River found her reflection as their boat finally waded in a gentle glide. Clear blue waters had turned to a dark midnight color the farther they went and its surface worked well as a mirror to study her throat with. There was a long line of scar cut across across her throat, a whiter color where the cut once was. A pale scar like a thick rope raising over her skin.

Lei’la had begun talking farming practices at the wildland settlement minutes ago. River could tell she was anxious as she rambled on. The weaver girl grew ever vigilant, watching the darkened black ocean waters. The boat at a smooth sailing pace going ever so slowly.

“The soil is pretty hard to puzzle out.” she continued, her voice almost imperceptibly turning shrill. “Anything liquid gets sucked in and disappears underground. Not even the god tribe could make heads or tails about it.”

“Did you say the god tribe? Will Crow be there?”

She paused at the question, taking a breath "Who?”

“The god tribe prince.”

She frowned, a long moment passing “No, he’s gone. Like my family is long gone. It’s been 488 years since we united the tribes. The curse that the former princes bore were taken from them by our dark majesty. As well as their lives.”

Her mood dampened “Crow is gone?”

“We still have a snow princess,” she said on a lighter note. “Our snow prince had been exiled long before unity and became lost. Nobody knows what happened for sure. After a long while of his absence, the curse naturally manifested in our snow princess so we assumed the lost prince had died.”

She grew silent, unsure of what to make of this. Maksim and Crow were dead in this universe. They were the reason why she wanted to travel through portals in the first place. The thought of messing around with them, play and tease had undone years off her bitter soul. It felt like she had a second chance at being a child again, finally reclaiming her lost childhoom from trauma. She wanted her friends back.

Lei’la broke her grim silence, “You willl love Lann’a—”

“Lann’a is here?”

She nodded with complete conviction, “Yes. During festival days, she showboats her power at a massive degree. It’s a huge spectacle that only happens a few times a year and it takes in lots of tribespeople from all over the lands. And guess what?”

“What?” she said, trying to mirror her light enthusiasm.

“Today happens to be a festival day!”

“Aren’t the dark tribe back from the city.. aren’t they going to be livid that we just left in the middle of the night without warning?”

She didn’t even miss a beat, “If it comes to that, I will handle it.”

“Hey. We’re in this together. You are not alone in this anymore. I’m with you. I will help you but I can’t do it well if you are not going to let me in on the plan. Let me know. Otherwise what good does your trust in me do, if I’m blinded?”

Shaking her head, she continued to paddle away. “It’s not a thing, really. When they find out I left my duties, I’m going to be exiled. I give it at least a couple of weeks before word gets around the tribes. It’s not everyday someone gets exiled.”

“That’s kind of harsh.”

“That’s dark tribe for you,” her voice grew lilting yet her far-off gaze was wistful, filled with regret “I’m only sorry that I didn’t get to do it sooner. I’ve had much experience living off the forest, I wouldn’t have minded getting exiled.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Leaving home is never easy.”

“Is it?” she sighed “The fire stones showed me that I have an adventurous spirit. My memories with U’tu—” a bitter expression crossed her face. “My mind… it’s fucked. A major fuck-up of memories that hid the good parts about me and distorted the view of my life into this cynical, disgusting girl I’ve always associated myself with. And I don’t know why it happened. Or how..I just know that it’s because of tribespeople. I need to.. there is nothing I would love more than to get away. From all of it. Retire to the forest. And relearn the things I’ve forgotten about myself.”

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“Girl, same. I’m all about that. We can build a cottage and farm our own food.”

“You’d retire to the forest with me?”

“Hell yeah. That sounds like an adventure.”

“It might get boring.”

“I’m sure it will. I might want to leave after a couple of years has passed.”

“Oh. You’d really leave me?”

She inclined her head up and observed the strange sun that was twice the size than she was used to. “I’ll never really leave. I can come back to visit. By then, you will already have a thriving farm.”

Smiling, “I don’t know much about farming. But I can hunt.”

“Yeah? You’ll have to teach me sometime.”

They chatted more about the crops they can grow at the Dumuzid forest. The light of the sun was beginning to recede, reflecting on the choppy waves, and it glitttered with sheer brightness. Their waters were odd, it was unlike anything she has ever seen as the colors shifted again to a deep emerald green, the likes of a robust healthy seaweed.

Man, I’m hungry again, she thought. It was then she noticed Lei’la turned extra mindful as she dipped the paddle in the green waters. “Why the change of pace?”

“Predators.” she mumbled.

“I keep hearing about these predators but I have never, even for a single second, seen them around at a—” she bit her tongue.

There was slithering snake, gliding across an inch below the surface waters. Its size was the same one with Maksim’s giant anaconda snake with its white scales touched by refracted light.

“Wait a minute. I know him! I know that snake.” she dipped an arm in the waters, and waved it about to gather its attention.

Horrified, Lei’la pulled her arm back but it was too late. The snake was coming back, along with an army of other white snakes on its tail and heading for their direction. Dozens of anaconda-sized snakes coming in their direction.

“On second thought, it might not be who I think it is.”

She sputtered, “Who in the hell did you think it was?”

“Maksim.”

When she didn’t blink, confusion puckering between her eyebrows.

“The snow tribe prince.” she added.

“River.” she said, her tone dripping in high-octane panic and betrayal. “No one has seen the snow tribe. Not for a million years.”

