Diana felt ignored.
She hadn't expected her only family and love to give her a cold shoulder, not after she had been rescued with a fatal injury.
Though we can't say she was starving all these days, she didn't get to eat something healthy either. She was still wearing some ragged men's clothing. She hadn't washed well these past few days as well. Also, her blood was sucked out by some hideous beast leaving behind a huge scar on her wrist.
She looked nothing better than a homeless beggarwoman!
But these two men couldn't care less! They were just fine which made her ghastly.
Her father continued to stand by the treehouse entrance and refused to look in her direction.
Wyatt although looking in her direction, kept avoiding her gaze.
She gawked at the two men and finally broke the silence!
"If you are that much reluctant to face me, why did you even save me in the first place?"
Her father who was standing by the door stepped outside the treehouse.
"What the...", she turned to Wyatt. He was still carefully bandaging her wound with clean gauze and was still avoiding her as if her gaze is some kind of plague!
She was exhausted, weak, and wounded. So she didn't want to start a squabble. She gritted her teeth and kept quiet.
She waited for him to finish.
"Wyatt", she called him in a little voice.
"Uncle!", Wyatt called her father instead of answering her.
Her father who was standing by the door leaned and looked inside that treehouse. His eyes fell on Diana before they drifted to Wyatt.
"You go back with them. I'll bring her back in a while."
Her father nodded with an audible sigh and descended to the ground.
Diana was so sure that her father is angry from the way he looked.
But why? It was not her fault that she was left alone in the field. Also, she entered the forest just because she wanted to save Wyatt. She had no other options.
Once her father climbed down the ladder, she heard some hubbub then it deadened.
Their behavior displeased her so started to play with the hem of the white shirt she was wearing ignoring the two.
"Hide your face with this", Wyatt suddenly broke the silence and handed over a long black cloth."
She confusedly looked at him with a frown.
"Please, Diana!", said Wyatt.
She silently took that cloth from his hand and wore it around her head then wrapped her lower face with the rest of that long cloth. When she finished, only her forehead and eyes were not hidden.
Wyatt had been looking at her the whole time. Once she finished and looked up, he leaned a bit closer and reached out his hands to her head. He pulled the cloth a bit down hiding her forehead with it.
He sat back and looked at her once, carefully before standing up.
Diana had been observing him too. He was not the normal Wyatt she had known.
Since they were alone there, she thought she should ask him what's wrong.
"Don't you have anything else to say?"
He turned towards her and maintained his quietness.
"But of course, I'm happy that you are safe", she continued.
Her eyes were already misty but she tried her best to hold back the tears since she didn't want to look so weak in front of him.
Though she had already drifted her gaze away from him, she could feel that he was still looking at her, unwaveringly.
He was still extremely reticent.
"Was it you who saved me?"
"No!"
"Then..."
"That day I came out of the wall searching you. I searched for you everywhere and finally entered the forest. Someone knocked me down and dragged me back to the castle.
"The castle?"
"Yes"
"I was unconscious all these days. I woke up this morning"
"Are you fully healed now?"
"...I don't know"
"But Wyatt you should be resting now"
"How could I do so when you are lost?"
".....", now it was her turn to keep quiet.
"Your father returned last night and was already going crazy searching you!"
".....", Diana attentively listened.
"Finally we found you here"
"You found me... here?"
"Yeah. You were sleeping here"
"Here?"
"Yeah, here, in this treehouse"
"Oh", Diana just nodded.
Diana lowered her head and bit her lip as she felt guilty. Her father and Wyatt had been through a lot these days.
Also, she felt guiltier as she had to hide the whole wolf thing from these two.
She didn't want Ray in danger. She had been worried about him but now that she knew they found her in this treehouse, she was happy and peaceful.
But did Ray bring her back to the treehouse?
There is no way for Ray to climb up this treehouse while dragging her, without waking her up.
How she came back to the treehouse is still a mystery yet, she was not very surprised.
She let it go since many things that surrounded Ray was mysterious.
'Ray must be safe. There is a high chance for his wolf friends to have found him already. He must be probably very happy no', she thought then smiled.
"Why are you smiling?", a sudden question was directed towards her.
"I... smiled because we are all safe"
Wyatt looked at her with a frown then moved to the entrance of that treehouse.
Diana followed him.
The walk back to the village was wordless. Wyatt observed the surrounding for some reason and avoided the crowds on the way back.
When they entered the gate, he pulled her near and seemingly hid her beside him. The two walked side by side to her house.
Diana's father was one of the peasants in that village who had a double-story house. A double-story house in Ruthernglan meant wealth! Only a very few of the families there had these double-story houses.
If it was the capital, we could see at least a five-story house in every street. Mostly all these houses had at least three-story.
When they almost reached the house Wyatt pulled her into an alley and guided her to the back door. From there they used the steps and entered the first floor.
Although it was a house with double floors, it was not a big house. The upper floor contained only a small living room-like structure and Diana's bedroom.
Diana followed Wyatt and entered her bedroom.
Her father was already there with an old woman.
This woman was a familiar figure. She was their village physician.
When Wyatt stepped forward, her father left the room after giving him a kind look and nod.
Wyatt removed the cloth covering her head himself and pushed a chair in front of her.
"Sit down", he calmly stated.
Though she felt a bit uneasy with someone new in that room, she kept quiet and obeyed.
Wyatt removed the bandage on her hand then the woman walked to her and stood in front of her.
She lifted Diana's chin once and looked at her face, her forehead to be precise for a while. She frowned once, then she calmly grabbed Diana's left hand and lifted it.
She continued frowning as she looked at the wound.
After a few seconds, she turned towards Wyatt shaking her head side to side.
"Is it something serious?", he asked.
"I have never seen anything like this"
Diana's eyes widened as she continued to hear the physician's dramatic words.
"It's beyond me"
Diana looked at her wounded hand. Isn't it just a simple wound?
"You should ask the castle physician!", the physician continued.
The castle physician?
Not in her life. This so-called castle physician is another man Diana hated in that village. Diana had known that the castle physician had been using the animals captured by the hunters for medical researches. Diana didn't want to use the medicine prepared by him. She didn't want to be treated with his help. it would be a shame!
"I'm fine", she cut in, "No need to bring him here!", she continued.
The physician's face showed little surprise.
As someone who knew her very well, Wyatt understood exactly why she hated the physician so he didn't argue on this. He thanked the physician and went down with her to see her out.
Diana awaited his return since she had to discuss a lot with him, but Wyatt was not back for a long time.
Since she was exhausted Diana went to bed early that day.
She slept the whole day off in her favorite, comfortable and lovely bed then woke up when it was dusk.
When she freshened herself up and was ready to head downstairs she heard a drum sound. It was the large drum placed in the castle tower.
Ruthernglanners would only bang this drum whenever something extremely important happens. Something so important like war, the death of the king, or the arrival of the king in the village. The latter never happened before and the former was unlikely to happen in the current situation. Diana wondered if something seriously bad happened in the capital.
She darted to the balcony of the first floor and looked up at the castle. She couldn't see any black flag, so it was not death either! She continued to ponder.
Suddenly the night sky of Ruthernglan was aglow with fireworks.
The fireworks...
They meant two things in Lanir.
A victory or royal birth.
But drum sound together with fireworks was something Diana had not witnessed before. But she had studied about this celebration in her school.
Though she couldn't understand the situation, she was aware of the fact that it meant only one thing in Lanir.
A rival king's death!