(Not) a clichéd fairy tale

Chapter 6

Liarya

Someone was standing there.

The figure was wrapped in a black cloak and a dark aura surrounded them. The only thing I could see was a sword surrounded by the same black mist, which was slowly dissipating.

What remained was the blood-covered blade with which he had killed the wolves. "Thank you. You saved my life," I said quickly and stopped the person who was about to disappear again.

"No problem. But if you can't defend yourself, you're pretty stupid if you just walk around here like that. The border areas are even more dangerous," a deep voice replied.

Then my lifesaver finally turned round and took the hood of his cloak off his head. And oh my, was he attractive!

In front of me stood a man with black, slightly longer hair and piercing green eyes. His skin was so pale that it almost reminded me of a dead man and his cheekbones were also very prominent. His left hand was protected with a kind of armour made of black metal and his black, admittedly very tight-fitting, top was made of a kind of thin fabric that I had never seen before. His trousers were made of leather and were also black and he also wore a black leather belt.

I estimated him to be about 23 years old and he was probably at least a head and a half taller than me.

"You're staring at me," he said and I looked away, embarrassed.

"Sorry about that. But thank you again for helping me," I replied and stood up, feeling a sharp pain radiating from my leg. I slowly looked at the spot where one of the wolves had caught me earlier.

Three large claw marks adorned my calf. The wound was also bleeding quite heavily and I was sure some dirt had got into it. "Crap," I cursed quietly.

"You're injured," the stranger remarked in a very dry tone and I rolled my eyes inwardly. "The nearest village is only a few kilometres from here, I'm sure there's a doctor there," he continued matter-of-factly and was about to go in the direction indicated, but I held him back.

"Sorry if this sounds a bit rude and comes out of nowhere, but is there a way across the border that is as safe as possible?"

"If you want to cross the border illegally, no. Why are you asking?" he wanted to know and turned back to me.

"Well, I'm from the village where you're going and I'm actually on my way to Aqarin. My destination is the capital Pearlyn." He looked at me with interest.

"What do you want there? As far as I know, Pearlyn is not exactly safe and harmless. You of all people should give the city a wide berth."

I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not as defenceless as you think!" I complained, to which he just raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you? Prove it to me."

And before I could even ask what he meant, the sword in his hand suddenly reappeared out of the black mist and he stormed towards me. Not knowing what to do, I jumped aside, but the blade grazed my cheek anyway and shortly afterwards I felt a stinging pain and  a thin trickle of my warm blood making its way out of the cut across my cheek.

"What was that for?" I got upset, but he just turned back to me, let the sword disappear in a black mist and came closer and closer to me. This guy was getting pretty creepy.

"Your fighting skills are worse than those of a five-year-old back in my home. In short, if you survive to cross the border, you will fail at the latest on the way from the harbour to the city. The harbour is crawling with goblins and other thieves. You'll be lost either way, so go back to your village and give it up," he said and I felt a slight sense of despair spreading through me.

If what he said was true, my chances were really slim. But something about his statement also made me incredibly angry.

"Watch out, I'm definitely not going back there. And even if it's life-threatening, I'm still going to try and I'm definitely not going to give up! There's a reason why I want to leave Nularis and I have a goal that I want to achieve! So stop talking like that, it's not exactly encouraging!" I grumbled at him and got louder and louder towards the end.

However, the tone in which I spoke to him didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. "I was just stating the facts. But you are lucky, because we seem to have the same goal and I am gifted in swordsmanship and magic. So I will accompany you to Pearlyn, for some compensation of course," he replied, still sounding completely calm.

"And what kind of compensation would that be?" I asked suspiciously, but he responded with a simple "I'll think about it"

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"I'm Tirian, by the way. May I know your name too?" he continued walking towards the border and I followed him, he was actually two heads taller than me and also much faster, but seemed to be waiting for me.

"My name is Liarya. Nice to meet you," I introduced myself and smiled at him.

He didn't smile.

Maybe he couldn't, because he had never really shown any emotion before.

"It is an honour for me to travel with the Princess of Nularis, but I don't know why Her Highness wants to leave her own country," he said suddenly and my heart skipped a beat.

How did he know that? As far as I knew, nobody in Nularis knew my name, because according to my father it didn't matter anyway, because as soon as I was old enough, I should have married someone from another kingdom and so the inhabitants only knew me as "Princess of Nularis". 

"How do you know I'm the princess?" I asked, shocked, and he just looked at me as we continued on our way towards the border.

"I know a lot of things. Even that you're actually promised to Prince Orion. But it's a good thing you ran away. Andirus' methods are outdated and stupid." The more Tirian said, the more uncomfortable I became.

"H-how do you know all this?" And as if he could read my thoughts, a kind of grin crept onto his face. It looked a little emotionless, but at least his features weren't petrified.

"Don't worry, princess. I got all this information legally," he said with a grin and I frowned. "The people weren't told about it, so how do you know? Who are you to be trusted with such information?" I continued to ask, but he didn't give me an answer.

"You're not from Nularis, right? Then where are you from?" I asked another question, although I somehow expected to get no answer again. My companion convinced me otherwise, however, as he sighed briefly and then answered.

"I'm from Nearon."

I stopped and stared at him.

Nearon undoubtedly had the worst reputation of all four kingdoms, because no one nows who or what lives there.

For unlike the other three kingdoms, Nearon has not signed a single trade or peace treaty. No historical record ever mentions Nearon's involvement in any of the wars, and no one has ever seen anyone who comes from Nearon. Legend has it that the spirits of people with a gift for dark magic live in Nearon.

Beings with such a gift were hunted down and executed until they simply ceased to exist. But of course, these are all just stories. Although Nearon doesn't make it hard to believe them.

Once you thought about it, this world was already pretty fucked up. War, distrust, and almost anything and anyone outside of magic shield protected villages and towns could kill and/or eat you in less than five minutes.