𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗢𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶 𝗧𝗮𝗱𝗸𝗮: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐫𝐚 𝐎𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞

7. Life's Mission

"Don't look him in the eyes."

"He is the monster who killed his own pregnant mother when he was a child." "I've heard he even tried killing his brother."

"Don't talk to him or cross paths with him."

Wafaa stared at the ceiling blankly, the words she had heard people say when they were in the market ringing in her head. They couldn't go unnoticed when people clearly got scared and moved away from him as they were walking around. How he maintained a distance between them when walking so it doesn't seem like Wafaa was with him. How he stood at a distance watching her paint the portrait from afar. She had won, and the old man had offered her a job to paint portraits with him on the day of the festival which she gladly accepted since she would've gotten bored anyways. However, her mind was flooded with these thoughts instead of getting excited about her first official job.

She removed Bara's hand from her waist, silently getting up from the bed and went to stand by the window, looking at the dark sky deep in her thoughts. Her forest green eyes moved downwards, to find a figure standing in the darkness of the night in the backyard, staring at the sky from there.

Sensing a presence since he was a great observer, his brown eyes shifted in her direction. Forest green eyes against wooden brown. She always found them intriguing. She wanted to know about his story. What had made him look so lifeless? How could he always mask his emotions with that blank face? She was going to find out, no matter what. As always he was the first one to break the eye contact, leaving.

The next three days went by really fast as happy and good times always seem to fly in a blink of an eye. Bara and Qasymbek's 'dosti' had developed a lot, but he still spent most of his time teasing her while she had slowly started getting used to it so she sometimes played along and sometimes sulked.

Wafaa had tried asking about Qussay around the palace but everyone was too scared to talk about it as if it was forbidden to even think about it. When Bara would be busy with Qasymbek, she tried talking to Qussay but all she got was, "Stay away from me." Or, "Don't talk to me."

Determined to find out about his past, Wafaa sneaked out of the palace to the market one day before the festival since everyone in the palace were busy with the preparations. She knew the rumors couldn't be true, but she needed to know why did such rumors spread and catch up on something at least.

The market was also crowded as people were busy decorating it for the festival which was inviting the people to the town from all around the kingdom. It was going to be a source of huge income to the sole traders businesses in the market.

She saw the familiar middle-aged woman from that day, she had pulled her daughter to the side calling Qussay a monster, but Wafaa heard it as he was still a few steps away walking in his thoughts, or so she thought.

"The wolf's shadow?" The woman gasped, her eyes looking around to see if anyone heard them. "You shouldn't ask about him openly like that. You could end up in trouble, young girl." She pulled Wafaa to a corner, sitting on the log. "If you want to know, I'll tell you the story. But," she stared at the stone tied as a necklace around Wafaa's neck. Getting the hint, Wafaa touched the stone. Bara and she had gotten these two same stones together and made each other these, she couldn't just give it.

"How about.....these bangles?" Wafaa took off the two same bangles which she wore on both her arms each. The woman grabbed them and examined their quality. Satisfied, she grinned.

"I've also heard this story from my mother, who saw it happening with her own eyes. The black wolf and his shadow, they are step brothers. One was the cause of his mother's death when he took birth. While the other, he was a born monster. Well, his mother was also a cheater running