Aurelius' legs remained hounded by the prevalent sensation of thousands of pinprick needles jabbing at their cold and exhausted flesh as the young elven prince let out a lonely, frustrated sigh as he looked up into the night sky. As he continued to wait for an answer to his wife's inquiry, Aurelius could do nothing except to wait and sit upon the moss covered stone steps as dark, rain heavy clouds rolled across the moonlit night sky. His silver eyes glittered brightly against the dazzling light of the new moon each time that the celestial body escaped from the abysmal clutches of the darkened clouds.

Aurelius had lost track of time ever since he had first slipped the envelope beneath the cracks of the mansion's oval-topped doors. The day had rolled forward, slowly turning into night and the young elven prince could do nothing except to wait and watch as the giant glowing moon slowly reached the apex of its nightly climb.

"How long do I have to wait?" Aurelius muttered quietly to himself as he leaned back against the flight of stairs. Hoping to give his legs some form of relief, the young prince stretched out his exhausted and ice-cold limbs as he rolled his shoulders against the hard stone surface beneath his aching body.

Suddenly, as if the mansion itself had heard the teenager's griping, a voice called out to the exhausted elven prince.

"Excuse me," The familiar, yet foreign voice sheepishly said as an eerie groan from the mansion's doors echoed across the front entrance. The double doors crept open as the voice's owner peered out from the darkened depths of the manor's pitch black inner lair.

A gentle smile grew upon Aurelius's shivering features as he leaned his head back to stare at the shadowed features of the woman standing before him, elated at having finally been summoned to receive the answers to his wife's proposition.

"The young lady wishes to inquire about the letter that you have so graciously provided for us." The older woman stated as she widened the doors even further before slowly gesturing for the glistening haired prince to follow her inside. "If you would please follow me."

"Thank you," Smiled Aurelius as he shakenly got to his feet. His legs trembled from unfeeling pain as a tsunami of ice-cold pinpricks attacked his legs as his blood slowly began to flow once more throughout his aching muscles.

----------------------------------------

“Would you like for me to take your coat, young sir?” The older servant extended out her hands as she waited patiently for the mansion’s guest to accept the provided offer.

"Uh," Aurelius let out as he pulled down the hood of his jacket, revealing his soft-rounded ears and glimmering ice-blue eyes as he turned to look upon the servant's weathered features. His fingers remained tightly gripped around the hems of the hood as he shook his head, taking extra caution to ensure that the older woman wouldn't be able to suddenly grab hold of his jacket and tear it off of him.

"Thank you, but no. I get cold real easy, so I'd like to keep it on." In truth, Aurelius felt extremely stuffy and desperately wished that he was able to hand over the sweat-inducing jacket, but due to the magical nature of the coat's true purpose, the young prince was forced to remain attached to the article of clothing to remove the piece of clothing unless he wished to reveal his true form to the individual before.

Unsure of how she should carry herself over the guest's strange statement, as it was already midsummer and extremely humid during even the coldest of nights, the older servant remained quiet in her conviction as she raised an eyebrow.

"Very well," The older woman bowed in respect to her guest before gesturing towards a dimly lit hallway. "If you would be so kind as to follow me."

Without waiting for her guest to acknowledge her, the older servant turned and took several steps towards the shadowy hallway.

Not wanting to be left behind, Aurelius hurried along and remained several steps behind his guide as the two of them walked through the ominous, shadowy depths.

‘Why’s it so creepy in here?’ Allowing for such thoughts to show themselves upon his face, the elven prince’s eyes darted back and forth as he looked upon the minute number of knickknacks and paintings that populated the hallway.

As they scanned across the various items that made their home within the shadowed depths, Aurelius' eyes made note of the multitude of things that felt peculiar to his noble self.

Through its lavish and robust design, Aurelius could easily tell that a great deal of time and money had been poured into the manor in order to give off a sense of pride and prosperity that could only come from someone who held high social status.

Yet despite the aura of noble pride that emanated from the manor’s walls, signs of looming financial ruin were everywhere.

