Shackled (The Lord Series) by Carlos

**Erelah**

Grumpy has been sulking since the night I found him. Since he refused to tell me his name, I had to give him one so I wouldn't have to always refer to him as 'the male.' His wings are healing so slowly, making me more desperate for answers about his origins. He's like a puzzle I can't solve.

Grumpy looks at the snowflake in my palm with an expression I can't read. He can't see the beauty in simple things like I do. But I have the patience to show him.

The snowflake starts to melt, and he touches it with the tip of his finger. For one second, he looks fascinated. I wonder how he will react to other things, like hearing the birds sing around the forest. But it will be a while until spring is here. "Snow," I say. He looks at me while his finger swirls the melted snowflake in my palm. "And now it turned into water." Another snowflake falls on my palm. "See how pretty it is? Each one has a different pattern. Sometimes, I wish I could have Sister Iaoth's talent to draw them. Winter is my favorite time of the year." I don't know why I keep bothering to speak to him when he is clearly not interested in communicating with me. Maybe because I still hope he will open up to me. There's something about him that I can't put my finger on. I shouldn't have made him my prisoner but I don't seem to want to let him go either. It's the first time such a thing has happened to me, and I pray that none of my sisters find out about him. Even if I am the Mother Superior, I will be shunned for such actions.

Snow covers his hair like a white hood and I reach out to brush it off.

He says something in his almost impossible-to-pronounce language.

"It might take a while until I can pick up the sounds you make," I sigh.

I pull him back into the cave and have him sit on the makeshift bed before grabbing the small sack I brought today.

"Sister Hael and I checked the pantry the other day. Since we have an extra mutton sausage, I brought some for you. Sister Hael loves cooking. She's in the kitchen all day long. The honey cookies are her specialty," I ramble as I put out several paper packages from the sack and place them next to Grumpy.

He picks up the one with the stuffed mushrooms but doesn't seem interested. When he finds the cookies and the dried fruits, he gives me a betrayed look before finally opening the one with the sausages. The next moment, he is stuffing his mouth with them.

"You seem to like meat more than I expected." I pick up a cookie. "You should try them."

Grumpy ignores me while he finishes the sausages. I hand him the waterskin.novelbin

"What am I going to do with you, Grumpy? I can't keep you in the cave forever, but I can't take you to the monastery either." I sit next to him. "Maybe the village? But how do I explain where I found you? Not only that, but how will you talk with the others?" Suddenly, I make up my mind about something. "You will learn my language whether you like it or not! Then, I will let you go."

I point at his hand.

"Hand," I say. He doesn't even try to say it back. "Hand," I repeat until I wear him down.

"He-end," he finally says between gritted teeth.

"It's a start," I say before making him repeat 'hand' until he gets it right.

After that, I move to another word and another, until I make him memorize several of them. I make him repeat the same words I drilled in his head to me in his language so I can learn them at the same time as him. It is twilight when I decide to return to the monastery.

The moment I get up, Grumpy asks, "Erelah?"

For some reason, I dread leaving him alone. "You know I can't take you with me. Males are not allowed in the monastery."

"Erelah?" he insists.

I glance at him, and there's a loneliness in his gaze that I've never seen before. "You are going to get me in trouble, aren't you, Grumpy?"

His head tilts to the side, the corners of his mouth slightly twitching as if he knows what I'm thinking.

A whisper slips past my lips. "It's... forbidden." I move away from him. "I'm sorry," I say as I leave the cave. I look over my shoulder. He seems ever lonelier than before.

On the way to the monastery, I contemplate sneaking him inside.

The face of Sister Agla flashed before my eyes. She has always struggled with being chaste. No one blamed her; we all have felt attracted to males from time to time, but we kept our distance from the temptation.

One day, Sister Agla stumbled upon an injured fisherman on the far end of the island. She hid him in a small hut on the shore of the lake. When he was well enough to return to his village, he stayed because he had fallen in love with Sister Agla.

Despite knowing what would happen if anyone found out about the two of them, Sister Agla gave her heart and body to her fisherman. Their love story lasted only a short while before they were caught. The fisherman was forced to leave the island and told to never come back, while Sister Agla was shunned from the monastery. She was told she had to remain on the island until she repented and was accepted back as a Warrior Nun.

Sister Agla lived alone in the hut for around a year. During that time, she was heartbroken, crying daily, barely taking care of herself. Sister Amaliel and I used to visit Sister Agla daily, bringing her food and spending time with her. The rules stated that she was to repent alone, but I couldn't bear seeing her in so much pain.

Then, one day, she simply vanished.