Chapter 6
1458 Words
Princess Loaisa pursed her lips, recognizing now the look they all gave her. She should not be glad. She’s lost. They know she was lost.
She barely shrugged her shoulders at them. “Isn’t this the home for vampires?”
The young man blinked, while the old man’s face hardened. Silence engulfed them, and if not for the groaning and injured man with them, Princess Loaisa doubted the silence would be broken easily.
“You know it was the vampires’ home?”
Her brows knitted in bewilderment. “Everyone in Northumbria does.” At least that was how she knew it. It was written in the books, anyway. Or was she wrong? Were the people in Northumbria wrong?
At the mention of Agatha’s largest division, and the only official home for human people, the old man’s face turned sour. Even the young man’s look at her turned grotesque. It was like he would pounce on her if she dared say one word about the place again.
“W-Why?” she stuttered.
But they all turned around. Her eyes met with the man next to her instead, but he said nothing. The two paused in front of the makeshift wooden gate covered with barbed wire. Princess Loaisa and the man proceeded to follow them. There was a rusting and huge steering wheel that was made of rubber and wood by the door. The old man twisted it about five times in a counterclockwise direction ― and with a force like it weighed so much more than it should be, before pushing the door open.
The old man let the young and wounded one to step in first. Then he jerked his head to them. “Make sure not to touch the wire." The reminder was solely for her.
It puzzled her, but she adhered to the order. The gate was wide enough for two of them to pass through together. Wide enough for regular doors actually. But then she remembered the dead animals. If they were to take the corpse with them without touching the wires…
But what’s with the wires?
“High voltage,” was the man’s quick response to the question in her mind. She gasped and stumbled back. Luckily for her, they were already inside the fences. The old man sneered at her for her reckless action. The man next to her instantly wrapped his arm around her to keep her from touching the wires.
Princess Loaisa turned paralyzed at the closer look of his mesmerizing blue eyes again. As if this was the first time she's seeing them again. As if they were in the palace and in the hallway where the murals are.
The old man cleared his throat to get their attention back to the present. Princess Loaisa quickly muttered an apology to the old man and quick gratitude to the man next to her.
“This is the end of Essex,” the old man declared and stared far ahead of them. “Over there is Kent. But vampires leave here no more. They left the burned mansion and were now said to be occupying Wales.”
Princess Loaisa swallowed. She is really in the South now. Her mother’s hometown is only meters away from her. She didn’t know there was a mansion down here. And she definitely didn’t know vampires moved out of Kent. She believed not everyone in Northumbria knew that. Even her sister, Princess Liliana. The thought of her knowing so much more about Agartha now, more than anyone in Northumbria, and so much more than the human’s written books said, elated her.
She bit her lower lip to withhold a smile. They went on to follow the men in front. When suddenly, from somewhere in the woods, and perhaps, coming from the northwest, a howl resonated in the wind. She froze. Her head spun around, but instead of looking around the woods and following the direction of the sound, Princess Loaisa’s eyes met with the man’s blue orbs next to her.
Her eyes were expanded. Her heart pounded against her chest.
Because that wail was familiar. It sounded like music in her head. But not the kind of music that lulls you to sleep. It was the kind that poured salt to your wound, opening the deepest sorrow you kept locked up within you for years. Her lips throbbed at the feeling as the howl became more aggressive to her ears. Like a whimper of a broken soul.
These were all familiar to her. It reminded her of her dreams. And seeing directly through the eyes of this mysterious man, she was brought back to her dreams. With the wolf missing from the murals. The howl. The devastating feeling at the sound of the cry. Her warm tears.
“It’s natural to mourn over loved ones,” the old man mumbled in front of them but didn’t turn around to face them. He must have either heard or sensed Princess Loaisa’s reaction at the noise. He was referring to the mourning wolf who must have seen the lifeless bodies of the other wolves.
The old man’s voice was crisp and distant. No feeling of remorse for killing someone, even an animal, who has a family left behind to lament for them. She felt bad. But she was torn if it was for her people or the creature.
The cry continued in their background. She kept her eyes on the ground and had to chew on her lower lip to stifle a cry. Her side should be on the people she wanted to rescue and bring back to Northumbria. Not to the rogues who would surely kill her if these hunters hadn't appeared on time. But that doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to feel the grief for their loss.
They still have feelings. Also fighting for their lives like these hunters. And knowing the backgrounds of most rogues, she only felt worse.
She can still cry for them… right? In the same way she would if it's her people who were left lifeless in the woods after the short battle?
Somehow. she felt like the man next to her has the same sentiments with the animal's death as her. None of them spoke anything about it. But the mutual understanding is in their eyes.
They continued their way about three kilometers further South. The lights already broke. Nothing but darkness surrounds them. But Princess Loaisa did not feel a bit scared compared to when she and Magellan got lost in the woods of Northumbria. And despite being in the place where she had only taken footsteps for the first time, she didn't worry about non-human creatures suddenly attacking her.
If these humans looked comfortable enough walking in the dark, there should be nothing to worry about. She should trust their electric fences, too. The only thing that was surrounding them was exhaustion. And Princess Loaisa was yet to feel her empty stomach, despite the long day she had in her years of living the princess's life. But now, she's a lost merchant in the eyes of these hunters.
The old and young man brought a small torch and lighted it up with a matchstick the young man produced from his pocket. She only saw the workers in the stable used matchsticks. To know that the people here used that as well, at least, they have them right? Because only a few people used them. They have electricity and lighters. The merchants have objects...
Stopping, she remembered she put it inside her bag. She didn't only take their compass, but that object as well. Which, she realized now, is a flashlight. She heard about them before. She was about to bring it to the men when, from out of nowhere, noises were heard from the distance.
She heard it first before the dancing and small fires lit up her eyes. It was the kind of noise she rarely heard around the Malacañan Palace, but she believed it would be the noise of Mercia with the number of humans and other creatures who visit the place every day.
What caught her attention most was the giggle of young kids. Princess Loaisa first thought she was hallucinating. Why! She's in Kent! The last division of Agatha in the south. And to hear such sounds that were similar to the children Princess Liliana always tells stories to...
"They're human kids!" she voiced out her thoughts. Instinctively, her heart was flooded with a warmth she couldn't explain. But somehow made her feel full. Young people in the south! These hunters have families! The people left here started a new life amidst the cruel fight against the other race, and they... looked happy.
- Writer
