The Bald Princess

~Thirteen~

Some days I feel, I am not worthy of your love and some days I feel, you deserve someone better but some days I feel, there's no one in this whole world who could have ever loved you like I did.

Atarah

I looked at the man with his broken arm. He was crying. His eyes could no longer keep his tears in and his strong man composure broke down. I sighed as I filled the syringe with the numbing potion before looking at him firmly, a doctor like expression. I hardly ever was authoritative, I was the one who always followed the rules. Having authority wasn't something I was used to.

"If you won't co-operate, Sir, I would have to ask my colleague to hold you down while I inject you with the medicine." I warned him, looking down at him firmly and he shook his head, a look of fear crossing his face before he clenched his jaw.

"I told you, I don't need any anesthesia, doctor. It's not even paining me as much." He said with a scoff and I rose my brows at him, looking down at him with a sigh. He was literally bawling out in pain.

"I am the doctor here, Sir. I know what you need and how much you need, Sir. Please let me do my work. You won't even let me touch your arm and you say, you're not feeling any pain." I deadpanned, my patience running thin. I have been getting easily angry, these days.

'I wonder why.' A voice inside me mocked and I sighed.

"I won't lose my consciousness, right?" He asked, looking at me warily and I closed my eyes before I smiled at him gently. He was in pain. He was panicking and that was alright. Very normal.

"No, Sir. You just won't feel your arm for an hour or two." I said and his eyes widened for the third time as he immediately jerked his arm back but ended up hurting himself even more. I let out another sigh.

"Bailey, I need your help, child." I called her out and she walked in a minute and two later with the injection and her mask on. She looked fresh that day. Happy, even. Like a bird who had finally been able to build her own nest after living in a cage for months. She looked wild. Happy but wild.

"Please lie down, Sir. It would hardly feel like a pinch." Bailey assured him as she held his arm from one side as I held him from the other and injected him with the medicine, making him let out a choked scream.

I thanked Bailey before starting to work on his broken arm. His bone had slightly poked out of his flesh from the fall. He had fallen down from the hills or clif, I wasn't sure. Some say, he had seen a creature, too blood thirsty and ran to save his life but fell down in process. Some say, he saw the creatures and they pushed him down the cliff.

Only he knew what was the truth. But he was too scared to say it out loud. When I was done mending his wounds, I pulled the curtain off and looked at him with a soft and kind smile.

"We are done, Sir. How do you feel?" I asked, removing my gloves and mask off and he licked his lips, his eyes blinking rapidly as he nodded his head.

"I barely felt anything, doctor. Thank you. I am feeling thirsty. Can I get some water?" He asked and I looked at the old clock hanging on the wall as I shook my head.

"After forty minutes. I'll send you a glass of water and a few fruits to eat. If you feel nauseous please give me a call, I would be near, looking at other patients, okay?" I said and he blinked his eyes, taken aback.

"Fruits?" He asked astonished and I nodded my head in confusion. "But I don't have enough money to even afford the operation, you just perfomed. Please......"

"You don't need to pay me anything, Sir. Treatment here is completely free for everyone. Please do not stress yourself out for bills or payment. Please take some rest now, I'll visit you again in forty minutes." I said and he blinked his eyes again.

"Doctor," He called me out when I took a few steps away from him and I turned around, looking at him with my questioning gaze.

"Do you need something?" I asked softly and he shook his head.

"The royals are mistaken, doctor, for thinking bad and evil of you. How can someone like you be cursed when you are a form of God, yourself?" He asked gently and my heart clenched anxiously inside my chest. Me? A form of God? That's ridiculous.

'That's not ridiculous, healer, it's far by the most truthful thing you would've ever heard about yourself. You are not cursed.' A familiar voice echoed in my head painfully and I almost stumbled back at the pressure in my head.

Why did I hear Warrior Duncan's voice in my mind? Was he again playing tricks on me? First reading my mind, increasing the size of his canines to scare me and now speaking in my mind when he wasn't even near me. What the hell did he want?

I stayed silent for a few seconds, waiting for his voice to again echo in my mind but it didn't happen. He didn't speak anything again for a very long time.

"Doctor, are you okay? You look..... pale." He said, worried as I suddenly zoned out. I blinked out of my thoughts, Warrior's voice in his my head, nodding at him, feigning my polite smile.

"Oh, I'm very fine, Sir. Just a bug, not leaving my mind. Rest now. I'll see in a bit." I said, walking away from him and then I felt the similar pressure in my head.

'You wound me, healer.' His voice echoed. A weird complacent laced his voice, making me clench my fingers as a very deeper part of me fluttered, hearing his voice.

