Two Worlds; The Collision

Chapter 6

Sage Pov

The party was as I expected it to be. Mom complained about the cut on my face and Falyn lied, saying she startled me when I was in the scribes' room and made me fall to the ground, my face sliding against the desk in the process. She didn’t look like she believed a word Falyn said, but despite the disbelief, she healed my face with her witch magic. I got Falyn some ribbons for her hair. They were a dark blue with silver glitter in them to look like stars in the night sky. It was my theme, ever since her very first birthday present from me, everything I’ve ever gotten her had a star on it or shaped like it in some way or another. It was our little tradition, since she did the same thing to me with suns. As Falyn said, mom and dad complained about my sword, but I ignored them. Every day we are discovering more and more books, more and more documents, more information about the world that the Earth used to be before its destruction. The world that used to have technology and electronics, despite the fact that we didn’t exactly know what that meant, but we knew they didn’t walk around with weapons. Some did, but most didn’t, and even those that did walk around with weapons had to prove they were allowed, or they’d get put in jail. Now that the kingdoms were all linked together with the alliance, the idea of not needing weapons was starting to spread, and everyone was wanting to be as the world used to be. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good thing or not, considering the destruction, I’d rather we followed our own ways and started how we wanted to, instead of trying to be what once was.

Besides the bickering with my weapon, we did have a fun evening for Falyn. Her fifteenth birthday ended on a good note with everyone stuffed with cake and laughing from the games. We always played games at parties, charades, and checkers. It was fun, especially with so many people, but there were always so many people around. Despite the fact that my parents were king and queen, they didn’t act like it, not like the kings and queens in the books I’ve read. Where they were untouchable in their kingdoms, surrounded by guards and warriors, food tasters to make sure they weren’t poisoned and they didn’t even trust their own family. Not to mention there were books from the past that spoke of royalty marrying their brothers and sisters, and the whole idea that in another time I’d be expected to marry Falyn disgusted me horrendously. Once the day was over, I walked home with my mom and dad, Falyn wanting to stay after to help clean. Despite how many times Ana tried to tell her to stop, to go and enjoy the rest of her birthday, she was always insisting on helping. She didn’t like leaving behind a mess even if she wasn’t the one to cause it to begin with. So dad and I were left with the presents in both of our arms, carrying all of Falyn’s things home for her. It wasn’t a surprise when we received word that Falyn was staying the night with Ana and Ren. She stayed there a lot, mostly because Jaelyn visited quite a bit and brought her daughter, an adorable five-year-old named Ella. Ana and Ren and Falyn were tasked to babysit overnight for Jaelyn and Ashe to have the night alone sometimes and Falyn loved babysitting. So I ended up going to bed instead of staying awake waiting for her. Normally, I always walked Falyn home if she stayed out late somewhere else, but since she wasn’t coming home, I went to sleep instead.

The next day was the same routine as always. My father had me get up at the crack of dawn to train with him. It was routine training, and never serious, though I still tried my best to keep on track and learn everything I could. He never tried as much with me as he did with Jareth and Lenny when he was training them and I didn’t like it. The rumors of the great Jem and Jareth, the two best fighters of the assassins, the two who fought like a machine and killed in the shape of a dance, and all I’ve ever wanted was to be like my father. Even after all this time, he was my hero. The idea of adventure, of being someone great, and falling in love with someone so deeply, I was willing to change my entire existence to be with them. I wanted to be everything my father was, but in the end…all I ended up being was a scholar. A scholar who knew how to fight fairly more than the standard number. I understood the logic of learning to be a king, of helping my mother decipher the endless scrolls found in the old bunkers we were finding and digging up steadily. Most were in different languages we didn’t understand, it was a lifetime and then some of the work to uncover all of the secrets of the past, and the elders were all about uncovering the secrets of the past and figuring out exactly what happened. While at the same time, they were converting slowly back to the ways of the past, and all I could see was an endless cycle of birth, regrowth, love, and destruction. After all, in the end, the world was destroyed because of love. I guess in a way, while I wanted to be like my father and find my own love, at the same time I didn’t. The idea of having something that led to so many deaths horrified me, and made me feel like, in the end, I’d be as weak as they were, and I wanted more than anything to be strong. If love makes one weak, I wanted no part of it. I had to be strong, to protect Falyn.

