The Red

CHAPTER-9

  You are a fool. But I am a bigger one. Because I fell in love with a fool like you.  

The cool breeze was unceasingly bashing on my face and my body was wobbling up and down along with the ride.

As I had thought, remaining close to his arms felt the safest.

Stella!

His soothing voice had made my name sound even more beautiful than it already was. The name, it was some thing that was given to me by my mother and it was something that was only mine.
Mesmerized by the way he called my name, my mind had escaped into my own little dream land.

"What's you name?" 
Getting along with my own flow, I unconsciously utter those words.

The prince looked at my face with a great awe. I know it sounds funny, but I never gave much thought on his name before.

But after he called my name, I understood how deep impression does it hold when someone calls our name. It makes us feel special.
So, I really wanted to know his name and  really wanted to try calling it. More like to convey him how special he was to me.

But his reaction? He gave a little push on my shoulder with his chest and stopped the moving horse. It all happened quickly and I couldn't think a escape out of it. Within a second, my whole body was wrapped around his arms and stranger among the strange was, his cold body didn't felt cold at all.

His sweltering breathe was continuously striking on my neck and I could tell, he was breathing abnormally fast. The better yet weird part was, I could feel his beating heart.

I tried touching his cold bare hands that were holding me tightly. But, it did no good. He must have been out of his mind as he held me even more tighter.

 My mind was on havoc and I really hate to talk about my stupidly beating heart.

"prince?" I gave a small call.

"Uh-huh."

"Amm, I can't breathe." I whispered again.

"Sush!" He moaned as a little kid.
"Let me hold you for a little bit."

"Oh.. y-e-a-h s-u-r-e!" I shuddered.

I never saw this coming and I didn't know how to react. But It did felt good. I could say this just by realizing my cherry red blushed cheeks.

My skin was crawling over his heavy armored clothes and it felt like being completely sucked in, within his embrace. There were a lot of emotion going on within myself and my vision was pitch black, completely emerged within his big arms.

A sweet scent lured the shy me.

Enticed by his scent, I dipped my nose within his big strong arms and sniffed. It smelled so good and familiar. Made me think,

Yeah , I want him as my family .

"You are the first one to ask my name. All they care was my power and position." He whispered painfully.

His words actually managed to prick my heart. Not like his action was enough to make me feel worked up.

Was he in pain? All this time?

I used to think, only I was living in pain and only I was going through hell. How wrong I was?

Even without going through the hell as I did, he was suffering. I could tell just by hearing his heartbreaking words.

"I-I.." I tried to speak but only some broken shaking words came up from my neck.

"It's Erwin, Call me Erwin! "

He spoke softly, loosening his left hands and then, running its fingers from my arms toward my neck. It tickled. And it felt good. His touch really was enticing and addictive.

" Erwin, we are lagging behind." Trying to stop the flow from going beyond my control, I tried to wake him up in the real world, the actual cruel reality. To be precise, I was trying to wake myself up, from dreaming more than I could have.

"Indeed we are!" He spoke gallantly releasing me from his grip and tugged the rope of the horse.

The quick and loud sound shook me. Trying to figure out what he's got to, I turned my head. I stared at his expressionless face. I stared until I, once again was wrapped around by his huge body.

A huge bees humming like noise arouse and I could also hear the unruly noise of galloping horses. The whole order was disturbed. After opening my eyes and seeing the turnoiled soldiers, I realized we had been attacked.

I rolled my eyes, lifted my head up and saw numerous arrows showering at us. With in a quick second, my eyes was closed and my whole head was blocked by his big strong arms.

"Escape as you can and meet at the point we had decided to." He barked loudly and everyone followed.

Everytime I would get amazed by seeing how meaningful his words were.

"Stay alive!" He barked again as he turned his horse left and advanced toward the deep forest.

The arrows were still pouring on us. But, there was no sign of a person around there than us. Even I could tell, it was a trap setup a long time ahead.
Who could it be?
Even if I tried to figure it out, I could think of no one.

My heart had almost stopped beating and I was breathing so hard. My mind was all blank out of fear and more than that I was scared I would lose him who was guarding my back.

We galloped with quickly into the forest and until we reached far, far away I didn't calm at all.

"Stella." His voice snapped me out.

Turning my head around, I looked at his pale face. His breathe felt faint sometime and sometime it felt like he was panting.

"Erwin?"
I twisted my body all I could and patted his shoulder. But, there was no proper response nor did he chuckled like he used to.

"Erwin, is something..." My hand slipped a little bit more down from his up-shoulder.
That was when I realized, he was shot. There was no arrow which mean, he already took it out. But, he was bleeding and my fingers that slipped down his shoulder was filled with blood. 

"Erwin" I screamed. My voice couldn't reach him and he just fainted over me.