Aria’s eyes scanned the passing scenery, noting that there had really been nothing noteworthy for some time now. She supposed that was not terribly surprising, given that she knew that most of this kingdom was buried beneath the ground. It made sense, considering that vampires and the sun did not exactly get along. She wondered briefly if she would have much chance to see the sun in the future.<br/><br/>Truth be told, it wasn’t as though she particularly loved being out in the sun. She had always had such fair skin that she was prone to burning easily in the sun. She enjoyed the sunshine, especially on a cool day, but more often than not, she preferred to avoid direct sunlight, given that sunburns were not exactly pleasant. She had always had a fondness for nighttime. Perhaps it was because she loved the cool, silvery light of the moon, or the almost ethereal tranquility of a night lit by the full moon.<br/><br/>She supposed that it wasn’t all bad if she didn’t get to see the sun so much. As with anything else, though, the moment something became farther out of reach, the more humans tended to desire such a thing. That was the painful reality of the past few weeks.<br/><br/>It was then that she suddenly felt like she was heading for a prison or a cage rather than a marriage. She would put on a pretty dress and say some pretty words, but it was nothing more than a lie. This whole thing was just a façade masking what was essentially an incarceration ceremony.<br/><br/>She wondered briefly how this prince felt about all of this. She wondered if he felt the same way that she did. Had he had a life, a lover that he had to leave behind? Did he feel as miserable and helpless as she did? Was this a cruel prison for him, too?<br/><br/>She hated the idea of being a prison for anyone. She had never been fond of being contained, restrained, or otherwise feeling like she had no control or no freedom. She wanted to be able to roam, to do as she pleased, to have some control in this life. But here she was riding towards a fate that would steal away all of these things, along with whatever temporary happiness she’d felt.<br/><br/>She’d been staring out at the passing scenery absentmindedly for some time when a voice drew her attention. It was the voice of the queen, telling her that she should prepare herself rather than gazing out at what amounted to nothing by a repeating reel of the same old scene over and over again. Instead, the queen recommended that she review her vows, to ensure that she had them memorized.<br/><br/>“I wrote them. Of course, I will remember them,” she protested half-hearted, but did as she was told. She took out the paper on which beautiful lies were written in beautifully practiced penmanship. They weren’t all lies, of course. She’d had inspiration to draw on when she’d written the words, so most of the sentiments were very real. They were lies, however, in the sense that not a one was how she felt towards this prince she’d never met. She stared down at the words, trying her best to feel nothing as she read them over and over again for the better part of the remaining trip.<br/><br/>--<br/><br/>Rosalie rolled her eyes at the groan Valor gave her before he told her that she shouldn’t take her anger out on him, in that ridiculous calm voice of his. It irritated her perhaps more than it should have. “I’ll take it out on whomever I please,” she shot back, although the edge to the words was dulled at least a little in light of the fact that he had agreed to help her.<br/><br/>She doubted very highly that he actually meant what he had said, and the fact that he could lie straight to your face so easily irked her. It wasn’t worth starting a fight over it, though, especially when she needed his help. She decided to save her aggressive energy for the hunt and accept his help, reluctant though it might be.<br/><br/>As soon as he was up and ready to follow, she stalked off towards the exit, hanging the pendant around her neck as she did. As she stepped outside, she squinted and squirmed just a little. The pendant made the sunlight more bearable, but it still gave her an uncomfortable prickling sensation all across her skin. The morning air was cool, though, for which she was grateful. It was at least some small relief, anyways.<br/><br/>Sniffing the air, she caught the scent of several bucks in the distance and immediately took off in that direction. She didn’t wait to make sure that Valor would follow, knowing that he would. It still made her feel dirty to have to ask for help from the likes of him, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and at least he would be useful enough on the hunt.<br/><br/>It didn’t take long for her to track down the animals in question, and she relished in the hunt, as well as the kill. It brought her a pleasure that most humans would find frightening, and she didn’t care one bit. After finding and taking down a particularly large buck, she stood up, licking her lips and wiping blood from her mouth. She took in several long breaths to return her breathing to normal as she eyed her kill.<br/><br/>The ground was still slippery from the rain that had fallen the night before, and a more cautious person might have paid attention to this, but Rosalie had other things on her mind. She paid no mind to the slick grass beneath her feet as she hoisted the buck up with relative ease. As she moved to take a step, though, the shift in her center of gravity from the large buck she held coupled with the slick grass beneath her feet caused her to lose her footing.<br/><br/>She tried to recover her balance, but it was too late. The next thing she knew, she was tumbling down the hill. Under normal circumstances, her reflexes might have allowed her to recover before she made it to the bottom, but as it stood now, the large buck had fallen down on top of her, hindering her movements long enough to prevent her recovery. The bottom of the hill quickly rushed into view and she came to an abrupt stop with a loud<span style="font-style: italic">crack</span>as her left leg slammed hard against the trunk of a large tree.<br/><br/>She let out an involuntary cry of pain as she felt a jolt of pain shoot up from her leg. She growled like a wounded animal and tossed the buck off of her before pushing herself up to a sitting position. She looked down at her leg; the lower part of her shin was red and already beginning to swell. She cursed herself for her lack of awareness and tried to force herself to stand.<br/><br/>The moment she put any weight on her left leg, though, she felt another pain shoot up through her leg. She gritted her teeth and growled again, leaning heavily against the tree that had broken her fall—and her leg—for support.  If it had been Valor instead of herself who had been injured, she could have healed the injury—assuming she wanted to; her healing powers didn’t work on her own body, though, so that left her with one option. “You’re going to have to help me,” she said bitterly, hating that she had to ask for his help twice in the same day. Did the cruelty of this fate know no bounds?