The Talamute Prince

"I made my way into the flight deck. I got to close to the edge and a young boy pulled me back he saved me from falling over. I gave him a hug for his efforts, but I think I scared him as he didn't really say anything he just scurried off." I didn't feel bad at all for omitting the truth as I am sure it was better than the flat out lies the man before me spit out with such ease. It was also all I could think of that wouldn't get anyone in trouble. Besides if he tried to hurt the boy, I'd be sure the fire ball I threw at Patrick would be big enough to push the limits of my control.

"Well, I should retrieve him and reward him for saving my queen." He says. I can see a bit of a suspicious look in his eyes at my story. I would not give him the satisfaction of unraveling me. I had just watched him brutally attack Tasha and the prisoner. I knew exactly what he was capable of and it still wasn't half of the destructive power I held in my pinky.

"I could go and fetch him if you would like." I smile. Trying to hide the fact that I was terrified of what he would do to the kid. He walks towards me placing his hand gently on my arm and tracing it down to my hand. He then brings it up to his mouth kissing it ever so gently. I somehow manage to withhold from cringing at the feel of his skin against mine.

"Of course, please bring him up here straight away." I turn and went back to the platform and pressed the button to go back down. Once I stop in the engine room everyone looks at me confused. They all stat to line up again but I hold up my hand to stop them.

"Sorry, I just need that boy, him right there, please." He looks at me and I see the terrified look in his eyes. Yet he sucks in puffing out his chest to seem not as afraid as he is and comes over to me climbing onto the lift. He holds his head high while we are in view of everyone else but as soon as the lift takes off, he slumps a bit and tears up.

"Am I in trouble your highness?" I reach over and push the button to take us up to the throne room.

"The king asked me about the grease, and I told him that you kept me from falling off the edge. I told him I hugged you for it." He tilts his head to the side staring up at me as he wipes his tear away.

"You lied to the King?" I let a soft expression come over me as I kneel to his level.

"Yes and no, you did pull me away from the edge and I did hug you. I simply omitted the part he doesn't need to know. What he doesn't know won't hurt you?" His glare goes to his feet.

"What if he finds out?" I gently raise his glare back up to mine. I hold out my hand and form a fire ball in it.

"I won't let him hurt you I promise." He nods but remains quite as we reach the throne room floor. I put my hand on his shoulder and lead him to Patrick who is sitting on his throne waiting patiently for my return. I can tell the boy is terrified. After what I have seen from him since our arrival here, I don't blame the boy one bit, but I won't let him harm this boy. Patrick set in his throne with some person I had never seen before standing beside him. The two of us walked as though the floor was going to fall from beneath our feet.

"Ah so you're the boy that put his hands on the new queen of Rapacity?" I couldn't judge by the expression on Patrick's face what he meant by this statement. I look at Patrick not removing my hand from the boy's shoulder. I can feel him shaking as he stands unresponsive to Patrick's question. "Let me rephrase that, are you the boy who pulled the new queen from the edge of the flight deck?" I still couldn't tell how to take his face as it seems stern and unkind.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to touch her." The boy says as he hit the floor bowing at Patrick's feet. I bent down to place my hand on the boys back and shot Patrick a glare unapproving of his actions. I could feel my powers twitching to be released at any second.

"Stand up boy." Patrick says and I help the frighten boy to his feet as he wipes tears from his eyes. I pull him slightly behind me as at this point, I'm not sure what Patrick is up to. "What is your name?"

"Jamerson, sire." He glances up at me and I stand my ground. If indeed Patrick is as cruel as I had an inclination to, I would take the boys side over his.

"What do you do here in the palace?" He changed his look a bit as he saw the position, I had taken between him and the boy.

"I'm an engine boy, small enough to fit in places most can't I tend to get very dirty doing so though. I didn't mean to get her dirty sire." He replied not touching me but still hiding behind me.

"What is it you really want to do?" I squint at Patrick and so did the man next to him.

"Sire, that isn't our way you either follow the trade of your father or you join the ar..." Patrick holds his hand up to the man who spoke for the first time. It instantly shut the man up.

"Well what is it you really want to do? Do you indeed enjoy your job, or perhaps is there something else that you would like to become?" Patrick asks. The boy looks at me then back at the king confused.

"I... I like to invent stuff, your majesty." He says quietly.

"Sire, he can't..." again the man tries to reiterate his stand on traditions, but Patrick wouldn't let him continue.

"Can you be one hundred percent grease free by Mondar?" Patrick looks at the boy who looks even more confused.

