chapter.29  »  troubles.

It had been days of grunts and yelled orders from both sides of the war, the Proud Lions trying ever so hard to push the Vivacious Ones away back to their hot prairies.  The Kemmers were still thousands of yards away from the castle of Preriloth, yards away from the border, but the Lions couldn't be fooled into thinking they were going to be safe.  The two kingdoms struggled, but they were not going to give up.  Never.  Not even when the king and the queen of Preriloth still were not complete, for their only son and prince was still missing.

Queen Catherine whimpered at the thundering of explosives outside, clutching her thick blankets closer.  She had been confined in the dark walls of her chambers, and it was driving her mad.  She wanted to go out there and find Jinki herself, try to see if the Gateway to On Earth was still open, but she could not.  Nicolas was her husband, yes, but he was still king—and a king's command is a king's command.

Meanwhile, King Nicolas instructed the entirety of the Lion Army from inside the castle.  He had told himself numerous times that unless the Kemmers crossed the border, he will not be commanding out on the field.  His strategy consisted of placing troops in random directions that all faced the coming army of Kemwen, which worked, but the Kemmers were driven by a strong, long kept anger, and he feared they couldn't crush the army unless they crush the anger in them as well.

“King Nicolas, I have news.”  Lord Ernest Clarke bowed in front of the king who was sat in his throne on the dais.

Nicolas oddly and nervously shifted his weight in his throne.  “What is it?”

“The Kemmer Army is closing in on us.”  He handed a rolled parchment to him.  “The troops you commanded to place in certain directions faced extremely heavy casualties as the Kemmers pushed through.  The troops have been reduced to an eighth of what they usually were, all of them.”

“Do what you must, Lord Clarke,” Nicolas finished reading the parchment.  He sighed and handed it back to Clarke.  “If you have to send our militias, do it.  We must push the Kemmers back to their prairies as soon as possible.”

“And the wounded men, my king?”  Lord Clarke asked.

“There are ways back to the castle from where I have placed them.  Those who are in the western forest, they can take the tunnel; their officers know where it is located.  Those by the hills can take the low cave at the third hill; they will end up near the castle's stables if they do.  The rest can find their way back here the same way they found their way there; their paths will not be taken by the Kemmer Army.”

Clarke only blinked at this.  Even he, the Field Marshal of the Royal Army, could not comprehend what his king said to him.  He bowed, understanding.  “As you command, my king.”

Nicolas nodded his head at him and Clarke left the throne room.  The king looked around the spacious hall.  Four behemothic burgundy pillars stood in all four corners of the sanctuary.  The walls were of light saddle, its huge windows fine glass made by the finest glassmakers in the land.  The hall was a usual place of happiness, of drunkenness and parties, feasts and laughter, dances and smiles.  Not this time.

The king left as four guards weaponed with spears and swords ran up to the dais and guarded the throne, unmoving.  Nicolas walked the massive hallways of the castle that led to his wife's room.  He stopped at her door, hesitating, but turned the knob and walked in.

“Catherine?”  He whispered into the miserable place.

Catherine heard his voice but did not answer back.

He sighed quietly and walked to her bed.  His weight pressed in on the mattress, his hand rubbing her shoulder slowly.  “Catherine, please... Understand...”

“‘Understand’?”  Catherine almost choked on her tears.  “You want me to understand?  Understand what, Nicolas?  I understand there is a war, if that's what you want me to understand.  What else is there to understand?”

“No,” he replied softly.  “Understand why I do not want you out.  Understand why I cannot risk you to suffer, too.  Jinki is already out there and—”

“Damn you, Nicolas!”  Catherine bolted up from her bed, her eyes piercing into her husband's face.  Nicolas flinched at her words.  “Now I want you to understand why I cannot bear to stay in this... this terrible place any longer!  Jinki is out there, and we cannot just wait for him to come back in a blink.  I am his mother, he is my son, and I would know damn well that I will not stop looking for him until I find him.  I have to do something, Nicolas.   I have to do something or I will die!”

“No, Catherine, you do not understand,” Nicolas was on the verge of tears.  “He only needs to learn his lesson and then—”

“What... lesson?”  Catherine shuddered, blinking in sudden confusion.

“I...”

“Nicolas, tell me,” she placed a warm hand on his cheek, tilting his face upward to meet hers.

“Jinki... our son...”  He sighed, closed his eyes, and gave up.  “He was cursed.  He was cursed by the Witch.  On his twentieth birthday, she came as an old lady and asked for water, but our son didn't give her any, and so he was cursed.  That is why he is not here.”

Catherine was astonished.  She stammered.  “H- How long have you known this?”

Nicolas sighed through his nose.  “...Ever since I told you about the Finders.”

“You... You...”

There was a long and uncontrollable melody of Catherine's sobbing.  Nicolas only cradled her in his arms as she clenched her hands into fists that collided with his chest.  Liar, liar, liar, she thought in her head as she hit him once, then again, and then again until her fists unclenched by themselves and she was left to cry.  There was a mixture of emotion, of lost trust, of betrayal, but then she understood.  Nicolas didn't tell her because he wanted to protect her, and now, he understood, too.

“Please forgive me, my sweet, please forgive me,” he whispered into her ear.

Catherine sobbed in response.  Nicolas sighed as he prepared himself to say whatever it was he was going to say.  He felt she was ready now.

“And now, as your husband, not as your king,” he said, “I need you to go out there and do all that you must...to get our son back.”

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

updateupdateupdate!  again~~~ can you guys feel the end coming?  i can feel it coming, too ;_; now i wrote this chapter because it's a sort of a filler chapter, but only a filler for what is to come.  there's gonna be a lot of things and i urge you to read back the other chapters because i edited them to fit the ending(s).

the next chapters will happen quick (but that doesn't mean they'll be short chapters) and everything will be so sudden so i'm gonna need you guys to fully understand everything and...yeah...

also i lost 2 subs and i got really sad, i'm sorry.

anyways, for those who are still with me, thank you guys for staying and reading!  have a nice day!  God bless!  *hugs*

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