Sorry.” He says before tossing it to me. “You don’t seem like the others I’ve met before. I thought you simply wanted the same thing as them.”

I frown. That is an interesting change in the mood. Thank the gods he blind. He would be seeing just how much he affected me.

“Others?” I ask.

Lleros just shakes his head and waves it off with his hand. “It’s nothing. Do not worry about it. We should get some sleep. It is rather late.”

He then begins to strip from his clothes. I try not to look, honestly I did, but he is practically three feet away from me. There isn’t much else to look at here.

He doesn’t take his underwear off. Everything else is just left in a neat pile under his bed. I was right about his skin. It looks so soft and smooth.

I get under the covers and rest my head on my pillow. The spiced honey smell is so strong on it. Yet it seems sweeter. Is it because of his hair?

I weirdly feel the urge to rub my face all over it. I glance at Lleros and see his back is turned as he piles a bunch of furs into a basket.

Should be safe enough.

I turn into the sweet smell and just give a good long sniff. Then a few more. Next thing I know, I am just rubbing my face all over my pillow. I want the smell to stick to me. Let it follow me for as long as I can get it to.

Maybe there is the possibility that I could steal this pillow? He is blind so I doubt he would ever notice.

“What are you doing?” Lleros laughs as he walks to his bed to slip under his covers.

I get a bit distracted looking at his legs. When he turns to climb into his bed, I get a really good view of his ass.

Gods help me. Please let him be mine.

“Hello?” his voice calls my attention.

“What?” I shake my head and look up at his face. “Oh! I...uh...I was just trying to get comfortable.”

Lleros nods but he has one eyebrow raised. Yeah, he doesn’t believe me.

“I suppose that weird growling was necessary.” He chuckles and lays his head on his pillow, he is turned to look at me.

I am pretty positive he isn’t blind now.

“I wasn’t growling.” I narrow my eyebrows.

“Oh yes you were. Don’t worry. It was kind of cute. In a strange, wolfish way.” He smiles.

He looks so pretty when he smiles. I swear it is almost as if the gods carved out his face.

Lleros laughs and blushes. “Thank you, I guess.” He covers his mouth with the back of his hand to hide his giggling.

Oh I am a mess. I said the gods comment out loud…

“Sorry.” I mumble and turn to stare at the ceiling. I feel heat spreading across my face.

“If it helps, I may not be able to see your face, but I think you must be rather handsome.”

I smile at that. Partly because because I don’t believe he’s blind, but also because he actually complimented me. Me!

“Goodnight.” He says with a yawn.

“Goodnight.” I whisper.

Lleros waves his hand in the air and the lonely candle’s flame goes out.

I shiver at that and pull the blankets higher.

Just wait till Beatrix hears about this. Sleeping in Lleros’ home? I bet she’d never think I’d manage to do this.

~~~
~~~

The God of Darkness

Great! I think I managed to get that all set in motion.

Yinx and the werewolf are now sleeping.

I thought it would have been more difficult to convince the werewolf into falling for Yinx but apparently he already has his eyes set on him.

Forcing him to kiss Yinx’s hand was just incredibly easy.

I love when things are easy.

Now. Morgoren has asked me to make an appearance at his shrine. I can only imagine what this will be about.

If he thinks I am just going to back down and let him have his sixteenth champion, then he is dead wrong.

He can easily just look elsewhere. There are plenty of humans in this world.

Making my way to the shrine is pretty fast. There aren’t any worshippers here tonight so that is good. Plenty of privacy.

Unless there were worshippers and Morgoren took care of them for this little chat. He tends to do that.

The shrine of the Moon God sits on a steep hill that overlooks the forest. Not many try to make the trip to the shrine simply because most fear the woods. No doubt the howls into the night are what send shivers down their spines.

There is a single stone pillar that has old painted markings. You can’t really tell what they are saying honestly, but I know it was made by some human who felt the need to worship Morgoren for some fucking reason.

A stone bench sits next to a tall naked tree.

Next to the shrine, is a white stone table. There are old remnants of ash and blood.

The humans believe that sacrifices for Morgoren bring their city safety. They couldn’t be more wrong.

The wind picks up and the branches in the dead tree clatter together.

