Distorted Memories

Chandra inhaled deeply; she saw Kumara leaving the room. Her fingers were still in pain, she folded her leg and reclined on the bed. The moment she turned her eyes to the ceiling, she could see the dome roof was covered by some beautiful clouds. 'Is it real clouds?' Chandra stared at them. The clouds were moving, and they seemed like dancers in a piece of beautiful harmonic music. She breathed in calmly.

"Could you dance, Chandra?" a man's voice whispered in her ears while she was watching a beautiful princess and some beautiful young waiting ladies dancing. They were in the festival that was held by Triangulum Anatolia Empire. She turned her head around and saw a man who was standing with his back. "Excuse me?"

She heard that man sigh hard.

"I knew that you could dance, I've watched you dancing alone in your garden!" he said again in his bass male voice. "I made that music for you. Enjoy it!" he said again before leaving her without knowing his face.

Chandra was standing motionless in her place and watching that man disappear among the crowd. 'Who was he? How did he know that I like dancing alone in the garden? When nobody is around?' she sighed heavily. His statement had triggered her curiosity, but she didn't want to catch his steps and asked further. Her eyes were looking for a young man, 'Where is Tristan?'

She smiled while a young man approached him with a white rose in his hand.

"I know you're here!" Tristan smiled at her and kissed her forehead.

"I'm waiting for you," she said to him as she smelled the rose that he brought for her.

"I'm sorry but my music class is just over," he gripped her waist and kissed her on her cheek. "Is that King Dragon's musical arrangement?" Tristan dilated his eyes as he kept listening to the music that playing for the young women's dances. "He's really a great master in music!" he praised.

Chandra sighed.

Tristan looked at her, "You don't like his music? I really love this guy and his music!"

"He has worthy taste in music," Chandra paused, and sighed, "Don't you think his music has something like spells or mantras? That could make you fall in love easily?" she lifted her eyebrows in a skeptical facial expression.

Tristan laughed, "That's the most beautiful art! He even can seduce many beautiful women and ladies without saying any words, just listening to his music! Imagine that, Chandra!"

Chandra smirked at Tristan's statement. "A good-looking emperor with good taste in women!"

Tristan chuckled, "You think?" he paused and coughed quite heavily.

His coughing made Chandra feel so worried as she took one of his arms on her neck and walked him back to his chateau.

"Take a good rest, Tristan!" she kissed the young man's cheek with deep loving emotion. "I love you!" she whispered and asked Nathan, his personal attendant to take him to his room.

Tristan smiled at her, "I love you too!"

Chandra sighed and put her eyes on Tristan's back until she couldn't see him anymore. She didn't understand why she felt so damaged and hurt inside. "You're going to be fine, Tristan! Please, don't leave me! You're my first love," she whispered in silence and walked back to the place where she stayed with some waiting ladies during her visit to the Empire. Chandra breathed in and ran further into her memorial world with her first romantic lover, Tristan, a nobleman who had left her in his peaceful everlasting rest. His leaving had damaged Chandra's heart for the first time as a young woman.

She closed her eyes as her ears captured some musical sounds that slowly and peacefully infiltrated her skin pores of ears, and she could feel the music flowing into her blood veins and touching her heart. The harp sounds that she used to listen to in her father's kingdom. She used to have some of the waiting ladies play the music for her. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the music. A peaceful state of mind and body was hitting and infiltrating her emotions as she breathed more calmly and at a more relaxed beating rate. Her emotions led her mind to travel further deep into the memorial journey. The world that she hid inside deeply. She turned lying on her right side. She felt a woman's hand unbuttoning her shirt, pulling away the shirt through her arms side by side. Then, she let her pull down her cashmere trousers. She enjoyed some olive oil and sandalwood drops on her back and a maid's gentle hands running upright and down with circular movements over her back and waist. Then, she found her body was smeared off with yellowish eastern herbal and she got relaxed as a maid giving her some massages. She really enjoyed it as the maid washed off her body away from the herbal mixtures with water and rose-extracted oil.

She opened her eyes slowly. She saw herself wasn't inside her old bedroom in her old kingdom. "Where am I?" she whispered curiously. The maid who gave her body massages and washed her body was smiling at her. Chandra covered her naked body with a silky sheet. 'Am I still in Kumara's palace? Who are those women?' she turned her eyes to her surroundings. 'Am I not dreaming?' she breathed in a confusing way. "Tell me, where am I?" Chandra asked her in a confusing sight.

One of those waiting ladies stopped playing music and got something from the hand of a maid approaching her. "Would you please wear this, Princess Chandra?"

Chandra took the red gown from the waiting lady who was smiling at her warmly and friendly. Chandra looked at those women, "Would you please leave me alone in a few minutes?" She asked them. The waiting lady who gave her the red gown was stepping backward with a taking bow and clapped her hand twice to command all women to leave the room. Chandra stared at them one by one leaving the room and closing the crafted wooden door with the dragon and snake symbol in front of her bed. The wooden door was painted red, and the dragon and the big snake were painted in golden color. Chandra regulated her breath and saw her right leg. She touched it as she found the scars from her last battle with three men who were sent by King Dragon in the forest a few weeks ago. One man had scratched his knife to her right calf and thigh twice. 'The scars had already healed, covered, and wanned because of the extract herbal that the maid smeared over my body,' she thought. She got up and covered her body with a silky sheet before changing into the red gown.

She stared at herself in front of the mirror. 'I never worn any gown anymore for almost seven years,' she looked at herself and turned her body in front of the mirror many times. 'Am I still looking stunning?' she wondered and smiled at her projection in the mirror. She loved the red color because she thought it was vivid and passionate, but that damn red color also had made her reason to escape and move out from the kingdom.

One day, the first day she met a man. She was walking around the party wearing her favorite red gown when her eyes caught a pair of eyes that were staring at her. She smiled at him in a friendly manner and left him to join the conversation with some of the waiting ladies who made companionship with her at that party. She found the man was still keeping his eyes on her and made her decide to move away from his sight. She just decided to leave the party when her arm was halted by someone. As she turned around, she saw a man with dark hair and charming eyes who introduced himself as King Dragon.

She halted her breath for a second. King Dragon smiled at her, "Won't you enjoy my party, Princess?" he took her fingers and kissed her hand. She could taste his lip texture that it was so moist. She drew her hand politely and smiled at King Dragon. As she ever knew King Dragon was twenty years older than her, but he seemed so youthful with a lot of sparks flaming his passions and ambitions.

"I am, Sir!" she answered and turned her eyes down. The King Dragon's eyes were staring at her intensely.

Chandra exhaled harshly. 'Damn the memory,' she rushed into the door. She decided to leave the bedroom. As she opened the door, she saw the waiting lady greeting her and the other women were standing in a row. 'Something that I used to find in my kingdom,' Chandra took a deep breath.

"Let me escort you to the dining room, Princess Chandra," she took a bow and turned to walk in front of her. Chandra smiled and she saw some of them were following behind her at the time she walked. They walked through the long corridor. All of the alongside corridors were surrounded with roses and jasmines. Beyond, Chandra heard some water streaming from some bamboo tunnels to make a peaceful atmosphere. The breezes were blowing softly and touching her face, delivering the fragrance of those flowers flowing into her nose. She breathed calmly as she felt more relaxed and peaceful.