Fifty - Tarka

I had told Alden all I knew about Lesion. I knew he hated surprises, because he wanted to always be in control of everything. I knew that he didn't get his hands dirty, so he had his men do all of his work for him. He was incredibly charismatic and had a tongue born for persuasion. A tongue fit for a snake.

I had very little information to give, but it was enough apparently. The wheels in Alden's head started turning. With arms crossed, he started pacing. I looked over at Tristram and his new wife, and I envied her. Not because Tristram loved her, but because she was beautiful. And from what I've seen of her, she was good and kind, loved by all around her.

I envied her, because she was everything I was not.

My head snapped quickly to Alden's direction as he uttered a sound of revelation. "Well, we know the best way to overthrow Lesion is to surprise him. Obviously, he wouldn't expect it, and we have so many people to back us up!"

"Nice thinking, smarty. But HOW would we go about doing that?" I asked with a little more pride in my tone than I wanted to be communicated.

"Well, we tried to surprise him before, but that didn't work. We're going to need some more people on our side."

"I've got a whole army," Tristram chimed in as casually as he could. Alden looked his way with slightly furrowed brows, even if he didn't intend to communicate that to Tristram. It was really obvious that he was still struggling to treat Tristram the same as he used to. Alden looked down at his feet for a second and barely spoke, "Yeah." Tristram's wife wrapped her arms around him, noticing the dejection in his face.

"Is everyone on board with fighting against Lesion, though? Would anyone betray us?" I couldn't help but think of ways our possible plan could go wrong.

"Yes, I have discussed this with my men, and they are ready to fight this villain!" Tristram exclaimed enthusiastically, revealing that he was ready as well.

"The question that Tarka has brought up earlier still stands," Alden added dryly. "We're not just going to march into his camp and arrest him now, are we?"

Tristram grinned. "That wouldn't be a bad idea. There's definitely more of us than the Viridians, why not?"

I shook my head. "Even so, they're more cunning than you think. We'd need more on our side to make sure our attack would be complete."

"It is possible to do so. I'm sure with a little coaxing and persuasion, you could convince the Palkins to join the Brackins." Rhythmus had been quiet up until this point, but he now stood up. "One of us would have to do the convincing, though." He looked toward Alden.

Alden sighed. "They wouldn't believe me. I'm the punk little brother of a scientist who no one ever took seriously, and I was banished, remember?"

Rhythmus took a few silent steps towards that young dejected man, took a hold of his shoulders, and looked deep into his eyes. "Young man, are you going to let your past define you? You seem to have no idea of the potential you possess, all three of you. You are representatives of three very different peoples. And yet, you are united under one single cause. Do you have no faith in your abilities?"

Alden hung his head, looking even more defeated. I sensed his fear. I was scared for him. I was scared of what could happen. None of us knew what would happen, but the Palkin, the Brackin, and the Viridian all knew what needed to be done. After a minute and a deep breath escaped his beautiful smooth lips, he lifted his eyes up and turned to face his comrades. He started to walk away from us. When we didn't follow immediately, he turned around. Hope was shining bright in those darling eyes.

"Well, gang, there's no use sitting here like bricks. We've got an army to build. Let's go!"

Forty-nine - Alden

I didn't know where to go. The whole town was like a giant maze of stone and wood, nothing like the loose sand and hide tents of home. I could take a few lefts, a right at a stone well, walk down a long road, and then find myself where I started. After finding myself at the same stupid rock bench by a strange moss covered pond for the third time I gave up, kicking one of the rocks surrounding the pond into the green muck, allowing the rock to slowly sink into the green abyss.

With a sigh I turned from the pond and noticed Rhythmus sitting on the small bench, stroking his beard as if deep in thought. I have to wonder if that's the only reason old men have beards. Do they think they can hide the fact that they never really learned anything by taking part in the old-man ritual of thoughtful beard stroking? If I can ever grow facial hair perhaps that will be what I will do.

"You seem to have quite the fondness for dirt." Rhythmus noted, raising one white and fuzzy eyebrow.

"I've been through a lot." I sighed, sitting next to the old man.

"I see." He mumbled, hand covering mouth and eyes crinkling the way a person with poor eyesight looks at distant writing.

This look annoyed me, so before he could judge or lecture me with some weird life lesson, I blurted out, "How do we get rid of Lesion?"

Rhythmus squinted an eye. "I do not know." He said, with a shrug of his shoulders and a glance at the far distance.

I looked at him incredulously. "Yes, you do. You're supposed to be the smart old guy who tells everyone else how to do stuff. You know exactly what we're supposed to do."