Despite the seemingly purposeful lack of lighting, Aurelius was able to spot several areas upon the wall where the paint had dulled and grown decrepit due to the lack of proper care. Most likely, these areas were once the various domains of all kinds of paintings that the destitute household once possessed but sold them off to willing buyers to help stem the tide of their financial woes.

To the young elven prince who continued to spot more and more of these painting sized areas, it felt as if the dim lighting that was meant to hide such things only made it that more obvious to spot.

What made matters worse were the thin layers of dust upon the various pieces of furniture that accompanied the last remnants of the family’s pride. There had been signs that there had been some effort made in cleaning these spots, but it was quite evident that such an act was performed with a shallow and destitute form of energy.

‘I can see why Iskra’s so concerned about her friends,’ Aurelius’ shoulders slumped down heavily as the depressing aura that he now found himself consumed by had grown too much for him to bear. ‘It would be nice if this meeting goes well and she’ll be encouraged by it to get back in touch with the rest of her friends.’

An undeserved source of pride crept into his growing smile as Aurelius beamed happily at the thought of helping his wife reconnecting with her friends.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘She might have had a temporary falling out with Mother, but that doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t want to see her friends again.’

Faint images of his pregnant wife happily greeting her equally estatic friends after having spent such a long time apart from one another brought a glowing smile to his lips, but they were cut short by a sudden round of knocking as the older servant called out in greetings to her mistress.

“The guest has arrived, My Lady.” The older woman continued with a professional tone as the last remnants of her knocking continued to ring out throughout the hallowed depths of the darkened hallway.

“Thank you, Maria,” Came a tender, yet worried voice from behind the door. “The two of you may enter.”

Maria nodded quietly as she opened the door with a soft push of her hands, revealing a brightly lit room that would serve as the backdrop for the noble family’s meeting with their strange guest.

As he was ushered in, the mansion’s owner stood in greetings and gestured towards one of only three seats that would allow for their honored guest to remain comfortable during their long meeting with one another. “Please, have a seat.”

As his eyes roamed over her body, Aurelius was more than positive that his host couldn’t have been any older than either himself or Iskra and he suspected that despite the exhausted look upon her wary face, the girl was ready to act at a moment’s notice.

Aurelius bowed in greetings and gave thanks to the courtesy that had been provided to him and sat upon the offered seat with an exhausted breath of air escaping from his parched lips.

“I apologize for the manor’s lack of décor, but times are tough and I doubt that this family has very long before we became victims to the falling grains of Time’s Hourglass.”

With those apologetic words having been spoken, the girl allowed for an aura of deep remorse to show itself upon her exhausted from as she offered up a sorrowful bow to her newly arrived guest before carefully taking her seat once again.

Returning her posture to how it once was, the young girl’s eyes rose to align themselves with those of her guest’s as she began to speak freely. “I might come off as being quite rude to you, especially with how we had treated you with what you may see as undeserved suspicion, but before we are to begin-”

The young girl’s hand rose up to clutch at her chest as she continued to speak with a surging source of confidence. Utterly confident that her words spoke with conviction and tone that would deter her opponent from defying what she had to say.

Yet despite the energy that bloomed from the teenaged nobility, Aurelius had heard none of it as his eyes remained steadfast upon his host’s slender fingers as they gripped at the fabric that hugged tightly around her impressive bosom.

While it was true that his wife’s friend didn’t share the abundance of curves that his wife possessed, the elven prince would have been a fool to not recognize the signs of a steadily growing figure that would become quite the curvaceous presence in the near-distant future.

‘Are all of her friends like this?’ Aurelius asked quietly of himself as the visions of his wife embracing her distant friends returned with vengeance. Images of giggling girls filled the void of his perverted mind as he envisioned each and every one of them mingling with one another and happily pressing their bountiful bodies against each other in the sort of affectionate jostling those only close knit friends would do with one another.

