The Dead war.

Chapter Six: Regret

I sat in that dark room for hours and hours. No one ever came. No one ever helped. My mind raced, all I could think about was Serena. We just met 5 weeks ago and I liked her. She saved me and now I was destined to die here and my father didn't even care. Not a single drop of tear would be spilled from his eyes with me dead. Finally light. The door opened and a man entered the room.
"You will tell me everything I want to know if not there will be consequences. He spoke.
"Ok, ok, but you have to promise to let me go." I said
"No, I don't feel like returning you to my brother in Prophis. I don't want him to win this war. My family and kingdom are counting on it." He said, grabbing my chin.
"I don't want to return to Prophis, I could care less about my father and the way he runs his kingdom. It's my mother I'm worried about." I spoke clearly and with no hint of fear. He turned on the light and I saw it was the king, King Gabriel.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked
"My father is a terrible king, he killed my brother and my sister, he poisoned my sister because my mom refused to kill her. He threw my brother into a lake because he wanted to marry a girl with no royalty in her blood, a commoner. He killed over 75 mothers because they had girls and no boys. My father is a ruthless king, his people fear him and not in a good way." I said.
"So what are you proposing?" the king asked.
"I want you to burn it to the ground. I want you to kidnap my father. And I want to be the one to kill him to save Prophis from his reign and to save all the women who are being slaughtered in Prophis." I explained. A grin appeared on his face.
"Let him go." He started
"But sir how do we know he is telling theTruth" a soldier said
"Look into his eyes, they are full of hatred. There is not one ounce of sadness or love towards his father." Gabriel explained.
They untied my hands and I stood up.
"Welcome to the Umbris Prince Oliver." Gabriel said as he held out his hand I took it and shook his hand.
"Let's burn Prophis to the ground. And then when I become king. I will rule with fairness and justly. No one will ever have to suffer another war by the hands of my father." I said and the king raised his head in complete respect. We walked out of the room and he walked to me a room right across from Princess Serena.
"This is my daughter's room as I'm sure you have met her. She is the Chief of my army so she will be in charge of any expeditions or any movements in the war. I will have Liam come examine you later this evening. He is out in the outskirts of town today helping a woman give birth.
"It's alright dad I got him." Serena said walking out of her room.
"Serena, are you alright sweetheart?" Gabriel said.
"I'm alright." she said with a weak smile.
"Alright I'll leave you to be." Gabriel said, kissing her forehead and grabbing my shoulder. She lead me into the room. It was beautiful. It had black fuzzy blacked and black bed sheets. It was filled with beautiful paintings and artwork
"This is beautiful." I said in awe
"My dad always wanted our guests to have the best." She said with a smile. "Come." She said, leading me to the bed "lay down so I can patch your cuts."
"Why are you helping me?" I asked
"Because I know you mean well, and I know you're a good man Oliver." She said touching my forehead with her hand. Her touch sent chills down my spine. Her touch was soft and gentle, she was careful and tender. I examined her face as she sutured a deep cut on my ribs.
"What are you looking at?" She asked. Her cheeks flushed red, she was embarrassed.
"It's nothing bad I promise, you are just really beautiful, you're flawlessly perfect." I replied. She smiled and it warmed my heart. I knew what she had been through in her life her father had told me and it warmed my heart to see her smile. This was the first time I had ever seen her smile in the 5 weeks we had known each other. When she had finished tending to my wounds she covered my ribs in a bandage and washed my skin with a wet cloth.
"You'll be alright now." She said with a small nod. "Get some sleep will you." She stood up and kissed my forehead and brushed the hair from my head. I pulled the blanket up and turned to my side watching her walk out.
"Thank you Serena." I said
"Don't thank me yet I may have to save your life for a third time." She said with a small smile. She walked out of the room and slowly I fell asleep. When I woke up I'm the morning Liam was standing by my bed touching up my wound.
"Where is Serena?" I asked.
"Don't worry she is in the conference room waiting for you with the king and queen." Liam answered.
"Right." I replied and got up once he had finished. I got dressed in what clothes Liam had laid out for me. We were about the same size so he gave me some of his clothes. I walked down the hall following Nathaniel who led me into the conference room. He shut the door behind me and I walked to the end of the table. Queen Victoria came to the end of the table to greet me.
