Hello, hello, its nice to see you all again here on this lovely day with us. Its been a while yes, but both authors are in school so patience is needed lol.
On and forward!
Aiden couldn't understand why his mate was pouting at him as he sat there looking at her. He had just come home after his shift, sitting down at the table for dinner and waited for his mate to make her appearance from the bread stand.
Of course she had come in, covered head to toe in flour, dough under her nails, and a pout on her face and stood before as she did now, pouting like a child.
He cleared his throat and looked up at Araie, calmly taking in her upset state. "Yes?"
She raised a brow and huffed. "The roof broke today." She sat down and crossed her arms. "I had to close down early and take all the bread to the Keep to see if they would like any." She bit her lip and sighed.
He took her all in. The roof caving wouldn't set her off like she was now. "And?" He urged her to go on, wanting to find the reason for her disdain.
She kept her pout and sighed. Suddenly it was no longer an adorable pout but a face of concern. "The Tuuli Thea is holding a banquet, for her sister and her new alistair: Ulyesses, to announce their relationship to the public and the court. All family members and nobles must attend." She ran her fingers delicately over her red braid. "Those are orders, not invitations."
Aiden now understood his mate's earlier mood, feeling is own turn sour. "Well, I will be there, do not worry."
"I love Ulyesses." She whispered. Aiden took his mate's hand and kissed it. "He is my only family left, Aiden, but he did things that made me want to hate him and I said things-" She swallowed. "I'm not ready face him yet."
Aiden didn't say it out loud but he hated Ulyesses. He held no respect, care, or feelings toward his new 'brother'. He took Araie away from him! He took advantage of Sadira and embarrassed the Shardae name. The day that he forgave Ulyesses would be the day that his love for Araie would fade. In his mind, that was never.
"You do not have to talk to him and I will be by your side the whole time and they will be to busy to notice our presence any way." He tried to reassure her but the look on her face said that other things were bothering her as well. "What are you not telling me?"
She looked up and sighed. "I thought I was with child."
Aiden sat up straight and leaned toward his mate more. "And?" He tried not to sound to excited but his tone gave him away and Araie bit her lip and shook her head. He leaned back into his chair again and tilted his head. "In due time I suppose."
"Oh gods, that will be forever." Araie threw herself at Aiden and he wrapped his arms around her. He leaned his head down and planted a chaste kiss on his mate's lips. She played with the buttons on his uniform. "So lets speed up the process."
Oh, his mate was a wonderful woman. He would make her forget all about her brother.
"For the love of- Salem! No!" Sadira ran after the toddler that was running away with her family tiara. It wasn't a tiara in all the sense but a gold head piece that had pearls and diamonds set in the band delicately. How Salem had gotten his little hands on it was beyond the hawk princess, but she was not in the mood to be chasing him around the Keep trying to retrieve it back.
The little serpiente prince giggled and stopped, turned, smiled, only to giggle again as he ran away. She felt her stomach roll and it took all of Sadira not to heave and continued after Salem in her ridiculously heavy dress that hid her growing stomach. Tonight was the banquet for her and Ulyesses to announce their pairing and Danica insisted that they be groomed to the point that they would shine. That included being dressed in super formal gowns.
Salem ran around a corner and Sadira groaned and looked up toward the ceiling. 'Alisdair...' She continued around the corner only to freeze and sneak back to hide behind the corner again.
There, in the middle in the hall way, in his formal uniform for the palace guard, was Ulyesses, holding Salem upside down, the tiara in his hand.
The babe was squealing and laughing while his little arms flayed around. Ulyesses chuckled and flipped him up properly in his arms and put the tiara on his head, making Salem laugh more.
"I am guessing that you stole this and you think you are very clever." Ulyesses patted Salem's back and nodded. "And that the owner is not going to be very happy when she finds you." He tossed Salem up in the air and caught him, only to toss him up again. Salem enjoying every moment of it.
