'She's gone. My father's gone. Where'd they go? Why not tell me? Is she in danger? Why was my father missing as well? Was she with him? Why did I care so much?' I thought, questions filling my head.
I had only just discovered the absence of my wife and father when I had finished my princely duty of greeting each guest. I was nervously running my hand through my hair, I searched around slower than I would like to. I was trying to not draw attention to myself, I felt uneasy and restless without her for some reason I could not explain. Her presence calmed me, I needed to find her or I would start killing.
'What is wrong with me? Since when did I become violent? Why was I affected by her? Why was I becoming obsessive and impulsive? I need to treat her differently' I thought as I protected my heart.
~
"SSSOO SSSUREE" the snake hissed.
Hope stopped a few feet from the snake that talks "hello snake, If you are going to eat me, get on with it" she said, sitting down for it. The snake laughed "sss sss sss, ssstand child, sss" the snake commands, Hope does as he says. The snake curls around her, touching its tail onto her head. "you and your mate mussst never leave thisss cassstle, danger followsss their power" The snake informed, Hope looked confused "power? mate? danger?" She asked "your whole bloodline isss powerful sss" the snake said
"what power? what's a mate? what danger?" She asked "I am unable to sssee, neither you or your mate hasss unlocked the power. Sss others will come for their power sss" it replied uncurling itself. Letting her loose, nodding to the king who understood completely. "Then how will we be able to get to our allies' castles?" Hope asked "tunnelsss of courssse" the snake said Hope nodded "why haven't you answered my other questions?" she asked, the snake nodded to the king.
"I believe that he will explain thingsss sssoon" the snake said, the king also nodded in agreement "of course, thank you snake. I will never forget this act of kindness, I hope your eggs will hatch soon." The snake seemed surprised with that, she bowed in respect and left the exact way she came in, not looking back to see if the king was following her and she didn't ask him for permission to leave. Truly acting like a Luna, she held her head high and never once showed fear in the eyes of a potential enemy.
The king stood there, gawking at everything that happened "umm... so are you going to... help with the tunnels?" He asked slowly "sssure" the snake replied. The king smiled "thank you" he said as he hurried to catch up to Hope. Hope opened the passage, exiting the tunnel as Edward was walking past, he began nervously scanning their bodies while talking "where did you go? what did you do? why didn't you take me with you??..." his rambling was cut off by his father who put his hand up as a gesture for him to stop talking. "... there's something you need to know.." he began as Ed looked at him with curiosity.
"I have an anaconda snake friend who can sense things... She sensed a war will come and that there is unlocked power.." he stated, leaving out who the power belonged to. Edward immediately stiffened "where is the snake?" he asked, the king took a long deep sigh "I am not telling you because I already know that you will get yourself killed trying to kill the snake" he said rubbing his head.
Hope glared at Edward "how dare you! You do not even know her! She is so sweet and she has babies! She even told me about the powers that I didn't even know of" she said, his aptitude changed from welcoming and friendly to cold and distant the instant she defended the snake. Edward lured over her "she has babies?" he asked furiously, when she didn't reply. He rubbed his temple "Look, I don't care what the snake does as long as you and father stay away from it. Nothing good comes from being friends with a snake, they will become your friends and gain your trust only to betray you and leave you with no other option than to kill it" he said bitterly before he walked away.
Hope watched him walk away "you are wrong.. she is different" she replied weakly, although he was too far away to hear her by now. Even though we are technically married, we are practically strangers. Forced marriage, although we both had reasons why we agreed to this. She still couldn't shake the feeling of longing to be in a mutual loving marriage, even though he went from pulling her to pushing her. She decided that since she was in a binding relationship, she would remain loyal and something about his behaver seemed off.
Hope stood dumbfounded at his behavior, 'what happened to him? I thought he liked me when we first met and he was nice during the wedding, was he just acting? did I make a mistake by defending the snake? why did he hate snakes so much?' she thought.
~
'I can't believe she trusts a snake! I can't believe father would trust a snake! he knows what happened to mother!' I thought.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!!" I yelled when I reached the trees outside the castle, it didn't really make me feel better. My mind kept drifting to her, I angrily hit my head on the tree in front of me. I didn't hurt myself and suddenly I felt a longing to be near her.
'what's wrong with me? i feel like I'm loosing my mind' I thought. Then I heard a cough behind me "excuse me your highness for the intrusion, but his majesty informed me to let you know that since you're married now. You will be staying together in the royal suite and you need to arrive there to let her know, she will be arriving shortly" a maid informed him as I turned to her, I nodded his understanding. I sighed, running my hand through my hair nervously. I walked to the room, my emotions and mind were a mess but what I needed above all else was her presence to calm me so I didn't argue.