To Sing the Tortured to Sleep

XVIII. The Resolution

“Vic! Stop it!” I exclaimed, giggling underneath Victor. I hated being tickled, but Victor loved tickling me. I was extremely ticklish.

“Aww! Kitten!” Victor pouted as he finally stopped tickling. The second I noticed his guard down, I pounced on him, tackling him to the ground of the library.

This was one day unlike any others. Kain had been away for the day so the king insisted that I play with Victor, Kain’s brother. I’d never spoken to him before today, but he was awfully fun to play with. In fact, some might say he was more fun than Kain was himself.

“Kitten?” I asked, curious as to why he’d nicknamed me after such a tame animal, I was sure that I was a ferocious beast.

“You pounce like a baby, you’ve got to put more energy into it,” Victor explained, demonstrating a “mountain lion” pounce, growling ferociously.

Excited, I tried out his ferocious pounce.

“So, you’re an angry kitten. At least it’s a step up,” Victor joked, patting my hair as I tried to perfect my growl, “You might as well hiss, that’s what kittens do.”

Then, I decided to make my final attempt at being a ferocious kitten, tackling Victor to the ground and hissing at him. Instead, Victor pet my head and I purred, just as a kitten would. I even licked his cheek, pretending to be a cat.

“You’re too much!” Victor exclaimed, laughing along with me as he hugged me.

After that day in my childhood, Victor had disappeared. It was why my days with Kain had started to become less and less exciting. I’d seen the most exciting yet soft spoken boy I’d ever met, and then he’d been yanked from under my fingertips.

That was why I’d always been stuck playing with Kain and Raven. I could never find Victor, and I was too afraid to ask Kain. Kain had told me numerous times how much he liked playing alone with me, and I was afraid it would only anger him if I asked for his brother, and so I put up with it.

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My memories came back the day after the duel. I woke up, suddenly knowing who everyone was, and how I knew them. I remembered all of the little things we’d done as children, and all of the little things we had said to each other. I remembered Kain, Victor, Raven, and even the triplets as little babies. Most of all, I remembered what had happened after I’d disappeared, and where I had went.

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My parents had insisted we move away. They’d said someone was after us, someone dangerous, and so we’d left without a word. I’d cried and cried to my mother about how I missed Kain and Victor and my friends, but although she was sympathetic, it wasn’t worth risking our lives. I would make new friends, she said.

We stayed on the down low for years, until finally it was safe for me to make something of myself, and I became a nurse. It was my passion really, as it was something I could read book after book on and still learn new information. The subject never grew old, and I could help the people of the kingdom I now lived in, Argane. What I didn’t remember though, as I grew up, was that the best friends I remembered so fondly were royalty of the opposing kingdom.

I was injured in battle once when helping a soldier and never returned home. I’d heard one of the Pylanian men mention Prince Kain, and I knew that now that things were safe, I had to meet him again. I had to tell him that it hadn’t been my choice to leave.

For about a year, I lived with Pylanian townspeople as I recovered from my injury. I told them I was a nurse from the military, never mentioning that I was from Argane. They took me in willingly, glad to help anyone that supported the war. After that year, I set out once again, to reach Prince Kain.

Only, I was attacked as I was exiting the forest near Kain’s castle. Evidently, Clan Four had spotted me and had begun attacking me. I’d been so tired and hungry that I’d passed out at the slightest blow to the head, my memories fading.

Only now, I would assume my memories were waiting. Waiting for the right time to come out and reveal themselves.

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I told my story to Victor, Kain, and Raven, who all forgave me for leaving without notice. They were my family now, and I had a home. Only, my parents had moved into the castle as well, and all was right with the world. We were safe from whoever was coming after us all of those years ago, and I was with my friends, and family.

My memories were back, my heart was healed.