Ash began to pant heavily, moving closer to a terrified Myan. The scared servant took fearful steps backwards, sobbing hard and using her arms as a facial shield.
He tossed the melted crown to the floor and repeated his words, "you are not the fourth princess!" He stamped his words with an angry roar.
Myan gasped and fell to her knees. She bowed her head until it touched the floor, "my lord!" She cried. "There has been a misunderstanding, it was not my intention to trick you, I promise." She had never felt so afraid in her entire life.
"Where is the fourth princess?" He asked her. She caught the change of skin shade from the corner of her eyes. Although he was still in his normal height, his skin was blood red, redder than when he took his beastly form.
"I asked you a question, where is the fourth princess?!" The word princess blended with an actual roar from him.
He was losing self control and the animal roar got her frozen to the floor. She couldn't dare to lift her head.
"I.. I don't know, my lord." Myan answered truthfully.
"How could the royal family have deceived me?'' He snapped, tossing a huge ball of fire that was formed from his clenched fist, at her. She dodged it with a slight move but the bed sheets caught on fire instead but nevertheless, he couldn't care less.
Myan graduated into wailing and did this on the top of her voice. "My lord, please..."
"Don't you dare say another word!" He was growing in size, again. She had enjoyed him in this firm when he had served as a means of transportation but right now, she knew she was not going to love him this way.
"They will pay for this, all of them! How dare this kingdom try to play me? The lord of the world of fire? They burned the wrong torch this time!" He bellowed, his voice echoing through the caves, "I will destroy them all." He concluded and turned to leave.
Myan gasped and stood to her feet sharply, the bed was smoking by now and the smoke was choking her. Soon, her wails were blended with coughing sounds but she hurried to grab his wrist with both her hands seeing as it was too huge in his current form.
"Lord please wait." She pulled him back. This had no effect at all, but he was taken aback by her audacity and stopped walking at once.
She only realized how tall the room was by now. He was still standing upright even with this size. It was so much pain to try and meet his eyes but she was determined to do everything to save the royal family.
"The ro..yal family has absolutely no..th..ing to do with this, th..ey will just be as sur..prised as y..ou are.." it was difficult to complete a sentence without cough getting in the way.
Ash was only interested in how she had dared to hold him back without the fear that he would strike her, that was uncommon. He focused on how she was coughing and frowned, reducing the tension in his voice. "Who are you?" He asked her again.
"I'm the fourth princess' personal servant." Myan answered his question.
That explained why she was coughing from mere fire. She never took part in the crossover. He thought. A fire citizen wouldn't cough from smoke. It was a lifestyle.
He snapped his fingers at the bed and that automatically put the fire out.
"Please lord," Myan realized how calm he was getting and thought it would be best if she took advantage of it. "If you listened to me I'd be able to explain everything to you." She returned to her former position.
Rather than oblige to her words, Ash lifted her up with a grab of her arm, "I've seen you before." It occurred to him now what had happened. You are the bear hunt from the night." He said through gritted teeth. "How dare you tie a marital knot with a lord?" He was holding so much energy back because he couldn't hit a woman.
Myan had nothing to do except cry. She was weak and tired and her hungry stomach was only making things worse.
Seeing how he would only be irritated by her tears, he tossed her onto the bed and restored himself back to his normal size. "Tomorrow, we leave for the palace. They have a lot to explain." He said in conclusion.
He walked out of that room in anger, leaving her all by herself.
Myan sniffed and watched him disappear from sight. She was still alive. Did this mean she got to live for a day more? It didn't matter. She sat on the floor and rested her arms on the bed, sobbing against the silk sheets that were ruined.
Not only was she a servant, she was now a married woman, covering for the princess or not. Wherever the fourth princess was, Mayan could only hope that she was safe and doing well over there.
She stopped crying after a while because her energy was so drained and soon enough, she fell into the camp of sleep.
