Captured Princess

Hearsay Explanation

Shanaia stared at her grandfather, waiting for him to start talking. Somehow, the former tribe chief was having second thoughts regarding answering his granddaughter’s inquiries. And his silence is killing Shanaia, and she can’t take it anymore.

“Any minute now, Grandpa.” She spoke and Samael gave her a deadpan look before mumbling.

“Impatient like her grandmother,”

Samael then heaved a deep breath before looking up at the night sky.

“There has been a legend in our tribe, in this village.” He started.

“There was a legend that the ancient tribe of Miracinonyx once lived in these lands.”

Shanaia tilted her head.

“You mentioned that before, name before; the ancient tribe of Miracinonyx. The book we used when I was studying the deadly ballet, you said it was from that ancient tribe,”

Shanaia said and Samael nodded.

“Some of the artifacts from that ancient tribe were stored in my library, and among them was a book that might have mentioned the statue that none of us can see,” he said.

“Where is it?” she asked.

“I said might. I am not even sure if it still existed,” Samael said and Shanaia scowled.

“Then tell me more about it and everything about it because I cannot think about anything else but that,” she replied and her grandfather sighed.

“The only thing I know is that the statue is supposed to be Hanwi’s statue. No one in our tribe from then till now has seen the statue. The whole territory was scoured in search of that statue but none was found,”

Shanaia scowled.

“I don’t understand how come none of you have seen it. You said you scoured the whole territory, but the statue is just in the middle of the stream. It's like it was built on a boulder in the middle of the running water. How come none of you were able to see it? I found it on the first try, and who the hell is this Hanwi person?”

Samael stood up.

“Come with me,” he said and the Shanaia immediately stood up.

She followed her grandfather as he went back inside the main house. Samael led her to his library where she trained the last time. When they were inside the room, that is when Shanaia realized that the library did not just hold books but also a lot of antiques of different kinds.

Shanaia looked around as she found the whole thing new to her, maybe because when she was training there, she was too focused that she did not pay attention to her surroundings.

Samael walked over to a huge tapestry hanging on the wall. It has a design of a cheetah leaping over a broken chain. Shanaia followed her grandfather and looked at the tapestry and her eyebrows furrowed.

“It’s a cheetah… with white fur?” Shanaia mumbled and then she looked at her grandfather.

“You got the color wrong,” she said.

Samael looked at the tapestry and shook his head.

“The color was correct.” He spoke.

“Eh?”

“This tapestry is a representation of Hanwi.”

“Who is this Hanwi?” Shanaia asked.

Samael looked at her.

“Lady Hanwi is an ancient feline shifter. She is the Queen of the ancient tribe of Miracinonyx, the one that once occupied this land, the reason the feline tribes were now united. She is also a hero who sacrificed herself protecting her people from the great snake,” Samael answered, and then he looked back at the tapestry.

“It has been said that she is our family’s ancestor, but there was no proof of that and if there is… any document… it will be hard for any of us to read it as its language is something none of us can decipher,” he added.

“So… she is a powerful Queen, a hero of the feline shifters. But still… why is her fur white?”

“There was no correct explanation, except that she is the daughter of Bastet,” Samael said.

Shanaia crossed her arms over her chest as she squinted her eyes over the tapestry.

“Bastet’s fur was black and if he is indeed her daughter, who is her father? Or was she magically conceived?” she trailed as she looked intently at the cheetah’s silver eyes.

“Or maybe the person who made the tapestry got it all wrong…” she mumbled and Samael whipped his head towards her.

“What now?”

“If there were no supplementing documents and evidence about her and everything else regarding her, then there is no guarantee that it’s all correct,”

She said, and Samael was about to speak but Shanaia beat him to it.

“What does this Hanwi get to do with the statue that I found and you claimed to be nonexistent?” she asked.

Samael let out an audible sigh before answering.

“They said the statue is her tomb.”

Shanaia narrowed her eyes on her grandfather.

“They said…”

Samael’s shoulders sagged in defeat.

“Yes, it’s all hearsay, I know. No way to confirm any of it since no one has seen that statue, except you. And like what Styx said, avoid speaking about it around our people. They might think you are going insane about it since it’s as close to being a legend,” he told her.

Shanaia tilted her head.

“Why?”

“Sometimes those who dive into something while in search of the truth can cause your mind to play tricks on you,” Samael told her, and then he sighed, patting Shanaia’s head.

“I know the feeling that it’s like eating you alive and the only way to survive is to know the truth. But sometimes, letting go of the idea and accepting that not everything has answers is a way to survive,”

There was a moment of silence between them before Shanaia cleared her throat and spoke.

“But you won’t mind if I scour the whole territory and dive into this legend before I dive into medical books, right”

Samael gave his granddaughter a deadpan look. He looked at her intently and saw how determined she was that he had no choice but to give in.

“Fine.” He blurted and a broad smile appeared on Shanaia’s lips.

Shanaia was about to cheer but Samael stopped her when he raised his hand.

“But I need you to promise not to endanger yourself or to dive too deep that you’ll end up as a patient instead of a doctor,” Samael pressed and Shanaia nodded.

“Don’t worry. Maybe, I’ll uncover more than you and every historian in this tribe ever did,”

Shanaia said, grinning at her grandfather.

She is pretty determined to know everything. If she has to turn the whole territory upside down just for answers, then so be it.