Check this out, my best friend wrote a poem about our dear character Temperance <3.
Read it. Vote on it. And Fan Her. She is amazing at poetry. :)
http://www.wattpad.com/1685629-temperence
Alright, so I someone suggested this to me and at first I shot it down right away. I told her, "I don't want to do that at all." She asked me why, and I told her I wasn't a big fan of novels that did that. But after my last chapter, I was thinking to myself on how to write the next so that in conveys the scene well. I asked myself, "What would the best way to do it?"
Then I thought to my friends suggestion: Change point of views.
I pondered it for a moment, switching to Asa's or Rain's? I thought about how each scene would go, how I could write it, what they would say. Excitement seemed to crawl through me as I thought about Asa's.
So I gave in. Enjoy. :)
- - -
I was astonished by the picture before my eyes. They had spoken to me a few times, but their words sounded like we were underwater as my eyes stayed fixated on Temperance's face. When they told the town that Royalty was coming for a visit, I never imagined it would be her. Immediately old feelings seemed to resurface; bad and good.
Marlene put her hand on my shoulder and I turned and looked into her hazel eyes that stared back into my own. "Asa? Hey are you alright?" It sounded like she was asking it to me again. My lips parted and I stared from her to Temperance. Then two other voices broke the rooms sudden silence.
"Oh no." They began, I could feel their panic, and suddenly I felt panicked. Temperance still hadn't even acknowledged me standing here. Her head didn't move, her utensils simply dropped from her hands and she grew very still. "It's him."
I pulled away from Marlene, and watched as Temperance slumped back and began to fall out of her chair. Prince Rain quickly caught her from hitting the wooden ground. My stomach felt sick at the sight of him touching her, but there was little I could do.
"She fainted," Rain whispered as he lifted her body. "Lets get her to her bed." Echo nodded and walked out of the kitchen with him. I watched them go feeling conflicted and confused. Why did she faint?
I turned back towards Marlene, Raquel was in the room now too. They were both staring at me, and they looked just as confused as I was.
"What do they..." I began to ask. "What do they mean 'It's him?" I saw Marlene's face grow soft and her hand went to Raquel's head. She carassed her hair and Raquel just stared up at me with large innocent eyes.
"You shall be better off figuring that out on your own," Marlene told me. Then she picked up Raquel and stepped out of the kitchen towards the front door.
"Yay! Will you catch fireflies with me?" Raquel joyfully remarked until they disappeared.
I sat in the kitchen, and sat, and sat some more. Time either was ticking by slowly or quickly. My mind was reeling with thoughts so quickly, so many questions. I replayed the scene over and over in my head trying to find a hint of what they could mean. But I found no answers by the time Prince Rain entered the room with a hardened expression across his face.
"Is she alright?" I asked as I stood up in the presence of him.
"No need to stand." He muttered as he picked up the dirty plates and began to walk them over to the other table. I sat back down silently, I could tell I wasn't welcomed or allowed to be on his friendly side. I didn't blame him. "I had no idea the guy she spoke of was you." He spat, I could feel his glare on the back of my head. "Now everything makes sense now as to her behavior towards me."
I turned in my chair to face his glaring eyes. His black hair fell to his ears, and his eyes were bluer than I remembered. My face was stern as I tried to connect the dots. He watched me intently as if I were about to do something stupid.
"So am I not allowed to see her?" I asked to him dryly.
"I don't know why she would want to see you. You haven't exactly made her life better. Returning to her now to talk to her would only cause her more pain in the end, and who knows what else she might do this time."
I was baffled, not understanding his words. I felt horrible at that moment; I didn't like what I was hearing. When I left I had no passing thought about her well being, I was so angry at her at the time. During my travels I found out Temperance was right; there was no arranged marriage. It was to late to go back though. Now they both are together as a royal couple; as an actual arranged marriage. My thoughts coursed through events to try to understand how that could have came about.
"What do you mean by what else she might do?" I breathed out in my continued shock.
"You don't know?" His voice was cold and bitter. I stared back at him with as much hatred as he felt towards me. "She blinded herself. Last year on her birthday, because of you. No one knows why she did it. Soon after she became mute and wouldn't speak to anyone. She was just slowly coming out of her shell, but now she is probably deeper in it than before now that you are back."
He spoke with disgust, but his words were slowing down by the second after he told me she was blind. I felt something roll in my stomach, and my throat felt vile. My eyebrows were burrowed together so deeply in thought I no longer could hear him through to swarms of my thoughts.
I believed for a moment that I was in a dream, that none of this was happening. But by the time my feet had carried me across the house and through a few doors until I finally found her chamber; I knew I was not in a dream at all.
Echo stood up from beside the bed, and I saw Temperance's head move towards the door. Her eyes that stared blankly towards me were just as green as I remembered them. Everything about her looked the same. Her dark brown hair, her pale skin, her plump lips. How could she not see me?
I found myself trembling, and Echo was walking towards me now. "I don't think you should be here," Echo said quietly, I could hear in her voice that she didn't want to say it.
"No." I froze as her voice filtered across the room and into my ears. I clenched my teeth down and locked my jaw; for a moment I was unsure if I could take it anymore. "Let him in." Her voice was still as velvety as it was since the last time I saw her. Harmony's accent was so beautiful, maybe it was why that city was so powerful.
Echo left the room after letting me step further in. I closed the door behind her and looked back at Temperance. Guilt was now swelling up inside of me, even though I had no idea what I had done. "You... can not see me can you?" I asked her through a lump that was stuck in my throat.
She lifted herself up in the bed, and moved herself to lean against the wall. I watched her carefully, and I could tell she couldn't see. Her eyes no longer looked at me, but towards her lap. "Correct." She said quietly, and hearing it from her seemed to make the situation much worse.
"Why?" I was still shaking, and I was afraid of the answer.
"You left me, you didn't believe me." She was already trembling. How quickly it didn't take her to be sent into the sadness. Even though her eyes showed no emotion, showed no tears, I could feel her sadness. I could feel it roaming around the room. It was such an intense feeling to be mixed with my own and I hadn't expected it. Never before when she got upset did I feel her sadness this much.
I couldn't believe that just my existance made her this broken.
"Why did you..." I couldn't finish the sentece, I couldn't ask her why she blinded herself. I doubted to myself that I could even say the word blind.
"Why should I tell you? What good grace did you leave me with to pity you, or to let you pity me?" Her voice was growing angry. "It happened only a week after you left, and it happened. It happened. You cannot change it, nor anyone else. How will knowing the truth make anything better?"
"I just..."
"You just want to know so that maybe you could ease some of the guilt you are feeling right now." Her voice was so bitter, sad, and angry. I felt myself fall back into the wall completely stunned by her words. Temperance had never spoken to me that way ever before.
"I won't tell you." Her voice turned dark and serious, and I knew there was no way to persuade her.
"Well, you are living here now Temperance. What should I do, treat you like a stranger?"
"Yes."
I frowned at her response and shook my head in disapproval. "I'm afraid your highness, that I cannot do that." Her face twisted into the biggest remorse I had seen since I walked into the room. I felt the wind leave my body as I forgot to breathe. She choked a cry back, but still there were no tears.
"You of all people should know better than to call me such names," She cried out, her voice painfully sad. "Leave now, just leave me be."
I turned and left the room as she requested; regardless of every bone in my body telling me to stay.