Heed My Warnings And Survive
Chapter Nineteen: Conflictions

Chapter Nineteen

Conflictions

We hadn’t been away from the castle long, when we came upon a small town. It was nice, and I seemed to recognize it, but I didn’t think I’d been before.

“Fin? Does this place seem familiar?” I asked. Finley nodded, looking around. Then he looked back at me.

“Neireida’s hometown,” He said. My stomach lurched at the memory. We had come here years ago, when Zander first met her, and he took us here to introduce ourselves after gushing about her for days. Sorrow came to me, and the agony of my lost friend returned to my chest.

“I miss him Fin,” I said. Finley nodded sadly.

“We have hope yet, we could convince him you know, you, and I both saw the regret in his eyes when I was fighting him, we just need to find out what’s driving him,” He said. I sighed.

“Come along you two. Lets get some food,” Kiara said, trying to escape this dreary topic. I nodded, and we headed to a tavern towards the edge of town.

We entered the small tavern, it was nice, and quiet. We claimed a table in the corner, after paying for our food. We were having a light conversation, when Finley straightened up suddenly, and was staring over my shoulder, a confused, but not an alert look on his face. I looked in the direction he was staring, and chuckled.

“I think your butcher’s following you,” I said. His face tinted red.

“She’s not my butcher Draven.” he smirked, “At least not in the way she’s your Kiara,” he said, gesturing to Kiara. It was my turn to turn red, as did my Kiara. Finley chuckled satisfactorily. But stopped when the butcher caught him staring. I laughed loudly, and Kiara chuckled.

“Why don’t you get her name Fin?” She asked. He put his head on the table, hiding the redness that had been increasing steadily. Kiara, and I chuckled.

“Come along Fin, you’re more confident then I am,” I said. He gave me a look that said. Back off. But that was one warning I would not heed.

“Fin she’s beautiful, go talk to her. You did say you wanted to be her friend. Seize your moment Fin.” he sighed, and stood, and as he did so, A very muscular, very drunk man went over to her.

“Hello beauty. What are you doing in a place like this?” he asked. The woman looked away from him.

“That is business you don’t need to know,” She said, shooting a glare at him. The man got closer.

“Come along darling. What say you and me get out of here.” She gave him a look of disgust.

“You, and I. now get away from me,” She said sturnely. The man ignored her, and went to touch her face, to tilt it towards him. Quick as a flash Finley was beside him catching his arm, with a sarcastic smile on his face.

“Sir I don’t think it’s right to be harassing someone like that, especially when they’ve made it clear they want nothing to do with you,” he said. The woman looked a little surprised by his actions but she didn’t seem to mind his stepping in. The drunken man looked at him angrily.

“Stay outta this boy. It ain’t you business,” he said. Finley laughed.

“Funny. That’s what she just said.” the man growled, and swung at him, and if not for Finley’s quick actions he would’ve hit the woman as well, but Finley ducked, and pushed her out of the way. The man took another swing.

“oy no fight’n in my tavern,” the woman behind the counter called. “Get ’em out boys,” she said, addressing two men sitting at the counter. They nodded, and went to the drunken man, and grabbed his arms. He struggled against him, but both were as muscular as him, and since there were two, they were able to drag him out easily. Finley got up, and held his hand out to the woman.

“Are you alright?” He asked. She nodded.

“I thank you, that was courageous,” she said, a little awkwardly. Finley chuckled.

“Thank you, And I apologize for staring. Both times.” The woman chuckled.

“I’ll forgive you this time, but if I catch you again, you might regret it,” She said. Finley smiled.

“My name is Finley,” He said. Holding out his hand.

“I’m Imelda,” She said, shaking his hand.

“Would you like to join us?” Finley asked. Gesturing to our table.

“Really?” She asked. Finley nodded. “But I’m a stranger. Aren’t you wary of me?” Finley thought a moment.

“Not at all, come sit, and we’ll become not strangers.” Imelda chuckled, and agreed. She didn’t stay long, but we got along with her well. Finley didn’t talk much, but he didn’t look away from Imelda once.

When we left the tavern, the sun had set, but we didn’t want to stay long in this village since it was so close to the castle. So we left the village behind, and went to spend our next nights on the forest floor.

The next morning I woke to the familiar smell of the forest, and the familiar aching of my body. I sat up groaning, stretching my arms, and rubbing my neck. Kiara chuckled at me. I looked over at her.

“Going from a bed to the hard earth. You should know with your soft bed Princess.” Kiara rolled her eyes, and I chuckled.

“Well with your hard beds you shouldn’t be complaining peasant.” I feigned offense.

“How could you? I thought you loved me,”

“You know. For two people saying you can’t be together cause you might die at any moment, you are making your love very evident,” Finley said. Kiara, and I looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

“We didn’t say we weren’t allowed to make our love known,” I said.

“Why not get betrothed then?” Finley said matter of factly. Kiara, and I stopped laughing, both of our faces going scarlet.

“That’s moving a bit fast, don’t you think?” I said. Finley scoffed.

“No. wouldn’t you want to be at least betrothed to your lady if you were going to die?”

“Well we’re not gonna die, we’ll make sure of that,” I said. Finley nodded.

“True, and I don’t believe Zander will be able to bring himself to kill us.” At that moment we heard a rustle from the leaves to our left. I stood quickly, and drew my sword. As did Finley, and Kiara. Out of the tree line stepped Zander. Alone, sword sheathed, hands raised.

“Zander? What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Do my ears deceive me? Draven’s found another love?” his voice sounded conflicted, teetering between spiteful, and happy. I instinctively moved in front of Kiara. “I’m.” He grunted. “I’m not here to fight. I.” another grunt. “I need to tell you why. It’s the witch she’s feeding my anger. She won’t let me go, and I know that’s no excuse, but I just needed you to know the truth. But for now, you need to run. She’s gonna find me.” I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I needed to. I backed slowly, and turned to leave, and when I looked back, Zander was on his knees clutching his head. “RUN!” he screamed after me. I did as he said, tears starting to fall from my eyes.

