p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Johnny's POV/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So in a nutshell that is how I ended up here, with a beautiful, if not feral woman pointing her blaster at my crotch. Don't get me wrong, I didn't justspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"immediately /spansurrender for me, oh no. I am responsible for what I, and a lot of women around the Quad consider to be precious cargo. From the blood staining her wedding dress I guessed that she could use that blaster, so I did the only thing I could do, I talked my way out of it. I spun a tale of heroics and bravery to this woman in hopes that she would lower her blaster and let me go- remembering me only as a love struck fool who dared to try. "Alright thief, let's go", she said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Dutch's POV/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Khlyen would be after me soon. He would have to clean up the mess he made at my wedding because even with his connections the scene he made with the 9 took time to deal with, but once he was done I knew that he could come for me. He would make me do it again, get close to someone- make them trust me, love me even then he would do, "whatever is necessary Yala" and I couldn't do it anymore! Ispan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" can't/span do it anymore. I got too close to the mark on this job, I got emotionally involved and I fell in love, or as close as someone like me could come to it. With him I was happy, I imagined that Khlyen couldn't get to me anymore and that I was free with my prince to protect me, but I knew now that, that was just a dream. Now I was fleeing my home and my name, I could no longer be Yalena, the princess of the family Yardeen because Yala had always been a pawn in someone else's game. I had spent my life learning to be a warrior, for my father or Khlyen I wasn't sure, but the only real choice I had ever made for myself was when I decided to marry my prince instead of leaving him like Khlyen had wanted to. Judging by the groom's blood on my dress I can't say that it went well and now I needed to become someone different, someone who was strong enough to deal with what had just happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""You need to leave, I'm getting married soon!" Yala said in her wedding dress./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Don't get marry, run away with me. To me you are my moon,my stars and my sun; you are my world and I need you in my life. I could not live this life without you, I am irrevocably- /strongstrong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"inconsolably/strongstrong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" in love with you, Yalena of the house Yardeen. Just come with me, please!" he said./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I'm sorry" Yala said, "but I can't go with you. I am about to marry the man that I love, a man I hope loves me as much as you claim to. I think it's time for me to go, you should be leaving too." /strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"As I walked down the steps to meet my groom I hoped that I made the right choice, I detest all of the ceremonies and formalities I'd had to go through for this wedding. Part of my dislike for it all was that when I was growing up in a harem with a hundred other royals there weren't any banquets to attend or personas to construct like, the harem was nothing like living with the 9. Yes my childhood was unusually, but at least there was that. I started to walk down the aisle and as was tradition leaves covered the floor and branches framed the narrow aisle, it was supposed to remind us that as even as two people pledged themselves to each other, in this life and in any other, mother tree connected us all, beyond even marriage./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Seeing my prince at the end of the aisle I knew that I had made the right decision, going through with the ceremony. "I'm glad you came" he whispered so that the Scarback could not hear us, "still kind of wish that you had run away with me, but seeing you walk down that aisle was worth it". "You were the one that wanted the ceremony!" I whisper-yelled, "and what were you doing coming up to my room like that?!" Even though she was yelling the love for him was evident in her eyes./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""And the roots grew. /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Like our one world orbiting it's moons, so shall this man and this woman be connected. Forever bound, the love you share pulling you together like gravity. And as you rise together mother tree's branches will hold you, one mind shared by two souls. By mother tree's grace, even death shall not divide you, for when you dies her roots shall carry you home to your other half./span span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Praise the trees." The Scarback said, nearly finished with the binding ceremony./span/strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Yala looked at her prince seeing nothing but his love for her reflected in his eyes, then she watched in confusion as the light drained out of the eyes she loved so much. When she looked down all she could see was blood soaking through his shirt and staining her hands as she tried to stop the bleeding. Looking behind him she saw Khlyen, a smoking blaster in his hand./span/strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Yala woke up screaming, the thief threw himself through her door a moment later, his eyes scanning the room for what had made her scream. Dried tears staining her cheeks, she was ready to attack at any moment. Terrified, she was not yet free the