The Bastard Princess

24.

-HER-

I rested the weight of my shackled hands on my lap as I rested my back against the prison wall. My long hair was scattered all over the place but I decided to not focus on it for the moment.

I was sent back in the prison. They were going to talk to me again tomorrow. For the first time, I was happy to be back behind the bars. I wanted the day to never end. I did not know what they were going to do to me tomorrow.

Currently, I decided to concentrate on the she-wolf named Celeste. She was ordered to be with me all the time. She did not seem happy with this though.

Her tall figure sat on a small stool just outside my prison. She lazily leaned back on the wall. Her grey eyes were set on me warily. She pulled out what looked like a cigar from her cloak pocket before lighting it.

The earthy scent of the cigar soon hung in the air of the prison. I licked my lips because the scent was triggering my taste buds.

"What?" She blurted out. I had been staring at her for too long, "Did you never saw a tall woman before?" She asked but I kept my face blank.

She sighed when she got no answer from me. I continued to stare at her. She took this as an opportunity to talk further, "Your hair is so red, the mortals must avoid you like a plague,"

I wanted to smile at her comment but I continued to keep a straight face. When she pointed her cigar at my long hair, I nodded.

She tilted her head, "It must make your life hell down there, ain't it? I wonder how you lived there. People must have done nasty things to you because of that," I was dumbstruck at her words. She was so close to understanding me.

Even though it was on the surface level but the look on her face was enough to show that the topic was somewhat relatable to her. Soon it dawned upon me.

She was insecure about her build. For her, it was the major flaw and people noticed this the first thing about her- just like my red hair. This flaw was hard to miss. It had become the very thing people defined us with.

For the first time in my life, I was able to feel empathy for someone. I wanted to reach out and touch her but I did not. The situation was keeping us apart. The silence was the only thing I could communicate with.

"Same," She muttered before she took a long drag from her cigar. Her eyelids seemed to get heavier each time she took more of it.

The silence stretched between us for some moments. Her words had given my mind to distract itself from weaving trivial thoughts of my survival. For the first time, I was thinking about someone so deeply.

I continued to stare at her while she stared back at me. I may be naïve but she doesn't seem that bad to me. I think we could have been friends had I not attempted to kill her Queen.

"Though what you did was pretty terrible. They'll get it out from you soon and whatever they'd chose to do with you, it's gon be very terrible..." She trailed off as I moved near the bars. Her words and the scent of the cigar was making it hard for me to keep a straight face.

My mouth ached to have either words or the taste of cigar in it. I decided to grant it the latter.

I put a hand out of the bars and looked at her cigar. She instantly understood me before rolling her eyes, "You seem to be the kind of person or thing to invite your problems over dinner," she commented as she lit a new cigar for me.

"I wonder if you are able to understand a thing I am saying," She eyed me as she handed me a newly lit cigar. I offered her a generous smile before snatching it from her hands and returning back to the shadows of the prison.

I soon fell into a coughing fit after taking my first drag heavily. I heard her sigh outside my prison.

"You need to inhale it," She muttered before she remembered that I don't understand her. A tortured look climbed on her face while I managed to giggle between my coughs. Though tears leaked from my eyes and my body reacted strongly against the smoke.

"You some crazy lass," She muttered, her voice seemed to have gotten heavier and laced with more texture. It must have been the effect of the cigar.

Silence hung in the prison walls as we both had our cigars. Our eyes never left each other.

"My name's Celeste. What are you called?" She spoke after a long stretch of silence. She didn't seem to be disappointed by my silence this time. She was expecting it, "I'll call you Red,"

"So... Red, where are you from?" she asked, shifting on her tool to stretch her long legs. She let out a big yawn as she stretched her hands and her back, "Do you have a home? Do you have someone?"

Silence.

"Do you have someone out there... waiting for you to come back?" Her voice broke as she asked me this. The question tugged at my heart.

'You are chosen for this because no one would care if you die,' Chefren's words rung in my ears.

"No one really cares if I don't manage to go back," I told her in Ounaric, "Though it would really bother them if I manage to go back. I am not wanted there," I added, knowing that she wouldn't understand me. She nodded anyway.

The tremble of my voice must have communicated what I was not capable of doing with my words.

Soon, I felt the heaviness. The gravity seemed to be pulling me to the ground. The cigar had started to do its work. I did not resist it. I simply laid flat on the ground with my face turned to her.

"Go to sleep. Tomorrow would be quite long for you," It was the last thing I heard her mutter. I was soon asleep without any dreams... or aspirations for the ′tomorrow'.

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