Dandelions

chapter 2

Mara's POV

While the well trained stallions pull my carriage as fast as it can my mind pulls me to the palace I lived thirteen years back. How would my Ummi react seeing me? She would probably cry and hug me and Abi? Abi, I hate to see him! Wasn't it same like this that I was sent thirteen years back. it was more than a pain for a five year old to being pulled from her momma's cuddle. She pleaded, she pleaded not to take her daughter away. Her hellish cry was not powerful enough to break the seal of her husband's heart. "Do you remember that day Habeeba?" I ask taking a long breath.

"Which day princess?" she asks not looking at me rather occupying herself in cutting a pomegranate.

"The worst day of my life. Thirteen years back"

"Yes I do, it was so hard for me to control you in the carriage. You tried to get off it several times. Then we had to join some merchants to take the boat and I had to take you to the hill castle when no one is around. That journey..ufff..unforgettable" she sighs.

"How many days I would have refused to eat asking for Ummi, how many sleepless nights I had to spend? If you were not everything you can be for me, I would be devastated" I say fluttering the golden drapes of the carriage.

It must be a jungle, I guess with the bushy trees and darkness in the day time. We are being moving for a long time, probably more than a day. First we had to get off the hill disguised of course. But I loved it for I have never come out of the hill castle except to practice some skills of war just like aiming an arrow somewhere far. Habeeba, will lock my room before she goes out to collect what would be sent from the palace through merchants passing that way. She would warn me to remain silent if I sense anything unusual which was not okay with me.

"No Princess Mara, don't do that again, spies can be anywhere. We must take you to the castle safely" Habeeba pulls my hands back as her eyes looks mine at last.

"Isn't that why your king sent guards in all four directions? There must be hundreds, I guess. He could have asked us to come disguised, just as we came down the hill and in the boat that would be safer and money saving" I answer with a frown.

"He could have, only if he hadn't bothered about the feet of his princess those might hurt by walking. A loving father he is" I shrug as she pats.

"He cared about the feet but not the heart. Would a loving father ever live without seeing her daughter for almost thirteen years? Would a loving father let his daughter live inside a lonely castle for all these years?" I express my displeasure. "And these people, think of them, what if they get injured or murdered by enemies if they attack us? Who will look after their families? This is rude, really rude and selfish"

"Princess, death and dangers are not in our hands"

"May be, but I don't want anyone's life in risk, because of me"

"This is the place you prove the dignity of the royal blood that runs in your veins. The same attitude as the king towards his citizens"

"I hate it" I say tossing some pomegranate seeds to my mouth.

"What?"

"Being his daughter, being a princess"

"Didn't he arrange everything you would have got in your palace in the hill castle itself? Didn't he arrange everything and everyone for you? Didn't he send you all kind of teachers? You are still too young to understand some truths princess" Habeeba smiles.

"But there were things he couldn't send" I flinch.

"What are they?" Habeeba runs her fingers through my cheeks to turn my face to her.