[Hiatus] A Hundred Nights in Sindria

Tears and Blood

Sindrian days of the citizens were always sunny and cheerful. I cannot compare it to the days Kou empire's people lived through since I did not have much of an opportunity to walk around on the streets of my own country, but I doubt any country would have such exciting and lively interactions as the locals of Sindria.

Since Sinbad missed quite a lot of paperworks for spending time with me, Ja'far finally had to drag him away. To compensate, he allowed me to take a tour among his people with Sharrkan and Pisti.

"Ooooh, what kind of insect is this?" I stopped in front of a merchant's stall and pointed to a wriggling red thing with what looked like pincers.

Pisti and Sharrkan's laughter bursted out without prior notice and both of them knelt down cradling their stomachs.

The merchant let out a small chuckle and explained that they weren't insects but some kind of seafood called "crabs". He also showed me an octopus, squid, and some funny looking seafood called a "shrimp". I have tasted the said creatures but whenever they were served, they were served aesthetically and beyond their original appearances.

"Hahaha, Pisti! Remember that time when Koutsuki called a crab an insect?" Sharrkan teased as we walked the streets to go back the castle.

"Pffft!! That's too cruel, princess. Apologize to all the crabs!" Pisti remarked before the two of them let go of their laughs again.

"Geez, I'm starting to think Sin didn't send you here to actually be my tour guides." I said questioningly.

"Oh! Bingo!" Sharrkan exclaimed.

"The king actually wanted us to trick you as much as possible with everything mundane that you weren't familiar with and report back to him of how cute his wife was acting." Pisti said with a giddy tone.

"Pffft! But we really didn't need to do anything! I can't wait 'til the king hears about everything though." Sharrkan said.

I sighed at the two of them trying to control the redness of my cheeks but failing amiably. A strong cold port breeze blew towards us and my dress flapped wildly. I had to turn away from the source of the wind to prevent it from seeping thoroughly from the slits positioned in the front. In the process my vision turned towards the forest by the edge of the kingdom.

"Can we..." I mumbled without taking my eyes away from the forest. "...go there?" I finished pointing towards the trees.

"The forest? Why so suddenly?" Sharrkan asked.

"Hmmm? I dunno. I just wanted to find out what a forest looks like." I reasoned.

"Oh well, we still have time. Why not?" Pisti said.

The forest, aside from having lots of trees and grass was really beautiful. I've only read about them in scrolls but my imagination, limited to what I have seen in the palace gardens, were very different and organized. The forest was disorderly, flowers grew out of rocks and untended grass looked refined when matched with nature's crisp and crystal clear pond at its center.

As I approached the crisp blue waters of the pond a body popped out which shocked the rukhs out of me, if there were any. I let out quite a loud scream. Loud enough for Sharrkan to unsheath his blade and jump im front of me in a protective stance. To our surprise, it was just Masrur taking an after training cleanse.

"You scared me." I managed to whisper putting a hand on my chest to feel my heart beating so fast.

"Geez Masrur! I thought an enemy managed to breakthrough our defenses." Sharrkan sighed.

"Ugh...sorry." Masrur replied.

While the three of us were busy conversing we didn't notice a bird bearing a message came to converse with Pisti. She approached us cheerfully.