4 First Encounter 

*A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. By Jean de La Fontaine (brainy quotes)

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**That morning in the King's Palace**

Indicy had been in his library the whole day but felt unsettled for some unknown reason. As he sat on a monstrous gold chair in the centre of the room, he sighed heavily and put the book he was reading on the circular mahogany table with gold embroidery in front of him. His library was more of an understatement as it was a gigantic room with very high ceilings and every inch of the walls was filled with sturdy shelves going up as high as the eyes could follow. The library had all the rarest of books in the land in it. This was just one of the libraries in the Ant Kingdom and the most resourced one. However, it was for the king's personal use and not even the rest of the royal family had access to this.

He got up from the chair and strode to the door but a voice behind him spoke and asked,

"Where are you off to?"

And he replied as he continued moving, "I'm taking a walk in the garden to clear my head".

King Indicy was clad in his usual long red, velvet silk robe which, almost looked like a surcoat. The robe had the symbol of the large ant behind it as was with all his clothing and was intricately designed with little threads of gold. The robe was further secured in place with a golden belt about five inches from his waistline. There was a small opening in front of the robe barely revealing his tight chest muscles, not that this was needed as one could imagine this from the way the robe moved across his front chest like a second skin. He was also gilded with a small gold earring on his left ear and other abundant gold embellishments.

King Indicy was a strong-looking and tall man of about six-foot-two, with dark-looking tanned skin and a foreboding aura that made everyone cower in his presence. Born as the only heir to the throne and ascended at a very young age because of the early demise of his father, he looked every bit like a proud and arrogant person even in his strides.

This coupled with his volatile and unpredictable character, made people of all social standings avoid him at all costs, unless necessary, even now when he was only twenty-nine years of age.

He exited his library, leaving the other person behind, and was followed by his usual attendants made up of his head guard plus one other. Some maids also walked a safe distance from him as they could sense that he was not in a pleasant mood.

He walked along the corridors and occasionally stopped to look at the paintings of past royals that were hung on the walls of the corridors. He did this and was lost in deep thought as he stepped into the back garden. There was a detour from this corridor to the garden and he preferred to use it on his walks as it was shorter. The garden had always given him some serenity. It was his go-to place whenever he needed time alone to clear his thoughts.

The garden was equally vast and was filled with exotic plants and flowers. It was beautifully crafted and had a patch of circular land in the middle where he currently stood that had only grass and no flowers. He preferred this as he was surrounded by flowers wherever he turned. Just beyond the garden, there was a tiny slope of land that led to the maze that he had designed. The reason for the existence of the maze was unknown to many and he preferred it that way.

The garden did not bring him that calm and serene feeling he always got for some strange reason.

Lost in thoughts as he stood in the middle of the garden, he felt a small hand clasp his pinky and he almost flinched.

He looked down and saw a little girl of barely ten years, he estimated. She had on a ridiculously big dress that covered almost all her legs. She had the purest and most innocent-looking eyes he had ever seen. The clear brown eyes seem to flicker with a different colour momentarily, but he thought he had imagined it. Her pure gaze looked at him as if he was her world, which was a little unsettling considering that he had never met the little 'thing' before him. She was a cute little child with almost perfect facial features, which made him wonder who her parents were. She had lush and perfect eyebrows, a slightly large nose that gave her a unique wonderful look and complimented her petite mouth. Almost like his half-sister minus the clothes, obviously.

Indicy snapped out of his daze but was very startled by what the girl said in a frighteningly matured voice, "It's nice to finally meet you" …

King Indicy: '…'

He snapped back to reality and said, "It's nice to finally meet you?!",

"Who is this child?" King Indicy asked aloud. There was a slight confusion in his eyes that turned cold when he turned to look at his attendants who had equally shocked expressions on their faces as everything happened so fast that they could not grab the kid on time before she got to him.

A maid walked quickly from the adjourning corridor with uneasiness written all over her face. She bowed and said, "forgive me, my king, she is a new maid," and beckoned to the girl, Lendon.

Lendon looked to be in a trance but snapped out of it when King Indicy moved his pinky out of her hand gently, to the astonishment of all around. They thought that the little girl had met her end.

When Lendon stepped back from the King, the maid, Alba dragged Lendon to her side while she remained bowed in front of King Indicy. Alba cursed quietly and prayed that she would not be at the receiving end of whatever punishment was coming from this.

While this was going on, Lendon thought to herself,

"Why did I say that?",

"I have never met this man."

But she kept her thoughts to herself and stayed still.

The attendants were stunned, but the next statement from King Indicy made them even more astonished!

"Take her to the princess's quarters to serve her there." … With a complicated gaze, the maid Alba bowed and walked away from the King with the Lendon's hand tightly clasped in hers so that she would not cause any more mischief.

*** *** ***

Afterwards, Indicy felt calm. All the restlessness and apprehension had disappeared as if it was never there, to begin with.

As Indicy walked back to his library, the person he left behind couldn't help but notice this. However, Indicy himself had no idea how it had disappeared.

He sat down on the chair from before, but instead of picking the book he was reading earlier, he leaned back in his chair and rolled over the events with the little girl in his mind.

He was alarmed by his reaction, especially in front of the palace attendants.

Finally, he assumed that the girl was probably one of many people who wanted to meet the King of the land, at least once. Besides, what could a little girl of that age plot? He thought to himself.

Children were just innocent beings that needed to be protected.

With this thought in mind, he pushed the incident to the back of his mind and returned to the present tasks.

