A Script from the Peony War | manxman |

Script One | The Prince's Keep | ~ end ~

The call of the Middleman Sea was ruff as the waves beyond the steep drop-off raved, colliding with the cliffside like ocean hammers raised to batter the land.

Raeyn's footing slowed at last and he rounded toward the single door facing away from the cliff. He heaved the arched door open and practically flung himself inside before shutting it behind him.

In that moment, his knees seemed to register his safety and gave way, causing his light weight to sink. His nerves and limbs were trembling to the point of losing control of his movements.

Curled there on the dusty floor at the base of the steps that led to the upper floor, Raeyn's body became slack and he allowed his muscles to rest and regain their strength, all the while swallowing down heaps of desperate air.

Jon, his heart called, Will you know something is wrong when I don't show?

Even with their unanswered letters, Raeyn hoped his previous day of silence would be enough to tell of something not quite being right. Their ravens wouldn't so suddenly falter from a flight path, from a task they'd carried out time after time.

Or, Raeyn presumed, what if it was possible for their respective ravens to have done just as their owners.

Could a bird know what it was to love? Surely all creatures experience the world in their own ways, and finding love, discovering hope and doting prospects wasn't so foreign to an animal. Had their birds crossed paths on so many occasions, that a plot to flee and nest and settle into the others' feathers had crossed their minds?

While he lay beneath the pressure of his fatigue, Raeyn breathed as his thoughts drifted, as if each was safeguarding him from the reality of this current circumstance.

What did the world look like to a winged creature, to a bird as they soared higher than any human being in these times could imagine?

The stories of dragon riders from long ago crossed Raeyn's mind. What had they seen? How had they viewed the world? Was it frightening up there? Upon the back of a winged creature far bigger and far stronger than a man, there had to be some portion of fear, but Raeyn figured it must've also been so beautiful.

To touch the clouds.

Was it possible to graze the sun?

Raeyn imagined gliding the tips of his fingers against the distant ball. Would it get bigger the closer he got? Has anyone ever touched the sun? If ever, perhaps there were stories of it, just as the dragons, in the aisles of the Citadels.

The walls of either were made up of endless stories of past times. Raeyn knew there was a detailed telling of his father's reign, just as there would likely be a detailed telling of his brother's and Jon's. Would his existence be as full as someone like his brother's and Jon's; two rightful kings whose reigns were destined from the moment of their births.

I don't need much, the thought crossed Raeyn's weary mind. I only wish to be known for who I am beside you, Jon.

To be known as King Jonera Vholgera's one true love...

That would be enough.

Jon, I want to be beside you.

A shine of tears touched Raeyn's eyes then, but his sorrows didn't last long before being replaced with a descent of despair.

"Prince Afire!" a voice called, and a shock rippled through Raeyn's spine at the recognition of Keevan's voice.

How long had gone by since his mind wandered? Raeyn hadn't quite noticed when the shadows closed in around him, but the Keep was drowned in darkness now, and yet he'd been followed directly to this place. Being the only building around, he could only hope it would go unexplored.