The Elephant King and I stand at the top of the wall, looking out in the vast horizon.

"Somewhere," the King points into the distance, "somewhere in that direction is the great leader. That man who claims I am the bringer of your death."

The air is dry. The wind does not do much to cool the body. We both stand side by side and I cannot help but think what a strange pair we are.

"I have a warrior."

He turns to look at me.

"His name is Khalid. He came with me. I need him back."

"And what will you give me?"

I meet the male's gaze. His eyes shine with amusement- with a curiosity I have created of what my next actions will be.

"I have given you more than what many other males have received."

"But not enough," he steps closer, the space disappearing between us. "I want more. I cannot understand this man they call the great leader. I can't understand how he could do it..."

His eyes flicker down, before crawling up and up, landing on my features- my image that had cast me onto a pedestal.

"He really must be as heartless as they say."

"He is not blinded like how you are."

The King arches an eyebrow. I still feel unnerved with the amount of skin that is shown. With how features are formed and faces made. How each place on the body demonstrates and communicates its own message.

"Are you defending him?"

I remain silent. I can't express into words the hate I feel for him. I can't find something big enough to describe the betrayal, loss, and...shattered ruin that consumed my soul. I've always had nightmares. I've always had images come to haunt me.

But now, the cruelest twist of fate- I had a face to place in my dreams. I had consuming dark eyes and brown hair that reminded me of home. A home he had taken me away from. I had the knowledge now of what his lips felt like. Of how his face could shift and change and how in my final hours, he had brought himself down to show me that he was mortal. A man. Not a conqueror who would ravage the world - but someone full of regret and sorrow at the path they had chosen to take - and the sacrifices they had decided to make.

"How did it start, Mikabellum?"

He leans against the edge, looking down at the drop before us.

"How did what start?"

He doesn't look amused at my fake ignorance.

"How did he find you. Take you? Where did he take you from?"

I don't want to tell him. Telling him would shatter the image I had created and believed in my head- and those thoughts and beliefs were the only thing holding me together. Little girls did not survive in this world- not with these men. They did not hold power. They did not command attention.

Only something divine. Only something unearthly- holy and beautiful- could be saved. Could create the desire to save.

I had risen so far. And I refused to fall back to who I had once been.

I couldn't remember the name they called me. I couldn't. I wouldn't. There was only one name- one word that I would recognize and respond to.

Only one.

The King sighs beside me.

"You will not tell me."

"There is nothing to tell. Unless you still doubt me."

I feel his arm graze against me. I feel his breath, hot like the wind, upon my neck.

"Unless you do not believe what you have already seen and what you were able to touch- to feel."

"There is something sacred about you. Something divine that I cannot put into words. Maybe you have become the perfect actress, or maybe you are not carrying a lie at all. Maybe this is all real. Something with your eyes..."

He gently takes my chin, turning for me to look into his own eyes.

"They do not belong here. Red eyes should not exist, but here you stand with the color of blood permanently in your vision. It's a violent color, isn't it?" He stares at me a few seconds more before finally dropping his hand.

"I fear that if you ask me to protect you, I will. I know you've captured me. In comparison to the great conqueror, I will acknowledge that we are different. Yours is a beauty men will - and I suppose they have- gone to war for. You are worth the conquest."

His smile suddenly hits me. His familiarity with me is irritating.

"Will you make me yours?"

My hands shoot out to steady myself as I cling to the top of the wall. The words shake my being as they echo in my mind. The memories haunt me. Always haunt me. I feel a cold sweat surface to my skin. I hear his voice.

What can I do to make you only mine?

I had not known what to say at the time. I had told him to become something impossible. Something that could not be achieved.

Everyone. Become everyone.

And the possessive tone. The words that had been spoken. Thoughts that laid behind them - actions that were coming back to me. Moments shared.

If I asked you to be mine would you?

I had lied. He knew it had been a lie that had escaped from me. He knew the desire I had been trying to hide.

But his own desire had been there for me to see.

Sometimes I wish you were mine. Only mine.

Foolish, foolish male. Foolish that he had not been able to see it. Foolish that he had created this wreckage, causing his own words to become nothing but a myth...a false hope.

