[FLASHBACK: 15 YEARS AGO]
Zordan’s POV:
But no answer came.
I turned my gaze around at her to realize she was already asleep on my shoulder. While looking at her closed puffy eyes, I realized she must have been too worn out from crying alone. For a second, my footsteps halted as I continued looking at her, rolling my orbs.
“Why did you fall asleep first? We didn’t even exchange our names and yet you called me your first friend? Do you even know who am I?” I murmured my complaint while pouting, as I was a little disappointed to leave our conversation unfinished.
“YOUNG LADY!! WHERE ARE YOU!? PLEASE ANSWER US WHEREVER YOU ARE!!”
All of a sudden, I heard loud noises coming from the yard close to the woods which made me realize there must be some commotion created among the royal maids. I also heard several stomping footsteps approaching the woods. My hunch told me it might be a search operation carried by them to find out this naive, innocent girl who was cluelessly sleeping on my shoulder.
Hearing their marching footsteps, I fretted a bit since there was no way I could show myself like this before anyone else. I carefully put her down on the soft green grass of the yard and hid behind a giant willow tree close by. Soon enough, a few royal maids hurriedly reached the place and as soon as they glanced at her, one of them screamed in panic.
“LADY GABRIEL!!?”
All those maids surrounded around her and patted her flushed red cheeks a few times, only to realize that she was too exhausted to have fallen into a such deep sleep. All of them exchanged confused glances among themselves and one of them even noticed the scraped wound on her knee, which made them perplexed.
~“I guess, Milady must have really gone into the forest all alone!”
~”Thank God, we could find her on time. Or else, Master Luther would have really killed us if something had happened to his daughter.”
~”Ah, her knee is scraped, we should quickly take her back to her chamber.”
As soon as all of them finished their discussion, one of the maid picked her up carefully in her arms and tenderly carried her inside the castle. The royal caste was itself a huge place with every important member of the royal family residing in several parts of the packhouse inside. I was already aware of Master Luther and from their conversation, I realized that she was the daughter of the Chief Advisor of our pack. But how come I never met her once before?
I sighed a huff of relief and shoveled my hair above my forehead, gazing blankly at the dull sky. Small droplets of rain had started to fall down, but strangely my heart was feeling a bit at ease. Even though she left, I could still sense her sweet scent lingering over my body, especially on the arms with which I was holding her.
Her smile flashed before my eyes, and without realizing it myself, I already found myself smiling. With a flustered gaze, I mumbled, “Gabriel…What a pretty name!”
…
“Maxim, until how long you will keep following me inside the forest?”
Holding an irked gaze in my cold eyes, I asked Maxim who was walking a few steps behind me while I was taking a stroll inside the forest again.
But without showing any nervousness, he answered me sternly, “It’s been a month already and I really don’t know why you come here in this thick forest every day. Your actions are confusing and that’s why I can’t leave you alone, Crown Prince.”
He is right…Time indeed flies away quite fast. It’s been a month already since I met Gabriel here in the woods for the first time. It’s not that I didn’t try to meet her again but it was quite rare to catch a glimpse of her.
By this time, I had already taken care of all those bullies who used to bother her by warning them myself. No one dared to defy my command as the Crown Prince but strangely, I found that she had even stopped going to school.
Lastly, my only option left was to come here in the woods with the bare hope if I can see her again. The longing and yearning I felt for someone for the first time in my life made me quite uneasy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get rid of her out of my head and as expected, Maxim was the first one to observe my spaced-out behavior. Since then, he has been regularly following me inside the woods and I couldn’t stop him either.
“Your Grace, I know you never answer my question but I will keep asking you until I get my answer. Why do you come here every day?” Slowly, he reached close upto me and inquired curiously.
By this time, I had reached the giant willow tree beneath which I had met her for the first time. I exhaled a heavy sigh and sat down first, leaning my back against the trunk.
“I want to meet someone.” In a faint murmur, I gave his answer.
“HUH??” As expected, he almost gasped in shock since he was aware, it was quite rare for someone like me to yearn for someone so much. He quickly sat down beside me and rolled his orbs, “Is it a girl?”
Gazing blankly up at the sunny sky, I nodded my head, emitting another sigh. “This is where I met her first and that’s why I come here every day.”
Holding a confused gaze in his dilated pupils, Maxim swallowed his heavy breath and leaned closer as he whispered, “Your Grace, did you fall in love?”
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