chibicandy01's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue Prologue “We can’t let them take us… we have to keep on fighting... ‘ Zeighn raised his head from partially written letter in front of him and looked at the worry in his wife’s face. If only things could be different, he thought. Seeing his love plead with him to keep fighting made him feel anger at the unjustness of it all. She should be worrying about choosing a name for their newly born daughter and not defeat. Then shaking his head he gazed at the letter almost finished needing only his ring’s dragon crest imprinted in wax on the back to seal it. Tiredly, he raked his fingers through his dark hair and said, “I’m sorr…’ The sudden cry pierced the air and Katherine smiled, forgetting her pleas and her husband’s admission of defeat for a moment, at the sound of her daughter’s voice. She walked over and lovingly picked up her precious child feeling the awe at having just conceived such a beautiful girl. Sighing, “I know that we should name her but with all that has happened in the past week there just doesn’t seem to be the right moment. I don’t want our daughter mixed up with all this… perhaps we should send her away to keep her safe.” She looked out the window at the fires burning away in the cloudy haze of night. Feeling tears start to fall down her face she held her daughter closer. Then she felt the full import of what the outcome to them would be if they surrendered. Standing up Zeighn walked across the room to where she stood and tenderly brushed his hand against his daughter’s little halo of dark curls “ Katherine, I do not see any other way” Then wiping a tear from his wife’s face he whispered in a regretful voice. “I know we have lost so much already. But it seems that there is no end to them and I fear that they will just keep coming until we are all destroyed... I must do something for my people and it seems that giving up is the only way to help them. We knew that there would be a small chance to fight back and now that it is over we have to pray and hope that everything will be all right in the end.” Katherine stared at her husband as if seeing him for the first time. She could see the way his shoulders slumped with anguish and she realized that he really meant to give up. Her hope to live and fight the odds dwindled to nothing when she saw the look of defeat on his face. She looked at him in a beseeching manner as if it would make the pain go away but he just continued speaking. “Before the surrender I will send out, Ren, The only one who I know can be trusted fully, with our child and have him take her somewhere far away and watch her until... we are able to keep her safe again or until she is old enough for marriage.” Katherine closed her eyes feeling the grief inside her as she listened to him speak the words she hated to hear. She could feel her hope breaking and the pain was suddenly too intense with him by her side. So handing him the baby she walked over to her favored rocking chair and sat down. Closing her eyes once more she just couldn’t stop from thinking that there would be no hope against the people who called themselves the resistance, if they surrendered. The king just stood there in his spot blankly staring out the window holding his daughter as if it was his only hope left. Ren walked up the castle stairs in a heavy manner. Feeling his age in his bones and the aches from battle wounds. They used such magic of the likes he had never seen or fought against before. He didn’t understand what they wanted even though they called them selves the resistance. During the fighting some of them would scream about the one who was to come and cleanse the world. He also could not understand why some of the villagers were turning their backs on the King and Queen. Outside had become an awful mess, where those who you once called neighbors were becoming the enemy. Yet, many of the villagers seemed to fear the resisters who kept trying to get them to join their side. They had to be evil to use such measures in fighting and even sending out the Undaunted to fight in their stead. If they kept having to fight those lifeless bodies, the undead which just kept coming, their didn’t seem any hope that they could get past them to fight the real resistance fighters. What the hell do the resisters want? He just didn’t like the looks of all those Undaunted fighting with the resisters. There was just something-fishy going on and he felt that the resistance was becoming like a plaque tainting them as they fought back. How did the resistance gain such dark magick? And why are they attacking the kingdom so aggressively saying that they would be more lenient if the King surrenders? What that leniency entail? What would they do the villagers who hadn’t joined them? Shaking his head he ruthlessly tried to quiet the endless questions in his head. Climbing the stairs a little faster now, he wondered why the King would summon him away from the fighting. Although he was glad for the respite he didn’t want that rumor of surrender to be true. Coming to the Kings study he tapped his hand against the door and entered when he heard it roughly spoken. With one look at the kings resolute face and the queens tears he knew that the rumors were true. Then as he listened to the King give him orders to escape with the young princess to keep her safe, he realized that they were sacrificing themselves to stop the useless fighting and death. So with a haunted heart he carried the little sleeping bundle out of the room leaving silence left in his wake. ***************************************************** “ It really is happening..’ Katherine hugged her husband tighter getting closer to him in the embrace. ‘the end…” Zeighn kissed the top of her head and watched as the shadowed form rode away, carrying a part of his heart. “Yes, but she… will be the hope for a new beginning …” and they stayed close like that until the dawns early light claimed them with captive claws. 12:00 a.m. - 2002-04-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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