Zakara: Fire Within (An Allanon Fanfic)

Chapter Fourteen - Trouble at the Palace

"So... are you just going to keep Allanon's horse or what? You sort of stole it from him... and it seems like he really likes that horse," Mekhi spoke up as we rode through the woods back towards his kingdom.

I glanced up at him with annoyance, knowing he was trying to make me go back to my parents, but I couldn't. I just... couldn't. "Listen, Mekhi. I've never trusted people with personal things like this, and I thank you for allowing me to rant about... well, about finding out that Allanon is my father. But the thing is... I want to handle my personal problems myself."

"I'm helping you hide from them, so basically, you're not doing it by yourself," Mekhi said in a matter-of-factly tone, but then flashed a teasing smile afterwards, forcing me to smile back. I had to  turn away to hide it. For me, it was almost impossible to keep from smiling when he teased me like that. "Oh, I saw that. You smiled."

"No, I didn't," I told him, still trying to look away as my face flushed red. The heat of the day wasn't helping at all.

"Yes, you did," he said playfully, leaning forward to get a better look at my face. When I didn't look at him again, he sat up and stared at me thoughtfully. "If that wasn't a smile, then what was it?"

"It was a frown, okay? It wasn't a smile. I'm probably never going to smile again and nothing anyone says or does will make me smile," I replied more harshly than I had intended, and finally let him see my face now that the redness was under control. Thinking about why I was going back to the palace made me upset again. "Okay?"

Mekhi raised his eyebrows and put up his hands with astonishment at the harshness in my voice. "Okay... I get it. Nothing will make you smile ever again." He paused a moment and looked ahead at the trees and grass covered ground. "You know, that's such a pity."

"What is?" I wondered as I glanced at him for a second.

"Never seeing you smile again."

Shaking my head, I pulled back on the reins and made Artaq come to a halt. Mekhi stopped next to me. "To be honest, I never really knew how to smile or laugh until I met you." Reaching over, I took hold of his hand and let a small, appreciative smile form on my lips.

His dark brown eyes lingered on my face for a moment before he smiled back and looked down at our hands. I could see that he was in very deep thought for a long time, but then his expression turned to worry, regret, and sadness. "Zakara... I..."

I waited for him to finish his sentence, raising my eyebrows expectantly. After a few moments I could tell he couldn't seem to get it out and he slowly let go of my hand, making me slightly confused. Did he not like me anymore... if he even had before?

I looked away and cleared my throat awkwardly. "We'd better keep moving."

"Good idea," he nodded.

~oOo~

Embery stormed over to her horse that was tethered to a tree near her hut and started putting on it's tack. 

"Where are you going?" Allanon asked.

"I'm going to find our daughter," she told him, flashing him a glare. "I knew this wouldn't end well. We should have just stayed away from her and each other."

Allanon approached his wife and watched her for a few seconds. "We should have stayed together in the first place, Embery. I didn't want to leave you, but I had to. It was the only way to keep you and Zakara safe from your aunt. You know what she wanted to do with Zakara when she found out she had magic..."

Embery stopped what she was doing and looked up at her husband. "I know. That's not what bothers me. It's that... it's that you never came back. You never came back." Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head with anger and disbelief.