Chapter 3 : Fenrir Kingdom

The sleep is long and peaceful and by the time Sigrid got back into her senses, she heard many unfamiliar voices around her which made her restless again.

Is she really hallucinating as her therapist said?

“How is she doing?”

An elderly male voice resonated in the room seizing all the mumbling voices, making her nerves calm down as the voice carried warmth and concern which declined her rapid heartbeat.

“She went into hole again.”

Someone answered the elder man and she heard a heavy sigh, followed by the dip of the bed on her left and a pair of warm hands wrapped around her cold tiny one, giving her enough warmth.

“God bless you leof.”

Sigrid opened her eyes slowly, her heart throbbing after listening to the elder man’s voice which sounded heavy and burdened to her ears and saw him, whose face is fierce to look at but there is something lurking behind his dark brown eyes.

“Meliora! My sweet daughter. How are you feeling leof?”

Sigrid frowned, confused by his addressing of her with different name but she didn’t go berserk as she did in the previous encounter.

She is still in the same place with huge walls and ceiling, the thick red curtains hanging all over the room, giving her the feeling of living in a royal palace from Roman era or more ancient than that.

The people in the room are dressed like they straight came from historical drama and she felt like she is dreaming again.

There is no explanation to her illusions otherwise.

But the touch of the elder man feels too real to brush it off as an imagination.

Seeing her confusion, Caelum, the elder man with crown on his head sighed, planting a kiss on the back of her hand and stood up.

He then gave a look at Remus who stood on the opposite side of the bed and gestured him to look after her before exiting the room.

“Meliora!”

Sigrid tilted her head to the other side, her heart still bothered by the man who just left.

He looked so worried when he held her hand but then he just disappeared as though he was disappointed by her.

Why?

And why is she still in her dream?

Remus smiled at her response and sat beside her, taking her hand into his and caressed her hair.

“You put us in anguish, Mel.”

Sigrid doesn’t know how to react to his concern because her head is spinning like crazy with all the things happening around her.

She remembered sleeping in her hotel room in pyjamas with endless hopes of achieving her goal but the next thing she knew is waking up in a different body, in a different place and time.

She sat up without uttering a word and looked around the room, her face void of emotions.

The two women she saw earlier are standing in the same place, near the foot of the bed with disgusted faces as though they wish to be in any place other than this room.

Sigrid ignored them, already feeling vexed by their presence and moved her eyes to the maids who are standing in a corner, holding food trays with bowed heads.

She frowned when her eyes finally landed on the man beside her who treated her with utter kindness earlier unlike the two unfriendly women.

She wriggled her hand, taking it back from his iron grip and rubbed it, feeling confused by his hold. He squeezed her tight as though she would disappear any moment if he let her go.

What is he scared of?

She pushed away the thick blanket covering her legs and got down the bed from the other side before making her way towards the mirror in the room and stood in front if it, taking in her reflection.

The woman in the mirror looks sick with chapped lips, messy hair, pale skin and skinny body but her beauty lies in her dark brown eyes which resembles the feisty elder man.

Who is this woman named Meliora?

And why does she look weird compared to others?

The jewels on her body and the expensive silk wrapped around her screams her position but her complexion says a different story.

Keeping her suspicions aside, she took her time to register her brain with details around her, trying to understand her situation and the impossible things that happened to her in just one night.

She always tried to find logics in the myths unlike her unexplainable dreams but she somehow managed to fall into an invisible pit.

How can she see the light if she is trapped in a stranger’s body?

Her actions took Remus by surprise because the Meliora he knew would never spend time in front of the mirror.

She would be the woman who sits in a corner, laughing like a mad person, mumbling incoherent words to herself, crying without a reason, screaming until she loses her consciousness.

He is shocked that she even stood on her own feet for longer than heating cold milk and stayed silent without causing ruckus.

“Mel!?”

He called her out softly, his legs involuntarily moving to her side and stood behind her, looking at her reflection.

Sigrid looked into his eyes blankly through the mirror, not understanding whether to laugh or cry at her situation.

She doesn’t know what happened to her and why she is in someone else’s body.

Many questions revolved around her head, poking at her to find the answers.

Is she dreaming? Or did she really time travel to a medieval period?

Is it even possible? Or did someone kidnap her and planned this drama to ruin her career by making her look like a crazy person?

“Mel! Are you hungry?”

Remus asked, confused by her strange actions and blank looks.

Meliora used to collapse when she gets overly stressed by her illness and when she wakes up, she goes into her own shell, playing and talking by herself but this time she is acting weird.

