Aruna of Nowhere (Yrsoreth Chronicles 3)

8 𖤓 The Second Wish

Hello! Sorry for the delay. Life is craaaazy. I'll try to update twice a week from now on. Next update is Saturday. 

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Years ago... 

They say that the Von Huwen estate is one of the most fertile lands in the desert kingdom. Located at the western border, the monarch heavily guarded the estate as the crops contribute to the huge percentage of the kingdom's granary.

Additionally, Queen Katarina and the Marchioness were friends back in the academy. Even when Katarina was crowned queen and Wilma became the Von Huwen marchioness, their letters never ceased.

It has been years, but due to the tragedy of the king's death, Queen Katarina, weary and lonely, needed a time away from the throne before she reigned as its ruler while waiting for Giovanni's rightful age to inherit.

Thus, she and her sons snuck out the capital of Astov with their most trusted men to rest in Von Huwen.

Young Giovanni researched the greenest place in Sy Sulivar could offer. He even recently visited one, a hill of yellow flowers in full bloom for the summer. Only Cyrus seemed to appreciate the view as he ran along the field in his crown flowers.

He wondered what the view looked at night instead. Would there be red butterflies hovering above it too? Would there be a mystery that cloaked such a view like the myth of wishes being granted by gods?

Surely not.

Because there he was again on the second night, back at the garden a few moments before midnight, frowning at the wish thief. Aruna, she was named. The sullen expression on her face did not belong to the exquisite view.

"Let me get your story straight," he began. "Sisinia got sick from overwork?"

"Yes." She bobbed her head, which was nestled and hidden in her folded knees.

"Then she died in her sleep.'

"Yes."

"So... they cooked her?'

Aruna bobbed her head, wiping the swelling tears. "A part of her was roasted, a part soaked in honey and dried to preserve the meat for winter and some of the farmers make a soup out of the innards."

"...Did you eat it?"

"One spoon and it was delicious. Oh dearest skies, tasty it was. But it was Sisinia. We shared meals and we slept under the skies. I'm mostly never allowed to leave the stables and she kept me company. She was a sister." She wiped the tears streaming on her cheeks. Giovanni flinched at the sticky sound as she blew her nose in the hem of her shirt. "Before I was swayed, I ran and boiled some leaves to eat instead. How could they do that? Sisinia was family!"

Giovanni shook off the image in his head. He was aware that outsiders view them as land of the savages, but his education never informed him of their citizens' cannibalistic behavior. He sighed. "By any chance, this Sisinia, is she human?"

Aruna paused mid-sob. "Why would—!" She gasped, eyes widened at him as if he grew a second head. "Are you stupid?"

Giovanni blinked. He was called many names, but never stupid. Nobody dared to use such a word.

"An idiot I  say. You are one!"

Nobody called him such either.

"Sisinia is a horse. A velcan horse. I brushed her mane and polished her hooves."

How would he know? He found Aruna crying in the kiosk, mumbling about the death of a dear friend she considered family and the name Sisinia, then the string of words such as "sawed the feet," "cut the stomach" and "grilled the eyeballs."

And as far as he knew, Sisinia is a common name for women.

Who's the idiot now?

The annoyance must have been visible on his face that Aruna gasped for the second time, jumped from her seat and groveled on the floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call the young master stupid. I'm just really sad. Velcan horses are rare and expensive, you see. So the farmers butchered her right after they confirmed her death."

Since the origins of Velcan horses are beasts domesticated for thousands of years, many believed that their meat provided stamina for those who eat them after death.

"I see," he said. He then commanded Aruna to stand up and reclaim her seat. His pocket watch showed just a few minutes before midnight. Giovanni paused, retracing the conversation. "Did you say you shared a meal with a horse? The same meal?"

"So, what are you going to wish for?" Aruna asked instead, watching the butterflies above them.

"Oh? So you are not stealing the second wish from me?"

Aruna's eyes widened, waving her hands off. "Oh dearest skies, I wouldn't dare!"

"You did. Last night."

"It was different. It's your turn now."

If only wishes were that easy, asking for different things every night and granted for all the things desired.

"So what is it, Young Master?"

Revenge, the demise of their enemies, he would've said. But one glance at the big black eyes, gold tracing in its round circles, Giovanni asked, "Would you like another horse?"

Rightful. As a future ruler, the power also comes with the burden of bearing the evil alone. He will not allow her to hear such desire for blood. At Aruna tilting her head in confusion, the younf prince clarified. "I could wish for another horse for you."

"Oh," she mumbled. "How about a wish for yourself."

"There's always next time," already left his mouth before he could reflect. Right. The skies won't cease and the butterflies would always bring his thoughts to the gods. "A horse, is it?"

"No," she said. "A dog is better."

Once again, he waited for an explanation at her pensive silence.

"They don't whip dogs," she said. "Dogs can guard the back gates and the crops. Dogs don't pull logs and harvest. Their backs won't break like Sisinia's."

Giovanni was baffled at the relief in her voice as she talked about unfortunate things. Still, he agreed. He stood at the middle of the kiosk, eyes closed and palms clasped, he wished to the red butterflies hovering in the garden.

A dog. A healthy and strong one. That was it.

And when he opened his eyes, he caught Aruna standing next to him, eyes shut and palms clasped whispering "Please grant whatever he wished. Please."

A loyal one, he prayed in his thoughts. A protector.

Then Giovanni was taken aback at himself.

The confusion intensified when she opened her eyes and looked at him, grinning, yet glowing in her soot-stained face. "I wished the same so the gods will hear you."

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