Realm Drifter: Cruel King

~Chapter Thirty-One~

Chapter Thirty-One; The Lives of Those Around Us

~

The trees had stopped dancing, the wind had stopped singing. Even the birds had forgone their angelic chime. 

My fingers had long since started to tingle, now a raging flame that curled its way up my arm. My pulse a painful throb in my chest. My ears a screaming bell. I couldn't believe what I had done. What I had just said.

I couldn't even bear to open my eyes. Instead, my eyes tuned in on the deathly silence. Even the little girl had gone quiet, her fate ever present in her soul. 

"I do ask you to repeat, dear girl." His sinister voice smashed through the silence. I jumped, his voice ever close to my shaking form that laid kneeled on the ground. His fingers curled around a curly ginger lock of my hair, twirling it before letting it gently fall back down to my shoulders. 

"I--I..." I couldn't breathe, the words getting caught in my throat as I struggled to believe I had actually spoken the words. 

"Speak at once." He was not a patient man, his voice full of eager, but crawling with evil. 

"I- well,- I choose..."

"Speak!" His voice coming out in a booming spike to my fear. 

"I choose both." The regretful words came out in a breathy whisper. 

"You do, do you?" He was walking now, his footstep walking around my cowering form. Never had I ever been this weak, but when the lives of so many laid resting in your hands, and only one decision to save them all, you would cower too. 

My silent prays quickly ceasing as his cold hand brushed my shoulder. 

"I expect a response. Now, tell me why you chose to save none?" He asked, before returning to his seat, his pale fingers beckoning me closer. 

I didn't know what to say and I was covered in hesitation to advance closer towards the Cruel King.  

I was in burning pain, a tight grip suddenly grasping my hair before tugging me closer, quickly ceasing my hesitation. 

I shrieked, my hands quickly flying up to grasp at my hair, attempting to ease the pain as I was dragged towards his feet before he finally let go, his hands resting back onto the armrest in a casual slump. 

I curled up at his feet, both hands massaging the pain away. I quickly stopped when I noticed the tapping, nails against a wooden seat, impatient and persuasive. 

"Because...-" I cleared the lump from my throat, anxiety rolling upon my body in a tsunami. What do I say? What could justify this, but potentially save the entire village? 

I gathered myself quickly, noticing his growing agitation by the scowled look on his sculptured face.

 "Why do they both deserve to live? Leave one wolf alive, and the sheep are never safe. We kill them all, and there will be no one to avenge." The words flowed out of me live a tidal wave of panic and fear. It wasn't my words, however. These words were my mothers when she had spoken to me when I was a little girl. 

~

"Mama," I called out from my spot in the corner, a little handmade doll perched in my hands. 

"Yes, darling?" She sat facing the fireplace, concentrating on her needling as she crafted a beautiful scarf for winter. Frustration coating her face as she lost the pattern. She gave a quiet sigh, before placing it on her lap, her hid tilting up at me to see what I needed.