The Bald Princess

~Seventeen~

Some days you make me want to take you to the moon and hold you by your waist, sway you around on the beats of our heart and look into your eyes until you don't realise how beautiful you were always to me, dame.

Atarah

'You're my soulmate.' His words echoed in my mind like a boomerang, hitting me harshly back and forth. His words whacked me around my face, like a slap or maybe a gentle tap, I didn't knew. Never in my life, I ever imagined to hear the words that had escaped his mouth, that I would also be someone's better half, someone's soulmate.

"What do you mean by I am your soulmate, Warrior Duncan?" I asked, my voice sounded like so squeaky, scared but his eyes— they were so soft, for the very first time. It was one of those rare moments, Warrior Duncan wasn't on his guard, wasn't as cold as the ice but he looked so gentle that day, like a rose which had its own thorns but its petals were as soft as the velvet. Sweet pain.

"You and I share a bond that's beyond any reason and understanding, healer. Despite knowing my reality, you're standing here with me, why do you think, healer? It's our bond— it comforts you. My aura may be as dark as the night but our bond will always provide us light." He explained and I gulped. What he said sounded so...... unreal. I was always looked down upon. People always feared for the person I'll choose.

'She will bring him the catastrophe.' They had always said and at a point of my life, I stopped expecting my life to give me oranges instead of lemons.

My whole life had been sour.

"It's very brave of you, Warrior Duncan to believe that I am your soulmate." I said and he rose one of his brows, looking at me with his intense gaze.

"I don't believe that was a compliment, healer." His voice passed chills down my spine. I swallowed my saliva down, sighing as I looked at the sun shining above us. "Why would you say that, healer?"

His question made me smile. How can he expect me to accept everything he had just thrown at me? I am a woman who had decided long ago not to love anybody. I was finally accepting that being alone is not always a bane. I was finally accepting everything but his one statement made my world to shake.

"Will you be okay walking beside a girl, everyone think is a cursed witch? Won't you be ashamed of me as your better half, Warrior Duncan? Look at me. I don't have any hair on my scalp, I don't have eyebrows. I am insecure. You don't want your soulmate to be like me. A bald, cursed and insecure woman." I said and something dangerous flashed in his eyes before he closed them as he took a few deep breaths. He was calming himself down.

"I am looking at you, healer." He said as he opened his eyes to look into my soul. His eyes held me in place, like a spell they caged me in his dark, unforgiving but gorgeous eyes. He was a beautiful creature, a really beautiful creature. I had never seen someone as beautiful as him.

"And what do you see?" I asked him softly, my voice small but shaky and I saw his lips twitching at my question. He took a step forward, making me gulp. He was walking closer to me. His eyes had already ripped me of my privacy but the physical distance amid us kept us apart safely.

"It's hard to explain, healer. Do you even know how you look like?" He suddenly asked and I froze. I don't remember how I look. I had forgotten how I actually looked. It's been years since I last saw myself. But I knew I was ugly. My only pride— my hair were missing. I quickly looked away from him as embarrassment seeped my skin into my bones and then blended in my blood. I was embarrassed. I don't even remember how I look but do I really need to know? Especially when I knew I was hideous?

His eyes widened as realization hit him. As he heard my thoughts, astonishment hit him like a truck as he looked at me like I had grown two heads.

"You don't remember how you look?" He asked, his voice heavy with anger and pain. He sounded angry. But pain never left his voice, something I never understood. Why would my pain hurt him?

"It's sometimes better to forget how you look than remember how hideous you are, Warrior Duncan. It's hard for you to understand but so much easier for me to forget my hideous features." I said with a smile as tears welled up in my eyes. But I never let them fall.

"You hate yourself, healer." He said, making me chuckle as I took a few steps away from him. This was the most I could converse with him right now.

Everything was just so overwhelming. Having to confess how I hate myself was heartbreaking enough. Asking him to not accept me was scary enough. The bond we shared was something, I never understood but a part of me knew everything so well. Every time Warrior Duncan looked at me, a part of me always got so excited while another part asked me to run. I was at war with myself.

"You accept so much in your head, healer. Then why fear to voice it out?" He asked after a long period of silence. I turned to look at him, this Warrior Ansel Duncan was so different to the Ansel Duncan I had met the very first time.

