by Willow Sova
Evenstars
of
Aeweniel
An Erotic Faerie Tale
Willow Sova
Copyright © 2018 Willow Sova
All rights reserved.
willowsova.com
Publisher: IndigoAngel Ink
Evenstars of Aeweniel is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Neither this book nor any portion thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior express written permission of the author.
Cover Design: Rebekah L. Sather (SelfPubBookCovers.com)
eBook conversion by booknook.biz
Author’s Note
This is an EROTIC FAERIE TALE ROMANCE. Consequently, it does contain some sexually explicit content and bawdy humor that some people may find offensive. This book is only intended for adult readers who may actually enjoy reading a sexy romance with creative expressions of this sort. And, of course, all of the characters, whether of the human world, Elven Realms, or other domains conjured up by the author’s imagination herein, are of the age of consent.
This erotic fantasy romance is set in a world full of wonder at every turn and extraordinary beauty, equaled only by the love story that unfolds within. So, for those of you still interested in escaping to this enchanting romantic adventure, I welcome you to read on and enter the Elven Realm of Aeweniel.
For Indigo
My Sweet Angel
My Evenstar
The world is a darker place
without You by my side
And for my Little Angels
in Feline form
And for those Lost Souls
of the Wood
Till we are all together again
with Light and Love and Joy
in the Spiritworld
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Author’s Note
Dedication
Chapter 1 • Chapter 2
Chapter 3 • Chapter 4
Chapter 5 • Chapter 6
Chapter 7 • Chapter 8
Chapter 9 • Chapter 10
Chapter 11 • Chapter 12
Chapter 13 • Chapter 14
Chapter 15 • Chapter 16
Chapter 17 • Chapter 18
Chapter 19 • Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Thank You!
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
AEWENIEL
The bite of a cool breeze woke her from dreaming. Still, her eyes refused to open, and Sparrow surmised hours had passed since she had fallen asleep. Something’s in the water nearby, she thought. Waves soon crashed about her, rocking the canoe. Though willing as she was, she could not summon the energy to escape.
Something otherworldly loomed over her. The scents of cinder and ash swamped her nose as it leaned in, sniffing about her lips and along her neck. She yelped when it nuzzled the valley between her breasts, inhaling her flesh with such force she feared it would shear the skin off her bones. Nestled there was a pendant of two kissing birds carved from blue moonstone that formed a winged heart and hung on a white gold chain. The polished stone was azure in hue and opalescent, with a play of colors in soft silvers, violets, and blues. Her mother had gifted her the necklace only months before.
There, the creature waited, its metallic growls melding into soothing purrs, with each breath growing slower than the one before it until that was all she could focus on. Every gust inward sucked the wind from her, and every one outward swiftly restored it. Thereupon she realized they were both breathing in synchrony, and soon its languorous purrs had softened her pants to a whisper.
Hours of meditative calm seemed to pass, though Sparrow knew their measure was more in minutes. The creature then slipped away and sloshed through the shallow waters.
The girl lay in silence for a long moment. Then sounds of thrashing water alerted her the beast was still nearby. Water smacked her face and blurred her eyes. She wiped the wet and focused on a wonderful sight in the distance. Standing there was a tall, beautiful man who was exquisitely naked.
Though dusk was creeping upon the daylight, she could see the muscular contours of his back and shoulders, his sun-kissed muscles flexing with each movement. Sparrow reveled at the vision, delighting in those soft dimples over each buttock peeping above the water as he cleansed himself, his silvery blond hair flowing between his shoulder blades. Oblivious to her admiring gaze, he continued lathering his chest and arms before attending to his nether regions. The girl let out a chuckle when she saw this, startling the male beauty from his bathing.
The man spun around. “Oh, my apologies.”
Her eyes meandered along his sloping pelvic curves. Akin to map trails leading to lost treasure. Once realizing his choice to turn about only exposed him further, he sank deeper into the water while cupping his hands over his manhood.
“I thought I was alone,” he said, blushing.
“Not anymore,” she replied with a seductive drawl. The Elvish words were so lyrical and came to Sparrow with ease. And this surprised her. Then her smile widened as she took him in. But, unlike you, I’m not sorry, she mused, relishing the glimpse of his form. She noticed the pointy apexes of the man’s ears poking through his wet hair. This is no man! He’s an elf! Her heart somersaulted, kicking a lump to her throat that rendered her breathless, making her head reel. “I… uh… I’ll let you finish so we can meet properly.”
Sparrow strove to hush her mind and trembling body as she reclined in the canoe, watching purple clouds float across the twilight sky, the silhouettes of birds enlivening the violet quiet while they chirped and darted above. She heard the elf shuffling through the shallows of the river. Then only silence.
On blind faith, she had taken her journey to Aeweniel. Trusting her mother not to be a spinner of Elvish tales, she was more skeptical of traveling to a world she envisioned only through her mother’s words. “The precious Isilmë Stone will guide you to the Elven Realm, and the Mists of Emlineth will grant you fluency in the Elvish tongue,” she had always assured her. As Sparrow dwelled on that promise, she clutched the blue moonstone and traced its carved beauty with her thumb.
