The Lineage Ch. 10

Tighter and tighter the man gripped his spear, as if it would keep him more firmly rooted to the world. He held his breath securely in his chest, worried any exhale might alert the beast stalking him. The sweat rolling down his brow was worrisome - should it fall too loudly, he would be found. With each passing moment he could hear it stomping closer towards him, its harsh footfalls resounding so loudly through the gargantuan building's halls that the painting across from him shook wildly on the nail used to hold it to the wall. On that painting, the royal family he had protected without fail for a decade smiled warmly back at him. King Trinas and his lovely wife, Queen Marianne, along with their three young children, were so picturesque they seemed ready to jump out of the frame then and there. His queen's smile was especially comforting, holding him for hours at attention while on duty.

The man perked up even more as those footfalls drew violently close. He puffed out his chest and strained his spine for maximum size. His entire form went rigid as iron to the point no military commander in the kingdom would ever find flaw with his appearance. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a dark shadow looming around the corner, a sinister scowl sewn upon it. He only ever faltered slightly when the being casting that shadow rounded the corner, and that sinister scowl grew exponentially more terrifying. Finally, a gulp fell down his gullet - the first sound he had made in countless minutes.

Blonde hair bounced erratically behind her as the woman stomped forward, holding up the hem of her skirted dress as to not trip over it. She had clearly lost her shoes a few floors ago, given how her barren soles were being beaten directly into the ground. The normally-beautiful lady was now wearing a mask of vile, putrid hatred - exemplified by the red, pulsating eyes and jaw locked so tight not even an ogre could pry it open. Veins like tendrils travelled across her forehead, nearly rupturing with each step she took. They bulged out even more when two unsuspecting servants came out of a doorway in front of her, staring at her stupidly as she approached.

"MOVE! MOVE! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!" Queen Marianne shrieked at them, causing the pair to take shelter next to a palace guard so still he could have been a statue. The three cowered with fear as she passed, finally knocking a painting of her own family off the wall as she did so. Glass which once protected her family's image crinkled across the ground. Marianne pressed on, undaunted.

She cursed herself under her breath for allowing the castle to be built to such a scale. The woman promised to have it torn down and replaced with a miniature after this was over. Bringing herself all the way down from her chambers to the throne room was far too laborious of a task this moment. Only minutes ago she was wasting away, staring out the window in deathly silence as she had done for days on end by now. Under her orders, no one was to disturb her. Even her own husband and children were hesitant to approach. This cumulative effect came to a head when a servant finally burst into her room, sweating so profusely he looked as he were melting. Marianne stared at him from across the room, unnerved and insulted by his intrusion - yet the look in his eye told her the news she had been waiting weeks to hear. The man had not even spoken as she rushed past him, pounding down the endless stairs.

Two guards stood at the end of the hall now as the force of nature citizens bent their knee to approached them. Four eyes bulged out at her as she scowled at them. They could barely bring themselves to open the massive double doors to the throne room, and so the queen was forced to shove the wooden slabs open by herself. A few dozen head turned in her direction from what they were doing, be it eating or conversing or simply standing guard, she had the entire throne room's attention - including two people at the far end.

The sight of them caused Marianne to create tight balls with her fists. The first half of the pair, a tall, imposing guardsman with a thick lock of black, unkempt facial hair and a gloating grin set upon his cheeks, held his chin up so high it was in the clouds. Dark, beady eyes reminded the queen of her husband's own, but she found no comfort in this. Armor which coated the man neck to toe gleamed brightly under the morning sunlight coming through the painted glass above the thrones behind her.

It was the other half of the pair, however, that genuinely sent Marianne straight over the edge. Yet it wasn't the girl's appearance, from her freshly-washed hair to her flawless, nearly painted face to the dress she now wore, which barely was able to contain her bountiful chest yet coated the rest of her form with ease. No, instead it was the expression the young woman wore - that of pain and discomfort of how the guard standing next to her was holding her forearm with such force her fingers were stark white. Marianne saw red.

His chin was raised even higher into the sky as his queen approached. "Good morning, my queen. I hope..."

