ততততত

𝐓 𝐎 𝐁 𝐈 𝐍

𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐑

"Where is my little bundle of chaos?" I call, wandering through our empty abode, cautiously checking under tables for her.

An innocent giggle from my upstairs bedroom sings through the silence. She can never stay still or silent, yet still begs me to play hide and seek with her. Although, she always does the hiding and I do the seeking.

You see, my mother left to go collect some produce from the market, and my father's due to return home from his spontaneous trip to Lagulon at any time. Once he comes back, I'm off to the royal castle to act as a guard for the evening. It's the most meticulous, boring, dumbass job. Thankfully, the sector I have for the evening is the west wing courtyard—far from that goddamn hell where I found myself a week ago.

They assigned me to be a watchguard to ease me back into the militia's routine. The whipping scars still haven't fully healed, and my back will be bloody stiff, but hey, all I have to do is walk in circles with a sword.

I swing open my bedroom door, only to find it completely empty.

"Come out, Aspen," I grin, wandering towards the closet doors with caution.

In a blaze, I swing them open, only to find them empty of my younger sister.

Another giggle erupts from behind me as the window flings open. I spin my head, only to catch Aspen climbing like a goddamn monkey over the ledge and onto a branch of a nearby tree.

Fear shoots through me like a shot. "Aspen!"

She giggles as she climbs towards the trunk. "You can't catch me!"

"Get the fuck down from there!"

"Momma told you not to say that," she chides. Gods, she's a six-year-old disaster waiting to occur.

I inspect the branch that brushes by my window. If I climb on it, the whole fucking thing will snap into two. But not for Aspen. The world is hers, and she embraces it with open arms.

"For fuck's sakes," I mutter, watching her as she climbs along the thick branch until she hugs the rough bark of the tree's trunk. "You're gonna fall and break an arm!"

She sticks her tongue out at me, then starts climbing higher. Damn it.

"Aspen! This isn't part of the game!"

"Are you scared?" she laughs. Those two large golden doe eyes gaze at the window where I stand. Her mess of chestnut curls breeze against her flushed cheeks in the wind, but only for a moment as she shakes them to the side and continues upward.

There isn't a bone in her body that's afraid of anything—spiders, storms, heights, blood. She only fears losing what she loves most: her family. I'm not even sure she fears losing our parents.

I think it might just be her fear of losing me, which will never happen.

I swear I'll love my little bundle of chaos until the end of time.

Looking up, I come to one simple conclusion: Aspen ain't coming down from the tree, and no amount of yelling will stop that little hurricane.

I scramble from my room, run down the flight of stairs, and enter into the small yard outside my bedroom window. By now, Aspen enters treacherous territory on that goddamn tree. The branches thin out, and the trunk wobbles side to side in the wind. Still, she clambers higher and higher.

Until—

The branches snap from beneath her, and she falls.

"ASPEN!" I run to the base of the tree, watching her tiny body fall through the canopies and plop.

She lands in my father's arms.

He narrows his brown eyes, clearly not impressed that I was left alone with Aspen, who decided to climb up the tallest fucking tree in the city of Evertania. I gulp and shrug my shoulders, a silent sorry, but the parental stare of death ends when Aspen giggles in his muscular arms.

"Daddy! Did you see how high I got?"

My dad gazes down at her and smiles. "You bet I did."

"It's the highest I've ever been, even higher than Tobin!"

I scowl. This clearly was not a race to see who could climb to the top, because that tiny monkey has an advantage. I'd snap the branches before I could make it that high up, but I'll let her take the victory this time.

My father tickles her, then whispers into her ear. "Keep that one a secret from your mother, got it?"

Aspen nods her head. My father lets her go as she begins running circles around us in the yard. Somehow, she's got enough energy to power a whole army. She's always moving, never halting for a moment even if the world demands her to pause. Aspen's always been restless, and that's why she's our storm, our chaos. Yet, no matter how much trouble she finds herself in, there isn't anything we wouldn't do for that girl.

My father drops his voice to a whisper. "Will you be here tonight?"

"They have me at the post doing rounds in the west wing."

