Time for Change

Shelby wakes up with a splitting headache to an unfamiliar surrounding. She turns to look at more but the pain becomes blinding and she stops moving immediately, she can't stop the tears of pain from sliding from her eyes. Someone speaks to her but she can't understand what is said or who is saying it. She has closed her eyes to help her deal with the pain and feels a wet, cool cloth placed on her head. It helps but slightly, but it further cuts the light which helps greatly. The lights were like stabbing daggers of pain into her head.

The voice comes again after the waves of pain subside and this time she understands the words. "I can take the pain away from you if you wish." The voice says, his soft, silky tones could only be the king and it has her opening her eyes in shock.

She tries to sit up but the pain and the king keep her down. "I haven't the means to pay for such a gift king." If there is one thing universally known about the elves it is that nothing they do is for free. There is always a price to be paid and the price you think you are paying isn't necessarily the price you  end up paying.

The king frowns, the female is shrinking back from him now. She hadn't been afraid of him before but now she is after him offering to heal her? Then he takes stock of how she is dressed and his words. "I won't ask that of you." But his words aren't helping her to calm down. She is making herself even more ill and so he backs from her giving her more space.

She seems to relax somewhat, but still not like she was with him before. He looks at her quizzically. He doesn't understand why he wants to make her feel safe around him when her words earlier just made him angry.

"What could I possibly offer you in exchange for such a gift?" Her self denigration irks him and he doesn't understand why. It is true and he had even been thinking the same thing just moments earlier. The feeling makes him angry and he kisses her as he heals her just because he wants to.

Shelby at first is entranced with the kiss and feels the cooling feeling of his healing gift flow through her. The relief at first relaxes her then she stiffens in anger. When the king pulls back he is unprepared at her reaction, she slaps him. "I didn't agree to the healing King. There is no way that I can pay for that gift." This time the tears in her eyes aren't from pain and the king lets his anger at her action go. She hadn't accepted his gift beforehand and he had forced it on her. She was in the right to slap him, but it isn't something he's used to. Not even his mother dared to slap him.

The king keeps his distance as he studies the female. He's made things worse, or has he? By her own words elven gifts aren't free, yet at the same time he'd forced it on her that isn't likely to make her more willing to help him and his people.

"I had heard that the king of the elves was either an incredible person or a right bastard. Guess which rumor I believe?" The girl's bitter words bring him back to the present. If he uses that healing to pressure her she won't help him or his people. Damn, how's he going to fix this?

The girl keeps as far from the king as she can get and does her best to melt into the cushions of the couch, the king feels that it would be in his best interest to back up further from her. He doesn't like how her eyes are locked onto him like a mouse waiting for the cat to make it's move against it.

"Perhaps it is low blood sugar that made you faint?" The king finds himself saying trying to soothe the female. He orders the receptionist to bring food and drink for the human. He finds her gaze a bit unnerving as she rarely blinks.

Once his receptionist brings the tray of food over the female watches them both unwaveringly and without looking climbs over the couch. This gives the king pause, she's done this before, she's been hurt before. "I'm not going to hurt you. Come it is rude to not offer some refreshment to those that help us. By returning the bridge, or augury stones to us, you have helped us already. This is the least that we can do in recompense." The king gestures over the tray of fruit and drinks there.

Shelby looks at the king and not at the tray that had been left by the king. She doesn't trust the king. He has lied to her already this night. "Why do you continue lying to me?"

The king stiffens at her words, he doesn't remember when he'd lied to her and he's never met anyone that can tell when he lies. This human is able to see through all their subterfuges. He's not sure if that is a good thing or not.

"I haven't lied to you." The king responds at last affronted.

Shelby snorts in derision, "Yeah, okay." It's obvious that she doesn't believe his words even as her words seem to agree with him.

The king reviews everything that he's said to the human. He's hardly even said a score of words to her and nothing that he's said could be taken as a lie, because they hadn't been. Except one, possibly. He finds himself blushing and it irritates him, but it doesn't stop the blushing. He truly has no intentions of asking that of her. But if she is willing to help his people, he realizes that he will be asking something similar of her.