by Melanie Ray
"Protector, I assume?" Almo handed Yed a ton of papers. "I've filled out everything I could remember."
Yed looked at the stack that was given to him. He'd been thorough.
Ezra looked over at Almo. "It's not your place to do this."
"I don't care. I know they are not mine, but I don't care," Almo said firmly. "You and I belong together Ezra. We always have and we always will."
Yed just dropped the papers to the floor and glared at him. "No way. You are not gonna be her unconditional."
Almo himself let out a small growl but remained polite. "Protector? Pardon, but you have not even looked at my-"
"I'm getting closer," Ezra interrupted. "If you don't want Marni to be my unconditional Protector Yeducavich Smilliat, then Almo should be it."
Yed bitterly picked the papers back up. What could he say to that? He studied the papers, surely there was something to make this guy get out? Went to secondary schooling. Damn. Good career as a pediatrician? Double damn. Statements from friends, past girlfriends, all good and ended on good terms? Damn, damn, damn.
The guy was perfect.
"I'll call it in," Yed said. Once the good words of his friends and girlfriends were confirmed though, there wasn't much more to do. He looked at the smiling Almo. I don’t know, I don’t like him.
Almo gave him an odd look. "Sir?"
Look at him. The polite perfect bastard who would end up raising his kids.
Almo looked over at Ezra. "Is he okay?"
The warno that would end up with Ezra every night. Yed thought. Who'd kiss her and hug her and call her his own. Who'd live there and raise his babies. Who’d move into the Dens and watch his kids grow up.
Ezra continued to give Yed a strange look. "Protector?"
When he himself never even felt them kick because Ezra was repulsed by him now.
Enough...was enough.
Protector Yeducavich Smilliat did the one thing he should have never done. The one thing he was trained to never do.
He lost it.
In one fell swoop, Yed grabbed Almo’s arm and spun around, twisting it hard, at least a fracture would result. The painful screams from the man did nothing as he let go and kicked him out of the house. He locked the door and set his attention on Ezra. She was yelling something, but he grabbed her hand and brought him close to her. Her scent. Even if the pheromones were lower, his warno instinct was pumping. Forgetting all his training, he broke his future in one fell swoop as he kissed her.
She struggled, but he couldn’t let her go. He tasted a woman for the first time in a way which he had never known. In a way most men took for granted. She refused to open her mouth, still disgusted by him, but he had still tasted the sensation of his lips on hers. A man to a woman.
"What's the matter with you?" Ezra cried out. "Stop!"
Yed gently touched her belly. "Let me feel them, you’ve never let me feel them." He held her closely against her will. "I just want what I can never have!"
As he said that, the door was busted down.
Yed's replacement Protector quickly got a hold of Yed.
"Let me go or I'll-!"
It didn't take long for enforcement to come again. This time, it wasn't Yed they were helping. Outside medical care was trying to help out Almo, who was still screaming in pain. As Yed was brought to the ground, he stayed still. He knew he lost control. It was something warnos were famous for, but he hadn't lost control for many centuries. Not since he was a kid. Not since he lost everything.
Ezra watched, unwilling or unable to say anything, as Yed was walked out calmly, with chains and handcuffs.
King Sheward shook his head as he looked at Yed behind bars. "Protector Yeducavich Smilliat. How could you lose control?"
Yed shrugged. "I am who I am. Protector or not."
"You are a warno. I know, I know." King Sheward shook his head. “Ezraponia Cattral's new Protector will take good care of her, I assure you."
Yed didn't reply as he stared ahead at his cave-like prison.
"I don't know what to do with you," the king groaned. "I didn't 'cause this to give you pain, I really didn't, but the warno kingdom needs support. If this were to come out that the Warno Kingdom were directly involved, waryes would have more to use against us. They don't need anymore ammunition."
Yed still didn't reply.
"What is it you want?" King Sheward asked. "Do you want me to cancel your Protectorship and let you be with her?"
Yed's tail couldn't help but droop. “It wouldn't matter. She hates me with all her heart."
"Well, I'd demand she'd be with you," the king stated.
