Innocence

Chapter Four

“I couldn’t believe it. Father wants me to be with the Rosebloodian Princess!”, Ethan complained. For merely sixteen years, I’ve had lived my life with this young, stubborn, and stupid Ethan Massix, my little brother. Well, not so little, actually. Even though he was stupid, he had sense and he spoke with it. At least he felt the same way as I was about the sudden betrothal. The best thing about it, was that he usually never agreed with me in somethings. But that time, we were on the same side.

I rolled my eyes at him, “Then you couldn’t believe it when Mother told me that she expected me to be with the youngest Maldoran Prince”. He looked at me, giving me a strange look.

“Henri?”, he asked.

I nodded, chuckling. “It’s strange isn’t it? We, the Massix Siblings, being betroth to strangers. Well, this might be the first time I say this, Brother. But we have the same fate and I could feel your suffering!”, I patted his shoulders.

“But Sister, Nilsa was thrilled about her betrothal to Percy! Like she understands what it means. She is too young to know such things and she didn’t have a clue about it!”, he was mad. Seeing my brother concerned of Nilsa, was a rare sight. He usually was reckless and stupid, but that time, he was the opposite. As he threw out his concerns, his sanities, and perhaps his anger, we walked into the courtyard to attend our training sessions with Sir Ellender.

“Have you ever seen Juana?”, I asked, wondering if he perhaps ever saw her.

He snorted and sneered, looking disgusted. “I’ve had, once. When I was travelling Roseblood with Father”.

“You are no heir of his but you travel often with him”, I sighed.

“That’s because I’m a boy and you’re a girl”, he laughed, smelling my jealousy. “Girls tend to be more jealous and somewhat.. troublesome in the eyes of men. You girls love to play and make dramas while we just stand there and watch, or perhaps being dragged into an argument”.

I let a little silence fell for awhile. “What does she look like?”, I insisted, about Juana.

He sighed. “Not as pretty as I wanted. She has no eyebrows and she looks like a cow”, he described her.

Oh, not a good way to describe a Princess, Ethan. What a terrible mistake. But from what I heard from him, she sounded.. fertile?

“How about Henri? Have you seen him?”, he asked in return.

I shook my head, “No. I’ve never seen him, actually. But Mother did told me how does he look like. Handsome, she said”.

He nodded in agreement, “Well he is, actually. Too handsome for his own good”.

I furrowed my eyebrows, “Too handsome for his own good, you said?”. He nodded. I sneered. “How does he look like?”.

“But didn’t Mother already tell you?”, he wondered. I rolled my eyeballs. “Well I’d ought to know from your own perspective. Perhaps you both have the different perspective”.

He laughed. “He has a brown hair. He has blue eyes. He is taller than me. Which means he is taller than you, dwarf”.

I punched his shoulder, hard. He flinched and mumbled, “Ouch!”. He quickly stroked his shoulder with his right hand to soothe the pain. We might share the same height even though I was older than him, but I was stronger than him. Perhaps my strength could tear out a man in half. “Call me dwarf again and I’ll have you in chains”, I threaten him.

Once again, we both fell into silence. He was running through the hallway when I found him near my quarters. Said he was looking for me and Instructor Ellender wanted us both in the courtyard immediately. He never did that, before. Usually he came late. Then we talked about yesterday, then it led into the obnoxious talks about the betrothals. He was upset, and so was I. Probably for the first time, we had the same opinion on something. The fact of us walking in silence was usually an odd thing since he always asked me of unnecessary things. But when he was quiet, it felt strange, though when he kept talking it annoyed me.