Loving Atlantis

C H A P T E R 4 — Anoa.

I could do nothing more than take deep breaths, slow and steady, as I made my way down the staircase, all in the name of remaining calm, composed. I was able to hear various different voices in the air, drifting towards me from a far away place—not that the drawing room was much further away from me, anymore. In the entire route from my chambers to here, I still hadn’t managed to calm down the fanatic way in which my heart had been beating, no matter what I had tried to do. The controlled breathing was the only thing that made a difference—although it wasn’t such a big difference that it was making. 

The two guests who must have been assigned to escort me by my father, to ensure my ‘safe arrival’, as they had so willingly quoted, were walking a few steps behind me. They had remained silent throughout the whole route, something that both relieved me and worried me. I was relieved due to the fact that I had no need to rush, that I could take my time to come to terms with what was happening. It worried me because I couldn’t see them, couldn’t see what they were doing, and essentially, I wouldn’t be able to see it they decided to attack me, or to do something of the sort. I felt like my back had been tensed for the entirety of the walk, simply because of the latter fact. 

My eyes dropped down to my slipper clad feet the moment that I crossed the threshold into the drawing room. Nothing stopped. Not the buzzed conversation, or the sound of clinking glasses. But then one dropped, and I knew that someone had seen me. Silence ensued soon after, conversations dying down as if it was being smothered in the same way that one would smother a candle. 

I could do nothing more than to clench my jaw, than to will myself not to look up yet. I didn’t think that the time was right. I didn’t think that the time would ever have been right for me to do this. But it was too late for me to do anything about it now. What was done, was done. I would have no choice other than to follow through with what was happening. It must have taken an entire minute after everyone had stopped speaking for the music to come to a halt, for the room to be so quiet that you would be able to hear a pin drop if you wanted to. 

The sound of rushed footsteps echoed through the silence, and for a moment, I started to panic, my already fanatic heartbeat doubling it’s pace. I couldn’t contain it any longer, my urge to look up emerging as triumphant. The moment that my eyes settled on my father coming to a halt slightly beside me, relief rushed through me, and I dropped my gaze again. I didn’t have it in me to face everyone yet. 

Especially not him. 

     “I believe that it is safe for me to say that my reasons for inviting you all to dinner so suddenly, is now clear. As you are all able to see, my daughter, Princess Anoa, has returned to Atlantis. And you are amongst the first to know.” 

I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting to follow my fathers’ announcement, but it clearly wasn’t the silence  that was now stretching ahead before me. My heartbeat was just starting to thump harder and harder against my rib cage, reaching a point that was rather painful. I wouldn’t be surprised if my knees buckled beneath me at any moment, for that was what it felt like at the moment. I wanted to bolt from the room, to submit to the urge to run away. Fight or flight. There was nothing for me to fight here. 

Other than myself. 

The startling sound of another glass breaking echoed through the air, but there was something different about the way that the glass had broken. It had sounded much louder than it should have been, a lot faster too. I couldn’t resist the urge to look up and to try and find the source, to find the scattered shards on the floor—and I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was when I found myself looking at no one other than Dae himself. The anger in his eyes was as obvious as the light of day—I would have had to have been blind if I hadn’t noticed it. 

     “I’m sure that all of you will agree with me when I say that Princess Anoa and King Dae have some business to discuss. If none of you mind, she’ll take him to the study for some privacy, won’t you, darling?” 

My eyes darted upwards, connecting with my fathers’ as he laid a hand on my shoulder while he spoke. I knew that he would be able to see my silent plead, see the way that I was begging for him not to do this, but his feigned ignorance was more than enough reason for me to see that his mind had already been made up, that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this, no matter what I tried.  

     “Please, feel free to enlighten me on what I would possibly have to discuss with this… with this… woman?” 

A chorus of gasps echoed through the air, literally every single head in the room turning to Dae in disbelief. If I had to put myself in a position where I described what he looked like, I would simply state that he looked murderous. If the way that he was looking at me had any influence at all, I would definitely be six feet underground. 

     “King Dae, with all due respect that you’re entitled to, Princess Anoa is a royal herself, just like you. You are to give her the same respect that you expect from everyone else.” 