Yed shook his head, he didn’t want that either.
"So you want pardoned and stay a Protector?" The king seemed confused. "I'm not a magician, I can pardon you or you can be with her and eliminate your Protector status. I cannot do both. So which is it? Forget her and move on or quit protecting?"
Yed didn't know how to answer that one. "I can't forget, but I can't stop being a Protector. The waryes' are going to pay for what they did. I'm going to get them back, and I'm going to get my family back."
"Yes, yes. Your mother and sister." The king tried to hide his sigh, but Yed heard it. "You will never accept that they are really gone?"
"The waryes killed everyone in my family in one blow, but they stole the women. To what, kill them later?" Yed stole a glance at the king. "Makes no sense, they have to be alive."
"Why must you try so hard?" Queen Trivell’s voice was sweet, not rough or commanding. She stood firmly next to her husband.
King Sheward waved her off. "Honey, I'll be with you in a second."
"Why must you try so hard?" the queen repeated to Yed. "I understand you want them back, but you have another family you should be striving to hold onto. Don't you, Protector?"
Yed didn't know how to answer the queen. He had barely even met her, what did she care about his problem?
"You're in love with someone and she's carrying your kids. Why not just be with her?" Queen Trivelle asked again
Yed looked down. "I can't, she thinks I'm a monster."
"Why? It wasn't your fault, right?" The queen looked over at the king. "I take it this is the pure warno you spoke of earlier?"
"Yes, it is but under the circumstances, sweetums, I couldn't let him reveal that the kingdom was involved." King Sheward insisted.
"What?" The queen sounded outraged. "You will not let him tell her? Or what? "
"Treason," Yed answered for the king.
The queen glared at the king.
"Honey, you don’t-it's for the good of-I love you?" King Sheward mumbled.
"Momma!" Prince Regwallis came running over to his mother.
“I can understand your past mistakes, but this?” Queen Trivelle humphed as she picked Regwallis up. "We'll see how much you think of this kingdom tonight. And the next night....and the next night," she growled.
The king stomped his foot. "If it gets out-!"
"Then let me tell her and that's it!" The queen demanded. "Surely one girl would not be believed for spouting anything bad? Who would believe one warno, with no one backing her up?"
Yed watched as the king and queen bickered back and forth. The king and queen were very close, unlike many royalty arrangements, they had actually loved and respected each other. King Sheward was shrewd, but against his wife, he didn’t always win.
Regwallis wiggled out of his mom's grasp and went over to Yed. "I think Mommy's gonna win. Don't you?"
Yed shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch them argue. He'd never watched anyone argue so much with the actual king. The queen didn't even really know him, she just knew that he was in love. Was the concept of love really that important? Females did think a lot of love, but would the queen do all that for the concept?
He saw his hope fall to pieces as he watched the queen pick Regwallis back up and continue to argue as she walked away, the king right behind her.
Yed continued to sit
in the jail not looking around. He'd already seen everything around him for some time now and it wasn't changing. When am I getting out of here already? The king said he'd pardon me. He shook his head. Why should the king pardon him? He forcefully held Ezra and apparently had fractured an innocent male’s arm. It wasn't real rough, but it wasn't right, Almon hadn’t tried anything. How could he do that? What made him lose such control? Was it really her scent? Had Ezra’s scent spiked somehow or was it something else?
"Yed." A familiar voice came to his ears. He turned to his right quickly as he saw Ezra. What am I supposed to say after all that? Sorry?
Ezra came closer to his jail bars. "I can't believe you actually lost it." She took his hand and placed it on her belly. "Better?"
Yed didn't say a word as he finally felt a kick. "They're pretty strong."
"What do you expect? You are the dad," Ezra said as she smiled.
Yed gave her a simple smile, looks like the queen won. "You're not mad anymore?"
"I am, but not at you and..." Ezra just shrugged. "I know the truth, Yed, the queen called for me and told me. In exchange for a pardon for you, I must promise to never tell another living soul." She gripped on to his bar. "You were duped like me. I'm sorry I didn't see it."
