"You appear… What a joke."
"Is this how you show that you are still alive." Aerandir speaks mockingly. His voice was still shaking from all the fight and the pond beneath him. His body is soaked. Yet, he still bites back.
The mother tree spirit glaze never leaves his son. She doesn't even glance at Carlos as if he is not worth it. As if he was never there. Then she spoke..
"You will get cold..Aeran." The voice flowed with warmth, tender as spring, calm and protective.
"Go change your clothes." the voice became harsh as if it was a command. Carlos can feel that she is angry. But Carlos doesn't know who she is angry at, at Carlos for hurting her forest or at Aeran for letting himself be killed easily.
"Hhm..Now you care.." Aerandir speaks completely ignoring Carlos who is nervous. Carlos knows that he can't fight anymore. Especially if the mother tree fights back. Carlos was planning to speak calmly with the mother tree, not fighting. Carlos was hoping that the old man could ease his mother's anger a little–a little bit. Not fire it up.
—If you don't want to help me, that is fine. But don't make it hard for me, old man.
Carlos wondered, his face not showing anything but his mind be screaming till his lungs gave out.
"I do care.."--the mother whispered only enough for only the area to hear.-- "Your daughter needs help."
"So you come for her. I can handle her." Aerandri talked back as if he knew what the mother tree was going to do.-- "she is still young. She will be able to control her power in the near future. We don't need your conce–"
"She will be the next sacrifice for the tree." The mother tree spirit cut Aerandri words. Aerandri's eyes go wide. He looked straight back into the mother tree spirit's green eyes and waited for her to say it is a joke, it is a lie. But she didn't.
"Go prepared, I will let her be with you for a week because you raised her.." Her voice was harsh, the same command she used on Aerandria. The elf says again but Carlos can not careless now. Now that she is reminded of someone. Now that she is like someone Carlos knows. And she truly reminded him of his fat– the king. Cold shoulders–no emotions– definitely not caring about his words would greatly affect others. And Carlos doesn't like the patterns.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carlos was not supposed to survive. He didn't even have the king's favour. The only reason he had survived for that long might be— because of his brother.
Carlos' brother,the king of the Moonier Empire, the saint chosen by the god, the greatest being of the empire,is the most angelic yet not a divine marvel nor an untouchable force. The king is just simply his brother for Carlos. Yet even for Carlos, he had to admit, his brother is a perfect being to descend to this world.
He is handsome, beautiful if not looking carefully you might even have to determine whether he is a man or woman, he is smart, dedicated. He is the owner of his story… no not even his story but even Carlos story. He is the writer, the reader and even the protagonist of Carlos' if he wants to be. The thing is he just needs to ask and Carlos will give it all away for him. Everybody wanted to give their story to him yet he only had eyes for Carlos' story, his little brother's story.
He is the perfect human. Everybody said that there is no perfect human, maybe there is a divine but not human. Yet he had been chosen by the priests to rule the empire. Hell.. even the god responded when he prayed to rule the empire. He is surely the perfect being with those facts following him everywhere he goes. Well, the chaos also follows him, but it is not his fault. The other beings want him, he is just protecting the kingdom. Even if the result is a war. As long as the kingdom is in a good situation, it is fine. And Carlos' duty is to kill the one who stands in the way of his brother.
Maybe that is why Carlos' father loves him the most, no, everybody loves him the most. Including Carlos. Even Though Carlos is the son of the king's official wife, even though Carlos' mother is already carrying the king's child when the king returns home with another woman and her child and announces to the world that that child is his first son and the crown prince of this kingdom and his pregnant wife, the one he swore to protect and never betray, watches that scene. Carlos is like the black spot in white paper, even the god doesn't respond to Carlos a little bit. Every royals got a response for one god or even more, even a sick prince or a forgotten prince got a response. Yet he, the king's official son doesn't even get a response while the other unofficial son got most of the gods' response. And that king , that bastard king, like that. Even though he is the reason, after all the king also got the response by killing his younger brother. If he doesn't, he won't get any just like his own son, Carlos. Yet that bastard still thinks that it is Carlos' mother's fault for not living as the gods like.
Carlos' mother suffers under that stupid man because she loves him.She gave birth to his child. And, the worst part is that she knew that she would get humiliated as well as his own son, she still could not leave him and that he still loves her because he is not taking her place as a queen.
"Your father still think me as his queen, and i am sure that he loves you Carl, he just don't know how to show"
And what does that "don't know how to show" man give? He dethroned Carlos' mother from the queen place for his new wife. Said for the sake of the crown prince. Sometimes Carlos thinks his mother is a fool. But as time passed, he knew that his mother was a fool.
