A Daughter Forged in Fire: Chronicles of the Tuatha: Book One by Jessica Leigh

Author:Jessica Leigh [Leigh, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Leigh
Published: 2023-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Thirteen

AINE

Ten years ago

The forest floor was covered in lush white-petaled flowers and bathed in the soft light of the setting sun. A rosy hue tinted the leaves bronze, looking as if it were October, instead of late Spring. Laughter echoed through the trees as the merry-making dwindled from the day’s Beltane celebrations. In their small, secluded settlement deep within the forest, a remaining tribe of Tuatha had gathered to herald the beginning of the growth season as a community.

A young and spritely raven-haired Tuatha female ran unabashedly through the tall trees, spinning and rounding each trunk, weaving this way and that as her long locks twisted about her shoulders and down her back. Laughter echoed through the fragrant forest air, escaping her soft pink lips and dancing in her eyes of piercing golden hazel. She was running faster and faster to evade the capture of a young Tuatha male, who had begun to follow her beckoning call, away from the day’s festivities. The young woman would pause after rounding another corner of the forest and lock eyes with the young male, causing a flush of pink to color his handsome face with frustration as his breathing quickened.

Letting him almost catch her, all at once, a rustle of feathers broke the silence of the wood as she surged upward on the gust of a breeze. Black feathers and dried leaves rained down on him as he glanced upward to see a beautiful raven perched on a branch.

“Aine, that’s hardly fair,” he said wearily as he leaned against the trunk to catch his breath. A slight smile etched the corner of his mouth. He glanced upward, “It’s almost as if you didn’t intentionally lead me away from the others . . . now what reason would you have to do something like that?”

“As I recall, you didn’t seem to be too sad about leaving the others, Finnin.” She glanced down at the young man below, his golden hair glistening in the setting sun, soft curls brushing the tops of his bronzed shoulders. The raised, blue-tinged band of flesh twisted slightly as he flexed his left forearm, his fingers combing back his hair from his handsome face.

Finnin had been in her life since before she could remember. They had grown up side by side in their village. The same village that they had fled as children when their families sought refuge further into the forest and away from Milesian cruelty.

He was the first Tuatha boy she had fought; she punched him square in the nose when she caught him trying to shoot a rabbit with his bow and arrow for sport. He was the first boy she had kissed, the first young man that she had lain with the summer that her body had seemingly grown wings and beckoned the touch of another. It was only natural that she would choose to betroth herself to him, to choose him as her mate, as females often did in her culture. He was strong, a skilled archer, trustworthy .

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