#Iyanvuron

[parttime-creative]

Marrying a princess

A little story about Xiadia, her brothers and her scar.

Trigger warning: major character death, 

WC: 2445

“...and then the dragon swooped down and grabbed the princess. She was never seen again!” Iyanvuron imitated the massive dragonwings with his hands and made swooshing sounds with his mouth. His little brother looked at him with big puppy eyes. 

“What happened to the princess?” Adresh asked worried. “Someone has to save her!”

“I will save the princess!” The little girl next to the two boys exclaimed excitedly. She climbed clumsily onto her big brother lab and stood there proud with her tiny hands on her hips. “ Imma slay the dragon an’ save the princess!” She waggled a little stick like a sword in front of her brothers “And then- and then” she excitedly searched for words “and then imma marry her!” Iyanvuron laughed and took his little sister in his arms. “You’re not gonna marry anyone, little bird, you’re four!”, he teased and tickled the little girl. Xiadia shrieked and struggled to free herself from his grip.

“Noooohohoho, Imma marry a princess!” she yelped in between fits of laughter. Finally she managed to escape his fingers and hid behind Adresh. She stuck out her tongue and Iyanvuron chuckled. He loved the enthusiasm of his youngest sibling. Xiadia was only four but already had the heart of a true warrior. He couldn’t wait to watch his little sister become the woman he already saw in her.

“Now, now, you two. It’s time for bed. Father is waiting for me!”, he said in a soft voice and pulled out a deer hide. Adresh already snuggled into his furs, but Xiadia was way to awake to rest now. “Nooo! I don’t want to sleep! I want to come with you and father! I want to watch your hunt!”, she lamented while a big yawn betrayed her. “I wanna go with you, I wanna be your Fladvrathakay! Please Iyan…” She hugged his forearm with fierce determination to never let him go without her. “Oh Xia…”, her brother chuckled, and stroked her little puffy cheeks. “You gotta have your horns to be a Fladvrathakay.”, he teased and ruffled her midnight locks.

“They are already showing! Look! Look!” Excitedly Xiadia pulled back her messy bangs, revealing tiny little bumps under the skin of her forehead, that shimmered greenish. “You sure, you didn’t just fall face first in a Thruski dumb and didn’t wash yourself properly?” Outraged the little girl searched for words and finally decided to pout instead. She crossed her tiny arms and let herself plopp into the furs. “You’re mean…”, she mumbled.

“And you need to sleep. I am going to tell you how it went, first thing in the morning. I promise, okay?”, he whispered, pressing little kisses to the  foreheads of his little siblings.

“...okay, but don’t forget me...”, Xiadia reluctantly agreed, before another big yawn escaped her. She snuggled closer to Adresh. Even before Iyanvuron had left the tent, she was fast asleep.

~*~

Something warm tickled her cheek and woke Xiadia up. The warm thing now got wet, as a big Thruski tongue began furiously licking her face. She giggled as she pushed Nessas head off her. “I am not dirty, Nessa!”, she exclaimed. Yawning while sitting up, Xiadia wondered who allowed Nessa in the tent that she shared with her brothers. The Thruskis usually stayed near the camp in the forest and never really stayed with her people in tents. But Nessa was only a few months old, and her clumsy body could still fit through the opening. 

“What are you doing here?”, she asked the animal, as if it could answer her. Nessa just bleated. Only now Xaidia saw the fear in her companions eyes. Only now she noticed the smell of smoke. Only now she heard the sound of metal blades meeting each other infront of her tent. Immediately every little bit of sleep that had been left in her body, was gone. Hastily she scrambled over to the still sleeping Adresh and shook him awake.

“Wake up! Adresh, Wake up! They’re fighting!” She shrieked. Adresh jolted upright. His eyes still full of slumber. 

“W-wha-.. who...Where…” “Outside! They are fighting! What should we do? Iyan is not here!.” 

Slowly reality broke through to her older brother and he blinked a few times before fear crept onto his face. He crawled over to the opening and slowly pushed the fabric aside. He froze, as his little sister followed him. Both siblings gasped in unison. What they saw was something right out of one of their brothers' stories.

“A dragon…”, Xiadia whispered in awe.

“Orks …”, Adresh gasped in fear.

