A/N: Here's chapter eight for Divinity. I do not own anything.
Chapter eight
"Leonidas...what..." was all he could say, turning back and forth to see his general and then to the figure sitting infront of him.
"I saw her lost in the woods while I was taking a nap...since I saw you earlier with the Baroness and that girl I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to bring her where you were so I asked her to stay here and went to get you" Leonidas said.
"Leonidas..." he said softly with a grateful expression.
"I know this girl is special for you...I could tell by the way you looked at her when we were at the party that night you introduced her to all of us..." Leonidas said patting the prince on his shoulder.
Eros was taken aback by his comment, blushing he gave a nod.
"I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes, you know you cannot take too long in that meeting, your mother would want to cut my head off my shoulders if I keep you away from the strange Baroness's daughter"
"Thank you Leonidas...it means too much for me" Eros finally said.
"I'll give you some space, but I cannot be too far away. I'll be guarding the garden's gate and if anything happens I'll let you know" Leonidas smiled and walked to the small wooden door guarding the entrance to the garden where they were.
Eros turned to see her small and glowing figure, walking towards her he stop a few feet away from her.
"Gaia..." he breathed loud enough for her to hear.
She turned around to meet his handsome face. Tears in her eyes. "Eros..." she said soflty. Her voice caressing his heart.
"W-why are you crying?...Are you okay my love?" he asked as he sat down next to her.
"I've missed you...that's all" she lied.
"I've missed you too beautiful" he placed a black lock behind her ear. She leaned her face to his hand.
"I wanted to see you..." she said "I must go for a few days..."
"Where...? is it going to be for too long?" he asked worried.
"My friend is getting married...and she wants me there...I just wanted to let you know" she said softly.
"I was wandering near the palace hoping to see you but I saw too many people there, so I started walking back home when Leonidas saw me and asked me to come here and wait for you..." she said softly..
"Yes...he just told me...he's such a good frie..." Eros said.
"Serenity knows about us Eros..." Gaia interrupted, her tears couldn't hold to her eyes anymore.
"What?... how?" he asked surprised
"She came by yesterday and saw us together, she saw us kissing" her eyes looking at her hand interwined with his, her tumb caressing his palm in soft movements.
"I..Gaia...I..I just don't know what to say...what's going to happen now?" he didn't actually know what to say but he didn't want to stay quiet.
"I told her about our feelings...she's my best friend, I never have seen her eyes so sad...her voice so desperate...she understands me but she is also very afraid for what could possibly happen to us if the Gods find out, if my parents find out...she promised to keep our secret safe but still...I'm worried about you...I don't want anything happen to you" she said, tears clouding her eyes.
"Don't worry about me Gaia...What I don't want is them hurting you...that I couldn't stand." He said seriously.
"Yes...Eros...but you are not..."
"A god, I know that Gaia...I may not have any kind of power like you do but still I can fight" he interrupted, his voice low.
"You could never win..." she said.
"But at least I could try" he finally said.
Gaia let go off his hand and stood up with her back at him, she started to walk around the fountain.
"You have visitors?" she asked.
"Yes..." Eros sighed and continued. "Mother invited a friend and her husband and their child came along" he said not understanding the sudden change of subject.
"Well...she's not that little..." she said directing her gaze to the dancing water in the fountain, her finger making a soft motion in the air, drops of water followed her pattern making Ers watch in amazement.
"No..she's not..but she's not my type" Eros said.
"Not your type?... You have a type of girl?" Gaia turned her face to him and lift a brow.
"Of course I have a type of girl" he said smiling.
"Wich is?" she stopped doing her small water show. Walking around the fountain she stopped infront of him with a questioning look.
"You" he said, flashing a perfect smile at her. She blushed.
"Ah! I was already thinking you had feelings for that other girl..." she said crossing her arms.
"Are you jealous?" he asked, his hand brushing his dark brown bangs out of his handsome face.
"Me?...Of course not! Why would I be jealous of her?...I mean...she's not that pretty anyways...and"
"Gaia..." he interrupted
"..." she stared at him.
"We will figure something out... I won't leave you...ever" he finally said, standing up he took her petite golden princes in his arms and whispered in her ear.
"I love you...I will always love you"
Her mind was in a real daze and her heart was beating fast, her stomach felt like if it was full of butterflies, she didn't want anything else than to be with him. Anything. She knew that their love was impossible, but love is something she was looking, wanting and longing for and she wouldn't find it with anybody than him.
