Though I only climbed up there once, I could remember the way to the balcony very well. Hiding from the palace guards, I climbed up to the door and opened it slowly.
He was surprised to see me.
"What's with that look?" I laughed.
"I never expected you to be here," said Chithak.
"Well, I thought maybe two is better than one," I said walking closer to him. "So, what's bothering you? You look like the whole sand layer above is about to fall apart" I started the conversion since it started getting awkward.
"Something similar," Chithak laughed. "I don't know when Bizamuls will attack us back. When they attack this thing will collapse before we even know it. Now that the whole army and the people are getting weaker and weaker due to the rays, I don't know whether we will be able to defeat them next time."
The topic was too serious for me to make fun of.
So I tried to change the topic.
"Grandma told me it was your sisters and brothers who came that day. It must be so good to have soo many siblings," I said. "It is always more fun when you have so many siblings."
"Well, I have never played with them though," Chithak said turning to my side.
"What do you mean?" I cried." You have never played with them? But why?"
"I am the crown prince. I cannot fool around like everyone." He said sadly.
"Playing with siblings doesn't count as fooling around"
"To be honest I am not allowed to go outside this city. But others are allowed to." Chithak said. "So we don't meet often to hang around with each other much. I can remember playing with them when mohao was there. But after her death, they didn't have any reason to come to the palace any longer".
"But why can't you leave the palace while all the others can?" I was furious.
"Because I am the crown prince," he laughed.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It does" he sighed. "I must rule this world and produce a healthy heir. For that, I need to be healthy. So I cannot get exposed to the rays. All the other cities were damaged during the last bizamul attack. Only the palace city was left unharmed. So.."
I didn't know how to respond to him. I didn't know how to comfort him. In my eyes, he was a lonely little kid who earns for love. But there is no one to ask for it.
"Well I think you are great" I finally matched up some words. "All your sacrifices will make you the best king to ever live on this planet. People will love you loads. I am sure." I tried my best to comfort him.
He stared at me for a few seconds and said "I think this is what you call 'cute'," leaning toward me. "I have seen you calling your best friend cute all the time."
I could feel my earlobes getting hotter and hotter.
"And I promise you that I'll let you meet up with others as soon as possible," it felt like he read through my mind. "But before that, there is something I need to change. Once I change that I'll take you to them."
His words felt sincere and truthful. "Maybe I'll just believe him for the time being," I thought to myself.
Like on earth I couldn't feel any breeze or wind even though I was on a balcony hundreds of feet up above. But it felt calm, quiet, and relaxing up there, looking at the small figure walking around on the ground.
"It seems like finally, you can understand my language as well," said Chithak.
"No," I laughed." Your language is too complex for me to understand."
"Then how did you understand what grandma said?" He asked me confused.
The first duty that I was supposed to carry out blew up like that without even knowing. I had to choose between the only two people that I knew on the planet who cared for me. I never wanted to betray grandma. It was just that Chithak looked trustworthy and seemed so close to me. But still, I made the promise with grandma first. So I chose her. But I didn't lie to Chithak as well.
"I can understand what she says," I said while turning back to return. I wanted to leave as soon as possible so that he won't ask any more questions about it.
"So I was right," I heard Chithak say. "She knows your language so well."
"You already knew it?" I asked him surprised.
"She talked about you a lot and she cares for you so much," he said. "There is no way for her to know so much about you if she didn't know your language."
He had already figured it out.
"Do you know how she learned our language?"
"No I don't know," he said " But we might find something about it if we search it in the library. Come to the library when the midnight bell ring. I'll be there waiting for you."
I nodded my head confirming that I'll be there even though I didn't know how to escape without grandma seen.
That was the point where my life on pluma started getting interesting. I woke up every morning, helped grandma with her work trying my best to hide my yawning, slept early, and woke up again to the bell and ran to the library. Chithak was there every day waiting for me behind the 3rd cupboard.
Since I didn't know how to read in the beginning, Chithak read out everything translating them into my language. Since that was taking a lot of time he started teaching me his language both how to read and talk. After that, I started reading children's story books while Chithak read the old data books. We talked and laughed for hours inside that library hiding from the others.
For an instant, I forgot that I was kidnapped by some human beings in another world. I was happy with everything. We got so close to each other. He started telling me about everything he was hiding from everyone his whole life. I talked with him about the things that happened throughout the day and he listened to them very attentively as if every word that came out of me was so important to him. I was not alone anymore.
Days we spent turned into weeks and finally into months. But we still couldn't find any clue about grandma.
"I don't think we can find anything useful about grandma in this library Chithak," I said. "It is a secret she hid from the whole world. There's no way she'll leave a clue about that in this library"
After spending his tiring day between work and meetings, he came here every night to spend the only time he had to rest, with me. Even though I was happy spending time with him, I didn't want to be a burden to him.
"You should go and sleep now, you look so tired," I said closing the book he was reading.
"That means we won't be coming here anymore?" He said reluctantly. "Then let me take you somewhere and this is going to be a secret as well. You cannot tell grandma".
He grabbed my hand and took me somewhere I never guessed he would take me to.