Caesar

CHAPTER TWO • HIS BEATING HEART

The sound of the chill wind along with the cloaking snow blocks the sight of an almost stumbling Verbena who struggles to see through the blizzards. Her body still numb from being struck by lightning and a loud tick bangs in her ears making matters worse. As she struggles to find her way through the snow with her hand covering her ears, a voice sounds in her ears, louder than the ticking;

" When it's time to wither...as The Heiress of Mountaingroin, you would hear a tick...one so loud and disturbing. If not careful, it would drive you insane and slowly rip you apart." She remembers the words of her Father. She was hearing the ticking but she couldn't afford to die now! FUCK THE TICKING! She had to think fast.

" I suppose you didn't bring me here to die from the cold...you had a lot to say about the Hwansu the last time we spoke...make it snappy and return me back. Not everyone is jobless like you, I have a swearing in to get to! "

Acer stands watching the little Lady in front of him. All the words she speaks are secondary. The sound of her teeth hitting against each other and her hands aggressively rubbing her arms more audible than her actual words. Her lips are chapped and knees breaking and yet...she did not bother to plead or beg for her life.

"Are you stupid or just dumb?"

"Did you bring me from my warm stroll to speak arrant nonsense?"

"You are feisty... are you unaware that you should behave if you want to live?... You are in my territory!"

"Um excuse me ser, but did I come here willingly?"

Acer just stares at her. She was almost dead. Her body barely even resisting the cold and yet she still spoke with imprudent pride. "What a girl!" Every sentence she spoke was low toned and slow. Her eyes barely forcing themselves open and yet she was using her last energy to fight him...

"Just speak! You mentioned something about the Hwansu..."

"Caesar...an old friend! but i wouldn't entertain your ears."

"What are you? Why am I so useless and powerless in comparison to you?"

"The wisest thing you have said all day but I didn't bring you here to chat..." His eyes become more stern and serious looking;

"I brought you here to..."

Before he knows it, she is resting in the tree, laying on his huge coat and getting comfortable.

"If you sleep now, you would die!"

"And whose fault would that be?" Is the dried response he gets from the living corpse hiding in his tree.

"When you are tired of my company, take me back home. You know where to drop me!" With that she closes her eyes.

Now he was pissed out.

As she lies on his huge coat, forming a little donut shape to warm herself, her hair is grouped tight and a violent force drags her out of her shelter into the frozen ice. The sharp edge of the ice cuts through her skin as she mops the cold ground with her body. Her clothes tears as the frozen thorns pass through them slicing her bare skin like Thanksgiving pork, the feeling of the ice directly on her body hurts her by tearing up her pores. The same force throws her down on Acer's feet. When she looks up at him, her eyes finally with tears in them... What did she do to him to deserve the morbid look he gave her?

Soon his hands go dip into his pouch, drawing out a sword more than half her size, clearly to big to fit into it but somehow it managed to. The wind becomes more aggressive as it pushes her hard and her back hits to cold ground once more but this time, dark blood comes out of her mouth and her throat feels tight and clogged.

His sword is whitish blue with arrow headed spikes on it. His feet draws him closer to her and sword drags against the ice ground, leaving a spiral trail.

Was it yet time to beg for her life? Did she want to die without ever fulfilling her father's wishes and securing his line at court? The answer was no! Yes even for the first question.

As he draws closer with his massive sword, the tick in her ears becomes louder insulating her time was close. She had no problem dying but not when she hadn't achieved anything or even revealed her face as the Heiress. She couldn't afford to die, at least not now!

When he unsheathes the sword above her, the snow falls down from the sky, this time even worse than before. Everything is white and the goosebumps on her skin grows bigger. Voices from her buried past play along side with the loud ticks.

"Murderer! Heartless killer! Kill her! A child who killed her own mother is no child at all!..." She didn't pass through those hurtful memories to die in an alienated land with an ice demon.

Through the blizzard, she manages to see the dark edge of the cliff. The voices in her head, the ticking and the gushing of the wind drives her insane.
With the last strength in her body, she looks up to find a suspended sword floating in the air above her and uncertain eyes, wavering with weakness...

She takes the opportunity and runs towards the edge of the cliff, jumping down. It all stops, the ticks, the voices, the gushing wind, everything!...

"Crazy bitch!"

He stands trying to process what had just happened.

"She jumped down an ice mountain with frozen sharp pointy arrow headed thorns to escape death...Wait what?!" Acer breathes in then speeds towards the cliff.

"Crazy bitch!" He utters with narrowed eyes.

The wind feels cold against her skin in a way that soothens her. The wind carries her hair and drops of snow gently falls on her cheeks.
Soon she feels warmth. Her eyes view the near approach frozen arrow which could have pierced through her chest. It felt so warm, she looks up to find his icy eyes staring down at her as he wraps her up in his arms. A smile curls up on her pale face.

"Crazy bitch" he snickers staring down at her.

"I knew you wouldn't kill me... pussy!'

" So I am a pussy for spearing you!"

"Spearing me? Don't flatter yourself
...weakling!"

With his wings out and her in his arms, he drives down the ice mountain speeding pass the horrid ice thorns.

"I knew you wouldn't kill me. You have a soft heart...!" She puts her hands and head on his chest.

"You will be surprised how wrong you are!" He says, his aloof amber eyes staring into her dark brown eyes. As he speeds down the ice mountain, he feels an emotion so foreign, so alien as his icy heart starts beating again.