"Welcome to our home." She said I kissed the top of her hand and she smiled. I looked over to the side and there was Serena. She was in a dress. The first time I had ever seen her in a dress. He pulled out amap and I walked over.
"Here is a map of prophis and Umbris. This is where the two lands connect. He had about 10 guards stationed there watching for any sign of activity, and here about two miles north of that at the back of Umbris he had 30 more guards stationed there. The only reason I know this is because I overheard him talking to Viktor, our Chief in command, that two of them were killed by poachers, people who don't belong to either kingdom. This is the weakest part of Umbris but it is also the weakest part of Prophis. So if we attack here he won't get anyone there quicker and when he gets notified that we are coming from there he will move all but 15 guards which he will have hidden in the secret passages here, here and here." I said pointing to the spots in the wall that had hidden passages.
"So how soon should we attack them?" Queen Victoria asked
"They plan to attack before the winter. So we still have at least 12 weeks. But He never told me how soon she planned to attack so it could be weeks or months I'm not sure and my mother wasn't allowed to talk about it." I admitted.
"So what is our plan?" Serena asked.
"I think we wait until the first attack, but station guards in all of our weak points, so if he so chooses to do the same thing we are already prepared." I replied.
"I agree if we attack too soon we risk losing the upper hand, he expects us to attack now because we have Oliver, so if we wait until he attacks first we will still have the upper hand." Gabriel replied.
"But we want the element of surprise Gabriel, but if he attacks first we lose that, then we are scrambling to get people over there to protect our people." Victoria said.
"Valid point, what if we wait for 4 weeks and if nothing attacks or happens I will return to Prophis and tell my father I have information on your plan for the war. He won't suspect I gave you any information because I will have my scars and bruises." I replied.
"And I'll go with him. He can say I'm his fiancé. And I want to take down my father to gain your throne." Serena said.
"Yes, that might work." Gabriel said.
"So it's settled, we will wait for 4 weeks and if nothing happens You and Serena will return to Prophis with information. Serena you will say you found out you were Prophis born and want to take down me as your father to reclaim my throne as your own. And then you will say once you gain the throne you will reign under his command, you will take the throne and be queen And you are going to marry Oliver to unite the thrones and he will reign both kingdoms but with you and Oliver in the thrones." Gabriel explained. So I suggest you two spend some time together to make sure he believes it. I nodded and so did Serena. She walked over to me and I held out my arm.
"Shall we go my future husband?" She said laughing. She nudged me with her shoulder and I laughed.
"We shall." I replied she held onto my arm and we walked towards the Garden still arm in arm. Eventually she stopped to help a little girl who fell off her bike. She helped her up and then gave her a little piece of candy she kept in the pocket of her dress.
"This is the first time I've seen you in a dress." I said grinning.
"Yeah and the last." she replied, smacking my arm.
"Ow what was that for." I said with a smile
"I don't know for fun I guess." She said, She stood up and I held out my hand. She took it and we walked hand in hand. The sun was out and it was nice and super warm. The sun beat down on her beautiful ivory skin. She was absolutely beautiful. We laughed and laughed for hours and I got to watch her with the little kids. Nathaniel said she wasn't good with kids but I think she just wasn't allowed to. The kids loved her. It was a Friday so I got to watch as she played with the kids and made up games and dances and songs and really brought joy into everyone's lives even the mothers who were sick and dying smiled and laughed when she was in the room. She brought a joy into Umbris that I had never seen before. Umbris was very bright and lively, full of flowers and trees and people who loved each other, girls running around playing, boys playing with sticks like there are warriors. Mothers helping other mothers helping with their kids. Fathers hanging out with other fathers and their boys throwing plastic balls like footballs Umbris was like that community you would see in novels.  A Dream place to live.  I joined in with the boys and played with plastic swords jumping around and chasing the little boys as they laughed a sound I severely missed the sound of laughter and joy. Serena walked back over to me after everyone had gone home for dinner.
"Well what did you think?" She asked
"This is a dream. I mean it's so full of laughter and joy and happiness it's so full of life and flowers and it is just so bright and beautiful. It was different from Prophis. Prophis is full of death and sadness and anger. We don't have flowers or laughter or party's, we have fear and disgust. This...this was my dream as a kid to have a family and to live in a kingdom full of love and happiness where labels didn't matter, if you were royalty or a commoner, everyone was welcome." I said and she smiled. She took my hand and We continued to walk.
