A Warrior's Heart

Chapter 25; Moments

Night time soon fell over the land, the moon coming up and illuminating the otherwise pitch black sky. The many stars twinkled and a falling star soared through the air, hoping someone would notice it and make a wish.

A heavy sob raked through the prince's body, his shoulders shaking and fat tears leaking from his eyes. His cheeks were wet with tears and his long lashes stuck together. He squeezed his eyes shut and furrowed his eyebrows, lips quivering as he cried.

He hated it. Hated how they treated him here. He hated how he was bathed with strawberry soap and dressed into a red flowy gown. He hated how three girls had towel dried his hair and brushed it rather roughly to get all the knots out. Hated how they had picked out a few golden clippings and hated how they decorated him with it as if he was their personal dressing doll, only good for sitting there and letting them have their fun. He hated how they treated him like one of them.

He didn't hate females in general, but he did hate to be treated like one.

He knew yelling for help or trying to break out of his chains was useless and no one would hear him anyway. He just stood there, in front of the huge hole in the floor in the same room he was locked up in as before while his wrists were cuffed, the chains attached to them hanging from the wooden pillars on each side of him. He was softly crying and hoping everything would just be over soon. Begging all of this would be over soon.

—x—

A rather short soldier was standing in the hallway of the fort, his weapon resting on the floor beside him while his hand loosely held the heft. He sighed deeply and cocked his head sideways to get his long black hair out of his eyes, smacking his lips a few times and blinked his eyes afterwards. It was so boring to keep wait all day long without any breaks and he started feeling pretty exhausted.

Suddenly a strange smoke made its way around the corner, slowly creeping up towards him without the soldier noticing, staying close next to wall and out of the man's view. It was emerald green and thick and it moved around in the air like a whirlwind, blowing out the candles hanging on the wall as it passed them.

The soldier wrinkeled his nose, feeling it tickling and not soon after he sneezed. When he lifted his free hand to rub at his nose he caught glimpse of the strange smoke. He frowned and titled his head sideways. He had never seen something like that before, and he had no idea what it did or what it was for. One thing was certain, he didn't like it and he had no idea how he was going to fight it.

The smoke then crept up in front of the soldier who was gripping his weapon with both hands and pointing it at the weird green stuff. The smoke didn't budge and kept going, engulfing him whole and once the man inhaled the smoke his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his knees buckled under him, not capable of carrying his weight anymore. He fell to the floor and now that he was out of the way the whirlwind of smoke edged closer to the door, pressing itself through the metal bars between the window and approaching the prince.

—x—

Beomgyu heard something. A soft whirring-like sound sounding like it came closer by the second. He opened his teary eyes and saw a greenish smoke coming closer to him, floating through the air and over the large hole in the floor. He narrowed his eyes but before he could think of anything what it could be the whirlwind charged forwards with high speed, splashing into his face and causing him to stumbled backwards, the chains of his cuffs rattling loudly.

—x—

Soldiers stood on the ground in front of the large balcony, each of them holding a weapon which they raised up in the air, yelling and chanting the same sentence over and over again and from what Taehyun now knew was  "Our king will win!" Yoongi and the brunette were watching sadly how the king hyped the crowd up, thrusting his fists up in the air at the same time as the soldiers did with their weapons. It really was game over this time.

"We are gathered here today.."  A man dressed in wolf's fur started as he stood next to the king and the prince. He held a thick book in his hands and it looked too big for his small arms.  "To witness the marriage of Rowoon the Cruel, the Horrendous, the Wretched, the-"

"Can we just move on?"  Rowoon interrupted the man who was getting carried away with his job to marry the two, his patience not running very long today. The man nodded nervously and cleared his throat, smiling awkwardly. Beomgyu blinked and looked through the red satin fabric covering his face. When the girls came into the room to get him for the wedding they had clipped the fabric onto the piece of gold in his hair, giggling about how he looked like them.

"Hey, I uh..  wanted to thank you."  Taehyun said, looking at the scene from where he stood on the platform, a rope loosely hanging around his neck and his wrists tied behind his back firmly. Yoongi looked over to the boy at the sound of his voice, just looking at him for a moment as he realised he hadn't even done that all the time they had been together.

His brown eyes held a somber colour as he looked at the wedding taking place across from them. His hair was messy and his clothes were wrinkled and dirty. The white shoes he had worn when he jumped through the basket were now covered with sand and dried mud, the white colour almost not visable anymore. There was a small cut on the irritated skin off his left cheek but the boy didn't seem to feel it. Either that or he had ignored it all this time.

"For what?"  He asked him then. Taehyun exhaled deeply.  "For trying to turn me into a warrior."

"You were a warrior already before you met me, Tae,"  The older replied softly.  "You were one on the inside. The only thing I did was let it surface to the outside."

"Yeah well.. it didn't really do much, I guess."  The boy said, chuckling sadly and glancing down briefly. The black haired male sighed and looked over at the balcony where the man dressed in wolf's skin was still talking.  "It isn't over yet."  He said lightly.

Taehyun scoffed and turned to look at the man. The warrior's eyes were calm and collected like they always were, his lips resting softly against each other as he breathed through his nose. He noticed how a few fresh scars covered his pale skin, some deep and red and others barely there, just scratches.

"What do you mean it's not over yet?"  He huffed.  "In a minute he'll be married and we'll be getting hanged."

"Taehyun,"  Yoongi sighed, looking back to the boy.  "Worrying isn't going to change anything. Just live in the moment."  He told him, sounding as smart as ever.

The younger took a deep breath and turned his gaze towards the balcony. The king smirked as the crowd cheered for him, the prince meekly standing still while the man dressed in wolf's skin spoke to them.

"No offence.. but I think we ran out of moments."