Chapter 6
1514 Words
Mr. Legs Story
Valnira was only five years old when she met Aros for the first time.
She never admitted this to anyone, but she was able to remember every single detail about that day down to the clothes she had been wearing and the fact that against her wishes her mom had ordered her maids to braid her hair up and cover the curly locks with golden chains and ruby pins.
Valnira hated the sound the chains in her hair made when she walked. She felt like a gigantic bell moving down the halls of the strange palace they were visiting. Valnira had seen great palaces before but nothing compared to that palace and the grandiosity of the City of Leukos. It was amazing there. Wide arches and long halls made of carved walls of hardened black sand. The smell of desert roses made the entire palace feel welcoming and beautiful, like a hidden gem in the last corner of the world.
Her mother was walking ahead of the long delegation of Naccanash diplomats and her father was close, holding her hand while they transited the long hall and then entered a majestic room that was circular and wide, with open arches and tall columns that looked over the Dark Desert. At the end of the room were two large chairs made of ebony filigree and seated on the chairs were the King and Queen of the largest desert on Earth.
The moment Queen Leukos saw her she gasped and got up, running to her mom and hugging her. Both women laughed and then Queen Leukos got on her knees and hugged Valnira to her chest. Never a Queen from another country had hugged her like that. And surely no Queen should have knelt, but this queen had no issues lowering her head for a little girl like her. Valnira liked her immediately and smiled when Queen Leukos laughed, caressing her cheek.
“By the Gods Valnis! She is so beautiful and unique!” exclaimed Queen Leukos and Valnira’s smile turned even bigger. She liked when people complimented her. She liked it even more when they told her she was pretty and gave her golden rings and long earrings made of the finest stones. Her father always said she would be a complicated woman to please but her father always spoke in the Dark Riders tongue so she wasn’t sure what to believe. She would either be complicated or not, but maybe that wasn’t for her to decide but for whoever poor soul that tried to please her in the future.
“Isn’t she?” Valnis knelt too and the three Omegas laughed to the surprise of the two Alphas in attendance.
“Oh, I see the fire in her eyes,” said Queen Leukos, patting Valnira’s head, “She would be a wild one.”
“That she is not,” murmured her father with a frown and everyone laughed.
The expected greetings were interchanged and when it was time for the adults to talk about politics Valnira was sent to the rose garden, to play with her cousin Katala. The two girls enjoyed their company more than anything else. Taking them apart was always a struggle whenever Valnira had to return to Naccanash. Her tantrums were the material of nightmares shared by every guard, maid and servant of both royal courts.
That afternoon the girls decided to play hide and seek in the garden. Their laughter and giggles made everyone that heard them smile and stop for a moment to watch the two little Omegas playing among the rose bushes. Valnira was the one who won almost all of the rounds. She was the one hiding between the roses when big clouds obscured the sun like a bad omen and the afternoon air turned still. By then Valnira’s hair was in disarray, her golden jewelry tangled in the heavy mass of her red curls. The blue stola she had been wearing was wrinkled and torn at the back, where the rose thorns had torn the rich fabric.
She was kneeling with her pale arms hugging her legs while she heard Katala screaming her name over and over. Valnira laughed under her breath and looked down at the same moment a large spider crawled over her hand. The little Omega froze. Her heart started beating harder and faster while the sound of Katala’s screams muffled in the background. Her vision tunneled and the only thing she could see, feel and hear was the black spider moving slowly over her skin. She had never been afraid of anything. Never. Valnira didn’t even know what fear was until that day.
In horror she realized that she couldn’t scream, nor cry, nor move. She was stuck. Even blinking was difficult and she hated every moment of the experience. And then, like in a dream, a boy appeared right in front of her and flicked the spider away. Just a flick of his fingers and the spider flew across the bushes and landed over the dusty road that led to the other gardens. Valnira’s heart was still beating too hard, she was still too afraid to react but slowly she looked up to her savior and then more fear descended upon her.
He was different. Whoever he was, he was different. Taller than any boy she knew. Lean, strong and tanned after too many hours under the sun. There was this look in his blue eyes that made her feel stuck again. She knew by then that she was afraid of him, even more afraid of what she had been of the spider. Valnira frowned and moved back while the boy blinked, staring at her from under the fringes of his brown hair.
“Your hair looks like fire,” he said and Valnira’s frown deepened. She didn’t like the way she talked to her. He was being gentle and careful, as if she was a scary creature that he didn’t want to scare off. And he had seen it. He had seen her, being afraid and weak, and she would always hate him for that. More than anything, he made her feel afraid and weak and she hated herself for the way she felt around him.
“I don’t like you,” she spat the words in anger and then stuck her tongue out at the boy.
And to her surprise the boy smiled. His blue eyes sparkled like indigo flames while he covered her with a curious look. And then he clicked his tongue, shaking his head to the sides like all Alphas did.
“You have to be the one.”
“I’m Valnira, that’s my name,” said Valnira and the boy nodded.
“And I’m Aros,” Valnira got even angrier at the smile he gave her and incapable of staying there and hearing the boy speak another word she got up and started walking away. She hadn’t taken more than three steps before the boy stopped her, taking her arm and squeezing it, hard. His face had changed and it wasn’t smiling anymore. He looked angry, “Don’t move like that. It makes me angry.”
“Stop! You are hurting me!”
“Don’t go,” he was mad now, Valnira could see it in his eyes. Afraid and alone Valnira nodded and the boy let her arm go. The moment she was free Valnira started running away. She was fast and normally she would have run faster than anyone her age, but the boy moved even faster. He jumped over her and pushed her down, to the hard rock of the road. His face and body were covered in red flames that made him look like a monster and not a boy. Through clenched teeth he stared down at her, “Don’t run away!”
The scent of aggression emanating from the boy scared her even more. And the fact that his red flames tickled her instead of hurting her made her feel confused and lost. She didn’t know why, but she was as scared as she was curious about that boy named Aros. She screamed and only then the guards tried to intervene but nobody dared to move close to the boy. At the end the Wolf was called and only he was able to take his son away from Valnira. No one spoke to the Queen and King of Naccanash about what happened and Valnira only ever spoke about her secret to Katala.
She was afraid of spiders. That was the secret she revealed to her cousin. But the truth was she was even more afraid of someone else.
That was the true secret of Valnira Silvain, princess of Naccanash.
She was utterly, terribly and undeniably afraid of Aros.
- Writer
