The Veiled Crown

Chapter 4

You don't know for how long you're asleep. But at some point you hear whispers in the distance.

“I didn't know she was magical.”  - “neither did I, she smells human.”

“she is waking up!” - You open your eyes, you're lying in a bed, Shiro and Taro are sitting on chairs. Each on one side of the bed. You see Shiro let out a sigh of relief. You got a really bad headache and you take yourself to the head with your right hand. Your forehead seems like it's burning, or is it just your hand being icy cold? As you remove your hand from your head, you see Shiro leaving the room. In the exact moment that Shiro leaves the room, Taro gets a smug look on his face again. What's up with this guy?

You try sitting up in the bed, but it only makes your head hurt even more. Making you involuntarily grab your head with both your hands, close your eyes and bend forward in pain. Your breathing also changes due to the sudden increase in pain. Your head feels like it's melting. Taro is just sitting there, looking at you. He doesn't seem to feel compassion, it rather seems like he's feeling joy from your pain.

It doesn't take long before Shiro storms into the room, grabs you by the shoulder while forcefully pushing you back down. Forcing you to lie down in the bed. He then puts a wet piece of cloth on your forehead. It's nice and cold, easing your headache a bit. He has a worrisome look on his face. You look him dead in the eye with confusion. You ran into his house without knocking, tumbling around on the floor. Breaking a cup after he served you tea. Why's he being so nice still?

Shiro notices that you're looking at him, you're making eye contact. Not soon after you fall asleep, without even noticing you're tired.

 While you're asleep you're having a very strange dream;

“You're lying in the bed still, but you're in the middle of the forest again. It's very dark, you can barely make out the outlines of the trees. Looking up you notice the trees don't have any leaves left. You can see the starry sky through the twisted bare branches of the trees. It's a full moon, and it's huge. Though a full moon normally means the night isn't dark, that's not the case here. 

You get up and sit on the edge of the bed, facing the moon. You look down and the ground starts disappearing, you crawl up on the bed again. You get a sensation of falling and you see the trees disappearing in the distance above you. The fall seems endless and you're clinging to the bed.

You suddenly stop falling and the bed is gone, you feel like floating. Though it's still so dark you can't see anything. You get a feeling of not being able to breathe, you're under water. You try to swim up, but you seem to get nowhere, but deeper into the darkness. You feel like dying, you need air. You pass out.”

You wake up, gasping for air and sitting up immediately. It takes a moment for you to catch your breath and calm down. What a dream. 

You look around, nobody is in the room. The door isn't closed all the way, there's a tiny gap open, letting light come through. You feel a lot better, so you get up slowly. You're trying to be as silent as you can. You get to the door and carefully look through the c***k; you see a hallway with the lights turned on. At the end of the hallway to the left, there are some stairs going down. You open the door very carefully trying to see what's to the right. There's nothing, it's the end of the hallway. You slowly walk out in the hallway, making your way to the stairs. You can hear some faint arguing that seems to come from downstairs. You slowly walk closer to the stairs, one step at a time. Trying to make as little noise as possible, you’re curious. What’s the arguing about?

As you reach the staircase you sit down on your knees, slowly lowering your head to catch a glimpse of downstairs. You can’t see anyone from where you are now, though the voices sound like Shiro and Taro having a very serious discussion.

Shiro:”Why was this girl wandering out in this forest? I haven’t seen a Human out here in decades!” Shiro sounded confused. While Taro replied with a confused but curious tone; ”But she reacted to the tea, are you sure she’s even human?”

It sounds like they’re having a discussion about you!

Shiro:”I don’t know, but i intend to find out who she is and why she’s…..” Taro interrupted Shiro with a serious tone:”Shh! She’s awake!”

How did he know? You haven’t made any sounds since sitting at the top of the staircase, you sit back upright fast. Thinking for a moment, what should I do?

You stand up and carefully walk down the stairs, if he knows you’re awake you might as well make it look like you were not listening in on their conversation.

You take one step at a time while clinging to the railing, for some reason you’re unsteady on your feet walking down the stairs.

As you’re almost to the bottom of the stairs Taro comes over and reaches out his hand for you to take as support. “You’re awake, good!” He exclaims with a slight joy to his voice.