The royal physician said, she won’t live long if her falling sickness occurs wontedly.

Is this one of the signs indicating her health decay?

“Royal highness!”

An old woman dressed in maid’s costume came to Sigrid’s side with a bowl which is emitting hot vapours of soup and offered her with a deep bow.

Sigrid looked at the black liquid in the bowl and her belly churned with disgust as the strong medicinal smell waffled in the air, making her face twist in unease.

She covered her nose with her hand, restraining herself from retching and ran out of the room, scaring everyone, especially the two women who Sigrid hated at first glimpse.

“Mel.”

“Royal highness!”

“Meliora!”

Sigrid can hear the worried voices from behind but she just continued her run, her eyes widening in bafflement as she witnessed the glory of brightly lit royal palace with guards standing along the walls holding polearms.

Where the hell is she?

The paintings on the palace walls, the dressing styles of guards and the architecture, everything screams danger to her.

Remus chased after her in long strides, his heart hammering against his chest hard as he saw her fleeting petite figure in the corridor.

Meliora didn’t come out of her room for thirty full moons. She refused to take a step out even when he persuaded her but now she is acting completely morbid.

Her strange behaviour started to worry Remus and he caught her in no time, startling her by his speed. One second he is ten meters behind her and the next second he is standing in front of her.

Sigrid gasped, her mouth agape in bemusement when Remus blocked her path and her body crashed into his sturdy chest, making her stumble backwards by the impact but Remus steadied her, holding her waist.

“Let go bastard.”

Sigrid cursed, wriggling her body and took two steps away from him, angered by his actions.

Who the hell is this man?

“Who are you? Where is this place? Why did you kidnap me?”

Remus looked at her with a deep frown, baffled by her gibberish language.

He knew Mel is mentally unstable but where did she find those words from?

Kidnap?

What does that even mean?

“You need to take your potion, Mel.”

Sigrid thought about the tar like liquid and covered her mouth, already feeling her intestines twist in disdain.

“No! Tell me where I am?”

She demanded the stranger, refusing to surrender and there is no way she drinks that venom.

Remus closed his eyes, gathering all the patience he needed to pamper her and smiled, slowly opening his eyes and looked at her displaying unconditional love.

“You are in our Donjon and if you consume the potion, I shall give you a sweetmeat.”

He promised, hoping a sweetmeat can coax her into taking her medicine but Sigrid frowned, confused by his vocabulary.

Not just the building and clothing but also his language belongs to medieval period.

Don’t tell her she really time travelled into ancient days?

She shook her head in denial, her hands clutching her hair as she couldn’t wrap her head around the things happening to her.

No!

This isn’t real.

She is dreaming.

She is hallucinating things like everybody says.

Her breathing quickened and her head started to pound heavily like she was beaten by a hammer and she shut her eyes, unable to tolerate the excruciating pain.

“Mel!”

“Mel!”

Remus held her shoulders, seeing her distressed state and hugged her body close to him, stopping her from collapsing again.

“Agnes!”

He yelled and the old women who is holding medicine bowl stepped forward, her eyes welled up in tears when she saw the suffocating Meliora in his hands.

“Your Royal highness!”

“To the chambers.”

The maids followed Remus as he carried Meliora into her room while the two women stayed behind, their eyes squinting at the unconscious Meliora.

“Mother! Do you think the potion is making her sick? Will she die?”

Griselda whispered into her mother’s ear, making her lips stretch into an evil smirk.

“No!”

Tala said, looking at the empty corridor and held her daughter’s hand.

“She should live to marry the sick Alpha.”

Griselda widened her eyes in amusement, dumbfounded by the news.

“You mean the cursed king.”

She said, looking at her mother with her sparkling eyes and Tala gave her an assuring nod, making her beam with happiness.

She heard about her father’s decision of selling her sick stepsister to the dirty beast of their neighbouring kingdom but she didn’t know how much of it was true but now that her mother confirmed it, she should celebrate the good news with her fellow wolf companions.

“But…”

She wanted to say more but Tala hushed her, her siren green eyes wandering around the corridor, observing the guards.

“Do not speak the words which aren’t supposed to be spoken.”

She warned her daughter to seal her lips whilst the loyal dogs spill their secrets to her husband, the Alpha of their pack and the king of Fenrir Kingdom.

“Aye mother.”

……………

Sigrid laid motionless on the bed, clueless about the betrothal between Meliora in whose body she is trapped and the Beast who is feared by every kingdom protected by Moon goddess.

She always believed her destiny is relied on ancient history but is oblivious to the fact that the history itself gets rewritten by her.