BEYOND

13

Gienne        {28th day of first moon, 754Q}

"Is there any rooms available?" asked Mrs. Higgins, she was now standing at the reception desk talking to a girl, who must be in her twenties.

'This place looks quite classy' thought Gienne, who was standing beside Mrs. Higgins. 'I am starting to like this place; it's as if I am living inside a book.'

"Can we have two rooms? We will only stay for a night"

"Yes ma'am, I will tell the staff to arrange the room, you can wait in here, maybe have a drink, by that time I will get the keys and your entire luggage into the room" said the receptionist.

"Well, thank you", said Mrs. Higgins in a very soft voice.

Gienne was feeling tired and sleepy, she really needed to get some sleep, but what caught her attention was a group of men, well built and tall, all wearing red and black uniforms, they had an emblem on their right chest, most of them were chatting, and sitting at the left corner of the room, many of them had a big jar, which was filled with an orange liquid, something similar to modern day beer. She was curious, from their uniforms, she could conclude that they are soldiers; she had seen a few of them at port Oting. But what were they doing here, it was the first time she saw these many soldiers together.

"Why are these soldiers here Mrs. Higgins, I haven't seen these many of them together" said Gienne turning towards Mrs. Higgins , who was then chatting with a woman who looked as if she was the same age of Mrs. Higgins.

"Oh, they are here to catch the bandits", said the woman who was talking with Mrs. Higgins, "I am Nelly kennel, nice to meet you again Gienne, you look exactly like your mother",

Gienne did not know how to respond to such an answer, this woman who was talking to her clearly knew her mother.

"Hello, nice to meet you too" said Gienne, "I am Gienne"

"Well I know you dear, you and your mom used to visit me, Betty and I was good friends" said the woman.

"Oh"

Suddenly Mrs. Higgins moved close towards the woman and started whispering something, and after a few minutes, the only words that came out of the woman was a surprised, 'oh'

"I am sorry dear, you must really miss your mother, a few days in Ottingel and you will regain all your memories, I am sure, you can come by to my house whenever you want too, I can bake you a few cakes, you will love it, Mrs. Kennel's cakes, is one of the best that you could get in Ottingel, I can bet on that" said Mrs. Kennel smiling and looking at Gienne.

"Thank you, Mrs. Kennel" replied Gienne.

Mrs. Kennel continued to talk. "Those bandits, had been looting all those precious Liligo plant, but I don't think it's the dried plant the king is concerned about but something else, there must be something hidden in all those boxes, something really precious, why else would he sent his General to Ottingel , a few soldiers are more than enough to fight those bandits"

"He sends his general?" asked Mrs. Higgins.

"Yes, you know the famous Herbert Estrand, I would say he is really a fine young man, if I was a young girl I would have made a move on him", said Mrs. Kennel in a playful tone.

"I don't think Kennel, would be happy about that", said Mrs. Higgins

"Oh, now don't remind me of him, he is one of the laziest person I have ever met, I still can't understand how I fell in love with him"

"Now who is this General?" asked Mrs. Higgins.

"Oh the one that is sitting at table, left side of the stairs, now I tell you don't stare, just a quick glance" said Mrs. Kennel

Gienne who was hearing all these, was having fun listening to them talk, it reminded her of the days she and her friends used to comment when they saw a handsome boy, walking by .Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Kennel reminded her of her friends.

Out of curiosity, and of course out of her 'innocence' she turned towards the direction Mrs. Kennel had just told, but what she saw was a handsome young man, his black eyes were directly staring at their desk, no he was staring at her. She felt like a deer caught by a lion. His gaze was so strong, he just stared at her as if he has spotted his prey, and his black eyes were fixed on her, he had broad shoulders, he clearly stood out from other soldiers, he had a strong, strict aura around him.

Gienne without realizing was checking him out, when she came into her right mind, she knew that she too was staring at him, her mind was screaming 'oh my god, what the hell am I doing', she quickly moved her gaze to the glass that she was holding, she tried her best to act as if she was concerned with the water inside the glass, but her mind was screaming 'danger, danger' , she just could not understand, her mind was disturbed, it felt like she could not think straight. It's the first time in her life that a hot guy looked at her, like looked at her properly.

She knew that she was average, someone who was okay, but never thought herself beautiful.

'Maybe he was looking at someone behind me' thought Gienne, she then slowly turned her head backwards and looked whether there was someone behind her, but to her surprise there was none. 'Oh shit, he was looking at me, oh crap; he caught me staring at him, what cringe moment'

"Oh my god he is looking here Nelly", said Mrs. Higgins surprised

"What?"

"He is staring at us", said Mrs. Higgins.

At that moment the girl who sat at the reception came towards the table and handed Mrs. Higgins the keys and said, "The rooms are ready ma'am these are the keys"

"Oh thank you"

"Kony will take you to your room" she told them pointing towards a small boy who must be around ten or eleven.

When Gienne and Mrs. Higgins were about to go upstairs Robert joined them. Gienne whose mind was now filled with those black eyes, sneakily turned towards the table were the hot guy was, so as to get a last glance of that handsome face, well it's not every time you get a chance to meet handsome people, thought Gienne. But again she was caught looking at him. His eyes moved in the direction in which they moved, his gaze made her feel like as if she had committed a crime. 'Has Gienne done anything wrong, I hope not, I don't want to end up in a prison in a fantasy world, that would be terrible' thought Gienne, she quickly turned towards the little boy and started following him towards their rooms.

Gienne last thought was 'Oh god, I don't want to see him tomorrow'