Mother was right. So the stone had. Though how she did not know. The last memory she clung to before falling asleep was the thickening fog surrounding her, enveloping her in gliding walls of gossamer until she was blind to everything. As the current had pushed her farther along the river, the mist had appeared in wisps and billowed around her, and those frail vapors had merged into dense clouds and shrouded her eyes, making her wearier while the boat swayed to the soporific waves. Crooked oaks skirting River Emlineth had disappeared as her canoe drifted into the cumulous mist. And any signs of the horizon had vanished from her sight.
Weakness had overcome her, and she no longer possessed the strength to paddle the oars through the water. Yet the river’s resolve to propel her to her destination seemed so zealously fixed, like iron to lodestone, that oars were superfluous. The Mists of Emlineth. Is that what I encountered? As though drifting into a dream, her thoughts had sailed to stories her mother had told her of the Elven Realm before the gentle swaying of the canoe lulled her to sleep. And that was all Sparrow remembered of her journey when she awoke in Aeweniel.
“At last, I’m presentable,” the elf proclaimed, treading on the wet rocks along the riverbank to meet her. His voice was like kindling on her back, and she flung herself upright, rocking the b
oat with her excitement. A ball of energy twirled in her stomach as she looked up, the anticipation of seeing his face close-up buzzing through every vein. The magnetic draw of his eyes unnerved her at first, pulling her in to the exclusion of all scents, sounds, and sights around her. They were faintly luminescent against the golden glow of his skin, and an inexplicable vividness infused them… something preternatural.
The elf appeared so regal in his pewter velvet tunic, adorned with silver buttons chased with tiny dragonheads, she mistook him for an aristocrat. “Good evening, my lord. I… I’m Sparrow Entwistle.” He closed in on her, and she could not resist the lure of those blue-violet eyes.
“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Lady Sparrow,” he said, bowing his head. “Regrettably, I’m no lord, but only Thalion Starfyre.” The girl was charmed by his modesty and took his offered hand, floundering in the canoe as she tried to stand up, and leapt onto the mossy bank. But the moss proved more slippery than she expected, and she almost spilled off the verge before he clutched her waist to help steady her feet. She smiled, embarrassed by her maladroit introduction.
“Why, thank you.” A delicate tingling rippled through her fingers, and she realized her hand remained locked in his. The sensation tickled like butterfly kisses on her fingertips. Somehow, he was more familiar, and less a stranger. “Oh, I’m sorry, my lord.” She pulled away and busied herself with smoothing the wrinkles in her pink linen gown besmirched with spots of earth.
“There’s no need to apologize, my lady.” The elf moved in closer, fixing on her. “And please, call me Thalion.”
She hesitated to talk, the knot in her throat swelling up, nearly choking her. “Then… you must call me Sparrow.”
“Though I’m no lord, you’re certainly a lady,” he replied, smiling at her. Thalion stood shy of two heads taller than the girl. High cheekbones and dark lashes framed his blue-lilac eyes. Flustered, she could only return his words with a nervous smile and noticed his hand lingering on her waist for a moment before letting go. “What brings you to the Elven Realm of Aeweniel?” Under a towering oak, the elf motioned her to sit on a bench hewn from a fallen aspen, and she politely obliged him.
“I’ve come from the human world in search of Saeldur Elarion, the Elven Master of Beasts.” Loss had also brought her to Aeweniel, but she did not want to speak of those darker things. “I can’t say for sure how long I’ve journeyed. Somehow, I fell asleep along the way.”
“It’s unusual for us to receive visitors from your world,” he said, taking his place beside her. “No doubt the Mists of Emlineth are what lulled you to sleep. Spirits lurk within them, protecting us from intruders.”
“Oh, but I had no intentions of intruding.” Sparrow realized she spoke in haste when Thalion beamed. A warmth rose between them, its intensity rising when she gazed into his eyes. They were starbursts of cerulean flecked with lapis blue and lilac, their hues leisurely circling each pupil.
“Of course not, my lady. Of that, I was most certain.”
Those tiny oceans of color and motion were so enthralling, the girl was convinced she was under some divine enchantment. But if not, then they were simply the most exotic eyes she had ever seen.
Sparrow struggled to silence her nerves. So she focused on his lips. “I… I had hopes of finding Saeldur. My mother extolled his magical prowess, especially over creatures of all kinds.”
“Yes, his reputation is most deserved. But what, if I may ask, do you want with him?”
“I… I seek his tutelage,” she said, her confidence deflating under his gaze. “For I, too, have a way with beasts, something my mother noticed when I was a child.”
“A human with magical powers over beasts?” The elf was intrigued. “Well, it seems good fortune has smiled upon you, my lady, as Saeldur is my close friend. I was just setting out to his cavern.”
Her face lit up. “How fortunate indeed! Would you mind if I accompany you?”
“Not at all. Though I can’t promise you an apprenticeship with him. These days the Elven Master is rather busy with matters of the Elven Realm.”
