The Roar of Andora: Book One

Chapter Twenty: Aaron's Birthday

The logged wood smashed under the weight of the axe.

Aaron lifted the weapon up again and crashed it back down through his breath that hung in the cold air. Dislodging the blade from the splintered wood, Aaron lifted the axe again and again and bludgeoned the scrap wood in the storage bunker on the outskirts of the castle grounds.

After Aaron left the brothel, he waded through the blizzarding night back to his father's estate, got dressed in the clothes he wore for combat training, grabbed a bottle of Gervain liquor from the wine cellar, a battle-axe from the artillery, and exhausted his calamitous storm of emotions through smashing all the wood he could.

By the time Aaron had depleted himself physically, exerting the myriad of his internally warring emotions, the blue and pink colours of dawn were beginning to lift against the dark winter night. Already had the farmers and stonemasons gathered to begin moving equipment to initiate the construction of the manufacturing facilities.

Exhausted beyond comprehension, completely drained, Aaron returned to his empty home and had just enough time to light the fire to heat the bathtub and clean himself of Vuru's body and his own grime when George (his father's personal retainer) knocked on the front door. Informing him that Terra was outside the gates, awaiting him.

Delirious, shackled with guilt; every step he a took a battle against exhaustion, Aaron somehow found a way to place himself in a state of mind where he could greet Terra at the door. Terra looked lovelier than she ever had before.

Gowned in a long white coat that's skirt fell in folds below her waist, Terra stood before a winter chariot that she had arranged to have chauffer them to the inn her father had built the previous year.

Arriving at the inn, the maids escorted the engaged couple to the bathhouse to clean their feet and hands, they were then escorted to the dining room that Terra had requested her father to clear for Aaron's birthday. Right after Terra took her seat, one of the maids approached to remove her coat—and then Aaron was convinced he had never seen anything so perfect in his life. Terra's honey coloured skin radiated beneath the silver rings that bound her dress to the sleeves that exposed her bare shoulders. And the light of the winter morning shining through the window illuminated the sparkle on her earrings of the same silver, creating a glowing triangle from her ears to her chest where her necklace hung.

"You're..."

A smile emerged on Terra's face and with a flirting laugh asked, "What, Aaron?"

"Beautiful."

At intervals throughout the meal, Aaron felt the wave of exhaustion hurl down on him and he nearly passed out several times. Making the excuse that he drank too much wine the previous night and still pushed himself for morning training. Terra protested, telling him that he should have taken a day off, considering it was his birthday. Aaron insisted on his commitment.

The itinerary Terra had arranged for Aaron's birthday consisted of the morning meal, followed by tea in the Garden Room, a visit to the hot springs that were accessible by a simple swim through the pools of the bathhouse, and then they were to take chariot to the amphitheatre to watch an outdoor performance of 'un endroit meilleur qu'ici,' an ancient Pyrésees tragedy.

An unhealthy amount of coffee kept Aaron alert throughout their meal, and the lightly caffeinated teas allowed him to continue conversing when they sat in the Garden Room, but when they arrived at the hot-springs, the heat put him to sleep. Terra led her half-asleep fiancé back through the indoor pools to their cabana where he slept. Lying together on the bed, hidden by the privacy of the curtain, Terra disrobed. Aaron awoke to the caress of her fingers brushing through his hair and the soft touch of her nipples along his back. Terra laid her full lips on his nape; the sensation travelled down his back and reached its stimulating peak under the skin of his butt. Terra removed his robe, kissing his body the entire time, and reached for him—for the first time ever—confessing that she wanted to open her body for him. Aaron refused, reminding her of how she wanted to wait. But Terra insisted.

Terra felt the pains associated with the first-time and so it was soon over.

"Why," Aaron began saying, "Why did you?"

"Because I know you've wanted to for so long, and, well, because I love you Aaron."

Throughout the spring and summer of that same year, the changes made in the Vale of Catholina began taking effect. The building of the first manufacturing facility was completed and fully operational. Testing of the new explosives was a daily occurrence. At first the people in the Vale of Catholina were frightened each time they heard the muted rumblings from behind the barred gates of the facility. Birds scattered and the animals fled to the forest. But not before long, the people were as accustomed to the deafened explosions and trembling beneath their feet as if they were hearing the hourly bells. But the gentle animals that roamed in the Vale did not return.

When it was announced that the Kingdom had sold its first round of the new invention to merchants from a distant land, the people celebrated. Praising Steward Jarod Evershield for his political competence and saving them from the harsh winter.

Sanctioned by the Andoran court, the taverns implemented a later curfew and made record-breaking profits due to the higher rate of consumption in the later hours. And with the extended hours of the taverns, more guards were placed on the streets throughout the evenings. The Evershield's secret deal with the Rohan's coincided with a sudden surge in the popularity of the brothels, and the Rohan brothers opened several more.

Since the conditions of the winter were harsh and unkind to the crops, there was an inevitable rise in the consumption of meat and so the farmer's turned their barns into slaughterhouses.

The animal scrapings left in the alleyways between the buildings attracted the critters that dwelled in the night. Raccoons, rats, skunks, possums, began to fitter through the city. Leaving their damage and droppings. Outside of the castle grounds, there was an odour to the kingdom.

Men were found in the mornings with bruised faces and broken limbs from the brawls that began in the taverns and ended outside. The winter famine left many farmers and merchants impoverished. To survive the dire conditions, many began selling off their properties and assets. And their daughters.

As disgusted as Aaron was with himself the night he visited Vuru, Terra's now even greater apprehension to having sex drove him against all his willpower and all of his morality to return to the brothel. Aaron left each time hating himself even more than he had the time before, but no matter how many internal oaths he made, no matter who—living or dead—he swore on, no matter how ashamed and ruined with guilt he felt every time he was now with his fiancé, Aaron kept finding himself turning down the wrong streets, forgetting when he was supposed to cross the street, and ending up at the steps below the brothel's front door.

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