"It'll take some work and I wouldn't be able to go back to the engines room, but yes I could." Patrick smiles.

"Scribe write a letter of recommendation to the academy of inventions. Let them know they have a new student starting Mondar. Get the boys information, set a clothing, and food allowance. I think allowing a hero a chance to change his life trade is the least we can do." the boys face turns to a huge grin with tears pooling. Had this been his intention the entire time or had he changed his mind because I stayed in the room to protect the boy?

"Sire?" He turns to the scribe with a glare that elicited a response. "Right away, your majesty, come with me boy." The kid looks back at me and smiles running eagerly to the scribe. I watch the two leave the room leaving Patrick and me alone. The room is filled with an uncomfortable silence. I maintain my poster with my head held high.

I look at the platform that disappears then glare out of the corner of my eye and turn to head away from Patrick. He stands and walks over to me gripping my wrist ever so slightly. I look at his hand then up at him.

"Did you honestly think I would hurt the boy?" Patrick look at me trying to read my expression of distaste in his approach to scaring the child before rewarding him.

"Your customs here are barbaric, and those of a fear inspiring ruler. Forgive me but I wasn't sure what your intentions were. I would have defended the boy after all, he did protect me." I reply standing my ground. I wasn't entirely sure what he had intended and if things would have been different without my presence. I had seen his truly evil side in the interrogation of the Talamute prisoner. His lies were more than present with my current knowledge Tasha was his cousin, not some mysterious girl in the basement.

"I'll leave some and change others as I go." He circles me like a bird of prey circling the corpse of its next meal. I take a deep breath in and held my head higher as he did. "You're afraid of me why?" he came around to face me as he asked the question. I look at him for a moment pondering what it'll mean when I tell him. I won't bring up Tasha, but I'll confront him about the prisoner.

"I saw you." I fight back the tears and my powers that were trying to break through. The images of his fist meeting the face of a man unable to defend himself ran through my memories like a living nightmare. He raises his eyebrow and looks at me. Not to mention his treatment of a woman slightly smaller than myself but that wasn't what needed to be spoken of.

"You saw me what?" He asks. His brow raises over one eye and slumps over the other.

"I saw you with the prisoner." I didn't want to look directly at him, so I stare at the throne behind him. He turns around and rubs his hands over his face then turns back to me. No doubt he is trying to find a way to justify the savage treatment. There isn't anything he could say to convince me that the treatment was necessary.

"He tried to kill me, his friend tried to scare you, they're not good people and can't be treated as such. I knew it would upset you if you knew I was going to be interrogating him, so I left that part out." I watch him as he places his finger curled under my chin. My gaze is pulled to his, those green eyes no longer seem to hold any pull over me, and a terrifying thought enters the back of my mind. What if he can no longer pull me back from my rage?

"Compassion goes further than anger. Perhaps a kindness to this so-called savage may bring more answers then beating him." I say looking into his eyes. I'm never going to forgive him, and he would never again hold a power of love or otherwise over me. Why did I not glow in his touch? The thought enters my head randomly. I fight to bring my thoughts back to the moment at hand, but this question haunts my brain. I hadn't glowed any of the times that he kissed me, even the last one with the passion I felt in his embrace.

"We have left their people in peace for years. We stay up here and they stay below neither side can break this arrangement without consequences. They came up here to kill me and I won't show him or the other kindness at such gestures." I just stare at him and wondered what other things he keeps hidden from me.

"What would happen if they took me?" I know the answer before he speaks it, but I want to hear him admit to the pain and agony he would inflict on someone who defied him.

"I wouldn't leave them in peace until you were returned and even then, they would face complete genocide at such a gesture of ill will." I don't wish to be in his presence any longer and searching for a reason to escape his company I glance down at my dress remembering I'm soiled from the embrace of the small boy.

"Patrick, I need to change if you don't mind. I'm sure lunch will be ready soon so if you will excuse me please." I don't know what else to say to him. I, in fact, have nothing more to say to him. I can't muster a civil word in my thoughts. He reaches up to my cheek and without my permission I shiver at his touch.

"I will never hurt you, Laoonica. I'll see you at dinner okay." He kisses my lips and to satisfy him, so he'll let me go, I let him but, I don't return it. He smiles and releases my face. I turn walking to the platform to my room as his words lingered in my mind. He could not possibly mean that he would never hurt me because with all that he had done he had almost broken me in half mentally. Lunch arrived at my room just as I did, and I must admit with all my adventuring today I was famished.