The age of Bangna

The importance of a name

It becomes routine for Mix to visit the prince every single day, making sure that he is healing properly and changing the dressings to clean ones. Technically that's all he needed to do but Mix can't help but stay a bit longer on his visits making sure that he is progressing in the right way. He helps the prince sit up, letting him lean on his shoulders to help move him to the chair facing the balcony. The prince quickly gets bored laying only in his bed, at least he can get some fresh air from the balcony in this way. He sighs closing his eyes for a moment before looking up at Mix arranging his medicine bag and checking the vials present. He sees the utmost concentration with which Mix checks each vial making sure it's the right one, noticing that whenever Mix was concentrating hard his eyebrows would scrunch up, his eyes sharp and his cheeks puffed up. He's used to his presence and habits now with Mix refusing to skip a day and adamant in making sure he recovers his health quickly but he's grateful, time moves more quickly with Mix beside him. He smiles to himself as Mix narrows his eyes at him catching him staring, the latter making his way to the balcony carrying a vial filled with an amber liquid dotted with specks of herbs. He takes them immediately and drinks them, signalling to Mix to sit beside him as they were two chairs present overlooking the balcony.

Mix sits down leaning back, the view from the balcony was breath-taking as the rest of Bangna lay before them, always active and busy, its character lively and loud. Different people were milling about, workers, servants, guards and small children as they ran after each other. Mix smiled at the scene before him, he missed the quiet village of his, but he didn't miss it as much as he thought he would as he looked at the prince beside him. He's noticed that ever since these two weeks they have gotten closer, the prince started to look at him differently, more intensely but Mix couldn't actually describe it only that he didn't hate it. They talked a lot into the quiet of the mornings and late evenings when the castle was the most inactive. Sometimes about trivial matters but at other times, the prince grew quiet before disclosing something a bit heavier, Mix listening diligently knowing that the trust they have developed lately was precious and not to be taken lightly.

"You've completely healed now, only need the bruises to pass on their own with time, from tomorrow you can start training again," Mix said as he took the empty vials to put them in his bag. He didn't hear any response from the prince, the other remaining quiet sitting on his chair and looking in front of him. "Did you hear me?" Mix says again sitting back down causing the prince to turn around to face him leaning his back "I heard you" he continued before giving Mix a brief smile "Can you tell me a story?"
"What story?" Mix asked confused, the prince's expression was different today if Mix didn't know any better he would say he looked disappointed. He should be happy that he can finally leave his room and return to normal Mix thought. "Any story would do, maybe one from your village perhaps?" the prince asked, "Can you indulge me on this?"
Mix nodded thinking hard about what story he could possibly tell, they were many but most of them involved his magic and he's not too sure the prince would enjoy that even if he can just pretend that he made it up. He smiles to himself having found the perfect one to tell after a moment. He looked up at the man sitting beside him whose concentration was already focused completely on him. Mix tried to not let his voice break as he started, the prince's gaze never leaving him distracting him a bit.
"Well, I know this might come as shocking" Mix started "but I was a really quiet and shy child growing up, always sticking by my mother and grabbing onto the fabric of her skirt whenever someone I didn't know tried to talk to me. I never had friends when I was young cause I was too scared to talk to people I didn't know", Mix takes a deep breath before continuing to think about how he can continue his story without disclosing that he was too scared to meet people because of his magic "I always felt different growing up, never quite fitting in with the others in the village, I almost felt like an outsider sometimes and that made me unable to develop any friendships until...". Mix stopped then, he couldn't help but let out a smile at the next part coming up, the prince looking up at him expectantly to continue the story leaning a bit forwards "until I was forced against my will by one of the most annoying and loud people I have ever met, He quite literally forced me to talk to him by following me around and not letting me out of his sight. He said that he will leave me alone if I just talked to him, I still don't know why he was so adamant about becoming my friend but I'm grateful to him for pushing me. We became really close then, sticking by each other's side, the village itself always assuming that we were together if one of us was missing. He got us into trouble so many times and I had to cover for him because no one believed him if he said it wasn't him. He still owns me for all the trouble I got him out of "Mix finishes.