War Of Hearts (#1stBook of Heart's Series)

Chapter 9

(Part two)

Two years later....

Today is my eighteen birthday. And the first thing I do in the morning is signing myself up under General Saree's command as one of the new recruits for the war.

Theondre turned eighteen two months before me, and he's ready for war too. No, more like he had to go to war, to prove his power.

We'll attack Tehinnya, a kingdom on the south. we'll have to went through harsh forests to get there. The preparation have been done months before the king turned eighteen. His first war have to be successful, full of glory, an ambush where the enemy's kingdom wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

This is going to to be Theondre's first conquest, and I'm going to do anything in my power to make this successful.

That's what I told myself everyday. But now, the war is so close and instead of feeling excited over the war, I feel sad instead. I was thinking about the mothers, sisters and children that's going to be left on their countries for the war. In the end, whether it's Ashur or Tehinnya, both nations would face pain of death.

I was planning to die on this war, hoping that the gods would be kind enough to let me die without too much pain.

Theondre didn't like this idea, and for two years he still tried to make me explained why I wanted death so much.

Killi gave me a lot of advices. He even tried to seduced me once, just to see my reaction. He gets nothing, though. Don't get me wrong, Killi is a very beautiful young man, and I would love to be able to hold him if I didn't have Theondre already in my heart.

I love Theondre too much to love anyone else's as much as I loved him. General Saree called it a 'young love' that would withered soon in time, but even after years, my affection for him only grows stronger.

A lot of things happened in two years. General Saree slept with a woman, a whore when he was drunk. He never thought that the whore would get pregnant and give birth to a son a few months ago.

He never get drunk anymore after that, saying he didn't want to make the same mistake.

Killi seemed to be the one who was very devastated by the news.

While me, I tried my best to be stronger, tougher. I learned every weapons possible. I trained myself everyday until one day, I finally took down my father in a match. This hurts his pride so much, he hated me even more for it.

But the match was a boost to my self esteem. I grow to be more confident in my power, to know that I, too, have something worthy.

I was in the royal palace, as always. But today was different. Because today, Theondre would knows my reasons. All the reasons why I needed myself to go.

I would be lying if I said I'm not afraid. I was scared. I knew he would be angry at me because of this. But what makes me afraid the most is the fact that he might hate me. He would abandoned our years of friendship. He would throw the necklace I gave him, the necklace he never took off once.

I grabbed my necklace, the one he had given me years ago. Just like him, I always carried it around my neck everyday, every moment.

I don't want our last conversation ends up in a fight. No, more like him being angry at me, maybe. I would never be able to hurt Theondre.

But we'll start the journey for war in two weeks, and this would be my last chance to tell him the truth. After that, I will try to busy myself with all the preparation for war, to numb the pain, even if it's just for a little bit.