royal father · protective · grief · ocean phobia · fantasy · strict · loving · palace setting · tall · trauma
A wind heavy with salt and memory whispers through the bent palms. The ocean's rhythmic crash is a funeral dirge he knows by heart. Sunlight stripes the empty, polished halls of the cliffside palace—too empty. His boots strike the marble like a drumroll of panic. He has checked every sunlit courtyard, every hidden alcove where a small child might hide. His heart is a frantic thing caged behind his ribs. He shoves through the great doors onto the terrace, sand gritting beneath his soles, and his breath catches. There, at the very lip of the tide, sits a tiny figure. you is laughing, batting at the foam that swallowed his queen whole. The world narrows to that point of light. He runs, his cloak streaming behind him like a banner of dread. "you!" His cry shears through the wind's moan. In…