Sweet Waters Throne

242 Chapter 24Dante was stunned by Aeryn’s words, he managed a simple smile and asked her, “Are you certain?”. Aeryn fell over to the other side of the bed while still trying to catch her breath and giving her legs a moment to heal.

“The last time I said these words were to my late husband, Petrus Octavianus” she said looking at the ceiling. Then she turned her gaze to Dante, “Now I find myself saying them to you, do you think it’s too soon?”

Dante cupped Aeryn’s face in his arms, “I love you Aeryn, I have loved you from the very moment I saw you. For me it’s never too soon, only it’s just too late” he then kissed Aeryn on the lips and both of them smiled, they were happy in their own little world.

Now let’s drop everything and go back to Aprophil, the true heir to Sweet Waters throne and what he was doing. After Amabel gave him two hundred men who would escort him to cross the Freezing Sea, after a five ride in deep ice, finally they came upon the Freezing Sea and it was indeed frozen.

Aprophil was covered in layers of fur coats and he also wore black gloves, two of them to keep himself warm. The snow fell on his clothes and also the men who escorted him. It completely covered their eyebrows, their lips were dry fit to crack and their eyes reddish. But the hardest part was yet to come, and it was during this time Aprophil had to choose whether he was ready for it or not.

To choose if it was worth crossing the Freezing Sea, he thought of his wife and his two sons, and his dear mother who was probably worrying sick during that time. Aprophil knew his mother and the kind of a person she was, Jordy loved no one other than her son, she will be terribly heartbroken if something happens to him.

But he had come so far to give up, this was a point of no return. The sailors told Aprophil to lose his boots. “The ice can break with the boots, but if we cross barefooted, we can cross smoothly” they told him. He was ought to listen to them, these men had crossed the Freezing Sea more than once and they knew what they were doing.

It was during this moment Aprophil appreciated Amabel for what he did, giving him his men to help him cross the Freezing Sea, he knew he would be lost without them and that’s for a fact. So, they took out their boots and started to cross the sea barefooted, the cold intensified and Aprophil could feel it crashing his bones.

.....

The Freezing Sea covered a not so large distance between Raven and the warm lands where Dragon Hunters resided. The worst case scenario would be five hours of walking on the ice, if it was summer, the sea would be melting and it would have been so hard for them to cross since some would drown in the crowd.

But it was winter and the ice was hard like a rock, Aprophil thanked himself for choosing the winter season because it would have been impossible for him to cross the Freezing Sea during summer. The walk went on for an hour, and Aprophil started to tremble from head to toe, he felt his teeth battling to remain intact but failing miserably.

The next hour he fell down, Aprophil’s men rushed to pick him up. Aprophil’s body was not used to the cold. He was born in Maldonia and resided in Whitebridge, the warmest city in Liberty Cities. While the men were born and raised in Prophis, their bodies were accustomed to the cold and walking barefooted on ice ─ but Aprophil’s was not.

Hence Aprophil’s men carried Aprophil after he was unconscious, they laughed at him and said words like, “This is who the Maldonians want, a weak King?” but Aprophil didn’t hear these words because he had blacked out. The men continued to speak badly about Aprophil and criticized him, some even said they would support Artemis instead of Aprophil.

“A man who is not afraid to burn cities is a man who is feared by his enemies, and that’s a sign of a strong king to me” said one of the men.

His fellows agreed in on his statement by shouting “Aye, aye”, hence they kept on walking while praising Artemis and criticizing Aprophil. They said Artemis showed great strength when he faced Cregan Lawsend and burned his city and his men, “Where was the mighty and wealthy Cregan Lawsend that day when the Dragon King showed to his city? I heard he was pissing on himself inside his chambers waiting to be barbecued” added another one and they busted out laughing.

“If I was the Dragon King, I would collect all the people who are rioting right now in Blackmount and burn them in front of masses. That will shut their mouths once and for all…”

Another one interrupted, “That’s what I told my wife last week, a dragon doesn’t need to bend to sheep. Artemis has to punish these people, it’s the only way” he added.

“What about him? Do you think he will live to overthrow his half-brother?”

They all turned to look at Aprophil, fast asleep and he didn’t even know where he was or he was taken to. If they wanted to kill him, they could have finished him right then and there, but they were loyal to their King, Amabel.

“He will die before the war even begins, weak men have no place in battlefield” this time one of the tallest man replied, he was six foot eight. He went on to explain his experience during the Wrath of Artodo.

This man was one of the men who fought in Aryan’s side before they were ambushed by the dragon who burned everything on it’s way. He had a huge scar black scar on his back, he said the scar was a memory to him and a constant reminder of the power of dragons. “I watched my brother burn that day and Queen Aryan barely made it out, I had to save her from the flames or she would have burned with others. The whole city was in flames, there was nowhere to escape to and not to mention the gates were barred. I will never forget that day, and this scar will remind me to always fight beside the dragon, not against it” he said.

The man just showed that even if he was left with a scar on his back, he would gladly serve Artemis instead of fighting against him. He also managed to convince his friends that if they have relatives in Maldonia, they must warn them not to anger the dragon, because a wroth dragon means death and destruction.

After four hours of carefully walking on the ice which was hard like a rock, the two hundred men finally made it to the other end of the Freezing Sea. They laughed and congratulated themselves for making it alive, Aprophil was still unconscious and they couldn’t carry him any longer.

Therefore, they left him laying down on warm green grasses and each one took their on way. What comes after the Freezing Sea is numerous of villages and small towns, it’s a whole place with different kind of people who some spoke the common tongue while others had their own languages. Many of these people here knew nothing about Maldonia, Prophis or fighting for kingdoms and power.

They were so primitive and all they did was hunt, farm and eat fruits. Even the concept of wine or fine silks and satins was irrelevant to these people. They wore rugs mostly made of wool or cotton, the chronicles written explain how primitive these people were and how far they were behind life.

Aprophil woke up to find himself in the middle of nowhere. The first thing he felt was the pain on his bruised feet and the heat of the shining sun. The layers he wore suddenly made him feel very hot and he stood up to take them off. Then he sighed and looked sideways, there was no one, the men abandoned him. He cursed them out, but at least they didn’t leave with his boots, he reached out for the boots and put them on.

Then he looked at the jungle ahead of him, there was no cabin or village from his point of view, just a discrete jungle and he knew in any jungle ─ wild animals are always present. Good for him he carried a sword and a shield, so he was ready to tackle any challenge along the way, let it be a wild animal or just wild men.

He left his fur layers and gloves up a tree, and he marked the tree with his sword, his initials, “AA” on the tree. It meant, Aprophil Arteides and he did this just in case he was ready to go back home, he can find the tree and collect his belongings.