Hesitate
You hesitated to speak, trying to get your brother to respond instead of just putting you on the spot. Before you knew it, you found yourself compulsively lying about your kingdom. Sharing with the young man’s head with the vague things you’ve read in your historical escapades. Though you didn’t fully know what you were doing, you figured that whatever you told them would be useful if you were to apply at least some of the learnings from your books.
Your brother looked at you from the side, slightly taken aback at your newfound acting skills, though you could tell how truly frightened he was at your power. From that point on you had the stranger within your grasps. Manipulating him at your very will, you pointed your finger straight forward.
“And that way is actually the hiding place of the royal family!” You said only moments before the mysterious young man hurdled past you and your brother, barely recognizing he had fallen right into your trap, and directly off a cliff just behind some bushes. When you turned once again to face your brother he was utterly shocked and taken aback. His mouth hung agape as he watched how you had skillfully handled the situation. “What?” you said as you smiled at him like a psychopath, knowing you had just run a man off the edge of a cliff.
“Wow, that’s actually just the kind of attitude I was looking for in a partner.” He said to you as you pondered to yourself what he was talking to. “You know if anything happened to our parents I’d be next in line. Well of course you first but y’know I’m actually a dude so they’re going to respect me more. But you know what, I actually respect you a lot as well.” he continued on as the two of you walked farther within the outskirts of the kingdom.
“What are you talking about bro?” you asked him, confused before he began to speak once again, this time he poured out his entire plan of either trying to distance himself from the palace just to save himself, if he couldn’t save your family. “What? So you mean that person was from an opposing kingdom? And they’re planning a raid tonight?” He looked at you as if you were stupid, as if it was clear that you shouldn’t have repeated to him the particularly clear explanation he had just given you.
“Well at this point, I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I’ve tried to save a few other people from the raid as well. We should be meeting up once we return.” At this point, it had been long after the raid, and the two of you were sitting quietly as you both watched the sun set. You didn’t know how you had felt about this, just letting your family and court get decimated within the course of a day like that, but who could have known.
“You know mom was on some really weird stuff.” he began talking, before telling you more about how she had tried to bribe him into killing his father, though he was way over that, as he knew her treacherous planning from the time he was little. Always wanting to find more, he knew that the only way to get what he wanted was to take what he needed when he needed it. And regardless of him knowing, he decided that turning the other cheek was the best option for himself. “You know what, why don’t you rule alongside me?” he mentioned just as you both walked back in through the palace doors. You took a moment to think about it.
Written by Driftingdragon on 11 May 2020