"Is that so?" Rhythmus let out a soft chuckle. "I do not even know what I will have for breakfast. Just because I am old, does not mean I know everything." He noted.

"Knew it." I muttered to myself. The beard is always a lie.

"Lesion believes I do know his future, which maybe I do, but it is only based on his own follies. If you wish to talk combat you may wish to take it up with your friends. Is Tarka not a valuable ally in all things Viridi? And Tristram, he now has a whole kingdom behind him, and even you're old friend Roman has great training for war." Rhythmus chuckled once more. "Why you think an old man is helpful is quite odd."

I sighed. "All you had to tell me was talk to them." I stood up, frustrated. Looking down at the road, I felt a warmth flood to my cheeks. Even if talking to my friends is what I was supposed to do, I had no idea where I was. My foot twitched, asking to kick another stone into the green sludge pond.

With a loud "hurumph" Rhythmus pushed his way up off of the rock bench, his muscles creating a creaking and popping sound. "Before you go anywhere," he stated,"perhaps you should follow me to the house I have been lent so that you may wash up." He explained, ushering me down a road.

We walked down a one way street, where lots of people led horses with carts attached through to the other end, where a giant water fountain sat, no green sludge to be found. It still surprised me how big and well built this town was, and perhaps it always will be odd to a person who has lived his whole life as a nomad.

"Here we are." Said Rhythmus, as he walked to a small rock house with a wooden door, just right off of the pathway. I went inside and found the bucket of freshwater that Rhythmus told me about, and rinsed away the dirt and mud from my skin. Once clean I came out of the little hideaway room to see everyone huddled in the small house. Tarka smiled at me a little hesitantly, and Tristram stood to her right, his gaze cast mostly downward and towards a girl I did not recognize, nor care about. Roman was then on Tarka's other side, sitting in a chair with his feet on a table, and arms across his chest. I looked at Rhythmus who stood to my left, but he was busy dusting some books with what looked like a few feathers tied together with string.

"Tarka." I whispered, afraid to break the silence but aware of the necessity of it.

"Yes?" She said, coming over to me.

"I need to know everything you know about Lesion." I expressed, eyebrows furrowing. I knew she did not like to talk about her past or her people for that matter. "Anything we can exploit, or habits that make him predictable... anything and everything." I pleaded.

Forty-Eight - Tristram

The wedding ceremony was small and simple. The party the town threw the next day was quite the opposite. During a time of harsh war, a royal wedding was exactly what the people needed to lift their spirits up. The night before I had managed to patch things up with King Pontus who agreed to start working on negotiating a peace treaty with the Palkins as well as responding to Lesion. Everything was going smoothly and according to plan. Elane and I even moved into a small secluded house within the castle walls. it was about a week later when Alden and Tarka showed up at my door.

After my conversation with Tarka, I headed off in the direction Alden ran. I eventually found him in the stables feeding sugar to one of the horses. He was covered in dirt, probably from his journey, but had two clean streaks along his cheeks. guilt twisted in my chest. He hasn't seen me yet, I could easily sneak back out of the stable... but I owe him the truth. I cough, letting him know I'm there. He picks up another sugar cube from the sack beside him and feeds it to the horse.

"Hey... I'm sorry..."
     "Sorry?" Alden interrupts, " You're sorry?" He turns to me, anger in his eyes. The guilt stabs deeper into my chest. "You killed my brother, you don't have the right to be sorry." His voice starts to raise. "If I had known who you were when I met you back in the jungle, I would have killed you there."
     "I'm the one who kept you alive hunted for you, protected you from soldiers."
     "Yeah but you didn't know I was the brother of the man you MURDERED!"
     "Yeah I did." Wrong thing to say. Alden's fists clench and he starts throwing handfuls of sugar cubes at me yelling "you knew you killed my brother and you never told me!?" I take the beating of harmless sugar cubes, knowing I deserve worse.

After a minute Alden quits throwing cubes and collapses to the ground, crying this time. "Alden," I say moving a bit closer, "It was an accident. I got angry and threw a rock...I never meant... It wasn't... but it did and I'm really sorry my anger got out of control. I've learned a lot since then. I've grown and you've helped me learn to forgive myself. Can you please forgive me?"

He stops crying and, after a moment, looks up. "No. I can't forgive you. At least not right now." and the guilt stabs deeper than I thought it could possibly go. I feel like there is no way I can make it up to him, no way he will ever forgive me and be my friend again. I hang my head as Alden stands up. He passes me on his way out then mutters, "But we still need to stop Lesion." Then he is gone. I sit down nursing the ache and brushing off sugar. Elane finds me there and, without asking questions, sits down and wraps her arms around me. It hurts a little less now, but is still hurts.

