Chapter 166 - Empathy (Part 1)

Xendros did not want Prince Faestien to go yet. He fears that after this, after he goes back to the castle...

He will just be a dream to him.

A dream that will be forgotten and fade away, like a ghost that had finally passed, and can only become lonely in the afterlife after being forcefully exorcised.

He has such strong fear of being forgotten by him..... Why is that?

He does not want him to go yet..... He does not want everything that happened, though may be insignificant to an outsider's eye, to fall apart just like that. There wasn't anything memorable about him to maintain a place in someone as important as Prince Faestien. There wasn't anything that happened to them either that will be a lasting memory for anyone.

After all, it had only been two weeks of knowing each other. Two weeks. It went by so fast.

Whatever it was between hem, this thing that could not be called friendship, but just mere inexplicable affection... It remains a sapling that was only planted inside his heart and tended with minimal care, while the one in Prince Faestien's heart remains unknown. If it even exists inside him, if it had already grown far taller and bigger than the little sprout he has. Still....

His mind wants to trample it, while his heart wants to keep it growing.

Watching him sleep. Talking. Eating together. Smiling. Simple. Little. 

Yet he still wants to hold on to that tiny, fragile little thing.

Still, the further that carriage went, the more that tiny little flower withers, the edges turning dark, drooping lightly to the side....

"Brother Xendros."

His tiny flower got frazzled a little when Brother Maelle's voice suddenly called out from behind him. He turned, and saw that this fellow priest was in such a frantic state that there was even a bit of flying strands of hair, going off to no single direction. His eyes were wide and bloodshot.

He blinked. "Brother Maelle, what's the matter? I just bid farewell to Prince Faestien,as he had excused himself to return to Ilvedia before us for our sake. He also gave you his last regards, saying---'

"Brother Xendros, we have no time. Take as much pare money as you can and let us buy a horse to follow after him." Maelle swished that shawl draping over his shoulder as he went inside to pack his things, running at the stairs with his feet going with fast tap! tap! tap!

Xendros was even more confused, but followed as he said. Actually, his heart rejoices. He does not know what the reason behind this sudden change of plans is, but this would mean that he would see Prince Faestien again... They would not be apart for so long as to be forgotten by him.

They hurriedly took all their things inside their bags, and paid their total fee to the innkeeper who was still sleepy-eyed on his desk, shocked to see this young men going so soon without an earlier notice. Still, business is business, and he don't really have any reasons to call out and make them stay, and so he only gave a lazy wave as they made their way out of his establishment, slamming the door as they went on a rush!

Maelle is a native in this area after all, so he knows where he could buy a steed. They brought a chestnut stallion with a white mane for thirty Casiers, and rode on its back, hoisting themselves up by the stirrup. 

"You know how to ride a horse, Brother Maelle?" Xendros asked. He is not really afraid, but this is a new experience and so there is still that burst of adrenaline upon first sitting on a saddle behind the Crescentian priest that took the reins.

"I do. I've been riding them all my life." He replied plainly as he flicked the reins. "Giddy up!"

Xendors was amazed by this revelation, and if it was Prince Faestien instead that was behind him, he would have already fawned over this prince-like priest. After all, there is nothing more princely in floral novels than being able to ride horses, fence or joust, and look attractive even with just brooding and staring at the distance. 

This was indeed what he thought when he saw them catching up to his rickety carriage. He had been driving not too fast and not too slow, meandering and daydreaming about his future plans for Xendros and Maelle. Comparing notes with the svetochny books he read, as well as the philosopher speeches he witness, listened too or consumed from fine print in libraries.

He was caught unawares so his only reaction was a genuine, "Eh?"

He saw the clip-clopping horse almost overtaking his easy-going carriage, and could help but have a smile escape his lips and little. This is certainly something someone as cunning as him had never expected. And especially that it was Maelle manning the reins and not Xendros. If it was just Xendros going after him, he would have only been mildly yet pleasantly surprised.

But Maelle swept him off his feet!

"What made you follow me, Brothers?" He asked the two priest. "I thought it would be best for us not to arrive at Ilvedia at the same time, yet why are you here?"

"Little prince, get off the carriage right now!" Maelle exclaimed, his eyebrows meeting together and the veins of his forehead and neck almost popping. 

"Why?" Prince Faestien yelled back, chuckling. "I do not understand! And won't you two slow down a little?"

"I agree with the priest, Brother Maelle. Why are we still rushing? I don't understand what we are doing as well!" Xendros shouted behind him, against the loud wind passing by their ears due to their speed.

"It's coming after us! Little prince, quicken your pace or so help me and jump!"

'It' is coming after them? What is 'it'?

He turned around, and there was nothing behind him. Just the red walls of Crescentia and thicket of trees that becomes smaller the farther thy go down this road in the forest. They had already went pace calm and peaceful fields, and was now in the domain of the woods that intermigled with several areas of the Thirteen Kingdoms.

But even so, even in this nothingness, he also felt a strike of excitement and thrill in his veins, like he really as being chased by something nefarious. He followed the prince's words and hitched the reins, his eyes crescent-shaped from too much-smiling and laughing, like a child enjoying himself as he had swung himself too hard back and forth while hanging on a tree, and expecting to lose grip and free fall soon.

Xendros was not as thrilled as him by the prospect of being in danger. He instead tightened his grip as the stallion went faster and faster, threatening to throw the riders from its back from too much acceleration!

"Brother Maelle, what is following us-----"

But before he could finish asking, his mouth was instead invaded by water!

"Urpfh!"

They were drowning!

They were just riding off to the woods, and now they are at the sea, their breaths being taken away by the endless and cold blue. Trying to take its way inside them and overpower them, becoming one with them.

He looked around, swimming in wild directions, just kicking and pushing through the water they had found themselves deeply encased in. Everything above is blue, everything below is blue. To the left is blue, to the right is blue. The blue reminds him of Prince Faestien........

And sure enough, he found him.

The first person he found was Prince Faestien and he immediately waded beside him. The Ilvedian prince's eyes were closed. He held him close, but he could not speak and could only hold his breath, as if he did open his mouth, only bubbles would come out.

He instead gently shook him, but there was no response. And so, all he could do is embrace him, and take him in his large arms before he swim again to look for Maelle. He seems to have realized that in these waters, what he seeks appears, and so he concentrated all his will for his fellow priest and friend.

And in the distance, there he was. But......

Seeweed wrap around his unconscious body, and the water around him is slightly red. He was wounded with hundreds or thousands small cuts. Behind him, another large seaweed is aiming to go for his neck.....

And Xendros hurriedly went to take him away before it could latch itself and possibly choke or behead the sleeping Maelle!

He then wished for a way to break them out into the surface, a way to escape these endless waters. Carrying two men in his arms, one on each side, he had managed to push through just by his strong desire and will...

And soon, they found themselves on the sandy beach.

"Cough! Cough!" He spat out the water, his voice feeling weak and strained. He lay down on his stomach, exhausted with Faesten and Maelle on his side.

That is only when he noticed that he is surrounded by grinded emerald.

Thousands and thousands of emeralds, so small and fine like grains of sand, making up the beach. When he looked up to see the verdant sun and skies, he was greeted by these words.

"Greetings, children."

A tall dragonfly loomed before them.