Gremyne Sunsets

Zende looked at the boy she had bumped into. He was rather handsome looking. Big and strong with eyes that seemed to look deep inside her.
"I… I’m sorry." She said.
"No I’m sorry miss, I wasn’t looking."
Zonder tried to remain calm and friendly. This girl couldn't help it that he had ran into her. He hadn't been looking. But he'd have to get rid of her fast if he wanted to achieve his goal. He looked a bit closer at the girl and saw he didn't recognise her. Her face was ivory-pale and her hair was a strange orange red. A very unusual colour. Zonder's mind had already made the connection, but his heart was still doubting it. But even his heart couldn't deny the fact that she was wearing a dress... the dress of a princess.
"Are you ok?" Zende asked, a bit worried by the mans sudden weird expression. 
"No.., eh Yes. I'm fine." he dawdled and took a step back.
"You know who I am." Zende suddenly said and bowed her head.
"You are princess Zende." he said, 'But you'll never know me' Zonder thought along with it.
"Not any more. Did you see the hunting party? They're hunting me."
Zende knew she was heading into treacherous territory by confessing who she was and what she had done. But she needed help fast and this man was the only human she had seen in the whole city. All the people were hiding.
"But you have the advantage." she said, "I don't know who you are."
"Zonder." Zonder said.
Zende pondered. She had heard that name before. Long ago, as a child it had been the subject of many of her parents fights. She hadn't given it much thought. Her mother never stayed mad at her father long. 
"What did you do?" The man suddenly asked her.
"I had the nerve to take some money to redistribute among peasants with a failed harvest. I should have been more careful, but over the years I'd gotten away with it on so many occasions that I... well didn't think it through as good as on other times." Zende sensed she was blushing, "I couldn't keep living there anyway." she shrugged, trying to look stronger than she felt.
"How do you feel about your father?" Zonder asked.
He didn't know where his questions would lead him, nor what the half-formed plan in his head was going to look like when he had finished concocting it. He did know this was an opportunity like he had never had before.
"He's my father of course." Zende said, "We didn't really have a bond."
Suddenly a memory flashed through Zendes mind brought on by the word father. Her mother was screaming angry that her father shouldn't father other children in the city. Only one her father had assured his mother. 
Zende brought up her hand and placed it on Zonders cheek. "Brother?" she asked.
Zonder pulled away like the hand that touched him was in fact the snake of all evil from the old stories. From a -safe- distance he looked at the girl, no woman, that was his half sister. She waited patiently, looking intensely at the ground.
"How..." Zonder started.
"Did I know who you were?" she finished.
Zonder nodded and waited for her to explain the whole situation.
"I remembered my parents fighting about you. I was maybe 5 when my mother found out. She ordered you dead."
"Then why am I here?"
"Father apparently mistook another child for you. A redhaired child maybe?"
Though Zende could see the red gleam in Zonders hair, she also saw that no-one would call it red. It was brown. Her father had always prided himself in the fact that his lineage had sired only redheaded children. Her eyes lingered of and she noticed the dagger he was still clutching with one hand.
"What were you planning with that dagger?"
Zonder let her words sink in. A redheaded child? Had there been such a child, ripped away from it' mother to be killed? Of course he couldn't remember, he had been 4! Suddenly her last words sprung into focus. He immediately released the dagger and pulled his cloak over it.
"Nothing."
"No, no-one is outside, the only danger comes from the hunting party... you were going to kill someone." Zende said with a rather hateful look in her eyes. She had fought so long to keep this people alive and now they were killing each other?
Zonder lunged forward and grabbed her. "I am not a killer!" he yelled.
"But you were going to kill someone?"
"Your father."
Zonder enjoyed the look in her eyes as he made his intentions clear. 
"I was on my way to the castle to make him pay for the things he did to me and my mother. She's ill you know. No man would marry her, and she had me. She won't live much longer."
Zonders voice broke on those last words and he shut up, fully aware that he now either had an accomplice or a witness.
"Take me to her."

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All images copyrighted to me except for the dividers. I got those from Dreslough.com