▪️I Z A R A▪️

It was nice having the Orc King back at the castle.

Over these last few weeks, Baldur and I had settled into a routine of sorts. During the day, we both kept busy with our respective duties and would sometimes train if we had the time. However, every night after dinner, no matter how tired we were, Baldur and I would spend at least three hours practicing specific wind magic techniques.

Glancing over to where the old dying oak tree used to be, I smiled at the stump that remained.

A few days ago, I had managed to finally slice the thick bark in half, splintering it with such a force that startled me while simultaneously surprising Baldur and Khagra who had been very proud of me.

Speaking of the warrior Orc, sometimes, Khagra would accompany Baldur to train me and the two Orcs often took delight in ganging up on me.

Tonight, was one of those nights.

With my weapon raised in the air, I shifted my stance as we fought under the bright light of the moon, the cool night air felt refreshing against my heated skin. I was proud of how proficient I had gotten in using the cutlass, and adding wind magic to my movements was becoming easier with each passing day.

Staring at Baldur and Khagra, I grumbled under my breath.

Two against one.

As if trying to defend myself one on one against them was not bad enough, when facing off the two of them at once, it was damn near impossible to get a hit in. Granted, I had to admit that within the last couple of days, I was getting better at blocking their combined attacks.

Shit!

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

The moment I had silently praised myself, Baldur and Khagra advanced on me.

Even though I did my best to block the incoming blow, I found myself getting knocked onto my backside with a combined wind attack with spiralling flames built into it.

"I hate the two of you so much!"

"Lies, you know you love us!" Khagra fired back.

Scoffing, I countered, "That's a stretch! Sounds like you're having one of your daydreams again."

Baldur grinned, "That didn't sound like a denial though..."

"Ugh! You two are impossible!"

Khagra's smile faltered, "Look, I know that we're being hard yon you, Izara, but you were the one who insisted you be allowed to fight by our side in the event Alaric and his men attacked."

"Indeed, if I remember correctly, you were very adamant about fighting, telling us not to go easy on you," Baldur added while standing next to his best friend. "I mean, you can always quit–"

"Never!" I snarled while quickly getting to my feet.

With his smirk returning, Khagra approved, "That's our girl..."

Our girl.

I swear, every time he said such, my heart would flutter in my chest. It did not escape me that Baldur never seemed to correct Khagra and I usually had to force myself not to think about what that could mean.

Did they really have plans on sharing me?

Did I want to be theirs?

What would that even look like?

These were just some of the questions that I had asked myself ever since I realised that I had feelings for the both of them.

To think, I had never had romantic affections for another person before, much less two at the same time!

Recently, whenever I found myself around the both of them, I did not feel like my usual self. It was hard to describe the brazen and amorous mood I found myself in while in their presence.

I was curious to know how it would feel to run my hand over the muscles of their exposed torsos. Sometimes, I found it hard to concentrate during training since the both of them were always bare chested.

At times, I felt so daring, wanting to flirt with them just to see how they would react.

Thankfully, whenever I felt inclined to do so, I was able to quickly suppress it by forcing myself to focus on the imminent threat of Alaric and his men.

But once I found myself alone, my lascivious thoughts would return, taunting me.

To say that I was confused would be a great understatement as having emotions like this was very new to me, not to mention extremely scary.

On top of that, Baldur and I had yet to really explore our feelings for each other!

Sure, there was that night where we had shared an intimate moment under the large oak tree and I had been hoping that he would have kissed me. But unfortunately, we were interrupted by the Orc horn that inevitably led him on a scouting trip lasting longer than any of us could have anticipated.

Come to think of it, we had yet to resume our conversation from that night. One where we had started to confess things.

Though it was to be expected given the rising threat of the fae, both Baldur and I had been preoccupied. Him, preparing his warriors in the event of an attack while I spent most of my free time training to become stronger.

I knew what had gone on in the forest while he had been away.

Keeping the peace on the Isle of Wrobel was of the utmost importance to Baldur, and sometimes to maintain it meant taking a life. While I knew he hated using his powers, especially to kill, I could acknowledge that it would be the duty of the King, particularly if it meant ensuring the safety of the kingdom.

As much as I would have loved sit on the Orc King's lap and explore his lips and tusks with my mouth, kissing him until we were both breathless, there were more important things at stake.

