I despised the darkness.

I've never tried to search the light before. All of them: the books, the paintings, and the victims of it, claimed 'love' hides in the light.

But, it seems that from the exact moment I tried searching for the light, all I came close to, was darkness. It was as if it purposefully shadowed the answers with its tresses like I was never meant to find it.

Like I didn't deserve to find it.

When my father told me I wasn't trying my best, that I wasn't following his orders and doing my duties, that I was failing, I would be blatantly lying if I said I didn't feel a strike of pain. Because all these years, all I had tried to do was fulfil my father's expectations of me. Whatever he wanted, was what I yearned to do. Everything else, even if it was something that I had wanted with my own wish, I forced myself to forget. If my father didn't want it, then it wasn't worth winning.

When he gave me an official order in front of all the kingdom's officials gathered together, stating it will be the last step I'd have to accomplish to attain the throne, to find the meaning of love, I didn't doubt him one bit. I'd always believed him, with all of my senses closed.

Until now.

Because now, I firmly believed that it wasn't my fault if I couldn't find the answer after I had tried my hardest. There was only so much I could do when the response to some questions were only supposed to reveal themselves to particular individuals.

If that individual wasn't me, I had no one to blame except the person who told me to search for an answer in the first place.

I had exited the palace quite a while ago, mentally beaten after my father's words and the outcomes of the dreadful investigation. Even that was something I believed in, but as always, when my father thought it was a meaningless venture without a viable destination, it was to be dropped.

The forest had recently become my place of comfort, not only to stare at from afar while I stood in my balcony but to also use as an escape from reality.

Especially because the female from that night hadn't departed my thoughts. I hadn't told anyone, but I unknowingly found myself visiting that river more and more over the days when getting consumed by trying to find a solution to my predicaments.

As I rode on my horse travelling deeper into the forest, not caring about where I was heading, my reveries continued, and I kept thinking about the girl I knew nothing about.

I had enough knowledge about the forests and the village women to know that no one, nonetheless females, would be daft enough to bathe in the middle of the night in an area where anything could attack.

She was indeed a living mystery and I hadn't even gotten a clear picture of her face. I wished I had paid more attention, despite the darkness, trying more, to somehow shed light on her face with the help of the Moon's rays being reflected off by the Sun.

I wished the same when I was riding through the forest, that particular day.

Because, at that exact moment, I crashed into someone, my horse's hooves slamming straight into their body.

Only then, did I realise that I had let go of my horse's reins, causing it to lose its concentration on its trail with myself.

I had never let go of the reins, ever.

I immediately got off from my horse, after making it regain its stability and calmness, prepared to apologise to the person that was probably lying on the ground with physical marks.

But, what graced my eyes next, left me, and my whole memory with more marks than the person could ever be injured with.

For the female looked painstakingly beautiful.

Dark brown ringlets of hair dressing the leaves on the ground, continuing to establish its practically endless length, even when lying in the midst of dirt, wounded. Heavy breathing became significant after, her eyes languidly but cautiously travelling up to meet mine.

Everything became magnified from then. She was the only focal point.

Her eyelashes came first. Blinking in their own pattern, a self-made rhythm, they unleashed what they must have possessively tried to conceal with what was left of their dignity as her eyelids had already sacrificed the position of the treasure that was her actual eyes.

Her dark brown pupils, nearly black, must have dilated, but all I could see was the blooming of a flower. The petals were her long eyelashes and everything else was the leaves, the stem and the roots, but all I could see was the centre of the flower, which was only her eyes.

It breathed more life than her entire soul might have and I was shamelessly mesmerised as I bent down, moving closer to her body, careful not to seem intimidating.

I couldn't utter a word. I wasn't even sure if I was breathing. All I knew, was that she was there in front of me, and she didn't invent and play a role in a sudden hallucination of mine. That much, I was sure of.

Her attire entailed a long skirt and a wide maroon garment covering the whole of her chest and her arms. Both were garnered with tiny jewels, adorning her body in a way that was made only for her skin.

A  transparent bronze kerchief made of light silk covered her face, tucked over her ears and probably tied by the ends at the back of her head. I assumed she had cleverly worn it to shield herself from the flittering sharp leaves and dust from harshly greeting her face.

I kneeled in front of her, our gradually slowing breaths swirling together in the air, trying to inspect any possible injuries on her face.

"Are you fine?" I whispered, as our eyes locked together in what felt like more than a few seconds.

She raised one of her eyebrows very slightly that it might have gone unnoticed, not in a disrespectful way, but as if it was her natural instinct to do so, to indicate her simple curiosity. Her eyes, the only part of her face that was fully visible without any barrier, flickered downwards, scanning my clothes to possibly figure out who I was.

Her venture returned to my eyes, and this time, she blinked in a less tense manner, making me assume she had figured out who I was.

That day, I was never warned how many attacks my heart was going to endure, and even if I was, I would have still been sent flying backwards in bliss.

I promised the stars there was going to be nothing more beautiful to ever touch the lands of Yandestine than this female's eyes and that they could never re-enact the dialogues of her eyes with their consisent twinkling.

But I was wrong. Because, what occurred next, made me realise I should never make promises before I knew I wouldn't gladly break it. Over and over again.

She smiled.

~~~

This chapter is close to my heart, so I dedicate this chapter to a person that is also very close to my heart: desaraedotson

Thank you for putting a massive smile on my face whenever you read, and especially, thank you for existing with your beautiful self. Please go check out her work guys, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!

I love all of you and thank you to every single one of you reading!

OceanaCamerons 🌹🌹🌹