Part III: A Vow
I still remember the day when I first met her.
It was the royal ceremony day, which was very exciting for a child in my age. Well, of course, people like my family could never get a closer look of all the nobles from where we would stand, not to mention the horrible, noisy crowd or the thieves who might steal away one of our few coins. But for me, the ceremony was the coolest thing ever.
Everything was so amazing. The well-dressed people and their glimmering pieces of jewelry. The knight's shining armors and the horses they ride. Ah…and the mighty royal guards. Their purple cloaks were embroidered with golden threads and amethyst gems, so luxury that for a child's mind, was almost like they were wearing the entire galaxy.
And therefore, I dreamt of going. I wanted to get away from the shabby hut we lived in and I wanted to see something beautiful. After all, even wearing a new shirt was too extravagant for me.
Nevertheless, my parents seemed concerned. Not in their usual way of worrying how to get enough food to feed us, but more…afraid.
"Listen to me and stay at home." father said.
"Be a good boy and we will bring you a cupcake from your favorite bakery, ok?" mother whispered. She patted my head and back gently, hoping to stop her young son from crying. But I didn't believe her; I cried louder because I thought if I keep crying and pouting, I could go and see all the interesting things at the ceremony.
After all the begging and promising they finally agreed. Mother took my father's hat and put it on my head, covering the two puffs of different-colored hair on my head. The hat was too big for me and very uncomfortable, but it was a little sacrifice I could endure for going to the ceremony. During our entire way, mother had one of my hands wrapped in her warm, soft palm. She never let it go.
When we arrived at the emperor's castle, the ceremony had already started. The emperor had finished giving his long speech-I felt pretty happy about that-and the royal army had just started marching down the main road.
The army was marvelous as usual, but time in that day seemed extraordinarily long. My patience faded away as my eyes got tired from all the shining luxuries and mighty knights, and the nature of young child took over my attention. Father and mother were watching the march and I managed to escape from them. Once my hand got out the control of mother's hand, the current of the crowds brought me away and separated me from them like a billowing river. When I finally realized that I'm alone, I was already much closer to the castle and the balcony where the royal family was sitting.
Panic immediately flowed over me. I shouted for my father and mother but no one came. No one ever noticed me. I looked around, searching the crowd with my watery eyes…and through my tears, I saw her.
She was high up. Sitting beside the emperor, she had an enormous glowing garnet shimmered on her crown. She was young…but filled with pride and arrogance that did not match her age. A tuff of hair fell off from her high ponytail but decorated her face so naturally. Her elegant neck reminded me of the swans I saw when father took me to the royal zoo…
…And she tilted her head towards my direction. Our sight encountered. She saw me…just when a sudden wind blew through the crowd. My hat was blown off and she saw what was hidden under. I could tell the fading surprises on her face but I couldn't understand why…until later that day.
Father and mother found me sitting in a house's corner after the ceremony. They never blame me, but mother was crying and father sighed. They wanted to take me home but I was still craving for that cupcake I never got. We took a closer alleyway to the bakery but the darkness in the alley scared me...
…but I never could've thought that this fear will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Father was trying to protect us. They stabbed him right in his chest.
Mother ran in front of him as father fell to the ground, trying to protect him but it was vain. She raised her arm between the attackers and father…and their sword almost split her in half.
Fear striked me. Fear bounded my feet before they did. The tallest of them blindfolded me with a piece of cloth they cut from mother's scarf and throw me in their stinking carriage like a pocket of potatoes. The familiar sounds of the town left me and so did my consciousness.
When I woke up I was in some place like a dungeon with my hands and feet free. The iron door of my cell opened and the most disgusting man I've ever seen walked in. The golden rings he had on his fingers reminded me of the price tags on the sausages in the butcher's store next to my home. His eyes scanned over me with a bizarre and twisted pleasure, and his greedy sight finally fell on my hair. He paced closer and reached his hands out as if he wanted to grab me…but I never gave him the chance.
I grabbed my chance and sprinted towards the opened iron door where the sunlight shed in…but freedom was not what welcomed me outside. The tall man who ambushed father and mother in the alley was standing in front of me like the most horrifying barrier.
His smile was the last thing I remembered before my vision went black with a stinging pain in my head.
Darkness surrounded me again when I opened my eyes, and for the next eight years, I never left its embrace.
Sometimes, people would come. They always carried a knife and a small bucket. I struggled…but there wasn't too much I can do under the restriction of the chains. Their visit to the dungeon always ended up with painful screams and a full bucket filled with…my blood. I never understand why I had to suffer like this…until one day a guard got drunk and decided to make fun of his prisoner.
He pressed his face on the iron bars and yelled at me. I could even smell his drunken breath from the furthest end of the cell:
"Still alive, you little immortal piece of shit? I heard they are sucking on your blood like a bunch of drunkards drinking from one of those beer barrels…Ha! Wish I can have one drop of that magical blood-blood that cures every disease, saves anyone from death, and extends every living thing's life! Why waste time on saving those bastards while people like me have to struggle for even getting a cheap drink?"
His slurred words sparked something in me. The answer I've been seeking had gone clear. Why father and mother were hiding my unique hair, why I could recover instantly from every wound they left on my body, and most importantly, why she looked at me with such surprise…
Anger. Extreme anger occupied me. I was furious. The guard could not react fast enough when I easily broke the chains and rushed towards the door. He tried to retreat back from the door but it was too late for him. I grabbed his hair and smashed his head against the iron bars…but he fell to the ground with a huge sound which attracted all the guards' attention. They rushed to the dungeon…and I could not fight against them.
I closed my eyes but blood was still seething in my veins. I could survive with immortality I just realized…but the extreme pain I would suffer could be beyond imagination. Fear, anger, confusion, mixed feelings were flowing in my head. My heart was pounding loudly and I could hear the enormous sound echoes in my ear.
Or was it something else?
There were definitely more. More than just the guards' yells and my own heartbeat. A new sound I've never heard before. It sounded like...an army.
It was an army. Not the guards I had been seeing for eight years. They were wearing purple cloaks with gold embroideries… a fire rose blossomed on every flag they carried.
The guards looked at each other with fear on their face. They clearly knew that there wasn't a way to run anymore, as the intense footsteps of the another army came closer to the dungeon. They didn't fight back: their arms were gone before they could pull out their swords, with their heads followed after.
Everything then fell back to peace and silence before the new sound appeared.
Two polite knocks. I curled up at a corner in the cell. What were they expecting? I would run away a long time ago if I could open this door with my own free will.
Someone whispered something. Five seconds later, the ear-piercing sound of the iron door smashing into pieces echoed in the small cell.
Sunlight….so bright. I could barely open my eyes but the familiar figure standing in the doorway made my heart hurts.
It was her. Dressed in shining armor and looked a bit older than the our first and last encounter. Her eyes were red like the fire roses on her flag as she saw what was inside the cell, but the silence between us broken when a dying guard laying on the floor made his last moan. She walked besides him and pulled out her sword.
The moan stopped. The guard's head rolled over and stopped besides my bare feet, as she slowly paced towards me.
"Today, you own me your life. How do you expect to return this debt?"
I looked up to her.
"I vow to serve you until my last breath."