Since that day when thunder roared into my life and the sky clashed with his figure. Since the feel of women huddled together, erratic breaths, and screams in the night.

Since then.

Since the laughter I had heard and felt in my ears.

The warmth of his breath mixing in with the fires and my fears.

Since then.

Since then- since the very beginning- I had always been his.

*     *     *

Tears come to my eyes when I take Khalid in.

There is a large bruise on his eye- the rest hidden from sight. Blood under his clothes that I can see. And a look in his eyes that makes me take his hand and lead him away from this place.

No words are spoken as I guide him into the harem, past the women, and to my room. His eyes never glance at their figures. His hand only tightens around my own.

I push him down to sit on the bed- kneeling before him-but he shakes his head, standing so that he is above me.

"They looked...didn't they?"

His eyes avoid my own as he closes them. He inhales deeply. Another breath. Another rattled sound.

I place a hand on his chest.

Finally he looks down.

"Let me see."

I go to the windows, pulling the curtains. I lock the door. And watch as slowly Khalid unravels the clothes that hide his secrets.

I stare in fascination. I had seen parts of him- when I had first stumbled across his dying figure in the place of the fallen. But never his face.

Khalid's bruise covers a large portion of the upper left side of his face. But the rest...

"Khalid..."

I take in the burned flesh that marks the bottom right of his face. The scar that travels along his jawline, only just reaching the edge of his lips. The short curled black hair- hair that suited his image is on display.

He is still avoiding my eyes as he takes off the upper layers of clothing. The markings on his skin are some that I recognize, but there is another that I am not familiar with...a new one.

I approach him, reaching out. He shudders at my touch, trying his best to not shy away.

"I don't remember this one..."

I see the burn mark I had made to his skin- the events feel as if they happened a life time ago. Another added feature to the canvas he wore. But this...

It is the image of a sun- the circle red but the rays that extend out are a golden color.

It's an image of me.

Of Mikabellum.

But then I am distracted with the cut that is on his side, and the other bruises that show on his flesh - mixing in and becoming part of the story he had created on his skin.

I begin looking at the wounds and trying my best to clean and bandage them.
"They uncovered me..." I do not glance up, knowing that the details he is telling me will show a vulnerable look on his face.

"They saw my face, Mikabellum. A face only you have the right to see."

"They will forget it soon," I promise. They would not be able to recall such an image if their eyes closed to permanently see nothing but darkness.

"They questioned me about the tribe...questions about the great leader...how we had found you- where... and the events leading up to it."

I pause in my movement. I can feel Khalid's eyes looking down on me.

"How," my word is whispered into the darkness.

"Do you know how I became a part of the fallen?"

I try to focus on both his words and my actions, but my mind is fixated on the topic.

He continues, "He stood before us...so many had come to join us. The hunt for the goddess. Somewhere, at some point in time, he had become fixated on her...you- he had a vision that she had been born and was now among us. We traveled from tribe to tribe. City to city. Town to town. Looking at women...looking at them all. But the great leader rejected them. Some of them he inspired to join..."

An excuse to go to different places. An excuse to talk to their own leaders... to win them over. He had the ability to do it. He had convinced me of the impossible also- and made it into a reality.

"And then one night...one night we changed our course - and the leader told us that we were going to conquer a mountain. That a place Mikabellum might be would be a location that was alienated to all. Hidden away. A place in the middle of the four lands."

"The Burnmann mountains..."

He nods. "Some were fearful to go...to go because everyone knows that the mountains are neutral territory. No- man's land as Soleia once explained to you."

He winces when I accidentally touch his cut too hard.

"He was right though. You were there. But there were those who tried to stop us...villagers who came out and attacked...and that is where I received my injury."

And that is where my story begins, I silently thought.

That night, a goddess had been born.

"You had been hidden in a place that none would think to look. Or those who would be too afraid to step onto sacred land- land that had been untouched and left out of wars and conflict for centuries. You were protected there...until we took you away."

I see the guilt in his eyes.

He saw a goddess. He saw something of the Onism. But he had also seen the hurt. The betrayal. And the pain.

