Crown & Creatures: The Awakening

Reza's head is so cloudy and heavy that he almost forgot about his shoulder. The pressure from his head on hand awakens the pain. "Aah~" he carefully puts the other hand around his shoulder and leans on the throne by his back. The cut was nursed well enough by Alicia but the pain always has a way to creep in. His mind slips into the memory from yesterday. The sun is meeting the distant ocean on the horizon. But he has no intention of going back from here. He has been in the villages for the past seven days. if something could have been found, then it is beyond these woods. Roaming as a commoner in a brown vest and white harem pants, he went to many huts and houses to ask about the swordsmith whose swords took 100s of lives including his father's.  Along the way,

They walk into the woods. Green leaves are shining under scorching sunlight. Birds are chirping on several branches of trees. The aromas of flowers are blowing with hot air.    Sun sparkles over their heads at its peak. James paces up. The scorching heat sends ripples of fainting in her. Leaning on a tree by her back, she gasps for air. "Are you okay?" James turns to her concerned. She puts a hand on her head and opens her mouth full wide to take in air. James comes closer to her and looks through her dark ash brown hair. In her crown area of the head, there's a swollen wound of pinky finger size. "They hit you?" he asks, blowing cool air on it. "Not in the dungeon, they hit me at home," she says in a meek tone. "There's a river near," says James, wrap

James and Alicia continue their journey through the woods. The size of trees is now smaller and less dense. A narrow stone way appears at a distance. Alicia looks around her. She's now around the same place she comes to pluck flowers usually. Flowers of all colors and varieties are around her.  Her gaze stops on a high branch of Sharon flower tree. She reminisces her memory here. Her hands are raised up trying to grab a white Sharon. But she's not able to reach it. Suddenly her hand jolts up and it touches one Sharon. She looks down. Reza's arms are wrapped around her waist. She gets butterflies in her stomach. His warm hands are sending sparks of fire upwards. It travels through her stomach to chest. Warm sparks are soothing like warming hands by a fire in winter mornings.

Reza is roaming in the village as a commoner dressed in a brown vest and grey harem pants. His heart is betting on the fact that Alicia is innocent. But his mind is conflicted over all evidence. Information that the guard went to secret passage first is the seed of doubt that he wants to grow into a tree to prove her innocence.  He steps into Alicia's wide and long veranda in front of her hut. The place where Cream-colored brick walls were standing is long gone. The sight of her house burnt to ashes saddens him.   "Find'em... I'll burn them alive," words he said in rage in the palace haunt him. He runs his hand over his face and covers his eyes. His mind slips to memory when he had seen her here for the first time.

Reza also sees a guard walking beside her. Guard's head is covered in a helmet and her with a grey shawl. Her navy blue paneled skirt is the same from the time he ordered her to be taken to the dungeon.  He doesn't say anything but keeps following them with greater pace, the distance between keeps getting shorter. He doesn't let any sound get out of his footsteps but Alicia gets an irresistible urge to look to the banyan tree in her right.  She looks towards the banyan tree and reminisces her memory around the tree. Her shawl falls out from her head to reveal her beautiful dark ash brown hair. Reza smiles and looks at it peacefully. Little does he know, she is reminiscing the same memory he did a while ago. But when he said "If you want to," to her about se