Disease (Edited)

A tall gorgeous male stood in front of the city gates carrying a backpack. His face carried indescribable warmth as he stared at the gate with extreme longing in his heart.

It had been years since he last came to this clan. A lot has changed from the time he was last here. Indeed, his father was a great ruler and has done great deeds to boost the stand of the clan.

"Hey! Who do you seek? Today is not a market day so why have you come here?" one at the gate guards asked with a stern voice.

The male looked up at the guard and immediately, the guard ordered that the gate be opened. How dare he offended this person? Was he asking to spend some time in the dungeon?

"I'm sorry for being rude to you. Please accept my apologies." the guard begged as if his life depended on it as most of the newbies looked at him in awe wondering why this high and mighty guard would be so polite to this young man.

The male raised his hand signaling the guard to stop. He only just got back home after a long time and didn't want to make a fuss over such trivial things.

"You there... Collect this backpack. Can't you see that this load is not meant to be held by the..." the male immediately stopped the guard from talking and shook his head.

The guard stepped back and allowed the person to pass which again confused the recently appointed guards. The male walked past the gate and all the guards bowed to him. The other guards that were new to that post wondered why their superiors were bowing to the young boy but they also followed suit and bowed.

Titan looked at the beautiful Lynx clan and was happy with what she saw. Though when she arrived at the city gate, she had a strange feeling but she quickly shoved it down after being mesmerized by the new layout of the kingdom. Her father was really a leader. The city was more prosperous than it was the last time. The city walls were decorated with beautiful carvings and elegant sculptural work, glamorous crystal-like lamps that hung all around the city, and there was the majestic palace that could be spotted from any angle of the kingdom.

She missed this. She missed home. The beautiful lamps, the scent of noodles, and other traditional food she never got to eat at the Amazon, she missed it all.

It was a good thing that no one recognized her. She wasn't prepared to deal with the stress of handling the crowd. As she walked freely in the marketplace, she grew fascinated by everything she saw. This was her home but a lot has changed within the past few years. As she roamed about the city, she noticed some eyes following her so she intentionally strolled into a quiet ally, and not long afterward, a bunch of well-built men surrounded her and she acted scared-looking around nervously but saying nothing.

'Who are these people and what do they want from me?' she thought to herself. One of the men looked at her and said,

"kid, I'll give you two options, you either come with us quietly or we break your limbs and take you away... Which would you prefer?" Titan looked confused and thought

"Aren't these guys here to rob me?" She decided to upgrade her act by taking off her backpack and stretching it out to them but they laughed hysterically.

"You think we are petty robbers here to take your tiny bag? Quickly come with us or die here." At this point, Titan was angry and decided to end the act. Just as she was about to make a move, a young girl jumped out from behind a dumpster with a broken bottle in her hand. Her movement was so swift that before anyone could notice her presence she had stabbed one of the men surrounding Titan on the neck.

In the commotion, she grabbed Titan's wrist and whispered "Come with me quickly." Without waiting for a response, she pulled Titan out of the ally and kept running. Titan was confused at first, then her confusion became caution, then her caution became a surprise and then the surprise became a curiosity. She began her act again wondering what this little fellow was up to. She followed her willingly as they ran through the market.

Though they couldn't see anyone chasing after them, Titan could still feel those groups behind them carefully following them in the shadows. The young girl holding Titan's hand kept running until they entered a busy bar. Not stopping, she dashed to a washroom, locked the door, and passed some fresh clothes to Titan.

"Put these on immediately. The young girl had taken off her clothes and started changing into new ones when her gaze fell on the stunned Titan who had turned her face away.

"Look dude, those guys have got our scent and are tracking our aura. If you don't change right now they'll find us no matter where we go. By the way, I wonder what you're hiding... It's not like you've got something I haven't seen before."

As she said this, she looked at the lower parts of Titan's body. Titan felt naked and made a gesture of covering her body with her hands. Seeing this, the young girl giggled a little and turn stern again saying if by the time I'm done and you still haven't changed up, I'm leaving you behind.

She stopped paying attention to Titan and quickly dressed herself up. Turning around to scold Titan again before leaving her behind, she was surprised to see that Titan had already changed into the new clothing and was waiting for her. "How did you...?"