“Oh, I see.” Wishing to hide her disappointment, the girl stood up, stepped toward the bank, and looked out across the river. It was only then she realized how harebrained traveling so far from home had been. Yet home for Sparrow was now lost, replaced with images of Aeweniel her mother had painted in her mind since she was a toddler. She could not dream of making a new life anywhere else. Was I mistaken, running away so hastily? “I guess I was foolish to leave my world for one so strange to me.” Crestfallen, she surveyed the twilit clouds reflected in River Emlineth as the sun disappeared in the thicket of trees. “Maybe I should’ve thought longer before my departure.”
“Traveling to an unknown world isn’t necessarily a fool’s adventure, my lady.” She heard him rise and sensed his warmth behind her. “Stay long enough, and this world will become known to you.”
The reciprocating songs of two birds wove through the lush canopy above. Sparrow wondered if they were two lonely souls finally finding each other.
“Perchance you’re right,” she replied, turning to face him. “As a child, Aeweniel was always a dream to me. But now I’ve awakened in it.” Mother would’ve rejoiced had she learned of my arrival here. Tears welled up with this thought. When she caught the elf’s brows crimping with curiosity, she turned away and wiped the wet from her eyes.
“Well, my dear lady, there’s no point in spoiling a good dream by leaving now, is there?” She could not ignore his spark of optimism, something she found welcoming given all she had left behind. “And since nightfall will soon be upon us, we best head out to Saeldur’s cavern.”
“Does he live far from here?” The girl peered through the oaks and pines in search of an obvious path but did not find one.
“About two hundred dragon leaps from here, give or take a leap.” Thalion pointed to a huddle of willowy birchwood, and a pathway illuminating with pale green orbs appeared before them.
“Dragon leaps? Is that far?”
“That depends on the size of the beast. Luckily, for us, it’s not. Small dragon,” he quipped.
“Dragons…” Sparrow whispered, the word drawn out as she pondered it. “Do they exist in your realm?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Shortly before we met, a creature visited me as I lay in my canoe. The experience was quite unsettling,” she replied, clutching the blue moonstone.
“Did you see it?”
“No. My eyes refused to open, bewitched by the Mists of Emlineth, I guess.”
“Then perchance you only dreamt it.”
“I doubt it was a dream. The touch of its breath and tongue on my…” she started to say, her heart pattering through her pendant and fingers. “Well… if it was a dream, never has one seemed so real.”
“I can assure you, my lady, whether dreamt or living, the dragons I know of you needn’t fear.” The elf looked toward the fading brightness between the trees. “Twilight is quickly leaving us. Let’s leave for Saeldur’s before darkness falls.” And with the wave of a hand, Thalion invited her to walk on the green-lit path.
CHAPTER 2
NIGHTFOREST
Thalion led the girl through the birchwood. The white trunks shone bright against the indigo shades of the forest, their black scars like vacant eyes staring as the two walked by. Sparrow admired the peridot orbs of light decorating the flora along the path and wondered at their beauty. The green lights pulsated in a slow and rhythmic tempo, transporting her to times of her childhood when carefree playfulness and her mother’s love were all she knew. As a child, she had always conjured up imaginary worlds of elves and mythical creatures. The glowing lights made her nostalgic for those moments of naïve wonderment, memories now encumbered with sorrow that had plagued her last few weeks.
“Are those fireflies?” Sparrow remembered chasing them when she was a child, imagining they were faeries from a magical world. “They are quite larger than any I’ve
seen back home.”
“Actually, my lady, they are woodland faeries. Their brilliance has guided me through the Nightforest more times than I can count. When gathered in great numbers, their light can blind anyone, man or elf.”
“Oh yes. Of course.” The girl peered into a gathering of glittering green on a dangling vine and noticed cherubic faces, each no bigger than her thumbnail, staring back at her with pinpoint eyes. The sound of their fluttering wings reminded her of hummingbirds. “I find their radiance so… comforting.”
“Comforting?” he asked, sidling up next to her to have a gander. Sparrow sensed him watching her and glanced the elf over. The faerie lights flushed his face green, revealing a faint scar along his cheek.
“They bring to mind more joyful times I had as a child.”
“Childhood should always be blessed with happiness.”
“Indeed. And one would hope the after-years were equally blessed.” How I wish that were so. A long silence lingered with this thought as she stared into the darker path curving up ahead.
Thalion gave her a pensive look. “You know, woodland faeries are reputed to have a mischievous nature. Despite their size, they can outwit even the most proficient Elvish prankster.”
“Really? How so?” she asked, her mood livelier now.
“Once, many years ago, when Redleaf and his faerie clan learned the Elven King Zaos had neglected to invite them to the Council of the Woodland Realm, they decided to invite themselves… surreptitiously.”
“Oh no.” Her smile broadened as she wondered where the story would lead.
“They planned to make their presence known and had gathered around the king’s nether regions while he was engrossed in a debate at the roundtable.”
Sparrow covered her mouth, tittering. “What happened next?”
“At one point, the discussion among the dignitaries became so heated, King Zaos began pounding the table with his fist in anger.” Thalion played the part, crinkling his face like the wrathful king and pummeling an imaginary table before him. “Then the king stood up in a fury, and those in attendance erupted into laughter upon seeing his groin aglow like a raging bonfire.”