The boy in chains looked at Leah with wide eyes, his pupils fixed upon her.

It was at that moment she realized that he was in love with her.

It was impossible not to recognize the emotion in those eyes. Everything the boy felt showed in his eyes. His gaze was captivating, but Leah quickly pulled herself together. They could not waste anymore time.

“Wake up!” she shouted, and made him jerk. Securing the wooden door with the iron bar, she climbed down the ladder into the hole. Pulling the gag from his mouth, she pulled it away with a long string of clinging saliva, and gave him water as she went to work on his change. Ishakan gulped it down thirstily.

She saw the wounds on his body. Her heart ached at those terrible injuries, but she tried hard to conceal her sadness.

The people who had done this were worse than animals. She could not believe anyone could treat children so cruelly. Looking at him, she cursed the slavers.

“I am Princess Leah De Estia,” she said, and his eyes widened with surprise. And disbelief.

“What about the others?” He asked, refusing her help to rise, and she explained everything that had happened as they fled the hole together.

She already knew that Kurkan bodies were different from humans’, and especially Ishakan’s body. She liked to watch him run. Despite days of brutal torture, his body was quick to recover, and eventually she found herself huddled with him in a small place, hiding from their pursuers.

She could not hide her emotions.

“You really are amazing,” she said, startling him. He had been gazing off into the distance, but his eyes snapped back to her, and she found herself complimenting him, just as he had always done to her. “You must be in so much pain, but you ran all this way…no ordinary person could do something like that.”

She had completely forgotten all formality and etiquette, but Leah didn’t even notice that she was speaking to him familiarly. It was how she always spoke to Ishakan.

Ishakan blinked at her praise, and the tips of his ears reddened as he averted his gaze. Leah gave a small smile.

As an adult, Ishakan was so confident, so masterful at everything. It was adorable to see him behaving so awkwardly.

If she had said that one day this boy would become the King of Kurkan, no one would have believed her, and she looked at him fondly, imagining the day when he would become the Sun of the Desert.

He looked at her again, and her heart tickled at the expression on his face. That was how he looked at her before he kissed her, and she moved to respond, unthinking.

“…Ah.”

The sight of her sixteen year-old self in his golden eyes stopped her, and she belatedly remembered that the boy in front of her had not yet had his coming-of-age ceremony.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was doing,” she said, so embarrassed by her own behavior, she could hardly lift her head. What would Ishakan think of her? “It’s just that you look so much like someone I know.” 

“Your boyfriend?”

Not her boyfriend. Her husband. But she didn’t want Ishakan thinking that she had another man.

“No…just someone that I like,” she answered vaguely.

“…I see,” said Ishakan, a little sadly.

That was the end of the conversation. Ishakan was lost in his own thoughts, and Leah was still reflecting at her own shameful actions. The two were hidden together in a very close space.

When there was a space of silence, they fled again, but soon enough they were being pursued, and came to their place of parting.

Hounds bayed behind them. Leah looked back at Ishakan. He had tried to protect her, though he was as frightened as she was.

“You go,” he said, when she tried to persuade him to come with her. His face was determined. “Princess.”

There was great longing in his golden eyes.

“My name is Isha. I hope you will remember me.”

Leah’s hand reached for him, and he shivered as she touched him. Gently, she caressed his cheek, and he went as still as a statue.