5 years later…
"Finally passed all those guards!" exclaimed Prince Atem, as he bolted outside the palace walls into the city market.
Atem placed the hood of his tan cloak over his head so no one would recognize him as he looked around the city's market. Ever since that night 5 years ago, when he saw the white dragon with those two girls, Atem made a bad habit of sneaking out of the palace to snoop the city for any clue, anything at all, as to the girls' whereabouts. He just knew they were around in the city somewhere, and today he felt would be the day he would find them. He started his search in the market, where most people would be spending their time, whether to buy, trade, or just converse with each other while the children played together by the sidelines. Atem smiled at all the happy faces of everyone, proud to know that someday he would have the honor of ruling this city as Pharaoh, just as his father was now.
A few hours passed, Atem still had no sightings of the girls, and the streets were getting more crowded with more people coming into the market, he had to find someplace with free room to move around. As he looked around, he noticed an alley nearby that lead to the other side of the block, so he maneuvered his way toward the alley.
"Man, today is crazy. Must be something going on out there." he said to himself.
He made it halfway through the alley, when he suddenly he heard yelling. Atem looked at the end of the alley and couldn't believe his eyes.
A young girl, perhaps 16 years old, with pale skin, long brown hair, blue eyes, and a cream tunic, with long sleeves and a brown cover that went just over the shoulders. Atems eyes went wide, recognizing her as the young brunette he saw riding the white dragon 5 years ago, he thought in excitement,
"It's her!"
Sadly, his happiness was brought to an abrupt stop, when he saw that three, large, burly men were chasing after her, each one with a whip in their hand.
Atem rushed toward the end of the alley and turned the corner, rage filled him when he saw that the men had managed to catch her leg and force her to fall on the ground, then repeatedly whip her, keeping her rolled in the fetal position, unable to move at all. Atem didn't need a second thought as he charged at the men and had managed to knock one over as he shoved into them, causing the men to stop their beatings and stare at Atem with shock.
The sudden stop of beatings caused the girl to slightly look up above her arms to see what caused them to stop, only to see a young boy standing close to her with his back toward her. This boy confused her slightly, he was helping her?
The man Atem had knocked over sat up rubbing his head and spat on the ground,
"What's your problem kid!" he shouted looking at Atem.
"Leave her alone." Atem growled, his voice lower than normal.
The men stared dumbfounded at Atem, before they started laughing at him.
"Yeah right!" said the man on Atems left. "This girl is our slave, we can do whatever we want with her!" he made an attempt to whip the girl again.
She flinched, afraid the whip would make contact, until Atem reached out and managed to catch the end of the whip before it even made it past him.
"I said, don't…touch…her." Atem was reaching him limit.
The man growled. "Why do you risk yourself for this worthless nobody!" he yelled.
Atem took the chance to look at the girl, she had managed to sit up, and they were know looking each other in the eyes. Atem became lost in her eyes, as if plunging in the clearest waters ever. Never wanting to come back to the surface. The girl admitted that Atems eyes were very mystifying, the deep shade of amethyst was enough to make her stare at Atem forever, she just couldn't get enough of looking at him. Atem caught himself staring at her and snapped himself out of it, giving him a chance to think.
Why was he protecting her?
He didn't even know her, he had only seen her once for less than a moment all those years ago. What was it about her that was making him act like this?
He decided it didn't matter, she was hurt, and scared. He also most certainly didn't want to leave her with these….men. That was all he needed to know in order to protect her. He looked back at the men in front of him.
"I decide what I do, anyone who isn't worthy doesn't deserve to hear my intentions." he said. He noticed his voice wasn't that low anymore, but he made sure that the men knew he was still angry with them.
Mustering his strength, he yanked the whip out of the man's hand, then ran up to all of them, punching each one in the face over and over until he could see the blood running from their noses and lips. They seemed tired out, so Atem figured they weren't going to bother him anymore and just go away. He turned away to see how the girl was doing. She seemed to look fine, except the scars on her legs and the tears in her clothes.
She had a look of relief seeing that he was fine, until something in her eyes changed and they had a hint of fear in them, that was when it hit Atem…literally.
One of the men had just enough energy to retaliate and punch Atem in the back of him head causing him to fall in front of the girl. He heard the girl gasp slightly, and he became slightly flustered that she was worried for him. Atem tried to sit up, ignoring the headache that was pounding in his head. The same man that punched him made a grab for his head as Atem started to sit up, only succeeding in pulling off his hood. All three of the men gasped and backed away.
"Oh Ra!" they screamed. "The Prince!" they got down on their knees and bowed down to him.
Atem stood up rubbing the back of his head, scowling at the pathetic men groveling before him. Sighing, he reached into his sleeve and pulled off one of his gold bracelets and tossed it to the middle man of the group.
"You three take this, leave this girl, and never show your faces around her again. Understood?"
The men picked up the bracelet and marveled at it, then they looked up to Atem, "Yes, your Highness!" then they got up and ran off.
Atem let out a large breath, as he turned around to face the girl, know standing and brushing the dirt off of her tunic. She looked at Atem momentarily, before quickly bowing to him and running off in the other direction.
"Hey wait!" Atem called, he ran after her.
She didn't get far, the wounds on her legs opened even worse as blood trickled down and shot pain up her legs causing her to crumple to the ground as she cried in pain. Suddenly fearful, Atem hurried and knelt beside her,
"Hey! What wrong?" he asked.
The girl looked up at him, they noted their close proximity and both of them blushed before slightly looking away. Atem looked at her legs and saw just how terribly she had been beaten. Large welts, and many scars with blood tricking down covered her legs. He was surprised she managed to even stand up without pain.
"Your legs look awful, maybe I should take you home." Atem said.
"Oh no! That fine, I can make it home myself, it's really not that far from here!" she said.
But Atem wouldn't hear it, he wasn't going to leave her like this, so he picked her up bridal style and looked down at her.
"Now, why don't you tell me where you live so we can take care of these wounds. Hm?"
She looked at him and saw in the look in his eyes that he wasn't going to give up, so she just nodded her head at him.
"It's that way, about three blocks." she said pointing down in front of them.
Atem gave her a smile that made her just want to melt, and she couldn't help but smile back at him. Atem started walking down toward the girl pointed, which made him think.
"By the way, what is your name?" he asked, looking down at her.
She looked down a bit, "It's Kilala." she said softly, just above a whisper.
"What was that?" he asked in a playful teasing voice.
Her face reddened at how close his face had become. "It's Kilala, your Highness." she said louder this time.
Atem smiled, "That's a lovely name."
"Thank you, your Highness."
"Please, call me Atem."
She looked up at him, "But, only people closest to the royal family may call them by their name." she argued.
"And you are no different, Kilala." he argued back.
She knew she wouldn't win this argument by looking in his eyes again. So she just let it be.
"Alright then…Atem."
He smiled, his name coming from her lips made his heart race, "She really does have a beautiful voice." he thought.
They both smiled at each other, then looked forward as Atem continued walking toward Kilala's home.
