Chapter 2: The Last Meeting

Three and half years ago:

It was a bright and chilly October night.

The moon was full as it shone high above the sky as it softly illuminated every nook and cranny of the quaint kingdom. It was a cloudless night and there were no stars either.

Those with nefarious thoughts and plots were still up and hopping, not a modicum of weariness in them.

It was late at night, and it was the time that everyone was supposed to fast asleep. However, instead of sleeping in her bed, Gabriella stood at the window with her silk white robe on. She looked out over the courtyard covered by the night.

The grandfather clock started chiming, declaring midnight.

Gabriella stared intensely at a position and was up to the count of four hundred when she saw it.

The signal.

"Took you long enough." She mumbled softly.

There were three intermittent flashes of light that you normally wouldn't catch if you weren't looking with the utmost focus.

Gabriella opened the windows wide and looked behind her ensuring the door was locked before with practiced movements she let down the rope she had tied to her bedpost and climbed down the building.

Immediately her cloth covered feet touched the ground she felt a chill go up her spine. Gabriella hugged herself tight and felt goosebumps along her exposed arm.

As she ran towards the woods she could see her little puffs of air as little white clouds. "Oh why didn't I think it a good idea to take a jacket out." Gabriella muttered quite vexed with herself.

Gabriella slowed as she reached the dense pack of trees that was darker than the rest of the estate as it blocked out the moonlight. She always felt a little apprehensive entering the gloomy looking woods by this hour without even a bit of light but she couldn't not go in. Someone was in there waiting for her.

Gabriella took a glance behind her at the magnificent Gael Manor shrouded in shadows of the night and her heart settled.

Behind her, ever so suddenly she felt a strong grip on her shoulder and without so much as a word she was pinned to a tree.

"Bloody hell!" Gabriella took care to whisper although enraged as her arms were twisted in an awkward position behind her.

Arik drawled into her ear behind her in a voice so low, only his breath remained. "If I got a gold coin for every time you said that, I wouldn't need to inherit my ancestral fortune." He gave a low chuckle at the end.

Gabriella's heart pounded like a drum in her ears at his closeness and then she felt a mortifying embarrassment just wondering if he could hear it.

"When I'm free you better watch out." Gabriella said through gritted teeth. "You won't even have your close at hand family jewels when I'm through with you."

Arik's dick, the insensible thing gave a jump at that statement. It seemed to like the idea of being cut up with a knife by Gabriella.

Arik gave a long sigh that seemed fake even to himself. "Then for your future happiness and mine I'll have to reluctantly keep this intimate hold of you for as long as I possibly can, don't I?"

Saying so he suddenly moved his body even closer till there wasn't any space between them.

Gabriella gasped with shock and in total disbelief. He'd never so blatantly acted this much of a rouge.

"Ari, are you trying to take advantage of me?!"

"When you put it like that, I sound like a proper rogue, an unprincipled scamp." Arik faked an insulted tone.

He let go of her hands and turned her around so he could see her delicate face. Pink as a rose it was. "I was just trying to keep you warm." He said gently, pushing away the hair from her angry face.

Gabriella thought to herself that she'd be a proper idiot to believe that. With a Shiing a silver dagger with a rubied hilt appeared in her hand and pointed right at Arik's nether region.

Arik raised his hands up in surrender laughing as he did. "So you remembered to bring the dagger but not a coat." She always found a way to amuse him.

Arik's eyes carried with it a warmth only revealed to the woman in front of him. He hadn't seen her for a week but he felt like they'd been apart for years.

He was born and bred on the other side of the plane, in Fable. He lived there too. Arik's's family would never agree to this union but he didn't care. He was sure of what he wanted, where his happiness lied and it was all with Gabriella Gael.

This beautiful fire cracker before his eyes. He was slowly moving his business across the border. He would be able to settle down soon with her here in Faraway.

Gabriella was discretely admiring how good Arik looked, she could never get enough of him. As always Arik was decked in blinding white from head to toe.

He wore his mask again today, Gabriella mused. The thing covered half the face so she could only see his brilliant green eyes, lips which were perfect enough to make any woman jealous and a sharp jawline.

Gabriella retrieved her dagger with a humph and stretched her hand out in askance. Arik looked at her outstretched hand and placed his hand in hers. His hand was warm and reassuring but that was not what Gabriella wanted right now.

She dicarded his hand in a way Arik thought was a little heartless. "I meant for you to give me your cloak. It would do a much better job at keeping me warm thank you very much."

Arik took his white cloak off murmuring something that sounded like 'ungrateful little creature'.

After wearing his cloak and feeling his unique scent surround her, she let the smile in her heart reflect on her face.

Gabriella drew closer to Arik and ran her fingers over his neck and buried herself peacefully and dependently into Arik's arms. She then said in a tone that took on a whine, "Why can I not see your full face yet?"

If Arik didn't know her well enough by now he'd have thought her to be mental with how fast her countenance changed.

