WIND WARRIORS

Chapter Two: So we meet again.

(Merle)

Rafer and I were never friends.

That was always very clear in my mind. I'll go as far as to say that I hated him... ever since he burned my hair when I was seven and he was nine I had hated him with passion. Fast forward twelve years and we still hated the likes of the other... though it had been two years since we last saw each other.

It was April; we had been out of Cloud City since the previous December. In the last few years the Braeden had started to call their kingdom Terra and they had only one thought in mind: Expansion. They thought Seaside and Fireland were too well protected so they turned their sight north to our Valley. As part of the King's Guard I traveled to Terra with King Roger to negotiate a peace treaty.

We were, by no means, prepared for a full on war... we had had enough trouble keeping the King Bolek's Army out of the Unicorns Forest – the most direct path to our Valley. We were desperate to keep the peace. Being that so, King Roger found himself in a "between a rock and a hard place" position and gave a lot of concessions to Bolek... such as Prince Blake coming to our court as an "advisor".

When we had made it to the Romney Forest, we were an hour away from Cloud City...

"I'm telling you, Donovan, I'm getting too old for this." King Roger declared.

"You're young yet, Roger; though I'll admit that these trips seem longer each time." My father, Sir Donovan Raleigh, said.

"All I have to say is that I'm glad Rafer is coming home soon. I look forward to delegate some responsibilities on him... though I know is still a long shot till I can abdicate... Rafer is not prepared to be king. His mother spoiled him rotten and gods forgive me, I gave him too much freedom."

"Well, I'm not one to talk about spoiling or giving too much freedom... I let Marit go and I let Merle stay. I let them do what they wanted instead of what was better."

"But things turned out good for your girls."

"You could say, I guess... still, I have daughter who all she knows about responsibility is how to spell the word and other that acts like a 40 year old trapped in a teen body."

"Father, please..." I said tiredly.

We had had that argument a lot of times. Dad used to say that ever since my mom died I drove myself like a load lifter: always pushing myself to do more... he used to say that my only answer to pain was to keep too busy to notice. Dad was right, of course, but I wasn't about to admit it.

"Okay, okay... but don't think I've changed my mind, young lady!"

"I know, dad."

"Close circle around the king!" William called riding from the rear end of the column. "We are being followed."

I spun around pulling at the bow and arrow in at my back, "Where?" I asked. Will knew what I meant, he pointed toward a dense part of the forest at my right. I took my shot and soon after we heard a "Damn!!!" coming from where my arrow had landed.

I didn't recognize the voice. Will, Mike and I dismounted and walked into we came face to face with a man in his early twenties, my arrow had caught in the hood of his robe and was pinning him to the three at his back.

"Who are you?" Mike asked.

"Why, sir, I'll give you my name if you give me yours." The man answered, his voice dripping derision.

"I believe he asked first." I said, "Plus, we are the ones with weapons, we ask the questions."

"Says who?"

"Say the general law of all nations." I said, my own voice matching the derision on his.

"When my father finds out about this..." he said.

"When I find out what?" I heard King Roger asking at my back. "Rafer! What are you doing alone, in the forest, at this hour – so close to twilight – and following us?"

"I was on my way to the Palace," Rafer said, "I heard your horses and decided to come and join you and your knights since I thought it was getting late and one shouldn't wander alone in the forest at night."

"That doesn't explain why you were traveling without escort in the first place," King Roger said reproachfully, "But we will talk about that later. Merle, dear, would you mind retrieving your arrow?"

I moved to take my arrow –and un-pin Rafer Windam from the three – but I soon realized the arrow was way out of my reach. Rafer was at least six feet tall, I was barely five ft four and not even jumping could I get to the arrow stuck above his head.

"Do you want me to fetch you a box, Merle dear?" Rafer asked sardonically.

I narrowed my eyes at him but before I could say something else, Will reached from behind me and retrieved my arrow. In doing it so, Will's elbow 'accidentally' hit Rafer's head in the back of the head.

"Let's better get going then." my dad said.

"I lost my horse about two miles ago; I dismounted to rest and the stupid animal just ran."

"That's why you always have to travel with a spare horse, Rafer." My father said kindly as one of the elder knights approached guiding one of the spare horses we had took with us on our trip. "Now, I for one don't want to be stuck in the forest after the sun sets so let's get moving."

"Yes, lets." Rafer agreed. "I've heard this Forest is haunted."

"Haunted?" King Roger asked.

"Yes, people say that you can hear a woman's cry at night. People say that some maiden mourns her dead loves at night in this forest. I personally don't want to stay and verify if the stories are or are not true."

I laughed. "Is our baby prince afraid of the big bad ghosts of the forest?" I said while mounting my horse.

