Ro stiffened. Moments passed in silence. He stared. She sat. Frozen in place and unable to take her eyes away from his.
Panic set in, and she darted to her feet. Her hands balled into fists at her sides, rigid.
She inspected the dug-up dirt on the ground.
"I… I…" she whispered hoarsely, wide-eyed and unable to get the words out of her mouth.
He was here.
Why was he here?
How long had he been there?!
"It is not what it looks—"
"What were you doing?"
His words were dangerously low. Measured. They came with a strange chill that crawled across her skin.
She looked up, and her breath hitched. He was big. Large enough for his shadow to fully envelope her. Ro was barely able to make out his other features. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. His eyes wouldn't let her. They followed every direction her gaze went, boring into her soul.
"I…"
For the first time, his eyes shifted from hers and trailed downwards.
Ro followed his line of sight and the colour drained from her face.
Sweat and moisture from the soil had the fabric of her gown clinging to her like a second skin. The moonlight revealed every crevice and curve of her near nudity.
Ro gasped, blood flooding to her face. She slapped her hands to her breasts and groin.
'Oh, no!'
"I'm so sorry!" She swiftly turned on her heels and scampered off, unaware of the fabric clinging to her behind.
__________
He liked what he saw. More than he wanted to admit.
The moment she turned around to scamper off, the tug at the corners of his lips morphed into a chuckle. He hunched over the railing, laughing. The timbre of his voice reverberated within his chest.
The laughter died, and he watched the soil. The rushed patter of her feet against the floor still reached his ears, along with her ragged breaths.
He sniffed at the air, drawing the last of her fading scent from the soil.
His eyes flashed briefly, and he frowned. For a spot where she had spent hours, her scent sure faded quickly…
As if what was left had gone along with her completely.
Whatever ritual she conducted seemed to have strengthened her. And on his land no less.
The nearby vegetation seemed no different than before. The bushes were fine. Geneva had told him she was a dryad, but the nymph had to have drawn nutrients from somewhere. Not the nearby vegetation.
He straightened, standing tall before facing the direction she had taken. He chuckled once more and started walking away. She had only just arrived and was already vandalising his land.
Her frightened gaze flashed in his mind, followed by the curve of her silhouette. He frowned.
Then, a sharp glint in the dirt caught his eye.
__________
Ro burst into her chambers and slammed the doors behind her. She leaned against them and slowly sank to the floor, her chest heaving.
He had been there. Watching her.
A part of her had expected him to stop her there and riddle her with questions and accusations, but nothing happened. She hugged her frame and went still as she realized something. She would have left a trail of dirt from the garden all the way into the castle.
Ro cupped her face.
She had just made a mess. How could she have been so careless?
And on top of that, she had exposed herself to him. A blush crept up her cheeks in mortification. What if she had come across a servant or two along the way back? They would have also met her in that sordid state.
Without wasting time, Ro hurried to the bathing chamber and washed herself before returning back to the bed where she laid down to collect herself.
Moments later, she hunched over and covered her face with her palms. The crystal.
She had left it there.
'Oh, no…'
Ro shook her head and sat back up. She had to stay calm. At the very least, she needed to clean up the mess she made.
She closed her eyes and focused. Her essence flowed, smooth as a flowing stream.
Sand.
A few grains. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Clumps of soil.
All trailing from her chamber down the garden. She could sense them all.
They twitched, shifted, then began to move, retracing their steps. Clumps of sand, unable to slip through door gaps, crumbled into finer grains to proceed. Her breathing quickened.
The last of the grain reached the courtyard, and she gasped, collapsing onto the bed.
A faint pain tugged at the back of her head. She had just coordinated her essence and was already straining herself.
But she couldn't stop there.
She focused. The soil had been surprisingly rich, and it had sped up her growth. She envisioned the ground she had just crawled out of.
He had seen her there. If she compacted the soil and made it like it was before she dug the spot, he would likely know what nymph she was.
Lying to him about it if he asked would be dangerous. It would be insulting to him too.
Ro laid on her side and hugged her knees to her chest. What would she do tomorrow?
Goosebumps consistently riddled her skin that night. Even though she had scrubbed herself raw in the bath, she still felt his gaze on her, hot as a brand.