Niesa

Hasini

Askara had been designed to win. Not that he had a crippling fear of failure.He just never failed. 

Askara refused to believe that they had lost Niesa. He refused to accept it. He did not return from the hunt when the other princes did. He roamed the forest through the night. He scoured each path until he memorized them. The silver beams of the moonlight strained it's way through the many leaves and branches to light his path. The forest had themed itself to be ethereal that night. 

The day after it rained washing the forest of it's theme. The day proved no better than the night. The raindrops drowned his shouts. If he was loud, the rain would be louder. It rained into the night.

Askara wondered if this was all a vile conspiracy.  

Thereafter he refused to step foot in the kingdom. A strange madness had come over him. He roamed the forest calling out for his little sister before arrival the first light and would seek refuge in the temple when he became weary. Sickness took over him several times. He lost most his built; he looked now like a hollow shell of his earlier self. He no longer wanted to talk to those around him. Nothing could hold his interest.

His brothers came to help him to search for her day after day. But they accepted the fact that they might never find her. After that they came sparingly. More often than not to see if their brother was alive and well.

Two years later Askara came back to the kingdom, he was surprised to see his mother, the queen presiding over the court.

"Where is father?" Timidly he asked, feeling the strong, disapproving stares of the various ministers at his back. 

The queen waited for him to meet her gaze. "He rests in his chambers. Meet him at once."

Head bent. Shoulders slouched. Eyes following the pattern of the marble floor. Feet shuffling. He moved across the court disappeared in the corridors. A pitiful sight.

A grieving king sat alone looking out of the ornate window on an equally ornate chair. The king had no crown. He seemed to have aged faster than time allowed. 

"Father", Askara whispered, stepping into the room.

"You have failed your family. You should not have come back." The contempt rang through the walls.

Askara cried openly. He waited. He waited for someone to comfort him. He waited for hours. The king did not turn from the sky that repainted itself into darker shades.

This was the last straw. That night he left the kingdom never to return. 

Hasini had always thought that she connected with the princess more than anyone else. Ever since she was born, it was her heart's wish to meet her. This was more often than not fueled by the wild legend of the jewels. 

She heard rumours that the queen did not treat the princess kindly. The day she heard it, she wept quietly and promised herself that she would be the best friend the princess could ever imagine, should they cross paths.

 As a child, she would play hide and seek with the other children of the priests in the forest. Once during an excursion of the families of the priests, the children decided on playing the same. It was then, while climbing an extremely huge many-branched tree that she spotted the elusive abandoned treehouse. Even then it was difficult to spot. 

Hasini had thought she had forgotten about it. The memory came to her as an answer to where she would stay on the night she left the temple for good. The treehouse was difficult to reach in the moonlight. Several times she slipped. But as soon as the daylight broke in, Hasini maneuvered an easy path to the top after many hit and trials. In the daylight she saw that if the wildlife had obscured it before ,it had rendered her new found home invisible now. Finding it would be impossible unless someone followed her. 

Hasini stole as much as she could from the temple vegetable gardens. And kitchens if possible. This was no easy task,but Hasini was cunning and quick. If she did not find courage to do so, she had a variety of wild berries and fruits to choose from.

Once on her way back, a dog fell after her, following her. It barked at her and Hasini grew afraid someone would spot her. Fortunately, she had managed to steal some bread and meat which she threw at it and ran the other way. Next morning she found five of them at the feet of her tree. She named them and they probably named her. She would bring them food and they in turn would bark anytime someone would come close to the tree. 

Hasini was doting on Neisa while Neisa softly sang and sewed when she heard her dogs growl and bark, all at once. Any other day Hasini would let it go. Hasini was curious today.