Raxseis found himself lost within the vast and dark forest. He traveled with his sword in hand, his eyes and ears sensitive to every noise that came to be made around him. He had come to move a few miles inward before he came across the cottage that Adalaya and their aunt rested within. Taking a moment to look around, the Prince came to realize that the gown his sister had worn days ago, hung drying on a line. The man walked forward and into the gate, placing his sword back into its sheath. His eyes came to scan the grounds, it was silent the only sign someone was home, a small flickering candle in a window. Raxseis made his way towards the door, but to his surprise, he was halted by the rearing figure of the witch's Pegasus. The horse came to whiny and flap its wings, shooting dirt and debris into Raxseis' eyes. He covered his vision with his arm as he fell startled into the dirt, rolling out of the way as the hooves of the beast came to hit the ground.
Reia came rushing out into the night, her thin night robes revealing her still firm and youthful form. She reached up to pat her mount, her hands turning to fists as she pulled herself up onto her back. "Rea'vo artona muva Veishee pari'tum." "Calm yourself my beast." She spoke sternly. Her hands held tight onto the mane of the creature, its body coming to still, her head bobbing in resistance. Reia looked down onto the man her eyes coming to cut. "Who are you and how dare you step foot onto my property. My Pegasus could have killed you, you foolish boy! Get up!" Raxseis rose to his feet, pulling his sword from his hip. The metal sang into the night wind, its song sharp and long. HE saw it pointed at her firmly his own expressions turning sour. "How dare you address me in such ways?! I am your Prince! And shall one day be your King!"
The witch urged her mount forward, her palm coming to grasp the steel tightly. It cut into the soft flesh and soon after, turned to melting slag. Raxseis watched in awe as his sword was dissolved before his eyes. "Witch! Black magic!" He bellowed, slowly backing away from her. At last Reia dismounted, sending her horse away with a motion of her hand. Her now bloody fist came to tighten around the man's collar, her grip firm. "You dare step foot onto my land and point fingers at me?! You dare disturb my sleep with your foolish antics?! I should cut off your ear and see it dried and hung above my mantle." She pushed him away from her, ripping her skirt to wrap her now throbbing hand. "You should be grateful, I could have let you be trampled to death. Prince or not, you are imbecilic to not know when to give thank and when to keep your mouth shut."
Hearing the commotion outside, Adalaya came to rise gingerly from her bed. Grabbing a fur pelt, she saw it wrapped around her shoulders and made her way outside. To her surprise there stood her brother and her aunt, arguing. She could not understand how Reia had come to recognize her but not her brother. "Raxseis?" She murmured, her hands falling away from the furs. He had come to find her, only him, honestly she would have expected nothing less. He turned his anger away from the old woman and began to focus on the soft call of his beloved. Reia's eyes grew wide as she heard his name spoken, her curiosity of who the man was, now sated.
The Prince made his way over to his sister, his arms wrapping around her tightly. She could feel her feet lift from the ground as he spun her, and in an instant, she urged him to stop. He sat her down kissing her sweetly, unsure of why she did not seem happy to see him. "Adalaya, you do not seem pleased to lay your eyes on me, why is this? I have traveled these horrid woods to find you." Her chin tucked into her neck as she gazed onto the soft soil beneath her feet. She could not find the words to say, nor could she tell him the truth. It seemed that now that he stood before her, the Princess had come to fear rejection. Reia took it upon herself to interject. "She is happy to see you, but a mother always worries for her child's safety before her own happiness." Her words came forward dark and grim, she did not like her nephew so far, his first impression had been less than pleasing.
"Child?" He began to say his hand moving to lift Adalaya's eyes to his own. "You, are with child?" She nodded, a small smile coming to grace her face. "It is yours, and our aunt believes it to be a boy." Pride beamed in her eyes, her head moving to rest upon his chest. The Prince stood stunned, this was the woman his father would speak to him about as a young boy. Beyond that, his sister had come to carry his first born. He could feel fire burning inside his chest, his stomach had come to ball into knots, he felt sick. He stepped away from her shaking his head in disbelief. "You can not be pregnant, we can never have a child." Adalaya began to tear up, her small hands moving to her flat stomach. "We have no other choice, you planted your seed my brother, and now it has come to grow and bloom. You love me, which means you will love this child right? We are all each other has, with the exception of our aunt."
