"S-Sorry... I will get off you."
Mohsen forgot his head was hit and the pain was numbing his sense, he opened his eyes to see Yilas's face only a few inches away.
'Why this isn't a bad sight.' He thought to himself before Yilas could stand up, he grabbed the hand which was right next to his ears. A part of him didn't want this moment to end.
Caught in a daze, Mohsen stretched out his right arm to tuck Yilas long hair behind her ears, it was tickling his face funny. Moreover, it would give him a better sight. At the moment, Mohsen could only focus on her face, the pale skin that felt as if it was transparent in the sunlight. He glazed his hands over her cheek slightly, his finger brushed across the flustering closed lashes.
"Tea-Teacher...?" Yilas called out to Mohsen but he wasn't hearing it, his eyes fixated on her cheek. Yilas thought he might have hit his head worst than she anticipated.
After a few seconds, Mohsen finally came back to reality, catching his own hand her acting on its own. He slowly sat up and Yilas, who was crawling on all four, sat close to him, making sure his head was okay.
"Are you alright? Do you need to get check out?" Yilas inched closer, she was trying to see the head over the covering hand of Mohsen.
"No, no, it's fine."
Seeing Mohsen reluctantly accepted her concerns, Yilas flopped down on the side. Mohsen was still embarrassed for his actions, his face turned bright red like a tomato, he couldn't even look Yilas in the eye. The two sat quietly for a while before Yilas gathered the courage to start a new conversation.
"Hey, Teach, that man from earlier sounded he knew you. Do you know who that was?" Yilas curled up her legs and started to munch on her bread again.
"That... That was Zassar, another general of the court." Mohsen had to cough to clear his hoarse throat before gaining back his normal voice. "He worked directly under Master Bryok right now but he mainly controls security forces of the city. But don't worry, he hasn't realized you were the one in the wanted. I'm sure he approached you just because you're a female, I've seen you done the same thing to other females before."
"He doesn't seem very nice..." Yilas murmured, thinking back to what he could have done, YIlas felt a chill running through her body. "Oh, right, I never ask what do you do, teacher?"
"A little bit of everything, I guess, sometimes I work under Master Haindran to take care of the affairs but most times I just do whatever Madam Mame is missing out on. So I am like her substitute sometimes." Mohsen's job was actually more complicated than that since he was personally trained by Mame, he always knew she wanted him to take over her role eventually. Which weighted a lot of responsibility on his shoulders since he was only 13 years old.
"So you must know why Master Bryok holds me, hostage, here..." Yilas was hesitant to ask but a big part of her wanted to know.
Mohsen was unsure what to tell her, he rolled his hand in a fist as he felt angered by what Bryok wanted to do to her. He sighed and looked at Yilas, her eyes opened big watching him sincerely, she looked like a puppy begging for an answer. Mohsen's eyes drooped, his heart was hit with a sudden unknown sadness.
"At full moon, you will be sacrificed to the beast-gods in a chance of saving Madame Mame."
Mohsen's every word was like bullets being fired at Yilas, her body frozen solid, she had expected the worst but knowing it so soon came to a shock to her.
"Sa-sacrificed?" Yilas voice trembled, it barely escaped her pale lips.
Mohsen slowly nodded, he had thought she already knew.
"Yes, a blood sacrifice, under the moonlight of a full moon, all blood from the nine-tail fox must be transferred to Mame. It will then give her a new life."
"Is Mame sick?"
"She... Many years ago she was bitten by a venomous beast on one of her conquests, it had made her life span shortened and she couldn't bear any offspring. Over the years we had tried many things to save her but her time is running out, half a year from now at most."
Surprised, confused, and saddened, Yilas couldn't process her emotion all at once, her mouth was opened wide and gasped for air but nothing came out. Why was Mame kept all this a secret from her, she was speechless.
"B-But why? That's absurd! There's no way killing me would save her..." Yilas couldn't wrap her head around the illogical way of thinking, she might not know much about the extend of magic in this world but there was something she was sure of, her new life was in great danger.
Mohsen looked deep into Yilas's desperate eyes, she was on the verge of breaking down, her boney shoulders were shaking vigorously. The only thing he knew what to do was to held her arms tightly, stop her from letting fear ruining her mind.
"Hey! Hey! Stop it. I know, alright, I get it! It's gonna be alright, I wouldn't let that happen." Didn't know what came over him, Mohsen hugged Yilas, he squeezed her as if she was going to disappear into thin air. A part of him was secretly scared even the slightest chance that she might. "We will figure something out!" Mohsen whispered as he pulled Yilas away, he immediately put some distance between the two and faked coughing to hide his nervousness.
Yilas was even more shocked by how sympathetic Mohsen was, he didn't yell at her like he always did. She sat still and thought about ways to get her out of this difficult situation.
"I am not the nine-tail fox, why does everyone keep telling me that I am?" Yilas hid her face between her knees, she felt frustrated to the point of crying, but no tears could escape her eyes.
"Well... you fit the description!" Mohsen took one look at her the first time and he knew instantly, no wonder Bryok recognized her even quicker.
"What if I changed the way I look?" Yilas looked to Yilas enthusiastically.
"I won't bother, Master Bryok had already seen you, he already had his mind made."
"What if I ran away, as long as I stay hidden to pass the full moon, I will be free right?"
"Free until when? Until he finds you again and have you locked up even in more security just for the next full moon? Besides getting in here is easy but to get out, that's almost impossible." Mohsen shook his head from side to side if it wasn't him who made plans for the guards here it would have been an easy task for them to escape.
"I can't just sit here and wait for my death." Yilas had done that one time, she wouldn't go back to that route again this time.
"I'm not saying you are! I think I might have a plan."
Mohsen smiled, as bright as a beautiful beacon of hope in the dark stormy night.