<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #BFBFFF"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Lady Melina Del'Castellorosso</span><br/><span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;">'The Angel of Riace'</span></span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/9960c406-7aeb-4e5b-9174-36e83dbe1238_zpscc943042.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Melina was surprised how much Lord Hagener could down without even getting drunk. Sure, his words came now more slurring, but his eyes were still wary. It was obvious that the Loon was used to liquor. A heavy drinker as it looked. Melina ordered another mug, the tenth by now. <br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">“I have never seen you fight like this, Sir Siegfried. You had never refused to accept your defeat before in a tournament. What happened? Because something must have happened…”</span><br/><br/>It was true, Melina had asked one of the boys of Sir Siegfried, before she had looked for him. He had used dirty tricks before, but he had never continued fighting after having lost a fight. The eyes of the Loon fixed on Melina. He needed two tries for it, but he managed.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">“Girl, you are beautiful and you are intelligent. You find the answer by yourself. What makes a man fight till the bitter end?”</span><br/><br/>Melina was confused. She had to guess that now? There were a lot of things that made a man fight till death. His own waiting death, a mission, a sacrifice, a… <br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">“A woman? It couldn’t be your own death, it was a tournament and your opponent had stopped fighting. You aren’t on a mission either and there is nobody you have to defend.”</span><br/><br/>Some weak applause came from the other side. Siegfried downed his next mug and Melina ordered another one. <br/><br/><span style="color: #80FF00">“Good girl. Yeah, it’s always a woman. You know that they call me Loon, right?” </span>Melina nodded and a smile appeared on the man’s face. <span style="color: #80FF00">“Do you know why the call me like that, too? Because I lock my wife and my daughter into the tower everytime I have to leave the castle. They say it is crazy to do that, but I do it to protect them. You have time, girl?”</span><br/><br/>Melina nodded and the Loon suddenly looked very sober. It was unbelievable after all the ale, but it seemed to have no effect on the man.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80FF00">“Then I will tell you story. My wife, she is a good wife, but she is not the one I love. My love belongs to a girl named Solana. A dead girl. It is now 21 years and 135 days that I held the stiff body of Solana in my hands. She was fifteen at that time. A beautiful young girl. Blonde locks all over her back, a body starting to develop into the one of a woman, an angelic face. I was twenty at that time, a young lord, freshly knighted and I loved this young noble girl from a poor family like I have never loved before and after again. She was the sunshine in my life. We were so happy together, we planned to marry. Her father had already agreed, he was happy to have her off his hands. Then some border clashes started and I had to go with the troops to fight them. When I returned two months later something had changed.”</span><br/><br/>The Loon emptied another mug and his hand grabbed the hand of Melina, nearly crushing it.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80FF00">“Solana seemed desperate, melancholic. She cried when she saw me and she run off when I tried to touch her. I had no idea what had happened, asked her father and her friends. They all told me that she was like that since a month. I wanted to know what was wrong and I confronted Solana in the library on the third level. Gave her no chance to escape, told her that she has to tell me or I wouldn’t marry her. She cried, attacked me, wanted to get past me, but I grabbed her like I hold you now and threw her back. I yelled at her, tell me, tell me…and then she broke down and she told me. From the dance she had to visit with her father, from the young noble who tried to woo her, how she declined his flattering and how she left the dance early. How she got suddenly grabbed from behind, knocked hard against the wall, how she got dizzy, too dizzy to fight the young noble when he took her in the street. That she was pregnant from him, that she couldn’t marry me as she wasn’t a virgin anymore. I….”</span><br/><br/>Siegfried let go of her hand and leaned back, tears were in his eyes and he looked totally broken. <br/><br/><span style="color: #80FF00">“I turned around, I had to think. I loved her, she was the one I loved and I would always love. I knew it. Could I live with my wife and a bastard? Could she live with it? Being reminded all the time of what had happened when she looked in the face of the kid? I had no idea, but I wanted to give it a try. We could give the kid away. She would get over it with the years. I still loved her, didn’t wanted to lose her. I turned back around when I heard the cry. She had run out on the battlement and jumped from the wall…. I held her for four days in my arms in the church until they buried her.” </span></div>