The Gift of Beauty | ONC2020

Chapter 13

Brandon sat down. The pain in his arms had become unbearable. He had been digging for almost an hour now, and he had found nothing. Not even the small piece of the star seemed to have been left behind by whoever took it. Not a single clue was given as to where it was brought. It was useless.

Only now did he become aware that Rose was standing behind him. She hadn't said a word to him this entire time. He had gotten used to her snide remarks, but this time there was nothing. No teasing, no comments, just silence.

"You were right. This was a waste of time," Brandon said, his voice shaking.

"You had to make sure. Now we know for sure that we have to find a star somewhere else."

"I didn't mean the digging. I meant this entire journey. It was all useless. USELESS!" Brandon shouted. "We managed to get a sundragon to help us, we managed to get access to the moon pools even though we aren't priests, but in the end what does it matter if we can't finish our mission. What does it matter that we succeeded at some parts if we can't do all of it."

"It wasn't useless! We saved an entire village, Brandon. Who knows what would have happened to Sol village if we didn't manage to convince the dragon to stop attacking. And at the sanctuary? What if the panther got to Silver because you weren't there to save him? Not only would Silver not have survived, but the moon might have disappeared forever. We did good things, Brandon."

Brandon sighed. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to know. His mind wasn't on the people they saved. Not on Thomas. Or Silver. Right now his mind was only on Victoria. He had to bring something good, something better than good, to win. Otherwise King Edward would never pick him as the victor. Then she would have to marry Christian. He couldn't let that happen.

But he had let that happen. He had failed in his mission, and now he had to let Christian be with Victoria. If he was completely honest with himself, that was the part that hurt him the most. Being away from Victoria made him see things a bit different, and made him realize that perhaps his feelings for her had not been as strong as he thought they were. That they were simply there because he saw her every day.

But allowing her to get married off to Christian? No, that was the last thing he wanted. Even if he wasn't as sure of his love for her anymore. Not that that mattered, anyway. He'd had his chance, and he blew it.

Brandon stood up. "Let's go. The least I can do now is be there for her when the contests ends."

They walked back in silence for the rest of the day, not stopping until the sun came down. Not a single word was said between them. There was nothing to plan for the rest of their journey, no arguing about which road was perhaps a few minutes shorter, or how they could do everything the fastest. None of that mattered anymore.

Once it was dark they made a fire. Instead of going to sleep immediately, they sat down next to each other after they were done for the day. It wasn't something they had done often during their journey. They had always been sleeping or travelling. They didn't have time to waste sitting around doing nothing.

Rose was the first one to speak up. "I'm sorry about the star," she said. "I should have warned you it might no longer be there."

Brandon shook his head. "No, you shouldn't have. It wouldn't have changed anything, it would just have brought us down."

"Maybe king Edward will declare you the winner even though it doesn't have the core of a star? You haven't lost yet," Rose said.

But Brandon wouldn't have it. He knew he would have to bring something extraordinary, and the dress they had now just wasn't good enough. "Christian's going to win. I don't believe for a second that anyone but us would have been able to cross him. It's a shame. I've seen him and Victoria talk. Neither of them will be happy when they're together."

"But you and Victoria would be?"

Brandon hesitated. "Honestly... I'm not sure anymore. I thought we would be, before we left. But now that I haven't seen her for almost a month... I don't know. Everything is different now."

"Didn't you tell me that shes's the love of your life?"

"I did. I meant it too, at the time," he shrugged. "I don't know. I think being apart from each other made me realize that we never really got to know each other. That we really didn't know enough of each other to fall in love. That maybe I just liked her because she was just more interesting than the other noble girls. Being apart from her for so long... It made me realize that plenty of other girls are interesting too. And now that Victoria is out of my mind, I can actually give others a ch..."

Brandon went silent as Rose got closer and closer to him, and her lips locked with his. As soon as he realized what was happening he put a stop to it. "Rose! What are you doing?"

"I..." Rose said. "You were said you realized there were other girls around. I thought you meant me."

Shit. Brandon could easily see how she took it that way, but that wasn't what he had meant at all. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. After all, he had been hoping to marry Victoria until earlier today.

But the thought was crossing his mind now, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. "I thought you hated me?"

Rose's cheeks flushed. "I do! You're insufferable. Let's just forget what happened, okay? I had a lapse of judgement, and I messed up."

She started to walk away from him, but Brandon grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. "No, Rose, come on. I was just surprised, all right. Let's talk about this."

"What's there to talk about?" Rose said, as she turned towards him. "I kissed you, and you pushed me away. It's fine. You're a noble and I'm a peasant, I get it."

Brandon pulled her closer towards him. He wasn't sure what he wanted yet, he needed more time to think. But he was certain he didn't want things with Rose to end like this. He brought his face towards hers. "You're not a peasant, Rose. You're a... star?"

"A star?" Rose asked. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

Brandon shook his head. "No, look! A falling star."

Rose turned around and saw what he meant. There, burning across the skies, was another falling star. "Oh. Oh!"

They watched the star in silence as it burned across the skies. As it got closer to the earth, it got closer to them as well. They could feel the earth move as it crashed into it, mere hours walking from where the two of them were standing.

Rose turned back towards him. "Let's go. We have a mission to finish."

Brandon nodded, and together they left their camp for the star. They would have to walk through the night, but it was worth it if it meant they could get to the star first.