Sakura was smiling and laughing while playing with Phelan. She kept tossing a ball and having Phelan retrieve it and run back with it. His tail is wagging and a foolish smile in his face when he returns the ball, and gets even more happy when rewarded with a pat in the head.
'It's like I gain an overgrown dog as a pet. Heh. I didn't expect him to match a dog more than a wolf, well what would you expect from a mutt who fell in love with the half-sister of his fiancee.'
While sneering at the thought, Sakura quickly noticed what she was doing. She stopped those thoughts quickly before it goes any further.
'Shit! That was close. I'm trying to get a clear understanding of my future relationship with this guy, I can't have them ruined my plans of use for him.'
"Sakura! Wanna play hide and seek?"
"Oh?"
'That actually sounds fun. Its been a long time since I last played hide and go seek. It was and is my favorite game to play.'
"Ok! Then you seek and I hide."
"Ok, then you and the others go hide."
"You have to count till 50! No cheating."
'Like when you cheated on your fiancee.'
Sakura grumbles in annoyance with her thoughts but ignores it and waits for Phelan to start counting.
Phelan goes to a tree and begins counting and when Sakura saw that, she starts to run but noticed Daisy and Ivy following her.
"You guys can't follow me, he'll find me quicker if we all hide at the same place."
"Your highness, you can't be by yourself."
"Princess, you know we can't leave you alone."
"Then what's the point of hide and seek if I can't hide well!? I wanna win!"
Sakura pouts and got even more frustrated when she noticed he is already in the 30s.
"Please!! I won't go to far. It's boring if it ends too quickly and I'm safe inside the palace, no stranger gets in!"
Sakura is almost to the point of begging and look at the two women with pleading eyes.
They look at each other and then at Sakura in great hesitation. However, they quickly allowed her when they noticed her eyes reddening.
She giggled a bit and went scurrying away to a location.
"Do you think we should have allowed that?"
"Don't ask, I already regret it. Just hide somewhere close."
Ivy sighs and quietly go to a bush a few feet away from where Sakura was hiding. And Daisy hides on top of a tree that was just a few trees away from Sakura.
Sakura counted the numbers left and hid under a bush, she digged a bit of dirt and rubbed it in her clothes and face. She remembers how keen the beastman senses are so she wanted to hide her scent so he can't notice.
If Ivy or Daisy had a good view of her, they would have immediately stopped her from rubbing herself with dirt. But they didn't see anything, just her going deeper under the bush.
Both women were impressed with how well she was hiding, they see her grab a bit of the bush and lower it to cover her from view, her hands moving the dirt so it doesn't seem like anyone slid down it.
"50! Ready or not! Here I come." Phelan quickly turned around and looked at his surrounding. His nose twitches a bit when he takes a few deep whiffs of the air and his eyes gleam. A smile appears in his face and he runs toward a bush that held a few flowers.
"Mrs. Ivy! I found you."
A light chuckle was heard and Ivy who was in a squatting position stood up and clapped her hands.
"You have found me. Now look for the other two. Sir Philan."
He laughs a bit and then begins looking around, his ears perk up and his nose stuffs around. He uses his eyes to look around but doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary, until he heard a light snap.
Phelan turns to a tree a few feet away and squinted his eyes to better see the tree. While doing so he notice a black cloth hanging from the tree, his eyes widen in realization and he goes running toward the tree.
"Found you Mrs.Daisy!!"
He looks up and sees her laughing and looking down at him. She then jumps down as if she wasn't jumping down a 12 feet tree. Impressively she landed on her feet and did a small pose of tada!
A few minutes passed and Phelan moves around and sniffs the air a few times, he frowns and stands still in one area. The area where the bush and tree Ivy and Daisy where in.
"I smell her.... but then I don't? She's near but I don't know where? It's hard to find her scent."
"Can you tell where a person is by their scent? And who they are?"
Daisy asked that out if curiosity. She hasn't met any beastman other than those who sell in the markets in festivals. And it was hard to get to know a beastman and interact with one when you don't have connections with one.
He nods and looks at her.
"You have the smell of a morning field, and Mrs.Ivy has the smell of a cool breeze after a rainstorm."
They both looked in surprise and Daisy started to sniff herself, but didn't find anything.
"I just smell nothing."
Even Ivy did a undetected sniff and found nothing.
"Hehe, we beastman have very good noses to smell, and have to be trained at an early age to separate the smells or lower our senses so we don't get effected by it."
He begins snuffing around even more, but can't find Sakura anywhere. He starts to panic a bit and wonders if something happened.
"Do you guys know where she is? It's been too long and I can't catch her sent well, I'm worried now."
"There is no need to worry. I'll give you a hint. She is still here."
"That's it?"
"Yup!"
Daisy butts in and giggles when she saw Phelan pouting.
"Sir Philan. May I ask a question?"
He turns to Ivy and nods. Then goes back to searching, but listening to what she is going to ask.
"What does her highness Sakura smell like to you?"
He pauses his movements, but starts again a second later.
"She smells like.... A light fragrance of flowers. It isn't too strong, but it leaves a deep impression.... for some reason, I feel nostalgic when I smell it."
He mumbles the last part and ended up in a daze when he thinks about it. Only to snap out of it when he notices a slight movement under a bush.