My heart warmed, relief flooding through me at the revelation that my father wasn’t completely immune to the disrespect that everyone was bound to show me. The anger in his voice had been a lot more than a mere hint, something that I hoped Dae had picked up on, because my father wasn’t the kind of man that you wanted to see angry—especially not once he had been pushed to his limits. 

     “So, you’re say that she deserves the same respect that I do? After she chose to abandon her people?” 

I could no longer bring myself to look at him, allowing my head to hang once more, squeezing my eyes shut as if it would somehow block out his words, his true words. Everyone else in the drawing room were still keeping deadly quiet, none of them even moving. I came to the conclusion that the rest of the evening was going to be filled with the very same treatment from all of them—and I wasn’t going to allow that. I turned around, fully prepared to leave, but I was yanked back slightly harder than I needed to be. 

My eyes locked onto the hand that was wrapped around my upper arm, and then moved to my father, who’s arm it belonged to. If I had thought that Dae had looked murderous, then there were no words to describe what my father looked like at the moment—but it was definitely worse. Much worse. 

     “Well, if that is how you feel, King Dae,” 

It was literally impossible for me to miss the mocking note in my fathers voice—and I knew by the way that everyone was now focusing on my father that they hadn’t missed it either. 

     “I have to ask you to leave my palace grounds. No one who is a guest in my home will be allowed to disrespect my daughter. It is as much her home as mine. She might be of a lower rank than you, but we both know that it is only circumstance that led to that.” 

The longer my father spoke, the more he said, the wider my eyes got. I couldn’t help but stare at him worriedly, hoping that this didn’t get worse. Bringing up Dae’s parents’ death had been a low blow, and if he went any lower, I had no idea what would he said—but it could be anything good. 

     “You don’t have to ask me twice.” 

I must have had no more than a moment to register what his hostile words were, when I was roughly pushed to the side, my body bumping into my father so that Dae could pass through the doorway—the doorway that was more than wide enough for him to pass by beside me instead of through me. I knew that my fathers anger had multiplied by a tenfold, his breath coming out ragged. 

He remained silent as he helped me to stand upright, making sure that I was standing stably on my feet before he let go of me. Everyone else in the room remained just as silent, holding their breath, staring at me. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they were thinking. 

     “Your Grace… I would like to be the first to welcome you back to Atlantis. Excuse my rather blunt question, but what happened to your hair?” 

If it had been acceptable, I was sure that I would have crumpled to the ground in relief, overjoyed by the fact that someone had actually gone ahead and broken the silence, and spoken to me. The smile that started to tug at the corners of my mouth was very difficult to keep at bay, but somehow I managed to do so, stepping further into the room. 

There was a lot weighing on the way that I responded to this question. A lot. 

     “If I were being completely truthful, the tale would be quite laughable.” 

In an attempt to add some effect, I let out a laugh of my own, but it wasn’t going to take a genius to know that it was forced. But what mattered was that I was making an effort—and as long as I continued to do so, hopefully things wouldn’t get too bad. I made my way over to one of the armchairs, sitting down, and finding that everyone else had followed my lead and was doing the same for themselves. 

I was vaguely aware of the fact that my father had used my distraction to leave—while I sat here praying that I would be able to add the humour to the tale that hadn’t been anywhere near humorous. After all, it was what I had promised them. 

     “It happened quite recently, maybe two or three months ago, if my memory serves me correct.” 

     “But it it happened to long ago, why hadn’t your hair grown back, yet?” 

It almost seemed as if the question came out of nowhere, putting me in a position where I could do nothing other than to smile. It pained me slightly to know that despite all of the wisdom that they had gained throughout the course of their lives, they had absolutely no wisdom when it came to any place other than Atlantis—of the struggles that anyone of a different species had to face when it came to the mainlands. 

     “Just give me some time. I’ll get to that part of the story at some point.” 

I reach out, taking a glass of the well aged wine that was passing me by on a tray of the waiter, and when I took a sip of it, I couldn’t help but think to myself that it still tasted just as bad as it had all those years ago. I was doing my very best to keep my face passive while I spoke, doing my very best to make sure that there was nothing that would betray how disgusting it tasted. 

     “I’d like to start off by saying that all of the humans have short hair—as disbelieving as it may sound. But it makes everyday activities such as hunting much easier. I didn’t think that they were being serious about the benefits that it had towards hunting until I found myself as the one that was doing the tracking.”