runaway, runaway

03.

Amber sat down on the bench with a dazed look on his face.

"She's getting married," he said to himself. "She's getting married?" He repeated, in question form, to Amelia, who had walked back up to his cell after Hiraeth left.

He often had pleasant conversations with Amelia, sometimes they had helpful discussions about current news, problems he encountered or just things he should know in general. She had sort of taken him under her wing and acted as a mother figure to him, since she was the only guard that treated him like a person rather than a once illegal piece of garbage.

"Yes, Amber, she's getting married," she answered, sitting on a bench across from his open cell door and pulling out some wood carving tools. She liked making little wooden things for both Amber and Hiraeth and now she was working on a wooden rose for Hiraeth.

"That's strange," he said, staring off into space. "Isn't she a bit young to get married? She's only sixteen after all."

"Not really, the queen needs to marry all the princesses off before someone else takes the throne, and she's getting up there in years, you know. Soon Princess Cathrine and her husband will probably take the throne and if Hiraeth isn't married by then no one will know what to do with her."

"What do you mean, 'no one will know what to do with her?' Why can't things be exactly the same, just instead of Hiraeth's mother on the throne it's her sister?" He sat up very straight all of a sudden. "Wait, if she marries a prince from another kingdom won't she have to go and live there with him?"

She glanced up from her wood working with her eyebrows knit together as if she had just figured that out also. "Yes, I suppose so. She would have to go be royalty in some other kingdom. What a shame, I didn't realize the attachment I've developed to the little princess." She looked down at her wooden rose and frowned.

Amber leaned back against the stone wall and rested a hand on his chin, thoughtfully. "Me neither."

He frowned and shook out his wavy reddish hair, then took a piece in his hands and started braiding it.

Amelia smiled at the young half elf, the smile she always gave him when he was doing something he had learned from Hiraeth. Amber glanced up at her and laughed a little, then blew away some hair that had fallen into his face. He finished the braid and hesitated before tying it off with some string that was laying on his desk.

"I guess you'll have to hurry and finish the little projects that are meant for Hiraeth then. She seems pretty fond of this Denton fellow." Without meaning to, he sneered a little when he said Denton's name.

Amelia raised an eyebrow at him and then returned her gaze to her wood working before responding. "I don't know, she makes friends easily but they never seem to stick around. Poor girl, the only person she's really always had is you. She has her mother and sisters of course, but you're the only real friend to stick around. Not that you have much choice," she added with a chuckle.

    Amber sighed. I'm the only one that she's had and she's the only one I've had. That's just how things work, and it's how things should work. Right?

    He pondered for a moment. Was Hiraeth content with only him as a friend? Did she want to get married?

    Did she want to leave?

    No, of course not. She had seemed just as devastated as he was when he brought up the fact that they wouldn't be able to see each other. Their friendship was just as precious to her as it was to him. They would figure out a way to keep seeing each other, no matter what happened.