sparrow and lion

Chapter 3: the untamed

Nobilities' jewels don't actually go that far in paying for board and food and the damages a pack of dogs leave in their wake. Valuables of that caliber are easily recognizable and far more likely to result in one's arrest than in one's repayment. Questions abound. How did a commoner come to be in possession of such wealth? Where is the noble in question and why didn't they pay in actual currency? It was the missing lady? Why was it not reported so that she could be safely - read: forcefully - returned to her household?

Leo, of course, knew none of this. Hers had not been the type of childhood where one was forced to take these types of questions into account.

Wren, of course, knew all of this. His had been the type of childhood where one was forced to take these types of questions into account.

He did not know yet what he would do when he caught up to her. He imagined it would be quite an endeavor when that time did come. She was so desperate to keep away from him that she would no doubt flee again the moment she saw him. Unless she couldn't. Which, of course, still left a myriad of possibilities for him to consider.

Death he immediately dispelled. The lord of the household had oft said that Leo would never die. She would survive her own execution just to spite him. And, despite himself, Wren couldn't help but agree. After the incident in the mountains in their eighth year, he was half convinced she was immortal.

Severe injury was an option he couldn't rule out so easily. She was a tiny girl from a noble household traveling without a guard in dangerous countryside. Her only companions were a pack of unruly dogs and a mule who responded only to whistles and vaguely pointed directions. Quite frankly, it was a wonder she hadn't been maimed trying to pet a bear or cuddle up to some sort of gigantic, jagged fanged cat already.

But, if Wren was being truly honest with himself, the most likely possibility was imprisonment. He was fairly certain that, when the moment came, he would be extracting her from some sort of prison cell. Which, of course, was why the lord of the household was so eager to marry her off and send her away to the countryside the moment she turned twenty. It was only a generous bequeathal of money and favors that had kept Leo's name out of the mouths of other minor nobility and her delicate form waltzing with respected young lords at balls and feasts.

Money, favors, and Wren.

It took less than a day for the innkeeper to discover that her tenant had disappeared without paying, for the grocer to discover that his larder had been raided, and for the stable owner to discover that the door of his best stall had been kicked to pieces. And so, as he always did, Wren strode patiently from place to place, doling out gold pieces and replacing broken doors, and bowing his head humbly to refuse thanks.

And then he climbed once again aboard his horse and continued on his way.

Back at home, the household waited in silence. Both of the noble children were missing. It had been utterly peaceful for weeks. Both weddings were being planned without a hitch. The fountains were tinkling cheerfully instead of being clogged with dog hair and the horrifying bray no longer echoed from the stables.

The lord and lady of the house were furious. But only one of them at the children.

She stared at a small painting of the two of them. Her heart was heavy.

"We should have sent her away the moment she turned thirteen," the lord said for the hundredth time. "At least, at court, she would have been a lowly handmaid and the guards would not have feared beating her."

The lady glared at him. "You have always been too hard on them. You know that poor boy fears the water. And yet you would force him to live upon the sea!"

"He would never dared have question it if it hadn't been for her!"

"Neither would have questioned anything if a better match had been made! She loves the sea and that family also has a son, but you would rather see her exiled and him miserable than reconsider your arrangements!"

"We both know the only arrangement that would have suited their wants. It was never an option."

The lady stared at him for a long moment. "They know as well as we do that they are not siblings," she said.

"They are whatever I tell them to be!" the lord roared. And then he stormed from the room.

The lady brushed her fingers over the two tiny faces in the portrait. Her fierce little wildcat and her peaceful little bird. The day she had become the mother of two instead of one. When they both had still been exactly who they were. Two little Leos. And then her husband had plotted and she had lost her sweetest, softest little one. She loved them both, of course. She wasn't as unfeeling as her husband. But she had always loved her gentle little Wren just a little bit more.

Leo had read a story once about two magical warriors in love. They were never meant to be together. One was fun-loving and rambunctious while the other was taciturn and serious. One came from a mountain clan with a thousand rules and the other from a lakeside palace brimming with laughter. They didn't get along. How could they when one lived by principles and the other by following their heart? And, maybe most importantly, their society would not abide it. Both were men, after all. But somehow, in the midst of all that could and maybe should have kept them apart, they had been brought together - by life and by choice and by circumstance - over and over again. Until, in the end, they accepted that they could only live by what they thought was right.

The author had been fiercely chastised for the immorality of her writing and the story was never released. But Leo had gotten her hands on it just the same, because of course she had. It was that story which had ultimately changed her. Despite her tears in a long-ago garden, she might have still come to be the ideal daughter if not for those characters.

But they had haunted her dreams and her thoughts for years until she understood. She had to live her own life how she wanted to live it. If she had to regret, let it be her own choices.

Maybe that was why she'd just been captured by bandits.