Volume 01 — Of Past Lives and New Ones
A (RE) TELL OF AN OLD LOVE STORY
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"What is Honour compared to a woman's love? What is Duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms… or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory and our great tragedy."
— Maester Aemon Targaryen of the Night's Watch, Game of Thrones.
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Prologue: "Ten Years Ago..."
The room's door was opened by Ahrah as she ran from her father's grasp, giggling tenderly and yelling as she jumped towards her bed. She bounced and tossed around, waiting for her family.
"But— No! Dad!" Ben's cries were heard as her father threw her young brother to his bed.
"No 'buts', you little brat, it's bedtime." He stated, before attacking Ben with his fingers. "Or else the God of Tickles will punish you severely!"
"Hahaha! Dad— Stop!"
"If I stop, will you go to sleep?" Her father asked.
"Yes— Hahaha! I will— Dad!"
At that moment, Ahrah waited as her father grinned and hugged little Ben's form affectionately. Her ruby-red eyes noticed how Ben's head nodded at something their father murmured into his ear —a secret, perhaps, or another of their agreements that usually drove Mama to pull her father's ear from time to time.
"Okay, then…" He said, lifting himself from Ben's mattress.
Ahrah pouted when her father intended to walk away from their bedchambers. "Dad?"
He stopped and smiled at her as he turned around.
"Oh~ How could I forget about you, sweetie?"
She smiled as her dad marched towards her. He relaxed at the end of the mattress and outstretched his arms, expecting her.
"Come here, Ahrah." He expressed. "Come and give your dad a hug— oof!"
"I love you, daddy."
His arms wrapped her, and she felt his palms caressing her nape. She missed this warmth coming from his dad… a feeling she wished while he wasn't home.
"I love you too, my little huntress."
It was nearly midnight, she perceived. The full moon beamed vividly in the darkened sky, stars flickering too. It was past their bedtime, but her father had allowed them to stay up a little bit more for this moment. Ahrah knew that her mother would scold their father because of it, but it didn't matter to her… her dad was here, with her, after so much time apart, she would savour every bit.
"I have to go now, sweetie. I can feel that your mama is planing my doom as we speak."
Ahrah and Ben snickered at their father goofy grimace.
"Daddy… Um – can you stay for a bit?" Ben asked, covering his reddened face beneath the furs.
Dad breathed and nodded. "I... I think I can."
Ahrah saw as her dad stood up and grabbed the oil lamp from the nightstand, gazing at the golden flame dancing.
"C- Can you tell us a story?"
Ahrah smiled at her brother's request.
"Which one do you want to hear?"
"Ah, uh — oh! The one about the dungeon!"
Their father groaned. "The dungeon? But I already told you that story a million times, Ben."
Her brother sulked but said nothing.
"What about how you met mom?" Ahrah asked.
A sudden change in the mood made Ahrah regret suing a bedtime story, her eyes perceived how her father's eyes widened and, then, narrowed. He sniffed a bit too hard as he scratched his head.
"You want to hear it?" He asked, but before Ahrah or Ben could reply he continued. "It is a long story. Ah — well, as you asked for it, I'll tell you. But head my words, this isn't your ordinary love story. No. This story has bits of love, moments of bittersweet moments and heart-aching parts. This… My children… is a tale of an old love story of aeons past."