Chapter 14: Memory

A little purple haired girl ran with her black haired brother. The little girl's hand was hold almost painfully tight by her brother, she didn't understand why they were running, but something told her not to stop.

The little girl wore a small knee long gray dress with a laced edge, she was barefoot, just like her brother who wore a dusty white shirt and worn pants.

"Raven, you gotta keep up." Her brother said as he felt her fall behind.

"Aaron, I can't…" Raven fell to the ground, her body shaking from both being wet from the rain and exhaustion.

"Raven, you gotta. Or else they're going to find us…" Aaron looked around worried, before looking down on his little sister. "I know this is hard, but… You can't give up." He lifted her chin to face him. "We have to get away from him."

Raven nodded before climbing onto her feet, she swayed a few times before Aaron sighed. He lifted her onto his back and began to run again.

"Look out for anything, I'll focus on getting us out of here." Raven nodded as she looked around.

Aaron ran for a long while, his feet was slowly giving out. He had almost lost the feeling in them, the cold water from the soaked forest floor didn't help. He had to stop multiple times to catch his breath, when he did so he asked Raven if she'd seen anything.

Aaron placed Raven on the ground, he needed to sit down for a second, they walked over to an old hollow tree. The tree was big enough to fit them both and it was dry. They couldn't risk making fire so instead Aaron made sure Raven wasn't freezing, he didn't think it would help, but he took off his shirt and placed it around Raven. The shirt was wet, but enough to hopefully keep her warm.

She shook her head. "No, you need it." She handed it back to him, only for him to take it and wrap it around her.

"You need it more, I'll be fine." He rubbed his hands together. "I may not make a big fire, but I can make a small one." He made fire form in his hands. He held it down so both could get enough warmth from it.

"Aaron? Why are we running again?" Raven asked as she lifted her hands to the fire.

"Father wants us to take over the empire, I can't take over as a leader of slavery and if I were to run away on my own, you'd be the next in line. I don't want you to be like him." The small fire died from Aaron exhaustion.

He leaned back against the dead bark. "I don't even get how mother fell for him? I mean he's an emperor of slaves. Half our kingdom is slaves…" He felt Raven snuggle up under his arm.

"Maybe we should stay the night?" She suggested.

"No, we'll rest a little bit, but we can't stay the night. They'll find us easier if we run in the day and we're still close enough to the empire's walls. I don't want you to get hurt Raven…" Aaron kissed her forehead and noticed that she had fallen asleep.

Not even ten minutes later Aaron had fallen asleep himself.

When they woke up again, Raven had no memory of what had happen. But Aaron remembered. They were caught.

Aaron had felt someone pull them out of the hollow tree, he tried to fight them, but was put under a sleeping spell. The last thing he heard was the captain of the guard. "We found them, the duke and duchess*, one tried to fight but we put him under the spell and the other is out cold, we're bringing them back now."

Aaron cursed as he sat up in the medical bed. He looked around and found Raven in the bed next to him, she was sleeping facing towards him. He jumped out of bed, but his legs failed and he fell to the ground.

He had to hold onto things around him to walk and when he made it to Raven he brushed some of her hair out her face. "I'm sorry Raven… I should have protected you." He knew he couldn't protect her from the fate that would occur in her future.

"Sir Aaron, please get back to bed, you're exhausted." A nurse said as she ran up to him, she took his arm gently and started to lead him back to his bed. "Lady Raven is perfectly fine, she is just tired." The nurse said.

"What happened?" Aaron asked, even though he knew every little detail.

The nurse paused and looked away before saying. "Well, you were out hunting and you didn't return so emperor Trigon sent out guards to find you." She lied.

"What about Raven?"

"She was out playing when it started to Rain, she wanted to stay close to you when you got back so she fell asleep here." The nurse bowed before rushing out the room.

He knew it, they had changed their memory, or Raven's. The magic didn't seem to work on him, but Raven was another thing. He looked over to her when she started to stir.

Sitting up she rubbed her eyes. "Aaron? What happened?" She asked.

"What do you remember?" Aaron's eyes narrowed.

"Umm… I was playing then you came home all sick…" He knew it, the magic worked on Raven, now there was nothing he could do.

xXx

"Malchior was after Raven from the moment they meet. He knew Raven held great power… He tried to wed her at five years! I tried to run away with her to protect her from him, but I failed." Aaron rubbed his forehead with chained wrists.

Garfield sat on the other side of the stone cell. Both had shackles on their wrists, ankles and neck. "I'm sorry Aaron, but I don't get it. First how much older is Malchior than Raven? I got the hint that you were also running away from your father."

Aaron sighed and rubbed his chin. "Well, Malchior is my age so he's eight years older than her. And yes, we did also try to run away from our father, as I said; I didn't want to run a slave land. I was thirteen at the time, Raven was five I believe."

"Okay, wait… Malchior wanted to marry Raven he was thirteen?!"

"He's a strange guy, I don't know and don't want to know what's going on inside his head." Aaron shook his head. "I really wish I could save her now…" He looked at Garfield. "But you have to do it now, I can't be her hero anymore… You have to be her hero…"

xXx

* I couldn't remember if I called them anything else like prince or princess, but I searched it up "What's the title of the son or daughter of an emperor?" And duke and duchess was what I got. Don't kill me!