Chapter 3
Asgeir POV
I pushed open the doors and walked in and was immediately greeted with the sight of my family having breakfast together, all happily chatting about and laughing.
I walked to where my Dad was sitting and bent down to place a kiss against his temple.
"Good Morning Dad." I said smiling at him when he reached up cupped my face.
"Good Morning Father." I said and walked to sit at my usual place, which was next to Arkyn.
"Did you sleep well?" Father asked me and poured some water into Dad's glass for him.
"I did. Thanks" I murmured and began digging into my breakfast.
For someone that ate all the time, I wondered where all my food went,because despite my humongous appetite, I still remained as skinny as a broom stick.
"Eat up darling. You need to get some more meat on your body." Dad said as he smiled at me.
"Oh he'll get those curves when he's pregnant" Armod said making me choke on the bread I was chewing and cough.
"Piss off Armod." Arkyn said and handed me some water to which I took and gulped down immediately.
"You spoil him to much, how do you expect him to be a man if you keep on fighting his battles." Armod said casually as he popped a grape into his mouth and looked at me while he chewed on it.
"How do you expect to be treated like an adult when you act like an immature dick all the time?" Arkyn glared at him while he rubbed my back as I coughed.
"Enough." Father said making us all look at him.
"It seems as though you've already heard about your engagement." He said taking hold of Dad's hand, who smiled at me.
I nodded my head, not trusting myself to say anything, because deep down, despite the face that I showed on the outside, I was absolutely terrified.
Aside from my own insecurities, I had no idea what kind of person the slayer was. I had no idea if he was really as kind and compassionate as everyone said he was, I mean anyone could put up a certain face for people to see, and be the exact opposite behind closed doors.
I could only hope and pray that I was not one of those unfortunate souls that would be tied to someone who just saw me as a means of gaining heirs.
It wasn't something strange, among our people, to have no love in a marriage. After all, we lived for the desire and ecstasy. Most people didn't really care where or who fulfilled those savage desires, as long as it was satiated. Which was so contrast to what our kingdom was based and founded on.
My parents were among the very few, that were actually in love with one another. In fact my father is about the only king that did not take any concubines, and satisfied his desires solely with my Dad. He would look at him like he was the most beautiful and precious thing to him. Like nothing else in the world, could amount to his beauty.
And I wanted that. I wanted someone to look at me and love me like that, and I could only hope that the slayer was that person who would.
"Are you okay?" Arvid asked next to me.
"I'm fine." I smiled at him and looked back at my plate.
"Are you sure?" He asked when he saw that I stopped eating and was merely playing with my food. I assured him that I was okay to which he nodded and turned his head to talk to Armod.
All the while, Armod looked at me and at times, he would look at me with a look I didn't understand though I know he didn't actually intend it, it was just the way his face looked. I sighed and continued to break up the bread in my plate, having lost my appetite already.
I knew that Armod liked The Slayer in some way, he made no effort to hide it, but what bothered me was, that I knew for certain he was not the only one lusting after The Slayer, and although The Slayer was not from our lands, I was certain that he knew about our custom to take more than one man to bed.
It was considered completely normal and almost everyone did it, with the exception of the few who chose not to and be loyal to the one they married.
People in our land believed that it was impossible for one man to fulfill the desires of another, and that several men were required, but he would however only have children with the one he married.
It was that very custom, that bothered me. I hated the idea of him touching another man the way he was going to touch me, the thought alone was enough to make me sick to my stomach.
It made no sense to me, because if you really loved someone, how could you touch and make love to another person? It was then that Arkyn explained to me, how our people didn't see love as something important or something that was needed. The only thing that mattered to our people was having abundant offspring to carry on the legacy of our forefather, and to carry out his wish.
I laughed as I thought about the legend that Arkyn told me a few years ago when I asked him why we didn't have any females in our lands like the other kingdoms, it was then that he told me how our kingdom came about.
It was more than eight centuries ago, when a troubled warrior prayed for a son. He prayed for someone strong, who could defend the land and strengthen it, so that the invaders wouldn't dare to step foot in it again.
Despite his cries and pleas when he prayed, his wife remained barren, until one night he had a dream.
In his dream, he was shown a vision. There was the most extraordinarily mesmerizing beauty he had every laid eyes on. In fact, the man looked like he wasn't even human, but an angel instead. When the warrior looked closely, he saw the man cradling a beautiful baby boy in his hands, and was smiling at the baby.
A voice in the distance, told the warrior to look closely and he did. The warrior looked once more, and despite being married to his wife for five years, he couldn't help his wandering eyes that drifted to the beautiful man, holding that baby to his chest like it was something priceless.
The warrior had not uttered anything, because he, himself was completely shocked by what his heart wanted, and instead he continued to look ahead at that beautiful man.
"Very well, but with joy, comes pain." The uttered and went silent.
The warrior woke up the next morning wondering just what that dream had meant. He looked around and didn't see his wife anywhere. After checking the entire house, he concluded that she was definitely not in the house. He then went to her closest friend, thinking that she would be there, but when her friend opened the door, she seemed to know why the warrior was there.
"I told her it was a stupid thing to leave. She could have just pretended the child was yours." Her friend said as she poured the tea into the cups and gave the warrior one, who seemed to be confused at what his wife's friend was saying.
"She had been sleeping with your stable boy for the past year, and a few months ago, she found out she was pregnant, she came to me in a hysterical state and said she was going to run away with him."
All the while, the warrior had only one thought on his mind.
The problem was with him and not his wife. They had been trying to have a son since they got married and couldn't, but she had slept with the stable boy a few times and already fell pregnant. With that thought, he walked back home.
He was more upset with himself for being a failure , that with his wife for her infidelity.
He remained alone for a few years, knowing it was futile to take another wife, when he couldn't make her pregnant.
One night, while he was reading, he heard a knock on the door and went to open it. His eyes widened at seeing who was at the door step. He was so surprised that he failed to hear what the person was saying, and could only utter two words.
"It's you." He whispered to the stranger.
Standing in front of him was the very man he had dreamt about all those years ago and he looked exactly as he saw him, not a day older.
The man said that he was traveller and that his horse had wandered off while he was asleep. The warrior then said he could stay with him as long as he needed to.
In the months that followed, the two men began a physical relationship, and it didn't matter to the warrior that it was man he was being intimate with, but rather that he had fallen so deeply in love with him, that nothing else mattered.
After a few months, the warrior began feeling sick and nauseous all the time, and he was eventually diagnosed that he was with child. He couldn't believe or understand what that meant, when the doctor told him it could be reason why he wasn't able to make a woman pregnant, because he was the one in fact, capable of carrying a child.
The warrior and the beautiful traveller had many sons together, who in turn had more sons, and eventually the entire land, was inhabited by men alone, who could carry children and possessed immense beauty, just like The Warrior and The Traveller.
Men from around the world, who desired men as lovers came to the land in search of fulfilling their desires and gaining offspring who carried the strength imbedded in their veins from their forefather, that is how my grandfather married my Dad off to my Father, and wished for my Father to rule the kingdom after he died.
And that is how the kingdom of Valeor was formed, a kingdom ruled and inhabited solely by men.