*
The next morning, Myan, the light sleeper stirred awake when she heard footsteps in the bedroom. Before she had the chance to understand what was going on, a cotton material slapped her face. She caught it and winced her face from the cramps in her neck, leg and arms from sleeping in that position. Her hunger was the first thing she noted, thanks to her hurting stomach. The servants would be having a breakfast of rice by now, she thought.
"Change into that, we are leaving for the palace." Ash's blunt voice said.
She looked around and realized that it was still very early, the moon was still visible.
"T..the palace?" She stood to her feet, hugging the white dress he had thrown at her. She felt the weight from her bridal attire pulling her down.
Ash glared at her and she immediately understood his unspoken message that she was not supposed to be arguing with him.
He left the room so she could change her clothes. When he left, Myan sighed and began to slip out of the gown. She was exhausted, hungry and rest deprived.
She hurried to put her hair in a back bun when she was in the dress.
Not knowing if she was supposed to wait on the room or call for his attention, she decided to leave that bedroom.
"Lord Ash?" She called, peeking her head out of the room.
Instead of giving her a response, Ash just started walking. He had a brown shirt on and rough white pants. She mentally noted how he was mostly ever in a shade of brown, at least, since she had met him, he was.
She knew that he wanted her to just follow behind him so without saying anything, she did this. She hated how bad her morning breath was but she didn't find any charcoal to make her teeth clean.
He wasn't going into beast mode either and she knew this would be a long ride to the palace. Or was it? She wanted to know what he was doing when he sat on that tree branch but she dared not utter a word.
"Take my hand." He ordered. She would have appreciated how the wind played with his now wavy hair but she was mentally messed up.
She did just as he ordered and without an effort, he lifted her in the air with just as hand and set her on the branch next to him. He clapped his hands twice and spread them apart but loose strings of fire appeared between his palms.
He let the strings wander around until it wrapped around the ends of the branches. With a snap, the branches separated from the small tree that sheltered a stool close to the cave door.
She shrieked in fear as they set off in air. She felt like an evil witch travelling on a broomstick as she held on tight to the weak branch that looked like it couldn't bear her weight. Their individual branches traveled uniformly and sent them wild.
She thought of how many things he could with his fire powers as lord, but it was definitely worth it. The speed made her dizzy, draining the last of her strength but she couldn't complain. She hoped they arrived sooner than she would throw up.
*
Their branches flew over the palace gates without regards to respect. The courtyard had to be the lord's favourite part of the palace because that was exactly where they landed.
Myan could barely maintain her balance on her feet when her branch set her off and Ash unconsciously held her in place with a strong grip of her arm.
The courtyard was empty but he still managed to announce his presence with a loud call for the king.
The servants nearby scrambled onto the courtyard to find out what was going on while some of them went away to fetch the king and in no time, the courtyard was filled with the king and his wives. It was only a day after the wedding so they still looked weighed down by yesterday's recent, especially the second queen.
The king paid no attention to Myan, assuming she was just a servant that must have accompanied Ash here. "Lord Ash?" He stepped forward. "Wh..what brings you here?" He asked.
Ash frowned and pushed the weak Myan forward. She almost fell from his slight push.
"This is what happened." Ash snapped.
"Isn't that the fourth princess' servant?" Second queen came forward, holding her silk emerald dress in her hands. She didn't look so made over, one would think she had actually just lost a child.
"Why is she with you?" King Ron swallowed, having a bad feeling about what was currently happening.
"Tell us why you're here," Ash spoke in a calm, yet commanding tone.
Myan was beginning to feel dizzy but she fell to her knees, not caring what could happen to her anymore.
"The fourth princess eloped with her lover, she left." Myan spoke in a low voice.
The king and his wives expressed their shock anomaly. Second queen was frozen to the floor, unsure of what to do. She didn't think she heard right. She leaned forward and pulled Myan's shirt, getting her to stand to her feet. "What are you talking about?!"
"The fourth princess couldn't care to get married to another man and so she left with her lover and put me in her stead. I got married to the lord yesterday." Myan had no energy to sob.
A few servants were gathered in the courtyard by now to be their queen's entourage and Myan caught Hilda amongst them. The woman had a mocking look on her face.
