Warrior Protect

-1- AURORA CORIERE

The mesmeric clicks of hooves against weathered stone filled my head. I was on my way to my new home. A home where I would be an outsider as well as a future queen. The sound coupled with thoughts of home turned my mind into a vortex of facts and memories.

Cavix's current rulers proposed a bargain to my parents. A marriage where each side benefited differently. Cavix agreed to support 's economy with exclusive imports and exports. In return, my parents agreed to send me, their only daughter, to marry their son and future king. I am supposed to become a great queen like all Cavix queens before, but there is another side to the bargain. Protection. I will have to protect my future husband and king with my skill sets as a Warrior Protect.

An arranged marriage, huh? A loveless marriage? Just like my parents...in the beginning. However, my mother was much more mature at nineteen then me. I haven't cared for anything but training to support my brother on the battlefield. I am vain and proud, but it was never an issue before. Or so my mother made clear when I accepted the proposal. She lectured me for hours that I need to act proper from now on, like she did when she first married father.

"Love can come later," she said.

That was true for her. Father and mother learned true love after I was born. I was so young back then when I first learned what love really was. The sound of stomping hooves faded into the thunderous echo of the guard clock outside my parents' bedroom, and my mind drifted back to that childhood night.

I had awoken from a nightmare. One I do not even remember now. What I did remember, however, was the feel of the warm gray wood against my small hands. My silver eyes watching my father pace inside his room. My presence a was as feeble as a mouse back then, so small and fragile as a young girl. I also remembered my parents' conversation as if it were yesterday.

___________________________________________

"Inguar," mother's voice was threadbare as she held a handout to stop him. "She really asked if we truly loved each other?" My father only grunted in answer, their faces now sullen. My father finally stopped pacing, his broad back blocking the view of my mother as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"When Eloy was born, we agreed to be faithful and drop any lovers we had held onto after our marriage. We did not want such ill-natured things to reach his ears. Why did we think that would be enough? Eloy never asked, but Aurora watches our interactions like a snow hawk, Dima." My father's voice sounded broken. The man who seemed like an unmovable mountain, his graying hair like snow on its peak. The man I looked to for protection, his voice shook.

"For our daughter, why don't we try?" my mother asked.

My father nodded, before leaning down and kissing Mother gently. It was my brother, Eloy, who took me back to bed. He had come looking for me after noticing my bedroom door open. He stayed by my side until I was asleep once again.

The next morning, I was awoken by the gentle touch of my mother. Her blue eyes were soft and filled with love as she smiled down at me.

"Sweetheart, hurry to the changing room. The maid is there already." I was perplexed at first, but it was soon replaced with awe, when my mother stood up revealing my father standing beside her. His arm snaked around my mother's waist as they both smiled down at me.

"We will picnic in the gardens, so hurry." My father's laugh was robust and deep. The sound warmed my heart. Leaping out of the bed I hugged them both and ran off with a smile to change.

That was when I started seeing my parents fall in love.

___________________________________________