Partaking of the Fruit
She often wandered as unwelcome ghost among the high walls of the city. Her presence was enough to make people happy even when they truly did not know her, and her esteem had made her quite spoiled on the exterior. Who was to scold a princess however, who would dare risk their life to tell her the truth she secretly so longed to hear? Who else, but him the young man of honor whom had just returned from a crusade for the church. She wouldn't forget that man's no matter what happened to her. "You are a spoiled brat." He scolded when she demanded his attention, only correcting himself to her by adding the word, "royal" As she met that strong gaze and closed the distance of their lips she still could not let those happy words escape her mind.
She could feel the soft of his lips touching every soft part of her skin, tugging at her will in the worst of ways. His strong arms clasped around her frame and beheld her for what she truly became in the muse of desire. Soft gentle eyes that found the subtle green in her own looked upon her hungrily as he held her leg close around his waist and tore the sheets from around them with just the most subtle movement. A gasp of happiness flooded the room as his own resounded with hers like a soft chorus. He knew it wrong; they both knew it but nothing to squander the love they had for each other. He was a man sworn to duty, she a lady of the highest court, and this was the most intimate interpretation, of the taking of the forbidden fruit.
"Princess!"
The walls caved around her, his eyes became sockets before her, and before long the sheets felt like blood that had fallen around them in a bath of cruelty. The world she desired faded and instead the berating words of her guard came to ear. "Princess, we must get you to safety it is time." She snapped too and looked to a burning red sky, Fire and smoke filling the air with a devilish hiss, and an unforgiving gaze of a blocked out black sun. She couldn't find the air to breath as she ignored the guard's words and started at a slow walk to brace the halls of the upper kingdom. She gazed out over the courtyard, the city, people rushing about to the safety zones, and then out over the walls as she could see the banner carriers, the army marching, He was marching, leading them a Man of duty; the man she loved.
Then the trial they faced. The earth was clad in shadows of black, as for what seemed like miles, the wave of dark armor soldier's march on towards the castle. The light of the world that guided them was the man on white steed that she had loved in the most intimate way. Her heart sunk and just as the guard went to place his hand on her shoulder she took off in full dash through the halls. He called but it was a distant word that never met her when she found herself thinking of the impossible. He would face that, a shadow of death that reared its ugly grin upon this great city. He was going to die,
She couldn't tear down the stairs fast enough, fire and stone had begun to rain down upon the people of the city. Families were being lost, yet selfishly she could not find the courage to be their princess now. The King ordered guards to capture her, but she would face an army to be there with him. A few more floors but the guards blocked the exit, she dove through the window just as they replaced the shadow of the place she had been a second prior. The princess landed in a soft cloth before she rolled and fell to the ground. Dirt mucked her beautiful face, and the silk of her dress was torn to ribbons by the fall. It didn't matter, no money in the world mattered in that moment. She pushed up from her knees and franticly started towards the great wall. Corpses, lay around her, decaying bodies or burning shops, the stench of rotted burning flesh, almost turned her stomach, but even then she couldn't help but let the thoughts bypass her. He was in danger; he would die, if she didn't stop this. That was all she could think about.
The guards tried their best to stop her, but even then she grabbed a hammer and clapped the one nearest of her in the head, denting his helmet with unknown strength. He fell over and she dashed through the streets. Up the stairs, tripping a few times in her haste, she cursed her body for being weak, for being clumsy she cursed herself for not keeping him the night before, for not running with him. Tears rolled down her eyes and several more burning stone rolled over the wall and claimed the city in burning rot. Guards still plotted to stop her, but they would not break her will now. Not now, not when she was so close.
Finally the princess broke through the guards, kicking them off the stairs or the wall, they couldn't stop her. Nothing could stop her. Fire roared overhead once more and some of the heat even singed her ravenous locks as she ran to the center part of the great wall and like an angel blowing their trumpet she screamed his name. "Jack!" As if by some divine hope he would hear her amongst the rage of war. She prayed, eyes filling with tears as she sunk to her knees. He was fighting in the front, and she was a maiden desperately begging for some divine right of truth, of love to save him. Fire filled the sky, and as she lifted her gaze once more she could see that beautiful shine in his strong gray eyes, she seen the crimson fall from his lips, the black armored man run his sword through him, but still he smiled, as if daring her to grieve over him.
She broke, soft whispers filling the air as she murmured his name under her breath. Her hand reached out as if grasping for something she knew she could not obtain. The sounds of war trembled and more fire burnt their city. The outer walls had been reached, the war was about to hit the home, and all of them would be slaughtered. The king knew, her father knew; he sent him for that reason, why a hero who had just returned, rather than a general that was ready for this fight. She knew, and in some ways she blessed the army that would destroy their walls, that would rape their women. This war was about to truly begin for those people that didn't deserve it, but she couldn't care. For her the war was already over, they had already won, the moment they took him from her; they had won.
Slowly, in desperation as the doors fell down, and the roar of the enemy filled their streets she turned to each side, a soft glaze over her eyes as she pushed to her feet. The soft green shin in her eyes had dulled, to nothing now. He lips were dry, and felt like they would crack against the heat the fires of war had brought. She was on her feet staring out at the very spot where he had fallen, thinking reliving that night as if it were the only desperate thing she could cling to. Black armored men moved up the stairs on either side of her, and they called out to her, possibly even with gentle voices, but she could not hear it. Her hand out a soft smile on her lips, a dead glaze to her eyes, and then with a few short steps she walked the stairs to heaven, her spirit climbed while her body fell. The world was black, but to her this was sanctuary. It was a world where nothing could distract her from remembering him, remembering that night. This was the only mercy the god she prayed so effortlessly to had granted her, the only mercy she could accept.
