Shifted

Chapter 2

He wasn't surprised by his surroundings when he woke up. He was laying on the scattered hay, tears sliding down his face and flashbacks of all that happened yesterday still playing out in his head.
He tried to cast them away but his attempts soon turned into self-wrestling.
He sat up, bugging out, until he was certain he won't stumble upon the owner of the barn.
Cautiously, he crawled out of the barn and ran onto the road.
Whenever he had met a beggar in Atiyeyon, he'd find himself thinking that the man lives a free life in which his biggest worry is dirt and solitary hunting, using either a primitive weapon crafted by hand or no weapon at all. But now it became clear to him that he was deadly wrong.
He tried to focus on finding the way back to Atiyeyon. Since he was always a curious individual, out of experience he knew his parents must've turned the whole manor upside down, at least twice, for the sole purpose of finding him.
Yet again, he felt tears flooding his eyes.
“I'm certain this wouldn't be as hard if I was a commoner.” The prince pondered.
That thought brought pictures of carnage people bleeding on the streets to his mind, torches falling out of their hands... Flames whelming the fabric of their clothes, devouring their bodies and the shrieks and sorrow resonating between the stone walls.
He closed his eyes, feeling mild pain in his frontal lobe.

The king, his father, who was sitting in a dark throne room seemed to have aged due to worry. His once bright, golden eyes now glimmering with distant shine of sadness.
Even his twin brother, Prince Merinn, was absent-minded.

Wiping his eyes, Lakinse took a deep breath. A feeling of emptiness in his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten anything the whole day.
He wasn't feeling sick but he was aware that starving wouldn't do him any good. Moreover, he was conscious of the fact that his death would only make things worse.
Walking down the road, he kept his head down partially so that he would avoid the villagers’ wondering gazes. He was on a mission to find some coin, since he couldn't bring himself to beg for it and trading away his royal family’s crest - his crystal - was the worst form of betrayal in his eyes.
In fact, the mere thought of doing such a thing caused so much disdain within him that he had to force himself to think about something else.
A silver shine on the road made him speed up. He bent to his knees. There, he found a silver coin stuck between the rocks. Every time he thought he had pulled it out, the coin rotated, leaving him empty handed. Only after his fingers became red and bruised because of his constant failed attempts to have a grip on the coin, it finally slid out of the swirls between rocks.
He spent some time flipping the coin in his hands. It had a carving that resembled a branch on each side.
He hadn't seen a similar coin before, which only further indicated that this wasn't his dimension.
Being reminded of that fact only strengthened the heavy feeling on his shoulders.
He had suddenly stopped. He was looking around with the intention to find a butcher but he, of course, didn't find it. There wasn't even that characteristic, pleasant scent of meat.
An obese man who was eating something brownish and round stole his attention. The scent of the unknown food that was reaching to him was pleasant, although nothing in comparison to the scrumptious scent of meat.
Nervousness had suddenly hit him again.
Although he hadn't seen anything like it before, he knew it couldn't be meat.
He walked up to the sales booth where a woman was selling similar, smaller versions of what the man was eating.
He showed the coin he had found to a trader, hoping it was enough to buy at least one piece.
She handed him the smallest piece without even saying a word.
As he wasn't familiar with their language nor knew any words, he twisted his lips into a smile to thank her.
He was right when he assumed that it wasn't meat. It didn't have any specific taste but he liked the brownish crust on the surface.
Now that he was full, he couldn't fail to notice the fact that the weather wasn't as hot as it was in Oennirifen.
Warm sun rays were hitting the ground but the air was still fresh, if one could ignore the smell of manure which surprisingly wasn't as irksome as it was often described by the nobility.
Guided by a bird’s song, he got into the forest. This forest wasn't making him feel calm like the forests in Oennirifen would. His legs started shaking with fear. Wariness filled his entire body, waking the beast that was sleeping inside of him. He found himself glancing over his shoulders, triggered by even the most silent sound that he was able to hear.
Raindrops left by the last night’s storm were sliding down, mimicking sounds that could easily be mistaken for steps on the soft, wet grass. Accepting the defeat, he sat on a tree stump. It was still wet from the rain but in this situation he couldn't find the will to care about such things.
"I don't know. I simply don't know." He whispered, not daring to look up.

