Fenyang's Pov
Love? What is love really? Outside the care from my parents I am a complete stranger to it. I don't understand why Klaus would even ask of such a thing. I stare at the glass of water in disbelief possibly hoping he would drop the question any moment but he doesn't. It's Klaus so the thing doesn't surprise me.
"Klaus, I understand you mean well but look... Zaffera is a friend to me, nothing more. I apologise that I've been neglecting my duties lately... I promise it won't be happening so much anymore." I rest my hand on his shoulder as I look straight in his eyes. His head reaches just about my chest height.
I'm unsure anything is really going to be moving forward anyways after today in fact.
*Flaskback*
I'm sat down on the grass in the Enchanted Garden, waiting for Zaffera to arrive. She hasn't cancelled our meeting which makes me assume that it's still happening. A smile is struck midway when I see her arrive. She's limping slight as she approaches me, her skin quite pale in spite of her rich melanated skintone. I get up on my feet and meet her mid point so she doesn't travel so much to meet me.
"How is the leg doing."
"Fine I guess." She shrugs. Her eyes are quite dull right now, completely unlike the shine she had in them when I first met her. I feel as though pressing more to understand what's wrong but decide not to instead as I do not want to overstep.
"Hey, I've not seen much of your Kingdom yet... What if we go around for a little bit before we get back on the door stuff." She speaks with a slightly noticible lighter mood. I nod as the idea appeals to me as I've not been around myself. It's quite odd to think about as this is my Kingdom after all.
Taking the path out of the Enchanted Garden there's a shooting range not far off. I point towards if as a fun activity to do together.
"Try to keep up with me", she races me right after I suggest it. With her unfair headstart I'm unable to beat her though, and I just find myself folding in two with a heavy breath.
Precision is key in this activities. Just like in Battle you need to analyse your opponents before going with fire and it all takes place with split second thinking. No arrow or weaponry much be used wasted as only limited resources are available.
"Should we bet?" I ask to make this more intriguing, "If I win you will show me around your Kingdom, if you win..." I leave the end of the sentece blank to allow her to finish the sentence herself.
"Sure! I'll think about a suitable prize for when you lose." She exclaims with a smirk. I can tell she's feeling much better now and becoming more and more the Zafeera I'm accustomed to.
One. Two. Three. The arrows hit the seemingly solid air and cut through it as they head straight for the bullseye one after the other. Unfortunately for me Zaffera performs just as well as me.
"Next blindfolded!" she exclaims still looking at her target. I look around to see if anything even remotely close is available and notice some blindfolds in the little round table not far behind us. She lowers her weapon and reaches for them too.
"Ladies first", I invite her handing over one of the blindfolds to her. Once again she does quite well with 2 out of the 3 arrows hitting the bullseye. I'm not surprised knowing her past experience with training.
I focus on remembering my surroundings when I prepare the shots as the blindfold will take away visibility. I hear 3 hits and quickly take off the blindfold to check the scores.
"Augh! We are still even." She moans annoyed.
For some reason the thought of this makes me happy. Though I would have loved to see her kindom I'm glad I didn't lose.
After the fun distraction we head bavk to discuss the matter of the book. Of course over the course if the night not much has changed but the mother that gave us shelter was quite a resourceful.
"Hey are you okay..." I finally ask noticing she's been quite distracted whenever I speak to her.
"Are we sure we want to continue?... It seems quite dangerous." she asks in response.
"Well, I thought we were on the same page with this. What changed? Is it because if your injury?" I say pointing to her leg without realising until after I do the action.
"Yes that but not only. I know people will get hurt, the woman warned us... We can't- we shouldn't" she says with her voice slightly raised in almost a pleadlike pitch as she stares absently into the distance. There's more she's not telling me, I'm sure of that but I don't push it any further.
"Maybe you are right. Let's drop this."
*End Flashback*
I throw myself in bed extremely exhausted after today. I had a lot of fun with Zaffera, sometimes when I'm with her I just want time to slow down because I seem to only actually have a good time in her presence. I didn't expect a concerned Klaus to make me question everything with a question like 'Are you in love with Zaffera?' as I feel my throat dry up I shook off the idea he was putting in my head and went on to take a glass of water knowing he would follow.
At the end of the exchange a hard deafening explosion is heard and everything in the Palace goes dark. I can only hear the quickly approaching footsteps moving towards us and around the Kingdom.
'The Enemy never sleeps or slumbers', I think as I grab the matches from the draw to light up a touch. Now we are off to fix yet another hurdle.