The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 201

PART 28

“Surprise!” thousands of happy voices yelled as the group arrived on the patio at Hilia.

“Well its not really a surprise of course, but thanks!” Mark laughed.

“Hey, nice ring Mark!” Holanam teased.

The scene was amazing. There was a huge banner along the roof of the cottage that read; ‘Congratulations Prince Mark!’ A huge feast was laid out on twelve big tables that took up most of the patio. It seemed that all the citizens of Hilia and everyone else Mark knew were picnicking on the shallow volcanic slopes around the cottage and its grounds. All of the males of The Volunteers and about half of The Forty-four were scattered about the lawns, and the female Volunteers and the rest of their children were arriving rapidly.

“Lunch is served!” Sheramiv announced with a grin as she indicated the feast with a wave. “Though I’m surprised that you still get hungry, my Prince!”

“I do though!” Mark laughed as he took a huge platter and began wandering among the tables as he loaded up with the dishes that caught his fancy at the moment. “We’ve decided that we’ll keep as many of our mortal attributes as is practical, and having decided it, it’s so, without having to think about it anymore. And in this case I’m sure glad we did, for when it comes to food, hunger truly is the finest sauce!”

He stopped for a moment and turned to survey his domain and everyone there. “Thanks for coming everyone!” he called.

“Where were you?” Fire asked as Balen appeared beside her.

“I was off alone with Mark.” Balen replied with a deep blush. “I mean we weren’t… You know… Not this time anyway. But Mark still makes time for us whenever we want to be with him, and we all wanted to be with him as we watched the Revealing of the tournament today. Us girls of The Volunteers anyway. The guys don’t seem to care about sharing him as much, they just like to be with him, so there was only one of Mark here with all of them and some of the kids while he was off in Xervia with you. But the rest of us had him to ourselves, so to speak.”

She paused as she gazed at Mark with profound and pure adoration. “It’s so beautiful. You know, when he’s alone with me, he’s a little bit different than he is at any other time, because he’s with me and he’s reacting to me, and he makes an effort to be exactly the Mark that I want him to be. I know there’s only one of him, but I still feel like my Mark loves me most of all.

“He was cuddling with me as we watched him do that beautiful bowing thing with Talia and Alilia on his hands, and I knew millions of girls all over the world wished they could be one of them at that moment, and I had to laugh because I have it even better than Talia and Alilia. They’re still used to him being only one person, so they share him all the time. It would never occur to them to ask him to be two of him, one for each of them, like he is for me.”

“Well for one thing,” Fire laughed as she chose from a gigantic fruit display, “Mother and Alilia love each other almost as much as they love him. To them, they’re an inseparable trio, so they don’t miss having him to themselves.