The Amorous Mate

Chapter 5: Fanged Creatures

“My heaven’s gracious! Why are you awake, Princess Demeter at this dire hour?”

Peering from the window found in the living room, Princess Demeter shifted her gaze to Venida. The maid was surprised when she saw the princess standing beside the windowpane, still widely awake despite the deepness of the night.

Chelsea-s***h-Princess Demeter smiled mournfully at Venida.

“Hi, Venida.”

“You should have been sleeping, your Grace!”

“Ah, no, I can’t. Y’know, things like sadness makes you not sleep at times? I am mourning, Venida. I am terribly mourning because of my loss,” Chelsea reasoned.

Yet, interestingly, how Chelsea said those words were somehow does not fit the well. It was supposed to be genuinely sad in tone, but by the way how she inveighed, it looked as if she was only convincing herself of her mourns and griefs.

“Goodness gracious, our Princess is in terrible grief!” Yet, Venida does not seem to sense the Princess’ tone. Instead she mournfully exclaimed.

“Yeah, Venida, I am in TERRIBLE grief right now!” Chelsea added. She even emphasized the word ‘terrible’ by elongating how it was pronounced. Along with a roll of her eyes, she sighed. Her servant Venida must be blind or a fool. Still, she did not sense the Princess’ sarcasm between those words.

“I must put the kettle on the stove. I am sure you are needing a tea to calm your nerves at this very . . . deep night, your Grace,” Venida suggested.

Not waiting for Princess Demeter’s please, she already rushed to the kitchen. She would light the stove.

“Oh yes please, Venida, I’ll be glad to share a tea with you!” Chelsea yelled, in hope that Venida could still hear her.

Then, when Chelsea was certain that Venida was already occupied into heating the kettle for tea, she scoffed, irritated. She looked back to the tattersall and started wandering her gaze off to the dark night. From her mood, she madly clicked her tongue.

“You know what, Demeter, you’re one big, sensitive cry-baby,” she said to herself. Or maybe, to the real Demeter that was supposed to be inhabiting the vessel Chelsea is trapped now. “Yes, I know that I am inside your body. Unfortunately. But why must I also be affected by your sorrows? Why do I have the urge to cry and feel sorrowful and mourn to someone I never knew nor met in my life?! Why would I need to feel that despair, when I don’t even know who are those people who have just died? I get it, yes, I am inside your body, and those were your emotions, not mine. You love them, yes, because those are your father and your brother. But why would I need to be affected from their death as well?!”

Chelsea could not sleep. Since the start she has learnt about the news of the King and the Crowned Prince’s passing, the sense of being sleepy hasn’t inhabited her soul. Not even when the night was already in its growling deep. She tried so hard to sleep, but her chest was only feeling nothing, but troubled. Tears has been tripping off from her eyes as well without her permission. She was unconsciously crying. She has been unconsciously feeling the pain that is tormenting her chest. And damn it, she could not do anything to resolve the pain.

Until she gave up, and finally decided to let the awakening tears and sorrows linger through her soul. She knew she was not entitled to have tonight’s decent sleep. She got out of her room, went to the mansion's caller's space, and beside the window, she sat for hours.

Frustrated, she brushed the reddening bother that was forming on her cheeks. She sighed, and then she closed her eyes.

“Gosh, what kind of trouble am I in?”

**

“I know that you are in your mourning phase, your Grace. Everyone was saddened. They felt burdened when they also learned the news that our king and the future king has … passed. It is a news no one would quickly believe in, for it is painful.”

“It is,” Chelsea said. She sipped on her teacup, then vainly stared at the window where the darkness of the night was displayed. “It is dreadful.”

‘Even though I shouldn’t be, Duhh,' Chelsea thought.

“But I must remind you, Princess. Just in case you forgot. Despite our mourning, never think of going outside our abode alone, now that the sun has still not risen yet,” warned Venida. She too sipped a warm tea filled in her cup as she shared with what the Princess was staring.

Because of her warning, Chelsea’s forehead craved curious.

“Why?” she asked.

Venida looked at her suspiciously. Then she looked back at the darkness of the night as she sipped tea from her cup.

“Everyone in the kingdom, even the children knew the reason why, your Grace,” Venida answered.

“But I don’t,” Chelsea threw back.

Venida sighed, and then, with obligation, she answered; “because of . . . morbid creatures. Of pack of dreadful fangs. Werewolves, I say.”

Hearing the familiar word, Werewolves, Chelsea gasped in disbelief. Yet, soon after, she tried her best to suppress the laugh wanting to escape from her mouth.

“But Venida, Werewolves are just myths! They’re not true. Those creatures are only a product of people’s screw-loosed imaginations. Are you nuts?”

“Oh, your Grace. Have you, among anyone, have forgotten that they are real?” Venida contradicted.

“They are not.”

“They are.”

“They aren’t. Dude, just stop!” Chelsea argued.

“Then respectfully arguing with you, your Grace, might you explain the royal army’s specialized class of werewolf hunters? Might you explain the rampant death of people on the peripheries of our country, hearts and flesh were rabidly ripped? Might you explain the dead bodies of wolf-like creatures we personally saw hanging at the city’s square, killed by those hunters? I cannot understand you somehow, your Grace. Among everyone, you are the most believer of that creatures because you were personally attacked by them. Have you as well forgot it, your Grace? When you were still an innocent child? Everyone in the kingdom knows the story. And then … here you are, telling my humble self that they are not real. What is the problem, your Grace?”

Venida’s long litany has made Chelsea to step back and lose words for rebut.

“I . . . uhm . . .”

The far sound of the roosters started greeting the morning that was to come. Outside, the darkness was not in its plague anymore. It was slowly receding. The trees were now seen made from the bluish-dark aura of the morning. The dawn is about to come.

Now from the far distance, both Princess Demeter and Venida heard distant neighs of horses.

“The Royal Guards must be coming, your Grace. We need to prepare now. Wait about a minute for I will prepare you a soothing bathe. Even we are in cri de coeur, you still need to look exquisitely beautiful and fresh.”

“Wh-Where are we going?” Chelsea asked.

“Have you forgotten, your Grace? I have told you yesterday. You are going to the palace. We will have to attend the King and the Crown Prince’s burial.”

‘Oh s**t, I see. Here comes a bigger problem,' Chelsea thought.