As promised, a few days!
Heh. I like this chapter.
Brilliant fingers of color stretched across the blue-grey sky like the veins of a maple leaf: orange and pink streaks that faded to purple at the tips and sneaked behind the occasional cloud splashed with gold. The day was transfixed in a stunning moment of half-life as it was bathed in the mystical rose-hued light that streamed over the trees, leaving half of them in deep shadow. The undulating grass rippled, as if the waves of light were moving their tiny heads.
Nre leaned back against Carvin's chest with her eyes half closed, hardly noticing the sunset that they had come out to watch. She was preoccupied with the gentle movement when he breathed and the electrifying path of his fingers through her hair. Carvin leaned against the tree, a contented smile on his face as he cherished the moment.
"You know what I was thinking today?" Nre asked, her soft voice blending smoothly with the quieting noise of the gathering dusk.
"What's that?" Carvin asked, voice equally soft.
"I was thinking about Iain and that adventure."
Carvin's fingers paused for only a split second before resuming the pattern.
"Oh?" he asked cautiously.
"Mhm. I was wondering; why did you come after me? I mean, there were search parties out..."
"Oh, that," Carvin said, relieved that she wasn't going to go into despondent reminisces. "I felt I was... " –he struggled for the right words– "duty bound, if you will."
"Duty?" she echoed, opening her eyes and turning her head slightly.
"Yes," he said, apparently not noticing or else misinterpreting the undertone to her voice. "In the name of honor, you know."
"In the name of honor," Nre said flatly.
Carvin picked up on the tone this time and hastily added to his statement.
"I was worried about you but I didn't know you very well so – you were to be my wife and – "
"Right," she said shortly.
"What's wrong?" Carvin asked, biting his lip with the nagging felling that he'd botched something up.
"Nothing. Hey, I'm getting cold. I'm going to go inside, alright?"
"Okay," he said hesitantly, pulling his fingers through her hair one last time before letting her get up.
"I love you," he said tentatively as she rose.
"Love you too," she murmured, walking back toward the palace.
Less than an hour later, Carvin was leaning against the door and feeling quite agitated as he looked on his wife, sitting on the bed with her arms crossed.
"Nre."
"No."
"Nre, please--"
"No."
"Why are you being so stubborn?"
"Why do you care?"
"What's wrong?" Carvin asked through gritted teeth for the hundredth time that evening.
"You should know," Nre said stonily, gazing out the window at the pinpricks of stars.
"Was it something I said?" he asked, shuffling his feet a little – a nervous habit.
"Was it?" she shot back nastily.
"Nre!" he said, barely quelling his mounting frustration. "Was it something I said about being, erm, duty bound to come after you?"
" 'In the name of honor,' " she quoted bitingly. "And that was the only reason, wasn't it?"
"N-no, not the only," he insisted so fast he tripped over his tongue, "just the most urgent."
Bad move. Very very bad. Correct immediately!
"The most important!" she said, whirling around and fixing him with an icy stare.
Too late.
"Honor and duty are more important to you than family, that much is obvious!"
Carvin stopped his hasty retort in shock of that accusation. Nre took his speechlessness as a sign that she'd called him on the carpet and allowed a trace of a smug expression to light her angry face.
"I most certainly – by the crown – they – they are not!" Carvin said quite loudly upon regaining the use of his tongue. "You were to be my wife! I was worried about you!"
"Or about the dishonor you would bring upon your family if I was never found, more like," Nre countered, her voice also rising in volume.
"How dare—" Carvin paused to steady his temper. "Do you doubt my honesty, Nre? Do you doubt my love for you?"
"Never," she said with a cynical smile, "only their order of importance in your mind. You tried to rescue me to bring honor to your name, I understand; I know how you think."
"Don't assume to know anything if this is where your logic leads you!" he shouted, appalled.
"Now you're getting defensive, when I reveal your mind for what it is!" she yelled triumphantly.
"And what is it?" he challenged, eyes glinting.
"Self centered, warped, and unfeeling, using all emotion merely for gain!" she exclaimed, as though that was obvious. "What a father you'll make!"
"Then it's a good thing I'm not one!" he snapped acidly.
"You have six months," Nre snarled in a deathly hush.
"There's--" he had been about to say 'there's no hope for me' but had paused when what Nre said registered.
"What? Six months?"
"Aye," she said, gritting her teeth.
She looked at him for a split second more before she fled from the room, leaving Carvin in a state between fury and elation.
"I – six mo – father?" Carvin said, his voice cracking on the last word.
Final word count: 868
In addition to this chapter, I have a proposal and some possible good news, if you like reading my stuff. I'm not actually taking a break (--muttergrumble--) because Cimh has convinced me to write something with her. Now. So, we've got a rough draft of the first chapter and we'll be posting it soon.
It's going to be about Gloria (Nre's mom) in her younger days, when she and Jared (Carvin's dad) were best friends and how she meets up with Prince Thomas (Nre's father, obviously). Prince Thomas is the typical insufferable arrogant prince. It will be interesting to write him -- I'm already having fun.
So, look for that under the title of "Not All Princes are Nice"
