Aurelius let loose with a powerful cry of relief as he dumped ice-cold water over his head. The entirety of the young prince's body shivered in delight as it was soaked from head to toe in the freezing water, taking great delight as the last remaining droplets dripped down onto his golden hair.

As he callously tossed the wooden bucket to his side, Aurelius gave a grateful smile to the nearby lake's near-freezing water. He shook his head from side to side, running his fingers through the long, glistening locks of golden hair that brushed themselves across his drenched shoulders and backside.

The young prince took a deep breath as a gentle breeze washed over his tired body, allowing his shirtless form to bathe itself in the mid-afternoon sun's excruciating rays of light that gave a small amount of relief from the lake water's icy temperature.

"Your hair has gotten fairly long the days." The calm voice of Val’vicus called out as he sat upon a nearby log while he watched his student's water show. "It's about where we should see about getting it cut, isn't it? At least before someone decides to yank on that mane of yours and slit your throat in the heat of battle."

Over the past few months, Val’vicus had been serving as the dark elven prince's weapons instructor, and the two elven males couldn't have been any more different in appearance than they already were. Whereas Aurelius's face could easily be said to be gorgeous and almost feminine in appearance, the older elven male sported several age-old scars across his weary features, something that made the relatively young instructor appear much older than he actually was. While on top of his head lay a ragged style of midnight black hair that made the young prince question to himself if someone had taken a dulled blade and cut it down near its roots.

"Iskra wouldn't like that," Aurelius gave his instructor a shy smile as he scratched at the back of his neck, remembering the times when his mother would often cut his hair for him whenever she had felt that it had gotten too long. Something that was the complete opposite of his wife, who went out of her way to give praise to his long hair. "She's always going on about how amazing my hair is. Something about me keeping it long and pretty."

While those weren't the exact words that his pregnant wife had often used when giving praise to his golden strands of hair, Aurelius felt that he didn't need to go any further than that. Especially when the expectant teenager had even gone so far as to proclaim that she had made a statute that forbade him from cutting his hair.

Even though the two of them were now spending most of their days together, Aurelius couldn't help but question the moments where his wife had gone a little bit too far in her praises for him—forcing himself to question the idea about whether or not his wife was attempting to make a light-hearted joke or if she was deadly serious.

Aurelius recalled the countless times where his significant other would pull him in close at night and play with his golden-maned head as she gave mountains of praise, sung alluring musings to him, and an assortment of playful, yet strangely jealous teasings to him.

These were all common occurrences during the young couple's long nights together, and it had made the ever-youthful elven prince allow his blonde locks of hair to grow past his shoulders. Something that gave his loving wife great pleasure in seeing on a daily basis.

"It’s really hard to explain exactly why," Aurelius stated as an image of his hair-drunk wife formed itself in the back of his mind, forcing the young prince to blush in embarrassment. "But I like having my hair long like this."

The blonde-haired prince, whose face was now thoroughly flushed in embarrassment at the lustful thoughts in his mind, looked to the ground with a nervous smile. While he wasn't deathly afraid to do so, Aurelius was still far too shy about offering up the real reasoning for wanting his hair to be as long as it was now.

As she often did on a nightly basis, Iskra would lay behind her husband as she held him in her arms as she offered up her praises and expressed her love for him. Something that the young prince was surprised to find out that he loved hearing from his wife as he felt that the words uttered to him by his loving wife were on an entirely different plane of existence when compared to those given to him by the dozens of mothers that he loved so dearly.

At the end of the day, Aurelius just liked hearing the compliments heaped onto him by his wife. Yet being able to utter those words were far too embarrassing for the love-struck elven teenager to openly express to anyone else. That is, except for Iskra.

"Of course you can't," The instructor muttered to himself as he looked away from his charge, most likely thinking that the young prince wouldn't be able to hear him.

The remainder of what his instructor had to say was lost to a well-timed bout of silence as the two elves offered the other a disingenuous smile.