However, there was more to the incident than met the eye…

*** *** ***

Head maid Alba felt that she had been visited by the grim reaper himself but for some reason, he had pardoned her. In as much as she felt relieved that King Indicy had spared her life from the incident with the little girl, she was still very angry.

After pulling the girl to join the rest, she did not stop but still dragged her another few meters till she was sure that no one was around and then, 'paaah!!!'

A loud sound was heard as she gave Lendon a resounding slap.

"You little slut!" she screamed in anger. She was so agitated that one could see the veins popping out of her neck and her eyes had turned slightly reddish.

Lendon held her little cheeks in both of her palms but interestingly, did not make a sound even though one could see the marks of the older woman's hands quickly becoming visible on her cheeks.

Lendon neither uttered a word nor any sound no matter what maid Alba did.

Alba looked at the girl and sighed in her heart. Deciding against a second slap, she dropped the raised hand and then motioned with her head for two assistant maids to take all the girls to their new chambers.

*** **** ***

After being led to one room, Lendon found herself together with two other girls. The room was small with very low ceilings such that anyone taller than five-foot-eight would probably need to remain bowed in the room when standing. It had no furnishings but one single bed and another stranger looking bed. It was as if one was stacked on top of the other with a small ladder attached to aid whoever was to sleep on the top stack.

Beds!!!, Lendon screamed and jumped in her head. "I finally got to sleep on a bed!" She thought excitedly.

With all these thoughts going through her head, the two other girls only observed a passive-looking girl with no emotions on her face at all. They thought that she was still reacting to the treatment of maid Alba from before but were even more puzzled that she did not react whatsoever.

The two other girls who seemed to know each other observed this little girl who had the guts to hold the hand of the King.

They were older than Lendon by a few years, a couple at most. The first girl who was quite petite in every way possible seemed to be the oldest among the three at thirteen years. She had fair skin and seemed to be wheezing a lot. She introduced herself as Tarragon.

The second girl, even though a year younger than Tarragon at twelve years, had already started developing into maidenhood as one could observe from her features. One could see the small buds in her chest area, which she was not trying to hide but rather make visible with her overly tight attire. Thalia was her name.

After the two introduced themselves, all they heard was, "I'm Lendon".

That is all the girl in front of them said and no other words came out even when they tried to inquire about the earlier incident.

Lendon ended up taking up the single bed as the older girls preferred the strange-looking bed to themselves. They changed into clothes that had been made available to them and left on each bed, then made their way to the maid servants' courtyard as they had been instructed earlier by maid Alba.

As King Indicy had directed, Lendon ended up being assigned to the Princess quarters. Fortunately for her, Tarragon got assigned with her so at least she had some company when working.

Thalia, on the other hand, was elated because she was assigned to the King's quarters. Whether this was fortunate or unfortunate remained to be seen soon.

After this, Lendon, Tarragon plus five other girls walked behind their newly assigned head maid, Aile to the Princesses quarters, well, it could be a whole palace on its own, Lendon bemused to herself but kept a straight face and walked last in line.

Aile oversaw the Princess' palace and doubled as her governess in a way. She was twenty-five years and had been in the palace almost her whole life. She was assigned to the Princess based on her meritorious service and had been in charge for years now since the birth of Princess Mugda. 

Aile was a little on the plump side but had all her womanly curves quite visible in her long green dress, which fell gracefully just below her ankles and showed her a rather small waist which was tied with a slim gold belt of about half an inch. She always had on a simple gold bracelet as well as a necklace that showed her status. She was basically in charge of everything since the Princess was yet still a child ... at least in her eyes.

The palace of the Princess was indescribable in Lendon's eyes as she tried not to stare. All the drapes were in various shades of green and gold with chandeliers hanging low on very high ceilings.

She only briefly saw the Princess the first day when they passed by a large tearoom.

They all retired to their chambers after being assigned what were to be their daily tasks from then on.

*** *** ***

________________

[A little girl of about ten to twelve years dressed in a modest dress that fell just above her knees sat by a stream with a slightly bored expression on her face. She started picking up some stones and threw them on the surface of the stream. She let out a slight giggle when she saw the ripples caused by the stones.

Shortly, the smile dropped off her face again and she sighed internally. She got up from where she was and picked up some leaves from a strange-looking plant.

As she straightened up, she said to no one in particular,

"Take this, you will need it".

"In return, do play with me okay"

When she heard no answer, she repeated her two statements again and then raised her head …]

________________

Lendon woke and sat up abruptly on the bed covered in sweat. It looked like she had dozed off in their room after returning from the Princess' palace.

Tarragon and Thalia who seemed to be gossiping also stopped what they were doing and looked at her with concern.

"Hey what happened?" Tarragon asked.

Lendon replied, "It was just a dream".

Both girls started laughing when Thalia said between the laugher "You had a dream for the ten minutes you dozed off?"

"That's incredible!"

They stopped the teasing when they noticed that Lendon seemed disturbed.

Unbeknownst to them, Lendon was trying to make meaning of the dream she had just seen; especially, the deep blue eyes of the little girl were just too startling for someone her age as they seemed to speak of non-existent debts. Almost as if they would suck you in.

While Lendon was lost in her thoughts, Thalia snapped her back to reality with her question, "What is that in your hand?"

"What?" she asked and looked down.

Almost jumping from the bed, she dropped some leaves… or the same leaves the girl in her dream had.

"Was it a dream?" she asked herself in disbelieve….

___

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