THE NOBLEMEN

Centuries ago,

After her recovery, she resumed her training with her daggers very early in the morning.

The only reason she persisted was because Prince Kamaz had made sure to avoid anything that had to do with her and suddenly Falkur was his attendant.

She should be happy, joyous even because she would not have to keep up with his endless tasks and detailed errands but instead, she felt terrible.

Terrible because before she came to the Palace when others said negative things about the Fifth Prince, she was indifferent. She knew better now.

Prince Kamaz might be reserved because of issues best known to him, but she could tell and had seen that beneath that cold exterior, he shows, is a kind heart.

Because she had to be with him most of the time, she had followed him to feed stray cats and dogs in the dead of the night and for the beggars in the central region, who, for whatever reasons, were forced to live in the streets, he anonymously provided meals and finance for shelter.

Some people rumored that it was the Queen’s son who was the mysterious man that sent them aids regularly, but now she knows that wasn't true, and if anyone is to speak badly about him, she would willingly stand up for him.

She was trying to seek ways that could make Lord Kamaz notice her again.

The last time they had trained, she had learned more than she had when it was her father who was her trainer.

For more than two hours, she repeated the exercises he had emphasized but Kamaz did not show up like he used to.

When it was time for his bath, she found out that Falkur had made everything available.

Falkur stood at the door to Kamaz's bath area, preventing Zelda from going in.

“I'm healed properly Falkur. I can handle a task as simple as a massage." Zelda pressed as she tried to walk past Falkur.

Falkur stood before her. “Prince Kamaz doesn't want you to go. It will be wise if you leave now.”

She wanted to press on but she decided to turn away…infuriated and confused.

She is the one who should be fleeing from the Prince, but instead, he is the one treating her like a plague is upon her.

What took the crown of her worries was when she saw his horse and that of Falkur's going to the mountain less than an hour later.

She could not believe that he had gone to the mountain without her. Out of concern that Kamaz's unsteady beast could come alive again, she strapped her Pipa behind her and decided to go after him.

She could not ride a horse after them because she was still scared and instead, she decided to walk. She dragged herself along the path she had become conversant with, gradually and gradually.

After a while, her knees began to ache as the sun burned scorchingly on her back.

She got to one of the fields that served as a route to the mountain, and suddenly, a group of men riding on their horses rode toward where she was.

“Hoi, do you need help?" One of them asked as he slowed to ride beside her.

She shook her head in the negative. She could not even bring herself to talk because her mouth was parched and she was saving the water in her gourd for when she would reach the mountain - whose terrain was more tedious.

"Where are you journeying to?” Another whom she had not taken note of asked from her other side.

More men on their horses rode past them, neglecting the Noblemen of the Velin and Terrah households. No one wanted to take chances with them, for they knew how cruel and cunning these men were.

The guards of these men rode behind them as they watched their Lords conversing with a girl whose clothes seemed like had swept the whole of Zoah Kingdom.

Zelda finally stopped walking. “I need to get to that mountain," She told them as she pointed at the mountain that was still a good distance away.

“Alright then. Get on my horse" The first Nobleman said as he stretched forth his hand to her. He gave a knowing look to the other Nobleman and a big smile stretched the fellow's lips. Zelda mounted the horse and sat behind him without suspicion and they rode away.

*************************

“Lord Kamaz, I'm sorry to inappropriately disrupt the quiet time you must be having, but…it's about Zelda,” Falkur said hurriedly to Lord Kamaz a few minutes after they had arrived from their training.

"Tell her to turn away from here.

You will serve me dinner, and as it is a starry night, I'll have it in the eastern garden,” Kamaz said, ready to quickly dismiss Falkur.

He was standing beside his huge window -curtains parted and tranquility receiving - when Falkur had knocked to make another comment about Zelda.

Over the past few days since he had been avoiding Zelda and Falkur had been pouring his questions and chipping his unnecessary side comments, Kamaz had thought more than a hundred times if saving Falkur from those armed thieves was the wise thing to have been done.

“It isn't that My Lord. Zelda isn't in her room." Falkur blurted. Kamaz's ears perked, and he turned slightly sideways.

“She could be somewhere in the Palace. Do not try to say something about her to my ears before I cut off your tongue and feed it to you,” Kamaz warned.

Even though a negative sensation was staged at the corner of his mind he tried to suppress it.

"She also isn't anywhere in the Palace My Lord." This got Kamaz's full attention, and he fully turned towards Falkur.

“I had to ask the general maids if they had seen her and most of them had not. The only person who had seen her was one of the Palace guards who had seen her racing after our horses when we were headed for the mountain.

And I remembered…remembered when we were passing the route that leads north, and one of the guards of a Nobleman had been talking about a girl that his master had picked from the field..”

Kamaz did not wait to hear more.

One second, he was in his room, thinking of further ways to ensure that his new maid, who had suddenly started to gain his attention, remained at arm’s length, and the next…

Riding into the setting sun.