The Kindgom of Heaven and Hell

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Faline all but cowered at the back of the great hall. She hated meetings. They were often times full of loud angry men who had a tendency to throw things. This night was no different. The entire village had shown up, despite the raging storm outside. Every man from every family was there, shouting to be heard over the next.
Her father, the Jarl, was seated at the head of it all, one long leg draped over his ornate throne. For a while he remained silent, his eyes not one the villagers, but going from the young woman hiding under one of the tables near the door to her sister who sat on top of it, holding onto a rather heavy broad sword. He shook his head at both of them. 
Oalf sighed heavily and held up a hand to silence the crowd. "I am fully aware of the danger we now face from the outlanders. And I am aware that those who cross our borders are far from human. However, I am not sure if we warrant help from out bordering villages. If we decide to seek help, we will need to go to the king. But...he is a bartering man. I am not sure we have anything he will find worthy enough..."

"You're just being nice now." Faline breathed, not sure what to make of the warm feeling in her belly when he touched her cheek. "You're just afraid I'm going to beat you at fishing." She laughed softly. "And yes, you have earned a kiss on the cheek." 

"It's just a venison breakfast stew." Braun said, almost sounding defensive. "I seem to remember an old cook of mine taught me how to make it. If you hadn't shot the stag I wouldn't have been able to."

"I think we can assume you will beat me at fishing." Lucian mused. "But, let us say I somehow win, does that win me a real kiss?"

"That's true." Cessily agreed before tucking into the stew. She was actually surprised how good it tasted, though of course didn't tell Braun this. She was still rather mad at him.

Faline shook her head. "You will need to do more than win to gain affection of that sort, sire." She purred, giving him a wink. She sat up, shaking the grass from her curls. "Besides, Lucian. You are still. I'm starting to think it's because you're scared." 

"You might want to find a new style for that hair." Braun said after a moment or two. Gently he reached out and touched one of her now unruly curls. "Might I suggest water and a comb, kitten?"

Lucian smiled again, rather liking that Faline wasn't like the other women who would step on their own grand mother for one kiss from him. "Very well, how about you tell me about growing up in your village?"

Cessily turned as light shade of pink as she reached a hand up and felt what a mess her hair was. "I need to bathe anyway." She told Braun with a sullen expression as she set her plate down and rose back to her feet. "Perhaps you should feed your horse while you wait?" She suggested, heading through the trees to find a secluded spot further down stream.

"It's not too interesting. I'm sure many girls have the same story. The women are taught to hunt and gather so that the men can focus on keeping the borders safe. Fishing was about the only thing I was good at, other than growing barley for ale. I was terrible at hunting like my sister. I'd see anything with teeth and I would run faster than it did. Not to mention the mess I made of killing farm animals. I tried to save them all. Sometimes when my sister was mad at me, she'd kill them in front of me." Faline said as she turned to the stream and began to test the water temperatures with her toes. 

"Why should I feed that nag?" Braun muttered, watching her as she walked away. He knew something much more interesting he'd rather be doing instead.

"Wait a minute, your sister would kill animals, just to get to you?" Lucian asked with a expression of feigned horror. If that really was true, he knew he had sent the right person after that egg.

"Maybe that's why she doesn't like you, because you don't take care of her!" Cessily's voice called through the trees from where she was removing her well fitted armour. Cessily had raised her own horse from being a foal. They were close and trusted each other immensely. The young woman bit her lower lip slightly as she stepped into the rather icy water. "At least it's clean..." She muttered before submerging her head to begin taming her dark hair.

"My sister hated that I was so weak. When we were little she called me weak and....squishy!" The last part was said in a squeal and she leapt back from the water.

Braun dropped something on the ground for his horse, blindly following after Cessily. He needed to bathe to after all. Didn't he?

Lucian was there to catch Faline as she jumped back, his arms circling around her and not caring in the least that his face was buried in her hair. "Catch one already?" He teased.

Cessily was hip deep in the water with her back to the trees, singing to herself in a bid to distract from the icy chill of the water as she bathed.

