The King of Saminu

Chapter 21

Every muscle was shaking as I propelled myself upward. My arms burned. A drop of sweat beaded on my forehead, until it snaked its way downward and dropped into my peripheral vision. My throat felt incredibly dry, a cough dying to come out, but I waited. Just as I pushed myself downward again, my arms decided to drop out from underneath me. My nose met the cold marble floor.

    "Are you okay?" Brann looked up from his stack of paperwork, his attention forced away from what he should be doing. I sighed, rolling over onto my back instead to stare at the textured marble ceiling.
"I'm not good at this," The frustration came out of me when I should have hid it. Brann sat up, uncrossing his long legs. He stood then, putting his papers where he sat. His face appeared in front of me, blocking my pitiful view of the ceiling.
"You're getting better," Brann smiled, offering a hand for me to stand easier. I sighed, but took it. My abdominal muscles screamed as I sat up, but Brann's grasp pulled me faster than I could fall.

    "I want to be stronger. I can do five push-ups before my body gives out," Brann shook his head at my complaining, then placed both of his hands on my shoulders.
"Last week you could do one," He smiled, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. His lips were barely there before he pulled away. "Maybe you just need to do more cardio first?" Brann chuckled at the face I made.
"You know how I feel about running," I pouted, crossing my arms over my chest. Brann shrugged.
"But you're good at running," I rolled my eyes, and Brann wrapped his arms around me. It was nice to lay my head against my husband's chest.

    "I was born disadvantaged. There's only a few people who are born without the gift of strength, and I'm still weaker than they are," Brann chuckled once more, then patted my back.
"You do realize that you were born with not only the gift of healing, but the gift of ice? How many people are born with those combined? Not many, right?" Brann tried to get me to see reason, but it was hard to.
"How am I going to be a responsible adult, responsible queen if I can't even protect myself? We're at war. People are dying as we speak. And I'm tucked away, in a nice castle... where I'm failing at push-ups,"

    Brann pulled away from me, grabbing my cheeks with a singular gentle hand. I looked up at him, like he directed me to.
"There are people in the war who are even less advantaged than you are, yes. But they never gave up. Gamm gets frustrated every day, right? He has to work twice as hard, because he doesn't have a single gift. But, he's still succeeding. Arrstir doesn't have strength either, but she has fire. And she uses that to her advantage. If someone were to come at her, she would burn them without batting an eye. You have ice. Sure, some people are born naturally stronger. But strength can be learned. You just can't give up," Brann let go of me and smiled. I sighed.

    Brann applauded me as I went back to work. There was a pulley machine in the back of the training room. I sat down next to it and started lifting the weight that was attached. Brann's footsteps echoed across the marble floors, and he audibly fell into his chair. It was his turn to groan. I looked over at him.
"I've barely made a dent in this," Brann grumbled. I chuckled.
"I can take half of that," I offered, my voice bouncing off of the wall in front of me to where Brann could hear.
"That's not fair to you. You already did your half this morning," He mumbled. I could hear his head hit the back of his seat.

    I turned around, staying on the seat of the weight machine, but now I was able to look at my husband as he struggled. There was a part of me that enjoyed this. We were both struggling in our respective areas, and both of us continued to try. Still, I wanted to help my husband.
"Yes, I did my part. But, I actually want to be able to spend time with you tonight. That'll take you until after dinner if you do it by yourself," I had used the wrong choice of words, and both of us knew it by the time I was finished speaking. Brann grew even more frustrated. I walked over to him as he spoke.
"I've been king for over a year and it still takes me too long to do even simple tasks,"