Chapter 12

The servants looked at each other in confusion, they had never seen a princess look so thin and dry. Was the lord imagining things?

Ash knew that he owed no one an explanation and it was only a matter o time before they found out what was going on from people around.

“You had all the grace to enjoy your time outside the mountains, don’t come back in here and forget your place, I will slay anyone who chooses to go against my orders.

“Yes, lord Ash, we had no idea who this woman was to you otherwise we would have known our place.” A tall and slender woman with a bald head came to bow in front of Ash and Myan wondered if she was the head servant.

She had never felt so uncomfortable in her life and did not think there was any other way to be even uncomfortable until the head servant directed the remnant servants that had stood still in astonishment. “Come on, why are you standing there looking gormlessly? Bow to the lord’s wife!’ She snapped at them to move and Myan gasped in reaction when about twenty people with an even higher service class to her, prostrated in front of her.

“Forgive us, your highness.” They chanted irrespective of if she was actually the fourth princess or not.

“Get to work immediately.” Ash ordered them. “There is a fox I caught. Prepare a small feast with everything you can gather for now.” He dismissed their presence and they stood to their feet, mumbling as they got ready to take their exit from the room to just as he had asked them to.

“Get your wound treated.” He nodded at Myan when she they were alone in the room. She was still in shock from what had just happened and so all she did was nod in response.

Why would he go as far as call her, his wife? She knew the title was truly hers to claim but she was not expecting him to use it on her given the circumstances.

Ash turned around to finish his rest that the hyper excited servants had disturbed while Myan left the room to throw the water out. When she had emptied the pot and was heading back into the cave, she stopped walking and squinted her eyes at the guards that were marching towards the cave.

She gasped and held the pot in her hands even tighter. “Has the fourth princess been found?” She turned back into the house and hurried into the bedroom where Ash was. It would be a good thing if she was back because a lot of lives would be saved, but at the same time, it would cause so much trouble for Achu. It would be lucky if Ash did not behead him.

“My lord?” Myan bowed her head when she walked into the bedroom. “The palace guards are here,” she announced to him.

Ash sat up immediately, an astonished expression on his face. “Is the beautiful princess with them?” He asked out of curiosity and did not even wait for her to answer before standing to his feet, ready to meet with the men in question.

True to her claims, the palace guards were waiting by the entrance when he went to the living room.

“Come on in,” Ash accommodated the respectful men that had gone on Myan pressed her ear against the wall while trying to peer out of the room to see them. One knee at his presence just so they could show him their respect.

“My lord.” The head gown stepped forward and bowed his head as they walked in, long with the rest of the guards. “Just like you asked us to, we delivered your warning to the world of water an…”

“Is that all you’ve come here to tell me?!” Ash interrupted with an angry frown, keeping his hands behind him.

“My lord, we searched everywhere that we could in these last days, but so far, all the fire kingdoms we have gone through, we have been unable to find the fourth princess so we thought maybe they chose to stay in the world of water because they suspected that we would not go that far, and so we delivered the warning to the world that if they did not send the princess back, we would send war to their camp.” The guard adjusted his head helmet and shook his head.

By now, Myan was no longer waiting in the room, she knew that no one would be paying any sort of special attention to her and so she stood still by the bedroom doorway, certain that with Ash’s back to her, she was safe to listen to what they had to say.

She tried to count the number of guards present in the room and realized there were at least twenty of them. They seemed to have dressed specially to see the lord. Their usual uniform had been exchanged with this deep red one with feathers decorating the waist belt.

“My lord, the lord of the water world asked us to tell you this, he said they are not afraid of you and that you are just an over pampered bitch that whines when he does not have his way, these were his words not mi—” The guard was unable to finish that sentence because Ash let out a loud growl, gripped the guard by the neck and squeezed tight, shifting into his beast form.

“How dare he?!” He bellowed, taking his anger out on the poor guard. “This man has never met me. How can he assume what I am like?” he roared, obviously not on board with the situation. “Send troops to his kingdoms, teach him a lesson his wild mouth would never forget!”

Myan realized that at the rate they were going, he was going to choke that guard to death if he was not stopped. She sucked a deep breath in and held her gown, running forward to hold him back. Ash was furious and did not care to know who had dared grab his free arm. He growled and aimed his fire at the intruder. Myan gasped but was quick enough to dodge the huge fireball headed for her head.

She stood back to her feet and made haste to kneel in front of him, panting heavily in fear. His servants seemed to know better and were not interfering with his personal matters as she could obviously see.

“My lord,” she cried, “please don’t let your anger overshadow you at this moment, you said one week, I’m sure if you give these men some more time, they should do better,” she said.

Ash still had a terrible frown pasted on his face and it did him no good at the moment. He lowered the struggling guard before letting go of him because if he dropped him from a height that far, he was bound to get hurt or possibly get himself killed.

“Out! All of you. I give you six more days but as soon as one week is over, and you don’t have the fourth princess in front of me, I don’t want to remind you to teach that weak man a lesson,” he yelled in dismissal.

“Yes, my lord.” They chorused in unison. Myan remained on her knees even after the guards had left. Ash did not shift back into his human form, instead, he headed straight for the bedroom, only shifting back by the entrance.

Myan had a strange feeling that she was not supposed to leave him all by himself and stood to her feet, following after him.

She found him pacing around the room angrily, “Has he not heard the tales of what we did to his ancestors?!” He snatched the sheets away from the bed and onto the floor. “They are long gone because they dared the most powerful of all!” He lifted the table that had been in front of the bed, where Myan had left the food items he had given to her in the morning and crashed it against the wall, oblivious to the mess he created with the glass shattering and food splattering around the room.

Myan left the room immediately to find some cleaning supplies especially because she could not stand anything that was dirty.

It was not a difficult thing to do because there was a broom in one corner of the living room. She returned to find him still soliloquizing and pacing around the room, but she went straight to work, cleaning bits of food scattered onto the floor and gathering them in one place.

“…And that foolish guard, he had the audacity to repeat every single word! Almost like something he had been planning to say this whole while and you…” He trailed off and went to stand beside her, holding on to the head of the long pole on the broom. “Are you really not afraid of me when I am a beast?”

She tried to feign confidence and turned to meet his angry gaze and shook her head negatively, “There is no reason to be,” She said in a low voice.

Ash clenched his feet by his sides, aggravated to even find the right words to say. “He will regret this; I swear he will!” Ash kicked the helpless stove and Myan judged that at this rate he was going, he would only end up destroying the room that supposedly belonged to her and so she decided to take the strangest decision of her life, something she had wanted to feel since the first day she had felt his touch against her skin. She wanted to know what that pleasure wads and it seemed t could serve the right distraction at the moment.

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath in, exhaling before she slipped herself out of the gown she was in.

Ash was still distracted by his anger, his hands on his head and his back to the naked servant. “The audacity of…” He trailed off eyeing her from head to toe. She started to feel regret for the action she had taken when he stood still, not taking action.

“What are you doing?” He asked her.

“You look like you could use some relief, you are so tensed.” She swallowed. “So, I thought maybe…” She trailed off when he began to walk towards her.