"GET YOUR GODDAMN HANDS OFF HER!" her voice locked shut the man's jaw, along with the rest of the room. Even the little lady's eyes bulged.

His vision rapidly darted between the queen and the elf he held, the heart in his chest pounding away as Marianne drew ever nearer. "B-but my queen... I don't understand... is this not the woman you were searching for...?"

"I said take your damn hands off her! I will not say it again!" she growled, a bit quieter than before as she neared him. As if the elf had heated up to oven-like temperatures, the guard immediately retracted his hand and rubbed it tenderly with his other paw. That cocky demeanor of his sank straight into the floor as he took a few steps back.

He gulped loudly, "I... I do not understand, m-my queen... your instructions were for us to bring this woman here... she walked right up to us this morning and turned herself in. We nearly fought over who would bring her to you... s-so we chose to equally share the reward for her capture..."

"Your reward will be to keep your miserable head on your shoulders! Get the hell out of my sight!" her voice resounded off the throne room walls. The guard went pale as the elf's flesh, and the two of them locked eyes. Genuinely fearing for his life at his once-pleasant queen's threat, he turned around rapidly and rushed out of the room with his tail between his legs. Marianne watched him go until the doors shut loudly behind his back, then turned her attention to the elf. Her laborious exercise caught up to the queen, and she heaved heavily in the center of her own throne room.

Her blue eyes fell down to the little woman, who was watching her intently, yet silently. Marianne studied her, grateful to see her skin was still unblemished, at least as far as her head and hands went. Everything else was covered by a dress someone had clearly stuffed her in - yet it still creaked around her generous body. Every few moments the elf would visibly shake in terror, though she seemed as if she were trying her best to contain it. The queen could feel dozens of eyes staring at them, their visions waiting with bated breath.

Marianne upturned her nose. "Out," she exhaled. The word had barely left her mouth when people shot out of their chairs or simply started scurrying like insects, flanking out of the room until the two women were alone. Fiery red eyes darted about, disturbed at how much influence the queen carried. She looked at Marianne and the queen looked at her. Both heavily breathed a bit. Finally, for the first time in weeks, a smile stretched across the queen's face and she tilted her head lovingly.

"Zenna..." her smooth, comforting tone fell. Yet even as she reached out for the elf, the blue-haired woman took a step back from her. Her pale face twisted in despair.

"Zenna," she repeated. Undeterred, she made another grab for the girl's arm. Yet the elf she called out to kept walking backwards in equal measure.

"Zenna! Stop that!" she commanded and reached again for the girl's arm. In response the little woman took an even bigger step back and made a quiet whining noise. Having been separated from her for so long, Marianne was growing visibly frustrated.

"Enough! Come here!" the queen barked, making another grab for the girl. Zenna opened her mouth in surprise yet was unable to retract her arm in time. Marianne would have touched her on this last attempt, had another voice and another arm on her own not grabbed her attention.

"Marianne!" boomed a deep tone behind her while digits wrapped into her silken arm. Although enraged for a moment, the queen paused when she spun around, finding her husband glaring at her with sweat pouring down into his beard. Those beady eyes of his subdued her to the point she snapped out of her fervor. The two royals stared at each other momentarily before a new set of footsteps clattering caught their attention. Both of them turned to see their three children rushing into the throne room, pausing to pant like hounds as they entered.

Trinas released his wife and took a step back. Queen Marianne relaxed herself, taking her arm up to rub the sweat off her brow as she came down from her high. She had been building up this moment in her head for so long it simply took over when news of the elf's return reached her. She spun back around to see Zenna, still unnerved by the blonde's behavior. The elf did not speak, yet her eyes begged for answers as she shivered some.

Marianne could barely stand to meet her eyes and instead rubbed the back of her head, turning her vision away. Her face grew hot as she felt eyes drilling into her back. There was so much she wanted to say. Not just to the elf, but to everyone surrounding her. How she wanted to both scold and embrace the girl she had chased away only days after meeting her, and how it sent her through agony for weeks, only able to imagine what the little woman must be going through at any given moment. Marianne's cheeks burned more as she recounted her sins, nearly forcing herself on the helpless girl just to sate her own desires. Zenna had been the key which liberated the queen from her gilded cage, which only made it hurt all the more when that key was stolen away from her. While her one hand kept rubbing away feverishly at the back of her head, her other hand went to her thigh.

