26 Wylde

_Wylde_

"Wait! My lady, please wait!" her handmaiden had called after her, trying to stop her from leaving the castle.

"I'm afraid this cannot wait-"

"My lady you aren't to leave without guards and that is a whole ordeal to set up!"

"So no guards. I have you don't I?" The girl said simply, opening the large doors to outside and stepping down the large front steps. Passerbys down on the bridge were wide eyed at the sight of their princess so easily leaving the castle.

"My lady this is not the right way in which to do things-"

"What is about to happen is not the right thing! I must make haste!"

"My lady, what is there that is so important that you think you must stop it?" She called after her, the voluptuous blonde fae woman bounded after her on stumbling feet.

"Halt! Lady Valadae, you are not to leave the castle without his grace's orders." A castle guard said to her, blocking her path.

She narrowed her eyes at the shiny armored man. "You will move at once." She ordered.

He faltered a bit. "I'm afraid I cannot."

She brushed past him. "You will let me pass or I will let me pass." She told him simply, and then there were two people following after her. 

She paused and spun on her heel to face the two. "You," She pointed at the guard. "Will go back to your post and pretend you never saw me- no, i have decided I do not care about that. Just go back to where you belong. Pass whatever message you must, I do not care." She turned to her handmaiden now. "And you can accompany me, but stop whining will you?" She asked her with a huff before turning and walking briskly across the off-white bridge that ran to the doors of the castle. A few guards watched her cross, but the looks she gave them shut them right up.

It had been after a long while of walking that she started to run. Valadae had already wasted too much time merely badgering her handmaiden to let her leave. She could not afford to stop again. Not without the boy she had heard about dying. And she could not let this happen.

"Lady Valadae," The clumsy handmaid whined after her, tripping over herself to keep up.

Vala only kept running, not minding if she were to lose the woman in the streets or crowds of people. She would soon catch up, Vala had already explained where she was going and she was not going to stop to explain it again.

 She knew that this would create a lot of trouble but it was important. She couldn't let this boy die so easily when he was such an important character in all of this. War was an ugly game and it would only spiral on and on with his death. She could possibly end this whole war if he was to live. The soothsayer told her this and the woman had never been wrong before.

When she had gotten to the armory courtyard, she had been shoving her way through the crowd of people but felt herself freeze when she saw him there on his knees, the Regent to her father ordering him to bend the knee. She could not find it in herself to speak at first- taken aback by his ghastly appearance.

She had never seen someone so tan and dark of hair in her life. Nor had the girl seen someone so dirty- he was covered in dry mud, blood, and other things she did not want to name most likely. You could scarcely see the leftover war paint that decorated his face and she wondered if all of this perhaps made him seem tanner. What really caught her however, was not his dirty features, or his tangled and ratted dark hair, nor his skin. But rather, what had her breath caught in her throat was his golden eyes that shined with a wildness she had not before seen.

When she saw the axe raise in the air she yelled out, fearing she was too late.

______

He was a mess, she had heard. It had taken several people to bathe him and at least half of them were injured. This would become her problem now, as she was responsible for such a beastly boy. But she was not phased like this. He merely needed to be trained, was all. There was not a fae nor human out there that could not be trained, or untrained for that matter.

One of the maids had worriedly reported back to her that the boy was covered in scars- well she was no longer sure if he could be regarded as a boy. His actions took on the appearance of a wild angry child, but his body spoke of years of a laboring man. It was a conflicting thing to think about.

Vala had come to the room just across the hall from her own. She motioned for one of the two guard's with her to open his bedchamber doors. Wearily, he did as he was told and the girl stepped into the room after him, the second guard trailing wearily behind her. Once inside she instructed the guard to lock the door behind them. Next, she turned and smiled to a sulking Everan.

He was standing near a barred window, as if too anxious to sit down- but his face showed no sign of fear. She had seen a similar look on the faces of wild animals put in a cage. Hiding fear and bearing their teeth as if to convince themselves and the world around them that such a thing could never be afraid. It was a lie.

