A young couple stood a level above everyone else who muddied the floors of the town. They looked down upon the area that starkly contrasted the beauty of the Inner Capital. Esah embraced the view, his arms by his side as he observed Shihaz. His wife leaned on his shoulder, her left hand placed on his chest while she similarly was lost in the distance.
"It's not much. But it's beautiful, isn't it?" Esah said delicately. A sudden passion grew in his eyes, and he rapidly turned to his wife, gripped her hands with his and pulled them to his chest, gazing at her with hope.
"I know it's not been long since we came here, but being away from that Palace is so refreshing. I wish I could stay here forever and spend all of my time with you." Upon finishing, Esah kissed his wife on the forehead, his eyes slowly closing as his lips didn't move from it.
Rather coldly, Esah's wife moved away from Esah's gentle kiss, her face showing great displeasure. "Well….you should tell your father what you want, what you really want. And, then, maybe he'll understand. We won't always have to go back to the Palace if you just talk to him."
Esah nervously chuckled. Not because he found what she said illogical, but because he wished what she said was genuinely possible. Esah responded, hoping to maintain some form of calmness, but not before he shook his head and paused before answering back.
"Pshhh. Father…understand…what I want? Have you learnt nothing about my father after all of these years? He's ruthless!" Esah looked toward the sky, his face buried in his hands as he dragged down his eyes with the tips of his fingers. "If he does not get what he wants…well…he will get what he wants. End of story."
Esah's wife gently took one of his hands, taking it from his face and holding it beside her as she rubbed the back of his hand. "Can't you do it for me…for us? Then we'll finally be happy."
"Yes, of course we'd be happy. But enough said. As much as I want to do what you tell me, I don't think I can bring myself to say something like that to his face. So let's just make the most of our time whenever we are away from there. Right?" Esah prudently turned to his wife, half-smiling with an awkwardness on his face. She reciprocated with a smile of a similar nature, unsure what to say next.
"Uncle Esah! Uncle Esah!" Three childish voices alarmed Esah and his wife.
Before they could reach him, Esah subtly whispered to his wife, "Let's not talk about any of this in front of Ali's children. In fact, it's probably best we stop arguing." Esah took control of both his and his wife's hands which were still locked together and placed them onto her belly. "Wouldn't want to look like unsuitable prospective parents now, would we?"
Mina, the oldest of the three, stopped sprinting towards Esah, a great big cheeky smile across her face as she lightheartedly questioned Esah. "You were supposed to come and find us, remember?"
Esah's eyes widened in embarrassment, his face creasing in an attempt to lie his way through the situation. "Oh, yes. I simply couldn't find you all. That's all." Esah shrugged and closed his eyes, hoping that would be the end of that. Still, he continued talking. "Perhaps your father will be better at this game." Then he said, under his breath, "Though, I doubt he'll make time for playing 'silly' games with you."
"Arghhhh!" Rafi, the youngest of the three, shouted as he charged into Esah's stomach with his head, causing Esah to half-laugh, half-wince in pain.
"Make it kick again!" Anya demanded Esah's wife as she and Mina, still the more gentle of the children, softly stroked her belly.
Esah rubbed the top of Rafi's head, ruffling his hair and stared poignantly across the garden at his wife, Mina and Anya. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment and spoke to himself.
"I wonder if, one day, I could leave it all behind…run off some place far away with her…start our own family and finally be—"
BANGGG!
Everyone jumped in fear. Esah immediately looked in the direction of the explosion. He saw that it had completely destroyed one of his garden walls not so far away from where they were standing. He frowned as Ali's children behind him fell into deep whines, unable to comprehend why this was happening. But so too was Esah. He scanned the area, squinting to sharpen his focus. Suddenly, Esah's eyes began to widen, his head rapidly falling backwards as he noticed something darting right for his face.
An immensely sharp and thin dagger coursed through the air. Fortunately for Esah, he was able to narrowly evade it, bending his knees to avoid what could have been a terrible and permanent injury. Esah looked back at the dagger, it having deeply dented the concrete wall behind him.
"Someone's after us," Esah exclaimed. Then he turned to the children and thought to himself, "I must protect the children, no matter what."
And so he sprung into action, picking up the three children and his wife. He leapt from the garden and continued to speedily move away from the area of impact, heading towards the sea where guards of the nation were coming from to investigate what caused the explosion.
"Uncle Esah! Uncle Esah," Anya cried, "What's happening?"
"I'm not sure. But don't worry, I'll make sure you all stay safe."
They finally reached the boats that waited on the edge of the sea. Esah gently placed them all onto the floor next to the boat, urging them to quickly get on. "Quickly."
His wife grabbed his cheek and intimately stared into his eyes, her face mixed with fear and shock. "What are you going to do, Esah? You have to come with us."
Esah nodded affirmatively. "Don't worry, he'll take care of you." As Esah said this, he pointed behind his wife toward a man covered in a long, black cloak who stood waiting in the small boat.
"Come on, children," his wife shouted as she dragged them onto the boat. "Just do what Uncle Esah says, and everything will be okay." Ali's children followed Esah's wife onto the boat, their eyes glued to Esah as he stood, watching on, clearly unsettled by the situation.
"Go! Go!" Esah shouted. Once they were all on the boat, Esah gave its back a great push, propelling them forwards and far away from the edge of the sea, in the hope that they had now escaped whatever danger lurked back in the town.
But as Esah watched them fade into the distance, something caught his attention – something that caused the ground to shake and his clothes to whip violently. A loud crash erupted behind him. One far louder than the haunting noise created by the earlier explosion.
Yet because all of this happened so quickly, Esah wasn't given a chance to turn to face the danger before the source of this chaos spoke.
"Prince Esah! At last, I have found you. You shall be the first of your wretched bloodline to die by my hand."