When The Heart Sings

Chapter 71

Serena's POV:

We camped about four hours away from the Council Building in a rather remote camping spot that looked like it hadn't been used in a very long time. Saphira came out of the trees with a small bag of fruit; she no longer cared if our new two members saw her now that they knew she was around. She placed the bag by the fire and Lucas put the fruit into a bowl before passing it around.

I picked out a pink oblong fruit that I had tried in the past. Darien chose some weird lumpy purple thing. Saphira came over to us and sat on her heels, "The woods are quiet, although there is a pride of felines to the east."

Alex inquired, "Brown or black, do you know?"

"Black."

He frowned, "Those things could be trouble if they attacked. Even just two or three are dangerous. How many are there?"

"We will keep them away from the camp. Don't wander too far though."

I found it interesting to watch Alex and Fiona. The Tarulk usually were not much for contact, but these two were never really apart. Their eyes always trailed towards one another and the love in their eyes was unmistakable. No wonder Darien and I had stood out.

I murmured to Darien, "Were the two of us that obvious?"

He glanced towards the two lovebirds, "I hope not..."

Alex must have overheard us since he looked our way with an amused expression, "You two were often worse. Most of the time you glared at anyone who even came close, and you barely let her out of arm's reach, let alone out of your sight."

I leaned my face into Darien's shirt to try and hide my rising blush. Fiona spoke quietly, her voice amused, "She is so shy that she is cute."

That did not help the heat rising on my cheeks. Darien merely chuckled and wrapped his arms around me as he held me close.

I tried to control my nervousness as we kept travelling. Soon, far too soon, Darien would leave me in Saphira's care while he went to confront the Council. Rare glimpses of blue in the trees beside us showed that Saphira was close by.

We were passing more traffic now, as well as one or two groups of fighters, but I kept my eyes down and none of them so much as paused in their journey. It looked like I had better get used to wearing this hat if it made travelling so much easier.

Several small carts and a covered cart were approaching and I closed my eyes once more as I leaned against Darien as if simply relaxing without a care in the world.

"Halt. Pull over for an inspection." I tensed up slightly as a stranger spoke loudly.

Alex sounded slightly irritated, "What is the meaning of this? We are clearly not hauling any cargo."

"All people along this road are being stopped for an inspection by order of the Council. It won't take long and you can be on your way."

I opened my eyes up slightly to watch the soldier through my eyelashes. Alex growled as a soldier got too close to his mate. The guard eyed him up, but gave them a bit more space as they checked the cart. They didn't open or even really look at our bags of supplies, so I wasn't too sure what they were looking for as they checked under the cart and around the wheels.

Darien watched them closely as they turned to our cart and started checking around the wheels. Lucas gave the guards a mild glare of dislike as they checked the underside of the cart. The one guard looked up, clearly inspecting us. His eyes widened as he got a close-up look at me.