Chapter 4 – Peace Through Love
“This is the worst,” Juno says as
she struggles in the tight coffin.
“I know, but can you stop moving
around on me? You’re making this more uncomfortable,” Rex says.
“Laying on top of you is uncomfortable.
I’m trying to move over to the side, but there’s not enough space for me to
move.”
“Just stop already!”
“My mom and my kingdom’s army is
going to become undead if we don’t break out of here soon!”
“I know that, but we can’t break
out of here with force.”
“I’m not falling in love with you.”
“I’m not asking for that. He said
at least learn to like each other.”
“But if what he said was true about
God wanting us to fall in love, then we’d have to eventually love each other.
How would we even-” Rex pulls Juno’s face in and kisses her on the lips. She retaliates
by pushing him off then headbutting him. “…I’m going to cut your head off when
we get out of here.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“What were you thinking? I’m a
corpse!”
“I was thinking that maybe I could trick
the coffin into opening by showing it a sign of love. Why? What? What’s that
look on your face?”
“What look?”
“You have a weird look and it’s
starting to scare me. You didn’t like that kiss, did you?”
“…I-”
“I can’t believe you had to think
about it.”
“S-shut up! I don’t know what’s
going through my head and what I’m feeling right now, okay?! That wasn’t even a
good kiss!”
“What do you know about good
kisses? Have you kissed other men or been kissed by men other than your dad?”
“N-no.”
“Then I wouldn’t judge my kiss. I’m
sure that you can’t even kiss good either.”
“I’ll show you a good ki-No! I’m
not going to think about that! Agh! What made you comfortable enough to kiss me
anyway?”
“I just thought about the good
things about you. The few good things, I mean.”
“What good things?”
“You’re dedicated to God, the Church,
your family, and your kingdom. You’re fierce, smart, and selfless. Fighting and arguing
with you has made me realize that you’re not that bad of a person. In fact, you’re
a lot like me, if you can believe it. What? You have that look in your face agai-”
Juno kisses Rex much to both of their surprise. “…What…what did you do that for?”
“Because you can be really annoying,
but you can be really brave, heroic, and rarely sweet. It’s just like you said.
You’re a lot like me.”
The coffin slowly starts to open as
Rex and Juno begin to acknowledge their newfound feelings for one another.
“Juno. Our kingdoms may have hated
and killed each other for generations, but we have to put that aside. We have
to go out there to save your kingdom from becoming undead and Nevar’s plan.”
“After that…can we see each other?”
“Yes, and here I thought you had
enough of me.”
“I’m just starting to like you.”
“You kiss people you just start to
like?”
“Shut up.”
Their coffin completely opens, and
they exit from it. The sun is about to rise in the sky as the morning slowly
arrives. Rex is about to take out his sword to deflect an attack from Juno that
he expects to happen but is instead hugged.
“Hey, I thought you didn’t want to
be this close to me. Weren’t you going to cut my head off?” Rex asks.
“Don’t disregard my affection! Keep
talking like that and I will cut off your head!”
“Will you now? After what we just
said to each other? Go ahead. It doesn’t matter if you do.”
Juno hesitates to take her sword
out and instead walks through Rex and takes his hand.
“Stop messing around! We have to go
save my kingdom!”
“And now you’re holding my hand?”
“Shut up!”
Rex and Juno make their way to the
capital where a horde of the undead are approaching the capital’s walls. Among
the undead are war animals and dead soldiers from both kingdoms. Nevar leads
the army from the front with his sympathizers, who are now undead, by his side.
“How are we going to get passed
this army?” Juno asks.
“We go through them. Our combined
strength should be enough to do this.”
“It helped us beat a single bear
and elephant. I’m not sure if it can help us with this huge horde.”
“Do you trust me?”
“I’m just starting to.”
“Do you trust me?”
“I do.”
“Then let’s do this.”
Juno and Rex cut themselves up and
combine into a singular body. They charge through the horde of the undead while
the archers from the Notte kingdom launch their arrows into the horde. Juno
and Rex use a bear as a shield to block the arrows then through the animal to
help clear the way. At the capital’s walls, the archers and watchers are in
disbelief at seeing Juno and Rex in a singular body going through the horde.
The strength of the two is enough to help them break through the horde,
however, they are knocked apart by two elephants. Rex and Juno put themselves together
into their original bodies as they charge to where Nevar is. Both are unaware
they are too far away from each other to stay together. That is until Nevar
notices and stops his undead horde’s advance.
“Rex. Juno,” Nevar says with
amazement.
“You better give up now, Raven!”
Juno says.
“We aren’t going to let you turn everyone undead!” Rex says.
“You’re correct. I no longer have a
reason to.” Rex and Juno are surprised by Nevar’s response but stay on guard. “You
two don’t notice it, but you are too far apart from each other to stay in one
piece. Being together in that coffin must’ve finally formed a bond between you
two that I’ve been waiting for! Now, the kingdoms will finally cease their
endless war with one another!”
Nevar releases the souls of the
undead from their bodies as his army turns to dust while the people who were
undead return to normal, which includes Rex and Juno. Amazed by the restoration
of their normal bodies, they go to embrace each other before they kiss.
Everyone watching from the Notte kingdom is stunned while Nevar couldn’t be happier.
Nevar and his supporters are taken into custody while Juno and Rex convince their ruling parents to
approve of the marriage. What convinces them is the return of their lost lover
who they thought was dead.
A marriage ceremony happens a week
later with both kingdoms and families uniting on the spot. Even though Nevar
isn’t allowed to attend, he is content knowing that he had a hand in making
this possible, despite it being primarily God’s hand making good out of his
evil. While the celebration is happening, Juno and Rex sit at their table
chatting.
“Isn’t this amazing, Rex? I couldn’t
imagine anything like this happening a week ago.”
“Me neither. I thought we would’ve
been stuck together in that coffin for weeks. It would’ve been Hell.”
“Yea-what?”
“What? It was back when I didn’t
like you.”
“But that was also when we fell in
love with each other.”
“Oh yeah. Should’ve probably
focused on that.”
“Tch. Don’t give me a reason to put
you on your butt during our wedding.”
“As if you could.”
“I cut off your head more than once!”
“But I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“That’s it. Let’s go outside to see
once and for all who would win a sword fight.”
“I’m game.”
Rex and Juno sneak out with their
swords and fight outside where no one should see them. They sword fight with
each other until they reach a draw with their sword to their necks.
“Retry,” Juno says.
“I clearly got to your neck before
you did,” Rex points out.
“If you did, then you can do it again.”
They fight again only to come out
with the same result.
“Let’s go again,” Juno says.
“You know I won, right?”
“This time I know for sure that I
got to your neck first. Go again.”
During this next attempt, Rex
manages to sweep Juno off her feet and kiss her.
“…okay, you win,” Juno admits.
“Yes!”
“This time.”
“I’m ready to go again any time you
want.”
“What are you kids doing?” Rex’s mom
asks.
Rex’s and Juno’s parents were
watching the fight while placing bets on their child winning.
“You know, just playing around,”
Rex answers.
The family laughs together before
Rex and Juno go back to the party. With their marriage, Rex and Juno have
united both kingdoms and end the seemingly endless war between them. During the
war, they thought it was going to end with their side taking their revenge on
the other. What they didn’t expect was that love was going to end the war.
The End
No comments:
Post a Comment