"The crown prince's mother cannot be a concubine, That will dishonor our bloodline, when the crown prince becomes a king, he can't be rumored as a concubine's son"
Carlos still remembers those words as they were said yesterday. That day is the day his mother stop being a fool for his father, it is also the day that his mother announced that she would not give up the queen place in front of the nobles to secure her place.The queen might be madly in love with the king, that does not mean that she is dumb enough to give up her place easily. She had known that if she gave up that place, there wouldn't be a place for her son in this kingdom. If she can secure the throne then maybe, just maybe, her son,Carl, might have a place to live instead of getting killed or chased by those concubine lap dogs without any people to help. It does not matter if Carlos has to be far away from home or has to become the duke or just a farmer. At least he still will have a place to live, stay and regard as home, right. She might have thought like this.
But the king is more cruel than she might have thought. She forgot that the man she had married while smiling at her, swearing every word protecting her, making everything about her have already changed. After the securing day passed, Carlos' mother got beaten day by day by that mad man in front of Carlos, his mother covered him with her own body so that he wouldn't get hurt.
But one day, things went too wrong. Carlos' mother was not responding nor breathing at all, the only thing Carl had seen was blood pouring like rain above Carl. That day the queen of the Moonier had died beaten to death by her own husband. Carlos doesn't know if he should be sad that my mother died or should be glad that the king didn't kill him. He can't even decide, he just stays there trembling and not moving.
But the king said calmly, "Ah.. I go too hard, I see. Well, the problem is solved. Guards, the queen is dead, announced that the queen had been assassinated"
" And… you" the king said while looking at the trembling boy. The king's face is dark, the only thing that is making him see is the blood eyes that have no emotions. And it's scary…..
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary.
" Do not"
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary.
"…Stay in my way"
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary.
" If you don't wanna end like your mother..."
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. Please, it's scary. Mother, please I'm scared.
The boy sobbed harder and harder as he watched his mother's lifeless body unaware of the monster that was leaving.
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary.
It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary.
Why does that man have to be his father? Why does that man have to be his mother's husband? Why does his mother fall in love with that monster?
As the millions of memories and thoughts tangled in his mind, the darkness had already taken the boy conscious. And before everybody's sight, those words and memories had already left a scar in his deepest heart and soul and it can't be healed anymore.
___________________________________________________
"She is too dangerous."--The mother tree spirit speaks, making Carlos back to the scene once again.
–I should stop looking back at the past. That is not good if this goes too far.
Carlos reflected on himself. And he also looked back at the scene before him again. The time is running out. He shouldn't waste more time. He needs to speak with the woman that acts like the king number 2. Even if she fights back, Carlos might get hurt but he won't die. His god won't let him and that woman should know the boundary.
"I am not letting any danger around my child." The mother spoke softly as if she was trying to snap her son into thinking straight. As if she truly cares.
"Stop saying like that."--the elf growled– "I don't need your worries. I can do it by myself. Stop acting like you care."
"I do care.."
"You don't."
'I Really Do." the voice gets louder second but second. They both don't care about the other elves hearing them nor Carlos experiencing the family issues. But Carlos just stepped back. Counting the days he left and looking at the sky to capture the exact time. The sky was a little bit orange so it must be evening and he arrived at dawn. By the look of it he has spent like over half of the day in the forest so in the outside world, it would be 1 and a half days passing. He got one and a half days. He just needed to wait till the argument finished. Maybe if they solved something, Aerandri might help him with the mother tree. Even if he doesn't, Carlos will have enough rest to fight again. Then, Carlos jumps backward and ascends on the stem of the sakura tree. He then lay back on the trunk, closing his eyes and resting but his conscious still listening to the heat argument beside him. Negotiation should be done with both sides when they are in a good mood.
–Those two still didn't realize me at all…. Just like me and my mother when arguing.
"You don't. You never were there when we truly needed you. This shows you don't care."
"I do care." The woman softened again as if she was feeling guilt, as if she was hurt by those words.-- "But I Can't Help.."
"He was hurting, he was feeling pain…" Aerandria with desperation. "You don't need to heal. You just need to show yourself…"
"..."
"It is not that hard, he just wants to see you before dying."
"..."
"Yet, you never…you never..ever show yourself. Now what are you doing here!?" His shoulder, his voice breaking under every single thing he had taken, the weight of the years of pain, the guilt that have been eating alive for centuries have all been opened up. The thunder struck piece by piece and the wind responded to him.
But that is nothing to the mother tree. Even so there must be something to shake her up, right. Carlos who was listening to the whole thing was thinking like that. No one is made out of stone.
Even so there is something that can make the mother tree widen her eyes that have been closed all the time.
He was crying. Aerandria is crying, clinging to the body of his daughter as if that body is going to disappear in thin air.
"My child, why are you crying?" The mother tree speaks with awareness. She has never seen a child cry, especially her child. She has made them happy, she has given them family, wealth, immortality, not literally but it is longer than any beings. The only thing she has not fulfilled is being with them. Now she doesn't know a single clue on why her last loyal child is crying in front of her. When her children wanted to leave, she let them go. She gives them everything.
—what more do you want from me?
That woman knelt in front of the elf, her hands trying to pet his shoulder but hesitated on the way. Her face seeks an answer for the question that she has not asked. Yet she couldn't ask. The harsh words of her son have already made her heart hurt.
—when did that child become an adult?
"Mother."