Saga:-Journey to the sunrise
Arc 2:- INDESCRIBABLE STEPS
Chapter->21
--> Fakeout
Fally Wallware. The princess and noble child of Glister Archipelago. She was pacing through the forest trying her best not to be found that she had escaped castle and went to her secret cult's mission.
Her steps murmured through the place over the rustling leaves, with small taps on the ground.
Tap! Tap! Tap!... Just when she was about to reach the lake that seperates the Glister with the forest. A wind gently blew over as her hair cascading through them came in front of her face.
Whoosh!
She adjusted her hair and tucked a strand behind her ear looking at a man laying on a wooden boat seemed beaten up, unconscious with blood marks and a broken monocle on his left eye. His shirt was tore from shoulders and leggings were drained in water.
Fally had came here from her boat which was now occupied by an unknown man, her mind was in confusion but she would be in lifestruck danger if she didn't make it on time.
Ba-dump! Her hands stuck to her bosom could feel her own heartbeat.
Lub-dub-lub-dub... her closed eyes imagined her heart throbbing with sparkles and aroma.
Should I help him? Or run over the lake using frost steps?...
I pity him but everyday somewhere somehow people die. I can't do anything about it. The world works like this, it's an inevitability.
However, I can't leave someone dying right in front of me. Fally ran over with her dress lifted up a bit to not fall. She pulled the man out of the boat and made him lay on the shore. She pressed both of her arms on his chest and pumped it once...twice...
It's not working. Wha‐what should I do?
She thought while looking at the horizon where sun was about to rise.
Lanmyth peeked a little and then returned to his slumber. He was expecting sleeping beauty's plot.
"Do I... have to give him oxygen?" Her cheeks flared up as she hid her face but time was leaking off the pot.
"I should leave him like this. A noble like me shouldn't...but I was the one who took him off boat now it's on me." She bit her fingernails and started looking around. She had a hunch that mouth-to-mouth oxygen would definietly work but it was the least option she expected.
Good greif...I guess I should wake up now. Lanmyth lampooned. The bush near them moved.
Rustle! Rustle!
Suddenly a small white cat with blue eyes came out of the bush and started jumped on the man as the man with a broken monocle coughed and woke up. He looked at the princess with messy hair, unbuttoned shirt and long-lashed blue eyes.
There was a small light in his eyes that said.
"Did you save me?" His sudden slumber-wake disappointed Fally a bit.
Just a little bit... not much. Just as small as a grain.
"Ye‐yes!" She replied. His look suddenly changed to a weird disgust and saddness. Fally's heart thorbbed in fear of getting late but this man seemed interesting. By his clothing he seems to be someone from the archipelago but something was odd about him. He was similar to a butler but with a monocle? Is he a luxurious butler or it's his family tradition?
"Why‐y! why did you do that?" His face turned wobbly as he started weeping hiding his face as his cat pampered him by scratching his back unseen from Fally the cat actually did scratched it which made Lanmyth burst into pain and tear to seem it legit.
"What happened? I'm sorry but, if you were going to commit...!" She covered her face with a sense of terror and gasped.
"Oh! Please don't end your life sir. Life is such a beautiful bliss. May the heavens bless you. I have to leave now I'm getting late!" She stood and lifted her dress just then.
"You can't leave." He murmured. She stopped thinking and looked back to confirm if she heard wrong.
"What sir?" She asked.
"You're the one who saved me and now leaving me alone with no food and in state of such pity." He lifted up his cat.
"Look at her. She hasn't eaten anything for days, she'll die within some hours or even minutes. I couldn't stand the pain so I decided to die before her. And you saved me to suffer in such pain?"
Then just jump in the water...she commented inwardly.
Lord forgive me for this suggestion even if I said in my mind, I have saved him and I'll try my best to give him a reason to live. Bless me lord.
Lanmyth made a dumbfounded expression as if he didn't knew mind reading spell.
-What did she say-meow?
-She said I should just jump in the ocean and die but then regretted it.
-She's humourous-meow.
-Can't you act a bit more hungry you fairy morphed cat?
They both looked at each other and then stared at Fally with eyes of innocence. She couldn't withstand such light and finally asked.
"Is there anything I can do for you? Mister."
"Please find me a job. I am a great butler." He spoke as he stood up holding his cat in his hands. Fally seemed troubled thinking what to do.
She needed a butler too...her father had shown her many but none matched her taste. She wanted someone she could share her secrets with.
Someone who owes her their life. So technically he fits!
"Well. I was also trying to find a butler, would you mind if you...become my butler?" Fally said while curling her hair strand while blushing as if she had proposed a man for marriage.
"Oh lord's grace, by the feet of heavens and soil of earth. I'll serve you till eternity!" He bent on his knees and bowed in front of her as with so less time for her reaching the kingdom she hurriedly shouted.