Him, a mortal...an inhabitant of the planet she took care of, the planet she rightfully owned. "He is not less than me...he is just different, if he didn't have any kind of power like gods do I wouldn't feel something so strong for him..." she thought.
"I will love you too always my dear Eros..." she said, her arms encirculing his neck. Her lips meeting his.
"Your Highness!" Leonidas came in a few seconds later.
"Looks like the Queen sent one of the servants to look for you...you have to say goodbye for now to your lovely friend" Leonidas said while coming closer.
His eyes couldn't believe what he was just seeing. The prince and this girl surrounded by a warm golden light.
"Your Highness?" he asked marveled by the image those two projected.
"Right..." not taking his eyes from her a hand caressed cher cheek and his lips gave a small peck on hers. She gave him a warm smile.
"I'll be back soon...I promise"
"And I'll be here waiting for your return"
"Thank you Leonidas" said Gaia waving one hand.
"Good day Lady Gea" Leonidas said puzzled. He wasn't expecting for her to be also a rare girl.
They walked to the wooden door of the small garden but Leonidas suddenly remembered that he never told the girl how to leave the palace's gardens so by the time he turned back to help her he saw nothing but small sparks where she was standing.
"Oh...for heaven's sake! Where did she go?" he said out loud. When he turned to ask his prince he was also nowhere to be found, but he had an idea.
"Your Highness" said the young maid. Her reddish hair in a long braid, freckles all over her face and a small gap between her front teeth gave her a unique look. "I'm so sorry to bother you Your Highness but...the Queen sent me to look for you and give you her message..." bowing she waited for the royal to say something in response.
"I know...I know...she wants me to go back to the main court where she and her friends are..."
"She says that the meeting you supposedly were having with the generals must be over by now but she expects you to be present by dinner time" she said not looking at the monarch but instead her little black shoes.
"Argh... fine... tell her that I'll see them at dinner time them, I need some time to do some things I need to take care of" he lied.
Eros waved his hand as an approval sign for her to leave. Worried about what Gaia told him earlier he walked through the rose gardens and then to his chambers. He needed to think of a solution...a solution for her and him live together. Forever.
But his thinking didn't last long. Leonidas was already waiting for him at his door. He had several questions on his own, he needed to know what was going on between his prince and the misterious Gea girl.
"What are you doing here Leonidas?" Eros asked while he opened his door. Entering to his large room, he knew his general and friend followed so he didn't even bother to close the door.
"Eros..." he asked closing the door. "I need to ask you something not as a general to his prince, but as a friend"
"Sure Leo, what is it?" he asked and sat on his bed taking off his jacket and putting it aside.
"You look worried" Eros said again his face showing concern.
"I am" Leonidas said.
"Okay...come, sit and tell me what worries you?" Eros said looking at his friend.
"Eros...you know I'm not a magic believer but..." Leonidas said and lowered his gaze.
"What is it Leonidas?" Eros asked worried. Leonidas wasn't telling anything.
"It's about Lady Gea" Leonidas finally said.
"What about Gea?"
"What is she?" Leonidas asked not looking up.
"What do you mean by what?" Eros raised a brow.
"Is she a witch?" Leonidas raised his face again and directed his gaze towards Eros.
Eros couldn't hold his laughter anymore. "Leonidas...what are you saying?"
"I saw her Eros... glowing"
"Glowing?"
"Yes"
"Are you okay Leonidas?"
"Eros, after you left I remembered that I never told her wich road she should take to leave the gardens and the palace so I turned to talk to her and she was already gone! There were sparks in her place" Leonidas voice was starting to sound frustrated.
"Sparks?" Eros said. He didn't know how to react to what Leonidas was telling him, he knew what Leonidas was talking about but he didn't want to say anything about Gaia, he was keeping his promise.
"Eros I swear, I'm not lying. Lady Gea is a witch...I know you like her but...she's a witch!" Leonidas stood up and raised his hands in frustration.
"Leonidas, she is not a witch" the prince sighed.
"She vanished! Witches are the only ones that can do that!" the general said waving his arms up high. He was more frustrated than before.
"Leonidas...she is not a witch" another sigh came from the prince.
"She didn't look like the same girl you introduced to us that night...she was different somehow, her eyes where different...like...if they changed colors" the general kept talking.
"That's because her eyes change colors" Eros said, agreeing with the general. His voice calm.
"Her skin glowed"
"Yes. Her skin glows"
"Her clothes where different"
"Yes. I know" the prince's calm voice startled the general.
"Then, she is trully a witch and you are crazy" the general gave up and sat down again in his chair.
"No..." the prince rubbed his temples.