Forty-Seven - Tarka

The scene before me was playing in slow motion. Everything was a blur and I couldn't really take it all in or really even understand what was going on. The next thing I knew, Alden was flying out the door, and everything sped up again. My first instinct was to run after him, but Rhythmus put down his hand on my shoulder before I even took a step.

"Don't go after him; he'll be back."

"How can you be sure?" 

"He has to come to terms with this himself, without any help from anyone else."

I nodded, then turned to Tristram. He took a step back away from me, unsure of what my next action was going to be. I planted my feet firmly in the floor. "Why did you kill his brother? How long have you known that he was his brother?" 

"I've known almost as long as we've all been friends. I didn't want to tell him because no one would want to help me then. You two were my only refuge for a long time. I didn't want to lose that." He hung his head in shame. 

"So the first question still stands . . . why?"

"He was treating the Brackin people poorly on the job. He even pushed aside an old man! He was not such a saint like everyone thought, I guess. I could not stand by and watch. To think that my people actually tolerated this behavior! I got mad and threw a rock; it wasn't supposed to kill him, just to get his attention and teach him a lesson. I had forgotten my own strength. That is why I was banished originally." The story slowly came back to me as I recollected him telling Alden the story when they had first met, with either not knowing about the others' role in his brothers' life, or death. 

"It makes sense. I really wish Alden would come back and that everything would be alright."

Rhythmus took a step forward between the two of us. "It will be, eventually. Soon enough. Patience, my lady." 

I looked out the window towards the direction that Alden had run off to. "I hope so, Rhythmus." 

Forty-Six - Alden

When we had finally reached Tristram's homeland we were met by several guards. Rhythmus pushed his way through, explaining our situation and why we had Roman with us, and the guards let us through with a shrug. Once past the boarder it was surprising to see so many people, just out enjoying the day or buying food, it was the complete opposite of the desolation back home. For the first time, I think I realized my people were the ones becoming instinct; we are not so evenly matched as Lesion may have thought, which would be why so many Virdians are in our camps.

As we passed the townsfolk, everyone grew quiet, giving us mostly confused looks, with a few scowls from the older generations. I glanced back at Roman, he looked even more uncomfortable than I felt, which is saying a lot.

Rhythmus put a gnarled hand on Roman's shoulder. "Do not worry, friend, they cannot harm you while I'm around."

Roman looked unsure about that, but loosened up any way. After passing a few beggars and an old lady selling pillows we found ourselves at the place Tristram was meant to be. Rhythmus gave a rather slow but loud knock on the wooden door, and panicked scurrying could be heard from within. Tristram threw the door open, looking clumsy in his fine clothing.

"Alden!" He exclaimed, giving me a friendly punch in the arm, causing me to practically fall over.

"Hey--"

"You!" Roman yelled, drawing his scimitar and lunging for Tristram, the rest of his words coming out in unrecognizable screams. Several guards came up and seized him, but he continued to kick wildly and scream until his face was completely red. "You traitor! How could you? How could you? He was my best friend!"

Tristram's face went white, and everyone else had no clue what was going on.

Roman looked right at me. "How do you not know you're working for the man who killed your brother? How could you be such a traitor?"

I looked at Tristram and his face seemed to grow even paler. "No." was all I could manage before Tristram began to profusely apologize.

"You don't understand..." He said, but the rest of his words didn't reach my ears.

I felt I should have known, back in the forest when I first met him it crossed my mind, but I had been so malnourished at that point it all seemed like a bizarre dream. I looked at Tristram, and then to Rhythmus. What was my reaction supposed to be? Why was I not trying to avenge my brother like Roman had tried to do? I was hardly aware of the fact that my feet were taking me away, and that warm tears had made their way out of my eyes. I just had to get away.

Forty Five - Tristram

     King Pontus' eyes filled with understanding and horror as I told him of Lesion's plot to take over the three kingdoms. I also told him that his adviser was manipulating him and had probably killed his father. At the end of my explanation, he simply said "thank you, I need to think about this," and left. and left back towards the castle. After a minute, Elane came from the same direction but without any flowers.
 
     "What did you do Tristram?" she said sternly. Surprised at her tone, I searched for an eloquent answer. I failed. "I told him he was a pawn and started a war so Lesion could take over our kingdom" I blurted out. Elane punched my shoulder. "Idiot!" she shouted. "You have no idea how fragile my brother is! Would anyone react well to being told they are incompetent at being king? Pontus wants to be king even less than you but he is doing it because he wants to make our dad proud!"
     "Elane, why didn't you tell me any of this before? Had I known he was being manipulated in the first place, our entire plan would have changed."
     "You never bothered to ask. You never thought that I, the king's sister who lives in the castle, might have information that would help you stop this war."
     "That's a ridiculous reason, everything would have gone smoother if you had just told us. I wouldn't have to marry you if I knew your brother was on our side."