Sadira watched with wonderment. He was an insensitive bastard, but the way he was enjoying Salem, made her heart warm. Soon that would be their child that he would be tossing up in the air and catching and coddling to his chest.
"Shardae, come get this piece of trash off my head before he remembers I have it." He said with out missing a beat and blew a raspberry on Salem's cheek.
That jackass. She frowned and made her appearance and held up her skirts as she advanced quickly toward them. "It is not trash, Opries. It is the tiara that your daughter will one day wear." She reached up and tried to retrieve it off the top of his head. Failing she sighed. "Please lower yourself. You are to tall."
He sighed and tilted his head down and Sadira went to retrieve it, only to have Ulyesses's hair entangle itself in one of the prongs that held a diamond in place. He hissed and tried to yank his head out of her grasp. Cuts, bruises, and broken bones were no problem for him, but a little bit of hair pulling? It was all over for Ulyesses Opries.
"Don't yank, it will only make it worse." She scolded. Salem giggled and slapped Ulyesses's cheek, thinking that it was a game.
"Gods Salem, what is your- ouch damn it, woman." Ulyesses felt his hair being tugged on again as Sadira tried to get the tiara out of his hair. "One day I am going to avenge this..."
Sadira tried not to laugh as Salem continued his assault on Ulyesses's face as she tried to untangle his hair. "Could your hair be any longer? This is out of control." She mumbled.
She could see him sneer and part of his face turning red from Salem's hand. Ulyesses reached up and gently grabbed Salem's hand. "Little bugger has a good hit."
"I hope it hurts." She slipped the tiara out of his hair and Ulyesses groaned in relief.
He continued to hold Salem and looked at Sadira with a glare. "Stay away from me tonight, I am not in a mood to put up with you being a bitch."
Sadira recoiled as if he had hit her and glared until Salem held up his arms and said: "Bitch!"
Ulyesses and Sadira stared at Salem in horror. Ulyesses put his hand over Salem's mouth. "No, no Salem, that is a bad thing to say."
"Ulyesses! You should watch what you say around him! What if he says it tonight?" Sadira took Salem out of Ulyesses's arms, despite his protests, and held him to her and turned away. "What are you going to do with this is our child?" She stormed around the corner, away from him.
She tried to keep her frustration down, but she wondered: would Ulyesses be a good father after all?
Luckily, Salem's bed time was early that evening, since he had cursed at his mother and now Irene was out for blood. She knew who had taught him that. The same man that taught her!
She moved through the crowd like she would through grass in her second form. She made it behind the dias were Zane was standing, with Danica, Nacola, Galen, and Rei. Some solider with very short hair was discussing something with Zane who was staring up at the man's head. Luckily Sadira wasn't there yet, as she was ill.
"Where is Esses?" She stormed over to Zane who looked at her like she was crazy and pointed to the man in front of him.
She looked at him confused and turned to look up at the man in front of them. Sure enough, it was him, but she tried not to cringe.
"What, in Maeve's name, happened to your hair?" She raised her brows. "You look so old..."
Ulyesses sneered. "Irene, if we weren't in a public area, I would whoop you a good one."
She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. "Oh? Not before I'd kill you! How dare you teach my son to say such things! He personally tested his new vocabulary on me this evening!"
The corners of Ulyesses's mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh. "Irene, I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about. He might of heard it from his mother, who's vocabulary is just as bad as any one else."
She hit his chest and heard Nacola voice her disapproval; she ignored her and crossed her arms, her mate by her side confused.
"Ulyesses Marcatous Opries, I am not an idiot! You taught me son to curse, just like you did to me!" She glared at him and walked away. "You look ridiculous by the way!"
Zane snickered and moved toward his mate who was watching with curiosity. "She's right you know, you look so old."
At that moment Sadira came from behind the thick curtains that were behind the dais, freezing when she saw Ulyesses who glared at her and turned his back away from her.
