Finding Contentus

Chapter 93: Vow

Roi Gabrielle and Reine Kakara left the conqueror chambers earlier than sunrise, or at least, the time of sunrise when the clouds of Kimba prohibited its rise from being seen.

Kakara carried Milo like a puppy and dropped him when they were outside.

Like sleek criminals, Gabrielle spoke to one of the guards of the gates to open for his King and Queen. The guard did as he was commanded. Kakara made another mental note to herself regarding Gabrielle's... was it manipulation or smoothening?

Regardless of which was which, Milo ran to the snow sled. They both got on, and the big dog took off like he was in the storming winds, sprinting after them as everything blurred.

The Kain desert was a desolate space of snow and ice. That was the thing about Kimba. Its vast, spacious land, for the most part, was empty and uninhabited.

One had to travel great distances to reach the select settlements in Kimba. Kakara suspected that the small Eifri group were currently camping somewhere in the distance on their way back to the North. They would need rest and shelter, having left from seeing Gabrielle.

And me now. She saw the folly in her judgement by not following Gabrielle's instructions, but with just one look into Kaikara's striking eyes, she knew that he must have sensed the day she fell from the sky.

He would have come eventually, so she took the element of surprise into her own hands. Now, she had to harden her element to surprise him with the strength she had gained since she left.

Which, undoubtedly, would either be a blessing in disguise, or a curse in its bare form. As Kakara held onto Gabrielle, she noticed something else.

He was too quiet, lost in thought, deliberating. The answer, regarding what he was thinking, was obvious, but she still wanted to know. Even when they were sleeping, Kakara saw another similarity between them.

Their nightmares.

Kakara had never slept well in her life, plagued by her own silent nightmares, but Gabrielle was... worse. He had woken up several times in the night, without a sound, sweating and looking around frantically like he didn't know where he was, rocking back and forth like he had been trapped in some devilish realm of hell, again, with no sound.

The only reason Kakara would wake up was due to the lack of warmth she felt from his body that grew exceedingly cold.

The only sound that pierced their shared bed was Kakara's slight gasp when she tried to calm him down, only for his body to tremble like had seen something far more terrible than the most terrifying alpha primal in existence.

Just then, she wondered how Michelle slept in the secret shed she found for him. How many nights did he cry himself to sleep? All alone, without her by his side when he was always by her side when she needed him.

She then thought about how Gabrielle isolated himself in his winter cabin. All alone. A frozen plateau of guilt rose up in her chest, liquefying her resolve to not make the same mistake when it came to Michelle's older brother.

Kakara held Gabrielle close to her as he faced the opposite direction. She tried humming like Minaleese, like she had done before to Genesia on Mad Scar. She felt a bit embarrassed, but it seemed to work on Gabrielle as his shoulders relaxed under her touch and voice.

The conquering conditioning of Patris and Dominique ran deep, extremely deep. Kakara had to be patient, she couldn't rush things with Gabrielle given how delicate he was and how strong he forced himself to be in his lead role as Star King. Each day of progress that was made between them felt like another day in which a subtraction stalled their progress.