He had to tell him the truth. Gaia's best friend knew, Leonidas was his best friend and he needed to know the truth, he might even help him think in a possible solution for her to live here with him.
"Leonidas...promise me you will keep this secret safe" the prince looked at the general with a serious gaze.
"I promise Your Highness" Leonidas said quietly.
"As a friend" Eros said again, his voice more serious than before.
"I promise, Eros" the general said and nodded.
Eros stood up and walked to his window, not looking at his friend started talking.
"Her real name is Gaia, Gea was a name I gave to all of you because I wasn't supposed to let you know anything about this...but, you're my friend and I need to tell you what's going on."
Leonidas kept silent, waiting for his friend to continue.
"I met her one day I ran away when my parents started talking about wives and heirs...I saw this beautiful figure by the lake in the middle of the forest." The prince turned now to see the general and continued talking.
"We talked and I was surprised by her strong personality and her elegant looks. She was like no other woman I ever seen before...I was captured by her beauty and her character"
"And then?...how come she glows?" Leonidas couldn't understand why the girl glowed.
It seemed like that was the thing that he wanted to know more, the reason why she glowed. A small laugh escaped from Eros's throat.
"That is what bothers you the most, am I right?" Eros smiled.
"Well, yes. A normal person doesn't glow!" Leonidas said, his voice sounded anxious.
"Remember that day when you found me fainted on the ground near that lake?"
"Yes"
"Well...we met again and I said something that upset her and she made me feel sick...dizzy...I don't know, like if she took all the energy from my body at that moment that I couldn't hold it anymore and I fainted" Eros said. His hands were trying to motion what he was feeling.
"You see? She IS a witch!" the general stood up.
"Please sit down Leonidas...I'm not done. Here comes the important part of all this story and the reason of why she glows..." the prince said. The general did what he was told.
"Leonidas...Gaia is not a witch but a Goddess"
"I don't understand" he said with honesty.
"What do you mean by Goddess...there cannot be other Gods than the ones we praise and respect" Leonidas tried to understand what Eros was telling him.
"Exactly" Eros said and sat back on his bed looking at his friend waiting for his reaction.
"Well...you call this girl a Goddess just because she has the name of a true God?" Leonidas asked. His brow raised.
"No, I call this girl a Goddess because she is a real one" Eros said again.
Leonidas eyes were full of doubt, he didn't understand and believe what he was hearing. His prince had gone mad!.
"Now you really have come mad!" Leonidas said with a low voice.
"Leonidas... Gaia is la Dea della Terra" Eros said. His voice calm.
"What are you saying? That's impossible!" Leonidas said, his eyes widened in surprise.
"It is impossible for us to be in the situation we are..." the prince tried to keep explaining the general the situation but Leonidas interrupted him.
"I'm sorry Eros. I just can't believe this...it's just too much..." Leonidas gaze lowered down again.
"You don't believe me..." Eros said, sadness in his voice.
Giving himself up he stood. Leonidas saw there was no smiling, no laughter in his voice, his mind started to actually work and the prince's words started to fall into place.
"That is why she glows like that and her eyes changes like two crystals" the general said softly.
"But, if she is trully the Goddess of Earth...it's impossible for us to look at them...they're too powerful..."
"Exactly..." Eros said.
"A mortal can never be with an immortal...it's impossible" Leonidas said again.
"I know" Eros said sadly.
"Then...how..." Leonidas was confused, amazed, surprised by this new information.
"We just had so many things in common" the prince interrupted. "I love her, Leonidas...and she loves me back, we fell for each other"
"She came by to tell me her best friend and also Goddess of the Moon knew about us...and that she was going away for a couple of days because of her wedding" Eros felt like a weight was lifted off from his shoulders.
"All this sounds so unreal, but now I understand why the grass used to move like it did when she was around and why the water in the fountain danced in a spaecial way, why you two looked like ethereal when you were kissing...why she dissapeared, why her eyes changed colors...and her necklace had this strange shine" Leonidas voice was now calm. He now understood everything.
"That's her crystal...the source of life of everything in this planet..." Eros explained.
"Everything sounds so magical but...it's not that easy am I right? I mean..." the general said.
"Yes Leonidas, we are not supposed to be together, it is forbiden for them to have any kind of contact with us mortals, for if that law is broken...there will be tremendous consecuences" Eros voice sounded more serious.
"Your Highness, what kind of consecuences? Leonidas asked frigthened.
"If that law breaks...they will come and haunt my soul, rip the life off my body and then they will destroy her and destroying her means this planet will cease to exist" Eros finally said.