Strength and Weaknesses

18 - His Castle

... A castle?

"Is that where he could be?" Caesar asked. "Probably. Olivia did say that he was in the middle of wall area." I scanned the area more to see if there was a way to get there. "Look, down there is an arch. That's probably where we need to head." Caesar said pointing in the direction. "That's pretty far." I said.

Thankfully, we didn't have to climb our way back down. There was a staircase.

We began our small journey to the castle. It was actually nice. We held hands for a while until some wolves approached us. I drawed my sword and Caesar did too. "Approach them slowly." He directed. I followed behind him and the wolves just growled. "They're not attacking." I said confused. "Right. Put you're weapon away." Caesar said.

I walked up to one of them and asked, "Are you going to hurt us?" It shaked its head no. The wolf emerged into a face. It didn't really show details much but it was a face.

"Greetings Mia." The voice said. "I see you listened to me and brought your boy toy with you." The figure smirked. "Seriously? You're that immature?" I said crossing my arms. "Who are you?" Caesar said. "Oh... ohohohoho. I'm Ryland. Nice to meet you Caesar Montoya." He said. My heart stopped for about 2 seconds.

Caesar looked at me startled. "You guys have a long way but there's some surprises up ahead. I left a gift there. I hope you like it. Ahahahahah!" He laughed like villain he is. His head disappeared into ashes. It didn't go back to the wolf it was previously.

"You looked scared. I mean everyone should be scared of him but why you? You're the most fearless girl I know." Caesar complimented. "Well, before I got my ears and tail, my mom told me about Ryland..." I sighed sadly. "What'd she tell you?" He asked. "She told me that Ryland and I are... siblings." I said avoiding contact with him. "Seriously?! She's the woman you saw in the vision?"

"Not really. I didn't see her but I knew the voice sounded highly familiar. She explained everything about what happened. He's just 3 years older than me. How can someone so young be so... irrelevant?" I said. "I don't know but we should get a move on to that castle. It may take awhile but we can manage." Caesar sighed deeply and headed to the arch.

I stood a bit behind just to collect all my thoughts. After meeting Ryland, he threw me off.

"You coming?" Caesar shouted. "Y-Yeah." I stuttered. I caught up to him as we walked to the arch. It was farther than I thought but legs like ours don't fail. Instead, we wanted to run instead of walk. We could buy some time and manage to get out of here earlier than we expected.

***

We got to the arch and just stared at the castle like we did when we got over the wall. "Wow. He must be very conceited. He has four wolves standing guard at the entrance." Caesar said ducking down behind a rock. "When we approach them you take the ones out on the right and I'll get the left. When we escape they're going to try to kill us." I informed him.

He nodded his head and quickly gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I don't care if we can't kiss during combat but good luck." He flirted. "Heh, thank you but I don't need luck." I sprinted to the stairs leading to the entrance. I ran after the left side of the wolves and took them out on one slash of a sword.

Caesar kicked one on its side and stabbed it while the other tried to attack him. Caesar knocked that one out and killed it.

"That... was easy." He said panting. "I didn't even have to do that much work." I laughed. He rolled his eyes and said, "Take lead. I'll be behind if anything comes."

"Got it." I crouched down a bit and walked towards the door. It was dark and dusty inside. "I barleyreally see with all of this dust." I said hovering my hand over my eyes." Caesar walked up from behind me coughing quietly. "He must've shut everything out in the rest of the realm. No wonder why the place looks abandoned." He said making a hypothesis.

"Aww, look who's being a little nerd." I said in a baby voice and messed with his hair. He hates when I do that but I do it to annoy him. "Hmph." He pouted. I giggled and managed to find a staircase. "Hey, Caesar over here." I whisper-shouted. He followed my voice while taking a grip onto my waist.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "I don't want to get lost." He wrapped his arms fully around me. "Ugh, you're lucky I love this." I groaned. We walked up the stairs which was difficult thanks to Caesar. When we hit the top, torches were lit along the hallway walls.

"Look at these paintings!" I said walking over to one of them. One of them showed a lady tossing their child into a dark void. "Do you think this is my mom and Ryland?" I asked. "Yeah." He said amazed. "You know we can see right?" I said to Caesar. "Yeah..." He hugged onto my waist more. "You can let go now."

"I don't want to. You're so warm." He rested his head in my shoulder and pretended to snore. I shuffled my feet to the painting next to the previous one I was looking at. It showed Ryland thinking of... me?

I placed my hand on the rim to see if I'll have a vision to it.

"Go get me that topaz!" Ryland shouted. "I want to see my baby sister..." He shut his eyes in distress and sighed. "Here you go sir." A woman in a brown cloak said. Ryland snatched the gem from the little woman and held it to his head. In his mind, he saw the most precious baby girl in his mother's arms. Baby Mia Diana Journey Cortez. He fell in love with the name of her. "Beautiful" he thought. He opened his eyes and yelled, "Get me my sister's birthstone. Under the name of Mia Diana Journey Cortez." The little woman in the cloak came back with the birthstone Peridot. "Err... be careful with the stone. If it breaks, the being will die. One crack can injure them badly." The lady said fiddling with her strings. You couldn't quite see her face but she must be sweet and kind. "Be gone." Ryland said careless. He placed the stone to his heart and saw Mia grow every single day. He felt a feeling he hasn't felt in years. Love and happiness. Everyday he sits in his throne room with Mia's gemstone close to him. He grew feelings for her even though he knew it was wrong. Very wrong.  Years passed as he saw Mia grow into the young girl she is. He loved her deeply and the only one that knew was his servant. The lady in the cloak. She knows everything. "Bright lady, keep this stone far from me. I've been sinning the past 17 years. I can't bare any longer." He held the stone far away from his chest where his heart was. His black, cold, dead heart. As the news spread to Ryland about Mia having boyfriend broke him. He wanted to kill the man who stole his sister. His lover.

I opened my eyes with tears pouring down my cheeks. I couldn't bare to see anymore. "Mia! Are you ok?!" Caesar shouted. "H-he... he..." I stuttered. My feelings and thoughts were everywhere. "He what?!" He yelled again. "Ryland... loves... bad..." I dropped to the floor crying my life out. "Mia! What happened? Talk to me..." I can tell his heart dropped as I fell to the floor. I couldn't tell him what I saw. It'll break him too. I can't see that ever.

"Come on... we need to find Ryland." Caesar lifted me off the floor with his arm around me. "It's your turn to wrap around me." He smiled. I lifted my arm to his waist. I was shaking. The only thing that crossed my mind was...

Ryland loves me... Ryland loves me... Ryland loves me... this is wrong.