Making sure that I had control of my wind magic and becoming strong enough to be of use on the battlefield was a more urgent issue than my raging hormones.

I usually spent all my free time training.

Of course, there had been instances when Baldur and I would touch each other discreetly.

Nothing lascivious, simple things.

Like the occasional fingers brushing against the cheek, or the light touch of our hands subtly reaching out towards each other while passing in the corridor. Such things went a long way and I cherished those stolen moments.

"Izara! Stop daydreaming!" Baldur called out, pulling me from my thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty!" I teased, knowing how much he hated it when I addressed him as such.

"You brat!"

As the Orc King lunged for me, I squealed and ran, dropping my weapon in the process.

Looking over my shoulder, I noted how Khagra simply stood there staring at us, a small smile on his face while he crossed his arms over his broad chest.

The way the warrior Orc would sometimes look between Baldur and myself, there was no doubt the feelings he harboured for us and I found myself being humbled every time. Particularly since it would seem that he had developed strong feelings for me, someone who he knew a few short months, as opposed to his best friend whom he had known most of his life.

If I ever had any doubt about how Khagra felt about me, I just needed to look into his eyes.

Even though he had feelings for me, he never once crossed the line and did anything inappropriate. Well, besides that first night we meet. Nonetheless, the respect Khagra had shown me since I had been at the castle is something I would never forget.

He was, for all intents and purposes, my first friend at the castle and it was not something I took for granted.

When I thought about it, it was likely that Khagra also held himself back because of Baldur.

Knowing that his best friend also had feelings for me, it was interesting to see Khagra put aside his own needs for Baldur. Their friendship and love for each other was something I greatly admired and with my own growing feelings for the both of them, I did not want to come between them.

However, since Baldur had returned from his scouting trip weeks ago, I got the distinct impression that if I were to tell them that I wanted to be with them both, they would not be opposed to the idea.

But if I was being honest with myself, I was still very confused about my own feelings.

Not to mention, I really was trying to focus on getting better control of my powers and as much as I wanted to explore my emotions, mastering my new abilities was my main priority at the moment.

I narrowly escaped the Orc King's grasp, but he used a gust of wind to pull me back against his chest and I sighed while leaning into him, enjoying the feel of his massive arms around me.

"Caught you..." Baldur whispered.

"You cheated!" I protested.

"What can I say, you make me act out of turn."

"Uh huh..."

I could feel every hard ridge of his body pressing into me and I could not suppress the shudder that quaked through me.

"Are you cold?" Baldur asked.

From his low tone, I knew that the Orc King knew that my body's reaction had nothing to do with the temperature of the night, but due to the alluring heat of his skin touching mine. Either way, I was not about to give him the satisfaction and confess such.

"Yes, it's a bit nippy tonight..."

"You know it's a crime to lie to the King, right?"

Feeling bold, I pressed the palms of my hands against his thighs and whispered, "What are you prepared to do about it, Your Majesty?"

His chest rumbled with a soft growl, "I swear, that fucking mouth of yours..."

Just as I was about to give another cheeky retort, I found myself being pushed towards the nearest tree. But not before Baldur spun me around so that that we were now facing each other and the intensity of his stare rendered my speechless.

"What if I were to kiss you, Izara?"

Glancing over his shoulder, I noted that Khagra was watching us intently as I asked, "You mean right now? In front of Khagra?"

"Yes..." Baldur answered, pushing his lower body against mine.

The hard length of his manhood was like a brand against my skin even though layers of clothes separated us. I thought I may have felt some sort of shyness at being watched, but the only thing I felt was an exhilarating excitement.

"Would you really?" I rasped.

Leaning in, the Orc King placed his left hand above my head, while his other hand moved to gently cup my jaw, anchoring me in place while his face stopped just in front of mine, our noses almost touching.

"If that is what you desire, I'd give you anything you wanted, Izara," he said while the thumb of his right hand moved to briefly trace over my bottom lip.

Somewhat disoriented by his gentle touch, I fumbled, "R-really?"

"Silly woman..." Baldur let out a low rasp. "You willingly sacrificed your life for mine and didn't think that I'd do everything in my power to give you the world?"

His confession had my mouth parting, too shocked to speak.

"But I can sense that I may have overwhelmed you, so I'll back off for now..."