In Oennirifen, he would often find himself cursing the never-ending schedule that he must follow as a prince. Just a couple of days ago, even the mere mention of a trip to a parallel dimension where nobody knows who he is would have made him jump up in happiness. But now all he wanted was to go home.
He felt anxiety ripping his chest out again.
“A parallel dimension...” His thoughts wandered.
He tried convincing himself that he was just poisoned, but yet again, he caught himself unable to buy it this time. Still, he was forcing himself to believe that he was laying in his bed right now, his whole family surrounding him, waiting for him to wake up and tell them all about an outland he spent all those lost hours dreaming about.
The nature here was different and the architecture style was unknown to him, just like the language or even the race of the people who inhabited these lands.
Regardless of how terrifying it all seemed, it all made sense.
He felt hot tears filling his eyes again.
This was the first time he truly didn't know what to do. He continued roaming the forest, as if he expected those deciduous trees would give him advice since, judging by their width, they stood there for decades.
The grass made his legs itchy, but he couldn't bring himself to mind it.
He groaned, running into a full row of thorny bushes. He bended his knees, prepared to jump over.
By the time he had realised it, it was already to late.
He couldn't stop himself from colliding with the man who had just so happened to be picking the berries on the other side of those same bushes.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? What on Earth is chasing you when you're in such a damn hurry?" The man yelled.
Lakinse stood up, observing the starved figure standing before him.
Just a look at it sent cold shivers running down his spine.
Dishevelled black hair reaching down his shoulders was covering his eyes, and his body was so slender that his ribcage could be seen. The only piece of clothing that he had on was a pair of worn out beige pants tightened with a muddy brown rope.
The prince didn't like the feeling that overtook him the moment he first looked at the man. He just frowned, hoping the man would leave.
Instead, the man averted his gaze, his eyes now mirroring sadness.
His next gesture left Lakinse frozen.
He reached out a hand, offering Lakinse the berries.
Seeing him just standing there, utterly confused, the man smiled, revealing oddly non-decayed teeth. He took another berry from his hand, gazing at Lakinse, telling him to take one again.
"C’mon man, help yourself."
This time, Lakinse let his guard down and took one berry from the man's hand.
Like any other plant he had tasted out of curiosity, this one didn't seem to have any particular taste. He waited until the man averted his gaze to the forest and spit it out.
"Why are you in this forest alone, nobleman-boy?" The man asked, grinning. "Don't tell me your serfs started a rebellion against you and now they're resting their stinky peasant hooves on your king-sized bed?” The man shrugged as he finished grinning even wider.
Whereas he didn't understand any of the words the man had said, Lakinse repeated the gesture he gave to the rural nobleman yesterday and said: "Yienn Lakinse Sakoria."
The man's lips twisted into a somewhat nostalgic smile.
"Is that really your name, “Yienn”? I'd never guess it! To me, you look more like a James or a Tristan." The man slapped his bare, bony chest.
"Tai." He said, his smile never descaling off his face.
Although his instincts begged him to leave Tai, Lakinse chose to stay, somehow knowing that Tai would continue to follow him even if he pleaded that he wanted him as far away from himself as possible.
But he was still endeavouring to keep distance between himself and the man.
"Well Yienn, why ain't ya talking? Just don't tell me those fools in Cont have already told you to stay away from me." He said with a slightly irritated, and perhaps even a disappointed tone.
"I promise you, I'm not so bad. Peasants tend to hype things up."
Tai leaned closer to Lakinse who was surprised to find out that the man wasn't much older then he was.
Despite Tai's greasy hair and the smell of sweat, Lakinse chose not to distance himself from him.
They were both homeless.
He had already reconciled with the fact that this was his life now.
"Come with me, I'll show you my hut!"
Tai's hand was dirty, mottled with scars on his knuckles, his nails overgrown and equally as dirty, but he took it anyways.
His grip was warm, even a bit sweaty.
They didn't talk. Just walked, hand in hand. This whole situation seemed too intimate to Lakinse, but he managed to hide his nervousness. He readied himself to run, if there would be any need to do so. Although, he was certain that this clearly starved man couldn't possibly have the energy to catch him.
There, in the shadows of the treetops, stood a small house.
The sight of the wooden hut suddenly made Lakinse stiffen.
What if it was filled with bandits waiting to ambush somebody who carried a lot of valuable things, such as himself?
He stopped.
He didn't even dare to think of other more twisted things that this man could do to him in case he were to enter.
