FATE #3 *(A ROSE IN BLOOM)*

WHERE YOU ARE NOT*

GENERAL POV

Pearl tore upon seeing the young looking hundred and five years old man struggling with his emotions,  she watched him switching between at least five emotions in seconds,  with his iris trying to keep up with the flow.

She felt so bad, and wished there was something she could do to help him!  she felt different about Nathan,  not only did he murder one,  but if this boy dies somewhat, it would be his fault.

"How have you helped him up until now?" she inquired ,  " come with me!" He took her down their basement and opened up a little entrance which led to a neatly decorated room, she was awed by the sight and the nice smell, " I make sure to keep this place as how he would if he was still alive,  this is how I preserve his memories!"

she recollected the time she used to be with her family, how she always decorated her brother's room,  a replica of that was right in front of her. " so similar!" she cried before letting him in on her memories.

Gary opened up the wardrobe and brought out a skin-like costume,  it looked so real she wondered if it is the shed skin of his son. It was slim in shape but tall in height, Gary placed it on and the semblance with the other man up there was uncanny.

" This looks so real, especially the eyes, they are so identical!" she complimented, " the eyes are my eyes, it has no shield,  come with me!"  Gary explicated before heading upstairs with her, Pearl watched him alter his voice to one which got the 'boy' flying out of his bed to hug him.

The boy lamented for how long he's been away and Pearl couldn't help but tear up as she watched them bond,  his eloquence stood before her, after hearing him talk while he insisted his brother never leaves this time around.

Is there anything I could have done if Zherra was still inside me? She wondered with no possible answer, she wondered why Sandra chose to be oblivious about it! she walked out and sat on the barricade, not ignoring the fact that Nathan acted insensitively for a whore, she folded her arms and stared up in the dark sky. 

"you are a punk Nathan! And I'm not going to let this slide!" she whispered into the air, gradually being defeated by the cold breeze, she fell asleep, after a while, Gary came out and sped her back to the palace. Meanwhile, Sandra was in front of the king's bedroom waiting on them.

"Is this how you plan to take care of her?", she snapped, " tomorrow is the lunar night, hope your memories haven't failed you on that detail?" her caution was quite stern, " shut up, will you!" Gary retorted and entered the room. he tucked her in and took a seat outside the window.

he sighed whiles staring up at the moon, each full moon reminded him of how short his days are getting, he wished his son would recover from the trauma before he passes. 

 Before dawn, Nathan and his knights arrived, one general gave a signal to the others of the king's arrival before they were welcomed into the camp by general Dubey.

"Welcome your highness!" sounded Dubey, he took the king to the cottage prepared for him. they talked about the kingdom since it's been a month after Dubey and the others went away. The king said nothing about his beloved's arrival and the other human. he straight up discussed the plan with him and ordered he prepared the knights for it.

" you are fully aware of what will happen if we go ahead with your plan, the realm leaders will come after us! Yezskhetc knows what they're doing, it's either they initiate an attack today or beguile us with their white flag to issue the first attack! We're only making assumptions here, we can't tell for sure what they are really up to!" Dubey explicated leaving Nathan to rethink the whole issue.

"Alright then, let's build our defense in wait for their decision, we did not call for this battle, they did in the first place, and the leaders know about this, yet what have they done about it?" Nathan exclaimed getting Dubey to smirk,

 " because they are all against you Nathan! They're only lying in wait for your mistake so they can gang up against you! They believe you're subtly planning to rule the universe, not only did you murder Sofia, you killed your father and merged two kingdoms under your rule!" he spat and motioned to stare outside.

Nathan took a moment to observe him, " looks like you were more hurt for my woman's passing than myself, it's been a decade and a half, bring it up less will you!" Nathan cautioned after which Dubey looked sternly at him before departing.

Nathan thought back to the coincidences between himself and Sofia together with Dubey, he felt there could have been a lot he never discovered.

Early in the morning, Pearl woke up to a new transformation in her complexion, she was completely ashen, to the point that her veins stood out beneath her skin! she screamed frightened at the sight! Gary first entered and raised a brow at what he also witnessed before Sandra came running.

"calm down first Pearl and listen to me!" Sandra enunciated, "well it better be something understandable because I'm going crazy, I look like a corpse, literally!"

Pearl freaked out, " well, .. this looks bad! And it's going to get worse before nightfall!" Sandra spat the disturbing truth to her face as she freaked out the more! " seriously?" Gary began,  " this is a rare case but I can run some diagnoses!" he proposed just to get her to relax knowing they've got a situation with no solution now before Sandra snapped with ignorance.

" This has nothing to do with your theories old man, it's a lunar day, this was bound to happen there is only one possible solution!"  she explained getting Gary to rub his forehead to her little mind.

" And what is that?" Pearl yelled, " We have to take you to the king, it's only by the king's side that you will be fine!" Gary answered to Sandra's surprise, she finally understood why he made a different proposition earlier.

"And why's that,  I mean you said earlier that you could run some diagnosis, let's try that first" pearl enunciated after which Sandra detailed the whole situation.

" it might get too late if we waste time on this!" Sandra said ,after proposing they head to the battlefield. " alright fine! Let's get going then!" as pissed as she was,  she took a shower and returned to find an armour sorted for her.

"It's a battlefield we can't have a princess interfering! Good, you can fight too!"  Sandra helped her place them on.

She walked out to find Flamingo bathed and ready for her, running energetically to embrace it while it whinnied with excitement and rubbing its head against her Phoenix breastplate. She saw Matrona standing beside it along with three female vampire servants and two male ones.

Pearl took a glance at Gary and pulled her in a hug, she held on so tight to her friend before requesting she tags along. Sandra cast a spell on it so it would gallop as fast as their horses' function.  They departed towards the west.