Chapter 77: Chapter 77

Khailis continued to sob. “Your sorry won’t be able to bring back anything, now, wouldn’t it? How can you give me back my first night?”

“Your... first night?”

Above everything else, what frustrated Khailis the most was not remembering what had happened during her first night with Gavil. She had been in love with Gavil for a long time, so accepting him as her husband was not a very big deal. Yes, their marriage had been so sudden, but she had always wished to be his wife ever since she had started loving him in the shadows. Thus, to lose the precious memory of her first night like that really infuriated her.

“Yes, my first night! How can I get pregnant without even remembering what my first night was like? It’s so devastating! I’m going to be a mother soon, but I don’t even know how I spent my first night with you...”

Gavil patted her back gently. “You don’t need to be sad about that, Khailis... We need to do what we did every night anyway since you are now pregnant. I would just tell you what happened, and then we can duplicate the first night again, if you want.”

Khailis’ face turned red immediately. Duplicate what? What the hell was Gavil saying?

“What do you mean ‘duplicate?’ And why did you say we need to do it again every night? Didn’t you know it’s bad to do it when you are already pregnant?”

Gavil shook his head vehemently. “You are carrying Pauca eggs, Khailis. We have to make love every night until you give birth. Otherwise, their Pauca spirit will get weaker, and they probably won’t live long...”

“And you’re telling me this now? How can I trust you when you have never told me all the important things I needed to know before marrying you?”

“I swear to the gods I am telling the truth, Khailis... I have never lied to you... It’s just that I am not good with explaining, and I forget many things, but I always spoke the truth to you... From now on too, I will try to explain things better, so please don’t be mad at me, my wife...”

He was pouting back at her like a boy whose favourite toy had been snatched away. He wasn’t a mere boy now, however. He was already her husband, and she was his wife.

He started to plant light kisses in her hands and her arms while mumbling the words “I’m sorry.”

Khailis sighed. No matter how furious she was, she couldn’t stay mad at this big, cuddly cat for far too long.

“Alright then, I’ll believe you, but if you ever forget to tell me something important again, it’s over okay? I won’t ever speak to you for the rest of your life.”

He bobbed excitedly after hearing Khailis say her words. He moved closer and licked her cheeks.

“Ah, don’t do that, it’s embarrassing!” Gavil actually did lick her cheeks so many times when he was still a cat, but now that he was in his human form, and they were already married, Khailis found the action very, very embarrassing and also incredibly enticing.

He licked her on the face once more despite her protests. “You’re not mad anymore, right?... Do you want to repeat our first night now?”

Khailis turned crimson. “We can’t do that now! Your mother and the servants are waiting for us outside, remember?”

“Ah, they can wait...”

“No, they can’t!.. Besides, I’m famished. Let’s go back to your palace and eat.”

Gavil smiled back. “Okay. Let’s do it after you eat, then.”

Khailis just shook her head. At this point, if she told her mother and father that she’s married now, they wouldn’t believe her, and if she told them on top of that that they are going to be grandparents to some eggs soon, they just might just die on the spot! The biggest blow would be that she married Gavil –the worker at Master Manson’s farm, who was secretly from a shape-shifting beast tribe in Teotroly.

Clearly, how the heck could she stay married with someone as cunning and yet as child-like as her Gavil without any complications?

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

The world had kept still for a long time, but now Langrion was hearing the sound of birds again. Where the hell was he?

He opened his eyes slowly. He was in a well-lit room overlooking a window. It seemed like the midday sun was already up. How many hours did he stay like this?

The last thing he could remember was being in the ship on their way to Jazamel, but things did not go so well back then. They had been caught by Hadrian Veer and his men.

Since his encounter with Veer at the Ylann forest and in the tampered void, he had changed a lot. It seemed like he was cursed too, for he can turn himself into a huge tiger. Yet, Veed did not seem to be affected by guiding stones at all, seeing that he held a guiding staff as they fought.

Additionally, Veed was also with the boy whose power was controlling people and turning them into possessed creatures. Langrion remembered that the same boy fought side by side with Danterion when they rescued Shia and Khailis at Gaulane. He knew that Hadrian Veed had been working with the king to imprison him, but was it also possible that he was working with the Ancient Evil too?

A lovely face popped into his view as he thought of these things.

“You’re awake!”

He reached out to her comely face and touched her cheeks weakly. Shia was smiling to him ear to ear.

That’s right! He remembered Shia coming back – or rather flying back – to him at the ship. Was that how they were able to get away from there? What happened afterwards?

Langrion tried to sit, but his chest and back throbbed like hell. He winced in pain.

“Ah, don’t move yet. You are not well...”

“What happened to me,” he asked weakly, “and what happened to your hair?”

Shia started to finger the ends of her now shoulder length hair. “I had to cut it at the ship. Otherwise, I would have ended up becoming Veed’s prey,” she replied in jest. “How are you feeling, Langrey? You were poisoned and the mark of the beast had appeared. I was worried you would never wake up, but thank the gods!”

She hugged him tightly, sending his body into fits of pain, but he endured it well.

“The mark came? Did I hurt anyone?”

“No, no one was hurt. I couldn’t stop the mark from acting up, though. It was activated because of the protection magic that enveloped Teotroly. It was a good thing my brother came…”

Langrion’s eyebrows shot up in the air. “Your brother?” Did he also hear Shia also mention Teotroly?

