Private Tales The Lost Princess and The Exiled Prince

[Maeve]

Mae washed up her plate and any other little bits that she saw along the counter.

"That's fine, I don't mind camping. Our royals are not like the ones in books," she had always scrunched her nose up at the odd little children stories that the elders would tell the tribes children. Their kings and queens fought on the field; her mother had been six months pregnant with her when she had ridden into war beside her father.

They were certainly not the delicate people made out in stories of dashing princes saving damsels in distress.

When he had finished she took his plate and washed it up too.

"I think that I might leave the bandages off, just use the salve. I think the cuts need to breathe a little."

 

[Arun]

"That seems a good idea." In truth, Arun only knew what little medical knowledge he had from his study of the books he had and the education he'd received in Saen.

If she thought it best that her wounds have the air, then he was sure she was probably correct.

"In a day or two, I think." The Elf said as he leaned back. "That is when we will set off."

Her wounds would be healed by then, at least he thought they would be. "Tomorrow we will find you a mount."

 

[Maeve]

"One of these... elks?" she said the word hesitantly as she tried to remember it. Mae nodded to herself, yes, elk, that had been the word. She grabbed the salve from the shelf and then sat back down in front of him. The towel was still wrapped about her and she lowered it at the back so he could apply the soothing balm to the welts across her back. They still looked angry but they seemed to be close to closing now.

Mae pulled her hair forward over her shoulders so that it didn't get his way then passed him the pot.

"How does one exactly tame an elk?"

 

[Arun]

As Arun began to apply the salve he shook his head. "You think in such human ways."

Lips pursed.

He supposed that was really only natural. Arun could hardly expect her to start thinking like an Elf after only half a week in his company. Lips thinned for a brief moment, and he wondered if he could ever expect something of the sort.

"Tame." It was clear he did not enjoy that word. "Is not the correct way of thinking of it."

After all, one didn't 'tame' a human. Why would an Elf be any different. "Think of it as more friendship. Mutual cooperation between two...people."

Or person and Elk.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve wasn't sure if she should be insulted by his words. She cast him an unreadable expression over her shoulder before looking ahead again and chewing on her bottom lip. It sounded more like what she had done with Whisper than how other people had tamed their horses. She passed no more comment as he tended to the lashes across her back and chased her thoughts down the dark rabbit hole.

When he was done she turned round and gave him another of her odd looks.

"Does it bother you I'm human?"

 

[Arun]

He blinked. "Not at all."

It seemed an odd question, though he realized why she might have asked it.

"I am sorry if I offended you." Arun offered with a frown. "Some of your ways are simply...strange to me."

He did not note that the last human he had actually encountered had ended up dead on his blade, and that the same went for...all those previous. Yet he did not hold the same prejudice against her kind as many of his people did.

Arun had never quite seen the point.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve's lips pressed into a thin line as she watched his expression. He seemed genuinely sorry for an offence but she still felt a little uncomfortable about the fact he even felt that way.

"Your ways are strange to me too. This whole ... forest is strange to me," her eyes flickered away from his for a brief moment as she tried to think of how best to explain her feelings. "It feels... like... you think I am less because I am human," her green eyes found his again.

"Just because we are different and have different ways of thinking doesn't mean one of us is better."

 

[Arun]

He nodded his head in agreement. "You are right."

That was certainly an apt point, and Arun felt no small amount of shame for ever making her think that he might have thought otherwise. Lips thinned for a brief second, and then he opened his mouth before quickly closing it again.

After a few second he did speak.

"I Apologize." It seemed more formal this time, genuine. "I still have many things to learn."

He had been isolated for far too long.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve watched him for a moment more and then her face softened. Tentatively she put her hands on his hands and gave them a small squeeze.

"It's okay Arun. I understand when you've been on opposite sides of a battlefield with someone - a tribe, a race - it is hard to look at one of those people from in a different way," she kept a hold of his gaze so that he could understand she meant what she said before she went to let go of his hand.

A small smile ghosted over her lips.

"If it helps you, we don't actually class ourselves as 'humans' - we're called Erainns."

 

[Arun]

He frowned for a brief moment, realizing that in an odd way it did actually help. She was not an Anirian, she was not of those who had tortured and slaughtered his brothers.

"I do not think that is a good thing." Arun said quietly, his voice introspective as he considered the weight of her words. "I do not hate Humanity, but I will not lie."

He frowned. "The Anirians..."

Should it really matter all that much. Erainn, Anirian, Allirian. They were all humans were they not? Just as he was an Elf.

"I do not believe it's right for me to feel that hatred." He glanced at her with no small amount of shame. "But I do."

He was more ashamed that even quietly she had taken a piece of that hate.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve considered his words quietly and then very slowly she nodded.

"That all makes sense," she wanted to reassure him but she couldn't tell him it didn't hurt her. She bit her bottom lip and then she brushed a tangle of wet hair behind her ears. Funny how as she brushed the tip of her ears that she wondered, briefly, if they upset him in some odd way. She had never been judged on her very race before. It felt an odd thing to have to defend.

"Centuries of fighting and pain and death doesn't just go away because of meeting one person who is different. Though, I would like to think that none of my people would fight you based on what you are." They were mistrusting of outsiders but hatred? That she just couldn't see from any of the tribes.

 

[Arun]

He smiled at her. "No I doubt that they would."

That was the difficult part of this. He knew to his very core, knew that most of humanity was not bad or evil. Most of them were simply trying to live their lives, most of them were just trying to do what was best for themselves.

