His easy acceptance of such a foul deed took her breath away. Her eyes widened, nostrils flared and chest tightened.
"Do you feel no remorse?"
He gave the appealing female a look that suggested that she had lost her mind. "Remorse has no place in a warrior's mind."
He could tell from her expression that she did not understand. Roy patiently explained himself, "A war is like a game of chess, Eris. Every battle is like a well thought out move on the board. Once it begins, there shouldn't be any emotion involved whatsoever."
"So, if you did in fact injure my brother-"
"That is highly doubtful," he interrupted.
"Why?"
"That isn't how I fight."
He wasn't making any sense to her again. "Oh, what is it you do when you go into battle if you do not injure your enemies?"
He let out a sigh, "I kill them."
Eris tried her best to not let him know how appalled she was at his behaviour. The man acted as though they were discussing this week's hunting and gathering schedule.
His callous attitude made her stomach burn. There was no emotion what so ever in his eyes or his voice as he shared this information.
"Your brother was injured prior to my arrival into battle, I heard. From the first lot of invasion, I was informed." he stated, drawing her attention yet again.
"No, he wasn't near the battle of her first invasion," she answered. "It was only after the second challenger that came that he felled in battle."
Roy suddenly couldn't contain hisc exasperation at the illogical female. As pleasing as she was, he felt like her logic didn't add up somewhere. The confused female had her enemies mixed up in her mind.
"I am not the second challenger, nor am I the thrid challenger, Eris, or have you conviniently forgotten that fact?"
"Of course not."
Roy took a step closer to her now. "And so, whether you hope for it or not, I couldn't have injured your brother."
"I didn't wish it," she suddenly blurted out.
He didn't know what to say to that. He considered himself as an excellent judge of character from his opponent's reactions. Yet, now he doubted his own ability.
To tell the truth, she looked relieved. That didn't make any sense. Why would it matter to her if he had or hadn't injured her brother?
"You look relieved."
She nodded, "I am...pleased to know it wasn't you who pushed Timo into this mess," she admitted. Eris then turned her gaze to the floor. "And I apologise to you for making you feel guilty by jumping to the wrong conclusion."
Roy couldn't believe what he had heard. Was this female apologising to him?
"You what?"
"I apologise," she muttered.
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind and make some sense out of the illogical conversation.
"If it had been you, I would have had to retaliate after all. Wouldn't I?" she asked him, pointedly. "I am all my brother has left. It is my duty to protect him as his family."
"You are a female."
"I am his sister first, not just a cherished female who is tasked to give birth for the benefit of the tribe."
Eris rubbed her arms, it seemed that the temperature around them had dropped and the room became fridgid. She felt so tired. She had been feeling cold for so long, and so exhausted for so long that she could barely even formulate a coherent thought.
"I don't like this war," she whispered. "Males do, don't they? They like to fight, like to show others who is on top and who can dominate more."
As Roy listened to her rambling, he nodded his heard, responding as needed. "Some do," he acknowledged, his voice bursque in reaction to his sudden urge to take the little female into his arms to soothe. She looked too fragile now.
He could only imagine all the traumatic experiences she has been through since the first invasion. He found it admirable that she would try protect her brother, even though he found it was quite ridiculous for her to think she could.
Females of this world don't stand up for their males at home, much less their family. At most maybe their birth fathers, but females could have so many mates, so many brothers and so many they could call fathers, would they truly care if one went missing?
Could she be cherishing her brother so much more now only because he is the only one left who is blood related to him? After all it wasn't easy raising cubs to adulthood and it seemed like from the information he has been given, there are only three siblings in ther family.
Roy couldn't help but feel proud of the female standing before him, it took courage to stand up for what they believe in and protect what they treasured. From the whispers he has heard about Princess Eris, he realised he shouldn't have expected less.
"Do you know what they have been whispering about you Eris?" he asked, smiling gently down at her. "You have become quite a legend among the soldiers of Claw Kingdom."
That announcement gained her full attention. Curiously, she peered up at the handsome warrior, "Only the dead become legends," she countered. "Not the living, and I, am still alive."
"If that is true, then it seems that you are an exception," he said. "You did lead the defence against the first three challengers the King sent to secure your holding, didn't you?"
She shrugged, "Your king, not mine, sent barely grown male cubs to try steal my home. I merely put a stop to it and sent them back."
"Even so," he argued, "there-"
She interrupted him. "My brother's soldiers were under my direction, yes, but only after the first in command was forced to leave our strong hold."
"Who is this soldier and where is he now?"
"His name is Leigh," she answered, "and he left for the north." She folded her arms and turned her body away from Roy, to look down at her brother. "Even if you tried, you will never catch him now. He is far too clever for the likes of you."
"He sounds likee a coward to have left you unprotected."
"I ordered him to leave. Leigh is not a coward. He is a brave male. Besides, I can take good care of myself, thank you. I have gotten away from you savage lot for so long, haven't I proven my intelligence time and time again, my lord?"
He ignored that barb. "A warrior of Claw Kingdom would have never left a female in charge, nor in charge."
Eris shook her head, she knew with that comment, she couldn't defend Leigh now. In her heart, she knew, her elder brother's loyal vassal was one of the most courageous males she had ever known. Against terrible odds, he had brought Uri to her. Her eldest brother Thorn had ordered Leigh to deliver his son to her for safe keeping until the war was finished.
James, the Margay traitor, would have no knowledge of the cub and neither will the enemy, she reasoned. There was just no possible way that they could find out. It was just a pity that Eris couldn't boast about Leigh's courage now.
As far as the enemies were concerned, uri was simply the child of one of the servants now. It warmed her heart to know her beloved nephew was safe and warm at home.
Roy watched, carefully examining the play of emotions cross her face and wondered what thoughts were now going through the clever little female's mind.
He didn't like the way that she defended the soldier who had left her to survive on her own with nothing but a small contigent of weak males to offer protection, but he decided he would put that topic aside for now.
First, he had to collect more information about Eris and excecute his plan to lure her out of her sanctuary.