In the dark woods the young girl continued to ask. "Are you sure you are not unattractive? It does not matter you know." Gabriella played with her lover's fingers.

"You'll see it soon enough won't you?" Arik kissed her hair. "You'll see all of me." His voice was filled with ambiguity.

"You're more of a scoundrel each passing day." Gabriella's ears turned red as she hit him in the chest.

It was times like this that made Arik thank Neptune for his cursed eyes. He wouldn't be able to catch the slightest changes on Gabriella's face with there being no light if not for his night vision.

"Girls always say good looks are of no importance. Do you girls really mean it?" Arik asked as played with Gabriella's dark hair.

"Why?" Gabriella asked with squinted eyes. "Are you really ugly?" She got a tickle to her sides for her question and she laughed as she relented.

"I don't really mind if you're ugly." And Gabriella really didn't. She felt like she'd already fallen for Arik so how he looked like was really of little consequence although she didn't believe he could ever be unattractive. She pecked her sweetheart on the jaw.

"You should know I mostly like you for your eyes." Gabriella laughed cheekily. The first time they met she fell in love with his eyes first. She was an artist and his eyes were a strange kind of beautiful that they became her muse.

"Then I got lucky, didn't I?" Arik was filled with a sweet indescribable feeling. "I keep beating myself up about our first meeting. If I'd known I would love you as much as I do now I'd have curbed in my less than friendly manners."

He'd declared his love and intention to marry Gabriella many times before. But Gabriella hadn't told him she loved him back. She still felt insecure and felt their relationship wasn't balanced enough, which it wasn't.

Arik wore a mask and she didn't know what he looked like. Arik knew where she lived but she had not the slightest clue the street he took to go home in Fable. Arik knew all about her and her family and the only thing she knew was that his family was loaded.

He'd told her it was for her own good and that he was trying to protect her. From what? She didn't know but she trusted him. And it didn't sound all that unbelievable considering the first time they met he was on the run and covered in blood.

"You know how to behave now, that's all that matters. You also made it up to me with all the flowers and pastries you bring from Fable everytime we meet." Gabriella nodded her head in the direction of the colorful bouquet of Dreamonias bright enough to call anyone's attention even in the dark.

Dreamonias were rare rainbow like flowers that showed different colors to every different person. They're known by their seven colored stalk and they're also only capable of being grown in Fable where the trolls lived. You had to trick a troll to get a single one. Everyone knows they're extremely dangerous and stingy creatures. It would be ridiculously expensive even to those living in Fable to get one but Arik just brings a bouquet every other day. Gabriella once jokingly asked if he was the Troll king's son.

"They are pretty, yes. But I'm thinking of using drakon gold for our wedding." Arik suggested and Gabriella laughed gently.

"And assuming I agree to this lackluster proposal—"

"Lackluster? I'll have you know—" Gabriella soft laughter stopped Arik in his tracks. He was genuinely amazed at how much he reacted to her.

"Ari?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know how important you are to me?" Gabriella asked amongst the trees and shadows. The warmth of his cloak keeping away the night's chill.

"I know," Arik replied in a deep voice as he kissed her on the head. "But, you should always trust that I'll love you always."

Arik didn't know why he felt like he didn't want to leave. He always felt that way around Gabriella but he felt even more so today, like he wouldn't see her again if he left.

He took a huge risk coming out of Fable tonight. But this fleeting moments with Gabriella was what he lived for right now. His father had arranged a banquet for him tomorrow and he'd have to pay a deal of gold just to get on a portal to his kingdom this early in the morning. He'd have to show his face if he didn't want trouble with his clan and his godforsaken stepmother.

"I have urgent matters to deal with. Be a good girl and stay here for now."

"Where else would I go?" Gabriella rolled her eyes.

Arik placed a kiss on Gabriella's forehead, "Did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?"

"No, you didn't." Gabriella folded her arms. "Someone was preoccupied with taking advantage of me ."

Arik smiled patiently not minding the dig,"You are honestly beautiful." After speaking, he reached out his arms and pulled Gabriella into his embrace. After quite some time, he finally let her go.

"I will come find you by this time next month." Arik smiled as he promised. "We will be married by the next quarter."

His promise settled in Gabriella's heart. She believed it.

She faced him as she walked backwards for a while, leaving the wooded enclosure until she couldn't see him anymore.

Gabriella felt that her longing was too blatant which wasn't at all proper, but what was in this situation? She passively agreed to be in this secret relationship.

"The next time you see me I might have shorter hair." Gabriella couldn't help but shout into the night, waving her bouquet of dreamonias as she finally turned around and broke into a sprint back to the manor.

"You'd still look pretty whatever you do." Arik whispered into the night and turned to leave when he'd made sure she'd gone in through the window safely. She was a little monkey that one.

Arik only noticed he didn't have his cloak with him when he was on his snow white pegasus on his way to The Gates and he had nothing to keep away the chilling air.

Little did each of them know that they wouldn't see each other again for years. Gabriella was seventeen at the time and Arik, nineteen.