When the Sun met the Moon

Upon hearing someone’s footsteps, Danyel took his sword and prepared for a fight. His hand was still hurting, but he did not care.

Even though Yasvie wanted to stand by Danyel and help him, she was too afraid to go forward. She hid behind Danyel.

Danyel tightened his grip on the sword. The sound of the footsteps was increasing. Using his predicting skills, Danyel identified that only one person was coming their way. But he could not feel relieved because he knew that only one extremely skilled Lisdonian soldier was enough to kill both of them.

Every passing second felt so long as if they were experiencing a slow-motion mode. Fear, curiosity, anger…all the emotions were bursting at once.

The moment came…and the person was………Gianna! Again wearing armor.

“Oh, it’s you! You scared me to death!” Danyel let out a big sigh.

“Thank god it wasn’t another Lisdonian killer!” Gianna uttered. She felt so relieved. She was looking for a place to stop for a while because she was tired of running away from the enemies.

Ever seen the Sun and the Moon appear in the sky at the same time? If Danyel looked up at the sky that moment, he could definitely see that.

Yasvie was still hiding behind Danyel. She was much shorter than Danyel, so Gianna did not notice her at first. When Yasvie felt that whoever came was not an enemy, she showed up.

“Oh my god! Is this your lover? She’s so beautiful!!” Gianna was shocked at Yasvie’s beauty. Her praise was very honest.

Both Danyel and Yasvie were surprised by her response because that was not the usual reaction to seeing your own fiancé’s girlfriend.

“Thank you, your royal highness.” Yasvie bowed.

“No problem. You look so young. How old are you? Sixteen?” Gianna asked while observing Yasvie’s beauty.

Unlike most of the other girls’, Yasvie saw no jealousy in Gianna’s face. Instead, she was spreading out a golden aura with comforting warmth which made Yasvie feel a sense of security.

“I am nineteen, your royal highness,” Yasvie said shyly. It was true that she looked way younger than her real age.

“Oh, I’m twenty-one! You can call me ‘Emse’. This isn’t the palace, so no royal highnesses.” Gianna squeezed Yasvie’s cheeks like she used to do with her younger friends in Stri.

Danyel was amazed to see Gianna’s unexpected actions towards Yasvie.

“She is so different. I shouldn’t have hated her.” Danyel’s inner voice whispered.

“Sire, this cave seems safe. I reckon we should stay here. What do you say?” Gianna asked from Danyel.

“Ah…yes. We’ll stay. But we’ll have to stay awake at night. Let’s sleep in shifts.” Danyel suggested.

Gianna nodded. So, they stayed there that night.

Gianna truly adored Yasvie. She treated her very well. Letting the lovers enjoy the rare moment of being with each other, Gianna kept her distance from the couple. She did the first guarding shift.

While sitting inside the cave and glancing at the night sky, Gianna could not stop recalling the precious moments she shared with her mother and her fellow Strians under the stars. Sometimes she was distracted when she heard footsteps of Lisdonian soldiers who were passing through the forest, searching for the Hesmian crown prince.

Even after staying awake for four hours alone, Gianna did not feel sleepy. Her old memories were keeping her awake, and of course; alive.

Danyel woke up a bit late, keeping Gianna guarding for one extra hour. Waking up beside his sweetheart was an enthusiastic moment for him, which he feared would never come to reality. He felt so grateful towards his destiny that he could keep the light of his life when going through the darkest phase.

Danyel got up and walked to Gianna.

“Hey, you didn’t wake me up. Now go and sleep.” He said.

“I can stay a bit more,” Gianna said while playing with her ponytail.

Danyel sat beside her and studied her face. He was not sure what kind of feelings he had for Gianna.

“How’d you escape?” Danyel asked.

“My maid helped me change that heavy wedding dress. She told me the way out.”

“How come a maid knew about the tunnel? And what about your armor?”

Gianna could not reply easily. She could not reveal Minnah’s identity at any risk.

“I don’t know, she just told me and ran somewhere. And this is my new armor. Amell’s gift.” She said keeping a normal face.

The truth was, Minnah had come through the tunnel with Gianna, but she had had to stop to fight the enemies who were following them. Minnah had insisted that Gianna should leave and save her life.

“Anyway, I was surprised to see you treating Yasvie very well. Once you wanted to marry me badly but you aren’t mad at my lover either. You do a lot of unexpected things, aren’t you?!” Danyel stated with a gentle smile.

“Now that I know that you aren’t a bad guy, so let me tell you a secret. I did not want to marry you. I never wanted to get married, actually. I just came here for my mother’s sake.” Gianna revealed.

“What are you saying?” Danyel was shocked.

“Yes, that’s true. We were living peacefully in Stri. But my horrible father trapped us. He threatened to kill my mother if I didn’t marry you and get pregnant. I was so helpless.”

Danyel was speechless for a moment. He regretted every minute he spent hating Gianna. She was yet another victim, just like him; trapped in a political game of their power-hungry fathers.

“I…I am so sorry Gianna. I thought…I didn’t have a single clue. I hated you so much. We’re both in the same boat.” Danyel spoke emotionally.

“It’s fine, sire. I hope to stay a maiden until death, so I am not interested in marrying at all. Please don’t see me as an enemy, I am supporting you two. Actually, how can someone look her in the eye and hate her? She’s too cute.” Gianna glanced at Yasvie.