She tensed and moved stiffly around her mother and toward his side, standing there silently. The idiot cut his hair. She enjoyed his thick red hair. This was going against her, she knew, but did he have to be so malicous?
Yes, of course. She thought bitterly.
"Don't look so off princess," He whispered to her in a harsh tone. "I did it so you couldn't complain anymore."
She kept her mask on and moved on to the dais, followed by Ulyesses and their family members, excluding 2, but they were here. Ulyesses's eyes found his sister's right away and she was looking up at him with a blank expression. Next to her was her doting mate that looked at him with nothing less but hatred. Ulyesses silently cursed him and continued to follow his mate to the middle of the dais, where she stood like a statue, obviously hiding her discontent and nerves.
Sadira hated public speaking. She was glad it was something short and that Danica would be doing the rest of the talking.
She felt Ulyesses's eyes on her, but she avoided looking at him and continued looking out towards the crowd. She saw many faces she knew, others were strangers. Most of the people were avians, which she was grateful, but she saw some serpiente nobles and her new sister in law, you looked at her with a sad face. Sadira silently with her eyes tried to reassure the girl that she would be alright and then she looked at Aiden. She remembered when she went to Ulyesses that night to ask him about what it was like to be in love and he thought she was speaking of Aiden.
That would have been an easier life. She took a deep breath and looked away as her sister made her way in front of the other family members to speak. Of course I had to love the unreasonable Ulyesses, who wishes for me to disappear.
"Thank you for joining with us this evening. The Diente and I have the honors to announce a pairing, before the court and our people." Danica said to the crowd who was watching her,. Zane stood by her silently. "The announcement though has been delayed for quite a while, and we apologize, but we formally introduce princess Sadira Shardae and her alistair, Ulyesses Opries."
Ulyesses stepped forward with Sadira, keeping his own mask on so that know one knew that this was a forced arrangement.
Sadira could see some disapproval from the crowd, mostly from the avian side. She sighed and kept her gaze on the wall, where a sculpture of a woman with hawk wings was standing, staring straight back at her.
The group hesitantly applauded and Sadira took her sister's place and took a deep breath. "Yes, thank you. To celebrate, please follow us to the banquet hall, where musicians and food are waiting." She turned and waited for Ulyesses to come to her side as the family, excluding Nacola, filed off the dais.
Ulyesses took her arm and went to move, but Nacola stopped them and he felt Sadira waver. He felt that over protective surge like when Nacola had attacked Sadira the first time.
"I am not going to chastise you." Nacola spoke evenly. "But for the sake of our people, do not," She directed her golden gaze at Ulyesses. "Cause a scene. Danica has enough to deal with, you two not acting like adults should not be one of those issues." She turned and walked off the dais.
"She may be my new mother, but I truly dislike that woman." Ulyesses escorted Sadira off the platform.
"I have an idea. Let's not talk for the rest of the night." Sadira removed herself from his arm as soon as they were out of sight from the others and walked ahead of him.
"Good idea." He mumbled and turned, only to smack right into Araie who was trying to push past him to talk to Sadira.
"Ouch, why do you always have to do that?" She rubbed her forehead and glared up at him.
"Sorry." He avoided looking at her and went to move past her.
"Ulyesses." She turned and grabbed his arm. "Wait."
He turned his head and looked at her. "What?"
She nervously played with her hair, as she usually did, and looked up at him. "Those things, that I said, about you ruin mine and mama's lives...I didn't mean it." She looked away.
He scoffed and shook his head. "With all the things said to me as of late Araie, I feel like I ruin every person I encounter lives. You did mean it, or you wouldn't have said it." He turned away and continued walking. "Go back to that idiot of a mate of yours and live happily ever after."
Araie ran after her brother, who was making his way out of the hall, the other way of the banquet. "Ulyesses! Stop!"