While it was true that Aurelius didn't mind what the others had thought of him, the young prince would always grow hot with a quietly burning rage whenever those around him would direct their ire towards his pregnant wife.

Most of the elves that now lived within Ruined Home had the proper amount of tact to hide their disdain for the pregnant teenager in some capacity. Yet there were a few within the encampment that didn't think it was necessary to do so, with the prince’s weapons instructor being the most vocal of the bunch.

Yet despite how much he wished to speak his mind, Aurelius would always remain quiet. 'She wouldn't like it if I were to lose control and fight off my instructors.' Aurelius thought to himself as he clenched his fists at his side. A barely contained calm expression grew across his beautiful features as he attempted to hide the burning storm that lay just behind his black and silver eyes. 'So keep smiling, you bastard. You're just a nobody that can easily be replaced by the day's end.'

The thoughts uttered by the frustrated prince were a fact that everyone within the encampment knew.

All of the instructors who had been given to him and his wife were relatively new to teaching noble children in one capacity or another. Whether it was because they wished to chart a path where they would be able to make a name for themselves amongst the various houses of Dar'Nari nobility, or that they wanted to use their hard-earned knowledge to better the future generations of the dark elven people, Aurelius didn't care. Their futures as renowned instructors were on a razors-edge when it came to their time in Ruined Home, and everyone knew it.

Aurelius being chief amongst them.

If, for whatever reason, either he or his wife were to proclaim their desire for one or more of the instructors to be replaced, then their futures as a professional teacher would be over. Replaced by someone else who knew better than them, or the newcomers would soon find themselves in the same boat.

And despite his misgivings in letting a few of his people mumble amongst themselves about who he slept with, Aurelius had decided that it wouldn't also be right for him to sow chaos amongst the battered encampment as it slowly got back up on its feet.

He also knew that if she so desired to, then his wife would be able to remove one person or another in her own individualistic way.

"So," Aurelius started to say as he decided that it would be best for him to take the high ground and ignore the insensitive words of his black-haired instructor. "What do you do when you're not with me?"

Val’vicus looked down in thought as he pondered the prince's words. "Either I'm training to better myself, or I'm attempting to outdo my peers in one manner or another." The instructor stated as he looked up towards the blonde-haired teenager. "What do you usually do?"

With a loving smile spreading itself across his lips, Aurelius leaned up against the doorframe that led into the depths of his wife's office as he took in the sight of his raven-haired wife as she sat lazily over one of the room's many lounging sofa's.

The young prince stayed like that for a few seconds longer as he took in more of the scene before him. Standing next to the pregnant teenager was an elven woman that he had never seen before until today. The woman in question, whose hair was of a similar color to his wife, was quite small compared to the two teenagers, both of which stood at an impressive height. If his wife were to stand next to the robed elven woman would possibly stand somewhere below his wife's shoulders and just above her elbows.

The woman's robes were also quite peculiar for the elven prince as their white and red patterned threads were unique when compared to the countless number of servants that he would continuously see running around his family's royal holding.

Despite her unique choice in clothing, however, Aurelius was unable to draw a conclusion as to what the woman's profession might be.

'Who cares,' Aurelius thought to himself as he withdrew a hand from one of his pockets before quietly knocking on the wall to his right.

The two women turned to look at the shrugging prince as he let out a huff of air, deciding that it was best to forget about which order of servants that the elven woman belonged to.

The two teenagers beamed happily at the sight of each other's smiles as Iskra beckoned for her husband to sit beside her on the couch.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Ara’tasia," Iskra said politely as she watched her husband approach, patting at a spot on the sofa that lay just to her right. "But I believe that will be all for now."

"Very well," The red-and-white robed woman backed away from the pregnant teenager before offering an eye-raising robotic, but still courteous curtsy. "If you ever require the services of my order ever again, then I must insist that you call upon us as soon as it may be convenient for you."

