[Complete] Eroh has reached his seventeenth spring and has finally become a man. With manhood comes a gift: marriage to the woman he loves. But when a strange new woman from another world enters his life, he is stuck with the decision to honor his...
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There was a war coming. I could feel it in the depths of my soul ... I can't allow further harm to come to my people.
I walked into my father's chambers. I never ventured into his room prior, out of respect. It was a large room filled with a bed covered in black seal-skin furs. There were curtains that were blue and a rug to match. The walls were made of ice and filled with blue coral. And everything was gilded. The bed, the curtain frame, the dresser, all gilded making it feel like you were underwater in the midst of treasure.
I found father putting his armour on in the closet at the back of the room. It was scaled as a blue barracuda with a helm that slit down his nose and held a blue fin on top. At his back, a long, white cape draped down to his heels, pinned with two golden coins with the sigil of our house; a half man, half fish. He turned to me and I could see his beard was frosted as his hair while his eyes were cold as ice.
"Marina? What are you doing here, my child?" He slid on his bracer that was scaled as the rest of the armor. "Shouldn't you be with the others ... if we are to lose this war I want you ready to flee to the pools."
"Father ... we can't fight them," I lowered my eyes. "They're too powerful on land. We'll fall if we engage."
He stood leaning on his left hip, eyes narrowing. "That is why we take them at the loch. We'll have the advantage in the water."
My lips sunk and I felt my body shutter. "Live by the loch, die by the loch ..."
"Excuse me?" My father's tone grew Kingly. He approached me and I froze beneath his shadow. "Where did you hear that?"
I found his cold, blue eyes that shook with worry. "It falls off the tongue of our people. They fear the loch ... and if you bring them there it'll be our funeral."
Father chuckled angirly. "I've never seen a LandWalker swim ..."
"No ..." I shook my head. "But I've seen them harpoon one of our ... my sister ... your daughter."
Father's eyebrows sunk like an anchor. He paced in front of me swearing beneath his breath. "I can't do this right now, Aqule ..." He massaged his forehead. "Marina," he snapped.
I dropped my head. Never did he want to speak about such things. He could listen to the problems of the whole Kingdom, even ask my sister and I advice, yet never did he listen to our worries. Never did he hear our concerns. I could no longer stand by and allow it to happen.
I clenched my fists, "she loved one of them ... did you know that?" Father tongue sat heavy, and he raised his head to listen. "A LandWalker ... she loved the brother of the boy you're about to have executed."
"What about it?"
My lungs tightened inside me. "You knew?"
He nodded. "I always thought it was you who loved the LandWalker ... not Aqule ... but I knew about him." He turned his back on me and stood silently. "And so I had Grouper deal with him ..."
