The Uninvited Princess ✔

Chapter 15

Shashi was able to get the bags to be evenly divided on both ends of their staff to be easily carried. Pranee hesitated before carefully lifting the staff and putting it on her shoulders. She made sure to grip the staff with both hands to prevent it from falling. Shashi seemed to have been able to expand their bag to carry more items than usual. It looked lighter than what Pranee had to carry but she wasn't complaining.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Pranee gasped. "Let's get going."

By the time they reached the temple, Pranee's back was aching and she could barely walk another step.

"We're here. Do you think you'll be able to carry it to the main hall?"

"I-I don't know."

"We can take a rest here. There's a sitting area near here."

Pranee nodded and took a few steps towards the nearby bench. She collapsed on it and Shashi followed her lead. She laid the staff beside them and was gasping for breath. She was hunched over with her arms on her legs and she could only stare at the ground.

"I'll go see if there's water around here. Just stay here and rest, alright?"

Pranee nodded and Shashi left to find water. After some time, she lifted her head and her breath was taken away again. The temple was way more beautiful than what she had seen from afar. Words couldn't even describe the beauty of the temple. The designs of flames that usually decorated temples were more intricate and detailed, lined with silver. There were two statues of giants standing in front of the bridge with what seemed to be decorative elephant tusks on each side. Pranee wondered how often they had to clean the temple to keep it so white.

But then she looked down.

There was a shallow pit underneath the bridge area where white statues of hands reached for the sky. Almost as if they were trying to crawl and escape from the depths. There were even some statues with begging bowls in their hands.

The hands looked so realistic. It was almost scary.

"Pranee."

Shashi stood there with a brass bowl balanced on their head with water. Pranee's eyes went wide and she stared at them wordlessly.

"A little help, please? The monk just put the bowl on my head and I don't know how to put it down."

Pranee got to her feet and carefully took the bowl off their head. They exhaled.

"How did you come all this way like this?"

"This is not the first time he did this."

"You know the monk here?"

Shashi sighed and tilted their head to the side. "You could say that."

"Oh? What's this? My child brought home a girlfriend?"

Pranee turned her head towards the new voice and saw an older man dressed in orange-beige robes and his head was cleanly shaved. He had gold eyes that were just as piercing as Shashi's but his facial features were gentler and rounder than theirs.

"Pa, please. We're only here to pay our respects." Shashi said as they dropped to a kneel.

Pranee looked between the two of them with wide eyes before following Shashi's lead and kneeling. She pressed her hands together and bowed her head.

"Luang Por, Shashi is your child?"

The monk chuckled. "Yes, but we can talk more in the main area. It's not good to kneel here."

He turned to leave and Pranee looked over to Shashi who was averting their gaze from hers. She waited for them to explain but they didn't give any indication that they wanted to explain.

"We should take the food with us too."

"O-oh. Okay."

It seemed that Pranee will be the only one talking to the monk today.

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A/N: Here's an image of the white temple in Thailand from when I visited my family in Thailand a few years ago. I took it as inspiration for the temple in this story and hope you find it just as beautiful as I did. (Also it was packed with tourists so I, unfortunately, couldn't get a shot without people.)