章 6: Amber Eyes

Lorelai felt as if her body no longer belonged to her.

Pulled by some kind of an invisible force, hypnotized by the dancing orange lights ahead of her, her legs began to move without her permission, and before she knew it, the princess was already standing among the tall colorful tents sprawled across the square, long, colorful string lights hanging over them akin to chained fireflies.

Even though the festival seemed like the epitome of color and light, the celebrations among the nomads looked absolutely ethereal.

The air was thick with the scent of spiced meats, burning incense, and the faint sweetness of wildflowers crushed beneath the dancing feet.

Laughter and music mingled in the air, the rhythmic strumming of lutes and tambourines blending with the haunting melodies of flutes that echoed through the loud night.

Brightly colored tents, covered with vibrant fabrics and strings of flickering lanterns, surrounded the open clearing where the real celebration took place.

A large group of people, men, women, and children mixed together, moved with fluid grace, their brightly embroidered skirts and headbands twirling in time with the music, their bare feet dancing on the cool paving stone.

Flickers of firelight danced across their skin, casting warm shadows as couples spun together beneath the wide starry sky, their dark eyes locked in silent exchanges that spoke of love, passion, and unshakable harmony.

Children ran freely, their laughter harmonizing with the music, while elders looked on with fond smiles, sipping from cups of spiced wine.

Everywhere, there was movement, color, and life, a celebration of freedom, of tradition, and of the bonds that tied them all together. And that alone made Lorelai feel incredibly out of place.

All of a sudden, someone grabbed her by the wrist, pulling the princess deeper into the moving circle of dancers. Startled and lost in the moment, she could not understand what was happening and when she finally came back to her senses, she was holding a large cup of warm spiced wine while a tall, gorgeous woman was looking down at her with intense black eyes.

"Drink!"

It was a rather loud and stern command, but something in the woman's voice felt somewhat welcoming.

Spreading her red lips into a wide smile, the woman brought the cup closer to Lorelai's face and repeated. "Drink!"

As if bewitched, once again, the princess found herself unable to resist. Closing her eyes as if scared of the aromatic red liquid inside the cup, she emptied it completely, exhaling loudly as she opened her eyes again.

It was strange. The moment her lips moved away from the rim of the cup, her entire body felt light and loose and the annoying throbbing in her right hip almost vanished completely.

'What was it?' She wondered inwardly, utterly bewildered. 'Was it a potion?'

She raised her eyes to face the Gypsy woman again and the latter smiled, taking back the empty cup. "Want some more?"

Lorelai wanted more. Even if it was poison, somehow, she wanted to taste it again.

"Yes," she nodded timidly, "please."

The woman laughed so loudly that it almost felt as if the earth was about to split from her laughter alone. She grabbed the princess by her skinny wrist and pulled her deeper into the moving crowd, snatching a new cup from a passing teenage girl while tossing the empty one onto the ground.

Without saying a word, she offered it to Lorelai and when the latter downed it too, the Gypsy woman pushed her forward and the princess was instantly pulled into a bizarre dance.

Spinning and jumping, she found herself surrounded by laughing women, holding their hands while tapping their feet or twirling their long black skirts embroidered with large colorful flowers.

Everyone moved so fast that Lorelai could not even catch her own movements, getting completely lost in the shared frenzy of a chaotic dance.

At last, feeling dizzy and lightheaded, she managed to detach herself from the crowd and hid behind one of the tents, struggling to catch her breath. Strangely, her leg was not throbbing even after so much movement, but she credited it to being drunk.

The moment the princess felt like she could breathe again, she spotted an old woman smoking a long pipe in front of the entrance to the opposite tent.

Staggering, Lorelai walked up to the woman, adjusting the hood of her cloak to make sure she would not see her face.

"Excuse me," she started quietly, "do you... do you know where I can buy a potion? I mean..."

She could not finish her thought as the old woman moved the piper away from her lips and motioned for the princess to follow her inside the tent.