"Don't be sorry. If it was my choice I never would have lied, but you know treason, it's not the greatest," Yed reminded her. "You'd probably be charged for treason too if you tell anyone."
"I know, it's not fair," Ezra said bitterly. "So, you wanted to talk to me that night?"
"Work something out. Yeah," Yed admitted. “Sorry I was so abrupt too. I wasn’t on my best behavior.”
“You treated me the same way you treat strangers, I know. You don’t get close to everyone.” Ezra let her fingers slip down the bars. "It wouldn't have mattered, I never would have agreed."
"I know it was a big decision," Yed continued. "It wouldn’t have done a great amount of good, but we can’t fade into extinction without a fight. I mean, think about what the waryes did to us."
Ezra shook her head at Yed and laid her head on the bars. "The waryes must have hurt your family and they hurt you, but they had nothing to do with my family's destruction. It was all the king.”
"King Sheward?" Yed probed. “Ezzy?”
Ezra gulped. “Everyone thought I was too young, but I do remember. Perhaps details are lost, but it is one of my clearest early memories. It’s tragic, but at least I have an inkling of what I used to be. Only a young child, I barely had the capability of speech. A gift that would spare me from the tragedy that had occurred.” She turned away, unable to look at Yed. “I had watched it all burn to the ground. The flames devoured my house until it was nothing but smoking cinders. Windows I had gazed out of as I was learning to walk were shattered to pieces upon the dirt.”
Ezra’s breathing had slowed as she closed her eyes, the images coming back. “My nose felt itchy and I coughed from all the gagging smoke that hung thick in the air. My view diminished as my mother did the only thing she could. She placed me onto her left shoulder, tummy to tummy and made me face backward. Her support felt weak, like I would almost drop, but I understand now why I never did. She trembled in fear, but she had held me tightly. So tightly...”
Ezra tried to look back towards Yed, but it was too hard. For centuries she had not talked about this, to anyone. “All the houses around the neighborhood had been reduced to ashes.” Her eyes squinted and her forehead wrinkled. “There was a sound. I remember the most horrible sound, like a melon being sliced in two in the distance. It was constant, slower than the ticking of a clock but much more painful to the ears. It was irritating and screeching, like nails against a chalkboard.” She felt her heart race within her chest. “I remember the pleas and screams, but I didn’t understand what it meant. Someone was getting h-hurt...” She was losing it, she felt it as she wiped her watery eyes. “That’s all I knew. Then I heard a voice. An innocent voice, very young like mine.”
“Want to play with my yo-yo female?”
“It had been a boy in the line next to ours.” Ezra continued, determined to finish. Yed was her Protector, the father of her child, her best friend. He deserved to know. “I had noticed him before, but had not wanted to say anything. He had a blue and white tail and eyes with a remorseful shine. He had been held like I was, but his eyes spoke volumes that he knew more about what was going on. At the time, I thought he had a sad smile because he wanted to play, so I indulged myself.” She chuckled and scratched her eyebrow. “I had never played with the toy before, so the string dropped and rambled against mother’s leg. The boy chuckled at me but Mother snapped. She handed it back. I had felt bad, but then the boy said something.”
“Don’t worry female , my daddy will come.”
“Don’t worry, my daddy will come female.” Ezra echoed the words of her memory. “Stupidest words ever spoken. I turned away from the boy and watched the line behind me.”
Ezra turned her stomach upon the wall next to Yed’s jail cell and rubbed the tip of her fingers gently against the bars. “Then...I-I remember...that moment. I heard mother scream as his filthy hands picked me up. The citrines and garnet jewels upon his golden crown would have shone like a beacon if the sky hadn’t been gray.” She rubbed her shoulders feeling a tremble within her soul. “His eyes had pity within them, but I didn’t care. I will never feel pity for our king,” she spat. “He betrayed us.” Her voice grew into a cold growl. “He stood there surveying, watching, while we were given to the enemy. While we were slaughtered one by one for them. I was the female who would never cause trouble. I was the female who was too young to matter.”