"Because a person is always honest with themselves, Warrior Duncan. I may not be able to answer you in ways you desire but my mind will never leave you without an answer." I said with a laughter, shaking my head. "I need to see my patients now, Sir. I shall leave now."

~~~~~~~

"Fuji told me I had superpowers." A nine year old girl cried out in pain and I looked at her sympathetically. I could not entirely blame her. She was just nine years old. And like every nine year old, Yuri too was taken by her naive childhood.

She had broken a few bones, two ribs and got her knees injured.

"But you shouldn't have jumped down from a two storey building, child." I explained her gently as I wiped the blood from knees and the nine year old Yuri glared at me, shaking her head. This is the thing with kids. They are really stubborn.

"But Fuji said, I can fly! She asked me to jump down the building and check my powers. And Fuji is never wrong. Fuji says I have grey wings, that I'm an angel. Can you see them?" She asked the last question really hopefully, making me chuckle softly as I gently wrapped the bandage around her wounds.

"Not all angles have wings to fly, kid. Some have ambitions too high that can make them fly, higher than other wings. So, do not jump from a two storey building again to test your wings, okay?" I said and she furrowed her eyebrows at me, wiping her tears. She was a brave kid.

"How else can I fly then, doctor?" She asked and I looked at her, pulling my mask down as I removed my mask and gloves, throwing them into a tray as I filled a cup with water and removed a pill from the bottle before pushing my open palm towards her.

"When someone will smile because of you, Yuri, you fly automatically."

"How?" She asked again and I squatted down to her level.

"Have this medicine and I will tell you how." I said and she pouted as she wrinkled her nose at the pill in my hand.

"They taste bad, doctor. Yuri only like sweet dishes." She said and I chuckled, pulling a tray out, filled with fruit cakes, I always had for the kids.

"But they taste nice." I said, motioning towards the pieces of the cakes kept in the tray and her mouth parted as she gaped at the cakes in front of her. "If you will take the medicine, I'll give you a piece."

"I want two." She argued and I shook my head, looking at her with a gentle smile.

"No, child. There is one cake piece for every patient. If I'll give you two, another kid won't get one." I explained her and she made an O from her mouth as she quietly took the pill from my hand and swallowed it down with water before she took a piece of cake from the tray and took a bite of it.

I smiled at her as I wrote the prescription down on the paper as I walked out to Yuri's parents, who were waiting anxiously outside the operation theatre. I smiled at them as I gave them the prescription letter and a few medicines we had in stock. They walked inside the operation theatre and took a sigh of relief as soon as they saw Yuri playing with play toy.

"Your fees, Madame?" Yuri's mother asked as she wiped her tears, looking at her daughter with a teary smile on her face and I rose my brows at her as an impish smile formed on my face.

"Get Yuri a pair of wings to fly. And a few pieces of fruit cakes too. Do you need anything else too, Yuri?" I asked my little patient, who looked up from her playtoy and shrugged her shoulders before looking back at her toy.

"We are sorry— what?" Yuri's parents asked in unison and I laughed, shaking my head as I pointed towards the board on the left.

"FREE TREATMENT FOR ALL. You don't have to pay me any fees, Ma'am. I'll have to keep your daughter one more day into observation before I can actually give her the discharge. One of you can stay with her." I said and they nodded their head and looked at me with tears pooling their eyes. Yuri's mother cupped my palms as she placed her forehead against my hands as I felt the wetness of her tears on my hands.

"Thank you, Ma'am. I don't know how can I ever pay you for treating my daughter even after knowing we can't really pay you. I have heard so much about you and none of them are true. You're a really great person, Doctor. A person who save lives of many can't be cursed. In fact, you're blessed, Madame. You're blessed to treat others." She said and after years of practicing in medical field, I felt people were finally acknowledging me beyond my baldness. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat as I shook my head, looking at her with a soft smile.

"You don't have to be thankful to me, Ma'am. Saving life is my profession and responsibility too. It's your daughter who is really brave. Even after getting so many injuries, she was smiling. She is one strong girl." I said and Yuri's mother smiled, looking at her daughter.

"She is, doctor. Yuri is a very strong girl. But it's just that she had been reading quite a many books nowadays. And jumped down the building thinking even she has the superpowers like those protagonists." I blinked at her words. She jumped down after reading a book? But that's not what Yuri said to me.

"Oh?" I laughed nervously as I looked at Yuri playing with her horse toy. Something didn't feel right.

Yuri told me someone named Fuji told her that she is an angel with supernatural powers and has some grey color wings and should jump down. But Yuri's mother just told me she jumped down after getting inspired from a book? And as much as I knew barely twenty percentage of our population was literate.

"Oh, by the way, who is Fuji, Ma'am?" I asked Yuri's mother and she pushed her eyebrows together as she looked at me in confusion.

"I am Fuji. That's my name. Why do you ask, doctor?" Yuri's mother— Fuji asked me and I froze. She asked her daughter to jump down from a two storey building!? But why?

"Oh, nothing. She was just calling for you while I was treating her." I lied.