The sand rushed at him as he attempted to cross the desert upon horseback. He wrapped the garment of equal color to the sand more securely over his lower face and fixed the upper portion to protect his eyes at the same time to see more clearly in the distance.

He hastened his gallant steed to a faster gallop. He had to hurry. The love of his life hung in a delicate balance between certain death and a life forever with him. She was in the hands of his enemy. A cruel man that could not be trusted to keep his word.

As he finally entered the outskirts of the faraway city, he looked straight ahead; never giving the impression that he knew somebody else was following him. He pulled the clever white Arabian to a complete stop in front of his enemy's palace. There were no doors to the entrance of the palace, but he was not foolish enough to leave it unguarded.

A man in black robes walked out of the palace. "So Omura you chose to show." The man looked down the multiple stairs at Omura in an almost scared but mainly superior attitude.

"Yes I have Higen, now hand her over." Omura demanded clipping the arrogance out to make sure he didn't make Higen mad enough to make rash decisions.

"Do you have what I want?" Higen questioned sidestepping an answer to the most obvious question from Omura.

"Yes." Omura answered just as vague as Higen. The wind whipped off Omura's top portion of his sou'wester to reveal a head full of lush black hair, looking soft enough to want to run a hand through nonstop. There wasn't a stray gray hair on his young head.

"How old are you again, Omura?" Higen taunted descending the coral steps one at a time. Omura bit his tongue from lashing out at the older man. "And already a prince, hmm…" Higen mused. "So, answer the question."

"As you already know the answer, why should I?" Omura bit out cautiously.

Higen clicked his tongue. "Temper, temper, young man. That's not the way to speak to an elder, especially one that has an upper hand over you."

"Just because your older, doesn't mean your wiser or anywhere near as good as me, you know what they say, old age breeds slowness." It was rash, Omura knew, but anything less and Higen would start to suspect something else more than love was guiding him.

"You know, your future bride is very pretty, such a rarity in this part of the world." Higen reflected. "I wouldn't mind taking her for myself, except she has such a quick temper, just like you, the little spit fire. She won't last long here; perhaps you should take her back to her world. That is, if you behave yourself and do not anger me past my revenge and grudge against you."

"She has never done anything to you, let her go." Omura demanded. "She is an innocent and doesn't deserve this treatment."

"Wrong!" Higen shouted righteously. "She is no innocent, she knew what she was getting into by agreeing to marry you. She knows what you imply, what dangers she'd be in and while in my captive she expressed her anger in a way only a future queen would."

"She didn't know about you." Omura denied. "She agreed to marriage while still in another country unknowing about my lineage. As for her attitude, she was of high family in the third country, she knows how to act because of that. She is truly an innocent."

"Then it is your fault." Higen raised his nose aristocratically. "Now hand over what I want, and you will get what you want."

"I would like to see her first." Omura hedged.

They were finally face to face as Higen stepped to the last of the stairs. "Follow me." He said simply, not batting an eyelash in hesitancy.
Higen turned to his left and walked around the palace building, there in the middle of the square was Omura's love, he started for her but Higen cut him off. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why-" He stopped his sentence as he saw exactly why he shouldn't head for her, she was on a pedestal and around her neck was a small rope that almost looked like a thick necklace.

"It may not break her neck as fast as any other would do, but it will definitely strangle her slowly, and you will watch." Omura cast his eyes around slowly of the square looking for something to use to help him if things went sour. Higen smirked at the action; he knew what Omura was thinking. But all that was around the square were buildings and a little further off was the mountainside.

Omura ignored his little dig, and looked back at his love, who finally saw him. They locked eyes briefly and in hers was a terror that made his gut clench. He knew he was terrified for her life, he knew that all along, but he didn't know how much he buried his extent of terror until this moment.

He tried to keep his eyes from showing his fear, to keep her from getting even more concerned, but he should have known she would pick it up because suddenly the terror in her eyes were gone. A quick determinacy replaced her earlier feelings, as she tried to be strong for him. She was always the most receptive person he knew, and that was one of the reasons why he trusted her and her decisions so fully.
He tore his eyes away from her and looked behind her at the man leaning against the pole that held the rope around her neck. At any moment with an agreement from the man next to Omura and he'd kick the stool out underneath her.

Omura looked to see if she could find a way to slow the process down, but her arms were behind her back and another rope tied her arms to her sides. Omura swallowed slowly to make sure his nervousness didn't show to any one else as he turned to look at the man next to him.

If he had been the one in danger and about to die, he wouldn't be nearly as worried. He would have looked at it calmly as it was his turn to die if he couldn't get out of it. But with her life in his hands, everything complicated and became at once more important. "Bring her down and I'll give you what it is you want."

Higen shook his head. "You are in no position to make demands. Give me what I want, and you will take her down yourself."

"You will ensure safe passage out of the city and call off all your men following me and promise that you will not attack us again."

"I promise." Higen said quickly, a knowing smirk residing on his face. Omura didn't quite believe him, but it was better than nothing.

Omura sent one last look at his love. She mouthed the words "don't do it" in the language of her people, one only he had learned through months living in her country to try and set up a peaceful agreement with her ruler.

"I only have so long until my patience runs out. I had given you 2 days to get it and come with it to us." Higen cut through Omura's thoughts as he tried to speak with her of the unimportance of it compared to her.

"All right." Omura turned his head back to Higen, his eyes trained on both him and his love as he dug in his pocket for the object. Quietly he handed it over to Higen. "You got what you wanted, now call your people off."

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