Realizing that such thoughts weren’t what was needed at this moment in time, Aurelius closed his eyes and shook his head to clear away the perverse images that flowed through the back of his mind as if they were being carried by a churning current.

Yet all that he succeeded in doing was to somehow invite the girl’s mothers into the stream of perverse visions and erotic images that stood front and center within the depths of his mind. A scene began to play out in the back of his head as the small group of mothers and daughters began to embrace one another, pressing their bountiful curves into each other and smiling happily as their breasts spread out across the tender flesh of their opposites.

“Now’s not the time for this.” Aurelius grunted out with an animalistic snarl as he vigorously shook his head to finally rid himself of his innate perversion.

“I’m sorry?” The girl let out with a gasp as she returned her hand to her chest, shocked by the sudden outburst of her mysterious guest. “The time for what, exactly?”

“Oh! Uh,” Aurelius stuttered as he began to collect his thoughts, quickly regaining his senses as he quietly thought up of what he should say next.

“I meant to say that now’s not the time to be worrying,” A gentle smile grew over Aurelius’ handsome features as a gentle hand placed itself over his heart to help show the sincerity in his words. “As we’ve gotten to know one another, Iskra has made it clear to me that she has grown concerned over the fates of her friends during the hectic moments of her banishment. In fact, quite recently actually, she had even brought herself to tears at the thought of you and your family’s financial crisis. I know that this may seem odd for a stranger to say, but she wishes to thank you for your friendship and for standing at her side during the years that you have spent together.”

At least, that’s what he had hoped had been the gist of the letter that he had handed over earlier that day.

“Is that right?” The young girl, whose name Aurelius now realized that he still did not know, stated in a neutral tone as she shifted her gaze towards her servant as the subject of her banished friend finally materialized. “How exactly do you know Iskra? Her letter, if it was her that had written it to be exact, didn’t state who you were, just that I needed to provide an answer to you.”

“She didn’t mention me by name or anything like that?” Dejection crept into Aurelius’ voice as sorrow began to creep into his gorgeous features after becoming hurt by the thought of his wife not revealing the truth and introducing him to her friend.

“Well,” Iskra’s nameless friend corrected herself as she brought the letter in question forward and gave its contents another quick scan. “She did mention you as being called ‘A’, but-”

“Nothing else? Just a simple letter as my name?” Aurelius began, immediately cutting off the girl before she had the chance to explain further. A small smile broke out over the elven prince’s features as a chuckle echoed out from his lips. “That ‘A’ as you call it, is most likely a stand-in for my name. Of which it is Aurelius. In truth the two of us have actually gotten married a few months back, but we have been acquainted with each other a little bit before that.”

As Aurelius’ face beamed with unrepentant pride at having revealed such a bombshell to his hosts, a look of utter disbelief broke the once neutral expressions of both of the women as they turned towards one another.

“Marri-” The girl attempted to clarify, unsure if she had heard her guest correctly, but before she was able to speak any further, she was once again cut off.

“Yes!” Excited at the potential at having found someone who would become elated over their marriage, Aurelius found himself jumping into the air as the emotions finally became too much for him to handle.

Both of the women shrunk back in fright, unsure as to what their excited guest would do next.

“And honestly-” The prince began as he drew closer to his host, reaching out and tightly clasping her hands with his. What came next was a shortened version of events that covered the moments that led to the here and now. Whether it was about their initial meeting, the moment that they first became a couple and the subsequent turn of events that led to them discovering that not only were they married, but also expecting a child as well.

By the time that his version of events was over, Aurelius had explained everything that needed to be explained and looked upon his host with a glowing smile as he happily waited for her to give him the long sought after congratulations that had long been absent in the couple’s chaotic time together.

The girl’s mouth became agape for a split second before her soft features hardened themselves for what was to come next. Looking upon her guest as if he was the worst of the worst, a hate-filled and terrible glare casted itself upon her now shadowed features as she looked upon the figure of a man who was nothing more than a worthless individual who was complete and utter trash.

“Get out!”

----------------------------------------