While the woman spoke in a neutral tone, Aurelius was able to discern the hatred that she held for the human girl before her.

"Greetings to you, young prince." The woman offered a far more polite bow to him as he slid next to his wife, snaking an arm around her neck and shoulders before pulling her in for a deep kiss. "Glory onto your eternal family and it's most supreme patriarch who stands brilliantly over our people's enemies."

Aurelius gave no reply save for the sound of a sloppy kiss as he forced his tongue deep into his wife's throat.

At first the two women were quite shocked by his behavior, but Iskra easily melted into his arms as her eyes rolled into the back of her head before she closed them for good with a deeply lustful moan. The young girl's hands opened and closed themselves in disbelief as she struggled to keep up with the increasingly possessive actions of her husband, but eventually, their fingers found their way upon the elven prince's back, digging themselves into his lightly sunkissed flesh.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Aurelius caught sight of the elven woman looking down at the two teenagers in disgust. Perhaps it was because of their vulgar display of affection towards one another as Iskra tore into the back of her husband's shirt, leaving lovingly vicious crawl marks across his flesh. Or maybe it was because the blonde-haired prince held his wife's chin in one hand as if she were his property while his other hand kneaded the mountainous flesh of her breasts.

He couldn't say for sure, but Aurelius knew that he wanted to force the woman to disappear from the young couple's shared presence of her own volition. Since he had just recently had to deal with their relationship's most vocal detractor, this was the only way that he wished for the robed woman to vanish from their sight.

Afterward, the two affectionate teenagers continued their show of exhibitionism for a surprising amount of time. Aurelius kept his gaze upon the robed woman's features as he watched her face visibly turn from muted disdain to outright disgust while the two lovers pressed up against one another as much as they could.

Stars danced across Aurelius' vision as he winced in pain, breaking contact with the elven woman for a brief moment as the familiar sensation of blood trickled down his back. Iskra would always leave large, affectionate gashes upon his body as her sharp nails tore away at the fabric of his shirt. It wouldn't be long before he had to throw away another of his shirts because of his wife's affectionate actions.

Supposedly, it was her way of marking her territory. An expression that had left the young prince visibly confused whenever his wife had mentioned the reasoning behind her painful actions.

"Glorious praises upon the Witch-King," Finally, the elven woman appeared to have enough as she offered up a bow towards the lustful teenagers before quickly turning to leave the lovebirds to their own devices.

Neither the husband nor wife had paid the slightest amount of attention towards the departing woman until she had closed the door to the office behind her with an audible click.

It was here that Aurelius had decided to break the two of them apart.

"Goodness," Iskra huffed with a lustful purr of her voice as the two of them slowly came apart. Glistening trails of saliva interlinked their chins in unison as the two of them looked up at one another with deep-seated lust. Heated breaths brushed across their faces as the two of them stared at the mess that they had created upon one another. "I have no idea what's gotten into you right now, but I definitely enjoyed it. I'm still enjoying it."

Iskra offered her husband an eager smile as she wiped off the excessive amount of slimy spit and saliva that now drenched her chin.

Despite what the two of them had experienced together over the past few months, Aurelius grew embarrassed over how he had acted with his wife while someone was in their presence. Such emotions only managed to grow even more severe as he watched the sight of his wife playing with the entirety of her drool drenched hands as she lapped at their delicate features with a mesmerizing display of her tongue's workmanship.

The emerald-green jewels that served as his wife's eyes glinted in the room's low light as she gazed upon him with a look that could frighten even the loosest of whores.

"S-sorry," Aurelius muttered as he turned away from the sight before him. His natural shyness having finally won out over the physical desires that he had for his wife. "I don't like it when others show their hatred for you. Especially when they know that I can see them."

"Duly noted," Iskra stated as she gave her husband a loving smile. The young girl continued to speak as she brought her hands forward, using her husband's sundried shirt as a means to wipe off the last remnants of their exhibitionism. "Then I should be grateful for the fact that your mother used her hatred of me while choosing our instructors."

