The twins - A grishaverse Darklina fanfic

Chapter 16

The tent flap soon reopened after the Darkling had left, and in his place stood the same inferni that was with the twins these last few days on the ship aboard the true sea, Annika.

At the sight of her, Aelia sighed, Kyra was still too tired and groggy to fully comprehend and care about who entered the tent.

Immediately Annika halted their playing and began bossing them around, trying to get them to finish everything so she could leave them and be off babysitting duty.

Annika hated this job, it made her feel lesser and useless, as if she couldn't be trusted for anything else better than being a nanny at the beck and call of two toddlers.

However she held her tongue as these wee directions given directly to her by her general and she would not question nor complain about this to him.

After an hour of Annika's relentless bossing around, the twins were bathed, fed and appropriately clothed, ready for the long journey to Os Alta ahead of them.

Annika left the tent and less than twenty seconds later the General walked in.

"Come Kyra and Aelia," The darkling beckoned his daughters over. "We are

leaving for the Capital."

"What capital?" Kyra cocked her head to the side.

"Mama there?" The younger one continued on.

The Darkling sighed, his daughters were clueless about the world of Grisha and The Little Palace. "I will explain everything on the way, we must get going now as this will be a long ride. Come on now."

The Darkling took each of his daughters hands and lead them out of the tent. He then called forth two of his most trusted Oprichniki to look after them, one assigned to each twin, as he made his final why around camp to make sure everything was ready for his journey towards Os Alta.

The two Oprichniki lead them to two chestnut coloured horses and allowed the twins to pet them whilst they prepared the animals for the journey, saddling them up.

Aelia ran over to the side of one of the  horses and stated petting its side and playing with its tail, she giggled as it tickle her hand and face, her eyes twinkling in delight. When she looked over at her sister, she noticed she was taking a different approach, Kyra had her palm held out above and in front of her, along the line of sight of the other horse. She stood there patiently waiting for her horse to come to her, she didn't want to scare it off. 

After a few minutes, the horse moved towards Kyra and started to sniff around her small hand, Kyra giggled but stayed still, she somehow knew that if she made any sudden movements the beautiful creature would back away.

Eventually, the horse nuzzled up against Kyra's palm, allowing the toddler access to pet the horse further up its head. The creature was bowing its head down in order for Kyra to be able to reach, but after a while, it simply ceased to stand and was now resting on the floor, gigving Kyra full access to play with the horse.

----------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------

When the Darkling returned a while later, he beckoned his daughters over to him and began informing them on the journey ahead.

"We are leaving in 5 minutes, you two will be in that black coach for the whole journey, we will not be making any stops and we will reach there in approximately 9 hours."

"But Papa what about Joey and Bobby?" Aelia asked.

"Who are Bobby and Joey?"

"The horsies!"

"The horsies?"

"Ya! Ya! Me and Ky-Ky play with horsie Joey and horsie Bobby! The horsies come with me and Ky-Ky on coach? We all have play together on way to Mama?"

The Darkling was at a loss for words, what was he supposed to say to them? Although Aelia was the one asking the question Kyra seemed just as interested to hear the answer. Finally he thought of something to say that hopefully leave them content but not wanting to put two fully grown horses into a Carriage made 3 human adults.

"Well you see Aelia," He started. "The horses like to run and run outside, and some like to pull carriages, they do not enjoy sitting inside a coach, but people, people are different, especially children like you, because if they are outside too long, they start to get tired, and then, they'll fall asleep on the road, be forgotten by everyone else, and an animal will find them and eat them." 

The twins stared back at him in horror, and after a moment of silence and standing still, they ran over to the black coach a few meters in front of them and began trying to clamber on inside of it.

The Darkling mounted his black mare, and the rest of his grisha followed, and finally they started to make their way to the little palace.