As Lorelai stepped inside after the woman, her nostrils were instantly hit with the intense scent of herbs and scented tobacco, and her already intoxicated head began to spin once more.

It did not help that it was intimately dark inside the tent with only a couple of oil lamps throwing long black shadows from the opposite corners.

The old woman took a seat behind the small round table covered with a colorful cloth and motioned for the princess to take a seat opposite of her.

In that darkness, Lorelai spotted several other women, all of different ages, sitting behind another round table positioned to her left. Their dark, almost black eyes were firmly fixed on the strange guest, their heavy gold jewelry flickering with each subtle movement of their bodies.

Once Lorelai was seated, the old Gypsy woman took another drag from her long pipe and grinned as she slowly puffed the fragrant smoke out.

"You are here to buy a potion. What kind of potion do you need?"

Lorelai hesitated. She still could not believe that she was sitting in the Gypsy tent, ready to buy a bottle of poison that would kill her.

Shifting her deep green eyes to her left, she felt a shiver running down her spine as the other women glared at her with a look of subtle mockery.

Perhaps it was a mistake. But she could not recoil now.

"Poison," she finally blurted out unexpectedly loudly. "It's... for me."

Lorelai prepared herself to face a strong negative reaction to her confession, but the old woman only turned her face to her right and nodded at a young short girl at the other table.

"Deynara. Bring your brother here."

The girl nodded back and quickly left the tent, following the old woman's order.

All the women finally moved their sharp eyes away from the princess while the old woman leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, puffing another cloud of fragrant smoke.

"It won't take long."

Lorelai was beginning to feel restless and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Who was that brother that had to be brought there? Was he the one making the poison?

Somehow, she felt strange to have to deal with a man.

As they waited in total silence, the wine she had drunk, started working again, and her body felt limp while her eyelids turned heavy. She was scared to fall asleep in a familiar place like that, but it was beginning to feel impossible to fight her drowsiness.

Suddenly, she flinched as her body reacted to a strong but rather new scent that seemed to have entered the tent.

It was a distinct smell of something woody and musky, mixed with scented tobacco, but not the same as the one smoked by the old woman.

The scent began to intensify and Lorelai realized that whoever was carrying it was getting closer to her.

Dazed, she slowly turned her head to the right and opened her eyes only to see a pair of bright amber orbs looking down at her.

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章 7: Ask Me Again

It had to be that dream again!

Lorelai tried to focus her vision but her hazy mind refused any form of perception. Only that distinct, absolutely astonishing pair of amber eyes was as clear as ever and it was looking down at her with almost unbearable intensity.

"Help the girl get home, will you?"

The old woman's voice seeped through the thick fog inside the princess' head, forcing her to turn her head back to her. Before she could object to those words, a strong pair of arms lifted Lorelai from her chair and cradled her carefully, enveloping her body with a strong yet warm and soothing scent of something both woody and leathery.

"But... I came here to buy––!"

Suddenly, Lorelai's mind became crystal clear and she realized what was happening––a tall and undeniably strong man was pressing her against his broad chest, marching resolutely out of the tent.

The princess wanted to object once again but as she raised her eyes to see the man's face, she found herself speechless.

He was gorgeous.

The type of gorgeous she only read about in books. No one she had ever seen in her entire life could compare to him.

Long, strong neck, sharp jawline, full lips and perfectly sculpted nose, slightly narrowed amber eyes, framed by long and thick black eyelashes, and dark eyebrows, slightly furrowed, forming a tiny crease of annoyance between them.

His shoulder-length dark-brown curly hair was tied loosely behind his neck, complimenting his smooth and flawless tanned skin.

Two small gold earrings shone almost blindingly as they reflected the dimmed lights of orange lanterns, and little red rubies shaped like tears reminded her of tiny drops of blood.

His frame was wide and strong, muscles bulging underneath the light black summer attire, and every time he took a shallow breath in, his big chest rose, adding to his already intimidating demeanor.