"What?" Aurelius' eyes widened in surprise at the mention of his blood-mother. "But I thought-"

"That your father had been the one to choose for us, yes." Iskra stated matter-of-factly as she crossed her legs together before checking her bloodstained fingernails with a bored expression upon her lovely face. "Your father nodded his head while offering up his stamp of approval to his cherished wife as she presented the list of selected instructors. That hateful woman went out of her way to choose such a diverse group of people that she knew would show their displeasure at our relationship."

Aurelius grew visibly saddened over what his wife had to say about his mother, a woman whom he had cherished for years before meeting the raven-haired teenager upon his world-spanning adventure. An adventure that had ended the day that he learned that he was going to be a father.

"You shouldn't say that," Dejected by the mutual hatred that the two most important women in his life held for one another, Aurelius attempted to mend their relationship in some manner. Something that he knew wouldn't happen without a serious sitdown between the two women. "Maybe she didn't know that they would act this way. I know that the two of you got off on the wrong foot when you first met, but she's never acted the way that you usually describe her."

"My Knight, you're very naïve when it comes to how women act towards one another, aren't you. Especially considering how many mothers you appear to have." Iskra gave her husband another smile as she rested her head upon an open palm as her other arm dangled freely atop the couch while she adjusted her body into a more comfortable position. Her smile soon turned into a sorrowful frown as tears began to flood their way into her eyes. "She's acting like this because she loves you just as much as I do. Yet despite her love for you, she sees me as nothing more than a hideous thief who stole her most precious baby boy away from her. She's lying to herself every day as she attempts to drive a wedge between the two of us. Of our family."

Iskra's brought a hand to cover her quivering lips as she turned away from her husband with misery in her teary eyes. The young girl let out a hideous sounding hiccup as she failed to hold back the rivers of tears that flowed freely down her usually gorgeous ghostly-white features, turning her beautiful face into something that was far more similar to that of a vengeful spirit. Her other hand, now free of its duty of providing the young girl's head a place to rest, moved towards her life-bearing stomach. Driving home the full meaning of her words.

"I'll never let that happen," The young prince uttered in a voice that nearly matched the sorrow that his wife was now feeling at the thought of them being separated from one another. Despite being nearly drowned by the heavy waves of emotions that flowed freely from the expectant mother's wailing form, Aurelius didn't miss a single beat as he drew closer to his wife and wrapped both arms around her quivering body. All so that she could find shelter amongst the storm of emotions that flowed without remorse out of her body.

"I should go and talk to her," Aurelius proclaimed as he planted a gentle kiss atop of his wife's lips before resting one hand atop of hers, embracing the unborn life within the raven-haired girl's growing belly. "Maybe I can somehow convince her that-"

"No!" Wailed Iskra as she buried her tear-stained face into her husband's chest. "If you do that, then she'll lock you away and hide you from us. I can't bear the mere thought of forcing our children to grow up in a world where they've never laid eyes upon their loving father. Without ever knowing who you were. I wouldn't be able to bear living in that sort of hateful world."

Mirroring his wife's pitiful state, Aurelius attempted to comfort his sobbing wife by wrapping his last remaining free arm around the back of her miserable form. He pulled her in close as the two embraced one another. Ever since he fell in love with the now wailing teenager, the blonde-haired prince had found himself growing increasingly weaker to the vast array of emotions that swept over him whenever his wife had become upset in one form or another.

"Why do you think she'd do that?" He asked in a loving tone as he cupped his hand beneath her chin before lifting her head so that he could lay his eyes upon the mess that his mother had created upon her awestriking face.

"Because," Iskra started to say as her husband guided her eyes to meet with his. She was always eager to drown herself into the ocean of silver that she had fallen in love with when they had first met. "It's what I would do if I were in her shoes."