memory she had woken up from./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So in a nutshell that is how I ended up here, with a beautiful, if not feral woman pointing her blaster at my crotch. Don't get me wrong, I didn't justspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"immediately /spansurrender for me, oh no. I am responsible for what I, and a lot of women around the Quad consider to be precious cargo. From the blood staining her wedding dress I guessed that she could use that blaster, so I did the only thing I could do, I talked my way out of it. I spun a tale of heroics and bravery to this woman in hopes that she would lower her blaster and let me go- remembering me only as a love struck fool who dared to try. "Alright thief, let's go", she said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Dutch's POV/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Khlyen would be after me soon. He would have to clean up the mess he made at my wedding because even with his connections the scene he made with the 9 took time to deal with, but once he was done I knew that he could come for me. He would make me do it again, get close to someone- make them trust me, love me even then he would do, "whatever is necessary Yala" and I couldn't do it anymore! Ispan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" can't/span do it anymore. I got too close to the mark on this job, I got emotionally involved and I fell in love, or as close as someone like me could come to it. With him I was happy, I imagined that Khlyen couldn't get to me anymore and that I was free with my prince to protect me, but I knew now that, that was just a dream. Now I was fleeing my home and my name, I could no longer be Yalena, the princess of the family Yardeen because Yala had always been a pawn in someone else's game. I had spent my life learning to be a warrior, for my father or Khlyen I wasn't sure, but the only real choice I had ever made for myself was when I decided to marry my prince instead of leaving him like Khlyen had wanted to. Judging by the groom's blood on my dress I can't say that it went well and now I needed to become someone different, someone who was strong enough to deal with what had just happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""You need to leave, I'm getting married soon!" Yala said in her wedding dress./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Don't get marry, run away with me. To me you are my moon,my stars and my sun; you are my world and I need you in my life. I could not live this life without you, I am irrevocably- /strongstrong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"inconsolably/strongstrong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" in love with you, Yalena of the house Yardeen. Just come with me, please!" he said./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I'm sorry" Yala said, "but I can't go with you. I am about to marry the man that I love, a man I hope loves me as much as you claim to. I think it's time for me to go, you should be leaving too." /strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"As I walked down the steps to meet my groom I hoped that I made the right choice, I detest all of the ceremonies and formalities I'd had to go through for this wedding. Part of my dislike for it all was that when I was growing up in a harem with a hundred other royals there weren't any banquets to attend or personas to construct like, the harem was nothing like living with the 9. Yes my childhood was unusually, but at least there was that. I started to walk down the aisle and as was tradition leaves covered the floor and branches framed the narrow aisle, it was supposed to remind us that as even as two people pledged themselves to each other, in this life and in any other, mother tree connected us all, beyond even marriage./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Seeing my prince at the end of the aisle I knew that I had made the right decision, going through with the ceremony. "I'm glad you came" he whispered so that the Scarback could not hear us, "still kind of wish that you had run away with me, but seeing you walk down that aisle was worth it". "You were the one that wanted the ceremony!" I whisper-yelled, "and what were you doing coming up to my room like that?!" Even though she was yelling the love for him was evident in her eyes./strong/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""And the roots grew. /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Like our one world orbiting it's moons, so shall this man and this woman be connected. Forever bound, the love you share pulling you together like gravity. And as you rise together mother tree's branches will hold you, one mind shared by two souls. By mother tree's grace, even death shall not divide you, for when you dies her roots shall carry you home to your other half./span span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Praise the trees." The Scarback said, nearly finished with the binding ceremony./span/strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Yala looked at her prince seeing nothing but his love for her reflected in his eyes, then she watched in confusion as the light drained out of the eyes she loved so much. When she looked down all she could see was blood soaking through his shirt and staining her hands as she tried to stop the bleeding. Looking behind him she saw Khlyen, a smoking blaster in his hand./span/strong/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Yala woke up screaming, the thief threw himself through her door a moment later, his eyes scanning the room for what had made her scream. Dried tears staining her cheeks, she was ready to attack at any moment. Terrified, she was not yet free the memory she had woken up from./p