Love Beneath The Moon

Chapter 4 - Maynard

Maynard could not sleep. He feared the dreams would come back rushing again. The snake, thorns, and stones. He doesn't understand why he feared those things in his dreams, he paid no attention to them awake.

As far as he knew, there were no snakes up in Old Icestones. Their region is the coldest out of all the regions of Vistarion. Starfall being the warmest. It wouldn't make sense for Snakes to survive the cold temperature of Old Icestones.

The thorns however, is most abundant in Old Icestones, and he'd been used to them since he was a child. Their vast fields of roses that stretches for miles away holds millions of thorns. It pricked him, but he's used to it now. It's the sigil of their house after all—a Winter Rose.

The stone, well, it's the stupidest thing to be afraid of. Who, in his right mind, would be afraid of a stone? Maynard chuckled and turned to the other side of his bed.

Even with his height, the room is too big for him. It stood so high and so wide that the empty spaces are filled by his cowardly imagination. This is why he keeps the lights on every time he sleeps. He could not stand imagining creatures that lurks in the shadows. He imagined himself atop his beggar fortress again. The place is well hidden and well lit beneath the dim moonlight. However, the storm that had visited made the place unavailable for accommodations.

He tried so hard to fill his rooms with decorations to wither his cowardly imaginations away. Gaps scare him. Open space and empty chasms. He fills them all to avoid the fear. He got a Classical Iron Armor made during the height of the Mauvorin Empire, he got the Galloping Horse painted by Dailyn Flynn, and a huge open shelf containing his queer collections.

Maynard curled into his fur-made sheet, trying to envelop himself into the comforting balance of the cold and warmth. He remembered the Girl, the girl with a red hair they found. Who is she? She's so desperate for warmth that she enclosed herself inside a stranger's car during the storm. Maynard hoped to give her the warmest of embrace.

The old man Mr. Ford said that there were no such girl in their Circus. She must have been one of those street kids that do not want to go to orphanages. Aunt Grenda said so, and it makes sense.

Maynard liked visiting her during her recovery. She is beautiful and it made him curious. He enjoyed it until Aunt Grenda moved her somewhere and forbids him to see her. It was rude of her to do so, yet he could do nothing to protest.

Maynard may be the Lord of Old Icestones, but the Lady Grenda is the one who rules in his stead. He was still learning much from her. And many times, his wishes contradicts hers.

I know what you're getting into boy. Don't. He remembered Aunt Grenda telling him. You are betrothed to the Lady Allyson Vathe. They hold Icesteps, and if you'd run for Supremacy, should your Father fall, you need the support of another Region. And remember, that Girl is a commoner, and you boy, is a Lord!

I know! He thought himself. It's not like I'm going to marry her! I just want to get to know her. Yet he did his best to keep his mouth shut. You do not talk back to Aunt Grenda when she speaks like his Father. Being a Lord and having a birthright does have its perks. But how high the benefits are, are also how deep the burdens are. They have to be wise to whom they choose to inherit their blood.

Though Maynard is yet to meet Lady Allyson, their families have decided to betroth the two of them. He has to marry a woman whom he only has heard about. And no matter how well he understood his responsibility and the gravity of his choice, it doesn't make it easier. Mayhaps he'll meet her tomorrow, when the Lord's Gathering will take place. 

Father has invited him to join the Council Meeting. Weeks have prepared him for it, and that day will be tomorrow. They might discuss their defense as he heard that tensions are rising within Waellosh, or to secure their alliance with the States of Eaglesoar. He doesn't know, he just had to guess. But all he has to do is go there to listen and learn from his Lord Father.