The Boy With The Mask
1719 Words
The atmosphere surrounding the palace, close to her departure was weird mix of happiness and anxiousness. The place was buzzing and Shirina was confused at the mess of feelings brewing inside her chest.
"You look beautiful, your highness." The head maid smiles, the folds near her old eyes crinkling.
"You are flattering me, but I appreciate it." Shirina replies, a smile dancing on her lips. After all, she had received several beauty treatments in the span of few days and she could feel her skin soft and glowing.
She was dressed in some rich clothes. And today was the day she was going to leave Nishak. The preparations were done and soon she would be leaving. The sun was close to noon when the Head Maid and other senior maids came to gather her.
"It's time, your highness."
Shirina sighed, standing up and twirled around to have one last look of her childhood home engrained in her memories. Even though she had been hurt here, this place was still her home. She wiped the tears in her eyes and then walked out of the chambers, never to return back.
Outside her palace, was almost a festive atmosphere. There were bands playing songs and people gossiping and giggling. The person to first come into her sight was Jason.
"I greet the Princess of Nishak." He bowed.
"Sir Jason." She nodded as he took her hand to guide her to the carriage.
"We will head to the King's palace before finally setting on for our journey to Tejask." He explains and Shirina climbs into the carriage with his help.
As the carriage rolls forward, the palace that had been her home and the people that had been her family vanish from her line of sight and Shirina presses a hand against her mouth to choke off her sobs.
...
The sun was shining brightly above even when Shirina’s heart was flooding with grief. She had no idea where her destination was. As soon as she heard the news, she had sprinted away from her caretakers, ignored her nanny and maids screaming for her to stop and ran down the meadows blindly. The Royal Palace had never felt this suffocating before. Her tears blurred her vision but somehow, she had managed to spot a gap between the walls just large enough to fit her to get out the palace. She stumbled into the woods out the hole in the wall and started walking aimlessly, trying to wipe her tears off. She did not know how much time had passed, but walking around she came the edge of the forest where a beautiful stream of clear water flowed. She crouched down to stare the her reflection in the water when she noticed slight movement from the side.
A humanoid presence. A glint of metal.
It sent her dragon senses tingling. She whirled around to face the threat, her claws ripping out of her gloves. But then she froze. Her attacker was almost the same size as her.
A child?
She could not tell because the person was cloaked and narrowing her eyes even further, she noticed that they were wearing a mask.
“Who are you?”
“I should be the one asking that. Who are you? And what are you doing in my secret place?”
Shirina balked at such intense disrespect. No one had ever talked to her this way.
“Why should I tell you who I am?” She replied petulantly.
“Then why should I tell you who I am.” He argued back.
Shirina wanted to yell. “Because I am this country’s princess!” But she did not. They stared down at each other for along time then he took a tentative step forward.
“Hey…you have black hair?”
She froze. Her hand came up to twirl her finger around her lock self-consciously. “yes, what about it?”
He stepped closer and whispered in awe. “You really do have black hair!”
“Yes, I do.” She nodded, “All shadow dragons have Black hair.”
This time he stilled. “You…are a shadow dragon? For real?”
Shirina scowled. “Yes, I am a shadow dragon. What is it with you?”
Realizing he might have offended her, he waved his arms around in a placating manner. “I guess I was being rude. From where I come from, I have never seen a Shadow Dragon before.”
“Of course, I realized that.”
The person looked quite intrigued. “You did?”
“You are in Nishak!” she deadpanned. “A country exclusively known for Shadow Dragons and their descendants! To be honest, I am quite surprised that I am the first black haired person you are seeing.”
He turned his head around and he scratched his chin which seemed like a nervous gesture.
“My guardian is quite overprotective. They do not like me being in the vision of other unknown people other than them and their associates.”
Shrina laughed. “What are you? Some lost prince?”
She did not notice but he flinched at her words.
“Or maybe a Princess?”
That made him scowl as he glared at her. “What makes you think I am a Princess?”
“Well… you are wearing a cloak and a mask. I cannot tell if you are a girl or a boy.”
“I am a boy!” He complained.
“Alright. Alright!” Shirina waved her arms around.
That is when she noticed a small bleeding cut on his arm. It was almost invisible between his black gloves and the dark shirt he was wearing but she could smell in a metallic taste of the blood.
“You are bleeding!” She pointed it out and he stared at his own bleeding arm shocked.
“Oh.”
“Oh? You did not even notice?”
“No?” He shrugged, making no effort to clean or cover the wound. Shirina scowled at him harder and suddenly she remembered she had her handkerchief with her.
“Here!” She offered it to him after a bit of consideration.
“You are giving to me to cover the wound?”
She nodded and stepped closer, still offering the handkerchief. But he stepped back and shook his head. “I apologize, but I can’t accept that. My guardian gave me strict warnings about accepting things from other people.”
Shirina was a bit hurt but then she remembered her own mother telling her about ‘stranger danger’ and how she should not accept things from people she is not familiar with.
“Uh…okay. But if you want it…I’ll leave it here?” She said with a bit of hesitance.
“Thank…you?”
They stared at each other in silence for a while. The only sound was rustling of leaves and flowing of water. After a while, he broke the silence. “You were crying.”
Shirina blinked and wiped her face realizing her face was sticky with dry tear tracks and snot. Her face immediately burned crimson. He had seen her like this! How improper look for a lady of her status.
She quickly buried her face in hands, red with embarrassment.
“Eh! W-what are you doing?” He sounded actually worried and confused and Shirina peeked through between her fingers.
“My etiquette teacher said young ladies should not go around looking improper like that.”
He tilted his head to side curiously and Shirina thought it was an act that looked like cute bird’s.
“I…don’t think people are supposed to look beautiful when they cry.” He spoke.
Before she could reply to him, a shrill whistle pierced the sky. It seemed faraway was louder and incredibly distinct to her dragon senses. It seemed whatever it was, had alerted her companion into attention. He immediately straightened up, subtly glanced here and there and then turned to look at her.
“Ah, it seems my guardian wants me to return back to them. But can you block your ears for a bit?”
Shirina was confused but she did what he asked and closed her ears by pressing her palms against them. He waited for her to do so before raising his head towards the sky, made a hand gesture, placed it on his mouth, sucked in breath and then a ear splitting whistle reverberated through the woods. It was extremely painful to her dragon senses and she knew she would have been writhing on the ground if he had not warned her beforehand. That was no normal whistle. There was deep gutturalness and a floaty shrillness to it at the same time. Shirina knows who makes that kind of noise.
This boy himself was definitely a dragon.
Seconds after his whistle, they heard a similar replying whistle and Shirina could say that this person’s companion? Guardian? Were a dragon as well. And they were quite close now.
The boy perked up when the whistle replied and she saw a smile on his lips.
Then he turned to her and bent apologetically. “I need to leave for now. You should go back to. It is going to be evening soon and it will not be safe out here.”
For the first time in the entire day, she felt a genuine smile curling upon her lips.
“Alright, you worrywart.” She teased and balked at her.
“Hey!” He protested but she simply giggled and ran away from him in the direction towards the palace. She turned back to see him around one last time and he was still waiting infront of the clearing. She could see his tiny figure still waiting on the edge still she slinked into the Palace walls through the hole.
She realized he was making sure she was safe in the confines of Palace walls before walking away. It made her heart feel warm and fuzzy all of sudden.
She knew it was an incredible kind gesture. She would not mind seeing him again.
- Writer
