It was the mourning bell.
It rang ten times to let the people know that someone from the royal family has drifted to the afterlife. Prince Zaeius quickly groped Méah's shoulders to get her off him. Then he rushed out of the room, leaving Méah alone. Aroh who was waiting for him outside the royal guest house's balcony followed him, perplexed. In fact, Prince Zaeius didn't notice Aroh was tagging along with him after he left the royal hall. "No...this can't be happening. This isn't real!" He mumbled to himself as he mounted on his horse. "Your highness, wait for me! Where are you going?" Aroh called him from behind but he seemed like he didn't hear anything. While Prince Zaeius was on his way to the palace on his horse, he felt like all of his blood stopped flowing into his veins. The sun's scorching hot but he felt so cold–his hands, his face and his lips trembled as his heart was bTwo days had passed by and Keir and Prince Zaeius never met again. Keir felt so bad for not being with his friend's side after the queen's death. And Keir never showed up to the funeral either. He felt so guilty after their argument. He knew Prince Zaeius was still mad at him. Although he knew it was his fault, he still can't believe Prince Zaeius chose Méah over him. Of course, he's not that dumb to not notice the prince's feelings towards Méah. Now Keir's on his way out of Noartias. After what he did, he don't deserve to stay in one place where the prince is. It's better that he'd just leave and never come back. With a pack of his important things and some clothes on his back and a satchel across his chest, he fall in line with the people who are getting inspected before going out of the kingdom's gate. "Thank you, sir," Keir said and took back his things from the guarding soldiers after the inspection. Finall
As soon as the red light swallowed Méah, she felt like she's being strangled with an unseen force; her head felt like it's going to explode. She struggled with all her might but it was useless. When she wasn't able to take more air, her heartbeat slowed down as her mouth gaped open and her eyes steadied in one direction with every limb of her becoming numb until she couldn't feel her body anymore. Just then she felt something throbbing inside her chest which made her open her eyes deliberately. But she couldn't remember anything or what actually happened. Her watery eyes were greeted by a blurred view of a pure blinding light. And then a sudden pulse exploded from that throbbing thing in her chest, making her gasp for air as though she had just got out of the water after drowning for a long time. She's chasing her breath as fast as she could trying to fill the lost ones. She could feel the strength returning in every part of her body. As her breath slowly calmed down,
After the people were wiped out, Prince Zaeius was about to take a peek behind the huge pillar of the city's gate when Keir quickly grabbed him in his arm. He almost fell backwards for it, making his shoes screeched as he tried to balance himself on the dry ground. When the smoke took everyone, Keir managed to grab Prince Zaeius to hide behind the huge pillar. Because right now, if they weren't lucky to escape, they would've been one of these hundred corpses lying in front of the city gate. Prince Zaeius gave Keir a 'what-are-you-doing-look' with his brows furrowed. "Stay still or she'll find us," Keir whispered angrily and looked away. "Not too soon. You can take a look later if she's gone away." Prince Zaeius didn't want to argue with Keir for the moment so he didn't speak anything anymore at all. Besides, his mind right now is a complete mess. He have so much to say to Keir. He's been keeping
The thick mist quickly swallowed Méah. She had expected she would have a rough landing but she was wrong. Instead, she landed on something not so soft yet not so hard. Méah could tell it wasn't the ground for sure as her body made a dull thud the moment she fell from it. But as much as she wanted to find out what is it, she couldn't see anything but the thick mist. As Méah was breathing rapidly as she was about to pull herself up midway, she suddenly heard the same noise again. She absolutely froze right after she heard it, especially when it was coming towards her direction. Fear punched her hard in the chest that she fell back again. She couldn't describe the fear that she felt after she saw the giant serpent. Her knees and hands were shaking uncontrollably as cold sweat started forming on her forehead and above her mouth. Méah's mind abruptly stopped working that she couldn't move a muscle but her sense of hearing was actively monit
Méah woke up from the forest's melody–the birds singing happily and the soft, calm and soothing rustle of the leaves from the towering trees outside the cave. The first thing that she saw the moment she opened her eyes were the dark walls of the cave which the wild vines crawled and hanged its stems on. The smell of earth and the morning breeze seeped through her airways seeped silently. When Méah turned to the cave's entrance, her hand automatically covered her eyes due to sensitivity to the light bursting into the cave. Unintentionally, her vision was brought to the opposite wall of the cave, which man's figure was lying. Méah suddenly remembered what happened last night and sent a swift bolt of chills down her spine. With a few flashes of the giant serpent's ferocious image on her mind, her eyes finally focused on the man. The man's position wa
"Bullshit! Get that away from me!" Keir cautiously took a long step back, slamming his back on the cave's wall behind him with his eyes doubled in size. "Do you know how poisonous that snake is?!" Méah was petrified. Not because she's afraid of snakes but because she didn't know it's a lethal one. But she remained holding it still, thinking that if she'd let it go now, it might come back at them the very second it's freed. She spotted a stone near Keir's feet and stepped to pick it up. "What are you doing?" Keir couldn't move a muscle. He's trying to figure out if ever Méah would let the snake bite him. "No! Don't ever fucking do that!" But Méah didn't utter a word, adding more fright on Keir's pulsating chest. She was just looking at the struggling snake which she held tight by the head as h
However, when Méah was about to let go of the branch she's holding, she heard Keir again. Not only his voice but there was also something that made a cracking sound after he screamed in pain. It was like a huge branch of a tree was broken. With this, Méah's nerve ending was awakened. She didn't know how Keir had a huge impact to her that even if she's on the brink of death, he's capable of waking her up. Maybe even after she died, if she would hear him, she might likely to crawl out of her grave. Was it because Méah has sworn to protect him and make up for what she had done to him? Although she couldn't name the strange feeling but it gave her strength and courage to fight. There's just this strong urge which she cling hard into, where she felt like she can't die without paying her sins. Maybe the heavens k
Keir thought this is bad. And the only thing he knew which caused it was Méah. She's nothing but a walking disaster causing troubles wherever she goes and whoever she's near to. This have to stop! "J-just...stay away from me and leave me alone," Keir said weakly as he's starting to feel his eyelids getting heavy. He knew how ungrateful he is but he couldn't find the exact words about what he should say to her in response. If this was in a different situation, he would've yelled at her like he always did, especially her dumbness on asking if he's alright when in fact he's obviously not! Keir had never seen such stupidity in disguise of consistency. With wounds all over her body, bathed in blood and looked like she would be easily blown away with just a a single flick. Her eyes were still lookingHe knew she's suffe