Whisper of Love

Chapter two

Eventually, they made their way to the kitchen, with Ty standing in the doorway, bouncing up and down excitedly. Vesuvian scooped up the little boy and sat him on his shoulders. Annabeth walked a little deeper into the kitchen.

"May I please have something to eat?" she asked, not really expecting the answer to be yes.

Vesenna turned fast, and frowned. “Your mother instructed me to forbid you access to food until dinner tonight. Apparently, you’ll have company miss.”

Vesuvian, who was running around the kitchen on his little brothers command, stopped dead in his tracks. "Who's our guests?"

“I would assume Kahira’s family, your highness," Vesenna said.

"Oh, them. Mother did tell us that they would be coming," he replied as he looked up towards his little brother, who was pouting. "And can we borrow a cheese stick? Just for Tiberius."

“If only for the baby, yes.” She turned to the fridge and grabbed a cheese stick, handing it directly to Vesuvian. 

"And one more question. Princess Kahira came last night and she is staying somewhere in the west wing. Do any of you happen to know where her room is? I have been instructed to bring her to the Queen at once!"

"Follow me," Vesuvian said, putting Ty down and leading the maid away. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kahira was getting ready for dinner. She thought of her friends, Vesuvian, Annabeth, Livvy and Ty. she sighed. They wanted so badly to help her escape her dire situation. “I don’t think you’ll be able to save me from my fate," she said softly. “I’ve already had my life chosen for me. It's not like there is anything you can do to help me."

Her father, Joruka the II, knocked on her door. “Kahira? Are you ready?”

“Yes, father,” She stood up. “Come in.”

Joruka entered the bedroom she was staying in. “I’ve come to an agreement with Queen Geneveive. You shall marry Prince Vesuvian.”

She gasped. "what?! When?"

“We have not decided on a date yet, but you’re going to marry this month.” Joruka said.

Kahira hadn’t been expecting that. “Weren’t we going to the kingdom of Flunch to find my husband?”

“Queen Geneveive is rather fond of you. She pulled me aside to talk with me privately this morning.” Joruka said.

"And so has the king." The king of Amwell's right hand man and bodyguard spoke in his French accent. "Forgive me your highnesses, but I have come to warn you that dinner is in half an hour."

“Yes yes, I must speak to my daughter privately.”

"Of course your majesty," the man hastily replied. He left with a bow and left to attend his duties.

“Does Prince Vesuvian know about this?” Kahira asked cautiously.

“Oh no, the poor boy would be too shaken up if he knew he was going to be married this month. The rulers and I have decided it would be best if we let him know a month before the wedding whilst we make preparations for it.”

“Perhaps we could marry me at the end of this month?” Kahira said. She wasn’t excited to be married off. She was the third eldest daughter of the family and she hadn’t expected to be married this quickly considering how her sisters had been married off.

“No, the prince would be suspicious at that point.” The king said. “You will be married in two weeks. I will go inform the king and queen.” Joruka left Kahira alone in the room.

"I cant believe it," Kahira whispered. "they want me to marry my best friend..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vesuvian stopped walking and looked at his little brother. "Do you want to play a game?"

"Yeah!!" Ty exclaimed. 

"Okay. Here's what you'll do. I am going to count to twenty, and you have to go hide. When I am ready to find you, I'll yell, 'Ready or not here I come!!' and then I have to find you!! Does that sound fun?"

*Chapter still under editing. Anything below this line is ideas and gibberish. Please ignore.*

Meanwhile, Tiberius wandered the halls, and ran into the empty throne room. 

"Ready Or Not!" Vesuvian cried out from another room. "Here I Come!"

Ty giggled to himself and hid in the chest at the side of his mothers throne.

Vesuvian came running in not long afterwards, sliding on the slick hardwood floor, "There's not many places he could have hid in this room, but I heard him go this way." He wandered over to the throne and peeked behind the chair, not finding Ty like he thought, so he tried the curtains. Still no Ty and so Vesuvian scratched his head, "I wonder where he went."

One of the maids stopped in the hall. “Your Highness! What on earth are you doing? You know your parents do not allow you in here.”

Vesuvian froze in fear, "H-hide and seek with Ty? Just looking for him."

“I very much doubt he would hide in here. He knows better.”

"Doubt not anything," Vesuvian replied proudly. "For doubt is a path to fear and hatred. While hatred and fear is a path to war."

“Very well your highness, but I just scoured these halls, no sign of your brother. Perhaps he’s hiding elsewhere?”

"I swear I heard him go in here though," Vesuvian mumbled quietly and decided to continue looking, still not in the chest.

“Just remember, not the chest. Your mother will have a fit if she learns you saw what was in there.”

"Yes, madam," Vesuvian sighed. "I understand."

“Once you're done looking, lock the door behind you.” and she left. 

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Vesuvian mumbled and waited until he was certain she was gone to do what she told him not to do. Open the chest, only to find Ty hiding inside, playing with some sort of wooden object. "Alright, let's get out of mother's chest.. What do you have there?"

Ty just shrugged and held it out to Vesuvian. 

The older brother gently grabbed the object from the younger one and examined it closely, "Looks like some kind of wooden control panel thingamajig. Let's just clean up and leave the room. We can't have mom and dad knowing we were in here."

Ty tries to swipe it up again. 

Vesuvian didn't let that happen though, "No, no. It's not yours. Let's get out of the chest now, can we? And then we can put this back. Okay? Afterwards we can go to our tree house out back and plan for some trouble making. How does that sound?"

“Owtay.” Ty pouted, and climbed out. 

Vesuvian didn't seem to want to put the object back and just continued to stare at it with wonder in his eyes, but blankness across his entire face.

Tiberius tugged at Vesuvian’s shirt.

Vesuvian then snapped out of it and looked down towards little Ty with a slight smile, setting the object back in the chest and closing the lid, "I'm alright.. Let's clean up the room a bit now."

Ty went over to the curtains, and dragged them back into place. 

Vesuvian struggled, but put the thrones back into place and they both made the room look almost like the way it did when they came in.

"Good job," Vesuvian put his hands on his hips. "Now let's get out of here before we get the foot down upon us by dad."

“Mhmm,” Ty agreed, running out in the hallway. 

Vesuvian followed, remembering to lock the door behind him, throwing the keys in the air and catching them like he made his mischievous move and it was complete. He then hung them on the key rack nearby as the keys were originally dangling. He chased Ty down the halls, sliding on the red carpet to catch up quicker.

Ty ran into his dad, and stopped short. He quickly looked at the ground, which made the king suspicious.

As for Vesuvian, who wasn't far behind, he slid past a corner, missed it, hit the wall and a table instead and was on the ground with a broken vase on his head. He stood up quickly and brushed off the dirt from his shirt when he spotted his father, "Oh! Dad! Hi."

“I may say the same about you.”

Vesuvian shrunk in his shoulders and looked away, "Sorry, dad. We didn't mean to disturb you."

Their father raised an eyebrow. “What were you two up to.”

"Just the usual," Vesuvian shrugged and then mumbled quietly. "But you wouldn't care. You're always too busy to care."

Ty shifted his weight and went to hide behind his older brother.

"Don't play that innocent," Vesuvian jokingly glared at his little brother with a tiny smirk upon his face. "You're too adorable anyways."