2 : The Prince

"You're not good at hiding, Drakon, though you might think you are," Cara quoted to Ashley innocently, as she sat at the table for breakfast that day. "Who's Drakon?"

Ashley was, to say the least, shocked. She looked at her little sister with narrowed eyes. She asked her quite harshly, "Where did you hear that?"

"Ashley, don't be rude to your baby sister," her father chastised her. "Her! How could someone chastise the great person, 'her'?!" she thought, somewhat annoyed. Nevertheless, she decided to ignore him and turned back to her sister, who, with her eyes round with surprise at Ashley's reaction, sat quietly.

"How did you know?" though this time, Ashley's voice was sickly sweet. "Seriously, I'd better not frighten her into crying and not telling me anything," she thought.

Hesitating only for a second, Cara told her sister, "Oh um...when you were asleep yesterday, I went to your room to get my teddy bear which I'd left there. I saw exactly these words written on a paper by your bedside lamp...who's Drakon?"

Ashley acted as if she was deliberating whether to tell her or not, but then hissed, "None of your business." Now that her job of weeding out information was done, Ashley did not care to remain sweet and cool anymore. She was too agitated at the reminder.

This 'Drakon' and that little sentence had always been a mystery to her. She had often dreamt of herself saying this line to nobody in particular – just a never-ending abyss of darkness. Therefore, whoever this Drakon was, she had no idea. So she kept this line written in a paper. Whenever she had that dream, she used to look at that line. It helped calm her down, by having these words written on a paper rather than screaming them in her mind, trying to weed out some teeny-weeny meaning. Moreover, why would she have such a meaningless dream not once, but almost every other night?

During the whole time, Ashley silently sat in her chair, barely hungry anymore. She saw her parents' look at her with confused or concerned expressions, but she couldn't care less. Slowly twirling her half eaten Waffles in her hand, she continued mulling over the words her sister had reminded her of. Would she ever meet this 'Drakon' or was he just a figment of her imagination?

Why was she at the receiving end of these dreams?

***

After a quiet breakfast, Ashley hurriedly changed into something her mother thought to be decent – a long purple dress, with a pair of furry gloves and stockings. Then they all gathered outside their house in a straight row. They were all standing on hardened snow, while the path in the middle had been cleared to provide unhindered passage for the king.

Ashley looked around herself and saw that every citizen of Harkenland living in their street was present on either side of the road, irrespective of age or state of health. She looked across the street towards the little twins who stayed opposite to them. They could barely walk properly! Each was clutching the hand of one of their parents to maintain their balance. How could the king be so unfeeling and demanding?! But evidently, he was.

As if reading her mind, her father looked at her tiredly and said, "You think the same things every year, Ashley. Who don't you understand? It is custom and to make sure that there is well-discipline, maintenance and harmony among us, the king visits us every year as he tours through these common roads and lanes."

"That is no excuse though, is it?" she questioned herself. And why did her father have to be such a nice man - defending the King even when he was the reason behind Harkenland's doom? She would rather scornfully hurl insults at the king, than be silently scared and continue defending him, just because he was the damned ruler!

Suddenly, her bitter thoughts were interrupted, as the sound of hooves was heard. Everybody went death still, looking down at the ground.

Only she remained looking up. She no longer wished to remain the same weak Ashley she was every year. She wouldn't whimper and put her head down like a scared kitten, even if her heart and her parents begged her to do so; Even if her obligations to the king as a citizen begged her to.

Because here was approaching - the king and her decidedly sworn enemy!

However, the general feeling that pervaded the air as soon as the guards and all the men came in sight was not one of pure fear but shock mingled with it. She clearly remembered the king to be old with white hair and a short, trimmed beard. But the man who followed the same old head guard was...well, nothing old. He had short, black hair, enchanting coal black eyes that could be seen even from a distance, and a sharp, pale and chiselled face that was hard and blank like a stone. There was a swirling, intricately designed, jet black tattoo on the right side of his face. It started from just above his right eyebrow, and curled down to just below the bottom of his ear. The black work of ink, glinting against the white cover of Harkenland, only made his face look even more mysterious and dark than it originally was.

He was vaguely familiar...she had seen him somewhere, but no matter how much Ashley tried, she couldn't remember...

Ashley looked up at her father with a confused face. He was looking scared, as was every other elderly person present there doing. Prince, he mouthed at her and again looked down at the ground.

Then she remembered. She had seen him sometimes during the Annual Balls held each year, but had never paid much attention to him, because she had been busy chatting with her friends. Now, she couldn't help but wonder that if he was the prince, then why was everybody looking afraid? It was the king they were supposed to be scared of!

And then his gaze fell on her. She realized that the cold stare with which he was piercing everyone, was meant to scare; everybody was scared, but not her. She felt something...

She could not well pinpoint the feeling. It was something deep that made her feel as if he was thinking about her. As if she had been thinking about him all along without really realizing it. As if he was a part of her life...

Idiot. No way that is true. Remember he is the son of the evil king. In fact, the way he is glaring at you makes it look as if he's ready to kill you!

Little did she know though, that he had always been a part of her life, and from that moment onward, he was going to become an even larger part...

After all, nothing in Harkenland was as it seemed to be.