Medona

Chapter 22-Night

Luckily, I wasn't called by anyone the first night. I laid on the sleep mat woken, waiting for the suitable time to continue my mission. By the time I realized everyone fell asleep I quietly walked out of the make up room. I swept my vision in the patio enlightened by the lit wall lanterns and fire bowls. After assuring myself that everyone including the guards were asleep, I slowly and quietly walked towards the room that I spotted earlier.

The door wasn't locked. It created a faint creak from the hinges as I opened it but it was loud enough in the dark, silent night to give me a frightened nerve wreck but fortunately no one woke up. I sighed in reassurance. I turned on a torch from my bag and started searching the meteor. The room was loaded with papers. There were maps, paintings, letters, battle plannings and alot more. I zoomed in my map to track the meteor inside the room. I ended up on a painting hanging on the wall. It was the painting of a middle aged man with pure black eyes. Wearing a black cloak and looking at me with a stern that caused my legs to shiver in fright. This painting can't be what I'm looking for?!

It was dangerous to stay there for longer. I had to collect more information about the painting for which I had to know more about the man in the painting. Also in between this my personal curiosity wanted to know about their kingdom too. So, I decided to leave the meteor for then and go back to the make up room.
As I walked outside, the creak in the door caused the guard sleeping by the gate to shuffle in his sheets. I was horrified and I sped up my steps towards the make up room while my eyes glued to the guard. I was almost there when I collided with someone in my way. I was overwhelmed by the guard's disturbed sleep that I didn't see someone standing right infront of me. I felt like the whole world turned upside down on me. My lungs gave up on breathing in horror.

"What are you doing outside?", a familiar voice translated by my earplugs asked. I don't know why but relief washed over me as I realized it was Hirashman. I started to breath again. He had a lit lantern in his hand and pulled it closer to my face to see me clearly while blurring my own vission.
I ran out of excuses. His question was followed by a long silent period.
"I.... uhh... I was ... I.. couldn't sleep...", I made a totally irrelevant reason.
He stared at me harder, his eyes shooted suspicion onto me. He had skepticized me since the moment he had seen me. And I still didn't even know how could he let me get into the palace.
He stared at me for a while probably processing me and my strategies and then turned his back to me and started walking in opposite direction to me. An intrinsic urge came from my gut to follow him. He was the only person I could talk to, although spending the whole day pretending like mute with the others didn't bother me much but I wanted to gather my information about the meteor from him as he was the royal. I followed him, "heyy! Wait!" I whispered loudly.
He kept walking towards the staple ignoring me completely.

When he reached inside the staple and he knew no one could see him, he briskly turned to me, holded my both wrists tightly and pinned me to the wall of the staple. His being so close to me that I could make out the brown color of his eyes in the darkness.
"Why are you following me?" He whisperly roared.
My eyes grew wider in fright. And we were again locked in the staring contest. I don't know how long it went when I felt a strong burning sensation on anterior surface of my left forearm.

Hirashman gaze into my eyes broke as he saw me grimacing.
"Aaahh" I tried to keep my voice low.
"You burnt my hand!" I looked at my hand and so did he. The heated lit lantern in his hand was pressed onto the flesh of my forearm burning my epidermis and making a red swollen painful patch on my skin. I started to blew air on it to reduce the burning pain.
I looked at Hirashman, his face was plastered with embarrassment. He pulled my arm to take a closer look. "Come sit here",
I sat on a wooden bench nearby. He walked out leaving me alone in the staple, "Hirashman!" I exclaimed in low volume.

I didn't have any pain killer in my bag. I continued on blowing air on my forearm. Just a few moments later Hirashman returned with a jar of herbal medicine in his hand. It was a viscous green fluid. He took a little from the jar using his two fingers and started applying it on my forearm slowly. I was pleased at the concern in his eyes. It was like he was feeling the pain too. Just as the medicine touched my burnt skin it caused me to wince in pain. That thing amplified the sensation four fold.

I opened my mouth wide, took a deep breath and just I was about to scream in pain. He shushed me with eyes bulged out. I controlled my vocal cords but the pain was unbearable that fresh warm tears rolled down my cheeks. "It hurts" I sobbed.
"You'll be okay. Stop crying like a baby"
"Huhh ... seriously you burnt my hand. And then intentionally applied something to make me endure worse!"
He looked at me and slowly shook his head from side to side, "I will never do that"
Soon the pain dissapeared like magic and I was lost in his concerned eyes again. It went even longer this time. He blinked twice to bring both of us back to reality.
"I can look into your eyes for hours" he said shyly.
"Me too" those words came out of my mouth without giving me time to think.
He looked at my face astonished. I didn't know how to react, didn't want him to get the wrong idea.
"The pain is gone" I changed the topic.