The sound of hooves beating against the ground, horses running desperately and men shouting fill my mind. The chaos crushes into me as flashes of flames erupt in my vision. There was a hoard surrounding me.

Lies. They screamed lies. 

And blood.

I tasted blood.

I tasted the vile substance that ran down my face. Roark stood before me, his fingers – the only skin from him I had been able to see – dripping in the red that choked me.

They came closer. Closer. I couldn't breathe as the weight of the sins that I had committed pushed like a weight into my soul until-

I inhale sharply.

My vision was blurred from the tears that filled my eyes as I looked around wildly at my surroundings.

The night was calm. The echo of their shouts and the pounding of the animal's feet against the ground still reverberated in my ears. A faint ringing noise left my head rattling in place as the stillness of the world around confused and shocked my senses.

Hands suddenly touch me.

"My lioness. It was just a dream."

I feel the warmth connect to my arms as his hands slowly move up to cup my cheeks. My head is turned, giving my eyes a place to finally focus and land upon.

Black. Black like the vision I had just seen encounters me as he pulls me in.

"Mikabellum."

His whisper fills the silence of the night as he holds me in place.

"It was a dream," he says, his voice soft and gentle. The tone a mother would take to her child.

I stare at him, my eyes wide in the truth that I knew but he didn't.

That had not been a dream. That had not been a false story my mind had woven to create from the horrors of my heart.

It had been real. All of it had been real and had been real events that I had encountered and conquered.

And with that single thought in my mind, I feel the tears that I had been holding back come to me again.

He knew nothing. He knew nothing to call my nightmare a dream.

"What is wrong Mikabellum?" There is faint worry in his voice now. His eyes hold concern as he takes me in. As I fall apart in his arms.

I couldn't. I couldn't fall apart here and now with this male as my witness. Not when he had bent his knee just hours ago. Not when I had given him forgiveness and the reality was it was my soul that was stained. My soul that now was showing the toxic evil that came out when my defenses when down.

"Bring me Khalid."

He tenses. I can feel his fingers that still hold my face tighten. There is a moment of mistrust. If his grip will become too much. But he pulls back.

"No."

"Bring him to me."

He stares down at me, his gaze becoming like black fire. Anger. Shock.

The audacity? Maybe for a mortal woman. If it was a mortal woman who slept in the great leader's tent and woke up in the middle of the night to ask for another.

But I was not just another woman.

I was Mikabellum.

And I was breaking.

"Bring him."

He stands. I watch him rise with the power of retreating thunder as he walks towards the entrance of the tent. To my surprise, he only has to call out a name. Just his name and suddenly Khalid is there standing at the entry.

He is comforting. He is someone who can watch my tears and not calculate the weakness that comes from it.

The great leader leaves a stunned Khalid standing there as he exits. I motion for him to come closer, and he does so.

"Mikabellum."

I want to choke at the relief that is in his voice. I had not seen Khalid since Hirog, Nash and Jesper had first taken me. The events that had occurred afterward had caused me to forget about his presence entirely. I had abandoned him when he had done no such thing.

The weight of my sins only crushed down upon me even more when his eyes looked at me with nothing but concern.

There were no secondary feelings that I had to watch out for. No hidden words or meanings in his thoughts or gaze.

He was open and he was safe.

"Sit with me Khalid. Just for a few seconds."

A true soldier, he does as he is told, sitting two feet away from me.

There is a silence between us before I whisper, "forgive me."

He seems startled by my sudden request but before he can speak I continue, "I left you. And I did not come back."

"They would not let us see you."

Us.

The people. The personal guard that was back to protecting me. He had put himself in place with the rest of the tribe. Not as someone special or separate who should be set apart.

He tilts his head, "I should be asking for your forgiveness, Mikabellum. I had pledged myself to you and I failed to protect you. I'm sorry."

His words hold true misery. It only then hits me that Khalid really and truly believes me. There is no doubt in his mind of my identity. Had there ever been any doubt? I think back to our first encounter and realize that no- he had never once questioned the image that I had presented to him. He had accepted it with his whole heart. He had embraced it.

I had pledged myself to you. 

He was truly of the Onism. The original- Onismal, he had said. One of the few who had been born and raised within the tribe.

It was that thought that reassured me. That thought that gave me comfort to look up to him and ask, "One moment Khalid. Just stay one moment. Don't tell anyone of this."

I feel the tears begin to fall before I can stop them.

He bows, "Of course, Mikabellum."

My cries are silent. But he says nothing about the cause. He only puts his back to me and watches the door. 

*   *   *

I feel Roark enter the tent.

There is a difference in his presence compared to Khalid.