Raxseis turned his back from her, his arms moving to fold across his chest. "I will take you home, and I will find a healer or cutwife to deal with this issue before father finds out." With that, he moved and took hold of her arm pulling her harshly through the drying leaves. She struggled against him, his grip was painful. Never had he grabbed her in such a way. "I will not go home!" "You will!" He pulled her around to face him his hand moving to her throat. "That thing you carry in your belly is the product of shame and sin. If you were to carry it to term, it would surely die! I do not understand why you would allow yourself to even let this happen!" He began to pull her once more, this time she lost her balance and fell stomach first onto the forest floor. "Let me go! Let me go now! I will not kill our child! When did you become so cold to me?!" He drug her not giving a single glance behind him. At last, she managed to free herself from his grasp, the sweat and oil about her wrist causing it to slip from his hand. She stood up and gathered her breathing, her hand coming to hold her stomach as a wave of pain began to surge through her.
The Prince turned around and went to grab her again, but this time, she saw him slapped against the jaw. The heat of her hand stung his flesh, the strike both shocking and painful. "You would dare raise a hand to me? After all, I have done for you?!" "I would see your head from your shoulders if you ever threatened our child again! You wish to place blame upon me? You have visited my bed since I was only thirteen years old! You taught me that this life was all I would ever know! And now you stand here wishing me to suffer more than the broken heart I now hold within my breast! Every misfortune that has ever come to befall us both was started by your hand!" Raxseis looked her over, then turned to meet the judgmental and vengeful gaze of his aunt. "Adalaya, that baby could kill you. You would die in childbed just like our mother. It would kill you, and I will not lose you because of my mistakes as a boy."
"I will not go! I wish to stay here, with aunt Reia. I am happy here, I have learned so much, and she actually cares about me. She lets me live and has never judged me, unlike you, our brother and our father." "Father sent me to find you, I told him I would, I promised him." "Then I suggest you break your promise because I will not go back. I will not return to the chains of misfortune being a woman has condemned me into. Tell him what you must, I died, you could not find my body. Either way brother, you will return either with a story of my death or my corpse. I would rather slit my own throat this night than return to those halls."
He was frozen, he could not believe her words. She had always been just a younger sister, a little girl he loved and had to protect. But here she stood, a woman, his child growing inside her womb filling her with fire and purpose. A purpose he could have never taught her. "I will give you three days to come to your senses, after that I will return and take you home willing or screaming. You do not belong here and you never will. If you do not submit, I will see that this witches house is burned to ashes, I will kill her and her rabid winged beast." The Prince turned from her and faded into the darkness. Adalaya watched him leave, her heart coming to break in her chest. She turned to her aunt weeping in her embrace. "I thought he would be so happy." "Men often times see their admiration for us fade when met with the unknown of a child. Do not weep girl, we must move on."
Reia wiped her tears away and whistled for her horse. "We must pack only what we need, your brother gave us three days, which means he will be here in the morning. We must flee these lands and venture into Vermillion City. I have a plan, but, I will need your help." Adalaya nodded. "What can I do?" Reia moved them both into the house and began gathering various herbs, powder, and tonics. "There is to be a race in Vermillion City in about half a moon. I had planned to go there alone, but, that was before you feel into my care. It is rumored that there is a dragon to be won by the rider of the fastest horse entered. I have a stallion, but I have yet to tame him. Your mother may have not amounted to much, but no one could hold a candle to her riding skills. She had such a way with animals, horses especially. If my assumptions are correct, I think she may have passed the power on to you."
Adalaya went about gathering bowls and jug of water, her stomach, at last, coming to settle from her fall. "A Dragon...to be won? Which means it is someone's slave?" "Yes. It is why I wanted to win that race, I know my stallion could, he just, has no rider. I also hold in my possession a dragon, but he is no slave. The one to be won in Vermillion is female, I was hoping to breed them." The Princess came to ponder the words she heard, she had ridden horses plenty of times but, she never actually felt comfortable. "I will do my best I suppose, how far is Vermillion City?" "About a four-day ride from here. But I have other plans to get us there quicker. When we leave this land, we must never return. If we do, I am certain I will die and you may as well." Adalaya looked to the direction of where her castle stood. "I will return, and when I do, I will set free all those who have been enslaved. Woman or Beast, I will grant them freedom. I want payment for the debts I have been left with, and I will see them paid."
The witch came to nod, she agreed, in fact, she had come to think up a similar plan herself. Those detail she kept held within her mind. "Come child we must go." The pair saw the pegasus saddled and placed their needed items upon it. After they both had come to mount, the mythical took to the sky and was off, camouflaged by the darkness of night.406Please respect copyright.PENANAcOHfJfq6SS