We are day away from the palace where Azalea will die. She doesn't show any fear or any other emotions when we discuss her captivity. Honestly, it's weird to see someone so unafraid of death. What I don't know is if it should be called bravery or naivety, she could easily be either one.
After attempting to talk to her again multiple times about the talk about Lea I finally give up, she won't budge on her decision to not tell me anything more about that time of her life.
Later, I thought more and more about the discussion and realized that it shouldn't be possible for Zalea to know Lea. I knew Lea from ages three to six then I was offered a job by Lea's father to become a soldier in Calvaria at age ten. Zalea says that she grew up on the palace grounds but that she knew Lea in the short amount of time she was alive, Zalea knows things about Lea that I never did and I practically lived with her all the time and I never even heard of a friend named Azalea.
I brought the topic of living in Agaricus up to Zalea but all she said was, "Yeah, I lived there before I was forced to Calvaria by my father." She said it like it was no big deal and we didn't have a mutual friend and we didn't live in the same place at the same time.
"Xki?" the words break my from my thoughts.
"Yes," I say looking down at her from my horse.
She clears her throat, "Does the palace have any mystical animals?"
"Well, are you asking for a specific one?" I ask.
"Uhh, it's a nine-tailed fox but it might only have one tail."
"A nine-tailed fox?" she nods, "Well, we have one that we brought with us from Agaricus, it belonged to Princess Lea. The one we have has two tails though." she looks as if she's glowing at the comment of the two tails, "None of us are allowed around it, you know the legends, it transforms into a seductress, apparently."
She scoffs at the seductress comment, "And you believe everything you hear?" she waits for an answer I do not give, "Yes, it can transform, not into a seductress but into many different animals. Do you know how it can transform?" I shake my head, "Once it learns new traits that match up with an animal it gains the appearance of it. Technically if one of the fox's gained traits of a human it could become human. Then amount of tails a fox has shows wisdom, age, and ability." she waits another five minutes before she speaks again, "How far is the stable where the fox is kept from the entrance of the palace?"
I think, "Why do you wish to know?" she shrugs, "You know the large pasture of trees by the fence?" she nods, "The stable is hidden in the trees." she nods more vigorously this time.
~~~
One Day Later
We enter the town and watch as children come to the streets to watch as we pass with Nyx, the extremely dangerous man.
Zalea looks around, "This is even worse than I remember," she mutter under her breath.
It's weird because this is the best the kingdom has been looking in years, she must be remembering wrong.
We continue down the red brick road, to the gates of the palace, to Nyx's death.
Everyone is silent as I speak to the guard at the gate about letting Azalea pass through. He won't let her so I tell all my men to continue through while I deal with the guard.
I can hear Zalea scoffs as the stubbornness of the guard, "Do you know who I am?" she questions the guard, he shakes his head, "My name is Azalea Nyx, I have arrangements to meet with the king, would you be so kind as to let me through so I am not late.
The guard's eyes widen at the mention of her name, " Y-yes, my deepest apologies Lady Nyx, " and he opens the large gate.
As soon as we pass the gate I turn to Azalea, "What the fuck was that?" I whisper-yell.
"I told you, I grew up around here, people know who I am."
I give up on further questioning and continue down the very long path to the palace.
After about a minute of walking Azalea turns to me, "Do you want to walk the rest of the way?"
"Well, you have to walk and I have to stay by you side at all times." I state.
"I can get a ride."
"From whom?"
She doesn't answer my question, "Do you trust me?"
"If I'm being honest, never in a million years."
She just shrugs out of her shackles like they were never there, I almost start telling her to put them back on when she starts running towards the miniature forest at the front of the palace.
She stops abruptly, standing straight just about a hundred yards away from the tree line. She looks back at me then back to the trees. She does the last thing I expect and starts to whistle.
Her whistle is very loud, you could probably hear it from half a mile away. I start to listen more, her whistling sounds like it has a pattern, a patter I recognize. It's the same pattern Lea used on her fox when train it or calling for it.
Not much time later I start to hear the pitter patter of feet against packed dirt, any normal person would think it's a horse but I know that sound, I've heard it hundreds of time when I watched Lea train with her fox.
A large figure comes charging out of the small forest at full speed, I stay where I am, I recognize the color of her eyes, violet.
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Azalea sticks out her right arm, the beast just barely brushes past her. It's enough for Zalea to grab on and use the force to fully mount the fox, just like Lea used to do.
My mind is going crazy. They can't be the same person, Lea has brown hair an eyes, Azalea has green hair and violet eyes. At the same time the shape of Azalea's are the same as Let's but also the last time I saw Lea was year ago and she was only six.
