Chapter 18

Garm moved quickly and soon returned with the guard hanging from his mouth. Claire looked over the Beast once more as he came to drop the guard in front of Tirr.

Seeing the powerful body and sharp looking teeth, she couldn’t help but feel the guard was lucky to have been unconscious through the experience. Her hand held tightly onto the sword at her waist as the Beast sat happily behind Tirr, who was still enjoying their shocked expressions.

Claire was snapped out of her daze as a rush of metal came from behind her. She glanced back to see both of her maids, swords out as they stood in silent worry. They had been the first to react to the Beast’s sudden appearance, Sir Elrik’s remaining guard took their cue and drew as well.

Sir Elrik himself, with his face as white as sheet, had taken a few steps back. He stopped though, worried he may trigger the Beast into chasing him if it thought he were about to run.

Before Claire could warn the others to put their weapons away, a low and terrible growl came from Garm’s throat. Claire felt her insides grow cold as she noticed the Beast’s lips pull back into a sneer, showing it teeth once more.

The Beast wasn’t the largest Claire had seen, but something inside her was screaming to avoid it at all costs. The growl seemed to have similar effects on the others. Her maids seemed frozen stiff, as if a slight push would send them shattering into the ground. The guard had dropped his sword and simply fallen to his knees. Worst of all was Sir Elrik, who felt the sudden rush of warmth down the legs of his pants as he trembled.

“Enough Garm, and you idiots, put those weapons away. He’s still young and in his rebellious phase, so who knows what will happen if you keep at it.” Tirr said happily. He bent down, placing one hand on the crumpled guard in front of him, there was a bright light and soon they could hear the cracks and clicks as the guard’s body twisted. Broken bones forced their way back into position and set themselves properly.

Tirr stepped back, still smiling as he wiped his hand on his shirt. The guard woke with a start, looking around for a moment before noticing Garm sitting just off to the side. He sprang away muttering incoherently as he tried to remember what happened.

Claire grabbed the guard and hoisted him up, giving him a look over before confirming he wasn’t injured. She told the others to put away their weapons and took a deep breath as she faced Tirr’s arrogant smirk. Claire took a few steps towards him, doing her best to ignore the Beast staring at her from over Tirr’s shoulder. She then bowed as deeply and sincerely as she could.

“My apologies…” Claire started, still facing the ground, “I realize we have been deeply disrespectful in our quest for answers and must beg for forgiveness.”

It was Tirr’s turn to be shocked as he stared at Claire with her waist bent forwards, eyes towards the ground. He had been fed up with their attitude and decided to give them a lesson, even showing off Garm after Doron had asked him not to. He had thought he was ready for any reaction, but Claire’s sudden apology threw him off. At a loss, he turned towards Doron for help and saw him just gently nod.

Tirr frowned, somewhat upset with how sudden it had ended. He wanted to show off a bit more and had been ready for another argument but seeing that the Princess had still not stood up, left him feeling embarrassed.

“Fine… I’m a forgiving god, you don’t have to worry about it, so stand up already.” Tirr said, a small blush on his cheeks.

Claire looked up, smiling happily “Thank you! I believe we should leave with this for today, but I hope you would grant us another audience tomorrow morning.”

“Alright…” Tirr nodded uneasily, still thrown off by the sudden change.

Claire smiled warmly at him, bowing one more time, before asking for their group to be excused. She gathered the others and had Roan lead them back towards his house.

Tirr was left in front of the temple as he watched their group be led away. He felt a rough hand on his shoulder and noticed Doron looking in the same direction, eyes worried. “Was it smart to show off Garm?” Doron asked, looking down at him.

“He didn’t show his full strength.” Tirr replied unconcerned.

“You let yourself get carried away, we need to be careful if we’re going to get through this. If they left and decided to bring the army we’d be finished. Luckily the Princess seems like a good person, we should do what we can to draw her to our side tomorrow.”

“I understand…”

Doron gave him one last pat on the shoulder before heading down himself, hoping ease some of the investigation’s minds before the meeting tomorrow. Tirr went inside and found Maria resting and sat down next to her at the table.

The other children had already finished their food and left to keep playing. Lina went to keep an eye on them as Nora disappeared into the backroom to compound some more medicine. Maria and Tirr were left at the table as Tirr pushed around the food on his plate.

Maria knew that something was wrong, but waited, remembering how often her grandmother would draw out her problems by just being there. She sat silently as Tirr occasionally looked up at her, then back down at his food. Repeating over and over for a few minutes, until he grew frustrated.

“They were being rude first!” He said finally.

“Were they?” Maria asked.

Tirr stopped, remembering the first words he had said when he saw Claire. He blushed and went silent.

“You could apologize too.” Maria said as he sat thinking.

Tirr sat silently for a moment longer before getting up and leaving, heading outside to play with the other children again. Maria sighed, wondering if she handled that right, before she started to clean up the left-over dishes and plates.