Elemental Kingdom

"The time it takes me to leave and for Garnet to get here, you're vulnerable. I don't want that."

----

"He's going to cause her undue stress if he hovers. She needs space to breathe and he won't understand that. Cruel as it may be to him, and to her, it'll help."

"Overall, neither of us get a choice."

Garnet sighed. "Trust me Nathan, it won't."

"I'm not going to leave."

---

"It will." Nathan clasped his hands tightly together. "It helped within our family, it will help with her."

"She isn't like you." Garnet told him before she gave up argueing with him.
_____

Snw glanced at the door as there was a knock. "Chances of you staying are pretty slim now."

Nathan shrugged. "If it is going to happen one way or another, this is the better option."

---

"I'm not going to leave. They can't force me."

She just shook her head closing her eyes. "This isn't going to end well." She warned him.

Snow looked at him as the door was almost kicked in, and she was almost hiding behind him.

"It will help." Nathan's voice was firm, holding a tone that showed he expected no argument.

---

"I'm not going," Blaze murmured, repeating himself as he rest a gentle hand on her elbow. "I'd rather kill them first."

She took note of the sound of his voice and she bowed her head. "If you say so my King." She walked away.
_______________

"Nathan will drag you." She watched as the door was forced open.

Nathan sighed softly and settled into a seat, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

---

"That doesn't bother me either. He knows I am the stronger of us. I am no longer in his debt and so he cannot force me to do anything."

Snow looked at him. "I hope that's true."

One of the guards walked into the cottage, and it caused Snow to move back against the wall.
_________________

Garnet found Ethan playing by the stables and she walked over, though she watched as a maid walked over and picked Ethan up, taking inside away from Garnet, which had her puzzled.

Blaze snapped up a hand and, in the same movement, boiled the guard alive from the inside out in a swift, cruel action.

---

Delilah was in the stables, briskly brushing a mare down to get dried mud from her coat. She was wearing leathers as opposed to a dress today.

"Had a good days ride then?" Garnet asked.
____

"Blaze, please don't."

"It could have been better. I was tailed for a majority of it. When I finally managed to shake them, I was going to bring back a deer, but Sterling here panicked and she rushed off, back here. No matter. It was shorter than I would have liked, but whatever keeps her safe."

---

"I'm sending a message. I'm not going."

"At lease you haven't had to put up with your brother, and now the maids won't let me near my own son."
______________________

"And if he comes here? Blaze think about it."

"They're strange like that, honestly. Some of them have tried to poison me, however. So, perhaps some of them aren't maids. I wouldn't know."

---

"I'm not afraid to kill him, Snow. If it bleeds, it will die. Nathan is no exception."

"Delilah an angry elf is one thing, a terrified and angry elf is another, please don't frighen me like that."
_______________

"Blaze, please, it's not going to be for long."

"In the past fourteen days, approximately thirty six attempts against Nathan's life have been made, twelve against you, and fifteen against myself. Something big is happening. I just hope it doesn't involve Aurora. If Nathan was in his right mind, he would leave Blaze and Snow alone but..." Delilah stared at her hands absently. "It's better to have a torch in the dark, and Blaze is the brightest torch we have."

Delilah glanced to Garnet. "Would you like to go to Snow? I'll join you shortly with Ethan." She offered a weak smile.

---

"You're scared to be by yourself. Don't be by yourself."

"Garnet will be here soon." Snow told him. "Go then?"
_________

Garnet looked at her. "Not helping, but something tells me that the maids won't give Ethan to you, so I'll just see you all later." She hitched up her dress to just above her ankles and she climbed into the horse's saddle, riding off without another words.

"Only when she arrives." Blaze finally amended, after several minutes consideration.

---

"You'll be surprised what I know how to do, Garnet," Delilah muttered to herself, resuming her cleaning duties with a single mindedness.

Snow leant up and kissed him deeply.
____________

Garnet rode off throgh the forest.

Blaze slowly started to relax as he gently kissed her back, hands moving to almost nervously grip onto the edge of her dress, as if he were a young, scared child.

---

"It's a big mess, huh?" Delilah asked her mare quietly and then straightened up and started towards the castle.

She gently moved a hand into his hair as she kisse him, she was more timid now, and more wary.
__________

Garet eventually stopped her horse outside of Snow and Blaze's cottage.

Blaze broke the kiss first, moving to press his face to her shoulder, sagging gently as if whatever had kept him standing was suddenly gone. He was trembling faintly, from adrenaline.

"Blaze, what's the matter?" Snow asked, suddenly worried.

"Just...I'm scared to lose you, or for you to get hurt again."