Chapter 15. Broken & Bloody Deserts
Despite being the youngest of the twins, there wasn't much difference separating the physical capabilities of Sephora and Seraphina. They were both strong, intelligent, and well trained young ladies.
Lady Nox herself undertook their combat and sparring training and no less would be expected, than the ruler of the Raven Kingdom herself training her own daughter – who would one day take her place as the Harpy Clan leader.
The additional weight of a fully grown male human cause a delay in Sephora's flying by at least one-third of her usual capabilities. This caused the younger, twin princess more time than she had anticipated the return journey would have taken. Then again, Sephora hadn't expected there to be swathes of the ancient forest demolished; either by some incident or by some unspeakable act, possibly an act of aggression or a declaration of war if it was not natural… and the younger twin had the sense that it was no natural disaster.
Her plane and simple velvet black dress were now sticky with the blood from this human. Every time she brought her wings back up, she was pressed into the carcass (as she thought of the human she was carrying in her arms, flying back home). Squeltching sounds from the blood, pressure, and contact with the fabric were constant.
It was completely ruined, and the scent of blood on her was pungent, even for a harpy's poorer sense of smell.
The male human flopped limply in her arms with a dead weight.
Sephora was almost certain that he had died when she had initially scooped him up and leaped into the air and so decided that there was no need to rush; heading home to the castle before she missed too much of the lunch and infuriated her mother, the Raven Queen, to the worst possible extreme.
With her considerably, sizable black wings of strength ferried both of them back to the stone castle carved into the mountain, the castle above the clouds – at least on the most cloudy days of mountain weather
The power of each wing as it pushed against the air and the wind currents… flying slowly, surely, and steadily back and up to the castle.
***
At the same time, the formal late lunch were enjoying their main courses. Wild boar, hunted and prepared from the surrounding forest, was presented as the statement food of this formal dinner.
Lady Nox gave her guests reasoning that it would allow them to truly taste what the Raven Clan had to offer in terms of food.
Blood wine was a raven clan speciality, and no other Harpy clan could come close to the subtleties in the flavour.
Dessert would come soon, and Davorin always made the best desserts.
He had indeed made Seraphina's requested favourites for main; he was lucky that there was enough venision to make it for her. With such an important event for her, it was the least he could do from the kitchen; provide comfort food.
As always, she enjoyed it thoroughly. Master Fenn had asked about what she was eating, as it was different to what they had all been given (wild boar belly) as requested by Lady Nox... all except Seraphina.
Seraphina had really hit it off well with young Master Fenn from the Tawny Harpy Clan. Absolutely, everybody in the room had taken note of that. Espcially Lord Easton and Lady Nox, yet nobody said a word about it.
Envy glowered lightly in the eyes of the Eurasian Harpy Clan twins, and Lord Easton's pokerface remained. Instead, he would focus on them, or the other Clans. Using the opportunity to gather information regarding other Clan affairs while the opertunity presented itself.
The chatter in the room was a light buzz that Seraphina wasn't used to in this castle. It was more often quiet, silent, and lonely... and so the afternoon socialising continued on to her delight.
***
In the kitchen, Davorin was just at the beginning stages of preparing a second portion of desserts, his favourite course to place the finishing touches for. Joy and passion for his precision in decorating were clear on his face; a state of total concentration…
That was when Sephora walked in with what looked to be, a dead human in her arms. Bleeding out and bleeding all over the dark grey marble wooden floor.
An older aged member of the staff, Maven, screamed. Not through fear but by the initial shock of turning to see the scene behind herself while moving one of the dessert trays out of the fridge.
Sephora, the youngest princess, stood with arms smeared with blood. Her dress below her chest was absolutely drenched in this humans blood, with varying stages of it drying. That black velvet dress of hers? It was no longer black.
Her entire visage was unkept and unruly. A stark and far cry from how her sister looked; sitting in the formal dining room… meeting both of their would-be-mates.
She didn't seem to mind that.
Maven's shriek had jolted Davorin away from his dainty dessert perfectionism, "WHAT…?!" The chef yelled in turn but quickly trailed off as he looked around.
Lady Nox rarely came into the kitchen, but if there was a fuss or commotion, she sometimes came to it. To see what the matter was, in her household, and under her roof.
The handsome harpy chef lowered his gaze. Giving the princess a very dark and scolding look. The obvious question lingered in both his eyes and Maven's. A tray of desserts lay on the floor – blood from the dead human dripped onto some of them.
It was not because she had waltzed in with what appeared to be a dead body. A batch of food that had taken time and skill to prepare was wrecked.
Davorin began to wonder, had she killed a human while upset or enraged?? It wouldn't have totally surprised the staff. It was something that was considered as a normality with the Raven Queen.
Yet just as equally, this was Sephora! The kindest and sweetest of the entire Raven Royalty household.
"Young Miss, you best be explaining yourself promptly." It was Maven who broke the silence, her tone was professional and ushering, "The Queen is already in a foul mood with you as it is, since you have missed most of the initial meeting of these guest… one of whom may end up your mate. It isn't a wonder that Lady Nox is in the mood she is in. This-" The mature servant began to gesture to the dripping and still body in Sephora's arms.
It was Davorin who spoke up. Finishing his earlier question, and the one Maven was about to ask, "What is this?" He was still annoyed about the desserts. However, now they had a literal body on their hands, and this was NOT the day that they should consider testing the Raven Queen.
The young princess eyed one of the bashed, bite-sized cakes on the floor. Coated with a slick of glossy red blood over half of the white fondant covering, decorated with piped chocolate. She gulped before meeting Davorin's eyes again.
She knew how much he loved and cared about ensuring his meals were perfect - especially desserts.
Sephora had not really wanted to bring the dying human male. However, had she not then her mother and, probably, Seraphina, her older twin sister, may not even have believed her retelling of events.
With that, she began to tell Maven and Davorin what she had witnessed a reasonable fly away. The state of the ancient forest on their doorstep and the pool of bloodied chunked blood.
How and why she followed it…
Davorin placed his hand on his chin as he listened intently. His eyes lighted up with understanding when Sephora explained that she had hoped the blood may be a bear, deer, or even boar to bring back, that had been injured from whatever the incident was.
"Now that you both know. Can you help me? What do we do with this body? If I didn't bring it back, I doubt even Seraphina would believe me. Especially after our fight this morning." Sephora defaulted to her sweet and innocent face. It was never an act with her and always genuine. "What do we do? Donivan?"
The chef was older and by default Sephora sought his opinion; as well as Maven's, who was double the age of Donivan – or the same age as both of the younger harpies in front of her put together.
"Right…" Her eye's darted around; really analysing the situation for what it was. "Here's what we're going to do…"
All of those present in the room heard Maven's plan, but only three of them were fully aware, and only three of them were intently paying attention.
***
Unknown to all of those in the room:
This was no human... this was a werewolf, and that werewolf wasn't dead. However, he was very close to it.
What was more, this werewolf was the ex-Alpha of the Crimson Blood-Hounds: Nickolas Von Kasin.
Sephora had brought him into the very heart of the Raven Harpy Kingdom, believing he was just a huma... just... a carcass to show mother that she was telling the truth.