Asja sat delicately on a rock that overlooked her most favorite place to be when things got too stressful. Ciarán, their leader, was to choose a bride by the end of the fortnight. Asja's teacher felt certain that not only did Asja have a chance, but that she was the only one who did. She sighed heavily and turned her gaze to the thunderous waters plunging into the lake several hundred feet below her. She contemplated jumping off of the cliff and not using her abilities to stop herself from crashing into the jutting rocks below.
"Don't do it," a voice sounded from behind her.
She spun on the newcomer angrily. "Who gave you leave to read my thoughts?" she demanded.
The man grinned widely, displaying a set of perfectly white teeth. "Who gave you leave to speak to me in such a manner?"
"I answer to no one," she replied hotly. "I speak the way I choose to whomever I choose."
"That's going to get you into some trouble someday," he warned as he sat down next to her.
"Do you not realize that I don't want you here?"
"Oh, I understood that perfectly," he assured her, but made no movements to leave. "Unfortunately, I, like you, answer to no one and won't be told where I can and can't be."
Asja opened her mouth to reply, but was at a loss for something to say. He had bested her, and she wasn't an easy opponent. "You could at least ask," she offered, a bit more humble than before.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked, purely out of effort to appease her.
"Yes," she replied in an icy tone, "I do. But I see that you won't be leaving, so I will resign myself to your company, since I have no intentions of leaving either."
"A fair truce," he smiled at her.
He received a glare in response.
Ciarán decided immediately that he liked this girl. Either she had no clue who he was, or she had a terrible disrespect for authority. He was sure it had to be the former, since he had been kept within the confines of his parents’ abode until very recently, and even now he could leave only when he was able to sneak out. His parents had been caught and put to death by the lowlanders recently, and he was set to take his father's place within the month. Before that month was up, he had to be married and settled into his new life. His captain of the guard had already put a plan into motion for the choosing of his bride. There was to be a contest between all of the young maidens, and the winner would be his wife. Ciarán had other plans. He wouldn't choose his wife by means such as those; he would choose his own. Little did he know how easy the choosing would be.
"Will you marry me?"
Asja looked at her companion gaping. "Marry you? Are you daft?"
"I have my pick of any of the maidens, and I choose you," he replied.
"Well, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to choose another," she told him. She wondered where this man had gained his gall.
"You really have no choice in the matter," he told her.
"Oh, don't I?" She had had just about enough of this man. "Who do you think you are, telling me that I have no choice in marrying you? I wouldn't marry you if you were Ciarán himself," she told him.
He smiled at her, he was eager to see her reaction to his next statement. "Actually," he began slowly, "that is exactly who I am."
Asja couldn't hide her shock, and she didn't even bother. "You…. You're…?" He nodded. "Oh merciful saints above," she lamented. "I had no idea," she assured him.
"Don't be sorry," he begged her.
"Oh, I'm not sorry in the least," she quickly assured him. "I'm just saying that if I had known it was you, I would have handled it a bit better."
He laughed openly at this, something he couldn't ever remember doing. "Tell me," he asked once he had stopped laughing enough to speak again, "why won't you marry me?"
Asja gazed out at the waters once again, and sat there for several moments before she answered. She could feel his gaze boring into her profile, and it made her uneasy. "Marriage isn't something to be taken lightly," she began. "I don't believe in forced, arranged, or rushed marriages. I think that it should be a blessed joining of two people who have known each other and have become the best of friends so that they want to spend the rest of their days together living happily and raising children."
"I agree with you completely," he told her. "Unfortunately, because of forces beyond my control, I don't have that choice. I must be married and settled within the month." He sighed heavily. "For a moment I thought it wouldn't be so bad."
She grinned up at him, "You are trying to get me to change my mind. It won't work."
"I would be disappointed if it did. However, why don't you give me a chance? Spend time with me over the next few weeks and see if I don't please you. If you are still not satisfied, I will choose another bride, grudgingly. But, I will respect your wishes."
