Chapter 14: Wings

Phileas flew close to the trees as he carried Sarah away from the forest. She held onto him with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, as if though if she let go she would fall into the dense branches. Looking down made her scared and dizzy, so she averted her gaze and looked at Phileas. All she could see though in her position was his uniform collar and his chest. An irregular beating sound came from him indicating that his emotions were unstable. But, it felt safe.

Sarah looked up to try and see his expression. As usual, the pale face held no emotions, just his jet black orb of eyes staring at the palace in the distance. They must have wandered off really far into the forest, she realised. But why did he attack and hurt Jake like that? He never lost his cool no matter what Jake did.

They arrived at the palace soon enough and landed on the study room balcony. Phileas dragged her in by her wrist and when he finally stopped, he pulled her into a tight embrace.

Sarah was a little shocked. It was very unusual of Phileas to show physical expression of any sort, yet here he was hugging her for the first time ever since they met. She could feel his heart beat faster and louder as he held her close to him, his wings slightly folded around her.

"Phil? Are you alright?"

Silence followed. They stayed like that for a while before he slowly released her. He held her face in his hands, but then realising that his actions were not suited for the princess he took a few steps back and brought his palm to his temple. Walking towards the large desk still piled with papers, he leaned on his hands resting on the edge of the table.

"Phil, I am okay. You don't have to worry".

"The darkness," he murmured.

"The what? What is it Phil?" she asked softly.

"I saw the darkness closing in on you both. I think Brave is up to something".

The darkness? The dark magic was in the forest?

"But what does Jake have to do about it, Phil? I understand it must have been dangerous to venture out that far, but he was just chatting with me -"

"Stop this," Phileas ordered, "stop meeting him when I am not there. I cannot trust him".

Sarah stared at him for a while. He was just being paranoid from the prophecy, she thought. Perhaps it is just that the dark magic loomed around in the deeper forests, but there is no way Jake had anything to do with it.

She shook off the thought and walked over to Phileas, gently rubbing his back, "alright, don't worry, okay? Calm down. Sit down and get some rest".

Phileas' muscles became less tensed at her touch and he slowly retracted his wings. Sarah felt sad whenever he did that. She found his wings to be very beautiful. Her hand slid over to his left wing and unconsciously grabbed it so that he would not be able to make it disappear.

Phileas' eyes opened in surprise before he turned sharply to look at Sarah. Sarah, realising what she had done, let go of the feathery limb and began to apologise. She kept on mumbling, but Phileas turned back towards his desk. A smile crept up to his lips as he tried his best to hold it back. He was not used to this sort of emotion.

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Phileas felt that he had lost his mind when he hugged the princess. He felt that his brain had disappeared when he held her face in his hands. What in the world was he thinking. How dare a mere knight involve in such physical contact with the princess. Sure, she is nowhere close to seeming of royalty, but he should use his common sense. Even so, at that instant, all he wanted to do was hold her close to him and hide her away from harm.

Such unacceptable show of emotions, he thought to himself as he held his aching temple. Brave has really started to become his source of stress. He walked up to his desk and leaned on it on both of his hands. He used to be so efficient in his work, but for the last one year all he has on his mind is the princess. All the papers just keep piling up, because of his inability to concentrate. Of course Rhea is smart, which is why his workload has reduced even if by a fraction, even so today's event will now bother him for a long time.

As his mind rushed with all of these thoughts, suddenly he felt someone grab his wing. His eyes popped open wide. No one has ever dared do such a thing. He turned around to see Rhea flustered, his wing in her grip. The princess was holding onto his sacred wings? As he watched her recoil in embarrassment, apologising, the only thing that rushed through his head was how she grabbed onto his wing.

She touched my wing. She likes my wings. He smiled like a fool. Wait, what? Smiling is the beginning of weakness, I must control it. The smile became crooked.

He held his poker face on him with great effort as he turned back to the apologetic princess trying to explain her actions. Black orbs of eyes staring at her.

Should I keep them open for her? Nah, she almost got into big trouble today. I will retract them as a punishment.

He brought his hand to his beating heart. He felt good today. He felt like he won today.