Lorelai was stunned. Were all Gypsy men this handsome?

They could not be. She had seen some of them dancing; most of them were tall, but none looked nearly as strong. Or nearly as beautiful.

"Where do you live?"

His low, slightly harsh voice snapped the princess out of her trance, and she suddenly realized that the hood of her cloak was down, exposing her appearance.

'Does he not recognize me?'

Lorelai felt weird to be in the presence of someone who did not know who she was. It was a relief, of course, and quite refreshing at the same time.

But if the man did not know who she was, it meant she could not tell him where she really lived. Even if the rumors were true and Gypsies did not care for the royal family, she could not risk any mistakes.

In the moment's confusion, the princess wanted to tell him to just let her go and go back to his people, however, the annoying throbbing in her hip was beginning to bother her again, and she had to admit that it would probably be impossible for her to get back to the palace on her own.

There was no helping it; she had to resort to another solution.

"Could you take me to the nearest inn, please?"

"Why?" The man's frown deepened, "you don't have a home?"

"I-I do!" Lorelai stammered as his intense glare met her eyes again. "But I can't go there now... I have to wait."

The stranger sighed but still complied, wrapping his strong arms tightly around the princess. Fastening his steps, he made a couple of turns away from the Capital Square, and soon after, the two of them were in an old town inn, shrouded in the darkness of a small, but somewhat comfortable room.

Slowly lowering Lorelai's body onto the bed, the man took a good look at her tiny form, before letting out another sigh. "Lock your door. It is not safe to stay here alone at night."

With that rather cold warning, he turned around to leave, but before he could make the first step, the princess suddenly grabbed him by the sleeve of his loose black shirt.

Startled, he turned around abruptly, his burning gaze intensifying again, and although Lorelai flinched from his sudden movement, she did not let go of his sleeve. In fact, despite a visible tremor in her entire body, she tried to remain composed. With her big green eyes firmly fixed on his, she blurted out almost desperately,

"Will you sleep with me?"

For a few seconds, the man remained completely silent and motionless; only his strong chest was rising and falling slowly as he breathed.

At last, his amber eyes flickered with something wicked and his lips stretched into a grin.

"What?"

The momentary confidence Lorelai possessed mere moments ago vanished completely and she felt her heart jump up to her throat.

Clutching the man's sleeve tighter as if scared that he would run away if she let go, she averted her eyes for a moment but then looked back at the man, and decided to press on.

There was no going back. She had already come this far, she could not go back to her hellish life without nothing at all.

"I... I will pay you! A lot!"

Lorelai detached a small silk pouch from the belt of her dress and threw it on the nightstand next to the bed, the sound of gold coins colliding echoed loudly through the quiet room.

"I need to... I need to do something! I cannot go back like this!"

"You need to do something?"

The man looked at the silk pouch, then shifted his eyes back to the princess, curling his lips into a wider smirk as he stepped closer to her.

Recoiling slightly, Lorelai nodded and this time, her voice sounded more sad than desperate. "They did not give me what I came here for, but I... I just... I want to do something for myself. Something of my own. Something... they cannot take away from me, no matter what."

The tone of her voice as well as the hidden meaning behind her words made the man frown again.

Just what was the meaning of all this? Was she still drunk? If so, he did not want it.

He leaned forward, placing his arms at the princess' sides, almost trapping her under his chest. Suddenly, his expression changed, and the intense frown disappeared from his face completely, turning into a look of bewilderment and perhaps even shock.

For a few long moments, the man was just looking down at her, her burning amber eyes unblinking, but his breathing deepened as if he was trying to fill his lungs to the brim with each inhale.

Lorelai was at a loss. The stranger, leaning over so closely to her, now looked utterly intimidating and she was scared that he was thinking of doing something dangerous to her, but then, all of a sudden, his lips parted with a heavy sigh, and he whispered almost pleadingly, "If you really want to do this... then ask me again."

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