"Shit," my father pinches the bridge of his nose. "We don't have a lot of time."

My expression twists in confusion. A week ago, I heard my father vowing to my mother that he would assassinate the king. He fled to Lagulon to ask for assistance, but there's no knowing what happened across those borders. The desperation in my father's irises tell me that there's no time for silly games like hide and seek—he needs to act now.

"You can't leave your designated post, can you?" he asks.

I shake my head.

"Tobin, I need you with your mother and sister."

"It's treasonous to the throne to abandon my duties."

"There won't be a throne after tonight," my father whispers before scanning the perimeters of the yard. He nods towards the entrance to our home, a silent command to go inside. We both wander back indoors, with Aspen scampering innocently behind us.

We take a seat at the table, and Aspen? Gods, she's now singing some off-tune lullaby in her room.

"I have to go," I rouse. "They'll come for me the moment I fail to show up."

My father gnaws the inside of his cheek, because he knows I'm right. Even if he is planning to eliminate Leighton from the throne, my rotation for the guard starts before sunset. I can't risk being thrown into the dungeon just yet. If my father succeeds, he'll be reinstated as the new king of Adorid, simply because Leighton has no heirs. Then ,I won't be just some random guard. I'll be the prince.

Our family will reign over Adorid.

And if my father fails...

We're all dead. Every. Last. One of us.

My father dips his head. "Your mother is a strong woman. She can protect Aspen, but I don't know how well she can fend off the knights if they come for her."

"They won't even knock on the door if you can do this," I reach a hand over my shoulder, running a palm on top of my spine. The wounds still feel raw, yet scabbed. "Will you be able to kill him, dad?"

"I'm not facing him alone," my father mutters. "There's a whole crusade of us within the castle on our heels, waiting for the time to rebel against Leighton's regime. When the time has come, the guards at Leighton's door will let me into his bedroom chamber. Then, I will put an end to this."

"But dad—"

"It will end tonight, Tobin," my father's brown eyes spark. "Leighton will never make your blood hit Adorid's soil again."

Never again will I experience pain when it crosses every moral that my parent's built inside of me. Never again will the whip cut my skin open when I fail to cut the skin of another. The darkness that spills these streets in its thick suffocating oil will turn to a gasping light. When nightfall arrives, the rebellion will awaken.

Little do the people know, they're caught in the midst of a war that's been raging since Leighton took the crown.

I leave for my duties, and find myself wandering the outdoor courtyards as the sun begins to set. The iron Adoridian armour weighs upon the whipping lashes on my back, aching the half-healed skin. In the silence of the courtyard, I hear my father's words: It will end tonight.

In the soft veil of moonlight, I observe the glowing heathers in the Adoridian garden. It's strange how a place so beautiful shades the ugly corruption that lies within this castle. This whole goddamn place is a mask, one meant to shelter our malicious king. As a child, I was always envious that my father got to walk within the castle day after day, working alongside the most powerful man in the kingdom.

Now, I'm fifteen. Hell, I haven't even reached the peak of my adulthood, and yet I feel like I've walked this earth for ages. I've tread across the entire kingdom—to the tallest peaks of Hell's Gates to the desolate wasteland to the west—only to appease my commander. I've been to the pits of Tartarus in the underworld and back here, only to be left with wicked grotesque scars.

I've been loyal. I've trained so fucking hard and climbed the ranks in the militia. Even at this ugly hour, the guards that wander by have sparred against me, and have left defeated. Yet, I'm unsure of which guards remain loyal to Leighton, and which ones would rather see him die.

"Tobin."

The sound of my father's voice snaps me from my trance. It's already been several hours since I've seen him. It's long past midnight.

He stands within the shadows, his breathing frantic as his lungs grasp on to every fleeting breath. His brown eyes lift to the moon. A cloud begins to shroud the moonlight, causing the light to fade until the kingdom is drenched in darkness. It's now I realize my father's sword is drawn, blood dripping from the iron blade.

Blood.

I straighten my shoulders. He did it, but when I catch his expression, I only see defeat.

The blood doesn't belong to Leighton.

My father shakes his head. "You need to run."

"What?"