I glance up and see Morgoren’s form standing on top of his shrine.

I hate looking at him. His silver hair, silver eyes, extremely white skin. He has some slight wrinkles but I am sure he would be considered handsome. That just makes it worse. People assume goodlooks mean there would not be any trouble.

He wears his usual robes over armor attire. White robes over clean, untouched silver armor.

“Morgoren.” I nod.

He drops down in front of me.

“He is mine.” He snarls.

“I see we are getting straight to the point.” I sigh. “I saw him first.”

Morgoren laughs. “You think that matters? I marked him first.”

“Not before you blinded him.” I glare.

“Oh please!” Morgoren rolls his eyes. “Thanks to me, he has discovered a gift.”

I see he is still rather stupid as usual.

“I gave him the sight.” I say. “All you did was control his mind to force him to sing your song then just changed his hair to white. Clearly my gift was better.”

“It wasn’t really a gift honestly. I was eventually going to give him his sight back. I just needed him to depend on me first.” He grins. His teeth are far too white for it to be normal.

I frown.

“Of course,” Morgoren’s eyes run cold, “he would have depended on me if it weren’t for you!”

I swear, Morgoren just gives demons a bad reputation.

“Enough of this.” I say. “This will be my champion. I saw him first, you just chose to butt in. Go elsewhere for your next champion.”

“You really think you could just get rid of me that easy? I spoke with him already.” Morgoren smirks and glances in the direction of the bench. “I believe he will be quite...eager to join my ranks.”

My face wrinkles in disgust. “Must you always sleep with all your champions? That is highly inappropriate. I will not let you ruin Yinx’s life.”

“You think you can do better?” He laughs. “I don’t know what you could possibly be up to, but I am pretty sure that Yinx would not simply wish to join either of our ranks.”

“Really?” I ask. “I am pretty positive he would join me on his own honestly. He seemed rather pleased with my offer.”

Morgoren narrows his eyes at me. “You liar! He fucking blushed when I made my intentions clear. Obviously he wants to join me!”

I smirk. “You want to make a bet?”

Morgoren’s eyes go wide in shock. Honestly I thought he would have expected something like this. He tends to make bets with other gods all the time. Perhaps none have ever made one against him. Usually he tries to start one on his own.

He then gives quite an evil smile and extends his hand.

“I’ll set the rules then.” He says.

I nod.

“No interfering with his decisions. If he happens to get himself into trouble, neither of us may help.”

I frown at that. “Why would I agree to that?”

“If he were to die, his decision will still be in place for who he wishes to join. Can’t have the threat of the other persuading him by saving his sorry life.”

I give a slow nod.

“We may try to persuade him once before his birthday. Best make it count. I already told him that he must make his decision by his birthday.”

Well isn’t that a joke. ‘Make his decision.’ That is the biggest lie. If it weren’t for me, Morgoren would have most likely forced Yinx to join him as soon as the time was up.

“Any questions? Comments? Concerns?” Morgoren asks with a smile. His hand still held out to me.

I take his hand in a firm shake.

“None at all.” I say.

A small yellow light shines between our hands. The bet has been put in place. Now we both have to fight to get Yinx to join our sides.

I seriously hope he isn’t stupid and willingly enough to goes towards Morgoren. Not only would I be disappointed, I would feel a bit sad. Almost as if I am losing someone close to me.

~~~
~~~

Laneer

“May I ask why you stay out here in the middle of the woods?”

Lleros sighs and turns to face my direction. “I do not like the city. It can be too...crowded.”

I hum in response. “Yet, you choose to sleep at the Unicorn’s Blood?”

“I do not choose to.” He rests his head on his hand and looks down at me. “Just...a lot of places do not want me on their property. I am sure your father has things to say about that.”

I look up at him in shock. I do not think I have ever heard anyone insinuate things about my father.

“The King’s words about outsiders tend to be carried out by the people as well. The owner, Damond, he...he at least doesn’t seem to mind who I am as long as he gets something out of it.”

I can tell from the defeated look on his face that Lleros wishes he didn’t have to stay there.

“I would stay here but I made a friend at the tavern.” Lleros gives a small smile. “Irene. She lives there as well. I am pretty sure she brought you your drinks the last time you were there. I stay over there to try and ‘take the weight’ for her. Get Damond off of her. Irene could really use the break.”

