Graceling Academy discussion

A forest. Pretty self explanatory

Arella followed Giddon, extremely confused. He looked like he had been in a fight and didn't act in a way she'd seen before. She was almost a little worried.

Giddon lead her a ways into the forest. he gave her a set of shiny throwing knives. "Throw these at that tree over there" he said, his face still passive.

Arella looked at Giddon suspiciously. "Um, ok." She took the knives from him and chucked them at a tree. Each landed in the exact same spot. She turned to face him, his expression starting to scare her a little.

"Go get them and throw again" he said. As she was throwing again he spoke. "That family, the ones you liked. They died, in a house fire five years ago. Arella, I'm very sorry"

Arella stopped dead in her tracks just as she was about to grab the knives to throw them again. She stayed frozen like that for several seconds then in one fast, swift motion, she unstuck the knives from the tree, and threw them in Giddon's direction. They landed not far from his head. She hadn't really meant to throw them at Giddon... It just kind of happened without thought. Arella face was emotionless. She felt slightly numb and just kept staring blankly ahead.

Giddon didn't move as he saw the knives. Arella looked like she needed someone. He walked towards her and brought her into his big arms. It was still pouring rain but he didn't care.

Arella still didn't move for a few seconds, then wrapped her arms tightly around Giddon. The rain soaked her, but she was almost grateful for the drops of rain that ran down her face for you couldn't tell that a single tear had mixed itself with them. Arella really wasn't sure how she felt... She had mixed emotions and didn't know which ones were true. So she just stayed there in Giddon's comforting arms, wishing the rain would wash away the slight feeling of guilt that was gathering in her chest...

Giddon walked over and pulled the knives out of the tree. He gave them to her and said to throw them again. "Tell me how you feel"

She took the knives and threw them again at a tree. She went and got them, then walked back to Giddon. "I don't know what I feel. I mean... I guess I'm a little sad but..." She hung her head and rubbed her face with her free hand. She's been denying it, but in all honesty, she felt guilty. "Guilt. I feel guilt."

"Why?" he asked simply. Guilty was what he would've felt too. The locals said that the fire had been caused by something burning in the kitchen but he took a look around the site and saw the King's mark burned into the very spot where the door was. The Kind was punishing them for hiding Aleka. Giddon was not going to tell her this. He knew from experience what she felt right now.

"If I had stayed, maybe I could have prevented it, or saved them or-" she happened to glance up at Giddon and saw the look on his face. She had learned over the years to read people, and right now, he was an open book. "They were killed by the king, weren't they." she didn't say this with any particular emotion. "They were killed because they had hidden me." She felt extremely guilty now. Kind, innocent people had died because of her.

"yes" Giddon wasn't going to lie to her. "Arella, when Randa burned my estate for leaving with Katsa, all of my servants were still in there. Everyone I loved was there. I was to blame for the 37 deaths. But you Arella, you couldn't have known this would happened. You were long gone. This is just how brutal the Kings are"

Arella nodded in agreement with this. "How could they do something so horrible?" The Kings we're terrible. She felt angry. How could they even live with themselves after doing such things? She continued to throw the knives at trees, now pretending that each of them was one of the brutal Kings and she was stabbing them through the heart.

"Because they learned not to have a conscience. They crave power so much that the burning down of a simple house is nothing. They have so much vengeance. They only think of themselves and they only trust themselves. That is how they can do something so terrible Arella." Giddon said. This was the truth. He wanted so badly to line them up and shoot them all at close range with his beloved bow but then he would be like them. And that was the lowest of lows.

"Those stupid fricken senseless, idiotic, bloodthirsty, moronic, god damn Kings!" she said anrgily under her breath. She muttered a few other things about the kings, that in most cases would have had her mouth washed out with soap several dosen times, but they were almost incomprehensible. Suddenly a wave of hate, anger and all the other bitter feelings she had washed over her and directed itself at the kings. Arella remembered all the terrible things she had witnessed King Thigpen do. All the horrible things that she had seen when she was only a child, the things that gave her nightmares and haunted her every thoughts for weeks, the things she had tried to forget... They were unlocked from a deep dark place within her, where she had shoved them down and hoped they would stay there. There was hardly anything at all that frightened Arella, but these thoughts were so gruesome and inhuman, she didn't know how she could have withstahded all this when she was little.

((Payton???))

((Oh I'm comin!!!! Don't get ur nickers in a twist!))

Giddon smiled. "Arella, do understand that we have it pretty good. King Leck tortured many. I was there helping queen Bitterblue retaliate for his mess of a kingdom. Her advisors turned on her, one killed himself, one tried to kill her, she read her fathers journals which contained all of his twisted thoughts. Also, go talk to Katsa. Her stories are horrific what Randa made her do. Quinn, who is also a student here has terrible blood on his hands. Again, we have it easy. Secondly, also understand that these kings have to go to sleep at night with the knowledge of all the torturing, killing and ruining they do. It never ends"

"Giddon," Arella said with an almost pained expression," I mean no disrespect at all when I say this: I am aware of the torchures and murders the kings have committed, I myself watched King Thigpen do those very things for years. I am grateful that I was not victim of the king's greedy clutches, but being fortunate and knowing the kings will have to live with what they have done doesn't change the fact that they're still doing it. You even told me yourself, the kings have learned not to have conscience, they're living perfectly fine with what they've done." She looked down. "Sorry that was rude..."

((???))