“C’mon.”
Tai tugged his hand and opened the shabby wooden door.
Lakinse peeked inside.
There was nothing but a stack of hay and a circle made of stones, filled with charcoal left by a fire that was once burning in it on the beaten ground floor.
He walked in, still feeling as if someone tied cannonballs to his calves.
In the corner, he noticed a pile of worn out clothing next to a jug filled with water.
Judging by the ease Tai had let him in with, combined with the nonchalant twisted smile on his full chapped lips, Lakinse concluded that this wasn't the first time he had done this.
He wondered what kind of rabble set their feet in this very hut before him.
"You are spacing out. Are you thirsty?" Tai asked him while lifting the jug up.
He sipped from it with the intention to prove to his guest that it wasn't poisoned, since he heard gentry talking of the possibilities that their food was poisoned more times than he could count.
Remembering that his guest doesn't speak much, he gestured him to drink water which Lakinse gladly accepted.
Using the end of his sleeve, Lakinse wiped the edge of the jug and chugged.
He felt his headache vanishing as soon as the cold liquid had hit his tongue.
Guilt washed over him once he realised that he had gulped it all down.
However, Tai didn't seem to mind. He only divided the stack of hay into two sections which were large enough to lay on.
The house wasn't much warmer than the weather outside. The air was filled with dust rising from the hay which made Lakinse feel the urge to sneeze.

~~~

Oennirifen, the Royal Palace

"Merinn, have you seen your brother today?"
The young man ran his fingers through his blonde locks, placing his gaze upon his father’s.
He covered a letter with his hand, that, judging by its length, he most likely spent hours on writing.
“I haven't.”
"Doesn't it disquiet you?"
"Father, you know Lakinse as well as I do. I'm certain he merely got overly excited while roaming around some ancient ruins that he had found. He might as well be in our archives reading stories of people who claim that they’ve altered dimensions." He paused, then quickly added: "Perhaps he went to the town again to listen to bygone stories that old people are eagerly waiting to tell. Or he's reading those novels about knights again, in the forest. You remember that one time when we-"
"-I do." The King cut him off and nodded, letting a tense sigh out.
"We almost sent the whole military order in a mission to find him. We found him reading those novels under the tree in my first Willow forest."
"He was missing for entire three hours and all he said to defend himself was that he got so excited he forgot about time and lunch. I'm telling you father, those books are taking away his sanity."
Prince Merinn added, not even trying to overpower his rage. Overtaken by it, he begun circling fiercely around the room, resembling an actor who lost his way to the stage more than a Crown Prince.
"Perhaps you should read them too. There's a possibility they could calm you down, just like they calmed your younger brother."
The king kept glancing at his son, as if he expected a flood of emotions and words inappropriate for a person of his status, but nothing happened.
He sat back and continued writing the letter furiously.
"Have you checked his private tower?" A slender, white-haired woman asked. It was the Queen, who suddenly appeared in the doorway.
"Indeed. I even checked in the knightly Hall and went looking for him in the library with the guards."
She exhaled, her lower lip trembling. She entered the room and set a clepsydra on Merinn's table, causing him to look up.
"If the whole royal family isn’t together again by the time the water drains completely, we are widening the search area to the whole Kingdom." She said with a determined tone, although it was noticeable that her words were fluttering.
She closed her eyes, gently embracing her husband.
He kissed her forehead and lightly stroked her slim back.
"We'll find him. He certainly hasn’t even left the Atiyeyon district." He whispered in her hair in an attempt to comfort her.
"Whoever dared to lay a finger on him will die, hanged down from my son's private tower." She said silently, leaning on his chest as if it were a pillow, and her voice was still noticeably shaky.
"We must not be impulsive about this, my dear." He responded in a calmer tone.
Nervousness had taken over Merinn's body, so he left the room. His loud footsteps echoed throughout the vast palace halls.
It seemed like turmoil was now taking over the white marble halls, swallowing all the shine and luxury the palace possessed.
In the corner of his eye, he caught a portrait of Lakinse from the time when they were 10 years old.
He laughed, remembering the time his brother was determined to grow his hair out and curl it daily.
"You always were special, brother."
He uttered wistfully as he continued wandering the halls filled with guards and knights whose armours were causing the deafening sound of clenching throughout the whole palace.
He assumed that it was time for them to grater in the inner backyard and wait for further orders.