A normal life

What may come

Get your head out of the clouds Cassy, and go find that man of yours.

I searched everywhere I could think of. It took longer than expected as I had to sit every five minutes. Why did I not just call him? I honestly think I am losing my mind in the most literal of sense.

Voicemail. Really, now of all times?

Anthony: "Heard you were looking for me?"

"Why do you always do that. Sneak up on me just as I am about to give up looking for you. Alright fine, I was not going to give up. At least not yet."

I sat him down on the park bench next to me. It is freezing cold today, colder than it has been in a while. As if he knew what I was thinking he took off his jacket and places it over my shoulder. Apparently, he did not want the baby to be born with blue lips. Elvin blue toes are bad enough according to him.

I started off by thanking him for the poem and he blushed, So cute. Then he started talking about his family being so big and him not wanting our child to grow up with no siblings and that he did not want a big age gap between them. This is not what I need to talk about now, we can plan our future once we both know that we have one healthy child.

I mentioned that as we are on the topic of big families I needed to tell him something. That he would be getting into one a little more complex than he had originally anticipated. I told him about how my mother told my father about the curse after the birth of Nasteljè and how he had left to go find answers of his own without much luck. I told him about the handsome dark-haired man that seduced my mother while my father was away and how that ultimately lead to my mother's secret pregnancy.

At first, he thought that meant that I was not my father's daughter and that is when I had to tell him about Pieterre. How he was in fact, my brother. I told him about the obsession this man had for my mother and how she did not have those feeling to reciprocate as she still, despite everything that had happened loved my father. I told him about Leonard and my connection and that the curse was real. I left out the part about the reaper though. I am pretty certain that with him knowing more about my curse than I do he was already aware of these unpleasant details.

He sat next to me in disbelief and his head dropped down to his knees revealing a perfectly shaped bald head in which I could almost see my own reflection.

Anthonieos: "No! This cannot be true. I mean I had my suspicion with the amount of time you spend with that dragon and the fact that he obeyed you in the courtyard, but I guess, I was in denial.

Why did you have to tell me this, and now, why now?"

He saw me in the courtyard with Leonard and did not think to mention anything. Stranger and stranger.

Me: "That dragon! That dragon is not just a dragon. He is my soulmate. And If you are mine as well that would make him yours to share. He is part of both of us."

Anthonieos: "That's just the thing, Cassy. He is not. I am not. Do not misinterpret what I am about to say. I do care for you and I do believe that I love you but as much as it pains me to say this, I am not your soulmate. Once the chosen one meets her third their hearts will beat as one as a sign of their unity. A bond so strong that no elf or dwarf or any living being can break it. Do you remember that morning I held you in my arms? You had placed your head on my chest to listen to my heartbeat.

I do. I also remember the music playing in my head. As that is the only place one can hear it these days. The music was a composition of both our hearts beating in two different beats. In harmony but most definitely not in sync.

I am sorry Nessy. If I had known you were the chosen one thing would have been so much different."

"How much different?"

Anthonieos: "The thought had never crossed my mind that we are not perfect for each other, Had I known and realized we were not soulmates I doubt I would let things have gone as far as they did. In fact, I doubt whether or not you would still be alive.

This man you spoke of, the one with the obsession with your mother. It is not just recently that he has been planning on getting her back. He has been following an elaborate domino of events for years. He had found out about my family's history by pure chance. A discussion that had been held at a local tavern among family members of mine. After a few ales, he had already started stalking them. Then after hearing that I had gotten a job at the palace it added fuel to his flames. Little did I know that he had something to do with me getting this job in the first place. That weekend when you told me to go see my sisters I did not go; it would have been pointless as he has them in captivity. He kidnapped them so that I would do his bidding in order for them to be released."

"But, you invited me with you to go and meet them that weekend?"

Anthonieos: "Buy then, I had already compiled dozens of reasons in my mind why things would not have gone as planned."

"And when you say his bidding?"

Anthonieos: "The reason I was upset was not because of not having three kids with you. It was because the third child would have been offered up in exchange for my family."

"Do you know what would have happened to that child? It would have been forcibly bound with a dragon then his or her soul would have been extracted from that small innocent body in order for him to..."

Anthonieos: "Harvest it, place it in himself to have control of the dragons. I did not learn these things from a history book. He taught me everything I know about your family and the curse. I know an innocent child would have to die, but, at that point all I could think about was my family, getting them back, and maybe still being a father to the other two children. Telling them that their sibling died a hero."

"That is so cruel! I do not envy what you are going through but you would have had me have this child then fall pregnant again as if I am some sort of factory for this man to have his revenge on my family. The family of the mother of your children. I cannot! This is so wrong in so many ways! And this child, what would have happened to him or her. Just some failed experiment. What about Dirk is my sister safe with him or is he in on this two?

Anthonieos: "Most definitely not! He knows nothing about this. Cassy, I need you to listen to me. Fernandes, this man you speak of will soon find out about your brother and then he will come after you. Please you need to go into hiding for the next week. Please you are an amazing princess and what I did was unforgivable but please, stay safe. Keep our child safe!"