nod, for I could feel his need to get it off his chest.
“To tell you of this tale, this painful past of my family’s mistakes, I must first go back to beginning.” I nodded for him to continue, fully aware that he now kept my hand in his grasp as if needing it there.
“You see, the four lands that make up this realm were once ruled by one King.”
“One?” I questioned.
“Yes, one. A great King who brought prosperity and peace to what once was battling territories. But it was prophesied that a darkness, an evil force, would sweep the land and destroy all that my father had built. He spent many years of his life trying to discover a way to prevent this from happening, when eventually, it was one of our own oracles, an Oracle of Light who gave him the answer.”
“And that was?” I asked, soon to be once again surprised by his answer.
“For him to marry four wives.” I scoffed back a laugh and said,
“Erm, not to be disrespectful here, but are we sure he actually met this Oracle of Light and didn't in fact just want four wives?” At this he threw his head back and laughed heartily, releasing my hand as he placed his own to his chest as if he couldn’t contain his amusement. This was before informing me on a chuckle,
“Trust me, I can believe having just one wife is quite enough, but four of them to make happy is not as easy as you would believe… my mother is proof enough of that.” I thought on this a minute and even just thinking of the heartache and trouble that Lucius went through with me, well then if there were four of me, then I could very much imagine that would push him over the edge completely. He would no doubt have himself committed.
“Good point,” I said, admitting to it after just a thought. He gave me one of his soft smiles in return as if he knew where his comment had led my thoughts to.
“Needless to say, my mother is quite a handful,” he added no doubt trying to make me feel better.
“So, back to these four wives that your father had lots of trouble with… your mother included.” At this he chuckled again.
“It was prophesied that he would need to split his power between four rightful rulers, and to accomplish such he went in search of a wife from each of the lands. Once these fated four were found, he bore four sons and four daughters, which is common in our people.”
“You usually have a boy and a girl, like Twins?” I asked.
“The son’s always born first, and it is custom with our people for mothers to become pregnant soon after, then after carrying the child to term, a daughter is born,” he told me, and I was fascinated. Well, it would certainly make planning easier and picking out baby clothes, as I doubted they had the technology of an ultrasound around here.
“So, this means you have three brothers and four sisters?”
“Yes, but I know what you're thinking.”
“That I don’t I envy you at Christmas time?” I joked making him laugh.
“I am not close to my other sisters and there was only one brother we were all close to but unfortunately… well, this was also when all our troubles began.” The sadness in his tone made me realise that we were obviously getting to the most difficult part of his story.
“What do you mean?”
“When our father had four sons, he granted each of us the land as our Kingdom to rule. Carn’reau, became the King of Dark Fae, a land which is known for breeding the best fighters, the strongest of our kind.”
“Hence the whole God of War thing… Gotcha,” I said nodding and he gave me a look as if he was endeared by my reactions.
“As you already know, I was granted the Land of Dragons, which only became this after I was born.”
“Why did it change?” I asked interrupting his flow once again because, well, I was too curious not to ask.
“Because the first dragons were born with me, I am their heart and with my birth, also came their own.” This naturally shocked me, especially given the relaxed way in which it was said. But then again, I suppose to his people it was a story that everyone would know, and common knowledge.
“Is that why you’re part shifter?” At this he smirked and replied,