Chapter 7: A Little Teasing

Chapter 7: A Little Teasing "The children are up, and from the look of things, a fight might break up," Henndar spoke "What?! Are they okay? What’s happening to them?" Kethra panicked as she took hold of her husband’s hand and turned to look at him questioningly with worry written all over her face. "Calm down, dear. I doubt it would be nothing more than a quibble" Henndar assured her, as he moved over to take a seat beside her. She still had her eyes on him as she studied his face, trying to figure out if he said the truth, or if he only said that to appease her. She became distracted by the red crystal hairpin that materialized in his hands. He inched closer till they were breathing the same air, looking into her eyes. His eyes didn’t leave her face as he swooped down to kiss her briefly on her red lips before wrapping his arms over her shoulders and fastening the hairpin in place in her hair. J ust then, her hair rolled up into a braided updo with the pin evolving into flowers at the back of her head. Her exquisite face looked flushed, and she shone with even more beauty, adorned in the garden with a shy expression that gave her a coquettish look. Her unpredictable King had struck again Henndar reluctantly took his hands off her shoulders, and picked up her crown, placing it on her head to complete the puzzle, the exact beauty of a divine goddess was before him then. "You look beautiful as always," he complimented her with a smile. "You could have warned me that you couldn’t stand it then," she said. "And where would be the fun in that?" "You’ll never change, will you?" "You should attend to the children. I think they’re looking for you," he said, getting up "Wait, where are you going?" Kethra got up as well, wishing for the moment to last longer. "I need to meet with the council. It’s just some trouble at the borders that’s all." "Again?" "Indeed, quite troubling isn’t it? But I don’t have to worry since your presence alleviates my worries." Kethra’s eyes scanned his face and she could see something else behind that calm, and composed smiling face like it was a mask he put on, and that worried her. She reached out and touched his cheek. "Henndar...you look..." He sighed at her, and took her hand off his cheek, placing his forehead on hers. His voice came out in a gentle whisper "I guess I can’t hide anything from you then. You always read me like a book." Kethra smiled sweetly at him, and he did the same. "So will you tell me? " "Like I have the choice to hide it from you. You’ll find out even if I hide it from you," he chuckled "You’ll tell me when you feel like it, alright?" "There she goes reading me like a book again" Henndar pulled his head back "I have to go," he brushed his thumb on her cheek and then dropped it "Okay, take care." She watched him turn around to leave, and in her eyes, one could see longing. Her expression was like that of women when they watched their fiancés go to war. Her eyes were fixed on the back of his head, His short, silver hair reflected in her eyes. "I miss you every second you’re not with me" She touched her cheek where his fingers had last touched. Lia was lost in thought as she trailed behind the two, looking up at the sky. She remembered the scene too clearly, but couldn’t make much sense of it. It seemed all too confusing. She remembered how Mozrael flinched at Aiden’s first comment, and how suddenly Aramith got angry. That came out of nowhere. Her ’whys’ were not answered no matter how she looked at the picture. She looked at the two then and saw Mozrael let go of Aramith’s hand and run ahead. Kethra was startled to see Mozrael run to her, but still smiled and hugged her lovingly. "What’s wrong, are you okay?" she asked, rubbing the back of the little one while still hugging her. Their moment was interrupted as soon as the other two arrived. "Mom, Aramith is being mean again!" Lia pointed a finger at him accusingly. Aramith stood there calmly, but he couldn’t stop his face from turning sullen. Kethra was torn between brother and sister. "Did something happen?" Lia nodded so hard Kethra felt like rushing to hold her head so it didn’t fall off. "I wanted to be a good sister, so I went to wake him up, but he head-butted me, see?" She pointed at her forehead. Kethra nodded, trying to imagine Aramith opening his eyes, and then quickly head-butting her, which looked funny. "You’re so mean!" Lia turned to Aramith. "Me? What did I do? You’re the one who did it, not me" "You did!" "Liar!" "You’re still denying, how rude." "Like I did anything wrong" "Meanie! The most wrong thing here is you" "If I’m mean then what makes you?" "A goddess. I’ve always been one" "Goddess? Who would’ve thought that all goddesses did was go around destroying things, and disturbing people’s lives for fun?" "Mom look what he said to me, he’s being mean again," she said as her large eyes started to become watery with tears. "Aramith, you’re doing it again, aren’t you," Kethra interrupted their din. Aramith looked at his mother "But I didn’t do anything to her!" He complained, seeing Lia’s wronged face from the corner of his eye. "Meanie" she muttered, making him feel like going back in time and pulling Their mother along to make sure she saw everything right from the start. "Aramith, you promised you would be nicer to your sisters no matter what, but what is this?" He grieved inwardly, having no memory of a promise. Kethra moved closer to him, and pinched his cheeks, pulling them before he even knew it. "No matter what," she repeated, leaving no room for him to defend himself. Aramith tried to escape, but couldn’t run from his mom just like that. "Mom stop, I’m innocent." He groaned. "Not until you accept the responsibility of being nicer to your sisters." "but-" "No room for excuses. Just be nice to them, that’s all" "But I’m already nice to them. Too nice to Lia too," he complained "You haven’t apologized," "Fine," he conceded. I’m starting to wonder who the real meanie is, he wondered but Kethra saw his expression, and had a good guess of what he was thinking, and lightly rapped him on the head. "Families must not think bad thoughts about one another. Because the ones who love you most can see your heart even when you’re upset." How did she know? He looked at her motherly expression and felt that what he did was wrong. "Mom, he also said he hates me." Lia came in again to fan the dying flames "And how come I have no memory of that?" Aramith’s mood of regret was cut short "That’s because you did not say it, you did it" "What? I never did such" Lia looked back at Kethra. "I asked for a hug, and he hugged Mozrael instead, meanie!" "If I were so mean, wouldn’t I have let her fall? I caught her, not intentionally just hugged her. Why do you always twist it, when I do something?" Kethra caught a line in what they said. "You fell?" She directed the question at Mozrael. Mozrael was startled by the attention for she had been a spectator the whole time and wanted to remain unnoticed that way. "umm...yes" she nodded simply "She only tripped an-" "But I caught her, " Aramith cut Lia short to prevent more lies from coming out of that toxic mouth of hers, but Lia didn’t give up that easily" "You intentionally hugged her after that just to make me jealous." "I wasn’t thinking that." "So you mean it wasn’t a hug?" "Logically speaking, it was, but that’s not what I did" "She only tripped because you pulled her too hard on purpose" "No" Mozrael uttered and immediately covered her mouth, but the words were already out, and all their attention was on her. "It-it was just a misstep I made the mistake. He wasn’t pulling hard, he was just being...nice," she explained. "Ouch Mozrael, I thought you were on my side." Lia dramatically put her hand on her chest. "She’s just being honest, you dummy" Aramith rapped her on the head, but regretted it, seeing his mother stare daggers at him "Sorry about that, I thought there was something in your hair. Oh look, is that lice?" He picked at something in her hair, then smoothened her hair. "Lies, you will never be a good person!". Kethra was tired of the whole dramatic scene. "Why don’t we go on to have our breakfast then? You could tell your father about it," She suggested, and Aramith realized things might even get worse. "But Aramith was mean to me. He has to pay back." "Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he does so." She assured Lia. "Mm!" Lia nodded and beamed at him, which made him shudder. Why do I always have to be the bad guy? He looked at Mozrael accusingly for not helping him She felt his gaze but looked straight ahead. This made him feel like crying.