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'Muirneach' means beloved in Gaelic.
Nuada paced furiously. True, he felt better than he had all month, but he knew why. They were here. She was here. And it didn't take long for him to figure out why. He was torn between killing them all and letting them know he was no longer a threat to their race and asking to be left alone.
The forest he found shelter in wasn't far from the Giant's Causeway. He packed up his things and continued moving inland, asking the forest creatures where his people dwell. They rarely answered, too domesticated to speak the elvish tongue, and those who did hardly had a grasp on who they were, let alone who Nuada was.
"For the last time, where are the elves?" Nuada hissed through gritted teeth. The old squirrel yawned and chattered his teeth before responding.
"Elf saw south 10 years before." His Gaelic was rusty and his manners left much to be desired. He turned and fled, seeing Nuada rage at the same answer he gave for the past five minutes.
"South," Nuada hissed to himself, trying to calm down. "I'll head south and try to find more intelligent life there."
He needed to work quickly in order to stay a step ahead of them. He knew he'd be in danger the moment they caught him; in more ways than one. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he saw her again. Would he give into his cravings and dreams and melt into her arms like a tamed lap dog? Or would he harden his heart, kill her, and condemn himself to a life of pain? One bonus to the latter, was that he could rule his lands finally. But the benefits to the former he couldn't begin to imagine.
Being in love with someone who loved him back was an experience Nuada had never had.
The forest had welcomed him like an old friend, accepting his presence and allowing him to use the shade of the trees to mask his being. He would not make this easy for them, especially if they were truly there to stop him again.
What he needed to do was separate the woman from the others, then maybe he could… do what, he wasn't sure. He wanted her, he needed her, but did she feel the same? Her heart was not as easily accessible as Nuala's was. He knew Nuala never hated him, she was incapable of the emotion, but he could feel her resentment and sadness. The only emotion Nuada thought he could pick up on was… excitement?
"How do you know that?" Anung Un Rama's voice startled Nuada and he lept into the trees for cover, blending his presence in with the leaves.
"Because I can feel it," the woman, May, snapped at him. He watched her face, slowly getting more and more confused. "He was just here, I could feel it!"
"I feel like I'm getting blisters, honey." The large red man pushed past her, gun up and cigar lit. "But I don't see any murderous elves here."
"Well, Red," she said in a tone of condescension, "He's gotten past all the security at the BPRD once so he can certainly get past you." The other woman chuckled. "Even Liz agrees with me."
"Hey, leave me out of this." The dark haired woman lifted her hands and walked past them. Nuada knew of her powers, and he considered her the only one who would really give him a run for his money if they got down to it.
"He's here." The last of their group stepped into view from his hiding spot and his heart stopped. Nuala stood beside Abraham, dressed in the odd human clothing the rest of them wore, but still as stunning as he remembered her. Maybe he could get both her and May alone and convince them both to join him. His sister also had a legitimate right to rule the elves, and he would love to have her at his side once again.
"Are you sure? I thought he'd have confronted us as soon as he saw you." Abe clutched Nuala's hand tightly. "Imagine if he knew you were with child."
"Abe," Nuala chastised her lover quickly. But Nuada had heard. And now he saw red.
"With child?" His voice boomed around them. He used his connection to the trees to speak through them, making him sound larger and everywhere.
"I told you!" May smirked at the devil spawn. The rest of them had pulled out their weapons and prepared for a fight.
"My dearest sister is with child? From him? Abraham Sapien?" Nuada tried to keep the hysterics out of his voice.
"We knew this would happen," Nuala said stubbornly.
"What?" Abe's head whipped down to his lover. "What do you mean you knew?"
"When we were children, a mystic woman visited us," Nuala said softly. Nuada chuckled around them.
"Everything she predicted came true. She told me I'd become a dark terror to the world." Nuada shifted from his vantage point.
"And she told me that one named Abraham Sapien would be the both the love of my life and the death of me." Nuala finished, her hand slipping out of Abe's. "Do you remember when we met?"
"Yes, you denied that was my name…" Abe said, thinking back. He remembered the day clearly, standing in the mapmaker's studio pretending to be searching for a map while really tailing the mysterious hooded woman.
"I didn't know how to react to finding my destiny in the troll market of all places," Nuala smiled warmly up at Abe and he hesitated a moment before pecking her lightly on the forehead.
