"13"

She hummed as she nodded, the look on her face implied that she was in deep thought. "I was thirteen at the time. He was smoking, while I was training. He asked me to stop, shift back to my human form and approach him. He told me to take a whiff."

That explains the sullen look on her face. "Wow. So your father taught you to smoke, huh?"

Ahbaya smiled then shook her head again. “Yes. And when I coughed and coughed from the smoke, he laughed at me and told me to do it again. He said I looked funny and amusing. And it was the only time he wanted to stare at me ever since I was born.”

Oh.

Ahbaya pursed her lips then licked it inwardly. Is she nervous? What… “He told me, it’s the last day I could live for myself. And told me to do something reckless, only for that day. For the next days to come, a lot of people would come to me, challenge me. Maybe even kill me just so they could sit on the throne and be crowned as King.”

I was left speechless and was left wondering what happened that