"Frog." Faline muttered, her cheeks flaming as she held onto the arms that supported her. The rest of the day was spent in laughter and play. It was something she had an odd feeling a man like Lucian never did. Never mind his reasons. 
She allowed him the promised kiss on the cheek as they parted that evening. Then she'd gone to her room and tried again to see her sister in the orb. Again there was nothing but darkness. As she crawled into bed, her mind began playing over all the times her sister had tried to get rid of her when they were younger. Perhaps this was just a bigger version of selling her to the next village's inn keeper. 

Braun couldn't help himself. He was staring at Cessily as she bathed. At least he'd bothered to crouch in the bushes. The way he was acting, he'd never seen a naked woman in his life. But if he was honest with himself he knew he had never seen one so beautiful. He knew he had no right but his fingers ached to touch her skin again. It was all he could do not to go running into the water and beg her for just a moment...just a taste...

Lucian didn't seem to know what to do with himself when he returned to his own room that evening. All he could think about was Faline, and the easy way she made him laugh at every little thing. He was sat by the window as twilight faded to night, and would be surprised to find himself simply staring into the distance and smiling. What was so different about this one?

Cessily paused, thinking she heard a branch snap. The young woman even glanced over one of her creamy shoulders, though her gaze wouldn't find Braun in the darkness of the trees.
The young woman would miss her black mare as it slipped through the trees, coming to stand directly in front of Braun, as though consciously protecting its mistresses privacy.

The next morning Faline was up early, helping in the kitchens. She ignored the demands from the head cook to be a good noble and wait at the table. She was elbow deep in bread dough and humming to herself, shaking her head when the woman again ordered her to leave. She loved to cook. Even a few days away from it had effected her. 

"Damned beast." Bruan snapped, shoving to his feet. "You're no better than that sway backed made. Soon enough I shall have someone make a proper stew of you." He hissed at the horse. It was no use now. He'd go back to camp and finish packing up.

Lucian was more than a little worried when he couldn't find Faline in her room. He was almost calling for a manhunt when he heard the cook arguing with someone in the kitchen. "What on earth are you doing?!" He demanded, seeming to think Faline had done something awful.

The mare snorted at him and continued to eat the grass by the tree Braun had been hiding behind. It wouldn't be much longer when Cessily and her horse returned, hair tamed and her senses wide awake after bathing in the icy water.

Faline blinked up at the king not seeming to notice the people around her were on the floor and trembling. She didn't even notice the flour clinging to her button nose. "I'm making bread, sire." She said warmly. "Why?"

"Are you ready?" Braun grunted. He was already thinking of how they were going to have to stop in the next village. He needed a woman and he was getting desperate. "Certainly took you long enough, kitten."

"Why are you doing it?" Lucian asked with a infused expression. "That's why there's re cooks and maids.

Cessily screwed up her nose at Braun and patted her horse lightly on its own nose. "Just because you choose to avoid bathing doesn't mean I should!" She huffed, having no idea Braun thought about tasting her.

"I like to bake." Faline said, her fingers still deep in the dough. "The others have enough work. I don't mind helping. Here...you try it." 

"Let's not talk about that." Braun said, dropping a light sack over the back of his own horse before sending her on ahead. "I'll get a woman to give me one when we get to the next village."

Lucian couldn't protest quick enough as Faline plunged his hands into the dough for him. The entire kitchen was silent as they watched for their king's reaction. As it happened, Lucian began to smile. "It feels... Strange."

"You do that!" Cessily snapped, not sure why she was jealous at the very thought of such a thing.

"Kind of like the mud from yesterday?" Faline said softly, placing her hands over his and gently squeezing them. "It's a way to get out frustration without hurting anyone." She added, lifting her head to look into his golden eyes. 

"I plan to." Braun nodded, following his horse. "Let's make this as quick as we can. Besides, Lucian didn't leave us with the proper supplies for a winter travel."

"You often needed to vent frustration?" Lucian asked, genuine worry over this in his golden eyes as they looked down into Faline's face.

"That is yet further proof that you are a pampered city boy!" Cessily growled. "I can get anything I need from the forest!" She added, swinging herself up gracefully onto her horse and once again riding on ahead.

"I meant for you." Faline laughed, giving her king a wink. "You see the one out there cursing at innocent fish." She teased him. 

"Virgin." Braun muttered, shaking his head at her backside. "You just wait until I get a stronger horse, woman."

