"What’s all the fuss about?" Andrea asked as she and Doris walked down the stairs.
Adonis whipped his around as soon as he heard them. His anger imdiately subsided. He looked from one side to the other.
He felt it now. He was acting insane. He saw the pained look on Augustus, Astrid, overco with confusion. "I... Errm... I... I’m sorry," he stuttered. "I shouldn’t have said all of that. I don’t know what ca over ."
Astrid looked at him, disgusted. "This is the second ti you’ve lost your senses, prince." Her voice was harsh. "Fix yourself. You’re making us all uncomfortable. And you’ve been extrely rude to the one person you’re supposed to be grateful for."
Adonis averted his gaze. His hands tightened. What was going on with him, he thought. Anyti he saw them together, he lost all sense of reasoning. He couldn’t understand what was happening to him.
"If you’ll excuse ," he muttered and left before any more words were exchanged.
Andrea raised an eyebrow as he went up the stairs. "What was all that?" She asked.
"Ask him," Astrid said, pointing after Adonis. "The man is insane! Crazy!"
"I should probably go and speak to him," Augustus chid in. "It seems I’ve done sothing to upset him."
"Oh, please," Astrid spat, " you did nothing wrong. You’ve been nothing but loyal and efficient. He’s the one who’s gone crazy. "
"I should still speak to him," Augustus insisted. "Maybe there’ll be sothing I could do to help."
"Suit yourself." Astrid sighed. "But don’t say I didn’t warn you."
Augustus left the girls and headed up to Adonis’ room.
"So..." Doris said, "will you tell us now what happened?"
"I can’t even answer that myself." Her voice pitched upwards with exasperation. "He’s just crazy. One day he’s sensible, another day, he acts like that."
"I don’t know Astrid," Doris said. "It seed like you two were in a serious argunt. We heard the noise all the way from up there. I’m sure the other custors heard it too. You’re sure you did nothing to upset him."
"If you have nothing useful to say," Astrid sighed, "then please, keep your questions and opinions to yourself. I just told you what happened, and you’re still asking...."
"Alright, Astrid, calm down," Andrea chid. "Let’s all just sit and calm down. And, probably order so breakfast as well, since we’re already here."
"The day hasn’t even started, and we’re already having so much fun," Doris said while laughing.
Astrid rolled her eyes.
Adonis and Augustus weren’t present for breakfast. The girls had warm baths and decided to explore the town.
The houses were plain, the air was quiet, and there was chattering in the marketplace. However, in other places, other than the bleating of sheep and goats, nothing could be heard.
"The whole place seems so quiet. Very uneventful," Doris said.
"It’ll obviously look uneventful," Astrid replied. "We left Erindros, the most advanced city our world has ever seen. This looks like a farm in comparison."
"It still has its charms, though," Andrea said.
"Like?" Astrid asked.
"The goats... They look healthy and strong," she said with a straight face.
Astrid and Doris burst out laughing.
"I can’t believe you just said that." Doris wiped a tear from her eye. "The goats look healthy and strong, really?"
"But it’s true," Andrea argued. "Look at them."
"Are you being serious right now, Andrea?" Astrid asked. "We’re talking about goats here."
Andrea sighed. "You know what, forget it."
They moved through the little streets, the small stone farmhouses, and the children sitting together.
"It all just reminds of my mother," Andrea said quietly.
Astrid smiled. "You never wanted to talk about her, or your ho."
Andrea looked around, tears welling up in her left eye, but she smiled softly. "It was just like this," Andrea said. "Simple, quiet, warm. We never lacked anything. There was nothing to want because I had it all. Until..." She breathed deeply and paused.
"You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to," Doris said.
Andrea shook her head. "Our town was attacked. Houses were raided, won were raped, and fathers were killed. My world turned upside down. There was nothing to live for until the order ca along. Now, here I am."
"Here you are." Astrid slapped her on the back.
Andrea chuckled.
They returned to the inn before the sun reached its highest. Augustus and Adonis sat opposite each other in the common room.
"Look who it is," Doris said. "You decided to join us."
"I apologize for earlier this morning," Adonis said. "I know I’ve not been my best for a while."
"I think it’s because you’re so obsessed with work," Astrid said as she sat beside Augustus. "You just don’t want any of your soldiers, dare I say employees, to have any type of joy in the world."
Adonis’ gaze flickered at the space between them.
His smile was tight. "I’ve just been a little stressed, is all," he said. "Hopefully, when all this is done, everything will go back to normal."
"Well, if you say so, Prince," Astrid shrugged.
Augustus smiled beside her.
Conversations rolled out between them, but the more Adonis watched Astrid graze Augustus’s arm, laugh at his jokes, or smile at sothing random he had said, his anger grew.
Every passing mont was torture and made him nauseous with rage.
He stood abruptly. "Excuse for a second," he said and walked up the stairs briskly.
After he shut his door behind him, he began to pace frantically. He’d tried to deny what was happening to him. He’d tried to deny that his feelings weren’t real.
But now, they were. He hated how she touched another man. He hated that she laughed at Augustus’s boring jokes. He was better than any man she would ever co across.
He finally stopped pacing and breathed in. They would have to leave here sooner than expected. He needs to separate them sohow or get his mind off of them. Unless his anger gets the best of him.
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