Page 7 of Seeded By Two

They were a regular clutch of fhisar trees and the bare wood of the barn.

My father showed me around the farm one spot at a time, waiting for me to appraise them, and seemed taken aback by my lack of interest in doing so.

He opened the barn door, revealing three young male Krev.

“Don’t mind them,” my father said. “They’re just me boys.”

My heart sank.

I had given a lot of thought to the idea of my parents having more children — after all, when I had left them, they were still very much of rearing age and there was always more work for a pair of strong hands.

Even better, you only had to give them food as payment.

They were busy hauling great bales of hay with pitchforks and paused to wipe at their bows and look over at the two of us.

They were handsome creatures with their shiny black horns of the Krev.

The younger one had the tip of his left horn snapped off due to some accident — an accident that happened dozens of times a day on a farm such as this.

“Don’t worry about us,” my father said to my younger siblings. “He’s just here to check out the farm.”

I’d been forced to receive facial surgery over the years to look more like the Prince, but no matter how similar I might appear to him at a young age, you always ended up growing differently in appearance gradually over time.

My brothers shrugged and turned back to their backbreaking labor.

My brothers.

Did they even know I existed?

My parents might not have wanted them to know the truth of what happened to me and I was several years older than my eldest brother, he could easily have figured me for a neighbor’s kid.

I doubted I would ever get a chance to speak or talk with them again…

I wanted to tell them who I was, where I had been, and what I was now doing…

But to do so was to break the promise I had made all those years ago to the palace…

That I was to never reveal who I truly was, to never have a life of my own, to never appear in public as someone other than Prince Aslas.

Not even to my own parents.

Once we were done looking at the farming equipment, my father shut the barn doors and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“It’s hot out,” he said. “Care for a cold one?”

I nodded, and he led me into the house via the back door that I couldn’t help but pause and run my fingers over.

There.

That was where I had tripped and my horns had impaled the door and made those twin indentations.

At least a part of me remained here… even if it was no longer my heart.

“Phisia,” my father called out. “Do we have any gliax left?”

The female standing at the stove turned around. “A little. The boys came in earlier and—”

Her eyes found mine and she froze.

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