How did I get so lucky? How was it possible for me to be here, with the most beautiful girl in the whole world lying in my arms, telling me she loved me? It had been so long since I had anything to live for. Anyone to protect, and I'd be damned if I'd let her go. I knew that, in an instant, I would give my life to save hers without a moment's pause. I wouldn't ever let any harm come to her. I had lost too many of those I loved already.
My mind wandered breifly to my family.
My father was a firm yet loving man with a strong will and a stupid amount of bravery. He, like Roning and now myself, was a leafman, and when Tara was first threatened by mandrake nearly fifteen years ago, he was one of the first to rush in to her aid. He took no thought of what harm might come to him. The number of the Boggans was too heavy. There were too many of them, and only a few that managed to get in ahead of the horde and get Tara out, but most, including my father, were not so lucky. He...he didn't make it out, and there wasn't any hope that he had survived. We all grieved his loss, but my mother most of all. She went mad. For days, she didn't eat or sleep. Most of the time, she didn't even move. She just sat, staring off into nothingness and leaving me and my sister on our own for days at a time. As time went on she got worse, and one day, I woke up to the sound of my little sister screaming at the top of her lungs. I rushed in to. Find our mother, sitting, hunched over in her chair, not moving, and not breathing. Ronin took us in after that, and for a while we achieved a state of normalcy. The storm had quelled, for the moment, only for a new tempest to rain down. A plague decsended upon our people. It ravaged the whole of Moonhaven, killing thousands. Among those that the plague destroyed was my dear, precious baby sister. She had been the only thing keeping me going, and now, not only was she gone, but I had to watch as the light faded from her eyes. She had been so happy and full of laughter, now replaced by sadness and ominous silence. Her skin grew pale and sickly, hair dull and lifeless, and no matter how much we made her eat, you could see every one of her ribs, and her face was so hollow it looked like that of a corpse. She coughed for what seemed to bw hours on end, became unable to stand, or even speak because of the pain it caused just to draw breath to do so. She died on her birthday. It was horrible, really. She had lost everything. Everything but me, and I lost her.
I couldn't lose M.K., no matter what, I had to protect her. I had lost too many people already, and losing her would probably kill me.
How dare that little she-devil?! No one wrongs me and lives. No one. I would have my revenge, those pathetic leafmen could be sure of it. The wench had slipped from my grasp, but it was no matter. I am a patient man, of that I was certain. I would let the little harlot have her moment of hope with the foolish leafman she was so infatuated with at the current time. Let her hope grow, soar, give her the illusion of safety. Of security. Peace of mind. Victory. And then crush it. A little hope is effective, too much is dangerous. A spark, if contained, is nice for keeping one warm, but, if set free, is good only for burning down a forest.
Yes, I could wait. I could be patient. For now. Let them have their reverie. Their little infatuation would never last, not if I was involved. I could tear down empired with a single word. Well, at least six of them. No pathetic Leaf Queen would stand in my way. I would have all I ever wanted and that was a fact to behold. I was a force to be reckoned with.
So it is to be war between us! This war is to rage with all the fires of hatred. Let the fire rain from the skies and smite all those in its path. Let you watch as your people die at your own hands. Let your people die because you are too selfish and stubborn to relinquish your pride and your self to save all of their lives, inluding that of your precious leafman. They will all die with the fire of my rage if you do not bow to my will. And so you will. All shall bow to me, and you will too. I shall have my beautiful world of frozen, dark, rotten putrification. No light shall be allowed to enter my domain. It will be eradicated like vermin along with those who dwell in it with their hideous happiness, now replaced with my wonderful misery and hatred. Two could play at this game. Let the battle rage. It will ravage the earth. Destroy all in its path.
My race will be reborn. Brought about to a new age by my hand. And if I am God, creator of all things by my own hand, what does that make you, my precious Leaf Queen?