Come Love A Stranger

Sixteen

A young man materialized in the forest out of thin air, his long slivery white hair flew around his face gently with the breeze. He stopped and heaved a deep sigh, and then he closed his eyes, “you went to her,” he whispered.
“Aye,” a voice answered and in the next second, a man with long black hair appeared before him, “I had to, you were losing your way.”
“Did you arrange the marriage with the king?” he asked, his voice lower than necessary but the man opposite him could hear him quite loudly.
“Again, I had to. You seem to be forgetting our agreement, Alador, do you want history repeating itself before you realize that?”
Alador closed his eyes and sighed, “I cannot help myself, I am drawn to her, I cannot stop. Ever since she was born, I have been trying to stay away. You know I have, Ilayas.”
“Aye, but you only stayed away for seventeen years, you were supposed to stay away for the rest of her life, have you forgotten?” Ilayas asked.
“Nay, I have not. I just could not continue to stay away when I could feel her presence; you should have stopped her from coming to the forest. You should have stopped her family from being banished and keep her away from here. You know how hard it is to block out her scent, you know how hard it is to keep myself from going to her.”
“That is not the question, Alador, the question is why thee forgo your punishment and brought another upon yourself?”
Alador closed his eyes, he said nothing for a while and then whispered, “I miss…” Lightning flashed in the sky immediately, shutting him up and in the next second, he was flown in the air and right into a tree. He fell on the ground and didn’t bother to get up.
“You are not supposed to do that, you are not supposed to be with her!” Ilayas shouted, his voice far from the gentleness he was speaking with earlier and more beastly to the ears. Sparks surrounds him and he raised his hand and sent another lightening to Alador. He picked him up and smacked him onto another tree far from where they were standing earlier. In a blink of an eye, he was beside Alador where he had fallen. “Imagine that I have to come here to warn you when I felt a pull on your punishment and to see her here, with you? Do you have such death wish, Alador?” He struck him again, “do you want to keep breaking every rule?” he raised his hand to strike him again.
“Enough!” Alador screamed and blocked the attack with a strong wind, he stood up from the ground he was laying, and his eyes were like burning flames. In a blink of an eye, harsh wind surrounds them, blowing up everything around. Ilayas tried to block his face from the sands it blew up while Alador stood in the middle like a god, his eyes fiery and burning brightly than usual.
“That is enough, Alador, you know I am trying to help you,” he screamed, “this is wrong, you know it is. When are you going to understand that you will never be together? What exactly will make you understand? What exactly do you want?”
“Her,” he answered, his fiery eyes sparkling faintly now, “it would always be her.”
“You and I know that you cannot be together, do you not understand that? Do you want history to repeat itself?” Ilayas paused and added, “again?”
The heavy wind disappeared immediately like it was never there and Alador was kneeling on the ground with his head bowed.
Ilayas sighed and walked up to him, “you need to stop now, you need to abolish everything this instant, otherwise, when history strikes again, it would be total chaos. Even you know how many lives one can reincarnate. Unless you want her to stop existing, then you can continue going to her but I am warning you, Alador, next time I will not care that you are my brother’s son, I will punish you like I punish everyone who disobeys the law,” and with that, he was gone, disappeared into thin air.
Alador fell defeated on the dried leaves that had been piled up by the wind earlier; his slivery air sprawled around him. A white fox with sparkling blue eyes materialize from the air and whimpered, he looked up at it and smiled faintly, “hello, old friend.”
The fox whimpered again and robbed its nose on his face. Alador chuckled faintly and sat up; he carried it in his arms and buried his face on its furs. “I know, he is right, if she should die again, she would not reincarnate, she would stop existing. I know, but I cannot stay away, I have tried since she was burn and I would have had she not come to the forest. The bond is still strong, she feels at home here, she told me herself and I could feel it as well. It makes it harder to stay away.” He sighed, the fox whimpered again and he robbed his face on its fur, letting its warmth surround him. “Aye, you are right. I have to this time; I have to protect her, no matter how painful t’s to me.” The fox cooed, as if agreeing with him.
Minutes that felt like seconds passed and Alador raised the fox and looked deeply into its blue eyes, “but thee shall protect her for me, you would do that, would you not old friend?”
The fox cooed once more and he smiled, “I thank you, old friend,” and with that, the fox disappeared.
***
Mariah woke up in a jerk and climbed out of the bed, she rushed to her balcony immediately and seeing the flowers that had grown on the vines, she knew it wasn’t a dream, she ran back into her room and searched around but didn’t seem to find what she was looking for and her spirit dampened. She sat on her bed as everything that happened last eve returned back to her. A strange man appearing in the garden, her father telling her about the king’s proposal and then Alador coming to her….Alador, she froze, “that is his name,” she whispered to herself, “Alador,” she repeated, remembering when he had whispered it to her, she was so sleepily that she couldn’t even keep her eyes open and that left her wondering why she would be so tired when she did nothing yesterday.
But the thought that he finally told her his name abolished every other thought from her mind, “Alador,” she whispered again with a smile and then felt a sharp pain in her head; she reached to rob her temple and closed her eyes. Snippets of images flashed through her mind but none lasted long enough for her to see what it holds. She opened her eyes quickly and tasted the name in her mouth again, why does it sound so familiar and why does she feel like she used to call the name with so much love before? But how could that be possible, he had only told her his name last eve.
A knock on the door disrupted her thought and she glanced at it, “who is it?”
“Kayla, my lady, I have come to fix your bath.”
“Very well,” she replied and the door opened, Kayla and her other maiden entered, each carrying a pail of water.
“Good morning, my lady,” they both greeted and set off to arrange her bath. Mariah stood up and walked to the balcony, she needed the fresh air to calm her headache. As she stood by the railing, something caught her eyes in the garden and she looked closer to realize it was an animal, a wounded one perhaps. She quickly turned and rushed out of the room, running down the stairs to the garden and paying no mind to the servants’ worried eyes.
When she approached the garden and close to the animal, she stopped to ask herself what she was doing but she couldn’t ignore the fact that the animal’s fur color reminded her of Alador’s hair. She bent down and picked the poor thing in her hand, “are you hurt?” Looking at it, she discovered it was a fox with fur as white as the snow, “poor thing,” she whispered and the fox whimpered and opened its eyes to look at her. Mariah was shocked at the blueness of it, it was the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen and she fell in love with the animal immediately. “Do not worry, I shall take care of you,” she smiled and carried the animal in her arms and walked back into the house.