"Isn't that lovely?" Nuada's voice was dripping with poisonous sarcasm.
"She told you that if you opened your heart, you'd find love in the least likely places. I know you have a connection to May," Nuala snapped at her brother, "You cannot deny your heart any longer."
"Leave!" Nuada screamed as his connection with the trees was severed. His emotional imbalance made him lose his concentration. He ran, jumping and stumbling from branch to branch, not caring if they knew where he was. Nuada had to get away.
He found himself in a human village eventually. It was small and too touristy for Nuada's liking but it was a good place to hide among enemies. His previous life's mindset was returning; humans needed to perish. They brought nothing but strife and drama. Nuada slipped into the local bed and breakfast and tried blending into the crowds. He realized too late he'd left his chest of clothes, including his human disguise, in the forest. He made a plan to double back and retrieve them tomorrow as he paid a woman with coins he had pick pocketed.
The morning was dark and damp. Heavy clouds walked among the village as Nuada left as soon as he woke up. He could hardly see half a mile before him, making finding his chest or even the forest impossible. It also meant that he could walk right into his enemies. So he moved carefully and slowly, cautiously waiting for anyone he saw approaching to pass before continuing.
"We won't know if we find him until he hits us in the face." Nuada got lucky. They were a loud group and he heard them well before he saw them. He shied away, hopping down off the road he followed and using a hill to his advantage to hide himself.
"He's too clever to actually hit us in the face," Abe pointed out and Liz snorted.
"I meant that by the time we ever recognize each other, it'll be too late." She continued on, her gun up and ready. They all had their weapons out, although subdued as they encountered more and more locals and tourists.
"I knew we shouldn't have camped in the woods," Anung Un Rama snarled, his tail flickering in annoyance.
"But we found his stuff," May argued and Nuada mentally groaned. "It's the best lead we have. He has a spare weapon in here, so he's bound to come for it soon."
Nuada admitted to himself that he'd take more than just his trunk when he encountered them next. He followed them, creeping in the fog, into the town. They asked the few villagers milling around in the fog if they'd seen a man with pale hair. He must have been the center of quite a lot of gossip as the woman told them the entire story of him stumbling into town and renting a room. They hurried to the inn and Nuada patiently waited for them to reemerge with disappointed faces when they didn't find him there.
"I knew someone was following us," May's voice made him jump three feet as she approached him from behind. Nuada whipped around, his spear in hand and rapidly extending. May held her hands up, surrendering. "It's okay, I'm alone."
"How can I trust you in this infernal fog?" Nuada snarled, but instinctively he knew she was telling the truth.
She didn't reply. They simply stared at each other, weapon at May's throat, refusing to move until the other did. Finally, Nuada shrank his spear back, straightened out and pretended to be suddenly fascinated with his weapon.
"I can't believe I found you…" May said breathy. She took a hesitant step forward, and reached out to brush his hair out of his face. Nuada jerked back, his instincts kicking in. "Nuala says we now have the bond you shared with her."
"Impossible. This bond is sacred to our kind. A human would never be-" Nuada cut off abruptly. A sudden idea came to him. What if she wasn't human? Perhaps she was of his kind but she never knew… It wasn't exactly impossible.
"Never be?" May prompted him to finish but he grabbed her by the shoulders and captured her lips. It was the easiest way for him to soul search, unlike his sister who only had to touch them. He deepened the kiss, for soul searching purposes only, he told himself, although May wasn't exactly resisting and she tasted so good…
"Your memories are sealed off." Nuada drew back, muttering out loud. May's contented smile turned confused.
"What?"
"I was soul searching. I thought perhaps-" But she slapped him before he could finish.
"That was why you kissed me?! How dare you! Next time I see you, I will kill you!" May tried to keep her voice level, afraid yelling would make her group come running, but it was hard. Nuada watched her run off in the fog and contemplated following for a moment, but decided the best of it.
Why were her memories so difficult for him to see? Her soul was as murky as the fog, bits and pieces of memories flashed before him, but nothing concrete. He saw her recent memories the clearest, but anything beyond the BPRD was hazy. He caught a flash of a man threatening her, but he looked so different, he doubted it was her father. He saw her mother taking the violent man's side, but to what end, he didn't see. He was filled with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and sadness from her past, that he'd wanted to keep May in his arms for the rest of eternity.
He couldn't tell if she was human, elf, or something else entirely.