"How dare you trick us all!" The second queen lost control and hit Myab across the face. That sent her stumbling backwards but she fell right on Ash.
"Do you know your punishment is inevitable?!" The miserable queen began to cry harder.
"Where have you taken my daughter to?" She wailed and raised her hand a second time but was stopped by Ash.
"I did not bring this woman here for you to hit." He reminded her with a scornful look and threw her hand back by her side. He turned to look at Myan whose cheek was red by now and her eyes had gone glassy with tears.
"Where has the fourth princess gone?" He asked her.
"I don't know." Myan truthfully responded.
"Then tell me everything there is to know about this relationship. If you lie to me, I will slit your throat without hesitation." He warned her, glaring deep into her eyes in anger.
"I'm sorry lord, but I cannot." She went back to her knees and bowed her head. "I have to remain faithful to the fourth princess, I really have to." She sobbed.
"Very well." Ash sneered. His skin turned a bright red instantly and a new part of him that she had never seen was birthed. His eyes went all white as he stared at King Harvey.
The king who had been too shocked to speak this whole time began to hold his neck, choking on nothing. It was as though he was being invisibly strangled.
"This king will fall to his knees and die if you don't give me an answer." Ash's voice sounded like three men were speaking at the same time.
The servants bowed in front of him and the other queens tried to save their husband, rushing to his side and holding his hands, crying in fear.
"I'll speak!" Myan couldn't watch the scene, and gave in instantly.
"I promise, I will!" She cried.
Ash released the king from his bondage and went full human again. He moved closer to Myan, crouched low on one knee and lifted her chin up to look at him. "Then speak at once…"
*
In details, Myan explained how Kassy used to secretly have Achu over, to how they left on the wedding day, purposely leaving the part about their expecting child out.
"Send in your toughest guards." Ash commanded the terrified king after listening to the ear bleeding story. He was beyond furious and was determined to show the senseless princess how wrong it was to try to trick him that way.
Meanwhile, second queen remained seated on the floor, crying about how oblivious they were to her daughter's emotions. She didn't think she was going to recover from this shock anytime soon.
The king had no idea what Ash was about to do, but he nodded in obedience.
The royal guards were soon marching into the courtyard after one servant had alerted them.
"I want you to listen to me." Ash put his hands behind him and began to pace around Myan. "In one week, you have to find the fourth princess and send her to me alive. Just one week." He made sure to exaggerate the sentence.
"When one week is up, if I don't have the fourth princess here, there will be trouble in this land." He was panting heavily as he spoke. "I want you to send a message to the world of water, tell them the lord of the world of fire is bringing war. Their citizen has messed with me and if they don't get him here in a week, they will be burning to ashes." This threat made a lot of people gasp.
Neither world had crossed paths in a long time after the first war hundreds of years back. The people from the world of water were considered weak and useless.
"This one…" he said and picked Myan up with one wrist, slinging her onto his back, "will stay with me until the princess is back. I'll need her alive till then, there are a few more things I need to ask." With that, he began his travel back method from the previous day, hopping like a frog.
Myan wrapped her arms around him, crying as they went. She had sold her princess away. There was no betrayal greater…
*
It was night time when they got back to Ash's mountain and this time, Myan knew that she was going to die from hunger.
She hoped he wouldn't talk to her and just let her sleep like he had done the night before.
She walked behind him silently as he went to the bedroom.
She was afraid to speak, scared to say something that could end her life.
"It's night time, isn't it?" Ash turned around to look at her where she stood by the door with her head slightly bowed.
"Yes, my lord." Myan called in a shaky voice.
He continued to move closer to her and when he was only inches apart, he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "you brought this on yourself when you married me, so you will act like a wife." He wrapped one hand around her neck, "we missed our wedding night, you will satisfy me in bed now."
Just then, Myan understood what he was saying and her eyes widened. How could she tell this man that she had never been touched before?
He pressed his body even closer to her and she knew she was doomed. His member was standing erect against her belly.
"Please me, servant." He said.