Destined Path

Chapter Three: Kastala Brúviður

Onyxia PoV

I sat exhausted in my chair at the long dining table, in a festive orange gown decorated by gold threaded vine details with my hair bunned in a combination of braids, I tried to look awake and excited. The hubbub of the hundreds of guests surrounding me was deafening, once or twice I pretended to adjust my earring just to make sure my eardrums hadn't exploded. I looked past my eating parents at my siblings. My sister was delicately nibbling on her food, whereas my enormously tall, golden haired brothers Bjorn and Erik were scoffing down their food so fast it was even harder to tell the twins apart. On the other hand my own twin brother, Frederic was talking to my future brother-in-law, Jaymen. He was just as slender and pale haired as I was. My father calls him the 'chip' as he isn't log-like as our brothers were. Jaymen and Alexan looked completely identical except Jaymen's hair was long to his brother's short cropped hair, and that Jaymen was very pale like his mother. I reminded myself to talk to him later, if I was to join this family I wanted to know everyone. Even the ones who aren't seen much.

I glanced at the King as I found him watching me; he smiled and raised his wine filled glass in a silent toast. Forcing a smile, I raised my own in return. The man had worn me out, he sent an irritatingly high-pitched voiced maid to me early in the morning to give me a full tour of his beloved Brúviður Castle. A tour that lasted the entire day. My feet were so sore from walking. In sympathy, I had given my handmaidens the night off to sleep for coming with me.

The grand Kastala Brúviður was indeed very grand. I was taken by horse to the very beginning; the Stallion Gates. One two huge solid squares the larger than life clay statues of rearing horses on their hind legs and connecting at their battling hooves. It was spectacular. I sooner found out that the castle was actually made from several castles. Castles on mountains, near lakes, in magnificent gardens. All of which I found very beautiful. But the main castle was most obvious; it was a massive white stoned marvel. Extended with long arches and tunnels holding horse related statues in different forms, some in marble fountains, some made out of blackened metal with wings, some made out of wood. She took us to the crafting studio to meet the artists behind the works, the handsome men were very unlike the manly, raw men I was used to encountering back home in Scandinavia or in my mother's land east of the Rhine of Prussia, but were rather eager to make my acquaintance and kiss my hand. At least I memorized my way to the training yard; I might visit there tomorrow.

I glanced to the king again, noting that he was fixedly glaring at something, I followed his gaze to where Alex had slowly re-entered the room after he disappeared with a scandalously dressed woman just peeking about an hour ago. He was grinning as he re-joined his table full of his jeering and laughing friends. I wasn't stupid, I knew that he had to at least have one mistress, or a hall of lovers. The pitchy maid had tried her best to hide that fact from me when I spotted the wisp of golden hair of the girl he was kissing so intimately in the distance of a small gazebo. I truly didn't care that much, it's what men do. He was entitled to do so anyway. But I caught no sign of the girl in the crowd, she must have been the one he had just been with, no yet recovered to return.

I continued to eat what meat was given to me called 'Hákarl'; it was some form of shark. I was told that its flesh was poisonous, and that they had to purify it for five months to make it edible. It still had a bitter sourness that lingered in the aftertaste. It was informed that the shark it comes from is a monstrously large creature that lives under the icy waters and devours polar bears, horses, moose and even people whole. It was deeply fascinating. I ate the meal whole, as I thought it rude no to as it clearly holds high value and great effort to prepare. The other meats like beef, mutton, lamb, goat and pork seemed to be just as popular. As much as I didn't like eating and would feel unwell for having to do so, I made effort to hold down everything I was offered. The feast was only paused when a dark skinned girl stood dramatically and commanded music. A woman in a lustered red dress, that had sleeves that billowed and two high slits to her waist that revealed her legs completely. She wasn't wearing anything under it but a sheer loincloth.