The Game of Time and Crown

Sixteen

I gripped my arm. Fortunately, the wound was covered by the cloak so Darius cannot see it.

I don't even want to be a liability. What if he leaves me here?

I winced every time the horse take a step since we swerve above it. I could smell the blood that already dried up and the heat of the sun is not even helping at all. But since the terrain becomes rocky since we are heading straight to the north.

It actually makes me feel a lot better when I see rocks and green grasses, even just a few. Because I have been in the dessert for a long time and I swear, If I had stayed there for another day, I would have gone crazy. I cannot see anything but endless brown sand.

My stomach rumbles from the thought of Napa's wife cooking. That is the last homemade and decent food I have tasted and eaten. I remembered Darius telling me it would take a month to get to the north.

"I don't think I could survive that long without losing my sanity," I whispered unconsciously.

"You will," Darius answered.

"We're just gonna travel and walk and stop if there's a house or somewhere we can rent, hopefull without tugs in it and eat fruits and vegetables. I miss cooked food," I complain.

"Oh come on, the north offers great variety of their soups and they have a lot of animals we can eat. Be patient."

"How can I be patient when you just said foods in front of a hungry person."

He chuckled.

"I know you're hungry because you keep on rebating, " he laughed.

He stop by one of the stones and tied the horse in a sharp edge before sitting in the shade.

"Don't tell me we're going to eat a dry bread again?"

"Do you have ang other options?"

I shook my head and stomped my feet.

"I know I should be grateful but I've been eating this for three days! I lost my sense of taste already!" I yelled.

"We can't eat the ones that have long period of

perish so we must consume the perishable first."

He broke one bread and handed the big part to me.

"I'm not walking till tommorow, right?"

"The horse is resting so no one's walking," he assured me.

"Then why did you gave the big chunk?"

He raised his eyebrow in annoyance.

"Then we should exchange." He grabbed my bread but I turned it away from him.

"No way!"

"That's what I thought. Stop complaining. My ears are about to bleed."

I scoffed and started to eat. I know I sounded so brat and ungrateful but I really don't know what is happening to me. I can't even think that I will be in this same situation for over a month. I need to taste some real and cooked and warm food or I will end up getting insane.

"Is it not okay if we just stayed in the pub for a few days?"

"Can you pay more?"

I groaned.

Yeah, right. I totally forgot that the place was not even free and it's even overpriced. There were not even food in there, just bread and liquor and lota of noises coming from everyone outside.

Plus, the men who look like they are not going to do anything right in their lives.

"You ever been here before?" I asked him.

He shook his head.

"But how do you know how to get there?" I worriedly asked.

"That country is well known and father have once visited it. He had maps of it in the room and I always looked at it."

"When was the last time you saw it?"

"Just before the accident. I was in father's room," he said.

"You don't have to worry, I know my way," he smirked.

We continued eating and as the sun sets, Darius decided to pick the part behind the rock and assembled the so called tent in there so we can sleep.

We made ourselves comfortable as I shiver in the cold breeze.

"Can I have your scarf?"

He looked at me.

"No. I'm using it." He unravel the scarf and used it as his blanket.

My eyes blurred in anger and frustration but instead of venting it out on him and shouting at him, i just turn my back and cuddled myself in a fetus position to lessen the coldness I could feel. An hour passed and I can already feel my eyes being heavy. When I was about to fall asleep,

I felt a warm heavy thing enveloped my arms up until my thighs.

Is that his scarf?

I didn't move because I was too sleepy to do so and I don't want him to get his scarf back thinking I was trying to fool or test him.

As I drifted off to sleep, I see the same recurring dreams. The hanging scene. But only now that I get to turn and tried to find the one who purposely shot an arrow to the knot, setting me free.

But as I tried to walk to him closer, he became more and more blurred to the the point where I can't even see him anymore.

I woke up to Darius' voice calling up my name and trying to wake me up. The sun is already our and set high but since the weather is a bit cooler than when we are on the dessert, it doesn't hurt much on the skin.

When I tried to check on the scarf, it was no longer here in my arms but it was already wrapped in his neck.

Am I dreaming?

I looked arouns and saw the the terrain of the trail are already far from what I have seen in ghe dessert and that comforted me a bit. But as I look into it, I also realized one thing.

