{2} The Poisoned Grapes

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Zen and I were walking back to the house when we saw something sitting in front of the door. Zen ran toward it and picked it up, "What's this?" I ran up to him but stopped when I noticed something on the basket. The basket had a note, something covering its contents, and the bow that I had left behind.

I gasped, "No... That's the bow that I tied my hair in." Zen looked over at me and lowered the basket down to his side. The covering slipped off to reveal purple grapes inside of the basket along with a white rose.

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I sat on the couch and I tried to tie the bow back in my hair. I liked having my hair down for awhile, but it kept getting in my face. When I was done, I looked at the basket of grapes on the table in front of me. I zoned out a little bit only to be brought back down to earth when Zen looked up at me from the note. "So you're from Tanbarun, I see," I nodded, confirming his observation. "Meaning the person who dropped off this basket traveled all the way to the border just to find you. He is a determined fellow. I'll give him that much."

I laughed trying to lighten up the mood even a little, "Righ-" I was cut off when Zen leaned forward and used his uninjured hand to hit the table. I jumped at the sudden sound.

He pointed at me, "This isn't a joke. How bad is it that you were forced to flee the kingdom?"

I hesitantly replied with, "Because of who he is. He has a lot of power. The first prince of Tanbarun."

Zen jumped out of his seat and hit the table once again with his injured hand, "Raji?" He shouted. He froze as the pain in his arm started up again. He ended up dropping the note, "That royal moron?"

I stared at him, "You okay?" I got no response from him so I continued with my explanation. "Yeah, that is definitely him. He must be really stupid if the neighboring countries know it."

Zen slowly sat back down, "I don't blame you for running. He doubtlessly had people everywhere tearing apart all the border crossing records."

"Do you actually think that he would go that far?" I asked him with surprise.

Zen studied his injured hand for a moment, "If there's something he wants bad enough, he probably already assumes it belongs to him." His gaze fell onto the grapes.

I reached forward and grabbed a handful of grapes, "Even if it means caging it. That's awful," I got so lost in my thoughts that didn't even realize what I was saying, "They're starting to go bad. It's not any good to anyone now," I snapped out of my trance-like state and faked a smile, "Kidding!"

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