|
|
|
“Man, last night was terrible,” Saeran Yawned, cracking his back.
“Yeah, well either get used to it, or try to make a bed within thirty seconds.” Kiera said, stretching. “Let’s keep walking, we have about two weeks to get there.”
“So how do you know so much about my family and our rule? I mean it’s like you know more about us than I do.” Saeran attempted to start a conversation.
“C’mon, I’ve been avoiding you guys all my life, I have to know what I’m avoiding. I’ve been picking off your royal guards one by one, each of them has a small golden crest on their armor right below where I strike them in the neck, that’s the only place that has no armor.” She said so nonchalantly someone would think she was just talking about the weather.
Saeran looked away a little freaked out. “So what about the hawks?” he just managed to squeak out.
“Johan and I have friends all over Lombarton, as well as enemies. We get messenger hawks every so often at our house. It’s really nice when they invite us for dinner. As for our enemies, they send out scout hawks because we are moving constantly. Although I don’t think we’ll be moving in a while, we’ve pretty much taken care of them. Even you should know that all working hawks have vests on, there is a different vest for whoever they’re working for.”
“Okay, just one more question.”
“What?!?” Kiera raised her voice, she was getting slightly annoyed now.
Saeran recoiled a little, “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at something drifting through the sky. “Is it smoke?”
“No, it’s not dark enough to be smoke, it almost looks like…steam” Kiera remarked.
“Steam? Why would there be steam in a forest.”
“How should I know? I’ll go check it out.” Kiera ran ahead.
Saeran ran after her, “Hey wait! I don’t know my way through the forest!”
“It’s hot springs!” She called back after him. Right in front of Kiera was a tiny, steaming pond, boulders were covering all the sides except one. It was almost as if someone had planned it that way. “Make yourself useful and wash my clothes in the river while I’m in there. Now go around the boulders or something.”
“Right,” he said.
Kiera got undressed and stepped into the springs. Saeran was on the other side of the boulders minding his own business when all of the sudden a shirt fell on his head. “I thought you were kidding?!”
“No, these clothes are filthy, they haven’t been washed for about a week. Wash them in the river and try to air them out a little.
“All right,” he grumbled. He started for the hot springs, “She sounds like Trina,” he said under his breath.
The warm water felt great on her aching muscles. It was true, though she never showed it or complained, Kiera’s whole body ached everyday. This is the only time that Kiera ever showed both her eyes, when she was bathing.
Saeran sat at the river’s edge washing Kiera’s clothes, was arguing with himself. “What does she think she’s doing, making me, a prince, wash her clothes,” he muttered. Saeran squeezed Kiera’s sleeves underwater, dirt and mud flowed down the river in a cloud. “She says she has friends though, which means she has a nice, non-menacing side. However, she’s certainly not showing that side to me. She’s strong, that’s always nice. Although she can turn and kill me with that strength and not give it a second thought.” A chill went up his spine. “I’m going to be king one day, she definitely knows what the kingdom needs…What am I saying!?! I’ve known her for about three days. She wouldn’t give me the time of day anyways, she’s just doing her job.” He ended his argument with himself and just finished cleaning the clothes mindlessly. He started walking back to the boulders, swaying the clothes on his arms around as she said. When Saeran got back to the hot springs, he sat down and leaned back against the boulders. “Wow, that’s nice and warm,” his face lit up, he had an idea. Instead of just hanging Kiera’s clothes on Saeran’s arms, he decided to put them on the boulders. Because they were wet, they just stuck there. He stuck them on in the order they would be on, the headband then the scarf, the shirt, the sleeves on both sides, her sash, pants and finally her socks. She had kept her boots by the entrance. “I’ll be by the river, your clothes are here drying.” He called over the boulders.