She smiled to him and did not even blink when he sneered at her. "Why have you spared me? You should have let me die," he growled out now.

"You wanted to die? That is a rather gruesome thought to have."

"I am as good as dead."

"So I have heard you say," She hummed out and moved to take a seat at a table stationed near the center of the room. "Won't you come sit with me so that I may explain myself?"

His golden eyes flicked to the chair across from hers before looking back at here. It was almost as if he had considered it before he crossed his arms. "No."

Just as she thought. "Very well. I heard you hurt some of the hands that worked to clean you,"

"I do not appreciate being touched," He said simply.

"No?" She said leaning forward to rest her head on her hands, elbows planted on the table in front of her. It was not very ladylike but she took this opportunity to make herself seem less threatening- though she did not know how threatening a 5'0 fae girl could be. "Then what of your famous talk of bedding men's wives? Their mothers?"

He scoffed at her. "I do not mean that," He said with an even sharper gaze. "I do not like to be washed when I can do it myself."

She frowned at him and put on an innocent face. "But you would not. What choice did they have? We are hygienic people here in the capital- being covered in dirt a and blood just won't do."

"Your people are weak."

"Yet our hygiene helps us live longer than yours," She hummed out.

"You have no proof."

"Oh but I do, my lord."

"I am no lord to you," He spat now.

"No but you are my father's ward now. Or well, mine I suppose."

"I am too old to be a ward,"

"I suppose that is true, but it is a better word to use than my captive prisoner."

He leaned against the wall, still near the window. She wondered now if the outdoors brought him some sort of comfort. "Prisoner is the truest word for me now. I can't even be a proper hostage."

"You do not have to be a prisoner or a hostage," he told him with a hopeful tone. "All it takes is a little bend of the knee,"

He stalked over to the table now, but stood a good distance from her. "Bending knees, bending arms, bowing, none of that means anything to my people. It would not mean anything to me." He explained to her aggressively.

However rude he appeared, Valadae merely raised her brows calmly. "So then it is a thing you would not mind doing?"

"You are just as daft as the rest of them," he said darkly. "I would bend all the knees in the world and still turn around to stab your king in the throat with a stick."

"You speak of treason so easily," He reminded him curtly.

"Aye. Treason to a king I do not serve."

"A king who you could serve. A king who, if you were a son of his, would do everything he could to get you back from your captors."

"A weak king." he spat.

"A true, and just king. Compassion does not make you weak- it makes everyone around you stronger."

"Then why is it that you are as weak as you are?" he asked her now, and she tilted her head.

"I am a woman," She pointed out.

"You are mistaken. You are a girl. Women are not inherently weak. The beast folk raise all children the same. They raise them hard and unforgiving. That is how you cultivate strength. All I see here is weaklings- mummy's boys and sewing girls. You all would die if placed in the middle of the woods."

"I am a woman. I am a true lady, and I would appreciate it if you treated me as such." She declared to him.

He gave her a trying look. "You are tiny."

"I am short, aye. Many women are."

"How many seasons are you?"

She stiffened a bit. "How many are you?"

"Nearly nineteen come this fall." He declared this time. "Several seasons past my manhood."

"You are younger than I assumed." She admitted.

"What? Only interested in older men, are you?"

Her face heated up and she scowled at him. One of the guards spoke up now. "You will not speak to her ladyship lik-"

"It is alright, let me handle him." She said with the raise of her hand. The guard seemed to reluctantly back off now.

"How many seasons are you?" He repeated now, looking her over.

"We do not count by seasons here in the capital." She said simply. "I will be sixteen years of age come May,"

"Who is May?" He said with the wrinkle of his nose.

"No, May, the month. Not a person."

"A month?"

"A moon cycle, although they do not always line up with the calendar."

"I do not know what a calendar is." He told her now, and glared when he noticed her reaction.

She sighed, running a hand down her pretty face. "Next you will tell me you cannot read,"

He stiffened this time. "I cannot."

A smile came to her face now, and she tried to cover it with her hands. "What?" he asked her, feeling offended. "We do not care for such things as reading," he defended. 

