I figure we could claim points for this after 10 posts and continue with a new one?
It was quickly becoming clear that this was not the homecoming he'd envisioned or expected.
Nina clung to him in a way that she never had before, burying her face against him, her body unsteady and frail. She spoke in riddles he could hardly understand. For the first time in his life, he was seeing her in a light he hadn't even realized he never wanted to. She had always ever been his caretaker, a guiding light for not only himself but for them all, strong and regal and enduring. But she was becoming less and less recognizable by the second, and before he knew it his heart was breaking apart. Embracing her as Kite approached to offer what comfort she could, Mirren searched the depths of the forest before him and all of its shadows for anything familiar, but suddenly it seemed as foreign as the dark side of the moon. Secret Woodlands was once Nina's kingdom, and she the queen, but now...now, before his eyes, it was a wasteland, Nina's prison, her poison, and she was but a ghost of the woman she was just months before.
And then came a moment of clarity, made as precise as the edge of a knife as the words left the matriarch's mouth:
"I should have known he would leave again, just as he left the first time..."
Mirren's eyes grew wide as he realized. Koda. Koda had abandoned her, again. He had left her here, in the cold, dead of winter. He had left her to suffer like this. Mirren had trusted the old man, who had fought so hard against him for his place at the top of the totem pole, and had unknowingly left Nina to be subjected to what was a blatantly cruel demise. "They're all gone."
The Tainn's heartbreak dissipated into anger and he willed it to resolution. He wouldn't stand for this. He wouldn't let this be.
Mirren was no longer a boy and he was no longer subordinate. To anyone. Craning his neck to nudge Nina affectionately, he looked to his mate and the message in his eyes was clear: he was going to burn the world down if that was what it took. "Shhhh...It's okay now, I'm home." he cooed into Nina's ear, his smoldering eyes locked to those of the woman who was his anchor and the one to remind him just who he was ─ King.
"No one will ever hurt you again, I promise. Come, Nina." As far as he was concerned, there was nothing else left to say, and he didn't want Nina to relive whatever she had been put through by way of his questioning. It was time to go home.
Turning his back to the borders, he made to lead the queen and his mate into the forest.
Of these things he was certain. Koda was a traitor and a coward, and he was going to make sure the old man suffered a fate worse than the one Nina almost had. He would see to it that Nina's strength was restored and that she never had to live like this ever again. Secret Woodlands would rally behind their queen or he would ensure that it would fall...
...and his reign began now.
[Mirren out.]
(This post was last modified: Mar 22, 2015, 04:09 AM by Mirren.)