Asja thought about that for a moment. He was chivalrous, and it was a definite start. She decided to accept his proposal and wondered if she were going mad. She held out her hand to him. "I'm Asja."
"'Asja'," he repeated. "I like that name." He took her hand, and kissed the back of it gently, never taking his eyes off of hers. "Until we meet again." He bowed and disappeared from sight.
Asja was left to wonder what, exactly, she had gotten herself into. She had gone against all of her principals and agreed to attempt to fall in love with him within a fortnight. It was ludicrous. She didn't conform to the rules, and she didn't agree with most of them. She wondered what Ciarán would think once he had learned that about her.
"I figured as much," a voice sounded from nowhere.
Asja put on her most formidable glare and turned several times to assure herself that he had seen it, no matter where he was. "Cease with your reading my thoughts," she ordered.
"What's the fun in that?" the voice asked.
"Just do it, or I will take back my promise," she threatened.
"You leave me no choice," he replied, sounding rather beaten. "I promise you, I will not read your thoughts unless given leave to do so."
"And show yourself when you are speaking to me," she yelled to the surrounding trees. "I will not stand here and speak to the world in general."
"Your wish is my command."
She spun to see him suddenly standing behind her. "That's better."
"I really must go," he said apologetically. "I'm sure the area is being scoured as we speak. 'Till tomorrow, Asja."
She determined at that moment that she liked the sound of her name coming from him. "'Till tomorrow," she replied.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Ciarán appeared a few feet behind his captain and tapped him on the shoulder; delighted with the height he achieved on that scare.
"Ciarán!" the captain bellowed. "Do you have any idea how frantic we have been searching for you?"
The young man rolled his eyes and mentally prepared for a long tirade about his responsibilities and how incredibly lacking he was in ability to take care of them if he didn't start taking things more seriously.
"You are to be leader of this entire clan in less than a month, and you're still running rampant like you were a young lad. You need to-"
"Yes, I know," Ciarán broke in. "I need to start being more serious and responsible because things will fall apart if I don't. Now, would you care to hear where I've been all day?"
The captain rolled his eyes and decided that yelling any longer would be a waste of his breath. "Where have you been?" he asked in a tone that let Ciarán know that not only was he not interested, but it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
"I've been wooing," Ciarán replied.
The captain's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Where?" he asked.
"You heard me," Ciarán replied while smiling broadly. "I met the most wonderful girl," he confided. "She actually stood up to me," he laughed. "I don't think anyone has ever spoken down to me as she has, aside from you and my parents of course," he added. "She was just so wonderful," he sighed.
"You sound like a love-sick child," the captain informed him. "Standing up to you isn't what you want or need. You need a girl who will sit quietly and tend to her duties and stay out of your way as you do yours. The only dealings you will have with each other will be the bearing of children, you don't need someone who is going to stand up to you for that," the captain finished.
"That may be what you think I need," Ciarán said bitterly, "but you couldn't be farther from the truth." Ciarán disappeared then, and the captain looked around him to see where his master had run off to. "I'm going home," Ciarán's voice echoed through the woods. "Don't disturb me."
Ciarán stood brooding in his room. It had been two days and he didn't seem to be getting anywhere with Asja. He picked up a priceless vase and flung it against the nearest wall. He had done everything he could think of. He had bought her expensive gifts, he had offered to take her anywhere she wanted to go, he had even offered to take her on a shopping spree and pay for her entire bill. He was running out of ideas, and quickly. She wasn't anything like his mother had been, he was learning that fast enough. All of those things had always made her happy, Asja just sighed heavily and grudgingly agreed to whatever he wanted. He cursed fluently and ran his fingers angrily through his black hair. Then his eyes landed on the shattered vase and the remnants of what had been a beautiful floral arrangement. He smiled suddenly and headed towards the door.
"Going to attempt to woo Asja again?"
"Where else?" he answered before shutting the door firmly behind him.