She banged against the bars as tears flooded her eyes. The smells, the awful sound of heads being cut, the screams and pleas of mercy. “I-I was given to...” She sniffled trying to bring herself under control. She felt Yed’s hand touching hers. “I was given to another man.” She leaned in closer to her friend’s embrace. “The sounds of mother were gone. Father was long gone. I watched the sun hide like a coward as it sank below our mountains. There was nothing left for me, no one to help me understand or to hold me. The last thing I remember was looking upwards at the stars all around me.”
“So worn out, you fell asleep,” Yed finally said.
“Yes, I suppose...wait.” Ezra looked up into Yed’s eyes. “How did you...”
Yed gave her a slight smirk with shining eyes. “Want to play with my yo-yo female?”
“What?” Ezra thought back to the ridiculous boy. Turquoise haired. Loved the yo-yo. “Y-yed?”
“Ezzy.” Yed grabbed the jail bar with his left hand and with his right brought her closer. “I never even knew that was you.” He stroked her hand gently. “Ezraponia, my father came right before my family’s turn.” He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry he didn’t come sooner.” He reached out to help Ezra dry her tears.
" I hate the king as much as I hate the waryes," Ezra sighed in desperation, "and now he still controls my life."
Yed tried to give her a hug through the bars. "I'm sorry, Ezraponia Saga."
“How can you protect someone like that?” Ezra had to ask. “How?”
“It wasn’t his choice, just like the current treaty,” Yed explained. “The waryes, Ezra, they play with our kingdom. They make King Sheward give in or promise attacks, vicious bloody attacks. That doesn’t justify anything, and he has done a lot of unforgivable things but, if he didn’t, our kingdom wouldn’t be here.”
Ezra nodded, but she wouldn’t be so forgiving. “I guess I better agree and get you out of here." She tried to smile to remove her sadness. "The other Protector isn't half as much fun as you," she said with a forced chuckle. "So Mr. I-follow-the-rules-no-matter-what? Do you mind telling me where that attitude from you came from?"
Yed nervously chuckled. "Huh?"
"Now the belly, I understand." Ezra smiled as she wiped her last tears away. "They are yours and I didn't really want you touching me. I didn't even want you talking to me. Hur
ting Almon though, and that kiss?"
Yed groaned. "Weakness? Scent?" He shook his head. "It won't happen again, it wasn’t because I like you more than a friend, absolutely not. It's just that, well, you know if you're gonna-"
"Break the rules you might as well get the most out of it?" Ezra chuckled as she finished his sentence. "Yeducavich Smilliat, what am I going to do with you?"
"Take me back as your Protector?" Yed asked.
"Duh," Ezra laughed. "One minute you're a player at a restaurant, a Protector guarding me, and then you're breaking my ex-boyfriend’s arm for no reason."
"Just a fracture, and it won't happen again," Yed said firmly. "It was a temporary loss of control. The kiss too, I never had one, and it just happened."
Ezra nodded. "You know, I never really loved Almo back, he's just a nice guy and I never wanted to hurt his feelings."
Yed nodded his head. "Fine."
“So...” Ezra paused. "Why don't we wait until after our kids are born to figure out what to do?"
Yed moaned. "That's probably not a good idea. You should find someone to help, I mean they are going to be tough to take care of."
"Well where are you running off too?"
"Oh no." Yed shook his head. "Don't go there."
"I'm not going anywhere, I'm standing right here," Ezra joked. From the way he had treated Almon, there were only two reasons he would do that. Jealous he would take away his chance at family, or taking away her. Considering it was Yed, and his past, she knew it was number one. "I don't mean anything beyond Protector/Protectee, but they are yours and you could help for a little while? Until we really find someone?"
Yed looked down at the ground. Help her raise them? For a little while? This is not a good idea. This is just not a good idea. "...okay."
Ezra grinned. "Thanks."
"Just Protector/Protectee," Yed said firmly. "I promise I won’t let my emotions run away like that again. I need to continue to be a Protector now more than ever."
Ezra nodded. As much as she really wanted him to just let it all go, she knew he couldn't. His whole life had revolved around being a Protector. “Ready to go home finally?"