A tension fills the air, one that I know he is the cause of. My back warms with the idea of his eyes going to me. Facing in my direction. I can hear his steps as they approach. The soft sound of his arrival as he stops before me and looks down.

No words are said.

He only moves to be beside me.

I exhale deeply. His arms go around me, pulling me in. I fit within his chest, a piece that should not belong there but does.

"My lioness," it is a soft whisper. A faint possessive cry of pity towards me and how far I have fallen. I hear it in his tone. Maybe. Or I could be misinterpreting his words as I had done so many times before. Always a game. It was always an exhausting game between us of what each movement, action, and spoken thought was. What the true meaning behind our intentions were.

So exhausting.

There is silence as I press myself closer to him. Finding comfort in the captor's arms. The only warmth I would be able to gain in this place.

"I heard..." I stop mid-sentence wondering why I had started this topic. A part of me just craved to talk to someone. Or to hear his voice. To engage him in conversation. Something to form a connection to. To understand him better. 

"What did you hear?" His voice is to close. Directly upon my ear. The warmth that is able to escape from the clothing he wears over his mouth is enough to send chills through me at the sensation.

"I heard that you became leader by killing your brother for the title."

There is a pause. I wonder if he will answer or shut down my sudden remark. But he surprises me.

"He was weak."

I want to turn around, but know that it will be useless. There was no face I could read and the darkness would hide away anything I could uncover from his eyes. I had only his voice to rely upon.

"He was your brother."

He scoffs into me, pulling me to be closer. We are flushed, my back pressing directly to him. No space. "In name."

Alarm runs through me. Just two words and he had revealed something. Something that I knew he regretted as his body tenses slightly beside mine. His arms wrap more securely around me- trapping. It then that my mind begins to form a thought. A thought that I need to take a hold of.

Without questioning my actions I turn around to face him.

He looks at me. We are breathlessly close. His eyes merge with the darkness, blending in to be one with the night.

I lean forward and press my lips to his covered ones.

He stills.

The world stills.

It seems almost as if time has stumbled for a split second and was trying to regain its bearings the same as how he was. I could see the widening of his eyes. How they grew and looked down at me.

I pressed more, wanting to feel the shape that the clothing hid underneath. It was hard to detect, but faintly, I could feel him, moving and responding to me.

And then he was pulling away, his hands grabbing my shoulders and violently ripping me back to stop anything else from occurring. His breaths are coming out to quick and a glare can be seen directed at me.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know," I confess.

Suspicion is laced in those eyes. Calculating. Thoughtful. There was always something dark and deeper going on in the mind of the great leader as he looked down upon me.

"I admit to killing my brother and this is your response?" he laughs, "I always seem to underestimate you, Mikabellum."

I only continue to stare up at him. He is the shadow. I am the flame. Cast to the center, I am the attention and he is the one who draws darkness around. I am wanting to connect the pieces. What game was this? Were we the only two players? Were there more? More such as the golden male – did he have a part in this? In the admission Roark had just told me of?

"Sleep."

It's said as a command. There is no argument that can be made. His arms however, draw me back to him. As if he cannot resist. As if the temptation is too sweet. The offering just there for the taking. How could he say no? How could he refuse to embrace a goddess in his arms.

One sip - that was all that was needed. One sip and now they became addicted. They wanted more. All men who coveted and desired power were the same. 

"I will hold you my lioness. You can find sleep with me."

I want to argue against his words. Wrong, wrong, wrong. But the darkness that fills our souls is enough to encompass my mind.

How awful, I wonder, how awful it is, that someone can find comfort and sleep while in the arms of the devil who carries their nightmares in dreams.

*   *   *

Soleia wraps the silk around my shoulders.

The color is a startling blue. Like the sky upon a day of heat and dryness. When there are no clouds to surround it and obscure the view.

It's a gift, she had whispered.

Only one person could grant such a thing.

My arms are open, the fabric splitting in the middle to display it and my body, but the cloth sticks closely to my skin - no imagination is needed for the male's mind. The two pieces of clothing on the shoulder that separated, hung loosely down my back. The slightest breeze picked them up, the wind grabbing and wishing to run away with both them and me.

My hair is coiled upon the top of my head. Loose strands fall down and for once there is nothing grand or majestic to rest upon my head besides the natural color of the gold that I wear.

Tribes that live nearby are coming. 

Tuva, a male who was all but silent to me had been sent to explain why Soleia had spent the last several hours dressing and adorning my body.

Tribes that live nearby are coming.

The male who resembled the sun - whom Roark had left me with the other night had already departed. But there was a new guest present now. I want to shake my head at the sword that had been directed to the heart of those tribes that had come. 

Three options.

Fight. Surrender. Or die.

