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"What should we do to him when we hear?" She asked jokingly, rubbing her cheek along the soft, downy feathers of the small kitten. Moya purred and nibbled Caissene's fingers gently as she thought. "Should we hit him, hug him, cry all over him?"
"Are you still moping?" One of Caissene's foster-sisters asked as she barged into Caissene's room. She raised an eyebrow at Caissene and folded her arms under her ample bosom, eyeing Caissene's own in distaste. Caissene glared at the girl and thought for a second of charging at her when her father appeared in the door.
"Caissene? You're still in here? You know Elarn will be here any time to see you. Put on something nice, will you? He's a good lad, would make a good husband."
"Then give him to Ravyn." Caissene growled, turning her back on her father and staring glumly out the window again. She heard Ravyn scurry from the room and her father enter and she steeled herself. His vice-like grip settled around her arm and hauled her up, turning her sharply to look at him.
"I don't care how spoiled and selfish you are, you will marry one of these men, either by your choice or mine. So think carefully, Caissene, because I may not chose him for how nice he is, but how powerful, or well-off. I want the best for my daughter, don't I?"
"Right." Caissene said bitterly, pulling herself from his grip and glaring at him as she clenched her hands to keep from rubbing the spot of her arm. As he stormed from the room, Moya crept from her hiding place and flew wobbily to Caissene's shoudler, cooing sympathetically. Caissene rolled her up sleeve and gazed uphappily upon the bruises that marked her arm from her parent's visit. Caiseal would flip had he been home, but it would never had happened had he been home, so what did it matter?
"What are we doing, Moya? This isn't my life, what I want. None of this! I want....I want....." she sighed and looked out at the darkening sky. "I want my own life."
"How dare you?" Ravyn hissed, slipping back into Caissene's room, making Moya screech in surprise and Caissene jump.
"What do you want?" Caissene asked, mostly to get her out of her room.
"You told him to give that old wind-bag to me?" Ravyn squeaked, pressing thin fingers to her neck and sighing shakily.
"So what? He's only twenty-four." Caissene said in disgust, knowing for a fact that Elarn was nice and kind, though not really her type. She sighed again. She didn't even know for certain what her type was.
"He's too weak." Ravyn said bitterly, turning up her nose. Caissene rolled her eyes and pushed Ravyn out of her room, closing the door.
"Then don't come to the dinner to meet him." She said sweetly, smiling at Ravyn as she slammed the door into it's latch.
Pressing her back against the door, Caissene sank to the floor, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her small, muscular arms around them. Moya walked along her arm to sit on her knees and watched her, tilting her head one way and another in confusion. Caissene would have stayed in her crouch all night had not her mother banged outside her door to announce that Elarn had been spotted and Caissene had better have a dress on that showed her better parts, meaning that she better show some skin. Rising angrily, but carefully holding Moya in her hand as she rose, Caissene stalked to her dresser and threw open a drawer, grabbing a soft shift and throwing it on her bed before practically ripping a dress from another drawer and throwing it on top. By the time she had peeled off her pants and baggy shirt and struggled into the tight, clingy shift and dress, her mother had sent someone up to do her hair and Caissene was forced to sit still as every hair in her head was misplaced by the tugging that went on. Caissene had long hair, a light brown kissed with streaks of blond from the sun, and her blue eyes just happened to be brought out by the deep green dress she had chosen. As her hair was pinned into place on top of her head, Caissene looked into her mirror at the sophisticated woman staring back at her and wondered who that sad, lost-looking woman was. She didn't have to think long.
"Come on." Her mother said firmly, pulling her from the room and studying her for a moment. She pressed her lips together at Caissene's upper chest, or the lack of it, but decided she would have to do and pulled her down the hall to the doors, where her father was just greeting Elarn. Elarn turned his head to look at Caissene and she could almost see his jaw drop. It wasn't that she was beautifully gifted in her curves and all, but she carried herself with the air of a.....a ruler of some sort.
Caissene smiled politely as he gaped at her, and she decided that she felt like a broodmare at a fair, being shown off for all to see. She wouldn't have been surprised had her father told her to turn around or run laps or something. But instead, he glowered at her and lead everyone to the hall to eat, placing Caissene and Elarn beside each other. Caissene wasn't surprised to see Ravyn sitting just across from them, throwing suggestive looks at Elarn all through the meal.
Caissene escaped as soon as she could, heading outside instead of to her room. "What am I doing?" She asked the night sky, Moya happily finding her and landing on her bare shoulder.
"I don't know, what are you doing?" Elarn asked from behind her, and Caissene spun around to glare at him, holding up her skirts to keep from ruining the gown.
"None of your business." She said as sweetly as she could. Elarn sighed and smiled at her, a friendly smile.
"You're beautiful, Caissene, and I would like nothing more than to marry you and live happily ever after, but I know you wouldn't be. Happy, that is. I want to help you."
Caissene stood for a moment, not quite sure if she was hearing correctly. "You want to help me what?" She asked warily.
"Get out of here." Elarn said with another heart-wrenching smile. "It's obvious, to me, that you aren't happy and want to be somewhere else. I can get you to some dragoners, and they can take you wherever you want to go. Please, Caissene, let me help."
"When?" Caissene whispered hopefully, looking at Elarn and grabbing his hands, holding them close as she held her breath, waiting for an answer.
"Tomorrow, if you want. They're coming to visit my father's place. I'll stay the night and take you tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" Caissene asked, not believing her luck.
"Positive." Elarn said. Caissene stood on her tiptoes and held Elarn's face in her hands as she kissed him, before hiking up her skirts and running to pack.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Moya was flying happily around her head in a dizzying way as Caissene clung onto to Elarn. He was estatic about the arrangement, though Caissene could have said differently, but she was getting away and her parent's were none the wiser.
"How far?" Caissene asked for the hundredth time, making Elarn grin back at her as he rolled his eyes.
"Not far." He replied again, urging the horse to walk a little faster. Caissene bit down a sharp reply and sighed, laying her head against Elarn's back as her blond-brown hair gently blew around her face.
She was jolted awake when the horse startled under her and a loud bugle reverberated in her ears. Looking up sharply, Caissene stared at the dragon staring at her.
"Where'd you find her?" A warm voice asked, a man appearing from beside the dragon as he eyed Caissene in a thoughtful way.
"Her parent's place. Can you take her?" Elarn asked, helping Caissene down as she looked wide-eyed at the dragon.
"Immediately." The dragoner said hungrily, and Caissene narrowed her eyes at him, noticing that he had a searcher patch on his arm.
"Immediately where?" Caissene asked suspiciously, doubting the man's intentions.
"To bond, Caissene." He said gently, smiling a knee-shaking smile. Caissene smiled back, rather weakly, and nodded her head, holding Elarn's hands tightly in her own as she gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Caissene is a bonder at the Healing Den Moya is from Furtim Aerie | ||||||||||||||