Two chapters Juan Day! Muahahahaha! (it is believed that the writer is on a role as a third chapter may be posted in a couple hours or less!)

But for shizzle, I am off today and tomorrow is Sunday so these two may just be the tip of the iceberg, and as you know an iceberg is bigger underwater if that serves as any kind of hint to what I am trying to say le tee hee :)

Also I have a very important question! How iffy are you about torture and descriptive...well....torture scenes? The chapter involved in that nature will be posted regardless, but I would still like to see what you think before I post it here.

As always all comments, critiques, corrections, and suggestions are welcome. Know that you will not be ignored! :D

Chapter Eleven – The Emotions of a Titan

*** Leo Cazador ***

“I…I don’t even know what to say!” my mother yelled out at me and my father as we sat in the medical ward were some nurses were currently patching us up. We had cuts and bruises that needed tending to. “I leave you two alone to bond for just a moment and you end up trying to kill each other!”

“Honey it wasn’t like…” father tried explaining but was silence by mother’s furious glare. Since birth I had never known mother to get truly angry, this was something of a first, and while my mind was calm I was slightly worried that she might have some kind of attack.

“A-and you!” she looked at me with her arms on her hips. “Somehow I…you…this…you are not like this! You don’t fight like this!”

There were tears in her eyes and disappointment and fear in her voice. I had betrayed her expectations. Somehow this stirred my heart, her words stung me deeply, I didn’t expect this. I realized then how much I really loved her, my old mom had not been like her, so caring and so loving. I didn’t want that to change and now the fact that she was angry at me and disappointed made me feel as if her feelings of love for me might change. I didn’t want to lose this mother. I don’t know when, but at some point I had stopped thinking of her as some stranger from whom I was born and started thinking and loving her like my true mother.

Unexpectedly I felt the cool sensation of tears flowing from my eyes.

*** Gianna Cazador ***

My son’s eyes glazed over as tears flowed from them, they had the look of a hollowed out being, and even through all my raging emotions I could feel his overwhelming sadness. He did not cry, he was not one to show his emotions openly, but seeing this display, his tears and his eyes, I realized what I had done.

He had scared me, his eyes during the fight with his father had been frightening, there had been a smile on his lips, but his eyes glowed fully crimson and smiled cruelly. It was a side I had never seen of my son and it frightened me that I did not recognize him then, it was as if I had been looking at another child, another wild beast, but here now I realized my mistake. While he has the heart of a warrior in him, he was still my baby, my beautiful and kind baby. My silent little handsome child whose heart was tender, whose mind was vast, and whose body was made strong.

My words had hurt him deeply and my strong motherly love erased all the previous happenings, all my tumultuous emotions, and compelled me to embrace him, to reassure him that I still love him. I took him into my arms and brought him into my bosom. I felt his small hand grip the sleeve of my one piece dress as his small body began to shiver, it took me a moment to realize that he was suppressing sobs.

“I’m sorry,” I said peeling away to look him in the eyes as I ruffled his hair. Between teary blinks I noticed his eyes were fully bright red, they were glowing crimson. Whenever he cried as a child his eyes would glow too, though not all the time, I came to realize that they react not only to his will but to his strong emotions, and right now his tender heart was in chaos. His small cute chin trembled as his lips held close together tightly to keep the noises of his pain inside.

I hugged him again and this time his small arms wrapped themselves around my back, hugging me so tightly, it was as if he was afraid I would disappear.

This side of my son was one I never expected to see, he has always acted so mature, so strong, and so collected that to see him act like a frightened child brought more tears to my own eyes. I always felt that he was so distant, so disconnected, but now I could see that he could be vulnerable and feel strong emotions. It made me a little sad that it had taken something like this for him to finally act his age.

After some time of just holding him he feel asleep exhausted from all that had transpired in the day, my husband had remained quiet during the whole matter and without a word helped me take him to his room. He tried talking to me a few times but I would silence him every time with a glare. When my son was finally in his bed sleeping I told him to sleep in a guest room, I was too mad with him to talk tonight.

