The Strange Street to the Wrinkled Memories

Who was he?

They heard the mad prince say, "I haven't got the post to be the revenue head of my father's village. I thought if I got that post I could have slowly took over that village too. But I lost, my father's family... The royal family of my father's village denied at me. They wanted my mother to come with me that's why I informed the commander about mother's jailing. As expected, he opened her and now I will forcefully ask her to recommend me as the next king or the revenue head of my father's village." Then Rithala hugged Yadhu, Shravya pulled back Adwait, "Let's go!"
He rose his eyebrows then nodded and walked away with Shravya.
They had a walk around the whole palace, finally they reached back infront of the royal room. Adwait asked, "What happened? Why are you silent?"
Shravya looked at him and blinked her eyes, "Nothing! Just enjoyed the walk."
He said, "No! You never stay silent. What's it?"
She denied, "Nothing! Just was thinking how we will find who am I within coming eight days."
He erased, "Just six days to find."
Shravya looked at him with a questioning face.
He answered, "It will take almost one day to reach Ahaan Mitrapura and another day to return. So in such a way, two days will easily vanish."
Shravya nodded and sat with Adwait in the arm chair near by.

A guard came in, "Scholar and Miss please join for the royal dinner. The queen is arriving."
Adwait and Shravya stood up and walked behind the guard. They were welcomed in through a red carpet into a spacious dining room. A long and big royal refectory table was standing with dishes placed on it. There were varieties of delicacies presented on the table, from bread to rice. Adwait and Shravya sat on the right side as instructed by the guard. Soon came in the mad couple and sat on the left side as per mad prince's guidance, Jyothi Rithala was infront of Adwait and Yadhu Amir sat infront of Shravya with a flirting smile. Then came in an old woman with a middle aged woman, Adwait stood up and mentioned as Shravya followed him, "Pournami Ravi Natya Rajyan, the royal sister and mad prince's mother with Gyanavi Pradyut Natya Rajyan, the royal mother." The mad couple faced them with disrespect in eyes. Immediately the queen walked in with two of her maidens. All bowed infront of her and then they sat as the queen took her seat. The cooks served the food for them.

The queen began, "Scholar! Infront of you is Jyothi Rithala and next to her is Yadhu Amir, the prince." They smiled at each other.
The queen continued, "Three seats from your side is Pournami, the royal sister." Adwait and Shravya looked at her who was dull and weak, she was just regaining the strength maybe because she had been in the prison for so many days.
"Infront of her is the royal mother, Gyanavi Pradyut." They bowed at the royal mother and the queen went on, "And the seat infront of me is left free, there used to be the king. Now it's left free for my son. The prince of Natya Rajya, you would have heard about him."
Shravya and Adwait nodded, while there was intense dislike in Yadhu Amir's face.
The queen sighed, "Dinner!" She gestured all of them to take the glasses in air. The glasses were filled with juices. As soon as all of them raised it to the air following the queen, she happily concluded, "Cheers!"

Soon all of them had the food within twenty minutes and during that time the queen had a conversation with Shravya and Adwait. After dinner, they stood up and was about to leave. The queen handed the scholar a token of love and shook hands with them. She then instructed, "Yadhu, wait! Spend time with our guests till they leave." The royal mother and sister stood behind the queen who then walked infront of her maidens to the gazebo to spend some family time. Jyothi Rithala walked to set mad prince's chamber. The guard were at their positions as the commander supervised them. The other workers were going to their rooms. Adwait and Shravya bowed as they were about to leave the palace. Adwait shook hands with Yadhu. Then he shook hands with Shravya, smiling. For a moment, Yadhu did not think of taking back his hand until Adwait choked, "Rithala is waiting for you. She is looking from your room's door step." Mad prince pulled off his hand and looked back to find Jyothi Rithala staring at him. He then smiled at her and then at Adwait, "Hope to meet you soon."
Adwait nodded while Shravya shook her head in denial. 
Yadhu Amir walked into his chamber as Adwait and Shravya left the palace. They walked back through the woods and it was already dark by then. They got in the boat and rod to Adwait's backyard. They stepped down and walked into the front yard. Adwait took off his cloak in his hands and opened the main door. They then walked in silently as they were already tired. Adwait smiled at Shravya and she did hope he was about to say something, he did say, but not what she expected. He said, "Good night! Pack up your bag for tomorrow."
She wished back, "Good night," and he went in his room and closed the door.

She walked to the gazebo and laid back on the gazebo couch staring at the stars.
She sighed, "Tomorrow I will see my home. I hope I get to know who I am and why I came in here searching for the royal members, and I have only six more days to find me." She saw the moon with the slight shadow of turning full 🌔, there was hope in her. She soon went into her dreams.

She felt it was too soon to wake up as some light fell on her. She could hear the sound of birds chirping, the roaster crowing, the running river, the crackling of leaves due to the soft wind and the chattering of squirrels. She breathed in the fresh scent of the flowers that grew in the garden and the aroma of masala tea grabbed her sleep. She could feel the sunlight on her and the warm breeze woke her up. There she was awake and alert. She held herself in for a moment, "I will have to find myself."

"Hey! That's too early."
Shravya looked back only to find Adwait. But there she turned to see someone else sitting in the low stone table. There was another lad, somewhat the age of Adwait, she thought, who was he. He smiled and suddenly greeted, "Morning! Adwait is making special tea for his special guest. I have heard about you from him, nice meeting you Shravya."
She trapped her little words in herself, "Who was he?"  All of a sudden some unexpected thoughts aimed into her, "Is this the prince? But whoever he is, why is he here? So did it really mean Adwait was the prince's spy? Who was he?"

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Surya_SK