(Book 4) Hayden Mackay and The Fest of Vrindahina

2.Matter of Hearts

It was a perfect day for an Autumn evening walk.

I was trying to admire the crisp copper pine leaves flowing gently in the air over the shallow side of the lake, and I could make out a shoal of golden fishes swimming beneath the clear water, but the picturesque surroundings around me didn't help with current state of my mind.

I was sitting down on the dusty shore all alone since past hour, my feet touching the cool water, my elbows over my knees pulled up. Thinking about him over and over again, only increased my fear of losing him forever, yet I couldn't manage to rip away the thought out of me.

I never imagined getting so close to someone in a span of just few months. But he made it possible , Tyrell Kissler made it possible.

"I am not coming back to the academy, Hayden. I have taken my decision."

"Where were you when I needed you the most, where were you ?"

My throat got constricted and I felt a thick bile coming up just thinking about it. I needed to distract myself and for it I shifted my attention away from the fishes to check up on the kids from the orphanage playing a few outdoor games. I smiled sadly looking at their innocence and joy at simple things in life. But the diversion was temporary. My mind pulled me back to the thing I haven't tried it since morning, and now I couldn't resist.

"Tyrell?" I whispered, concentrating a lot on my cornelian and on his cheerful face, "Please talk to me. Ty..."

A soft gentle hand pressing on my shoulder stopped me from saying no more. I pressed my eyes shut. I was caught once again for a millionth time since past five months. I immediately dropped my connection and turned back to face the nagging I was going to get from her.

"He is not going to respond," Leena Savant said, politely, "When are you going to accept it?"

"It isn't easy," I replied, "I was so pathetic that day... Leena, it's killing me."

"Hayden, don't start," she hedged, "We have been through this. How many times have I told you not to be alone, but you never listen to me."

Another person, besides me, Tyrell knowingly or unknowingly hurt the most was Leena. She was putting up an act of being happy but people close to her would only know that she wasn't. She was sitting next to me, trying to cheer me up, but there were times when I had seen her sneaking into Tyrell's room in a hope to see him there, even though she knew it was useless.

"Did you read King Harsh's scroll?" she asked.

I sighed in slight exasperation. Apart from repeatedly asking me to not to stay alone, she kept pestering me to read my so called grandfather's scroll. The two days after Tyrell's fiasco when we came back to the academy, the first thing I did was to dump the wooden scroll in some corner of my room, and I never looked at it again.

"You know my answer," I said, "Leena if you are interested, you are more than welcome to read it."

She creased her brow as if she wanted to say how wrong it is to barge into a dead old person's private affairs.

"Not with you around!" she said instead, making me snigger.

After finding out more about my grandfather, the way he had ruled his kingdom, I didn't mind showing my friends how sorry I was feeling to be born in the same family as him. Probably it wasn't Shashi, but rightfully it was because of the King of Rawat's meaningless decisions that killed our parents. Leena, since she realized that my impression on the king wasn't so positive, she took upon herself to change my opinion about him and her solution was to force me read his whole life history to know him better.