An hour later he stood before the house that he knew hid Asja inside. He had never been intimidated before, why then was he now? He shoved all signs of weakness aside and knocked on the door.
After only a moment, a short woman opened the door. "Yes?" She queried.
"Is Asja at home?" He asked hopefully.
"She's in the middle of her studies," the woman told him coldly. "She can't be disturbed."
"She can be, and she will," Ciarán told her.
"Who do you think you are, young man?" the woman yelled.
"Ciarán!" Asja exclaimed as she bound down the stairs toward him. She hugged him quickly and made an even quicker introduction.
"I'm so sorry," Irina kept repeating. "I didn't know, I'm so incredibly sorry. It will never happen again," she assured him.
"See that it doesn't," Ciarán replied gruffly.
Asja muffled a laugh for she knew that he wasn't angry in the least. He was merely putting on a show, as he always did with people.
"I picked these for you," he told Asja as he held out a handful of flowers for her inspection.
She gaped at the flowers, with clumps of dirt still attached to the bottom, then at his still dirty hands, and finally to his face. She grinned widely. "Thank you so much," she offered as she went to the sink to get something to put them in. She went up on her toes to reach a vase and, after a few seconds of trying, decided she needed to stand on a chair to get it. Ciarán, who was behind her, instantly reached up and got it down for her. She offered a smile of thanks, and went about setting them in, after cutting off the bottoms, and filling it with water. "I think that's the best thing I've ever gotten," she told him. "Thank you," she repeated with a smile.
Ciarán, it seemed, had found the way to woo his lady. She didn't care about his wealth or status, she just wanted the little things. He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head gently. He hoped he didn't run out of "little things" before she had been properly won.
“Stop thinking,” Asja ordered him as she leaned back into his embrace. “You always get rigid and uncomfortable when you think.”
He laughed softly and did her bidding. He tightened his grip around her momentarily and then just relaxed. He felt her contented sigh and smiled to himself, a very satisfied smile. It seemed his lady would be won after all.
* * *
Asja sobbed bitterly into her pillow. She had lost who had been her closest friend. She wept harder than before. Why didn't she listen to Irina and settle for him. Losing him as a friend seemed much more disastrous than spending her life with him. But what if her true love came along, her other side argued. What then? She beat her pillow savagely before she went back to weeping into it.
"Asja," Irina called from the doorway. "Someone is here to see you."
"Tell him to go away," came her muffled voice.
"I think you should hear him out," Irina pleaded.
"Nay," was her very firm answer.
Irina sighed heavily and closed the door before going back down the stairs to find the room…empty.
Asja felt someone in the room, so she sat up and wiped her eyes.
"Don't cry," came his voice.
"Please leave me alone," she begged.
"Tell me why you're crying, and I'll leave you," he told her.
"I refuse to speak to your voice," she told him. "You know I hate that."
"You won't fling anything at my head if I appear?"
"If you don't appear you will get something flung at your head," she warned him.
He laughed softly and appeared, sitting on her bed. "And how were you going to fling something at my head if you couldn't see it?" he asked.
She smiled in response, "I would have found a way."
"Now," he continued from before, "why were you crying?"
Her smile faded and she turned from him and looked out of her window. "I was crying because I can't win in this situation. You are a good friend, the best I've ever had and I don't want to lose that."
"Except," he prompted.
"Except I can't marry you and therefore you'll stop talking to me, I know it."
"Why can't you marry me?" he queried. "Did you not like my flowers? Did you find me lacking?"
"Nay," she rushed to assure him. "You were anything but lacking. And I loved your flowers, clumps of dirt and all. But that's the problem. You're going to make a good leader, a great leader even. I would only get in your way. I don't believe in all of the things that I would have to. I can't conform to the rules that I've spent a good part of my life not conforming to. I'm sorry, Ciarán. I really am," she finished quietly.
He stood up. "So am I. You should get to know my captain," he said bitterly. "You two would get along famously."
"Ciarán," she called softly. There was no answer. "I love you," she confided to the darkness.