SEASICK

50- Letters of Prosperity

[[ Hey! So it wasn't the 20th, but I am close!

Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday and lifted my spirits!
I am so happy to have such kind readers, and I am extremely grateful.
I began this story just for fun, just something for myself to read when I got bored. I shared it on a whim and it warms my heart it is being loved by others. I have never let anyone read anything I've written, so for it to be well-liked is more than I could ever hope for. I promise you all mean the world to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I will try to update more consistently. 

Anyway, this is a shorter 'transition chapter' but I hope you like it- L RANDY]]

Ivo patiently waited for Alana to return when a loud bang crashed through the tavern. The noise caused his eyes to flicker away for just a moment.

He found it was only a drunkard firing off his weapon to the ceiling for no apparent reason other than a few laughs.

Ivo was thankful Alana was not in the bar for that moment as it could have hurt her, or at least frightened, and Ivo had little energy to kill again for the night.

The moment it took Ivo to examine the situation was the same moment Alana had left the restrooms and was making her way back towards him.

She would have made it to him too if she did not hear the soft jingling of bells. Her heart skipped a beat at the familiar tink-tinkle!

Immediately she turned towards the noise, catching a glimpse of a shadowy figure disappear into an alley. Alana made a quick and nervous look at Ivo, and she saw something distracted him long enough to rush after the sound of bells.

She attempted to be as quiet as possible as she scurried out of Ivo's line of sight, hoping she was not mistaking a stranger for her fox.

"Momo?" Alana whispered as she came around the darkened corner, easing into the eerie alley.

It was a nerve-wracking silence, the background noises phasing out as she searched the shadows for her friend with a thundering heart. She was terrified Ivo would come looking for her and find her with a seemingly stranger.

"Miss me?" A familiar playful cooed into her right ear, warm breath washing over her lobe.

The suddenness almost made her jump out of her skin, gasping for air from the jolt.

Alana clapped a hand over her mouth as she spun around to be greeted by the Kitsune mask. She sighed out the rest of her startled gasp, pulling her bros in with petty annoyance.

"Do not scare me like that, Momo." Alana pouted, narrowing her eyes on his fox mask.

A chuckle escaped him as he circled her and sauntered further into the alley.

"I couldn't resist, I love hearing your heart race." Mamoru teased.

Alana rolled her eyes, taking another glance behind her to make sure Ivo was not magically there.

"Listen, I don't have much time; Ivo might come looking for me." Alana began, reaching under her top to pull something from her waistband.

"I need your help to deliver these to whoever they're addressed to, as quickly as possible."

She handed over a small stack of letters, all haphazardly sealed with red wax that she had borrowed from Leopoldo's cabin.

"Do you take me for pigeon post?" Mamoru scoffed but took the letters anyhow.

"Please? They are planning the attack on the castle in less than two months, we are behind and we need to be a step ahead."

"Oh, we do?" Mamoru quizzed aloud, carelessly flicking through the letters not recognizing many names.

Mamoru, who had yet to hear any of Alana's plan, was genuinely curious as to how his little flower will bring about the fall of the current Taycia's Queen and King's reign.

"Yes. I need you to find me again before this next month is over and return will all the replies."

"You expect me to find multiple strangers and return to you in a month's time? I mean, I can do it but I had no idea you recognized how great I am." Mamoru boasted. "I wish I knew your end game to all of this though."

"I do not have time to explain it all right now, I just know a ballroom massacre would not be the subtlest way to preserve my country." Alana breathed out with another glance behind her.

"But perhaps the most fun way." Mamoru shrugged; a grin hidden under his mask.

"Momo!" Alana whisper yelled. "Will you do this for me?"

The way her honey eyes, darkened by the night though sparkling in the moonlight, gazing up at him mesmerized Mamoru, drove the beast inside him feral. Laced with pleading, it was all the more a delectable sight. She did not have to ask him but once and he would be at her beck and call.

He reached up to twirl a strand of her dark brown hair with his finger and claw.

"Of course, little flower." Mamoru feigned a sigh. "But I am expecting a nice reward for all this running around."

Alana smiled brightly, hearing the good news.

"Thank you, Momo!" Alana tried keeping her voice down but couldn't help jumping to embrace her close friend.

His heart went wild in his chest just having her so close to him, her unknowingly drenching him in her scent.

To be like this forever... that is all I could ever want. I do not care how much blood I will have to spill to have my flower continue to bloom by my side.

"We will reign prosperity..." Alana whispered to him. "And I will make everything right."

When she eased out of the hug Mamoru felt a sense of longing, which he is growing use to loathing.

"Whatever you say, flower." Mamoru turned his back to her, beginning down the alley. "Be thinking of a nice reward, would ya?"

And like always, he was gone by the time she blinked. Alana was still amazed by him and his abilities.

This is it. It is starting.

As I promised, soon no one else will suffer because of the royal family any longer.

I will die making it so if I have to.