He continued on, ignoring her. She could feel the tears in her eyes and the sadness as her brother continued to walk away from her. She knew Aiden was not that far behind her, but for once she just wanted to be away from him for just a while.
She followed Ulyesses out of the Keep and into what looked to be a court yard. He was standing, looking up at the sky, totally ignoring her presence.
"Ulyesses, please, I know what I said was mean, but come on, I was angry. You took me away from my home and my friends-"
"What friends Araie? After mama died we had nothing here. I didn't even know Sadira was with child and she hid it from me, by the way, and that bird brained idiot you called a mate was the one who was ordered to arrest me a while ago, we had problems before you two were twiddling around. Now, go away. You made it clear you didn't want me around." He walked a couple of steps away from her.
''I know your hurt, really hurt Esses. I know when Sisal died, you blamed yourself for not being able to save her and I couldn't imagine holding my child as it died," She paused as she swallowed tears. She could see the image of her brother, coming back from the battle field, carrying a bundle of blankets with a babe inside of them, not even coherent as he tried to explain he couldn't save his daughter and how it was all his fault. She saw even now that he felt that same pain. "I know watching our brothers die and then mama...I know, I lost them too, but please, don't shut me and Sadira out. Especially her, she loves you so much and I wish you could actually see how much you hurt her. Please, you have to move on, its making it worse."
Ulyesses shook his head. "No, Araie, I bet you can't imagine what it feels like to watch the woman you love be killed in front of you. I didn't want to tell you, but it was your mate who put his knife into Sisal. I hate that man. You don't even know what its like seeing your sister with your lover's killer. You don't know what it is like when you cut open her womb to save a life that you knew was gone with its mother and my sister is frolicking with her killer."
Araie stood frozen, trying to keep her breath even. "Aiden wouldn't do that."
Ulyesses's turned around, eyes blazing and jaw clenched, speaking through teeth. "No, because he is a saint. Araie, I am trying to move on but every day is a reminder is that I failed Sisal and my daughter, my unborn daughter. Now go home." He stalked past her and back into the Keep.
Araie stood on shaking legs. Aiden would have never killed a pregnant woman...but Sisal had been his enemy, and the whole point of the war was to wipe out the royal lines. Why wouldn't he? But the thought of her mate plunging a knife into her late sister in law's swollen belly made her retch.
"Araie! I tried to get to you earlier, but you moved-what is wrong?" Aiden came to her side and touched her arm. She looked at his hand and stared at it before moving away from his touch. He looked at her confused as tears fell down her face. "Araie, whats wrong?"
She shook her head. "Please tell me you didn't do it." She held her hands to her chest, trying to keep calm. Ulyesses was wrong, he just wanted her to hate Aiden, to tear them apart.
Aiden stepped closer and cupped her face and wiped the tears away. "What? Did what?" He whispered softly as she shook her head.
"Did you kill Sisal Cobriana?" She asked in a broken tone.
Aiden felt the dread washing over him. He knew one day his demons would come to haunt him. The ones on the battle field were the ones he regretted the most. He looked at his mate, trying to find the words to break it to her that was the real reason for her brother's hatred towards him. He swallowed down his fear of her rejection and nodded.
She covered her mouth and stepped away from him. He tried to grab her hand but she yanked it away from him. "How could you? Aiden, she was pregnant! With my brother's child, she was looking for him! What did she do to deserve that?"
Aiden ran a hand through his hair. "War is an ugly thing Araie, and sadly I can't take back for what I have done."
"But my brother..." Araie covered her face. "Why did you not tell me? Why did I have to find out this way?"
He threw up in hands in frustration. "What was I going to say? I love you so much, your my world, but I killed Sisal Cobriana?"
She shook her head and looked at him, her brows knit closely together. "You have to apologize to Ulyesses, or I won't ever have my family together."
Aiden scoffed. "Araie, if I apologized to him I doubt it would change anything and why does it matter if him and I get along?"
