Forever and Ever

Sometime in the early birth of modern civilization, roughly around four-hundred years after the Great Flood incident that changed history forever, the world was in a simpler time. The people weren’t primitive, just discovering new inventions and technologies that would evolve over time and mastering it just as quickly as the world became very prosperous. Feudal Lords and Ladies were present even at this stage in the time line but held very restricted, limited power, though still extremely rich. No wars really ravaged the peaceful islands, all of that was thought to be behind them forever but occasionally a fight would suddenly break out between so-called kingdoms, more commonly known as countries, counties or even cities by more of the common folk. Presently, a war went on between two, a serene, aquatic island to the north and one, more earthbound based to the deep south. The north island held a much respected and an extremely beautiful princess, directly related to the Feudal Lord of that territory, but with that power, she was forbidden to even speak with the lower class unless her father said otherwise. She was an only child from a family of humanoid alligator demons of a well respected and loyally served reputation. They have come for humanity’s sake, defending, or, rather, helping to defend the human race which gave them so much publicity. Their island in which they governed was always clean and habitatual, they seldom let other demons occupy the land after inspecting them up, down, left, right, outside and inside to make sure the safety is upholded. So far, they have accepted only a few ten demons every decade so as to not make further complications or risks to the human civilians. The people would address them royally, as they do in a monarchy, but they did not fear them, after all, in their human forms, they really looked no different than them with the exception of their eyes.

Each of their monarchy members always had those golden-amber eyes or that of an alligator unless they were human who served as simple servants or personal friends. Some of the poverty stricken people worshipped them as gods and goddesses from their power as most of their army were made up of their kinds. The war was almost to the turning point when the law became stricter out of fear of terrorists breaching the palace, that no outsider could ever even so much as set foot on the ground of the island. The princess, of course, hated that rule. How would she ever plan to marry the man of her dreams when she couldn’t venture out of her humble home in the first place to meet him? She was always outgoing, never shy or quiet, but always so hasty to meet new people, so she knew just about everyone on the island. Boys and men were not hesitant to serve her needs from her magnificent beauty. She held very kind and compassionate eyes, never scary or deadly like the males of her family, long, raven hair always in a bun at the top with a small, golden crown to adorn it with royalty, those feudal, baggy dresses, the ones with layers and layers of kimono shirts piled on top of each other. For hers, the outside layer was as smooth as silk, pink as fresh roses with a cleanliness that almost sparkled with delight and long, soft red pants hidden under it and left a train behind her as she walked down an outside porch outlining the courtyard. She possessed no jewelry to heighten her immense beauty since she did not need it or make up to stain her soft, smooth face. Like her family, she had longitivity, looking like a young, prestige woman but had to be at least two or one hundred years since her birth.

The sun was slowly setting down, letting twilight make her feminine figure glow with holiness as she made her way down to the sculpted fountain but stepping on some cobblestones until she rested down on a rock carved bench. Her attendant, a female or her kind and disguised as a normal human from the village quickly pursued her until she reached the fountain as well after running on the grass. “Lady Asa, you aren’t supposed to be here. Just imagine what your father would say if he found out. It’s too risky. Come inside.”

“Thank you for telling me, Sofia. I was just getting some fresh air. Please excuse my absence.” Sofia bowed slightly to her, being her cousin it wasn’t really important between them, and then led the way back inside the spacious, wooden palace. The main room, the throne room as everyone called it, was where she entered to be greeted so harshly by her father as her mother sat next to him on a large and comfy pillow like his and their daughter’s.

“Where the fuck have you been? I told you never to go outside without someone accompanying you! You know how dangerous it is for you to go alone! An assassin could’ve eliminated you!” She quickly became used to his bitter yelling since he would intoxicate himself mindlessly almost every night since she was born but her mother allowed it only for logical reasons.

"Please, father, I didn’t mean to cause anyone to worry. I only wanted to visit the outside world for a change. Is that such an offense? I would rather be a prisoner than to stay at home for the rest of my life. At least I get to see other people.” Her father began ruffling his chin, thinking in deep thought until a wicked smile spread across his face.

