[Complete] Eroh has reached his seventeenth spring and has finally become a man. With manhood comes a gift: marriage to the woman he loves. But when a strange new woman from another world enters his life, he is stuck with the decision to honor his...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Father pushed aside the curtain of my tent his hands carrying a thick, horned and hoofed hide. He knelt to one knee and lay it across the hide rug.
"Your skin armour …" I looked into his obsidian black eyes and found a light that'd was lost since his transformation. He raised his lips. "Will you fight amongst?"
"I told you father … they're not the enemy."
He shifted his weight between hooves and crossed his arms, causing his biceps and chest to swell. "If not them, then whom? Who is responsible for your brother's death …"
I furrowed my brows. "There's only one Merfolk responsible. Do they all deserve to die?"
Father sighed. "I wish you would learn to trust me. I truly have failed you." He yanked a piece of parchment from his hip and held out. I walked over and took it into my hand, unrolling it.
"Read it aloud."
I looked to him then down at the parchment. "Grouper. I have dwelled on your concerns pertaining to my daughter Marina, and have considered your proposal to do just by the King. Therefore, with great honor, I give you the permission to carry out the task of assassinating the LandWalker who has stolen my daughters heart." My eyes grew and throat tightened, fighting every word that left my lips. "Do our people proud and go in the name of the surf Gods. King Kharsos."
Father placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, son. Their people are monsters …"
"How." I stammered. "How did you get this?"
"It was sent to me. Along with a second parchment telling of your whereabouts." He pulled his hand away and clenched it into a fist. "And when I read that they'd assassinated Elior, and imprisoned you, I knew that I would have to destroy them. Pull everyone of those finned creatures from the caves, like termites from a log, and crush them."
I lowered my eyes and looked upon the Skin Armour at my feet, frowning. "I never knew, father. Forgive me."
Tears warmed my cheeks, rolling down to my chin. A hot energy erupted inside me, expanding up my chest and into my abdomen. I took a deep, harsh breath through my nostrils, exhaling with the same force. I folded my fingers, turning my hands into fist. Every part me wanted draw out my anger … my rage … on them … the finned-folk.
I yanked on the antler hilt, withdrawing my brother's blade from its sheath. Firelight danced across the black stone, making it glimmered like coals in a firepit. I swiped the air, once, twice, three times. Each swing more fierce than the last, then slid the blade in its sheath.
"Let's get our vengeance, father!"
He chuckled and roared. "That's my young horn!"
He picked up the Skin Armour. I threw down my robe, leaving my body bare. My father wrapped the skin around my shoulders as I slid my arms and legs between the warm, slits of hide. Once the horns rested over my forehead the skin came alive; my body tingled as it tightened around my muscles, and the horns began to fuse into my forehead, attaching to my skull.
