3,000 Years

Loyalty pt 2

Loyalty. In a world like this, filled with so many dangers, so many people who wanted to use and manipulate other's good natures, loyalty was a hard thing to come by. Being loyal to another person, especially within the upper classes, was seen as a tedious chore. Too many times, oh so many times, Elizabeth had been privy to the conversations whispered between the more matronly women of her social station. Marriages of love were something so rare that they may as well be frowned upon, but marriages of loyalty - a mutual trust and dependency - they were treasured. Sought out for.

Every 'good mother' of their quiet countryside region always aimed to match her daughters up with sensible, suitable men. Yes, men. Not the silly, gallant young boys, the strapping, dazzling charmers who barely qualified to be old enough to serve in the royal army. Such young men - such children - were simply too immature to ever take over the responsibility of caring for, looking after, a wonderfully raised young woman who could easily find interest in a better suited (much more financially comfortable) marriage.

Between love and loyalty, loyalty was always the more realistic option to hope for when it came to marriage. Between a love-filled marriage and a mutual partnership, all a young woman like Elizabeth could ever wish for was a husband who would never dare to betray her. Break her own trust in his faith to her.

And yet, deep in her heart of golden hearts, she couldn't help but believe that she had found both.

Even if he refused to acknowledge that fact.

Winter had now melted into a much warmer spring, the pale white frost and slippery ice crumbling away to reveal bright green buds of life and vitality. Once skeletal trees with dark, twisting bark were now covered in an array of newly grown leaves, tightly drawn buds of flowering plants that would soon open to reveal the beginnings of swollen, fertile fruits. Bushes and shrubs were also regrowing their emerald cloaks, tiny round berries drooping from their thin branches.

Early in the morning, chirping into the empty air, songbirds were beginning to return from the distant south. Buzzing away, their filmy wings fluttering, insects were also becoming more present, bumble bees and butterflies alike settling within the potted plants that Elizabeth kept on her bedroom windowsill. Even squirrels and other tiny creatures were beginning to awaken, crawling out of sleepy burrows and nibbling on the newly-bloomed daffodils.

Everything, everywhere, was preparing for spring. All around Elizabeth, bustling with the breath of a brand new year, the world was continuing on. Life was bringing itself back into its almost circular cycle, predictable motion.

And then there was her, frozen almost, filled with thought as everything around her continued to grow and bloom and rejuvenate. With the return of spring, the entirety of Elizabeth's tiny, rural world was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for the incoming visit from the country's royal family. They were already planning for the grand festival, the moment in which the daughter of the town's sacred protector - the giver of life and fertility to fields and marriages alike - would be crowned as her successor.

Part of being a goddess, of being part of her family, was upholding this tradition. Ever since she was a little girl, barely old enough to even fathom a life-long commitment, Elizabeth had been made aware of what fate had in store for her. Of what she would have to give up on the day of her twenty-first birthday.

None of her had ever thought it would come this fast, though. In the blink of an eye, the rapid twist of her hand, twenty-one years had flown straight by. Twenty-one years of freedom before she had to sign herself away for good.

"I thought I'd find you here," His voice broke all her thoughts, a shock to Elizabeth's system as she turned around to face the intruder. Ruffled behind her back, her four wings stood attention, ready to move in tandem with whatever plans she formed within her mind.