"Because it hurts him that I am your mate!" She shouted. She looked around only to see a few guards by the entrance to the Keep. "My brother needs closure, so that he can accept Sadira and the life ahead of him."
Aiden looked at Araie doubtfully. "I think that his issues with moving on goes beyond my apology." She stared at him like he had slapped her. She turned away from him and went toward the entrance.
"If you don't do it, we won't be able to move on. Make up your mind if you want me or not."
The banquet was slow. Ulyesses had not reappeared and Sadira felt embarrassed as she sat alone at the main table, her sister and Zane beside her. Zane was looking out in the crowd and had sent a palace guard to personally look for Ulyesses.
When asked, Danica had explained that he was not feeling well earlier and was probably resting before coming back down. Sadira couldn't handle her sister lying to their people and she could see the doubt on their faces.
"He's not coming back, Dani." Sadira looked down at her plate and straightened her napkin. "I think he'll be gone for the night."
Danica kept her voice low and leaned toward Sadira. "I will handle it."
"No." Sadira looked at her sister. "It will only make him angry."
Danica sighed. "Look at what he is doing, Sadira, this is terrible." She turned her head towards a guard making his way through the crowd. He stopped and said something in Zane's ear before going back into the crowd.
Zane leaned over. "Ulyesses isn't in his chambers. He might be at the training ground."
Sadira stood up and set her napkin down. "I will be back. Tell them whatever you like." Sadira made her way to the back of the banquet hall so that she could sneak out with out being noticed to much.
It was cold out side, to Sadira anyway and she could feel the rain coming. She kept a steady pace and she didn't care about the hem of her dress getting dirty. It was the least of her worries.
She could hear banging and clanging from the top of the hill before descending down into the training grounds. She stopped shortly when she saw Araie sitting on the side of the hill, watching as her brother demolished a dummy meant just for what Ulyesses was doing.
"Araie, its been a while." She watched as the girl looked on, her red curls falling around her body like a blanket and her emerald eyes holding many emotions.
"I wouldn't go down there right now, he is really upset." Araie warned. She saw her new 'sister' stand stiff and glower at the man down below.
"He is humiliating me and my family as well as yours." She crossed her arms. "He is being completely unreasonable."
"Have you ever thought that maybe the pressure you are putting on him maybe the reason he is acting this way?" Araie looked up at Sadira and patted the earth beside her. "He might just need a minute before you can storm down there."
Sadira frowned but sat on the ground that Araie was holding for her. "He is a grown man and he made these decisions; I hold no remorse for him."
Araie moved herself so she could face Sadira more. "Yes, he is a grown man, and yes he made some foul, foul decisions but," She looked down at her brother. The rate he was moving and all the weapons he was using for his destruction, there would be no dummies for tomorrow's Flight practice. "He is suffering and he is being pressured to move on, has been since he returned on that forsaken day. He never got to properly morn for Sisal, his daughter, or even father and our brothers. He is angry at himself."
Sadira watched as her alistair removed his jacket and retrieved a bow. "Does he really blame himself for those deaths?"
Araie sighed and held herself. "Yes. You have no idea what happened that day. I know you have lost siblings and parents and friends to the war, but you can't even imagine having your eldest brother come home, covered in her blood and holding his dead daughter, claiming that it was his fault and he couldn't save her."
Sadira stared at Araie mortified. He had tried to save the child from her dead mother's womb? Sadira held her stomach and looked at her mate. "No I can't comprehend that."
"He only has the bow now, I think that you can go down there now." She watched as her brother fired shots at trees, dirt and anything else hittable.
"No...I'll leave him be and catch him when he comes back. Araie..." She stood up. The red headed girl stood with her and looked at her, waiting for the princess to speak again. "Thank you."
Araie was confused. What had made the princess hawk change her mind? But she nodded her head and watched as the pregnant princess made her way back to the Keep.
Dang! That was long, but here you go! Review!