Danyel smiled at the ground.

“What are you planning to do now?” He wanted to know.

“My first concern is to get out of here and save my mother. What about you, sire?”

“Um…I don’t have a clear idea. But I have to find out what happened there… if my father managed to defeat them or…ugh! I shouldn’t have left like a complete loser! I feel like a coward.” Danyel confessed.

“No, sire. Don’t say that. We all have those times which we lose control of ourselves and hide behind the walls. We all have fears. I believe that everyone has been a coward, at least once. You survived, think about it. And your girl too.” Gianna tried to comfort Danyel with her words.

*************************************

When it dawned on the next day, Yasvie was the first to wake up. As she was expecting to see Danyel beside her, she felt extremely jealous to see Danyel sleeping next to Gianna, hugging her.

Yasvie immediately went to Danyel and shook his shoulder. Danyel opened his eyes only to see him hugging Gianna and a very angry Yasvie behind. He quickly got his hand away from Gianna and stood up. Actually, he was not supposed to sleep. It was his guarding turn. Gianna too had fallen asleep unknowingly at the wrong place.

 “Was it better to sleep with HER, your imperial highness? It was your wedding night anyway.” Yasvie said angrily. It was the first time she got mad at Danyel.

Danyel was surprised at Yasvie’s change. Her shyness and innocence were faded away from her face. It was filled with anger and jealousy.

“I’m sorry Yasvie, it was a huge mistake. I did not mean to sleep. I was just…it’s completely my fault.” Danyel apologized.

As Yasvie was still angry, she looked away. Without knowing any of those, Gianna woke up. Danyel expected Yasvie to be mad at her too. Much to his wonder, Yasvie put up a fake smile.

“Did you sleep well, Emse Gianna?”

Danyel did not appreciate it very much. From the talk he had with Gianna the previous night, he understood that Gianna had a truly genuine soul. He wanted Yasvie to be like her.

**********************************

After washing their faces from a small stream they found, the trio started their journey to find a safer place. Since they were in Lisdonia, they had to be very cautious.

Throughout the journey, Gianna kept describing Stri to Yasvie. Though Yasvie pretended to be interested, she did not want to be with Gianna. She had already decided that she disliked her.

“You should visit there one day, Yasvie. It’s paradise! You’ll even want to stay there.”

“Hey, you’re not going to take my girl to your women-only island and make her a ‘maiden forever’ kind of girl, okay?” Danyel interrupted.

Yasvie had still not spoken a word with Danyel.

Suddenly, an arrow went near Danyel’s head. All three of them panicked but reacted quickly, starting to run for a barrier. There was an army of Remington’s men following them.

Misleading them and hiding behind a giant rock, they had to discuss the next step.

“There are more than fifteen men, we have only two swords. We’ll have to find a place to hide.” Danyel said, panting.

“But this is their empire, they’ll find us. We have to run.” Gianna replied.

Yasvie was too afraid to even speak.

In no time, the enemies reached them. They had to run again. On the way, they found an old building that seemed like a temple and ran inside. Danyel locked its main door from inside.

‘’Now we’re trapped inside!” Gianna yelled.

But when she looked around she saw that there was an exit on the other side of the building which was facing the foot of a hill. If they broke the door and exited through it, they could easily go through the hill without getting caught by Remington’s army.

“Sire, look! There’s an exit.”

Upon seeing it, Danyel reached there and tried to break the door. It was made of some heavy wood and it had a giant metal lock. Meanwhile, the enemies started breaking the entrance. Gianna and Yasvie were pulling it against them. It was very hard.

“Yasvie, go and help the prince. I’ll keep them.” Gianna advised.

At the very moment Danyel and Yasvie opened the exit, Remington’s men broke in. Even though Yasvie and Danyel could easily get away, Gianna was still inside.

“Sire, we must go now, if we don’t close the door we’ll all get killed!!” Yasvie screamed in horror.

“Gianna is still in there, we can’t leave her.” Danyel went inside.

The enemies were slowly surrounding Gianna, but Danyel started removing them with his mighty sword. Then began a horrifying battle; two against fourteen.

Within a few seconds, two or three enemies were down. But Danyel’s side was obviously losing the battle. Gianna realized it.

“Sire, leave with Yasvie and close the door. I will stop them.” Gianna whispered when she got close to Danyel, still directing the sword at enemies.

“I’m not leaving you.” Danyel grabbed Gianna’s hand.

“No sire, listen to me. I can manage them. Yasvie must be very scared. Just go to her.” Gianna said confidently though she knew that it would be almost impossible for her to manage them. Her only concern was to save Yasvie, who was like a baby sister to her.

“Shut up!” Danyel said as he was going backward to reach the exit, tightening his grip on Gianna’s left wrist.

Suddenly, Gianna pushed Danyel out and closed the door. Danyel was stunned by the move. Gianna was all alone with ten enemies inside.

Danyel tried to return to the temple, but Yasvie stopped him.

“Sire, please don’t go there. Help me save my life. I’m scared to death.” She screamed.

“I’m not leaving her.” Danyel insisted.

“You want me or her?” Yasvie asked furiously.

Danyel no longer insisted on staying. He grabbed Yasvie’s hand and started climbing the hill.