Baldur then angled his head so that he could kiss my cheek gently before he backed away from me and walked off towards the clearing. I wanted to call him back, but the words died in my throat when I saw Khagra walking towards me.

Knowing that the warrior Orc had been watching Baldur and I the entire time, I cleared my throat and move away from the tree.

When we met halfway, Khagra asked, "Is everything alright?"

"I think so..."

He chuckled, "You sound unsure."

Letting out a sigh, I admitted, "Honestly, I'm not sure what's going on."

Khagra's left hand moved to cup my face, the feel of his thumb gently grazing across my cheek before tracing the corner of my mouth had my eyes fluttering close. The way my body seemed to respond to him was so confusing and I had no idea how to deal with it.

His fingers then trailed down the side of my jaw, towards my neck where he then gently pulled at the chain around my neck, eyeing the emerald cut clear quartz that Baldur had given me.

It was then I noticed how the light of the moon caught against the silver of his ring and my eyes admired the design.

Like Baldur's, Khagra's ring had similar etchings on each side but instead of an octagon cut clear quartz in the centre like the Orc King, Khagra had a round quartz that had eight corners cut into it, giving it a most unique shape.

From the way Khagra tilted his head forward, I thought that he was going to kiss me and I found myself feeling great disappointment at his next words.

"Just know, Izara, I'll always here for you if you need anything," he said then backed away.

I watched as the warrior Orc walked around me, heading towards the clearing where Baldur was still standing. My breathing was shallow while I watched the two of them stand next to each other and I found myself curious as to what they were talking about.

Me, no doubt, I thought.

Doing my best to calm my raging hormones, I walked back to where we had been previously training and went to my satchel to get some water.

By the time I had resumed control of my thoughts, Khagra was walking back towards me with Baldur trailing a few feet behind. Wanting to continue our training, I moved back to where I had dropped my cutlass.

I could feel Khagra's eyes tracing every movement I made and against my better judgement, I stole a glance over at him just as I picked my weapon up from the ground.

When he winked at me, I did my best to ignore the fluttering sensation in the pit of my stomach that threatened to spread through my entire body.

"Alright, back to training," Khagra stated and resumed his stance.

When Baldur walked past me to go stand next to his best friend, I took a deep breath as I watched the two imposing Orcs in front of me get ready to launch another attack in my direction, seeming to forget about the intimate moments that occurred just a few minutes ago.

A part of me was eager to explore what was going on between the three of us. However, I knew that I was not ready to face my emotions, so I was grateful to lose myself in these training sessions.

I really appreciated everything that they had taught me.

Over time, I had learned a lot about wind magic and was finally getting the hang of using certain manoeuvres.

Even though my execution was not flawless, I had learned many techniques.

One of the moves I had quickly gotten a hand of was to blow dust into someone's eyes, a low-level technique, but which could definitely come in handy.

I was still begrudgingly learning to expand the air in someone's lungs as well as to deplete it.

So far, it was one of my least favourable techniques, especially given the consequences if I did something wrong. Having to practice on a living person proved most difficult, especially since it would usually be either Baldur or Khagra as they insisted that using them would be the safest way.

Seeing them struggle to breathe did not make me feel good and I could never push myself to continue, even when they told me to try again.

I argued with them, stating that I did not enjoying learning how to deprive someone of oxygen. But as Khagra had sternly instructed, if I wanted to participate in battle, I needed to know how to protect myself, and sometimes that meant doing unthinkable things.

Pain and death were not something I enjoyed inflicting on others, but having already killed a man, I knew what I was capable of when having to protect myself and I shuddered to think at what I would be forced to do if it meant protecting the entire kingdom.

Tonight, thankfully, we were working on something else.

It was a move that involved deflecting various incoming attacks. It was fairly easy to rebound a weapon being thrown at me, but when Khagra sent a fireball my way, it was hard to dissolve it, especially given the power he possessed.

The more I learned about my new powers, the more I understood how deadly wind magic really was.

Imagine gathering something as simple as tiny stones found on the ground and using the wind to direct such at a person, shredding away at their skin. Not to mention, hurling numerous weapons at once towards an enemy, impaling them where they stood.

Shaking the morbid thoughts away, I got into my battle stance and said, "Come at me!"

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A/N: Insane chemistry aside, Izara is getting so strong...