Tranquil

Chapter 1

Rudy Fayleon, 4th Prince of the Kingdom of Fayleon, 6th child of the Emperor and 7th in-line for the throne. In other words, I'm not an important person and the Emperor doesn't really care about what I do, unlike my older siblings and I still get the perks of being a prince. It's not a bad deal at all.

On weekdays, I have lessons on politics and economics, foreign languages, history and other reading subjects that bore me to death. Then, there's the better things like fencing and martial arts and weekends are the days I get to sneak out of the palace to enjoy the city.

Today was one of those weekends, another busy day on the market street. People from children running around, chasing each other with a stick to old people buying mangoes from the fruit vendor. It was the one place I could see how my people were doing.

Walking down the busy street, I could hear the plucking of guitar and a voice, cutting through the chatter of the street and there was a small crowd in the corner where it came from. A street performer.

It wasn't unusual, there were others I passed while walking down the street but this one was different from the others. He had a voice that could make one shudder at a single note, it was a song I knew too well. My mother used to sing that song to me all the time before putting me to bed, but of course the version he was playing was an upbeat version and had some of his personal touch to it.

It was a nice voice, and I cut through the crowd to have a better look at the singer. It was a lean and tall brunette, in a casual shirt and jeans, standing in front of a standing mic.

He played several songs after another and, some of the familiar ones I could sing along too while others I've never heard of.

When the crowd had dispersed, and the man was packing his stuff, he suddenly spoke to me.
"What?" I asked, too lost in thought to hear his question.

"Are you alright?"

Of course I would be alright, why wouldn't I be, I thought to myself.

"You've been sitting there for a long time and it didn't look like you were gonna leave anytime soon.." he continued when he saw the confused expression I gave him.

"Oh."

"Well, you seem fine, so I'll be leaving then." he packed up his equipment, picked up his guitar case and slung it over his shoulder and started walking off.

He was leaving.

So many things were going through my head at the time, should I call out to him, chase after him, ask him when his next performance is? I like it, his voice- I like his voice very much.

"Wait!" I say in a voice a little too loud, it got stares from people around me and the man turned around slightly startled. "Will you be here tomorrow?"

I realised the question seemed a little inappropriate the moment it left my mouth and quickly rephrased the sentence. "Sorry, I mean, uhh- when's your next performance?"

Even he seemed abit weirded out by the first question. "I have another one tomorrow, same time as today." he replied and waved me off as I watched his back as he walked away.

Back at the palace, I couldn't concentrate on anything and my mind kept drifting off to the musician on the streets. I could clearly hear his voice and the way it resonated all the way inside me, the strumming of his guitar, playing that familiar tune. I needed to see him again.

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The next day came and I went back to the marketplace, on the same street, but there were only people walking by and the musician was nowhere in sight, was he just not here yet or maybe he decided to perform somewhere else?