He's dead.
The King is dead.
Her father is dead.
Fight, Cassie. Fight.
She doesn't move. Cannot move.
FIGHT, CASSIE. FIGHT.
---
One step. Another. And another. Cassandra doesn't know how she does it, but she walks. Moves forward. Through the ravaged hallways and up the stairs. She loses her balance a few times, but there's always hands that catch her.
Fight, Cassie. Fight.
One more step. One more. One more. With every step the baby inside her kicks, but she cannot distinguish the pain in her belly from the ache in her heart. Not until she reaches their quarters and sees her father laying on his bed. Dead-still and dead-silence. Because he's dead.
She vaguely remembers Will and Horace sitting her down in a chair and sitting down next to her. Vaguely remembers Halt putting his arm around Crowley's shoulders as the Commandant too seems to have trouble standing. The two senior Rangers talk to each other, softly, as they look down on the lifeless body of their old friend.
She doesn't cry during any of it. Not until her friends have left her alone with her father's body. Not until she leans forward, grabs his hand - his skin is so cold - and presses a kiss on it. The baby inside of her kicks again and this time she screams, screams as she thinks the baby wants to scream, too.
Only then do the tears finally run freely down her face.
Fight, Cassie. Fight.
YOU ARE READING
Long Live The Princess
FanfictionAn AU in which the Red Fox Clan infiltrated Castle Araluen years earlier. This idea came to me, quite literally, in a dream.