“Does that mean you have to...sleep with him?” I ask through grit teeth.

Lleros doesn’t answer. I do not know if I really want him to. Obviously Damond is sketchy. I just didn’t realize that the poor barmaid was going through something like that. Having to sleep with that nasty man for a place to sleep and food to eat. It isn’t right.

“Maybe I can do something about it.” I say. Like kill him for laying a finger on you.

Lleros just gives a small laugh. “You don’t need to do anything. While it would be nice of you to throw your little flag in his face, as soon as you turn your back, things will go back to how they always were.”

I frown. I don’t really like that he doesn’t believe in me. Well I guess not just me, but the entire guard.

“It’ll be alright,” He says, “I can handle it on my own.”

There is then a small silence. I know we should both be sleeping, but I can tell that neither of us can.

Lleros’ breathing doesn’t even out. I can’t help but feel like he is scared of me. Sure he may put on a front that says he isn’t affected by my presence, but if he really didn’t care, he would be sleeping right now.

I could always just be thinking too much about it. I just...it feels weird when people learn what I am. I know people think of me as if I am some rabid animal. I try to do things to change their mind. It just never seems to work.

“Hey Lleros.” I whisper.

“Yes?”

I bite my lip and take a small breath. “Do I scare you? I swear you have nothing to be afraid of. I...I like to think I am a pretty nice guy. Usually everyone assumes so until they learn about...everything else.”

Lleros turns to me and seems to stare into my eyes. I wonder if he sees something. Something I can’t?

“I am not scared of you. I just...I met…” Lleros frowns before pursing his lips. “I just have things going on in my mind right now.”

I sit up a bit to look at him better. He doesn’t move back. I didn’t realize I was this close to his bed. I swear If I lean in a few inches, I could kiss him.

“I could help you.” I whisper. “I like helping people. Would you allow me to help you? Please?”

Lleros laughs and shakes his head. Holy shit. That laugh. It's so sweet. I love it. Also, I am pretty sure he drinks honey by the gallon, his breath smells exactly like honey.

“You’re very sweet, but I do not think you can help me with this.” He reaches out and pats my head. “Thanks for asking however.” He then does something I didn’t expect. Not that I was expecting the pat either.

Lleros scratches his fingers through my hair. Oh my gods.

He must realize was he is doing because he stops immediately and pulls his hand away.

“Sorry. My mind just kind of...thought of a dog and it linked with you being a werewolf.” He says.

I am pretty sure I see a small blush on his cheeks. I hope he can’t see mine. My face feels like it is on fire right now.

“Y-you’re hair is soft.” He stammers and lowers his gaze towards something I really don't want him to see. Pretty sure he is just avoiding my gaze but where he is looking isn't much better.

Honestly, I seriously hope he is blind right now. I have had a huge boner ever since I rubbed my face on the pillow. It just won’t go away. If he can truly see, he would very easily see the giant tent in my blankets. It doesn’t matter how dark it is.

“Uh-um...thank you. You are pretty.” I say without thinking. I instantly freeze and I glance at Lleros.

His eyes widen and he actually smiles before he ends up turning into a fit of giggles.

I just feel the most shameful blush right now.

“I-I...I'm...sorry.” I say weakly. Beatrix would be so ashamed of me.

Lleros tries to talk in between his laughter but he just can’t stop.

Gods kill me.

When he calms down, though every now and then he lets out little squeaky giggles, he finally speaks again.

“Don’t be sorry. I kind of get that a lot actually. It is just kind of strange to hear it.” He smiles and rests his head on his arm. “I didn’t expect you to say it honestly.”

“I’ll never say it again. I swear it!” I say with as much determination. Anything to bring back my dignity. Instantly I realize how bad that sounds. “I mean...I won’t NOT say it again. I-uh...I mean I won’t not say it so soon?”

I just keep talking and saying all kinds of stupid nonsense. Gods I am a despicable human being.

Lleros smiles before leaning down to kiss my cheek. Instantly I go silent.

“Goodnight, your highness.” He says and he turns to sleep with his back to me.

I just feel the biggest smile on my face.

“Goodnight.” I whisper.