Walking down the elven road

Chapter 8

The next morning, Melya is exhausted. She slept way too little because of her rendez-vous with Arion. One of the other servants has to wake her. He is pretty annoyed by his superior sleeping while he has to work. She dresses quickly and orders a maid to fold and put away the Crown prince’s washed clothes. Her entire morning is spent cleaning the Royal quarters, which is a pretty boring job since nothing special ever happens, ever. But that’s the case with most of the work in a palace.

Shortly after the noon’s clock had sung its song, Kithan returns from his hunt. Zaran hasn’t been accompanying him yet because his wound has to heal some more, so the Crown prince’s parents have ordered him to take an escort with him when he decides to go into the woods. Melya sees them approaching, and immediately asks a couple of servants to prepare a bath. Kithan will inevitably want a bath after two days of wandering in the palace’s forest. She walks up to his room, and arrives just in time to see him throw aside his bow and quiver.

“Damned escort,” he mumbles, “They aren’t good for anything. Have no idea how to keep silent during a hunt, or even have the notion they should even try to.” He looks over his shoulder, sees Melya standing in the doorway. “Hey Melya,” he says, and smiles, “I’m sorry about that, I’m just a little frustrated. Since Zaran got hurt I haven’t even caught a half-dead bunny due to those noisy soldiers. A true escort from hell. From a hunter’s perspective at least.”

“I fear I have no experience with this ‘hunter’s perspective’, my prince,” she answers shyly, “I’ve been a student in the art of healing most of my life.”

“Well, now you mention it, how did you become a healing student? That’s really something for children of rich parents, and those children don’t become maids in the Royal palace. Besides, almost no students are female,” Kithan asks curiously.

Oh no, Melya thinks. I should not have said that. Ever.

“Erm, it’s a boring story,” she said, “Not one which you would enjoy listening to.”

“You saved my best friend’s life. Of course I’ll enjoy listening to your story of how you learnt all of this.”

Why in hell does he keep asking? “My father wasn’t that rich, but he hoped that I, as a healer, could help the family better than as a cook or something like that. Unfortunately my study couldn’t be paid for anymore, and when I was on the road searching for work, I ran into Arion and he brought me here.” Perfect lie. Not.

“That’s a shame. You seem quite talented.”

“Thank you, my prince.”

“Maybe you could continue your studies.”

“What do you mean?”

“After the incident of Zaran and me it only seemed wise to me to learn some healing skills. The main healer of the castle told me he could teach me the basics. I thought, maybe it’ll be more interesting if I could do this with another person. And since Zaran still has zero interest in healing, and no other highborn person in here wants to learn this and the lowborn don’t dare look me in the eye, I thought we could do this together. You could finish your studies, and I could learn how not to die.”

“That would be great, my prince!”

“I’ll inform the main healer. We’ll start on the morrow. And you can call me Kithan, if you want to.”