Rajah's Curse

Chapter 33: Her Headpiece

I awoke with a start and immediately sat up to look at my hands. Apart from being bandaged, they appeared to be perfectly normal human hands.

"Thank the mother goddess."

I had just had a terrible dream. Jasmine and I had been arguing. I had gotten angry. The same encompassing fury I had felt the night before had overtook me and I had...

I had...

I flexed my fingers experimentally. I watched my hands carefully. As a tiger, I had retractable claws, but my human fingernails remained short and neatly trimmed as always.

I told myself to calm down. I was human. I had normal human hands. I was alright and Jasmine...

Jasmine!

What time was it? I looked around. The door to the lower study was ajar.

"Princess!" I called out.

"I'm downstairs Ren," her voice responded.

I breathed.

Of course, she was downstairs.

I got up.

Enough of this worrying over dreams, I had a mission tonight: Destroy Jasmine's headpiece.

I made my way down to the lower study. The princess was sitting at the desk reading. She was fine. I felt myself relax fully and I grimaced at my own foolishness.

"Ren?" Jasmine looked up at me. Her eyes were closed, thankfully. I had forgotten to ask her to put on her blindfold or to tell her I was coming down for that matter.

"Good Evening, Princess," I said. "I apologize for not giving you more warning."

"It's very unlike you to forget," she said reaching for her blindfold.

"Again, I apologize. I am a bit...out of sorts tonight."

"Are you?" she asked. There was something in her expression. Before I could interpret it, she said, "Ren, what would you do if I told you that I wanted you to dance with me right now in the study?"

I froze. She wanted to dance. With me? Why?

An image floated into my mind of me teaching Jasmine the steps to a Mujulaai partner dance, Jasmine looking down at me, her eyes sparkling, as I held her up in the air in a lift. I could almost hear her laugh.

But no. I couldn't. I shouldn't. It wouldn't be right. "Princess, I..."

"Or what if I wanted to know how you hurt your hands."

I blinked. What?

My nightmare popped into my head again. The claws. The blood. Her scream. I pushed it away and said, "I'm not sure-"

"What if I told you I wanted to parade around the palace in peasant clothes all week."

I frowned. "Princess, what sort of joke is this?"

She watched me for a moment. Her expression had become oddly intense.

"Princess?" I repeated coming closer to the desk.

"It's Jasmine," she corrected.

"Princess Jasmine then, why are you asking me these things?"

Jasmine got up and silently went over to me.

Like a coward, I took a step back when she got uncomfortably close.

"Ren," she said, "tell me something, anything that you don't like about me."