Throne of Thorns

A metallic taste coated her tongue, thick like mud but warm and so unfamiliar it sent shivers down her spine. The girl grasped desperately at the ground beneath her, her cold fingers clenching down and ripping the grass up by the roots. Gutteral choking sounds quickly filled the air as the substance in her mouth slipped down her throat, choking her. The girl fell to the side, the color quickly draining from her once rosy cheeks. The lips that used to spread into a smile, the eyes that lit up in wonder, the hands that pulled at heartstrings all began their imminent descent into cold, unforgiving death. She lay still, curled into a ball facing the man she once considered the only person who truly cared for her.

The sole of a heavy boot squished down into the mud, its owner groaning and shuffling to the side. "Man, I just got these…" a sour voice whined.

The boot's owner reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear and looked to her partner. "What do we do with her now?" she asked. The tall figure said nothing, instead, he crouched down and laid his hand flush against her stomach. The feeling of the girl's warm abdomen despite her chilled appearance unnerved the man. He retracted his hand and stood up, cringing at the echoes of the now-dead girl's voice ringing sharply in his ears.

---------------------

"Airen… Airen!"

In a field filled with tall grass, a young boy lay propped up against a large pillow, books cluttered around him. His eyes shifted to the girl standing at the entrance to his hideaway with a huge pout on her face. "Why didn't you answer me if you're awake?" she huffed.

The boy shrugged and turned his attention back to his book. "What are you reading this time, lemme see." the girl said before folding down beside him and sneaking a peek at his book's cover. "A Knight's Duty…" the girl read aloud. She sighed and shuffled herself across from him before snatching up a book she'd left there earlier that week. "I don't know why or how you read so many of those books, I can barely finish one a week… and you can't even be a knight so why bother learning about them?" she clicked her tongue and dragged her finger across the swirl of words in her book, looking for where she'd left off.

"It doesn't hurt anyone, and I like to learn… they would never let me learn this in the manor so I have to do it here." the boy explained.

She let out an exaggerated mock-sigh and quickly closed her book, "Seems pointless to me, but hey if you like it so much, go ahead." She placed her book back where it was and closed her eyes, focusing on the sounds around her. There were birds in the trees on either side of the field, flying to and from each side, the wind ruffled through the tall grass and made a whistling sound that made her ears hurt, and Airen's small fingers flipped through pages at baffling speeds. That was the sound she decided to focus on, and lightly hummed along with the birds whenever they made a particularly beautiful sound. The boy didn't mind this, in fact, he may have even enjoyed it, though he'd never admit it.

For a long time, this had been his space alone, until one day that girl came bounding into his life at full speed, rocking his once static life into a flurry of childishness.

The boy was nearing his 14th birthday at the time, the girl her 16th, but you'd never think there was a gap between them the way the young boy presented himself. Although he was dwarfed in height by the girl, she behaved so garishly and frivolous that anyone looking in might expect them to be the same age. They'd met officially at the boy's 12th birthday party, but Airen had seen her before around his home, bounding about chasing mice through the grass or dancing clumsily by herself through the halls, as if pretending she was partnered with the prince.

At the time, he'd been 11 years old, and couldn't help but watch as the hallway lit up with her spinning and leaping, dancing without a care in the world, humming some strange song, and leaving one arm extended outward as if it were being held by God. The young boy made a habit of watching the girl whenever she visited, which was often. He didn't know why she was there, and truth be told he didn't really care.

One day, the girl ventured to the library and made no attempt to hide her awe at the sight of row upon row of books stacked ceiling high. The puppy-like girl bounced from shelf to shelf, seemingly searching for a particular genre or author. Airen cautiously walked closer to see what she was looking for when she quickly turned around and stared at him.

"You!" she yelled, crossing her arms over her chest and furrowing her brow. "Why are you following me?".