“’Kay,” she shouted over, and Saeran left. Kiera sighed, the hot springs felt so good, the last time she was in a hot spring was about five years ago. She was with her friend Achlin. Kiera was visiting Achlin’s mother with her (Achlin usually lived with her father). Her mother took them to some hot springs just south of town, Kiera was too young, she had not fully appreciated them.
Kiera got out and looked at her clothes lined up on the boulders, she chuckled, “What a funny way to dry clothes,” She put them on, “wow, these are dry and warm,” she thought. She walked over to Saeran, he was just running his fingers through the water. “These clothes seem cleaner than when they were new, how’d you learn to wash so well?” she was a little embarrassed being so nice to the man she threatened to decapitate only three days ago.
“Oh, uh, my mother taught me.” He was so surprised that one; she was being so nice and two; that she had snuck up so quietly behind him.
Kiera sat down next to him, “You know, I never hear about your mother, what was she like?”
“Oh she was great. She had beauty beyond compare. Her hair was long and blonde like silk, and her eyes were a deep, caring blue. They were prettier than the night sky itself. Her voice seemed to sing everything she said and sounded so delicate that it could shatter like glass. She was so caring and understanding, she would listen to everything you had to say and not speak until you were finished. Although I guess she kinda had to be that way, she was my mother.” He ended with a smile remembering her.
“She sounds great, I wonder what my mother was like. I guess I’ll never know,” she looked down.
“I’m sure she was great. Even without knowing her, I’m sure you got some of her qualities. She would be proud.”
“How do you know, I’ve killed countless people and not had a second thought about it,” she pleaded.
“Well you sound pretty sorry about it now,” Saeran masked his shock with comfort for her.
“Yeah, in hindsight I’m sorry, but when I get back to Lombarton, that’s how I make my living.”
“At that point you’ll have a real paying job, you won’t have to steal,” Saeran was still trying to improve the mood.
“Who will take me, everyone knows who I am, the only reason I’m not in prison is because they are scared to death of me.”
“Well, if all else fails come see us, I’m sure there is a job at the palace you could do. 1,500 is a very small price for my life.”
“I guess your right, thanks. By the way, when you were talking about your mother, you talked as if that was the last time you saw her, what was that about?” She asked, getting the subject off her.
“Well, um,” his voice got lower. “That was the last time I saw her. A long time ago, I must have been only twelve, we were attacked by bandits and rebels. They got into the castle and were coming at us from every angle. My mother told me to run to my special room, it was a cramped room hidden behind a tapestry. She tried to hold them off as long as possible so that they couldn’t get to me. Moments later, I heard a blood-curdling scream. I knew what had happened, but I kept running, tears flew down my face like salty waterfalls.” He paused blinking back tears, he wasn’t going to let Kiera see him cry. His voice was getting shaky at this point. “Everyone else went to investigate, I stayed back, I didn’t want to relive any of it ever again. The next day I was told she stabbed right in the chest. But that was a long time ago.” He said finally, trying to push it aside, though the memory still lingered in the air.
Kiera spoke, breaking the awful silence. “I’m sorry, I had no idea. I didn‘t mean to pull back those awful memories.” She apologized, sounding deeply concerned.
“No, you didn’t force me. Until now it was just in the back of my mind, I needed to let it go instead of trying to forget about it. Now that I think about it, trying to forget her is an insult to her memory,” Saeran sounded very beyond his years. “Besides, it’s not your fault she’s dead.”
Kiera looked away, the silence seemed endless. She looked up, “We should get going, we just wasted a whole day at the hot springs.” She got up. She looked at the setting sun. “Actually, lets just camp out here, Tybard isn’t going anywhere, and it would pretty hard for people to track us in this forest. Why don’t we just camp out here?”
“I guess we could, bodyguard knows best,” he joked.
“Yeah whatever,” Kiera seemed back to her normal self.
Kiera did a good job of hiding it, both of them were a lot more cheerful when they fell asleep.
 Ember1257 · Sun Nov 16, 2008 @ 09:54pm · 5 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
