Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"It's chaos, confusion, and wholly unworthy Of feeding and it's wholly untrue You may feel no purpose nor a point for existing It's all just conjecture and gloom"
Achilles Come Down - Gang Of Youths
🥀
They found themselves docked the following day, a short carriage ride sufficed to bring them inland.
Aera wondered if all the other carriages were taken. The benches brought the pair so close they knocked knees for the first ten minutes of the ride.
"Would you move?" Jimin grunted at her, hitting her with the rounded edge of his bony leg.
Aera huffed back at him, "What, are you a child? Also, it is your fault. I am shorter than you by two inches, there is little else I can do."
Jimin rolled his eyes before leaning forward and grabbing her knees, his fingers spread the bottom part of her thighs. She swallowed looking up at him, completely thrown off by the unexpected touch. "Seven inches."
"I am not five foot two, you imbecile." She yelled, raising her voice enough to give a reason for the burning splotches of red on both of her cheeks. His hands were burning through with their iciness, as she wore a much thinner dress from her arsenal of clothing.
He raised a polished brow, "We are still talking about height?"
Aera sat slack-jawed, spluttering as he roughly slid her legs to the side. Without another glance, he propped his own on the bench and crossed his arms. After several moments of her silence, he turned to accost her.
"Do not act like what I just said was the most improper thing to ever happen in a carriage. Our King and Queen practically screwed each other as I slept beside them."
"What?" The revelation made her queasy. Not because of the lack of propriety. Some other emotion she rather not name swam to the surface.
"I did not wake up, thank the gods."
She searched for any animosity in his voice and found none. Did the Queen make him lose his memory? Or did he forget how intensely he pined for Leila before?
"Imagine if you told them earlier that you were his brother. They would probably be unable to ride in carriages without vomiting from shame."
She swore she saw a flicker of a smile before he closed his eyes and slept for the rest of the three-hour journey.
Aera did not mind the silence, instead taking in the outside world. Persia, as Leila called it, in this specific region was both desert and mountain. The sun had cooled the earth, painting it in shades of purple and pink. She imagined it would have looked perpetually Indigo when Leila lived there.
