His Queen

Chapter 21 : Past

Rhysand - 13 years earlier :

"Rhys," Marisa taunts, "Come up here if you can!"

A small boy of merely 9 stares up at the parks play ground, to the tallest rock wall he had ever encountered. His short height made the rock wall seem even more daunting. With his baby face and black curly hair it would be easy to assume he had yet to make it through kindergarten.

His hands were sweating at he looked at the intimidating wall. Marisa stood at the top, looking down on him with a smirk. She had always been the daredevil out of the pair of twins. Rhys, always thinking rationally.

"It's really high!" He shouts up at Marisa as the wind blows her long brown hair into the air around her. Her baby face is pulled into a witty smile.

She looks exactly like the queen from all of her fairytale books. Marisa isn't afraid of the height. In many ways standing atop the jungle jim made her feel somewhat in control of her life. Right now no one could reach her and hurt her. No one could yell and scream in her face.

"Rhys, stop being a baby and come up here. I found our next hide out." She says seriously in one last attempt to convince the nervous boy.

Rhys nodded his head once and walked up to the rock wall, grasping the first plastic rock. His motivation came from the idea that this could be a safe place for them to hide in the future. A place to hide when their father, the alpha of their pack, got angry enough to take it out on them.

Many of their nights were spent huddled in small dark corners attempting to avoid the wrath of an angry father. Very few of the pack members knew of their harsh treatment inside closed doors and if anyone did know they kept quiet. Rhys mother was aware of what was going no but she knew that the moment she tried to interfere she too would be punished. Instead she sided with their father and in many ways encouraged it in order to protect herself.

Marisa and Rhys were used to it but that didn't mean that they didn't dreamed of a reality without their parents. Sometimes they would build forts in the woods and pretend it was their castle, the fortress of safety. Then when their father got riled up they would retreat there. However the last fort they made was torn down by their father and earned them 3 days of bed rest because of injuries.

"I don't think I'll make it." Rhys said after he had only climbed one foot off of the ground. Slowly clambering up the wall while Marisa watched from above.

"Rhys, stop being silly. I've seen you climb up trees like a professional tree climber. If that's even a thing..." She says with uncertainty.

It was true though. Rhys did love to climb trees, but only when he was hiding from his father. Only when he knew that being found was not an option. Marisa on the other hand had an affinity for fitting into the smallest of places, usually hidden in the hollow hole of a tree. Both children were quite talented.

"Just a little bit farther...." Marisa encouraged as Rhys neared the top.

His body was trembling with strain or fear, both were a reasonable reaction. A bead of sweat trickled down his brow under the unusually hot autumn day. All around the small jungle-jim  the reds, oranges and yellows created a splendid painting. The park was isolated and abandoned in the middle of the pack territory, probably forgotten about in the hard times that had been of recent.

Theses days the pack was finically struggling with many debts that had yet to be paid. The twins father was constantly under stress to fix the situation but with his bad drinking issue and a tendency to anger easily, the chances for change was slim.

Rhys and Marisa were often left unattended, given little attention despite the fact that they were to be the next leaders of the pack. Most days they spent their time much similar to now, wandering around hoping to avoid the life that they were given. The life filled with bruises and cuts.