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"Father, PLEASE!" Mongoliaa pleaded with her father. It had been hours; it was nearly nightfall, and they were scheduled to leave soon. And Annika had not returned.
"Daughter, NO." Astrid said firmly, turning his back Mongoliaa. Pelveo sat balanced on his feet in his chair, munching on an apple. He and Astrid had been conversing about Astrid and his clan's departure, when Mongoliaa had burst into his fine tent, breathless, saying Annika had yet to return. She begged her father to let her go out and search for her sister, and he had refused. But Mongoliaa wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Father, I'm pleading with you, please, let me go, or send out some of the men to look for her!" Mongoliaa clasped her hands together and interlocked her fingers, in desperation.
"No!" Astrid raised his voice slightly and turned around to face his daughter. Pelveo cocked an eyebrow and Mongoliaa's brow furrowed in frustration. Astrid lowered his voice and shook his head. "No, daughter, it is too dangerous. Annika is white-skinned, she will have a better chance of being safe, then if it had been one of us."
"Then we can damn her to death!" Mongolia cried out with resentment.
Astrid sighed and turned his broad back again on his daughter. Pelveo stayed quiet, not interfering between father and daughter; his eyes darting back and fourth between the two. Mongoliaa set her jaw angrily and said in a clear, angry tone, "So, you'll leave her to die."
Astrid whirled around and loomed over her, booming, "I will not risk many lives, for the sake of one, no matter who they are!"
"What if it was me father? What if I was the one captured? Would you still abandon me?" Mongoliaa shot back glaring at him accusingly. Astrid opened his mouth then closed it and set his jaw, silently fighting a battle between his daughter and him.
Here, Pelveo interjected, coming off his throne and slipping his hands around Mongoliaa's shoulders, gently leading her back away from Astrid. Mongoliaa glared at her father then shook Pelveo off and stormed from the tent.
Astrid breathed in deeply, his lips still perused and jaw still set, his chest heaving up and down heavily. He let his shoulders then sag, and turned away.
"Those headstrong girls, eh?" Pelveo weakly tried to joke. Astrid, staring off, snapped back to attention, glancing out of the corner of his eyes at Pelveo before saying "Her mother wasn't nearly as stubborn as she is."
Pelveo weakly smiled but said nothing. Astrid sighed heavily and sank onto a puffy chez, holding his head in his hands.
~O~O~O~O~
Mongoliaa threw a cloak around her shoulders, in the tent she shared with Annika. She picked up the dagger that Butsulo had given her. She had tied a strand of rope around it, making it into a necklace. Gazing at it with forlorn eyes, she picked it up tenderly and draped it around her neck, hiding the dagger beneath her blouse, near her bosom. The tent flap rustled and Mongoliaa whirled around, half expecting, hoping it would be Annika. Instead, Butsulo, stooped down in the entrance of flap, stood there.
"What are you doing here?" Mongoliaa hissed sharply.
"I'm going with you. You can't be harmed." Butsulo said simply in his deep voice.
"I don't need your protection." Mongoliaa said, brushing past him, and striding past him. Butsulo slowly turned around and hurried up with her, snatching up his own cloak sluggishly. He thundered after he clumsily, his boots pounding against the stone heavily. "You shouldn't be following." Mongoliaa snapped over her shoulder. Butsulo didn't answer, but kept following. Mongoliaa gave a frustrated sigh, and against her better wishes, let him come.
The two climbed the long stairwell in silence and together, lifted and moved the lid to the tomb entrance. Butsulo helped Mongoliaa clamber over the walls, her skirts making it difficult. Then together, the two slid it back, and slipped away into the dark night that cloaked the graveyard.
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Well, It would be longer, but I think I'll leave it at there. Until the next chapter my friends :-)