We ran for too long. my lungs were about to burst. We slowed to a stop after a while, all three of us panting hard. I took my water skin and drank.

“Draven,” Finley said, sitting on the ground, and placing his head in his hands. I looked over at him. “He seemed really conflicted.” his voice sounded anguished. I nodded.

“What are we supposed to do?” I said forlornly. Finley shook his head. Tears springing to his eyes.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” Finley repeated, over, and over. Kiara busied herself making a fire, and preparing us some food. I sat across from Finley on the ground.

“Are you hungry?” Kiara asked, trying to distract us. I shook my head. I couldn’t even think of eating at this moment. Kiara nodded, and sat. “Why don’t you guys get some rest, I’ll take watch,” she said. “And I know it’ll be hard to sleep but try. Ok?” I nodded, and laid my head down on the cold ground.

The next morning when I woke I looked to Kiara who had dozed off up against a tree. I smiled softly. I felt better this morning, which was good. Finley sat up stretching his arms.

“Ahh nothing like the ache of sleeping on the ground,” He said cheerily. I will never understand his happy attitude. I thought as I chuckled at him. Kiara woke soon after.

“Frooshta, I fell asleep. I’m so sorry,” She said, apologetically.

“Oh it’s ok, nothing happened, just make sure you don’t do it again,” Finley said. She smiled softly.

“Thanks Fin.”

We continued traveling towards the colder part of Tarni, with no clear destination in mind, until we came to the border between Tarni, and Telanda, the land of snow, and decided to cross it.

“Perhaps the king, and queen of Telanda could help us,” Kiara said, as we roamed through the hills of this new place.

“I don’t like it here,” Finley said, “I don’t recognize anything,”

“And it’s colder than the Tarni nights,” I complained. Kiara shook her head.

“No difference to me. I didn’t recognize anything in the first place, and I can handle the cold,” She said. Finley laughed slightly. Definitely not his normal laugh.

Luckily the castle was quite close to the Tarni border, and we arrived there before long. When we got to the castle, Kiara requested an audience with the queen.

“You two need to stay here, or stand at the back of the room,” she said, as we were outside of the main hall.

“I’ll come in with you, and you best believe I’ll speak up if needed,” I said. Kiara rolled her eyes, and looked to Finley.

“I’ll stay out here. I wanna get a head start if we get accused of kidnapping our fair princess again,” he said. Kiara chuckled.

“Alright we’ll be back soon.” We entered the room, and I took my place at the back, while Kiara went to the middle of the room.

“You requested an audience of me,” the queen stated. Kiara nodded.

“Yes. I require your assistance,” She said standing tall.

“And what is it that you need my assistance with?”

“I need a temporary refuge for me, and my friends.” The queen looked concerned.

“Refuge from what?” she asked.

“My father. He’s under the impression that this man, and his friend kidnapped me,” She said. Gesturing towards me. “And now he’s after them, and trying to force me to return home, and I know because of the talk of an arranged betrothal you may not want to help me but-”

“Talk? Princess we settled the arrangement. You are betrothed to my son.” Kiara, and I froze. My stomach dropped.

“What? No one told me this,” she said indignantly.

“We decided last month. I never would have agreed if I’d known you weren’t there to agree.” Kiara rubbed her forehead.

“I just saw my father. He gave me no notice of this,”

“Why would he? He was busy accusing me, and Fin of kidnapping you, and not listening to a word you said,” I mumbled to myself, low enough for no one to hear. The queen sat up.

“You understand that I am not able to call off this betrothal without your fathers agreement?” Kiara nodded.

“I’ll get him to agree somehow,” She responded. “But back to my original purpose. Will you let us stay?” the queen nodded.

“I’ll have a servant show you to a spare bed chamber, and one for each of your friends,” She said. Gesturing towards one of the waiting servants. We followed them out. Each of us was shown to separate rooms, all in a row. I entered my room. It was big, drafty, and I did not want to be in here alone, but I was not gonna let my friends know that. I went over to the bed, and sat. The bed was the softest I’d ever felt.

“Woah,” I said quietly. I laid on the bed.

“Soft isn’t it?” Finley said, as he, and Kiara entered the room. I sat up.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked.

“We didn’t want to be separated. Especially not in a drafty castle,” Kiara explained. I nodded.

“That’s good, since I didn’t want to be alone either,” I confessed. They came over to the bed, each taking a side at the end, and sitting there. I turned to Kiara.

“You’re betrothed?” I said. Finley looked at her too.

“You are?” He crossed his arms. “And to think you were leading on my best friend,” he said jokingly. She rolled her eyes.

“Well as you heard while I we were in there I didn’t know,”

“But you knew there was talk of it. You knew it was a possibility,” I teased. She scoffed at me.

“Well you sir should not be the threatened one seeing as you’re the one who holds my affections,” She retorted. I smiled. I loved it when she said things like that. Finley cleared his throat,

“Well I suddenly feel very left out,” He said.

“Mmmm missing Imelda are we?” Kiara said. Finley raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well well well. I never would have suspected a comment like that from you, your highness,” He said. I laughed, as did Kiara.

That night we ended up letting Kiara sleep on the bed, whilst Finley, and I took the bedding from the other two rooms, and slept on the floor, and even on the floor, the cushy bedding made it more comfortable than any bed I’d ever slept in.

The next morning when I woke I looked to Kiara who had dozed off up against a tree. I smiled softly. I felt much better this morning, which was good. Finley sat up stretching his arms.