“Yes... Well, he is not really my brother; he is Freya’s brother. He was the one who rescued you. When I passed out, trying to stop the mark, he came in and helped. He brought us here too, in his residence.”

“By residence, you mean?”

“We have been here for three days now at the Temple of the Gods, at Templar’s villa…”

Langrion’s eyes widened. He could not believe that they had come to Teotroly! However, there was one more surprise.

“I have something else to tell you, Langrey.” Shia began.

“What’s that?”

“I think I know of a way to break your curse...”

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

Once she came back to the ancestral house with Gavil, Khailis began to learn more about the Pauca Billie Tribe.

It turned out that Gavil was not just a simple winged puma – he was actually the prince of this magical shape-shifting beast tribe!

“Why didn’t you tell me you live in a castle?” Khailis said upon seeing his home.

“It’s not a castle, my wife. It’s the ancestral home. Our pack has always been big, so the ancestors created a big house for the royal bloodline.”

“Royal bloodline? Does that mean you’re like a ruler here or something?”

Gavil nodded. “I am the next-in-line ruler, but I don’t want to live here like this. I’d rather be free from the worries of our race…”

Khailis actually understood Gavil’s feelings. Growing up as a noble and a servant to the prince, she had seen how ugly the palace life can be. Langrion had always wished he could be free from the life of the royal court. Khailis herself wanted to be free from the life and trivialities of being a noble woman. Now, however, she was immersed deeply in it after becoming the wife of a secret prince.

“Is that why you left your home? You wanted to be free?”

Gavil nodded. “We can choose where we could conduct our practical study, and I chose living amongst humans. My father was a human too, but I did not get a chance to know him because he died before I was born. I wanted to find more about his race, so I chose to study in the human lands until I was of age.”

Gavil did tell him about this in the past. Apparently, his father was a Gasconian native, so he chose to travel to Gascone. He and Khailis had chanced upon each other on his first day on the kingdom, when she was thirteen years old.

“You have been away for a long time from this house. Didn’t you miss your mother?”

“Of course I missed her, but it was not a long time, really. I am a Pauca, and time pass by differently for us. Our race could live for a very long time, unlike ordinary humans…”

He stroke Khailis’ face. “But now that we are linked, you can live for a long time too, my wife. I’m sorry for spending the night with you even though your body has not fully recovered yet. It was a necessary ritual to make love on the wedding day so that I could pass my magic to you. Since I brought you to Teotroly as my wife, I need to complete the ritual as soon as possible; otherwise, the protection curse will take a toll on your health and will eventually kill you…”

Khailis fell silent. She still felt uneasy about the fact that Gavil had taken advantage of her just because she had blown a flute unknowingly. Although his explanation seemed plausible, she still felt a little betrayed that he would wed her and take her first night away while she was semi-conscious.

“Why didn’t you tell me you have a name too? I kept calling you Gavil all this time…”

“Rahul is a Pauca name. It is forbidden for the Pauca tribe to disclose any information about himself or herself while studying in the human world. Also, I like the human name my wife gave me more than my Pauca name.”

She snorted. “Do you like it that much, enough for you to not mention your real name?”

He nodded and smiled. “I want to be Gavil more than Rahul, so please continue calling me Gavil.”

Khailis sighed in disbelief. Life always looked simple in Gavil’s eyes.

“So, umm, about our eggs… Until when will I carry them?”

“Not for long. Until about a year based on the human time scale.”

Khailis’ lightened up. So carrying Pauca eggs was like similar to carrying human babies. “A year? And how many eggs am I carrying right now? Can you also tell?”

Although she was taken aback earlier about the news that she was pregnant, she had recovered a little from it already, and had actually felt elated about the fact that she was going to raise babies that resemble Gavil. She could just imagine the tiny baby cats hatching from eggs, and she’s already a thrilled.

“We cannot tell how many they are, but based on how you glow, there must be at three to five eggs now. As the pregnancy progresses, the eggs could combine and fuse, so no one in sure how many eggs would come out until the mother lays them out.”

Gavil’s face became serious. “And also, my wife, Pauca babies are difficult to breed. Most Pauca pregnancies do not end up well. Sometimes, even when the eggs are born, they fail to hatch. They need a lot of Pauca magic to grow up healthily inside and outside the mother’s womb, that’s why making love is recommended every day. The more you make love, the better the eggs’ health will be.”

“Um, err, I don’t believe you yet in that one…” Khailis said, shoving his embrace away. Although Gavil had never really lied to her, he had omitted so many facts about himself and the intricacies of their marriage. It was still hard for her to trust Gavil’s words right now. What if he was only saying those things so that he could satisfy his desires?...

Gavil’s hurt face was pitiful. “You could ask mother if you don’t believe me, or the servants. They will not lie to you...”

“Alright, I really will.”

As she was about to get up from her seat and walk to the door, however, Gavil came closer towards her side. He started to kiss the ends of her auburn tresses seductively.

“What are you doing?” Khailis said, turning red once more.

“Can you try to ask them later? The eggs would need some energy too. They haven’t had any breakfast.”

“Breakfast?”

“Yes, my wife… They need their fill of energy too…”

He leaned closer to her and started kissing her on the cheeks and on the neck. Khailis’ body went as stiff as a rock.

“Let’s not make the babies go hungry, alright?...”

Khailis couldn’t believe that those words were coming from someone as naive-looking as Gavil. What a really coy way to put his intentions in words! Still, she couldn’t help but feel flustered.