The qerisari camp was chaos. Tents were trampel down. Bonfires had escaped their pits and people ran in utter panic into the forest. High above the lake they had chosen to stay at hovered the head of an enormous snake. Boiling water dripped from its mouth where a single warrior struggled to keep the razor sharp teeth apart, to delay his inevitable death. Unable to peel her eyes a way Xiadia watched with growing fear as the warrior lost his last fight. Water mixed with dark blood splattered onto the ground and extinguished one of the escaped bonfires. 

Xiadia screeched as boiling blood droplets sprinkled on her face. Adresh quickly covered her mouth with his hand. 

“We need to be quiet, Xia!”, he hissed, his voice shaking as much as her own. 

“Listen. You gotta listen to me, Xia, okay?”, She slowly nodded. “We’re gonna leave this tent. You’re going to take Nessa and then you two run into the forest. Don’t look back! Try to find, Mom or the others! But whatever you do! Don’t. Look. Back. Do you understand?”

His sister slowly nodded, tears streaming down her face. Adresh smiled weakly and nod as well. “Good.” He ruffled her hair, just like Iyanvuron did before. The familiar notion of her brothers calmed Xiadia and she swallowed the remaining tears. The expression on Adreshs face reminded her so much of her eldest brother, despide Adresh only being a few years older than her. He seemed so old now. But then again, he had already started his warrior training. Not like her. She loved watching her brothers train together. The grace and skill of Iyanvuron, who always went easy on his little brother. Adresh, with his long limbs, clumsily trying to keep up with him, his idle. Xiadia loved her brothers. She loved them so so much. She sniffed one last time and hugged Adresh very very tightly, how only a four year old could hug her big brother. Then she grabbed a bit of Nessas mane and then crawled together with her Trhuski out of the tent. She did not look back. Just as her brother told her. As soon as Nessa could stand, Xiadia climbed onto her back. Thruski colts were clumsy and stiff, but fast. They could easily keep up with the rest of the herd, dashing through thick forest, so Nessa had no problem navigating through the collapsed camp.

There! Xiadia could already see the forest! They almost made it! A sigh of relief escaped her lips, when something grabbed her little ponytail and yanked her off Nessas back. Xiadia yelped. Nessa bleated.

“Where’re you think you goin’?”, the ork spat with his race's thick accent. 

“Lemme go! Imma kill you!”, Xiadia shrieked while struggling against the orks gripp. Her eyes teared up, while her hole weight hang on her ponytail. The ork laughed. 

“A feisty one, aren’tcha?”, he asked amused and pushed the knob of his crude sword into her stomach. 

“I am the daughter of Dotheran Gyaadan Vuldran val Dynastrie and Kershda Uldran Bathera val Dynastrie! I demand you to let me go!”, Xiadia exclaimed and spat into the orks  face. “You’re Kershdas kid? I can see that.” He grunted angrily. “Too bad for ya, I ain’t letcha go!” His face formed a horrible smile showing his oversized fangs and he raised his lumpen sword. The spite in Xiadias face made room for unadulterated fear. This ork was going to kill her. Just because he could. Frozen from fear, she couldn’t even blick, as the ork tossed her to the ground. She knew she had to run. She knew this was her only chance. With all her will, she forced her limbs to move. whimpering she crawled backwards. Not letting the sword out of her sight.

Her head hit a fallen tree trunk, on which her people had sung and laughed just a night before. No One sang now, as the horrible sword shot down and pierced her stomach. Xiadia couldn’t scream. She couldn’t even cry. She felt no pain. Just the blades deafening cold. She stared at the greenish metal. Just like qerisari steel she though, as she felt her clothes wettening.  Shit, I’ve peed my pants. Iyanvuron will make fun of me. I am four, I shouldn’t wet my pants anymore! She looked away. She didn’t want to see this orks face anymore. She looked to the forest. So close. Yet so far. A hint of flaming red hair peaked through the trees. “M-mom?”

She felt the cold seeping through her body. The ork smirked down at her, when a disgusting smack pierced the unnatural silence in Xiadias ears, as he turned his blade around ninety degrees. The pain shot through her like lighting. She wanted to scream, but no sound left her mouth. Instead someone else screamed.

“XIAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

Iyanvuron broke through a tent, Adresh in his arms, who was holding a red cloth to his right elbow. Iyan rammed his shoulder into the orks' back. The ork stumbled, pulling his sword out of Xiadia. He grunted indigent and bare his teeth. Iyan did the same, putting Adresh to the ground, who immediately crawled over to Xiadia. Shocked, he stared down at her, before his instinct obviously kicked in. He took the red cloth from his arm, or what had been his arm, and pressed it against Xiadias stomach. 

“Xia, look at me! Look AT ME! Stay awake, okay? I need you to stay awake! I don’t think he got anything important, but I need you to stay with me, okay?” 

His voice was so serious, so full of panic and worry, that Xiadia didn’t even think about disobeying him. She wanted to ruffle his hair. Just as her brothers always did. 

She felt him pressing down on her stomach even harder. 

“W-whats with your arm?”, she asked weakly. Her vision was getting blurry. 

“Just a scratch.” mumbled.

“Where’s Iyan?” she asked again.

That made Adresh lookup. Where was their brother? Still pressing the cloth on Xias stomach and his own stump into his clothes, he turned his head, to see their brother wrestling with the ork. 

“She is a CHILD! HOW COULD YOU! HOW COULD YOU!” Iyanvuron roared over and over again. “THEY ARE CHILDREN! HOW COULD YOU?!”

The ork had an obvious struggle to deal with the enraged qerisari. He might be bigger and older, but Iyanvuron was fast, driven by fury, hurt and utter disbelief. However he was also unarmed. Struggling to keep the ork at bay and away from his siblings, he pushed with his bare hand against the orks blade. Only his gloves giving him the bare minimum of protection. Finally he managed to push the orks blade out of his grip and wrestled him to the ground. Only then he met his little brother's eyes. What was he still doing here?

“RUN!” was all he could manage to call out, before the ork took his moment of distraction to push Iyanvuron off him. It was, however, enough to break Adresh numbness and made him move. He flung his little sister over his shoulder, and stumbled onto his feet. His arm hurt so bad, he could hear his blood pulsing in his ears. But he had to protect his sister. He had to make sure she was okay. He had to bring her to safety. And so he ran. Tears streaming down his face. Just as his older brother had carried him out of the camp, he now carried his sister into the forest. He did not look back.

Xiadia, however, did look back. Xiadia did see how her eldest brother lost the fight against the stronger ork. Xiadia did see how another one came out of the burning camp. She did see how the second ork pushed his blade right through her brother's back. She watched in horror as it emerged from his chest. The look in his face, forever burned into her mind, when he found her eyes. The smile and the silent words on his lips.

“Marry your princess, little bird.”

~*~

Xiadia stood in front of the mirror, watching her reflection. Her bare torso, glistened in the morning sun shining through the high windows. Drops of water that remained from her morning bathe rand down her shoulders. Dropped from the end of her hairs. Gathered in the curve of her navel. Next to it just above her hip bone was a scar slowly fading away over the years. She ran her fingers over the discolored skin and a long forgotten sorrow weighten her heart. The last memory of her brother creeping in her mind. But this time she let it come. This time, she let it take over her heart. She closed her eyes, revisiting the last moments she had with her brother. Even though she was so young, she still remembered that evening. She still remembered the story he had told her. She still remembered his smile that lightened up his whole face. The warmth in his eyes. How he teased her about her horns. She chuckled and looked again at her reflection.

“They’re not so small anymore, are they?”, she whispered into the empty room.

“Xiadia! Who are you talking to?” Thearis voice came from the other side of the door. She sounded impatient. Xiadia chuckled.

“No one, Ris.”

“Thought so. Hurry up! Fiona is already struggling to keep Tiny and Fhey from eating the buffet on their own! We shouldn’t wait any longer!”

With that Xiadia heart her running down the corridor and a warm smile appeared on her lips, as she looked over the shoulder over her reflection. She imagined a warm hand on her shoulder. Her mind projected the picture of an elegant, young qerisari behind her. A single tear rolled down her face as she placed her own hand on his, resting on her shoulder. 

“Thank you.” She whispered “Thank you for always being with me”

She wiped away the tears and finally finished dressing. 

She knew, somehow, somewhere her brother was watching his little bird marrying her princess today.

The End