"They are going ti come after us now," I whispered.

Darius seems to hear it and told me that he have a hunch that if they stayed one more night at Napa's house we would have been caught and the village would be burn down because they have sheltered a wanted person.

"Do you think the people in the village know that by now?" I asked him

He shrugged but replied.

"I think someone will be knocking on their doors and asking but the palace will never reveal our names. It will cause panic among the country. "

"Panic? But we're wanted. Everyone must be aware of us."

"If the insides of the palace are under deep mourning and there is an issue of betrayal inside the family the people will view it as the crumbling of the country." He explains.

"If the inside of the palace is not in order it will affect the people and will pose a threat for other countries to attack."

I nodded and tried to absorb all the information he just told me.

Since the weather is not scorching hot we both decided to let the horse rest and we will just walk all day taking rest in between and during lunch. During rests, i always tries to feel and check my body if I am okay and not feeling any signs of dementia or anything that is cause by trauma or stress. Those little signs could mean everything and this is not the best time to be insane.

"Do you think if they captured us they will feed us before imprisonment?"

"No."

"You don't have last mea--"

"We'll die here or we will be hanged."

Hanging?

Flashes of images hunt my mind as I remember my recurring dreams playing over and over again at my head. I tried to supress them and luckily, after a few seconds, they are just gone.

We stopped on a shade to get rest and drink some water and I immediatelt noticed something. We only have four bags of water and there's only two left.

"Where can we get another?" I asked in a very co concerned tone.

"Hopefully there will be another village in there since the climate here is much better there will be a lot of people choosing to reside here," he said.

"Hopefully?"

He sighed.

"There will be. I promise." He tapped my head.

I looked at him. He was so far from how I viewed him before and how I created his images in my head. And he looks so different right now. He doesn't have that cape or a good slipper. The only thing he had kept is the dagger and his scarf which I think is the only thing left for him to remember his identity.

I don't even know if he even wanted to remember it. He never really talks about anything at all.

When we started to walk again, he lets me ride the horse this time but continued to remind me that I have to get down before the sun sets so the horse will have more time to rest and always say that under no circumstances that he is my servant.

Nyenye.

I continued to mock him inside my head creating scenarios such as him tripping in a rock and screaming like a girl cheerleader and that made me laugh so hard that I was the one who almost fell on the horse. He looked at me weirdly and when the sun sets, we found another big rock with a tree beside it which is obviously a miracle.

I lay down beside and under the tree taking one of the empty bags as my pillow.

Darius started a fire, for the first time since this is the only chance we had the resources such as rocks and dried leaves and branches.

"We can cook!" I yelled in excitement.

Darius looked at me like I am being weird but I ignored him.

I picked up the other bag that has the food in it and found tomatoes. My eyes gleam in delight but then it faded when I realized that we only had two bags of water left.

Darius seem to take notice of my reaction and handed me the other bag.

"You can use it."

"But we don't have any left," I compell.

"If there will be no households nearby I'm sure we can make it to the river. We will pass through there tomorrow morning."

I gladly took the water bag and poured half of it on a steel pot that I didn't knew Darius even got from Napa's house. I put the tomatoes in it and slightly mashed it before putting a green vegetable which I don't know what is but since it smelled good I decided we could use it on the cooking.

When the water was already boiling I removed the pot from the fire and let it cool before going to take the two empty bags of water bag and pouring it there since we don't have any utensils.

I feel like my mind is going insane so I sat down and started to eat the 'soup' that I made and as soon as the warm liquid hits my throat I could only just scream.

I'm still human.

I ate the soup so slowly just to make sure I don't miss anything out but when I looked at Darius, he's already finished!

"How was it?"

"Edible." he shortly replied.

My face turned sour and my eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

"What? How dare you!" I shouted at him.

"It was okay."

"It's delicious, you idiot!"

He seems to not mind me calling him names but instead he just smirked and lie down to sleep.

I looked at him and shook my head before finding my spot lie on. We left the fire open so throughout the night, there was this warm feeling and a little bit of light until the sun rises again.

I looked out only to find the sun is up already. I turn to Darius who is still asleep and that is unusual because he usually wakes up before me. Since it was still at least five in the morning, I decided to just lie down.

I wonder if I will make it to the north.