Chapter 6 - A wish of preclusion

Leviathan’s heart pounded louder at every step. She was so angry at Anwynd! ‘Then again…It is my fault for trusting a complete stranger.’ She thought looking downward at the leaves on the ground, watching how her feet seemed to move by themselves, ‘Stop! Do you not know that these people are going to do vile things to you? I should have gotten the implication, when he said I would sell well.’
Leviathan’s heart pounded so hard that it was all she could hear. She glanced at Anwynd who kept a firm grip around her arm, then swiftly back. ‘Is this what you wanted…all along?’

As they got nearer, the hut was in clear view.
“Maed, hold her for me” Anwynd said quiet flatly, and he loosed his grip.
“Gladly” said Maed cheerfully.
‘So that is your name…’ Leviathan thought, as she watched the mischievous one grab her arm.
Anwynd walked up to the door. He steadily tapped at the wooden door.

“Who is it?” said a girlishly high pitched voice.
“Anwynd, Maed and Tristan” he said apathetically.
“Oh Anwynd!” she said and flung the door open. “I have missed you Annie!” she squealed and embraced him.
“Karina…” Anwynd said growing more irritated. At this moment Maed was snickering and Tristan was trying to muffle his laughter.
“Who is she?” Leviathan asked Tristan, the more mature one.
“That is Karina, our sister.” Tristan said.

“Annie, where have you been father has been anxious to see you and the Princess…” she whispered glaring at Leviathan as if she had a disease.
“Well it wasn’t like I was off on holiday.” he said grudgingly while Karina was being attached to his arm.

“Annie, father will want to talk to you right away.” Karina said in a lower tone.
Anwynd looked at her, but Karina could tell that he was looking through her. “A-” she started, and then he cast his gaze away and walked ominously down the corridor.

He approached the door. He hesitated as he put his hand on the knob; there was so much he was thinking about. The reason why he captured Leviathan was not a pleasant one.
He cautiously opened the door and felt a blast of heat. ‘Father always liked to be unusually warm…’ he thought, and smiled until he heard someone get out of a chair and walk toward him; his smile turned into a grimace.
“Anwynd, my boy” said a thin but apparently powerful man, “I hope your journey has been well.” The man was just fairly taller then Anwynd and his shag of midnight hair was streaked with silver. Also his eyes were an opaque blue and he had a deep jagged scar directly under his left eye. The appearance of this man was not jolly, but he enfolded his arms around Anwynd. Their relationship still mysterious, but he and everyone else seemed to call him father.
“Father…” Anwynd breathed apparently hesitant. He looked swiftly at the ground; his father looked at him solemnly and then put his hand to his hair.
“So, I heard the princess is quite the looker. I would suppose—”he said slyly. Anwynd still looked at the floor avoiding his father’s gaze…

Leviathan was leaning against a wall with Maed and Tristan keeping their firm grip on her. Karina was sitting on the woven reed rug holding a shard of glass in her hand and occasionally making agitated grunts of frustration while pulling her fingers through her hair then looking back into the shard.
Leviathan kept her focus on Karina. Her face was dirty and she had uneven, cropped, mousey brown hair. Leviathan concluded that she was like any female, concerned about how she looked, and to Leviathan’s opinion she looked horrible. Karina was fairly younger than Leviathan; she wore no corset, or dress, but a plain tattered blouse with scandalously short skirts and a strange arrangement of straps tying her all together. Before Leviathan could continue her examination Maed interjected.
“Kreena, all you do now is stare at yourself though that little shard. Seems to me that all you ever care about is impressing Anwynd” Maed sneered and rolled his eyes. “Seriously, you don’t even make yourself useful. What kind of girl are you?”

Karina turned towards him and viciously glared at him: “Try saying that again!” she screamed venomously. “Oh my name is Maed, I’m so girly that my name sounds like a maid-en” she said mockingly.
“Well at least I’m pretty” he said growing louder with more sarcasm, “Not like dirty little Kreena, Anwynd will never like an ugly—” he spat at her, and in satisfaction as her eyes filled up with tears, “Ugly B******!”
She ran out as fast as she could throwing the shard which broke into tiny fragments. Leviathan felt pity for her, she could have a pretty face; Maed was just picking at her insecurity.
Tristan did not seem to be in well spirits with Maed either for this, he just shrugged. Leviathan could see that he had a kind heart, and was a little shy. She was going to use this as an advantage to find out more about her fate in her captors.

“Anwynd, what troubles you?” asked the mysterious father. Anwynd glanced back upward and looked into his father’s eyes. Around his father he seemed more child-like and respective.
“I-I don’t want to hurt her” Anwynd gasped. His father’s eyes lit up and his face was quite awestruck.
“So that is what this is about” said father, and shrugged running his fingers through his midnight hair. There was a moment of silence as father gazed into Anwynd, as if reading his soul. “Anwynd, I never meant to hurt her, you see…”
“What do you mean? Do you think this is a joke! You said—” he said infuriated.
“Anwynd, this is not like you. What has this girl done to you?” he said empathetically, then sighed ruffling Anwynd’s dirty blonde hair. “Anwynd the loner…I admit it was really hard to motivate someone like you. It was my fault for bribing you with something like this, but it is your fault for accepting my proposal. Maybe meeting her was good for you.” He said smiling. Anwynd cast his eyes swiftly downward, he felt ashamed.
“I did not know her…and I wanted to—” he broke off. Father walked off to his chair and calmly sat down. Anwynd’s figure stood eyes downcast and in this very dark room the firelight flickered around him.
‘It was good for them to meet’ thought the mysterious man called father. He smiled: ‘It is best that they find this out together’

Leviathan rocked back and forth while leaning against the wall, she looked at Tristan who still had his arm firmly around her wrist.
“So, what are we waiting for?” Levia asked.
“We are waiting for Father’s orders for what to do with you” he said emotionlessly.
“So I was wondering if you are all brothers and sister…Is it okay for Karina to like Anwynd?” she asked curious, and Tristan looked at her suspiciously, but looked as if trying to hold back a smile.
“Well we are not real brothers and sister, and Father is not our real father.” He said.
“What?” she said confused.
“Well Father takes care of us, and we do act a kin to each other I suppose. We are mostly just strays, but we have our own stories.” He said his smile turning into embarrassment.
‘So does this mean Anwynd does not have a family? I wonder what his story is…’ She thought solemnly to herself. ’Wait a minute what am I saying taking pity on him? That villain kidnapped me and now I am here, where I do not know if I am going to live or die. They do seem a bit kind though…But this Father character I am not too sure about, he seems to be their leader. What does he want with me?’
Leviathan’s face was determined and in deep thought. Clearly she was going to have to be more wary, and not be so easily swayed by these people. She thought to herself and then remembered when she first met Anwynd; she blushed.
‘He called me his sister…’

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