all i've ever wanted

He nodded solemnly, but he wasn’t done. He watched her for a moment, and felt the squeeze of her paw, before he continued. “The border lord's brother sends out a force to hunt us. We share moments huddled together under long grasses, in hollowed trees, and in quick runs across open fields. Sometimes we laugh together. Maybe we will kiss. Others we are fretful, how will I keep you safe?”

“The lord’s men find us, they drag us back to his home together. You watch them execute me in the courtyard, and the Lord takes you as his bride. One day, he wakes up, and you have taken poison. You never wanted this life.”

He let out a soft, slow breath. Watching her to see how her story affected her. He wasn’t saying it to bring more pain.

“Or, alternatively, your fathers kingdom falls. You escape, and venture out into the world. You prove that you are so much more than a political bride. You forge your own kingdom, here. Your knight returns after you think him dead, and for a time… things are good. You find love. But then you lose him, and you lose your throne, and you find yourself forgotten in a quiet pack without power. You forgot that fate isn’t always kind, and you forgot that every single thing here, from Ashen to Armada to Habari, and even the Hallows have emerged from what you started here. What you created. You hide here, Deathbelle, but you were the start of all this. The power, and thing that people loved and swept towards. Do you truly wish a quiet life from now till the end?” he regret in that moment that he had helped her retire. He wanted her to find happiness, but her happiness hadn’t been in this quiet life. It had been when she was trying for more, reaching and creating.