Two Part 2: Lords and Children

     The little boy running around the marketplace wasn't older than four years old. His hair was blond and curly, his skin the colour of rich cream toffee and his eyes were ablaze with the joy of running. His laughter echoed from the walls and made everyone he passed, smile. An out-of-breath guard run after him, not quite catching the wild creature. He was  just glancing over his shoulder at the guard when strong arms lifted him up, high, high in the air.
"Hello, Ray," a deep, warm, fatherly voice said but the boys terror, for those weren't his father's eyes, took over. His laughter died and exhaustion took over.
Ray had been born unexpectedly early, the man knew, on the road home from Night. He was named after the first gleam of sunlight that had felt sudden to his parents after the thick fog of the forest faded.
"You're not Daddy", he whispered in a state of shock, eyes widening in realising how high off ground he really was.
"No, I'm not your Father. But we're on our way to visit him." The pale lord recognised the young prince from the letters his father had written him, with long descriptions of the boy, his movements, studies and spirit. The lords beautifully crafted chains caught the curious boys attention and he started fiddling with the thin silvery plates shaped like orchids.
"My.... Lord...I'm... I'm sorry!" huffed and puffed the guard who'd been trying to catch the boy. He tried to stand and salute but he could hardly stand anymore. It had been a long and extremely hot afternoon.
"At ease, soldier." Nightern lord hurried to say and then to his own guard: "Do get him some water!"
Quickly a flagon was given to the red-faced guard and he drank with long, grateful gulps.
"Will you be fine?" asked the young guard who had given him the beverage. Before he could answer, though, his funny looking colleague took his shoulder and muttered loudly: "I know your struggle. We have a princess."
There was a chuckle all around them, one that the lord and his lady determinedly did not hear. The little prince was seated on the lord's horse, behind a rather shy-looking girl, Sunshine, and the princes guard joined the train of men, women and horses all the way up to the grand library/ the city of Days' lord's palace.

"You're early!" bellowed a man, surprisingly young for a lord, before the herald could announce the lord and lady of Night had arrived. The lord of Day was a large man, strong as a bull and even in his strange paleness, was a shade of burnt sugar. His hair was as golden and as wildly curly as his sons and his eyes were light brown with a hint of yellow, like shards of amber.
"Well, I caught your little rascal" replied the other, with an overly serious look on his face. They stared at each other for a moment, before breaking into laughter.
"Oh, brother. I've missed you.You know I would have come visit you if it weren't the worry for my wife's health. The midwife says she carries twins," the Lord of Day said.
A deep shadow of concern was clearly visible on his face now. Not too many years ago his Mother had died giving birth to twins. His Father had soon faded away leaving the city in the hands of a grieving boy. Since then, he had prayed good fortune and health for every woman, treated the business of having children with seriousness rare for such a young man and respected the lady he was now married to in a new fashion.
 For a long time he thought he would not be capable of love, so he decided to make an alliance out of a marriage. Yet soon he found, to his surprise, his broken heart to be healing when the girl, chosen by his counsellors, slowly and patiently showed him the beauty of the world and taught him to laugh again, to love again.
"Lord of Night!" a soft, gentle and noticeably weary woman's voice called from the doorway to the entrance hall. "Perhaps you can knock some sense to my husband, he hardly sleeps when this would be the time for that. There's plenty of  wakened nights ahead." The Lady of Day waddled to greet the guests.
She was beautiful. She seemed to have been dipped into honey, so soft were her colours. But it was her eyes that truly mesmerised. They were the purest shade of blue you could find."The sky beyond the mountaintops is out-blued by them" had the golden lord once written to his brother-in-office in a spur of poetic enchantment.
Saphira, a name she had chosen, was more than fitting.

Days flew by, as old friendships were renewed around the city.
The shy princess soon forgot her weariness and run around the garden, playing hide-and-seek, or catch, or a strange combination of those they invented themselves, with Ray and his closest friend, his guard's son, Hunter. They were all more or less the same age, but she was taller, as Nighteners often were, and run faster than the boys.

During a long and restless hours, the Lady Saphira gave birth to twin girls. One had flaming red, thick hair, so bright was the colour it seemed unreal at first. She was named Ruby.
Her sister, Amber, had the most unusually coloured eyes, light brown, just like her father, with shards of yellow embedded with the brown, like tiny sharp blades.
All three were fine, and the Lord could hardly stop crying from relief, holding Ruby, while Amber was sleeping in Saphira's arms.
The prince peeked in.
"Come, meet your sisters, Ray" Saphira whispered and he sneaked in, quiet and careful.
"They are very small," Ray pointed out stroking Ambers soft cheek gently, the way Mother showed him. "How soon can we play?"
"It will take a while before they can run," Saphira laughed.