Caesar

CHAPTER TWO • HIDDEN WEAPON

Her footsteps slow and silent against the wooden Floor. Her hands weakly holds on to the wall as she limps forward leaving a bloody print behind. High pitched soprano voices speak in hastened tones as a crowd of ladies pass her by.

"I wonder where the Priestess is...Now isn't the time for her bratty tantrums!...you should see how worried the High Priest is..." Their voices fade into the merry crowd as they advance further.

Verbena drags her cloak lower to hide her face. The cloak hides her face with its shadow cast darkening her features. She looks round, eyes roaming round till they sight a huge brown door by the left with a golden semi circular knob;

"It's a Celebration, there should be no one in the library!"

She turns heading towards the library. As she gets to the door, she raises the knob up and the door swings wide open. She walks into the room, as she goes deeper into it, the door makes a loud 'bang' behind her and the entrance is sealed.

Deeper and deeper into the dark library, her shadow cast appears longer. Her feet moves sounding in the deafening silence. Even her steps feels aloof, sounding distant and cold as her eyes move round checking if there is any occupant. She breathes out then move towards the book shelves which towers above her. The tip of her four fingers slightly move touching the books which are lined up vertically. Her feet comes to a halt as she stands in front of a green book, one of monstrous side hidden deep in the midst of other books. Her slender fingers grip it sliding it out and then opening it.

Inside the book, precisely in the middle, a sack full of a whitish substance lays folded, it's texture smooth like powder. The ripping sound of the sack louder in the prevailing silence. Her nose raises up as she sniffs the powder through her nostrils.

Sitting down on one of the wooden chairs, you know all those types you find in ancient libraries, her hands pull up her gown viewing her bare laps.

The fast running line fades as her injuries disappear like they were illusions. The tiny goosebumps, fear, cold, uncertainty and the feeling of death's cold hands gripping on to her and trapping her like a wild bear in a nasty trap slowly disappears.

Her eyes trace itself round her surrounding like it is alien. Her back now resting against a brown wooden chair.

The books stand firmly in their various shelves and millions of shelves surround her. A thought comes into her head; 'She was back home. ' The realisation sends an appreciated but normal feeling 'relief."

' Back home' in a place she had once dreaded ' Mountaingroin'. As a child growing up, she was forced to spend most of her life in " The Library" reading boring books to build her into the High Priestess, a position she never earned . Regardless of the town, city or village she stayed in, the library was made a dominant place in her life.

Never had the boring smell of the archaic books felt so refreshing to her, arousing the feeling of comfort and relief. Maybe it felt so refreshing because she was almost killed in a foreign inhabited land, holding on to the last breathe of her life and struggling to live...

The thought of where she had spent her last few hours sends chills down her spine.

She tries to distract herself as her eyes drift to the steel can of pens on the table, their edges so sharp and long. A bunch of scattered books also lay open on the table.

She stands up walking towards that table. When she gets there she stops, her eyes reading the words on its brownish pages. Its heading captures her attention; "The Prophecy of the Falling leaves!"

Immediately she reads it out, words fly in the air and voices cloud her ears; an ominous saying from the old shaman she had once visited "A leaf must wither..."

Those same words float in the air in bold bright letters. As she stares at the words, the shaman's voice louder in her ears "A leaf must wither..."
Floods of pain like stabs to her brain, pierces her, torturing her with foreign yet familiar memories...

A girl stands on a beach, she's dressed in unusual clothes "A crop top with a khakis jean shorts" her hair curly and face blurry. Her skin is milky chocolate. She laughs out loud and a golden pendant dangles on her neck, beneath her collarbone clearer than ever...

Her hands clutches on to the edge of the table as she leans into it, trying to ease her pain...

"I have seen that pendant before!"

Her ears raise up as they detect familiar footsteps, one so elegant, poised and quiet...

"Finally, I've found you ...!"
A breathtaking smile on his face as he approaches her.

She turns swiftly and before he knows it, the pen with its madly sharp edge is pointed at his neck. His brows raise up curiously and lips part revealing a dangerous smirk.

"Easy now...Priestess!" Caesar speaks out trying to hide the maddened astonishment on his face which is mixed with blissful excitement.

"...Who are you, Hwansu?"

He stares back at her, his hands up in a relaxed yet surrendering manner. A berserk snicker on his face. He had to make a choice... Should he tell her? Or shouldn't he?