"It is something that I must overcome." Something that most of his people would have to overcome. "As you said. Even for us, centuries of hate is not easy to simply push away."

He frowned. "Though you have been a good first step."

At least for himself.

 

[Maeve]

Maeve gently pushed his lips up until a smile when he frowned and laughed softly.

"Usually when people say something nice, they smile," she tutted. "You are so serious," which was not like the elves of the tribes at all. They had come across as almost feral in their nature; they fought and hissed with one another, twisted their pretty words so even the music lilt felt wrong upon her ears.

"All I care about is that you give me a chance and don't judge me on what contact you've had with humans," her hands dropped to her lap and she gave him a pleading look. "I won't put up with being judged."

 

[Arun]

"I have not, and will not." He told her softly.

There had been a brief moment when he'd first carried her from that riverbank, but after that? After that it had been revelation after revelation. He had learned more about humanity from Maeve than anyone else in his history.

She was something else.

"I..." Arun frowned. "Wish to be different than my father."

He was certain that the King of Saen would have thrown Maeve in a cell for trespassing. "I will never judge you, Maeve."

 

[Maeve]

"Thank you," Mae inclined her head a little.

She understood the not wanting to be like your father thing and she supposed it was even worse for those of royal blood. Not only did your parents want you to follow in their footsteps but a nation often did too. Mae took a deep breath and then looked down at the towel she was still sitting in and stood up.

"Right, well after that very deep conversation I'm going to go put some clothes on," a faint blush marred her cheeks before she walked back into the bedroom. It didn't take too long to slip back into a shirt of his she had been sleeping in and wander back out to the livingroom brushing out her hair with a comb.

"Do you want to play another game tonight? I don't think my healing magic is going to try and kill me this time."

 

[Arun]

"Yes...clothes."[/color[ Arun said absent of mind, deciding not to adder anything else before she walked back out in his own clothes.

The elf felt something flicker through his stomach, but he said nothing as she asked him for another.

'Sure." He said with a smile. "What would like like to play?"

Arun doubted she would choose stones this time. "Perhaps dice?"

It seemed the easiest.

 

[Maeve]

There was only a slight pinch of pain in her face as she sat down this time instead of the wincing and hitch of breath that had been her normality for the past few days.

"I don't know much dice but I'm happy to learn," she frowned as she pulled a bit of hair forward and examined the ends. Then she dropped it and shook her head a little as if clearing her mind. She was imagining things that was all. Her hair was not beginning to glow in that odd way the Fae's did.

It simply couldn't be.

"I know the game where you try to guess how many of each number is under a cup?" she offered unhelpfully. It had been a game she had played with her father for dessert.

 

[Arun]

"Liar's dice?" Arun offered with a quick smile.

It was a game that the Elves had actually learned from the Anirians surprisingly enough. When they had taken some of the Humans prisoners a few of the more...lax Elven guards had conversed and played games with the Guardsmen.

Most of the time it had devolved into gambling.

Arun had learned the game from one of his own kin later, but he knew where his people had originally gotten the idea from. "What shall we bet?"

He asked with a smile.

 

[Maeve]

"Questions," Mae settled down on the sofa with her legs crossed and her shirt pooling in her lap. It was almost four sizes too big and drowned her comfortably.

"Every win you can ask a question, no subjects off limits," she raised her eyebrows. Mae had no shame but she sensed there had been more than a few times that Arun had decided not to ask her something out of respect, shyness or what she wasn't sure.

She picked up her own dice and rattled them in the cups he had brought over.

"Deal?"

 

[Arun]

A frown touched his face.

In truth shame did not even really enter his mind. Most of his questions would have been about simple topics. Her culture her people, things of that nature. There was not embarassement to be drawn from things of that sort.

"Very well." He told her with a nod of his head.

Arun doubted that anything bad would come of any questions. He imagined that many of hers would be about Saen and the lost centuries that her people had forgotten. This land was new to her, surely she would be curious about what lay out there.

Even he likely would have been. "You go first."

Arun offered

 

[Maeve]

Mae rattled the dice and then turned her cup upside down on the table. Carefully she peaked underneath and then chewed on her bottom lip as if she were taking a great deal of thought about answering.

"Two fours."

In her mind she was thinking over the questions that had been forming over the last couple of days as she had gotten to know him better.

 

[Arun]

For a brief second he hesitated, watching her expression for any sign of a lie, then he nodded.

Arun took the cup, lips thinning for a brief second as he struggled to actually remember the rules of the game.

It had been over a century since he'd last played. During the war it had been common, but once he'd returned to Saen games like this had gone back to being frowned upon by the likes of most of society. After a fwe seconds he shook the dice.

There was a muted slam, as he placed the dice down. "Four threes."

The Elf said, his expression completely blank.

 

[Maeve]

It was impossible to tell if he was lying. Maeve squinted at him as she tried to read his expression before giving up and returning to the game. She checked her own dice again then tucked her hair which was beginning to curl slightly now it was drying.

"Five threes."

 

[Arun]

Arun soon his head. "Liar."

The accusation came from his lips before he could even really think about it. Five threes was excessive, far too large and far too many to actually be there.

She had to be lying.

He had not quite been able to read her perfectly just yet, though he was sure that in a few days time he would have been able to tell a lie from five miles away. Humans tended to telegraph how they actually felt through their body language

Something he'd noticed while killing them

 

[Maeve]

"Wow, so certain."

Maeve laughed but she did remove the cup to reveal two fours and two threes, unless he had three threes then she was out of a game.

She reached over and turned over his cup to see which of them would be asking a question first.