The weak could outlive the strong but only by giving in. I knew too well the choices they had chosen to make. I could feel it as the silk rubbed against my skin and the weight of my hair rested upon my head in a permanent crown that would never be taken off.

I emerge from the tent, seeing the silence that came from those who watched.

The color of the fabric set my mood into a place that I did not know of. It was not the violence of red. Nor was it the pureness of white. There was no gold to frame and drip me in the form of deity.

Blue.

A somber color.

The color of the tears that I had cried last night.

The color of their tears that they cried now.

The tribes are there- waiting. And as they see me approach, I watch the shock upon their faces at the strange power my sight brings.

I do not say a word. No words. I look down upon them as I should. I see them for what they should be seen as. I wait and slowly, one male goes to his knees.

I look to the crowd before me, the Onism behind me and the future of it in front.

There were many people here. I could only guess that two tribes were present- showing themselves to me.

But where was the Great Leader? I had cast off this thought. He no doubt was somewhere. Watching. Knowing. A test to see if these people really could cast off their homes and lands, and join a tribe for an unknown power that stood before them.

The wind picks up. It carries the silks that are behind me. I raise my hands, my arms extending. In the distance I see a black cloud, an ominous sign of danger. The crash of thunder is heard and the people before me jump, fear settling into their eyes.

I turn to find that same fear in the Onism. They all stare at me.

They all stare at me.

Who were these fools to believe I could control the thunder?

Who were these fools to believe I could raise my hands and command such a thing?

The sound comes again, but my work and luck has been done. The effect causes unease to ripple through them as they one by one follow the male's example. The first to give in had been the first to show them the way.

They all fall down. One by one. I see the resistant and few who do not. I see them walk away and a part of me wonders how the Onism warriors will deal with them.

I had lived within this tribe long enough to know that its people were cruel and their leader even more merciless.

"Welcome." My word is whispered but I know they can hear.

I approach their forms, watching as a weariness comes into their gaze. I do not know what else to say. What else to do to convince them. I could scream and laugh in their faces. Call them fools for believing for a second if they thought they could make it out of here alive without joining these savages.

How else did they think I was still here? How else did they know how I was able to breathe and take those steps towards them if not because I had lowered my head and ignored the truth that was before me.

It's at that moment that the Great Leader appears.

If they thought I had the power to call thunder, then maybe they were right.

For he was the thunder. He was the clash of something dark and sinister that had the power to split open this word and shake the foundations upon which it stood.

Maybe I did possess such a divine gift as they believed because his name upon my lips could send him to his knees.

He approaches me. He does not stop. I want to take a step back at the sureness of his steps that are directed towards me. They are going straight to me with no hesitation.

With no break in his stride or falter in his step, he takes my face within his hands and presses the covering of where his lips are, to my own.

I can feel the wave of the effect his actions have on the crowd. The parting of disbelief as he snatches a blessing from something so divine in such an outward display.

Shock descends upon me at what his action means. 

He had claimed me.

Me?

But I was not his to claim. In front of so many people there was no way to fight back against the mark he had made. In front of the new tribes that were joining and the Onism that stood behind him, he might as well have shouted to the world-

Mine.

She is mine.

The goddess of war that you covet so dearly is mine.

But he should have known better.

He should have known better. And looking into his eyes as he pulled away- I think he did. I think he did know. But the regret was not as strong as the reward.

Something had taken over him. I could see that this had not been his intention. This had not been his plan.

My shock forms into a smile.

See? Couldn't they see now. I had living proof of my divinity.

For even the great leader could not stop himself from giving his lips to me. 

I have a confession everyone. While you are very sweet every time I post an update (the praise is very nice) It's also a little overwhelming and I've realized these past few months that I am a little scared to post a new chapter just in fear that I'll receive a negative response instead of the usual nice words that are said. I know that shouldn't be a fear I have, but you people have really set the bar high (and you make it higher every time I update XD ) 

So I've come to say that I will maybe be posting more often, but I apologize in advance if you think the story is not going the way you want it to or if you don't like how it is being written. I've been on this platform long enough to let go of negative comments, but I really do want you all to continue to enjoy the story (no matter what I have planned for it). I will be sticking to my version, so hang in there with me! 

As always, THANK YOU for being so patient with me for every update. I apologize if this one seems rough? I literally spent 30 minutes searching for this word (you know when you know a word but you cant remember the word?) I was like "what is that word again?" And so I wrote with that thought in my head bothering me going "DAMN IT WHAT IS THE WORD I WANT TO USE?" So I had to write around that word because I just couldn't remember it (ignore me if this has never happened to you and you have no idea what I'm talking about). 

At this point I'm just ranting and typing random things. SOOOooo I hope you enjoyed the update and thank you as always, for reading! ♥

Until next time, 

loves,

/////WORLD_JOY_/////