Her toes curled as she recounted how the elf felt inside her. Zenna's scent and taste and mindbreaking sensation as Marianne took her inside herself. Throughout those moments the queen felt as if she and the elf would be inseparable forever, a new piece of her family to love alongside her husband and children. The queen had spent innumerable hours since then rubbing her own belly, ashamed of how comfortable her life was while that little woman was out there, somewhere, suffering at the hands of gods-know-what. Marianne knew there was a piece of her heart that had gone away with Zenna - and how she would never be whole again without her.

But even as the elf stood here before her, Marianne felt no more complete. Her blue eyes were finally dragged up out of her self-pity and she met the girl's vision. She was shivering less now. At the time, it was obvious to no one how Zenna's demeanor had changed. She was still timid and frightful, sure - yet the aura around her suggested something about her was altered compared to when they last saw her. But for this moment, Marianne hardly took notice. She was still kicking herself silly for how she treated the elf. She wanted to hug her. She wanted to make love to her lips. She wanted to smack her across the cheek for worrying her so much. She wanted to kneel down and bury her sobbing face into her belly and beg forgiveness. She wanted to lock the elf up and throw away the key so she could always know she was safe. She wanted the elf to shout and scream and throw her own little hand into Marianne's face if it meant she would be properly reprimanded.

Yet, more than anything, she just wanted to hear her speak. Queen Marianne gathered herself and stood tall, calming herself and taking her vision to Zenna's plush red lips, waiting for them to move. Slowly the girl's face changed, from that of fear to that of questioning. She followed Marianne's gaze with her fingers until she found them on her mouth. She rubbed them tenderly, coaxing them into letting words pass through the gates. Zenna glanced around, seeing Trinas was also awaiting her voice. On the other side of Marianne were three people she didn't recognize, yet they seemed strangely familiar. The two young men scanned the elf yet also remained silent. The final of the trio, a blonde girl, seemed strangely reminiscent of Marianne. She also seemed to be biting her lip for some reason, and her eyes darted more quickly than the two beside her.

Still with her fingers on her lips she returned her attention to the queen, a sorrowful look in her eyes. Zenna had also been picturing the moment of their reunion. Dreading it, was more accurate. Even as the guard dragged her through the streets towards the palace, she could already hear Marianne's voice in her ears. Whether it was enraged or sobbing, she could not place it. Yet as they now stood here, the queen just barely holding back the dam as it was, Zenna could not bring herself to add insult to injury; Marianne had punished herself enough over these last few weeks.

So instead, she did something no one in the room was expecting.

She smiled, even just a tiny bit.

"You know Marianne... you stole my first kiss..."

Immediately, the queen went bright red all across her face. This seemed to be the first time she even considered she had taken the virginity of Zenna's lips.

"MOM!" the three people behind the queen shouted in frustrated unison at Marianne, although the voice of the young blonde woman rang louder than the other two. Zenna raised an eyebrow at the word.

"Seriously, Marianne? You had to go and do that to her," Trinas scolded his wife, shaking his head. "She was likely saving that for someone special, and you went and took that opportunity right out of her grasp. Shame on you!"

The queen's hands went to cover her blushing face in embarrassment. "Oops... I... I didn't know... I'm so... so sorry..."

Zenna giggled, her smile growing, "it's fine, you didn't know. Not like you gave me a choice in the matter, anyway... with how you came over me so readily..."

The four pairs of eyes behind her burrowed deeper into Marianne, with her husband becoming especially disappointed. "Do you genuinely have no shame, my wife? I thought you told us the girl was consenting to what you two were doing?"

"S-she was!" the queen tried defending herself, yet the elf shook her head in a manner that suggested otherwise.

"How can we say that I was in agreement? I was just minding my own business, sitting in the bath comfortably when you intruded into my room, took off your own clothes, forced yourself down on me..."