"Well they weren't biting when they were supposed to!" Lucian pouted. "I'm their king, they are supposed to do as I say!" He sniffed regally.

That one word carried to Cessily on the wind, and before she could stop it, tears had streaked down her cheeks. It hurt, and she couldn't understand why. What did she care that Braun knew she had never been with a man before?

Faline threw back her head and laughed at his words. The very sound had more of the servants peering around the corners at them. "They are fish, Lucian. Your reign means nothing's to them." She said gently, missing the horrified gasps at her casual use of his name. 

Braun hadn't meant to hurt her. He was simply longing for a woman he knew he had no right to. He had to push himself to think of something else or he was going to burst and it was that simple.

Some of the servants had already started fleeing the kitchen, waiting for Lucian to explode at Faline. "You mean like you?" He asked with a smirk.

Cessily had arrived at the village before Braun and her horses as tethered outside the inn. She was at alone, tucked away in a corner with the hood of her cloak pulled up as she drank some of th he local ale. It was a simple matter of her wishing to be invisible.

Faline realized what she'd done and blushed deeply. "I'm so sorry, sire." She whispered. "I know I shouldn't have called you by your name." She whispered, ducking her head so that her silken curls hid her face from him. She gently removed his hands from the dough and continued to kneed, silently, beating herself up for it. 

Braun was not sitting in a quiet corner. He was seated at a table nearest to the bar, flanked by two busty women who were falling all over him. He was more interested in the cards in front of him, however. The man across from him was trying his hardest to cheat and whether he knew it or not, it was about to start a brawl.

"Sire?" Lucian asked softly. "What happened to Lucian?" He added, surprised that he cared at all. Since sending Cessily and Braun in their fools mission, he hadn't really given the dragon egg much thought either.

Cessily could see everything that was happening, and hated the fact that she felt her chest tighten each time one of those women touched Braun. She was thinking about that kiss he had stolen from her, wondering if he had done it only because he didn't think they were going to get out of there.

"Isn't it a bad thing to call you by that name?" Faline asked, peering at him through a stray curl. "The night maid told me that people have died for less. She said I should be ashamed of the way I acted with you yesterday." 

One of the women leaned in close to Braun, all but pressing her breasts in his face. He gave her a slap on the bottom. The other was giving any women that came near an evil eye. The man continued to slide cards into the back of his pants.

"Do you care what the night maid thinks?" Lucian asked seriously. "She had no right saying anything to you anyway, if I didn't want you doing something, I would tell you so."

Cessily was watching the other man now, anything to distract herself from Braun's large hand on that other woman's bottom. She had half a mind to match over there and tell the other man that Bfaun was the one cheating.

"She was right." Faline said, though she was shrugging her shoulders. "It seems like I'm forgetting all my lady like training my father tried so hard to have instilled in me. I'm afraid he would be ashamed of me." She admitted. "I can't imagine this is how he thinks I'm acting." 

The other woman kissed Braun, her hands looping around his neck as she dropped herself into his lap. "Come on, strong man." She whined. "Stop winning at card and let's go win at something better." She purred, against distracting him as the man slid another card under the table.

"Faline, your father sold you." Lucian pointed out. "Forgive me, but how does that sound like a man who cares for anyone but himself?"

Cessily rolled her eyes when she finally realised that the women and the man must be working together. She took a moment to finish her ale, then rose to her feet. She would leave Braun to learn his lesson, she would sleep.

Faline began to beat the dough, her hands shaking. She was trying to make it seem like she was just continuing to knead it but it wasn't working so well. "I agreed to it. My village is safe now at least." She said softly, biting into her full lower lip. "My sister even believed it was a good idea. It is about more than my wants or needs. I've been taught that since I was small." 

Braun knew he was being cheated and he planned to take care of it soon enough. He would have both women in his bed by the start of night fall and there was nothing the man could say about it. After all, he would be far too busy picking his teeth up off the floor.

Lucian covered Faline's hand with his own in the dough when he saw how they were shaking. "Why should you be the one sold like a mile, while she gets to do as she pleases?" He breathed

Cessily glanced at Braun's card as she passed, then paused to whisper something in the other mans ear that had him increasing his bet. Her moss green eyes met Braun's for the briefest of moments before she was heading for the staircase.