I need to know about him more. I have to.

~~~~~~

"Do you knkw what else is great about woods?" Bailey asked, placing her feet down in the wet muddy soil. I copied her and the cool soil painted my skin brown.

It wasn't until that day, that very moment, I realised, we are all a shade of brown. Some are a very light shade of brown and some, a very dark shade of brown. But brown was the very base of our skin-tone. More the melanin, more the fortune; less the melanin, lesser the venin. All our lives, we had been proud for having less melanin than others. It was akin to getting happy for having less amount of fats than others ...... which made literally no sense.

"What?" I asked softly.

"It will never make you feel that you don't belong here. Wood will always make you feel home, even when you would think of it more or less than a dangerous zone." She said, playing with the grass and I turned to look at her. Her eyes held a different level of tranquility. I looked at the sky. It was getting dark.

"Don't you feel the fear of getting attacked, Bailey?" She smiled at my question.

"This is most safest place for us, Miss Atarah. Even you come here when you feel the world is being too unfair to you, don't you?" She asked and I shrugged my shoulders, my heart beating loudly in my chest. Why does woods remind of him? Warrior Duncan?

"Maybe because humans don't come here and it's only humans, who are really a danger to another human?" I asked and she nodded in agreement before we both fell in a long period of silence. Comforting silence.

It feels like the woods unites two people, suffering from the similar pain of the world and yet carrying a smile to fool the pain, hoping that one day— one day, even this masquerade of happiness becomes a reality.

"Can I ask you for a favor, Bailey?" She turned her head towards me, nodding her head before looked at the sky again.

"Speak, Miss Atarah."

"Can you please visit the Kingdom library, situated in the countryside?" I asked and she rose one of her brows, tilting her face to the side as she nodded her head slowly.

"What do you need from the library, Miss Atarah? Any medical book?" She asked and I swallowed nervously, shaking my head. A sudden rush of fear, made me tremble.

"No. I need you to get me a book on creatures lurking in the dark. It's the edition our second King Arthur wrote on his experiences with the supernatural creatures." I said and she blinked at my choice of book. Something very dangerous flashed in her eyes before the malice in her eyes dissolved into her natural soft look. Or was the malice that often reigned her eyes was the reality she was hiding?

After all, humans were nothing but an enigma, even God couldn't solve.

"Why do you need the book on creatures, Miss Atarah?" She asked casually, though she had an edge to her voice. I blinked at her question. What do I tell her about my sudden interest in the books of supernatural creatures.

Should I tell her that Warrior Duncan can read my mind? That he even speaks in my head? And that instead of running away from him, a weird force pulls me towards him.

"Do you remember the patient who walked in with his broken arm in the infirmary today?" I asked and she nodded her head, still confused. "There's a rumour that some creatures were trying to hunt on him and some say that the creatures pushed him off the cliff. There had been a lot of news coming from the kingdom of many people being a victim of creatures' sadistic needs." I said, leaving the fact out that I, myself had seen a red eyed creature, chasing me before I trespassed Warrior Duncan's property.

"Creatures are a dangerous species, Miss Atarah." She confessed, looking straight, her face devoid of any jest or emotions. She sat there impassive. "The more you try to dig about them, the more you start attracting them. Don't get too involved, Miss Atarah before it gets too late to regret. This world is like a piece of shard, Miss Atarah, the more you step on it, the more it sinks into your flesh."

Her words, her warning didn't felt any less spooky. I gulped at her words. Was she trying to warn me or was she trying to threaten me? Because honestly, both were working just fine.

"You have lived most of your life in the woods. Have you met one of them?" I asked nervously, not liking the expression on her face, which only turned more dark and more treacherous, with every passing second.

Bailey was a sweet girl with a few moments of darkness. She was akin to that mysterious lady who somehow seemed to knew everything about the enigma of the world and told everyone about the mysteries of the world but with her own twisted and spooky riddles.

"There are a series of books, Miss Atarah. Which one do you need?" She asked instead, completely ignoring my question and I took my hint, sighing. Maybe a sensitive topic for her.

"The one you think I should read first." I said and she smiled, chuckling softly as she shook her head.

"I don't think you should read any of them, Miss Atarah. But since everything is related to Warrior Ansel Duncan, I'll get you a book of third in the series of the creatures lurking in the dark. Anything else, you want me to bring for you?"

My eyes widened when she mentioned Warrior Duncan. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, making me gulp.

"A few books on science for father. He would appreciate some new stuffs and fresh point of views of new scientists." I said in my shaky voice and she nodded her head before getting up from the ground and I followed her, knowing it was time for me to leave and for her to sleep.