Temperamental

Chapter 8

The King of Tuathalis paced nervously as he continuously shot glances at the messenger.

"Are you sure?" His face looked aged from stress and worry. His gentle eyes were creased with worry and his hands were clenched in a desperate attempt to remain calm.

"Yes your majesty. Although the Crown Prince was ambushed and half his men massacred, their was no indication of him being harmed. According to one of his guards, the Crown Prince entered Gaia Forest but only the bodies of the ambushers could be found. It appears they were killed by Gaia Forest's demonic beasts. There was no indications of the Crown Prince."

As the words were spoken, a loud gasp and choked sobbing could be heard. At the sound of despairing cries, the King's face softened and he strode towards the woman who had been standing conspicuously by the door. Gently, the King pulled the woman into his embrace. "My Queen, don't worry. Our eldest is too strong to have met an end in a place like Gaia Forest."

Hardening his gaze, he turned towards the messenger. "Relay my order! The news of the Crown Prince's disappearance is to be kept strictly confidential. I don't even want the ministers to hear this news."

The messenger bowed while stuttering out his acknowledgement of the order.

Meanwhile, the so called "strong eldest son" was strongly testing the patience of a certain unicorn. After placing the young prince into a coma, Roan had gone about his daily duties. He solved territory disputes between beasts, watched over and blessed a leopard's birth and healed an injured horned rabbit. His routine seemed to have perfectly fallen into place and so when night time came he had effortlessly fallen asleep beside the boy.

The morning of the next day, Roan had been woken up by curious prodding. It was inadvisable to approach a horse when it wasn't aware. Even Roan, who had never paid much attention to the details of a horse's habits, knew it was the wrong way to approach. So when he felt the tugging stroke of hands through his tail, Roan had to fight the instinct to buck as it would undo the hard work he had put into healing the boy.

It took all Roan's restraint to limit his actions to a mere eye roll. He looked at the black haired boy and bared his teeth to show his anger, however this only caused the boy to laugh. Roan looked to the little golden bird with the question of "what is wrong with this human?" displayed in his eyes. But his question was left unanswered as the little bird could only find the situation humorous. Since this human arrived, the little bird had access to exclusive entertainment. Roan snorted. What happened to brotherly love forged through hardship?

Roan rose to a stand elegantly and tossed his mane. The action exuded arrogance and yet seemed particularly stunning to the boy. His soft and gentle voice called out to the steed. "Can you be my mount? You saved me so you can only be mine!"

The boy grinned and moved closer in order to run his hands along the Roan's velvety flank. As a Reincarnated human, the action felt too intimate for Roan's liking. He neighed his dissatisfaction and moved his head to bite at the boy's shoulder.

Unfortunately for Roan, the boy was experienced with the art of fighting and so nimbly dodged the attack. The fairies who had been idling around the oak spirit, watched and called out, "We told you all humans were greedy! You can never trust the motives of a human."

Roan sighed. He agreed with the fairies however couldn't help but add "This despicable human is virgin and smells of innocence TAT". The soothing scent of an untainted soul calmed Roan every time he thought he might snap and trample the human beneath his cloven hooves.

Roan's hooves were very "un-horse like". They were instead closer to goat or deer hooves. This gave Roan an advantage in the steep forest environment. However, when Roan thought about previous descriptions of unicorns that he had read in his previous life, he became very paranoid that more changes would occur.