“Then if that’s what you want, so be it. You don’t want to stay here? Fine, it’s no problem; however, you openly defied my rules so that counts as a crime. You will stay in prison until you are as old as I am to teach you a lesson.” She jumped slightly when two guards entered and quickly grabbed her arms. “And no one will visit you. Proceed!” The immediately carried her away with much struggled attempts to free herself until she was chained up like a regular criminal as they shoved her outside, saying their apologies after their actions. They carefully made her board one of those enclosed lifting seats. The curtains on each side concealed her face and tears as she was lifted by four strong men away from her home and up through a dirt path surrounded by trees. She only made it about halfway towards the isolated prison until a rustling came from the bushes, causing the men to carefully place her on the ground and wield their weapons to defend themselves. Suddenly, the beast erupted from seemingly nowhere and slashed straight through each of the guards then discarded them to creep right outside the wood she hid in. She gasped at their final groans of agony since she did not know how to fight nor liked violence at all once she felt the creature’s presence just right before her window. She slammed her eyes shut, trying to erase the situation until the beast suddenly whimpered and crashed to the ground, making her open her stunned orbs after that moment.

She quickly rushed outside, almost tripping over a slaughtered corpse of a fallen man with three near him and the limp body of a large, sword-speared wolf as a handsome, thin man stood just behind it. He looked a bit older than her, but held those same eyes so he must’ve been one of her kind, only she didn’t see him before, ever. He, also, must have longitivity, living for almost three hundred or two hundred years, making him older by default. He had that messy kind of spiky dark brown hair which laid flat on his head but thicker than hers, a small black beard connecting his side burns and ended in a point at his chin and a little hair just below his bottom lip but he refused to grow a mustache. His face was sterner, uncaring-looking with a frown darkening his looks as he wore a black scarf tied around his neck, since it was in the middle of the winter season, with the ends laying over his chest. He shielded himself from the bitter winds with a dark beige jacket with many pockets on the front as he casually placed his left hand into the pocket of his dark brown pants. Everything about him was very casually and rough exterior, as shown by the cigarette in his mouth, but he slowly brought his cool eyes up to meet hers, sending both in their own worlds momentarily. She could tell that underneath, he was muscular and built like a soldier in the war until her head snapped back as he approached her smoothly. She became nervous from his disposition just in front of her but shielded her nose from the column of smoke as he blew it out slowly from his nose. He looked so handsome and sexy to her that it was extremely difficult to hide a blush even if her sleeve hid her face. After a few silent moments of just staring into each other’s eyes, he took his cigarette out and flicked away the ashes to fall on the corpse while breathing out more of that harmful air.

“By the looks of you, I’d say you were a princess. Why are you out here?” His voice was smooth, though traced a little with hardness and of smoke. He put the cigarette back in his mouth, letting her watch the other end glow ember as it burned the ash. “I said why are you out here?” She thought quickly at his repeat with a slightly annoyed tone, she didn’t want to make him angry or suffer the same fate as that wolf.

“Um, I…I was banished from my house to live like another prisoner. It’s because of this war. Are you from here?” He silently shook his head and blew out a skillful smoke ring to the side, to not choke her. “How did you get here then? My father made the law so no one can step foot on this island. There are security guards everywhere.”

“Eh, they don’t bother me. Besides, I thought war was over. You better hurry to prison or he’ll send more guards after you.” He started to walk away casually until he gently grabbed his arm until he turned around to face her with curiosity. “What’s wrong now? Need an escort?”

“I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. I don’t intend on going to prison so…I-I have nowhere to go.”

“Oh well. Like they say, shit happens.” He carelessly shrugged his arm away from her and continued on; minding his own business until a soft body quickly embraced him from behind and clung tightly. He looked over his shoulder to her only to see her letting a few tears fall out and dampen his clothes. She finally let her rejected feelings catch up to her and her father’s abusive yelling that publicity didn’t discover yet. He sighed irritably then turned around as she backed up a few steps and tried her tears.

“I’m sorry but I have no place to go. I don’t want to spend my time in prison. Would you want me to stay with you? I won’t be a burden. I may be a princess but I’m not stuck-up like everyone in my family. Please? I’ll do anything that you want; I swear it on my life.”

“Oh alright, already. If it’ll make you stop then follow me. First, you can’t stay on this island so I’ll just keep you on Outset. Now, just keep quiet or we’ll both be in prison.” She nodded in understanding but quickly became surprised once he swept her easily off of her feet. Such a gentleman he was! He carried her away from the path and immediately ran through the forest until he reached the shores where his medium-sized boat was docked. She tightly held on to him all the way there until he carefully set her down on one of the wooden benches then started quietly sailing away towards the southwest.