After what I would call: ‘The half-assed training’, I had a shower and breakfast, followed by a meeting with my mother and a few of the elders in the library. Our library was probably one of the biggest buildings of the Dragon Kingdom, filled with every book we’d managed to get out of the bunkers, and rooms upon rooms of scrolls we still had yet to decipher. Every once in a while, a stranger would come seeming to know a little bit of a language from their parents who learned it from their parents and slowly help decipher a language, along with mother’s magic, but being the only witch in the lands was hard and the work took forever. I never really did make the best scholar, despite what was expected of me, because in the end all I wanted to do was pick up a weapon and fight, throwing the books around in exasperation because I didn’t understand why it was so important. It was infuriating, and by the time it was lunch I had thrown at least ten books across the scrolls room, glad I was all alone during those times. I wasn’t fifteen anymore, tantrums weren’t tolerated, and I had long since accepted the fact that this was my destiny, my path, despite how wrong it felt. How wrong everything felt. I was going to be king soon, with two years to go, and I needed to try harder.

I met with my mother for lunch along with a few of the elders. The elders were older people who were alive when the Dragon kingdom was ruled by my grandfather and there was a bunker that had been underneath the kingdom. They had more knowledge than most from the kingdom about the old relics and scripts that were found, they and their families were the ones who created most of the appliances, and they stayed in the library so much that I was starting to think they lived here. It was usually how my lunchtime went. Sometimes dad would join us if he wasn’t busy around the kingdom helping others, but usually, it was just us. Unless Falyn was free then she’d join us, or I’d beg her to drag me away, but she was still with Ana and Ren for the day. “Have you had a chance to talk to Amelia? She’s still here visiting for another few days.” My mother asked, making me want to bang my head against something. King Tyler of the Werewolf kingdom has four daughters, and at some point, all of them have come to randomly ‘talk’ to me. None of them will be the next royal, since that title goes to Tyler’s son, but the daughters were still royalty and my mother was trying her best to get me to settle down.

I am twenty now, and most everyone around us started to find the one they wanted to spend their lives with when they were around seventeen to twenty. My mother was seventeen when she met my father, and my father was nineteen. It was common ages for us, and the longer I took, the more they worried for me. “Yes, mother, I met with her yesterday morning for the brunch you set up. She’s a very lovely girl,” I said, sighing. A lovely girl indeed, with her long brown hair and bright green eyes. She had a doll-like face and a soft sweet giggle, but she did absolutely nothing for me.

My mother smiled at me, nodding her head as she turned toward the man next to her and took a minute to translate the text for him. I was hoping that this would be the most of the interrogation but, of course, it was my mother and she was stubborn, so I wasn’t entirely surprised when she started on me again. “Was there particularly something you didn’t like? You don’t have to marry a royal, Sage, we can find regular girls too, or boys, if that’s your interest. You know your father and I will always love you no matter what.” She said, folding her hands across her lap and staring expectantly at me.

I took a deep breath, sighing. Ever since Lenny introduced everyone to Louis five years ago, who is now his husband, my parents have been all about making sure I knew if I was interested in boys they approved of it. It wasn’t as common here as it might be in the past, and the idea of a king being with another man hadn’t entirely happened before, but they still wanted me to be happy in whatever I chose. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what was wrong with me. None of the girls or the guys that have ever been flaunted in front of me have ever made me feel anything towards them. Another reason I was a failure in all of this, I couldn’t ever find a queen to help me rule the kingdom. I was half tempted to just accept a soft docile girl and explain to her that there wouldn’t be love between us, but if we could be friends who ruled the kingdom together, then that would be good enough for me. “Mom, I know I need to pick a woman to produce an heir for the kingdom. It’s very kind of you to tell me otherwise, but I’m pretty certain I’m not interested in guys anyway. I’ve never been attracted to one before.” I told her with a sigh. “As I said, Amelia was lovely. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.” I told her with a soft smile.

As mother started to flutter about discussing another arranged date with Amelia, all I could do was sit here and frown, wondering if she’d be up for a talk about us being married, but friends. Maybe passion and love come afterward, and all in all, the kingdom and what it needs were more important than who I married. She was a nice sweet girl, and if she was willing I wouldn’t mind. It’s not like there was anyone else I was interested in, after all. After lunch, we continued with the scrolls until it was late in the night, when I went back home to eat dinner with my parents. I stopped at Ana’s house to pick up Falyn, but she was in the middle of an intricate match of checkers with Ren and said she was staying the night again at Ana’s once more. It wasn’t uncommon, she stayed there a lot, especially when she was growing up and Jaelyn was still living there. Ana and Ren were so close to me and Falyn, and we tended to stay with them almost as much as we did our own parents. So I went back home and ate dinner with my parents, cleaned up, and went to bed as I would any other night. However, I was woken up by a horrible feeling in the middle of the night. I laid there in bed and stared at the falling stars outside my window, drifting back to sleep, telling myself that nothing was wrong, that it was just a bad dream despite the fact that I didn’t remember it. However, in the end, when I woke up in the morning, I couldn’t help but wonder if the stars were a sign. The stars had fallen, and Falyn was missing.