"I heard that." Rafer said with scorn.

"It wasn't a secret." I retorted.

"Kids! Please, shut up!!!" both my dad and King Roger yelled at the same time.

Rafer shrugged and moved forward, his horse falling into step next to his father's, I stayed behind with Mike and Will.

Growing up- before Rafer got sent away- we used to fight a lot. Day and night, seven days a week all year long. Dad and King Roger used to say that we gave them more headaches and King Bolek himself.

As we rode to the city, I started to remember many of our fights... we had called each other every name imaginable and done all sorts of things to annoy the other... but we weren't kids anymore, all I had to do was take a good look at Rafer for that to be all too clear.

Rafer was taller now, his hair hanging an inch or so above his broad shoulders, and his steel-gray eyes –that rarely reveled emotion of any kind - framed by long dark lashes... Rafer had always been a good looking boy, but now he looked more like a man and he was lethal. I was sure no woman in the Windam Valley court would be safe from him – well except for me but I knew better than to be fooled by his good looks.

We arrived to the palace just after the sun set. We were greeted warmly by the court – Queen Dana even wept while she hugged her husband and son. Father and I declined staying for diner at the palace and decided to go back to our home in the outsides of the City.

"You should move to the Palace, Donovan," King Roger told my father, "There is plenty of room here, Merle and you would be comfortable here."

"Your offer is kind, but I like my home." Dad answered as usual and as usual I was glad... our house was the only place where I could still feel my mother's presence and I wasn't willing to lose that.

"Hey! Mer, are you making big breakfast tomorrow?" Will asked, he and Mike always show by the house when I make what they call "Big Breakfast" which is an 'all you can eat' basically. And I have to put up with them because they are my cousins and I sort of love them...

"Yes, I'm making big breakfast tomorrow, but service last till noon." I said rolling my eyes. "And if you two show up drunk I'll slam the door in your faces."

"We wouldn't dare!" Mike exclaimed outraged. "What makes you thing such horrid thing of your two lovable cousins."

"That you did show up drunk last time?" My dad said smiling.

Dad really liked Mike and Will, I guess that deep down he always wanted to have sons... but he only had Marit and me. Mom died before she could give him more kids.

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I woke up early the following morning. I rarely slept anymore... and when I managed to doze off, even the smallest sounds could wake me up. I never saw much of a point in staying in bed looking at the ceiling so I bathed and changed into fresh clothing – as a soldier, warm baths and clean clothes were some of the things I came to appreciate – and went out to the market.

As usual after returning from a trip with the King's Guard, I was having a bit of a hard time re-adjusting to just being a daughter and not a knight. We had a week free before Prince Blake came and we were called to duty again. And I was set to enjoy myself.

But three things happened that made me suspect that my free week wasn't going to be so much fun after all.

The first thing was that, we I arrived from the market, there were about ten trunks outside our house, I soon learned they belonged to Marit, who had decided to come back home. She said she missed us, but I found out from a reliable source that she had been part of a little scandal in the Seaside social season – apparently Marit had her eye on a young lord, and it looked like he was going to propose to her but at the last minute it turned out that said lord chose to marry Marit's best friend: Noelle- heartbroken and in shame, Marit decided to come back to the home she had left ten years before.

At first I thought it was a good thing to have my twin back... I really did until it became all too clear that Marit had exactly nothing in common. Still, while I cooked, she sat in the kitchen table and told me all about a bunch of people I didn't know and didn't care about and all the while I could feel the back of my skull tightening. My sister was the ultimate chat hound.

Then, little before eleven, Mike and Will arrived with, oh surprise, Rafer.

"Did you think I was going to miss the opportunity to make your life miserable?" He said when I almost slammed the door in his face while asking what the hell he was doing at MY house. "Think again, dear."

Okay, so I had to feed Rafer too. Rafer who spend most of the meal saying how he had tasted better food at this place or that place and offering 'friendly' advice to improve my cooking. I took all my will power not to spit on his food... though I did have a little fun by 'accidentally' dropping a plate of eggs on him.

All in all, those things – Marit's and Rafer's sudden visits. I could handle.

What nearly drove me into drinking was the look on Marit's face when she sat at the dining room table and her eyes landed on Rafer. One look at her and I saw that she was sick with puppy love for Rafer... and Rafer, I must say, didn't look like he was all too indifferent towards Marit.

And I sat there – my breakfast about to come right up my throat – thinking that if I didn't do something quick, I just might end up being Rafer's sister in law!

But what could I do to prevent such fatality?

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End of Chapter Two

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Author Note:

Okay, I'm not so happy with this but what can one do? I hope this to get better soon.

Any questions just post, I'll answer.

Just keep in mind that Merle and Rafer go way, way back... that's why they are that way with each other.