The Pains Of Being A Royal

Six Years

"Is he to your liking Princess?" Kai questioned as we stood beside each other in the stables. 

"He's beautiful." I smiled as I petted the stallion who nudged my hand softly demanding more affection. 

Kai had filled me in as we left the Dutchess's room and walked towards the stables. All preparations to set out to the enchanted groves had been made and soldiers stood at the gates awaiting orders. Sighters at the high walls of Titan had reported no sightings of Hydra for the last several hours leaving us a clear path for now. Provisions had also been made concerning defence by Micheal in case of an unexpected attack. 

Everything was ready but we were waiting for the commander to scope the topography of the lands surrounding Titan for the routes we could take to the groves and for escape routes if any. 

We had decided that we would be travelling to the groves on horseback. The rest we would plan as we go for we had no idea where Hydra could be resting which left quite a handful number of doubts regarding the success rate of this ambush but we made do with what we had. 

With limited information, we did not have the number of options one would usually like so we settled with this plan. 

"Good." Kai tightened the saddles and softly brushed the strong creature with a comb. 

"The Dutchess is nice," I told him while I brushed the mane. 

I had been rather curious about what Kai's stepmother would be like. 

Or more like I was curious about what Kai's past was like.

I wondered what it might have been like for Kai to have been raised by Elenor with neither his parents by his side especially when unlike me he still had memories of them. 

When we were young he had barely come to terms with his mother's death, let alone his father's remarriage and to think he even lost his father after that. 

He probably didn't even get to grieve his father's death being blamed for the late Duke's framed act of treason. 

He had no one of his own. He wasn't given a second chance at another life the way I did. 

Which made me wonder if he had been alone all these years. Somewhere it made me feel guilty that I wasn't there for him, further making me more curious about what it had been like for six years. 

"She is." Kai nodded not saying much on the topic which only made me more unsure about their relationship. 

Was she a good parent to him as she was to her daughter? 

"I met your sister too," I muttered smiling uneasily. "She's quite the..spitfire."

At this, Kai laughed. 
 
"My sister can be like that at first," he said fondly. "But deep down she's honest, smart and brave. She just takes time to warm up to new people." 

It was weird to see Kai being all big brotherly but at least there's someone he has a soft spot for. 

"It must be difficult to be away from them for so long and work in the capital," I mumbled.

"Not really." Kai shrugged nonchalantly. "I was mostly away while I used to live here too." 

I looked at him surprised. 

"But didn't you prefer staying with your family?" 

"I pulled through fine by myself," He scoffed. "I didn't need family." 

I frowned.

The way he said it seemed to only fuel my concern.

"Why?" I questioned again.