Marianne squealed loudly, "Ze-Zenn-a! No! That's not what happ...!"

"...but it is what happened!" Zenna cut in, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I laid there and begged to be left alone and you started feeling me up, touching me in all sorts of places, just imagining how we were about to..."

"N-NO! NO! NO! NO!" the queen was growing more and more flustered, trying to use her voice to cover up Zenna's words. She waved her hands around in the air wildly even as her face grew to magma-like levels. She began walking towards the girl, "t-that's not true! S-stop! T-they don't need to know about that! W-why are you...!?" she was stopped suddenly when the elf leapt forward, wrapping her arms around the queen. Marianne went silent, staring down at the little woman as her own arms were pinned to her sides. The group behind her went silent also, breathing slowly as to not disturb how Zenna was embracing the family matriarch.

With her face buried in Marianne's bosom, the queen felt Zenna's hot breath clean through her dress. The tiny yet comforting arms around her, along with the elf's own motherly endowments pressing into the royal belly, soothed the blonde in a way she had hardly felt in decades. The pair stayed like that for a while, letting their contact replace what would have been endless minutes of conversation. It was as if a runaway child had realized the error of her ways and had come back home to her mother's embrace. Yet as Marianne placed her hands on Zenna's back as well, which of them was the mother and which of them was the daughter - well, it was hard to say.

Baby blue hair gave way to pale skin as Zenna upturned her head to look at the taller woman. The smile on her face was infinitely warmer now than it had been those weeks ago, and Marianne could hardly wonder what had happened to the elf in that time. She hardly seemed to be the same person.

"I thought a lot about what you told me that day... back on the balcony. Back then, I genuinely hated most of it. I didn't understand most of it, too. There was already so much information being shoved into me it was just bouncing back out, and I'm so sorry it came out as angry as it did. Thank you for trying your best to comfort me, my queen. Please forgive me if I caused you pain by leaving; I needed some time for myself."

The words infected Marianne to the point her heart swelled in her chest with its missing piece. She pulled the elf in tighter, to the point the balls of her feet left the floor. The queen smiled down at her, yet kept a tooth on her lower lip to keep from crying. "Just don't do it again, okay?" she was able to get out, to which the elf nodded happily.

Zenna released the queen, taking a few steps back to see the royal family as a whole. Her vision turned to Trinas, whose eyes expanded upon viewing the elf smile. It was the first time he had seen her perform such an act. He, much like everyone else, was overcome by her natural beauty when first meeting her. Adding such a pleasant expression to the mix set him at immediate ease.

Zenna cocked her head, "you are a very lucky man, my king. You have such a lovely wife. I can only hope to be as lucky to find such a spouse, someday."

Trinas smiled back at her, "coming from you, that is the highest praise anyone has given my darling wife, especially as most of those compliments come from blood-sucking leeches looking to win my favor. And I must emphasize what Marianne has commanded of you - do not ever make her worry about you again. Never have I seen her fret so much since Gamlen and Torin went off to battle for their first times," he huffed jokingly.

The little woman raised her eyebrow again. Gamlen? Torin? Who?

"And while we are at it - I must apologize, myself. It was unkempt and dishonorable of me to call you such names after I found you in bed with my maids. I was overcome with emotions in the moment, especially after I had been pondering how in the world you of all people would be the savior of our country. Doubly, the way I had my knights mistreat you was uncalled for. From the bottom of my heart, I am ashamed and beg your forgiveness," he finished, leaning down in a partial bow of respect towards her. Trinas would never bend his knee to another living soul, and so this act came as a great surprise to the family around him.

Except for the elf, however, who took to rubbing her face quizzically, "I do not accept your apology, my king."

Trinas went cold, barely able to return his gaze to the tiny woman, "I beg your pardon?"

Zenna took her hands from her face and down to her hips defiantly, "after all the rude things you called me and had your mean men throw me around so readily, you expect some simple words to soothe my wounds? Surely you jest!" her voice squeaked in pitch tauntingly. Trinas was appalled. "Instead, I have another way you can make it up to me, if you'd like to hear it?"