He feels his heart beating in anticipation and quickly heads there and falls to his knees. He starts to move the bush's branches and a small dirt mountain that seem to be hiding something behind it, he didn't care about his clothes and finally reached what he was looking for when he sees a small hand.
The hand was clenched. The skin under the dirt was white as porcelain, almost translucent. He felt a hit of nostalgia when he saw it. Then a sudden image appeared in his head.
A women's face he can't see well, but he felt it held agony. Tears trickling down her pale skin. Her hand reached out to him and lightly touches his cheek. Her words filling his mind.
"I thought... maybe you would be able to end my suffering... maybe you wouldn't leave me like the others did for her.... you were my last hope."
He felt his throat constrict. He wanted to yell something, he needed to tell her something, but he didn't know what.
"..an. Ph...n. Phelan!!!"
He takes a deep shaky breath and looks at who was calling him. Her round eyes looks at him in confusion. Her face was covered with dirt and her hair had a few leaves.
"Are you ok?"
"Huh?"
"Your crying."
'What?!'
He touches his face with his dirt covered hands and looks at the dampness of his hands.
"I was.... crying?"
"Hey move a bit? I can't get out if your blocking the way."
"Oh? Oh! Yeah sorry. Here, I'll help you."
He reaches out and waits for to grab his hand, but notices how she hesitated from the making contact. Then she shakes her head and reaches out, grabbing his hand. When their hands made contact, he felt a light spark and flinched. He waited to see if Sakura noticed but she didn't.
'Was that... just my imagination?'
He ignored it and pulled Sakura up.
"Hehe~"
He hears a small laugh and looks at Sakura who had her head looking down.
"Hehe, I'm really good at hiding right?"
She looks up at him and smiled with a cheeky grin. Her eyes sparkle in mischief and childish glee.
Her hair was a bit of a mess with small twigs leaves all over it, her clothes and a few areas of her skin had dirt and all in all, she looked like a poor child who roamed the streets.
However, when Phelan saw her smile and how genuine it seemed to him, it was the most beautiful one he seen. For the first time he thought he was able to see the real her. And he took it all in, as if afraid he'll never see it again.
"Let's play again! Who was found first?"
She let go of his hand and left his view.
He turns to her and reaches out only to stop, because he didn't want to feel the pain that time when she slapped his hand away, he didn't like the pain of her rejecting his hand like she did that time.
'.... No, what I don't want is to see her sad and in pain again.'
He wants to keep her smile and doesn't want to ruin it and just watches her walk away from him.
'As long as she is happy. Nothing else hurts more that seeing that look in her face again.'
"Your Highness!!!"
"Ahh! Your hair, your pearl white skin, your dress!!"
He left his thoughts when he saw Daisy and Ivy fussing over the mess Sakura made. They wanted to take her inside and bathe her quickly, however she wants to keep playing. He laughs a bit and walks over.
"Hey! Let's play a bit more, it's fine getting a bit dirty."
"See!? He thinks it's fine, please~? Its been so long since I actually had fun."
When both women heard that, they stoped their arguing and couldn't say no when she said that.
"Haaahhh~ understood your highness, but only a few more rounds, we can't have you walking around like this."
"My dear princess, it's fine if your dirty your dress since it's already like this. But please don't go any further like hurting yourself ok?"
"Ok! Now go count whoever was found first."
Both women can only sigh but smiled in joy to see her so active and excited to play, it maybe the first time they have ever seen her be so exhilarated and full of life.
Ivy heads to the tree to begin counting and Sakura runs to hide, but noticed Phelan standing there with a smile in his face. She tilts her head in wonder. Then she notices Ivy count was already at 10.
Still noticing that he was standing there, she runs to him and reaches out, grabbing his hand.
She leans closer and is in her tippy toes while whispering close to his face.
"Hide quick! It's no fun if you get found so easily. Come on, I'll help you hide."
She tugs his arm and runs as hard as she can while trying not to fall. Phelan looks at their hand. He can't describe the feeling he has.
"Come on! Move your feet a little, we won't find a good hiding spot if you keep dragging your feet." She turns to him with a pout. What he did when he saw that was laugh and begin moving too.
She was overjoyed when she finally got him to move, only to feel her feet touching nothing. Her view got higher and she was now face to face with Phelan.
"Haha! I think it's faster if I do the walking. Just lead the way and I'll go anywhere you choose."
".....hehe, hahaha! Ok then. Follow my lead."
She quickly found a spot and points to where she wants him to go. There was a table that had a cloth all the way to the floor, hiding anything under the table from anyone's sight.
"There! That's a perfect spot for us two."
"Haha ok!"
They both crawl under and quietly hid there, both make eye contact and started to laugh, they felt like sneaky spies who were on a mission.
"Hey."
Phelan leans close and whispered so only she can hear.
"Yeah?"
"Is it fun?"
"Huh?"
"Playing, is it fun."
"Uh, Yeah?
"Hehe, then let's play even more when we finish this round."
"Ok?"
Phelan was happy, he doesn't understand why he was so happy that she was having fun. But he doesn't pay attention or question it much. He just wants to see her smile even more, that's all that matters to him right now.
A/N: so this is a little something that can be interpreted as nothing or even a Development to what's going to happen in the future. But then again, it might just be a filler because I got writers block. Hope you like it, if not. Too bad💁♀️