The next day I was surprised by a visit from my little Leo, I had slept in as the previous day had also exhausted me, but as strong as ever, my little Leo was already up and about. He was dressed in casual wear, a pair of black pants, black long sleeved shirt, and black vest, black is his favorite dress color.

He bowed low and apologized for yesterday and asked me to forgive Bastion. He was back to his normal self. Without giving me much of a chance to say anything in return he left for a moment only to return with his father in tow, he brought him into the room and quickly left closing the door behind him. He bolted the door closed with magic as he left, the bolts were from the inside so we were not trapped within but the message was clear, “make up!”.

I sighed, seeing my clearly unprepared husband, might as well get this over with, Leo just got his father back and he was going to have a stable family and home. The things I do out of love! I prepared my heart to forgive him and motioned for my husband to come to my side.

***Leo Cazador ***

“I can’t believe you and your dad battled it out like that,” Eleanor said excitedly. Apparently there was someone who had at least enjoyed themselves, aside from most of the guards, knights, pages, and some of the guests. Haha.

Looking at her she reminded me of another little girl, I was glad that I had moved Sophia out of the castle after the first altercation with father’s guests. She was currently staying with Helton, with her rings she should be safe for a few days more.

“Indeed,” David nodded, the prince of Bulbaria was currently sitting across from me as we ate in the kitchen. He was an alright kind of fellow after you got to know him a little better, he had not struck me as a bad person the first time I met him, a playboy maybe but not someone who I would place in my black book.

“To be honest I hope that we can spar again,” I said, unknowingly I had a grin plastered on my face. “Mother might not allow it at first but in the name of training and instruction maybe she will allow it.”

“I hate to say it even though I would want to spar with you,” David said. “I know that I would be no match for you, you are quite skilled.”

“Of course he is skilled,” Eleanor stated in a manner that suggested David was only pointing out the obvious uselessly. Eleanor had somewhat forgiven prince David, well only after he agreed to take a slap to the face full force, there was still a bit of animosity towards him on her side, but all is well that ends well. Poor guy still had the bruise on his face as a testament to Eleanor’s strength.

After what would be considered brunch we headed out to the central gardens, I wanted to get the swords back while Eleanor wanted me to help with restoring the gardens. With my talent in earth magic I was able to easily free my sword but finding father’s sword proved a tedious task. We searched the grounds along with a small recruited force of knights and pages, until we realized that the trajectory of the blade had sent it into the murky depths of a small pond.

After much swimming, getting mucky, shuffling through mud and pond scum, Eleanor was the one who eventually found the sword. Even after all the clashes father and I had the blades had not suffered damage, not even a nick. I sent the swords to get cleaned while we all headed for the bathhouse. Eleanor washed up first then David and I entered with the rest of the men who had helped in searching for the sword. There was much horse playing and listening to the tales of the older men who spoke of past loves and experiences with women, money, fighting, and drinking.

Overall it was a good time and I think David and I bonded, I found it easier to talk to him than I did with most of my peers. His intellect was not lacking, though his knowledge was limited to the teachings of this world.

Two days later I woke in the middle of the night, my heart was racing as I felt panic and fear, the strange thing however, was that it was not my own emotions I was feeling. I rushed towards the clothes stand where my belt hung, it had one small pocket sewn into it, this pocket only holds two items I only remove at night. I hastily unclasped the leather bindings and removed the two items from within.

Two rings.

One was crafted of gold with fire like engravings and a single yellow diamond cut to resemble the sun, the other was crafted of silver with ocean wave engravings with two stones, one was a dark topaz and the other a white diamond, cut to resemble a crescent moon using the white diamond for the moon. Of the two the lunar ring glowed red, its engravings burning brightly, it almost seemed like the ring would suddenly burst into molten shrapnel.

This meant only one thing, the rings only activate when the one it is bound to is injured, and this specific ring was bound to Sophia.