I regretted those words as soon as they left my mouth. Elane gave me a cold glare and said, "so you don't want to be married now, is that right? or is it that you feel like you HAVE to marry me?! Am I just part of your civic duty?! Well now that you know my brother is good, you don't have to marry me. You've escaped your horrible fate!"
     "No, I mean yes, I mean..." She threw up her arms, giving up, and stormed off back towards the castle. "Elane!" I called after her, "wait please! I love you, of course I want to marry you, but not under these circumstances. I want our wedding to be festive, not marred by a war. Most of all, I don't want to be king. Yes, I want to marry you, but I wish it could be done under better circumstances." She turned around sharply, "Tristram, get over yourself! I don't need a big wedding, I just want to be married to you, but only if you really want to be married to me." She started to cry; twin streams that raced down her face, though they didn't obstruct her speech. "We've been friends for ages, more than friends almost as long! Don't you think it is about time? I don't care about the circumstances, all I want is you and me at a wedding altar. Maybe a couple friends and family."

I paused for a moment, taking time to recompose myself and understand the situation. "I'm sorry Elane, I should have asked you about your brother first thing. I'm sorry I didn't take into consideration his feelings as being king. I'm sorry I didn't ask you about our wedding but assumed I knew you completely." I held her close and murmured into her hair, "I absolutely want to marry you, I've just been afraid that I wouldn't be good enough for you."
     "That's all I needed to hear." After a minute, she removed herself from my arms. she was smiling a little and the pain in her eyes faded away. "So," I said, "is there anything else I should know: about your brother, the advisor, or the war?"
     "No, I've basically told you all there is." A sheepish grin spread on her face."So how about tomorrow?" I looked at her, puzzled, then understanding came. "Yeah Elane, we can get married tomorrow."
 

Forty-Four - Tarka

I could not have been more relieved, excited, or full of dopamine as I did in the moment I ran and jumped into Alden's sweet welcoming embrace.

We stood silent for a moment, with arms wrapped around the other tightly, simply enjoying the other's nearness, until we heard someone clear their throat. We let go to see who was the intruder of the moment we were enjoying. Roman stepped towards me while speaking to everyone: "Thank you for coming to our aid. We might not have escaped again. I am . . . utterly grateful for your presence here," he added a little bit of dramatic flair to the last statement and tried to grab my hand. I drew back both of my hands and hid them away behind my back as I looked to Rhythmus while he gave his comment. "Oh, I too am glad that we came at the exact time we were supposed to. Funny how things happen like that."

Alden stepped closer to me, stepping in between Roman and I. "Now for a plan . . . We've got to get back to Brackin territory and help Tristram."

"Yes, by all means, we must make haste to our dear friend," Rhythmus agreed. "Onward!"

The barrier of the mountains seemed to be more of a challenge now than they were before. I was so tired of running around, of walking back and forth across the different territories. I wanted to be planted somewhere, anywhere, it didn't matter as long as I had my friends and loved ones by my side. I wanted peace in the world. I wanted Lesion dead. I wanted everyone safe. No more killing, no more madness.

We trudged through the valley in between the mountains once again. I could tell that I was not the only one who was tired (literally and mentally) of all the traveling. We would walk through several villages, catching the stares of the townspeople as we passed by. We did look like a funny bunch: a Viridian girl, two young Palkin men, a guardian, and a Brackin all walking together. Some saluted us as we passed by, which was an odd thing to experience. However, after it happened, it made me think of how there are several others who are scared of the fighting between the Brackins and the Palkins. I guess we as a group represented unity and peace to them.

Roman would also try to flirt with me and touch me; I avoided him as much as I could. I would also look over at Alden and give him looks that screamed, "Help me!" His facial expressions always had a look of sympathy and annoyance. I continued to wonder what was going on inside his head.

One night, we sat around a small fire because the nights had begun to get more chilly. Roman had plopped down next to me, and I tried to scoot as far away from him as I could. Alden saw what was happening and came over to sit next to me, to rescue me temporarily from my tormentor. I laid my head on his shoulder, and then realizing soon after what I was doing, I jerked my head up and looked at him apologetically. He turned up the corners of his mouth and patted his shoulder with his hand, giving me an official invitation. Relieved, I accepted it, and I couldn't have been happier.