"We have to go now!" She spoke as he stood up and smacked his fist on his chest lightly.
"This looks like a job for me!"
"Huh?" She titled her head in confusion as he came near her and lifted her like a princess. Her mind went blank as she was never this close to a man whose shirt was a mess and nearly revealed his chest. She just stared in his ocean like deep eyes and asked. The cat sat on her stomach while she ignored it completely
"What is your name Mister?" Her heart throbbed and it could be felt through her back on Lanmyth's wrist.
Does she have an engine in there?
-What is she thinking-meow?! I'm curious!
-I can only read mind for three seconds. Even I'm curious you know! Also why are you using meow! At the end? This is another selling gimmick in this world? FOLAS!
"I am..."
"You are..?" She hid her face as it was getting more red and flushed in blush. Her skin and genetics were such a unqiue combination that her blood flow in face was a cake-walk to see.
"Qilcurn Stoneclock it is Her Highness."
-Qilcurn Stone-meow? You could've said Stoneheart! Meow!
-Well, what can we do. Oh yeah what about your name? Let's see. What about Fyna?
-Whatever-meow!
"Qilcurn‐s... So how are we gonna get there before time?" Lanmyth— Qilcurn thought for a moment. Hmm... I think thought-teleportation would work. It was mentioned that if someone remembered that place through sensory organs on a hightened way then they could be lent a small amount of teleportation energy to teleport the user and thinker to that place.
"Just close your eyes and think exactly where you want to be right now?" She closed her eyes. Slowly thought..
I want to be in my room...
I want to be in my room...
I want to be in my room...
I don't know if it'll work. She opened her eyes and saw a beautiful interior with king and Queen's portrait together. A floormat made from leopard skin and the soft silk bed with a beautiful carved wooden bedframe.
"This...is my bedroom!" Qilcurn lay her down on the bed as she just laid there in the feeling of returning as her sudden senses regained their nerves, she remembered an unknown man who she just hired as a butler was standing there looking at her vulnerable state so she instinctively stood up and said.
"Urm... Apologies for my behavior. I'm just too fond of my room that I suddenly became vulnerable." She rested her palm in front and then took a chair to sit on. Even though she had helped him, she had to inspect this man before anything else.
After some minutes she started as he also sat on a chair with rose-pink cushion and wooden headrest.
"So, where are you from?" She was in full inspection mode as she even took out a magnifying glass from her drawer.
"I'm from Tsaresford kingdom. There is a widespread inflation crisis in butler's jobs being washed away after a rumour spread that anyone who recruits a butler lays the carpet for bad omen to strangle their necks."
Qilcurn said with his eyes dim-red, fingers rustling onto each other as if he was about to have a breakdown.
As he remembered the list of special spells written in the book he won from that braided man.
As he was recalling the list and their respective ways to perform them Fally invoked an interesting question that nearly made Qilcurn slip from his act.
"Are you... interested in men?" No wai‐
What the f*ck?
...
After that weird question the room went to silence as Fally went into her bathroom to take a bath as for Qilcurn he wasn't formally introduced to the family so he was ordered to hide inside the closet.
Qilcurn adjusted his fingers which were being intwined in a silk dress as his cat stayed wraped on his neck like an otter.
-Woah! You can stretch like an otter?
-Ofcource-meow! I'm an extraordinary fairy! Meow!
Qilcurn's nostrils were filled with fragrance of fermented galonica flower that was found in the eastern continent. As he looked down the bottle of fragrance was leaking...
...
With a desperation, Fally entered her bathroom but slept in the tub forgetting the world. The servants were waiting outside the room as they knocked several times.
"No response?"
"We have to do that!"
"That?"
They were discussing whether they should use the All-opening key of the palace used for emergencies in order to see if she was alright or not...
"May the heavens bless us!"
"Madam Fally! Forgive us for that!"
As they twisted the key and doorknob, barged in looking here and there as the walking noises had woken up Fally from her slumber.
Yawn~
Wait‐ I selpt? And my servants are inside right now. If they found Qilcurn hiding in my closet then...
She hid her face with her palm in embarassment as she stood up. Wraped the towel around her body and hair then spoke from inside the bathroom.
...
The servents were checking the belongings as none tried to barge into the bathroom due to lack of suspicion. As one servent had an ick of thinking if the lady is playing hide-and-seek with them and he suspected the closet firstly.
He worked up his hands rolling around, twisted his torso a bit and then walked towards the closet. The wooden closet with gold in-laid lock and boundaries made it mesmerizing as the wood used in it was honey-brown oak.
He grabbed the handle with his white-gloved hands and...
...
Qilcurn had an intuition that if he had been found out what would happen? He was being serious as the servents were walking close to the closet, the dress covering his ear was more annoying than anything.
Phew... just as he thought they were gone he sensed two hands holding the handles of the closet he was hiding in...