Eternal Spring

Chapter Five: A Floral Aftertaste

Ena stood beside Spencer in front of a large, far too haughty, carriage. The festival was now the least of her worries as she watched King Tamers emerge from the gold trimmed carriage interior.

He stepped out, gold cane first, and smiled widely at Ena. He bowed almost too well and looked up to her.

"Greetings dear, how lovely it is to see you again," his smile got wider.

"Yes well, last time you saw me I was much smaller," Ena said through a fake laugh.

"All the more reason to be here now," he stood up and straightened himself out.

He barely acknowledged Spencer's existence with a glance and continued to chat up Ena, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

"Shall we?" Ena asked, gesturing to the castle.

"We shall," he said, already walking towards the gate.

Ena looked back to Spencer who was managing the coachmen of Tamer's carriage. He looked to Ena and gave her a reassuring look, ensuring he would take care of the festival and the carriage as she chatted with Tamers.

"Take it to the back, there will be people there to take in your horses and luggage, they'll show you what to do afterwards," Spencer discussed, really not wanting to be there more than he had to.

He noticed there were more servants than last time he visited, just one or two more, but more. It wasn't very strange, just uncomfortable. Thus, he shook off the thought, as he deemed it unimportant, and went on his way guiding Tamer's staff the right direction.

Ena, on the other hand, wished she could shake off Tamers without facing horrible consequences for it. The man wouldn't stop talking, she could barely get a word in before he started going off about another thing that was, arguably, uninteresting and unimportant.

They walked through the throne room of the palace, rather slowly and painfully, and Tamers had this strange wicked grin on his face.

Ena quickly realized why he seemed so content as he stopped and grabbed both of her hands.

Too many alarms went off in her head as he began to speak.

"As I'm sure you're aware," great, she wasn't going to get back to Azura anytime soon, "there are a lot of men competing for your hand."

"I don't know about competing-"

"And within reason as well, the kingdom is without a king, it's astonishing you've made it this far without a man running the place, then again, I suppose that advisor of yours is doing all the work," his smile never faltered, as if the insult was a joke to him.

"Excuse me-"

"But the thing with all these bachelors is that none of them are truly worthy of the title of a king, they're just trying to get pampered in the palace walls," he looked at Ena, it almost sent shivers down her spine.

"What are you getting at?" She knew.

"I propose that instead of marrying those suitors, you marry me, it would merge our kingdoms and make us more powerful, the most powerful even, and everyone knows how desperate this kingdom is for a good king, on top of that, I wouldn't mind waking up next to you each morning-"

Ena ripped her hands from his.

"As much as I appreciate your visit King Tamers, I do not appreciate the forwardness you have shown me. It's informal and frankly disgusting, you insult me, my kingdom, and assume after it all that I will accept your marriage proposal." She stepped back from him. "I put work into this kingdom, Tamers, it may not seem like it, but I have spent many sleepless nights assuring my people are at peace, and for you to suggest I need help-"