Chapter 62

62 Chapter 62 : Full Awakening

After the physician left and Adam managed to calm Ella down, they went downstairs to the lounge where the men were waiting to hear from them.

“look at the gloomy look on his grace’s face,” Ivan spoke sorrowfully, “she’s pregnant! I’m so sorry your grace, you can just hand her over to me, I don’t mind raising another man’s child.”

“Calm down Ivan she’s not pregnant,” Adam responded as he sat down on a chair.

“Then what’s the matter?” Beric questioned the prince, if Ella wasn’t pregnant but they both looked down in the dumps then the physician must have given them some bad news.

As Ella walked past Adam to sit on the chair next to him, he grabbed her hand and made her sit on his lap, making her blush intensely.

“He said she’s not doing too well, but he’s not knowledgeable enough to treat her.” Adam responded as he gently rubbed Ella’s back.

“So what happens now?” Zander question the dark haired prince, the plan was to leave for the enchanted forest where they would all be safe. It had been a hundred years since queen Tauriel sent him out to the human’s kingdoms to keep an eye on her son, he had trouble finding him the first few years and had requested help, after which they sent Roland. The two had traveled the kingdoms in search of prince Gareth. They stumbled upon Adam by sheer coincidence, his looks were very elven but he had no trace of elven blood within him at the time. Only after Zander noticed him briefly transform a few weeks ago, was he sure that Adam was indeed the crowned prince of the Elves.

Now that his awakening was nigh, he needed to deliver him to the kingdom in preparation to invade the humans and reclaim their home.

“Zander, Roland, why exactly are we going to the enchanted forest?” Adam questioned the two men, after what the physician had said, and after the brief transformation he’d experienced back in Meria, he had a feeling these two men knew something about all of it. The enchanted forests and the snoelands were said to be home to mythical races with powerful magical abilities that humans could not fathom. No human dared going there, but here they were riding towards it.

.....

“Your grace I told you we’ll be safe there,” Zander explained.

“And how are you two so sure?” Adam asked again, “no man whose ventured to those lands has ever returned, unless you think the place is so welcoming and beautiful that the lost travellers decided to start a whole new life there forgetting about their families, which I doubt is the case. You’re sending us to our deaths, why is that?”

The tension in the room was thickening, and the other four men were staring at Zander and Roland awaiting an answer. They too were wondering why of all places to take refuge they were going to the enigmatic enchanted forest.

Zander and Roland were backed into a corner. Should they tell them the real reason why they were headed towards the forest and reveal the secret of their true identity?

“I see that nothing gets passed you prince Gareth, you’re as wise as your father once was,” Zander spoke calmly with an impressed smirk on his face, “I applaud you, well the truth is that-”

Before Zander could finish speaking, he felt a sharp bolt of pain in his head, he grabbed his skull and dropped to his knees as a dull thudding echoed in his forehead.

Adam got to his feet, but before he could take another step, his own skull began to hurt excruciatingly. He turned around when he heard Ella screaming and falling to the ground, he took weak steps towards her, squat down and pulled her into his embrace.

Looking around, Adam noticed that all of his men were on their knees, hands on their heads and quivering in pain. What in the world was going on?

*

Back in Meria, in a cell within the black tower, Julia screamed in pain, her head was pounding and her every limb felt like it was on fire. She was sweating profusely as she plummeted to the floor, her nails almost digging holes into the hard stone floor, she had never felt such pain before.

On the other side of the palace, in his intricately decorated sleeping chambers, Nathaniel raked his hands through his hair, a loud thud in his skull causing his ears to ring. The silver haired prince chuckled sinisterly to himself, he knew exactly what this pain entailed, finally the awakening would be complete. All the chosen ones, including all their subdued brothers and sisters would revert to their true form, and Nathan would soon have an army of the most powerful races in existence.

The prince threw his head back and let out a chilling laugh that echoed throughout his chambers, finally all the pieces were falling into place.

Around the palace and within the capital and surrounding towns and shires, all hell broke loose. People were screaming and running in all directions, trying to escape from their own family and friends who were turning into monsters.

“Run! It’s a werewolf!”

“Stay away from me!”

“Somebody please help my husband!”

This eerie phenomenon wasn’t just happening in Meria, all the four kingdoms were experiencing it, people were turning into large wolf like creatures, shrinking into little men and women, growing fangs and pointy ears. It was chaos.

Even in the Morrell residence, William ran into his parents chambers when he heard his mother scream. What he saw when he barged into the room was unbelievable, William saw his father on all fours on the floor wincing in pain, his ears had changed shape, his skin was as white as a ghoul, and his teeth were peeking out of his mouth like a pair of sharp fangs.

Emma, his mother was squatting in front of him, a terrified expression on her face. “Mother get away!” As William took a step towards his parents he heard a large crush coming from their dining room, followed by Bahram shouting.

William grabbed his mother’s hand and ran towards the dinning room where he found Bahram backed into a corner and the twins looking at him. Only, the twins didn’t quite look like themselves. They too had pointy ears, pale whitish skin and fangs. When they turned to face William and Emma, he could see that their eyes were a vivid scarlet.

Gods, what in hell’s name was happening?

*

Maria halted her horse and cupped her head tightly.

“You feel it too don’t you?” Vivian spoke to the woman, “the awakening.”

“Aye,” Maria responded, she grabbed the reins of the horse and lightly kicked the animal to forge ahead, “we don’t have much time left, we need to retrieve princess Melissa and bring her back home in preparation for the siege.”

“I’m sensing her presence north east of here,” Vivian responded, “heading towards the enchanted forest.”

“The elf,” Maria mattered.

A few days before the wedding, Maria and Ella had encountered a strange man in the town square who had caused a bit of a fuss. His men claimed he was a drunk and saw his late wife in every pretty woman he saw but Maria knew that was a lie.

The smell of elf was all over the man, and one of his friends as well. And the fact that he’d called her Guinevere was proof that he knew Ella from her past life, meaning there was a strong chance he was Gareth, the elven prince.

Maria had known Ella and who she was even in her past life as Guinevere, but she only kept an eye on her from a distance. Even though Ella had not awakened by then, he striking resemblance to her mother Marceline was enough to sell her out.

After Maria had proven that Ella was indeed Guinevere from before, and that she was a nosferatu, she travelled to the snowlands to tell the Kaiser and his queen that she had found their daughter and needed someone to help her retrieve her. And that’s how Vivian, a strong nosferatu warrior and also Ella’s cousin was asked to accompany her.

“We should hurry,” Maria spoke as she urged her horse to move faster, “it will be hard for us to get to her if they cross into elven territory.”

*

when the throbbing in his head subsided, Adam loosened his grip on Ella and looked down at her, “Ella,” he pulled her close to him and cupped her face in his hands lovingly, his thumbs gently stroking her temples.

Ella looked up at Adam and her eyes went wide, his deep brown hooded eyes were now a vivid purple, his hair was longer and his ears were pointy. He had faint markings on his forehead and even though she thought it wasn’t possible, he looked even more handsome than he did before.

The redhead looked over Adam’s shoulder and saw Zander, Roland, Beric, Odran, Ivan and Ozias looking at each other like they had seen each other for the first time. They too looked like Adam, pointy ears and all. Only they didn’t have the faint markings on their foreheads.

“Elves?” Ella spoke in a whisper, “you’re all elves!”