Incendia

Chapter 11

********AUTHORS NOTE***********

Hey guys let me start off my saying how sorry I am that this took me so long! I had writers block and then I work at my college and I was there for a month and forgot my laptop and blah blah blah. Long story short is I'm really sorry that you all had to wait for this but  I have a month off so I should be back on that writing grind! Thank you to all my loyal readers and followers for being so patient!*****

INCENDIA"S P.O.V

Incendia sniffs against Teo's smooth, silk shirt, inhaling the scent that is him. He smells of pine needles and spring rain upon rocks. Incendia only knows what this smells like as it has rained twice since her leaving her ice kingdom.  Incendia takes one more deep breathe, secretly savoring Teo's scent before pushing him away and roughly rubbing at her eyes.

"Incendia, I just want you to know that I know what it's like to lose a family member and feel lost." Teo says quietly taking a step towards her. "You see like you, I also have an older brother. However, unlike yours mine wasn't kind."

Incendia doesn't dare say anything in fear that he would stop talking, Instead she quietly sits on the boulder behind them and waits, watching Teo as he nervously wrings his hands.

"My brother.." Teo starts but then stops as he starts pacing in front of her. He looks at her and takes a deep breath before starting again. "My brother, wasn't always as he is now. Once we were close, we went everywhere together and did everything together. My mother used to say we were meant to be the same person, we just came in two separate bodies by accident." He offers Incendia a sad smile.

"In our kingdom, when men of.....of a certain status reach the age of twenty, they are given a ceremony claiming them as men, officially named the Life Ceremony. My brother's life had already been planned out from him since he came from the womb. However, a few months before his twentieth birthday, he began to change." Teo looks over at her to make sure she is still following, Incendia gives him an encouraging nod, and he continues.

"Three months before his birthday and his Life Ceremony, he met a girl whom he fell for. I did not know much about this girl at the time, being four years younger than he, I also knew little about love at the age of sixteen. What I did know was this girl was beautiful, she had hair as deep and as dark as midnigh that fell in these loose waves down her back. She was tall, with these long muscular legs and these piercing yellow eyes that glowed against her tan skin. Her name was Layla and as I said her and my brother were in love, or at least he was. I'll admit that at the age of sixteen, I too was bewitched by her beauty."

Incendia can't help but notice that Teo's idea of beauty was the exact opposite of what she is. With her red hair uncontrollable hair, pale skin and her short stature; Teo must see no beauty in her. Incendia mentally shakes herself, it doesn't matter what Teo thinks of her she doesn't care. She turns away from her unpleasant thoughts and focuses again on Teo's deep voice, immersed in his story.

"My brother, he began sneaking out at night to see her as our parents would've not approved of her. Not only was she...different from our family, her views were the complete opposite. But being the loyal younger brother, I kept his nightly outings a secret from my family. As the days to his Life Ceremony drew closer, his nightly outings occured more frequently and became all night rather than just a few hours. I began to feel as though each new night, my brother drew farther away from me, until it felt as though I no longer knew him. Funny isn't it? He wasmy closest friend for sixteen years, but one girl and three months made him a stranger to me." Despite Teo claiming it to be funny, Incendia detects the resentful edge in his tone.

"Early in the morning on the day of his Life Ceremony, I waited in his room to confront him, he hadn't returned at all that night and I was determined to speak to him before his Ceremony later that day. While waiting in his chamber, I discover these papers he had been writing to Layla. In those letters they spoke of the Pharor, the outsiders. The way he spoke of the outsiders, was as though he admired them, he cherished all the terrible deeds they had done. When he finally decided to return home, he climbed upon his balcony a mere hour before day break, three hours before his ceremony. He entered his room, and was furious to find me inside of his room, when his eyes finally found those letters that my shaking hands were cluthing onto; Dia, you should have seen his face. He gave me this smile, like he thought I'd agree with his ideas. He quickly discovered that he and I had two opposing views on the Outsiders, he changed. As we stood, staring at each other on opposite sides of his chambers, that was when I realized that he was no longer my older brother, my best friend, my hero; his eyes went blank in a way I had never seen and I tried reasoning with him, to forget about the Outsiders and Layla and focus on his ceremony and his life. But he just laughed and drew his sword, telling me that I was either with him or against him. Dia, I couldn't agree with him, he wanted to help the Outsiders kill people, I drew my sword also. Layla had been teaching him Outsider's way of fighting, and I was no match for him, he had me pinned to the floor with the sword pointing down at me. But instead of killing me, he laughs and gives me this." Teo says undoing his shirt to show a jagged scar reaching from his right shoulder blade to his left rib cage. "As I lay on his floor bleeding, my brother leaned over me and told me I'd regret this decision, without another look at me he ran, and jumped off the same balcony he had just climbed upon, and left me thinking I was going to die until a maid came and found me."

"After my brother's ceremony, I left my home, my title my everything. I gathered supporters on the way, and have been plotting against him, we were hopelesstill we found out about you."

Teo takes a staggering breath, stops pacing and looked at Incendia with glassy eyes. "Dia, he is the reason I came to get you, you do not know the things he can do.

Incendia breaks the silence that she kept throughout the entire story, "Why him though Teo? What can one man do?"

Teo lets out a humorless laugh. "You don't understand, I am the Prince of the Summer Kingdom, my brother, my evil, sadistic brother is the King of the Summer Kingdom. He holds all the power, he and the Outsiders are planning on taking over everything, Incendia....they are planning a war, against you against me against everyone who is against the,. I have seen them fight, on the day of my brother's Ceremony, they slaughtered anyone who stood in there way. As my brother stood on a stage in front of all his people, who were cheering for their 'Beloved' king on his special day, thousands of outsiders poured in through the city gates killing, anyone who dare stand against them." Teo swallows hard as his eyes grow glassier. "I watched them kill a farm boy of seven, they have no mercy."

What do we do?" Incendia asks appalled by the idea of this happening and her Kingdom doing nothing but hiding and protecting itself.

"We fight." Teo says with gleaming eyes as he offers a hand up from the boulder.

*****SOOOOOOO I have a lot of ideas of where I want to go with this, but I don't want to throw them all at you guys at once and have them lost. Do you think I should try and make the stories longer or should I do it in bits like this. Also what did you guys think about Teo's backstory and everything. PLEASSEE Comment and vote and such I love reading everyone's comments you all are the best!*****