“Wishful thinking?”

The white snakes circled around them in a turning clockwork motion, patiently. As if they were readying something. Probably a predatory arrangement as they circled their prey. They moved languidly in the water, taking their sweet time. And the amount of patience the army of snakes displayed only heightened Lei’la’s terror.

The snakes were dissipating into a wider circle, going far away by the second but Lei’la didn’t seem to notice. The sea behind her rippled rippled in disturbance, a head of grayish-white hair poked out from under it. It was slow to rise up.

“If I had known that I got so little time left to live my life," Lei'la said, not noticing that a man was slowly rising up from the waters behind her. "Then I would have spent it saying goodbye to my friends. Tell them how much I love and keep on shitting on En’tum as I haunt him from my grave.”

River's brows furrowed. “What about U’tu?”

“Fuck him, too. And every last stupid games he thinks up. Stupid fucker!”

“Surely, you don’t mean that.”

“I hate him! I hate him so much. Fuck that guy. He can go to hell and back and I couldn’t care less about what happens to..” she trailed off as it slowly dawned on her. Twisting around, she fell silent at the sight of rainbow incandescent colors in the open air, flowing like liquid motion as its colors thrashed in pure waves of light.

A pale, ghostly man was hovering an inch above the waters, his opaque marble eyes made him look like death himself and if death ever had a face, it would be his. There was deep frown marring his features, and River recognized what he felt in that instant. Wild disappointment.

Lei’la’s crawled backwards close to River, peering up at him. “W-what is he?” she trembled.

“That’s my husband." she said, wryly. "Tentatively.”

Anger deepened his features in harsh lines. It is certain. he told her in mind-speak.

“We’ll talk about this later.” she replied to him, patting Lei'la on the back as a bid for assurance. The poor girl was terrified.

He hovered close to the side of the boat, looming over and down at them. Lei’la’s wide eyes never leaving his profile. Who marked you? he said, a possesive tone in his voice.

“Oh, this?” she held a hand around her throat. “I scared someone and got hurt. Honestly, I should have known better. Considering the odd tales around behagthis, I should have been more careful about announcing myself as one.”

He glared. Who. Marked. You?

“Hey. That’s offensive.” she tapped him lightly on the cheek when he drew closer. It was quickly followed by terrified squeak from the corner of the boat. “I’m absolutely taking offense. I got myself hurt, husband. Look the scar is even raised.”

"River!" Lei'la hissed in panic. "Get back here! Stay clear from him."

An incredulous look swept over Maksim in bewilderment. “River, your memories of breaking every bone in your body is still fresh in my head. This is nothing but a flesh wound.”

Shocked, “It so is something! They even called it a severed condition.”

He gave a mocking laugh, bending forward to spare a cursory glance over her throat. “It’s that goddamned dark tribe prince, isn’t it?”

“Actually, he calls himself dark tribe majesty in this universe.”

He shrugged. “Whatever he thinks he is, I’ll be putting him out of his misery. If he really did rise up in the ranks above a prince, then the curse must be doing a number on him.“

“Aw babe” she almost swooned, “You’re picking up on my casual language. It’s freaking amazing.”

He glared. “It’s your memories. I didn’t realize at the time that it will be haunting me for the rest of my days, even as I rest. It is usually I who does the stalking in dreams, but you— you’re inevitable. I can't get rest. I had to find you.”

“Never would I have thought that I would see the day I become the balls and chains to someone. Typical wife, teh?”

The chill of the air around them deepened, surface waters turning to frost “You don’t need to be so casual about it.”

She raised a pointer finger, “Everything about our arrangement is casual.”

He narrowed his eyes, a rebuttal thick in the tip of his tongue.

“So,” she crossed her arms, “What excuse do you have for having poor manners, prince?” At his befuddled look, she rolled her eyes. “This is my good friend, Lei’la and you’ve been ignoring her ever since you appeared. She actually saved my ass yesterday and offered me her home to sleep in. You should be grateful. Otherwise I would have slept in the frozen tundra they call the streets of dark tribe city.” She took him by the arm. “Go on. Introduce yourself.”

He crossed his arms and addressed the teenage girl, “Is it true, the dark tribe king marked my behagthi?”

Lei’la had her jaw slack, nodding eagerly.

Tapping him on the arm again, River said. “Try that again.”

He cleared his throat after a long moment. “I am Maksim, a snow tribe prince from another universe.”

Bunch of snakes pooled around the boat, their heads poking out in greeting with their glowing ruddy eyes. There were about half a hundred of them, eyes dead-set on Lei’la.

She was in shock, her hands paling from gripping the sides of the boat so hard the wood cracked underneath it. “W-when—” she swallowed in her dry throat. “W-when were you going to tell me you married a lost prince?”

“It was an abrupt, impromptu arrangement. His tribe was in danger. We needed a quick solution.”

Maksim’s gray hair clung to his skin even as the wind blew past them. “Nothing about our marriage was quick,” the gravel grit in his words sounded otherworldly, almost ancient “River Florencia, your soul to mine. And the bridge between it took a millenia since its inception.”

River elbowed him with an awkward sputtering laugh to Lei’la, “He has an odd sense of humor. He really isn’t as dangerous as it seems.”

He frowned at the frightened girl. “My body is poison. Touch me. You die.”