"I told them nothing, Mikabellum." He has an earnest look, a pleading face that asked me to believe him- that he had been able to guard my secrets- that he had not been disloyal. Even away from my side, he had been faithful.

I inhale deeply, briefly letting my eyes close, before I continue to look at his wounds.

"This is the symbol, isn't it?"

He looks down with me, "yes...the symbol of the Onismal."

The original.

I had not known the meaning when I first met Khalid. I had not been aware of its existence. On his skin was a triangle. And within that triangle, a circle- and within that circle- a single red dot.

"Do you know what it means?"

His whispered words fill that place in my soul- where I was convinced that fate was standing above, mocking me. Demonstrating and proving it as he said, "fire and gold."

Fire and gold.

*     *     *

This time Khalid is at my side.

I enter the throne room, led by the man with skin like the night. He is even more wary of me now that I have my soldier back.

The scene has not changed. Men still stand around the table, their eyes pouring over the map laid out. Trying to find a solution. Trying to solve their problem.

While caring for Khalid, I had told him of the Onism and how close they were.

"I don't understand," his eyes had been distant and far away as he thought his words out loud. "We never have desired land. Or to conquer-...but he..." he stops, glancing towards me before shaking his head and letting it fall in his hands.

He was struggling to understand at what point everything he thought or knew had shattered. An ache settled in my soul as I watched. I knew the feeling. I knew the confusion and scattered mind that came with acceptance of how your reality did not match the actions of others.

And I know that despite it all- the betrayal and shock- the tormented plans that resulted in our being here, locked away in the elephant kingdom- despite it all, Khalid still held a deep loyalty towards his people. Towards the Onism. He swore to protect me, but that did not mean that his upbringing could be changed with his pledge.

The great leader.

My mind stumbles on it but in the darkness of my heart I whisper his name.

Roark ...Roark....what have you done.

And the single thought occurs to me as I stare down at the map now, seeing the symbols that represent his coming - What is power if not the desire to be the one who could bring pain, before it is brought to them?

"He is coming..."

The statement is not because of the army that is descending upon the city.

It is echoed in the hall as footsteps can be heard. It is a sound that quiets the men. The Elephant king waves his hand, motioning for them to depart. A man shows up at the entrance, the golden doors open behind him as he bows low.

"Mikabellum...stay..."

The Elephant King's eyes dart towards me, capturing my attention and making my head turn in unison towards the direction of the door.

And like the shadows that crawl within my soul, like the darkness that is ever present in my mind. I feel it as I see the figure. Flashes of red- flames burning in the night. The goddess of my dreams, the feel of claws scratching onto my skin. The whisper of forgiveness that I would not- could not- accept.

He steps through the door, black eyes...brown hair...

His gaze travels to us, landing on the King before turning to take me in.

I thought my feelings were of a savage hatred that would consume my soul.

And I had been right. But emotions can be split and divided- two sides of a coin with equal value and with the ability to be evenly felt.

I cannot take anything in except him.

A black fire that always had the ability to consume me.

And the name that had been whispered in my heart suddenly exploded in my mind, driving away any thought except that one...that one...

"Roark."

And I see the eyes of the great leader turn towards me.

But it was too late.

Too late do I realize that the great leader would not be so foolish. That he would not come alone with his skin on display.

My mind cannot understand what is happening. Not when the male comes closer. Not when his eyes burn- but it is a different light that is held. There is a difference in the way they look at me- a softness I had not even realized had once been there is gone.

And the smile. A cruel smile. One that he would never have shown to me- comes out.

He is close enough that I can take in his scent. Take in the features. See his gaze as it hooks into my skin, pulling it away to reveal my soul.

"And tell me, little girl..." he steps even closer. His whisper is only something that can be heard by me. "How is it that you know this face?" 

^^^ what I hope your faces look like  

How is everyone feeling? Thoughts on the newest chapter? General knowledge you wish to share? Questions about me? Questions about you?

I feel like this chapter was shortish (sorry bout that). But at least I have given it to you! 

Pray for the next chapter to come because I'm going to need it (HAHAHAHAHA WHY AM I LIKE THIS). 

Until next time, 

/////WORLD_JOY_/////