The Love That Bonds Us

Chapter 19 : Why Are Goodbyes So Hard

AGNARR

Nuru-Baako straightened the wrinkled cuffs of his crisp, white shirt; no doubt to show off his new sliver cufflinks.

Again.

They were his Christmas present from Iduna - along with these fancy quills. He'd once said he needed a pair from Arendelle, in order to complete his collection, and he was well chuffed with them, showing them off at every opportunity.

Arianna shook her finger at him, the charm bracelet from Iduna rattling against her wrist, "Don't go showing off your present again Nuru." she scolded, though her voice was on the brink of cracking with laughter.

I slapped my palm against my forehead, "And what are you doing 'Anna?"

She turned to me and scoffed, "Don't be absurd! I'm not showing off anything."

I sighed in resignation and ducked my head to read over the swaying papers in my hand.

We were standing on the docks, waiting for the ship from Durtoriabi to arrive. It was Springtime, a couple days after the hype of our Spring Festival, and Nuru-Baako had finally heard word that it was safe for him to return home.

Apart from that, not much had happened over the last couple months.

Unless you count all the funny business from the Royal Guard.

They'd finally stopped hassling me about the girl who had rescued me, but that didn't put me at any ease because, instead, they'd started going on about other things, like how I needed to be more strict with my 'subjects' and how Lyone wasn't trustworthy.

But the thing was, we'd had a week's visit from Queen Adaline and she had seemed great! She was happy with the new Alliance (which had finally been sorted) and she seemed charmed by Arendelle. I didn't see what was so untrustworthy about her.

There was only one thing I could think of, and that was the hostility between herself and Colden, but that just seemed like Colden - until I remembered a comment he had offhandedly made once, about him and Adaline being acquainted once.

However, that still didn't warrant the entire Royal Guard being convinced we couldn't trust the Kingdom of Lyone!

I was just about ready to give up with my Royal Guard at this point. My father had been a very different King to me.

"Stop working 'Narr." Arianna snatched the papers from my hand, "Honestly. We are saying goodbye to Nuru and all you care about is this rubbish." she smacked her hand against them to highlight her point.

"It's not rubbish." I argued back, trying to grab the sheets she now held teasingly out of my reach.

"Well it isn't a love letter for Iduna, so why isn't it rubbish?"

I felt my heartbeat quicken despite the frown I plastered on my face and Arianna laughed.

"What's going on? I heard my name." a voice suddenly said.

"Iduna!" I whirled around to see the girl bending double to catch her breath.

Arianna whacked my stomach and then jabbed a finger at Iduna, clearly wanting me to say something I didn't want to say.

I shook my head firmly before crossing to Iduna and taking her hands to help her straighten. "You OK?" I asked, peering into her face with concern.

Iduna nodded, "Yeah. I'm alright. I just ran all the way here after hearing that Nuru is leaving today!" she turned her eyes on him almost accusingly.