Lamentation (Part-2)

"Kaia" he called getting all her attention. For she knew he called her that name whenever there was something of great importance.

"Listen, my love, heed my words and never go against them"

Kaia felt an ominous foreboding. Still, she nodded her head. "Yes" 

"I want you to be happy. And I want nothing else so listen..."

"Don't.... hold on to me, for I can no longer stay beside you and protect you." Her hands grasped at his back painfully almost ripping his shirt at those words. "Find love again. Find happiness again, even in the smallest of things. Live without me love for I will forever live in your memories. Don't be sad for me, for death is not the end of the journey of our souls. Don't be lonely for I will be watching you always for eternity from among the clouds." He gave a small smile as she let out a sob.

His heart clenched seeing her cry, his pain all forgotten as he stayed in her arms. His blood that drenched her clothes seeping through his, all had been ignored as he saw her tears. Yet he continued, for this was his final farewell, his final words to her.

"Kaia Julivine Dahlia Florence... Dahlia, my Dahlia, my love. I love you until the end of time, for this love will last an eternity and will not fade. You are my world, you are my sun, my light, my everything. And you will remain as my heart, my life always. My soul, my other half, you will always stay as a part of me untill the end. I love you, I always did from the moment I saw you, and I always will."

By the time he finished, she was in a hysterical of sobs. She nuzzled her face in his neck crying and holding onto him desperately. 

She was angry and devastated. Self-accusation and self-loathing took over her mind. She did not have many things close to her heart but him… He was the only one to whom she gave her entire heart to. And to think he would have not met with misfortune if she had not met him.

She should have not indulged in this love.

She...

She was his misfortune. 

"Ashton... My Knight, My love... You are too selfish... Be happy? I could say the same. I'd rather die than spend a life without you. How could you expect me to smile knowing I'm the reason for this..." she let out a loud sob as she couldn't bring herself to say the words. Leortes' heart felt like it was being stabbed as he looked at Kaia struggling to form words in between her sobs.

"I'll always love you, and only you. I always did and I always will. It was you who brought this world to me, it was you who gave me everything I wanted, it was you who loved me for everything I am. How can I live without you, how can I smile without you? For you bring out my smile. How can you tell me to fall in love with another when my heart already belongs to you? It isn't possible to love and be part. I can never forget this love until the day I die."

Leortes felt his tears fall down his eyes, mixing with her own. He did not try to blink them away, not hide himself from her. 

This is the first time Kaia had witnessed him cry. Even through his tears, he smiled, and his eyes looked at her with so much love that she felt her heart break into pieces. Then suddenly,

Cough,

Cough, cough.

His hand wearily reached up and held his mouth.

Cough.

Her eyes widened as she saw the dark red blood dripping out through his fingers.

His blood...

He knew his time is up. He knew soon he will be consumed by everlasting darkness leaving him in eternal sleep. So he struggled even though his body began to shake. To keep awake and focused his blurring vision on her face.

"You will find love..." cough "you will smile again..."

"And I will watch you..." cough, cough, cough.

"With a smile of my own..."

He couldn't hold his weight as he fell on her limp.

"My Dahlia..." he whispered as his vision filled with darkness.

"Don't make my fears... come true..." he rasped out. 

His breaths became deep and long as every intake turned more painful than the one before. When he knew he could no longer hold on he mustered the last of his strength to let her hear them, the words he'd never tire out of telling her, not before not now. 

"I love you..." he whispered out his last breath.

Her breath hitched as she felt him stop breathing. She felt his arms that held her loosen and fall.

She tightened her own around his unmoving body.

She felt something in her break as she realised he was no more.

She realised she would not hear his voice. She would not see him smile. She would not hear his laughs. She would not see him spoiling her with love. She would not feel his soft and loving touch. She would not feel his gentle warmth. She could not run her fingers through his soft black hair affectionately while holding him in her arms. She would not look at those bright light green eyes. And she would not see the love in them anymore.

"No!!!!!" 

Her loud mournful cry could be heard all over the forest. Even until the borders of the whole country.

The country she was born to protect. The country she was born to rule. The country for which, she accepted a loveless marriage. A country for which she lost the one man she loved with all her heart…