"I know! It all makes sense now, nearly entirely," She said, holding back giggles. "We are teaching children to read, here in the capital. And you are-" she held her breath to keep from laughing at him. "You are eighteen years old and you cannot read,"

"You do not need to remind me. I assume gawking at my ways is not why you stopped my execution. What do you want from me?" He said changing the subject.

"I was only told you were very important by someone who knows things."

"Well whatever they know is wrong. I am of no importance. I lost that when I was captured."

"Perhaps," She hummed. "But I was told you were important for other reasons."

"And what reasons might those be?" He asked her skeptically.

"That is for me to know, and you to find out once you start behaving." She told him coolly.

"Am I not behaving now?"

"Bend the knee."

"No."

"Prove to me that you want to behave."

"You want to make me angry," he growled at her, but she did not blink.

"No. What I want is for you to bend the knee so that you are safe here in court."

"You want me to bend the knee so that you have an insider from your enemy. I will not so easily be used."

Her eyes widened a bit in realization. "Hmm no that was not what I was aiming to use you for, but it would be a pretty idea. Who knows the ins and outs of your enemy better than their most trusted? You have no reason to stay loyal to your people anyway- if they so easily gave up on you the moment you lost." She was silent for a moment but spoke again before Everan got the chance. "Tell me, Everan Faust. Would your life be spared if you returned to your father."

He paused, his answer a hesitant one. "Not likely." He said simply.

She watched him with a critical eye and light smile still on her face. "I did not think so."

He growled at her and she gave him a dull look. "Your people worship the beast gods, and I do respect that, but there is no need for you to act like an animal lest you require me to treat you as such."

His hands slammed down on the table, making her jump and everything else clang a bit. "You will keep in mind not to tell me how it is I should act, princess. I do not fear death, child. Everything has been lost to me. I will act and do as I see fit. Do not think just because you spared me for whatever greater purpose you may have, that I will so easily grovel at your feet and behave just as you ask."

She hummed, and looked from his hands on the table to his wild golden eyes. "Yes, they did tell me you were the wild type. I figure there is a reason you do not outright harm me just as everyone else.

"I wished to hear your reasoning why you spared me. But it seems you do not want to tell me everything- so perhaps I will live up to my name." he pushed the table to its side and creeped closer to her. The guards made to move but she raised her hand, warding them off.

"You claim to not fear death, but everyone fears pain-"

"I do not"

"You do. Everyone fears pain." She told him sternly. "And if you hurt me I cannot promise you will escape torture." She told him as he came to stop in front of her. She stood, so that she was not so far below him, but their height difference was great, and she found herself looking up at him. Everan had to be around 6'4, taller than most fae men.

She looked up at him fearlessly, a pale hand coming up to brush the hair from his eyes. "You are fierce, wild boy-"

He made no move to get away from her, keeping his golden eyes trained on her pale blue eyes with those haunting white pupils. "Man." he corrected her.

"Boy," She pressed. Her hand came to rest on his cheek now. "You are stubborn, rude, aggressive... not at all good company." She told him these things without a hint of remorse. He pushed her hand away. "But you have potential for good. You are important for reasons you do not know, for reasons I am not entirely sure of myself..." Her eyes searched his for a long moment before she sighed and stepped away from him, turning to the door.

"I do hope you will soon learn how to behave, Everan Faust."

"I am an extension of my own will. I act however it is I want." he said as if it were an acceptable thing. 

"That is how children act, lord Faust. Do remember you are in the capital- and in court we play the game of words- not childish antics."

"You are quite terrible at your game." He said with the crossing of his arms.

She looked back at him and raised her brows. "And why is it that you say that?"

"I can already see your weakness." He told her simply, a smile finally breaking out over his face.  

___

A/N: I have a couple questions for you guys because I am just so very curious.

What character(s) is/are your favorite? Your least favorite?

What character(s) is/are the most interesting? The least?

Any theories about where an individual's story is going? This story as a whole? I love feedback.