"It really is, my father holds a feast every month in the ballroom and everyone is invited. It doesn't matter how clean or dirty you are or how much money you have. Everyone is welcomed. This place no Matter how much I felt like I didn't belong always seemed to welcome me back with open arms. The kids and the community all just feel so peaceful. And I never want to let that go." She said with glee.
"Are you gonna keep that when you become queen?" I asked
"Yes, absolutely if our community can't trust each other with our lives then what kind of a community are we? We need to be able to take care of each other. Keep each other alive.  Everyone here trusts the other. We depend on each other. It's what makes us whole. We would all fight for one another. It's what makes us." She took a small pause. "Special I guess." She finished. I looked around and she held my hand. This, This was my dream, a wife and kids. Walking around our kingdom in the afternoon watching our kingdom join together and have fun being united. The one thing I never got. My face dropped and she could tell without even looking at me.
"What's wrong?" She asked
"It's just that I've always wanted this. People who are United, friends. People who take care of one another, walks around the kingdom hearing laughter, people playing. The pure joy this place brings. I've dreamed of that for years. And I'm Prophis the only thing I saw was darkness dreariness even on warm days with the sun out everywhere was dark. Everyone kept to themselves, helped themselves, it was everyone to themselves the streets were silent. Here everyone is so joyful and so full of life. I just wish I was born here and not Prophis." I said, sighing.
"Well you are here now and that's all that matters. You live here now. You may have made mistakes but we will always forgive you. And I'm sorry about kidnapping you." She said
"It was welcomed to get me away from my father." I replied.
"You really don't like him do you?" She asked
"No he was never there, not like your father. He never cared about me, only becoming the best and most ruthless ruler." I replied "I regret everything about my life, not running away, running to a better life, finding love and moving away, living my life how I wanted. And now it may be too late." I said there was a subtle taste of anger and regret on my tongue. Serena noticed and turned to face me. She put both of her hands on my upper arms and looked into my eyes.
"Nothing is ever too late. Nothing is out of reach if you just try. Don't give up hope, we mustn't lose hope as soon as we do that's when we lose this war." She was so sincere it gave my heart extreme warmth. This woman was something out of a novel; she was nothing left of perfect. So she had scars physically and emotionally but she was nothing short of absolutely beautiful. She smiled and pulled me in. She kissed me on the lips and I kissed her back. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in closer. The kiss was full of tenderness and kindness. Her lips were soft and warm. That kiss was beautiful. It was something I had dreamed of for years, my perfect kiss.
She pulled away about 5 minutes later she pressed her forehead to mine and she smiled.
"You don't think this is a little fast." She whispered.
"Not at all." I replied she smiled again and laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arm around mine and held my hand. Everything was perfect. I knew this wouldn't last but I was going to keep it for as long as I could.
"They really are perfect for each other." Victoria said.
"Yes they are. They are moving as fast as we did." Gabriel said with a smile. He held out his hand and Victoria grabbed it and laid her head on his shoulder and he laid his head on hers. They looked down to see me and Serena kiss and Victoria smiled.
"We may have a son in law soon." She said, chuckling.
"And I will gladly call him son. He belongs here not with my brother in Prophis. He belongs here.
We continued to walk and talk until it got dark. We walked back inside just in time for dinner. I sat down by Serena across from her parents. I held her hand the entire dinner. This was the first time I had ever felt like part of a true family. This was the first time I truly felt like I belonged. This was the very first time The regret I normally felt was gone. It may have only been 6 weeks since we met but I knew I wanted this woman to be my wife. And I was going to make sure of it. We wouldn't get married until the end of this war assuming we survived but I wanted to make sure this beautiful woman would be mine forever.
It took me over 2 more weeks to get the courage to ask her father to marry her. But just like I knew he was going to, he said yes.
I took her to a rose garden I had planted just for her and once we got in the middle I got down on one knee and asked. She started to cry and immediately said yes. We both stood there crying and I put the ring on her finger. This may seem fast but when you have a chance at death and a war approaching fast the last thing I wanted to do was regret not marrying Serena Quentin.