Medona

Chapter 23-Lie

"I told you you'll be fine, it's magical", he spoke in relief.
"What's your name?",he shyly smiled at his question.
"Ta..", I don't know why but I felt like I shouldn't tell him my real name, "Medona...", I lied completely irrelevant and unnecessary. A sense of cursing my stupidity hitted my gut right away. Disguising name was not part of my plan. It just came out of my throat. And I really wondered why * Medona*.
"Ta-medona?" He asked confirming if he heard me right.
"No no it's just Medona"
"Medona" he confirmed and smiled.
"Yeah... Medona", I reconfirmed him while I wasn't feeling good about the lie.
He nodded, "Medona", his smile turned into a grin.
"Medona", I restated again and chuckles released from both of our throats.
He shushed me again when the chuckles felt louder, giving a brisk glance outside the staple, assuring that everyone was sleeping sound. This was followed by a moment of silence.

"Why did you..."
"What do you..."
We both spoke at same time and halted immediately. It was awkward. *why does this happen to me again and again* . This time was even more embarrasing than the last time with Anthony.

I knew if I gave him the chance, he will ask me something I would have to make up lies for. I completed my question first while he was still awkward, "why did you let that thief go?", my pitch higher than I expected in the whispers.

He gave me a long skeptical stare and said, "I can't trust you". Which I knew and I only nodded.
That piece of information was not even necessary but a way to built trust from him. I didn't intend to insist which made him spill the beans himself, "he had stolen jewels from the Sheikh. That thief steals something unnecessarily extra from Sheikh and distribute it among the real needy."
*Robbin hood thingy*

"Ohh... then why doesn't he steal from the Royals? I mean obviously you guys are more unnecessarily rich than anyone of your city", *take the bull by the horns*
He smiled at me mercifully, showing *how naive she is*
"Sheikh has outside city connections. His wealth is five times the whole city assets. He is not a man of dignity, nothing of what he has belongs to him. It's a theft from the theif."
"Why don't you just kick him off your city?"
"I can't. I don't have the authority. Hirmans have never considered this a sin. Even when Queen Mariah conspired against my mom, she allied Sheikh to do so. And to tell you a personal truth, I think I'm more concerned about to take revenge from him than actually distributing assets among the deserve" he quickly opened up and told me the secret so honestly that it ached my heart even though I still didn't know anything about any conspiracy.
"Hirmans?", the plurality confused me.
"Yeah... Hirmans" he sighed.
I longed my bewildered expressions.
"The Hirmans... You don't know who is Hirman?" He asked as if it was the most knowing knowledge.
I shook my head from side to side, didn't bring a change in my expressions.
"The King!",he exclaimed in obvious tone.
"Who are you then?", I had already heard about this from the prostitutes' gossips that Hirman was the king but I needed to know more.
He sighed, "I'm not the king", he said in disappointment in low volume but out of whisper, so, loud enough.
"They call me substitute. Whenever the king is unavailable, which is almost always, I'm responsible for the kingdom's and city's safety"

I didn't like the gloom on him, "I think your people prefer you"
He looked into my eyes. He didn't smile but his eyes showed he was blissed to hear that from me. Our eyes locked once again. I don't why but neither I nor he ever got tired of seeing each other's soul through eyes.

I cleared my throat and asked, "so who was Queen Mariah?", breaking the gaze and silence at once.
"The Queen of the time. She's alive", he alluded my error of saying *was* instead of *is*.
"Ohh", by *Ohh* I meant sorry and do tell me about her more. Tarika wouldn't ask more questions in a single conversation, but she does wanna know more. But Hirashman was unable to read her mind.

The silence prolonged before he spoke
again, "Where are you from?"
*Oh no what am I going to say*

"I am from a far away place", I myself
nodded at my stupid statement to enforce it.
"Far but where?",his voice was full of
affection.

"Culcutta", *which was not a lie technically*

"Cul...", he tried to recall of he had
heard of any place like that.
"... cutta. Yes!", I completed the name.
"Is that even a place?", *lack of trust on
me*

"It's an Asian city. Across the sea!",I
defended myself.

"Across the sea? How did you get here?"
"Plane" I didn't know how the earplugs
translated that but he nodded. Maybe
he didn't want to embarrass himself
for not knowing anything like plane
or maybe it was translated for boat or
something.

It was past midnight. I had woken up
early the day before and didn't get
much sleep. I started to yawn and a
thick layer of sleep enveloped me.

"Now you've started to feel sleepy. Go to sleep", I could sense the adore in his words.
"No, I want to know about Queen Mariah", I whisperly whined followed by a yawn. I wasn't in my complete senses and didn't realize he took the wrong idea.
Hirashman smiled and slowly his smile turned into a smirk.
"If you don't wanna go to your room, you can sleep in mine" my heart started to beat hard against my ribcage. My cheeks warmed up.
He thought I didn't want to leave him *which was true*.
I quickly stood up, "uhh ... I think I should go now".
His smirk continued at my nervous hand movements and the unabilty to look him in the face out of embarrassment.
*stop entering my head!!!* ,I screamed in my mind and returned to the prostitutes room.