"Run," my father hisses, pointing towards the main gate. "Get as far away as you can from this place, and get to Lagulon."

"Dad, what the fuck are you—"

"It failed," he mutters. "Leighton still reigns on the throne."

I shake my head, refusing to obey my father. "I can't run. What about Aspen?"

"There isn't enough time," he takes my shoulders. "Your mother has her. If she listened to my instructions, they'll be well on their way to Lagulon."

"But—"

"Tobin," my father hisses. Shouts through clenched teeth echo through the silent courtyard from within the castle. "There's a Lagulonian military base in Isembard that'll take you in. They're expecting you and your sister and mother. Go there. Find them."

"What about you?" I grip the hilt of my sword. "There's no fucking way I'm leaving you behind."

"My duty as a father is to keep you safe," he whispers. "Leighton has already ordered the eradication of the entire family. It's why you need to go now."

"I need to go to Aspen."

"You can't," he presses a kiss to my forehead. "Run, Tobin. It shouldn't have to be this way."

So I run.

I run faster than fucking lightning. I flee the castle before the gates can close and dash through the city streets, not once looking back. Gods, I should find my mother and Aspen, but there's no time. My father told me to run, to flee, to get the hell out of this kingdom.

At this moment, Adorid reaches its darkest hour. My heart pools with sorrow, weighing within me like thick sludge. I know it's done. They've reached my father, and they've killed him without remorse.

I steal a horse without thinking twice, and snap the reigns on the steed as we barrel into the barren darkness of the Adoridian countryside. I'm alone, but clinging to the fringes of hope that my mother and Aspen will be in the town of Isembard.

They have to be there.

Knowing that they should've fled ages ago was the only reason I obeyed my father, else I would have returned back to our home to take them with me.

Leighton's reign was supposed to end tonight.

This shit was supposed to be over.

I arrive at the town of Isembard in Lagulon at dawn—exhausted, unscathed by bandits, and free. Knights hold their spears and swords at me when I approach, all of them studying my Adoridian armour. I hold my hands in surrender. I'm a Parias, I tell them.

They take me in, just like my father said. They clothe me with fresh clothes, and they grant me a tent to sleep in to get rest.

It's here I wait for my mother to bring Aspen back to me. I wait. And wait. And fucking wait.

As the daylight passes by and the night falls upon the Lagulonian military camp, I force myself to swallow the bitter truth: they didn't make it.

They didn't fucking make it.

I clench my fists, storms of fury surging through me like a poisonous venom. They were supposed to be here. My mother. Aspen. My little bundle of chaos should've been running circles around the Lagulonian knights, climbing up these towering oaks until she reaches the stars. Gods, she was supposed to be gorging herself on sweets and bread, crumbs falling down her chin.

Where is she? Where is Aspen? Because if she's not here, it means she's there, and if she's there...

No.

No.

No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No.

NO.

NO.

If she's not here, it means she's dead in Adorid, killed in the calamity of the rebellion.

Without thinking twice, I slip back on my Adoridian armour and sword. I'm not going back to that godforsaken kingdom of bloodshed, but there's no way in fucking hell I'm associating with any militia—not even the Lagulonian knights. All my life I've been trained in combat, to kill and to defend, but what is there to defend if Aspen's been taken in the fists of war? There's nothing a war will do but destroy whatever is in its way. War has paved the path of my life for so long, but now I'm ready to go off that fucking path.

I need to get away.

When nightfall comes, I take my belongings and steal some provisions and coins. Hell knows where the horse I originally stole in Adorid went off to, but there's a pinto grazing in a nearby meadow.

I mount the steed, only to be caught by a knight in a distant watchtower. I'm too far for him to catch, to arrest and throw away in prison for stealing provisions and a horse.

As I run off into the forests, only one word echoes from that Lagulonian knight in the watchtower. "Thief!"

A thief.

I like the sound of that.

── •✧• ──

My heart was literally racing writing this entire chapter, as if I were Tobin running for his life. I should've edited more, but the rush of writing for an hour straight without stopping because I was so invested, is THRILLING.  Long story short, here is a bit of an earlier update than usual.

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I love you all.