She wanted to ask but changed her mind and quickly brought out a small ointment bottle from a pouch and rubbed it on both sides of her neck. She moved close to Titan to do the same but Titan shifted back avoiding the girl.

"Dude, this ointment would shield your aura from their tracker. Or would you rather be caught after all this?" Titan allowed the girl to put the ointment on her but didn't let her go lower. She didn't know why but her lower neck had been itching since after the inter domanial competition.

But while doing that the girl placed her left hand on Titan's cheek thinking: what a beautiful boy. Then she asked, "Hey, do you have a boyfriend?"

Titan was stunned again but before she could even process the question, the girl looked at a compass-like item on her arm.

"Ohh sh*t, we have to go...now!" The girl pulled out a small wooden framework that fitted perfectly with the wall and behind it was a tunnel. "Get in." She barked at Titan. Titan, also sensing the gang closing in, dove into the tunnel, and behind Titan, the girl sealed the tunnel immediately after jumping in.

Just then, someone kicked the door to the washroom in and looked around for a bit then boomed, "Crap... They escaped." he picked up their clothes and sneered.

Titan and the girl, crawled through the tunnel until they got to an exit. They climbed down only to see a group of Lynx official guards behind them.

"Hey stop right there." One of the guards said.

"Sh*t" The girl whispered and turned around smiling innocently.

"Who are you and what are you doing in the tunnel?" the guard asked.

"Just playing hide and seek with my boyfriend," she said, hooking her arms around Titan's arm. The guard looked at Titan and asked

"Is this true?" Titan looked blank wondering if this girl's brain works. The girl dragged him a bit trying to make him focus.

But before he could react, one of the guardsmen said, "Hey, aren't you that swindler?" The girl stiffened but quickly reacted.

"What? Who are you calling a swindler? This is my boyfriend... How dare you call him a swindler?" She acted as though she was defending her boyfriend knowing fully well that the guard was referring to her. Titan stared at them confused.

"The head guard seeing the controversy ordered his men to take them both to the palace dungeon for questioning. The girl tried to struggle but was reprimanded. As for Titan, she followed them quietly.

They heading straight to the palace. When they got to the palace gates, the captain of the royal guard saw two prisoners being brought in, he was shocked by the bones because he recognized Titan immediately.

"What the hell are you doing? How dare you bound her...!" Before he could continue, Titan shook her indicating she did not want her identity exposed yet.

The old guard understood and said, "Leave the prisoners to me, I'll take it from here." The guards did not notice the interaction between Titan and the captain so they bowed and left.

The old guard asked his men to take the young girl to the dungeon. As for Titan, he took her to his office and loosened the rope used to bound her hands.

He bowed deeply and said, "Welcome back your highness." Titan took a brush and a paper then wrote,

"Where is the king?"

"He's in the weekly meeting with the ministers." He said after reading the paper. She wrote again,

"No one mistreats the girl that came with me. I going to see the king. Please arrange a nice chamber for the young girl and bring her to see me later."

"Yes, your highness. I'll have some guards escort you." He said but she shook her head indicating "that's not necessary" and walked away.

After she was long gone, the guards outside stared at Titan, wondering why their captain let her free within the palace. Could he be a general?

"Such a young man and he is already a general..." he sighed and went back to his post.

Titan stared at the beautiful palace. There was nothing extravagant in it but it was well maintained and she realized she had to compliment the palace maids for keeping the palace clean.

The environment was simple yet pleasant to the eyes. She was happy that her father kept to this simple style and boosted the clan, unlike other kings that would want to keep everything for themselves and leave the citizens to suffer.

Most of the palace guards had been changed to new ones and most of them didn't recognize her. She was glad about this because she didn't want anyone to know that she was the daughter or should I say, supposed to be the first son of the king.

When her father, the king announced to the ministers that she was a girl, he requested that the news be kept sealed and not be disclosed to any other person. And just as Titan presumed, the news was indeed kept away from the other villagers.

In the courtroom, the king sat at the top of the podium, listening to all the complaints of the ministers and all the ideas they had for the benefit of the clan.

"Your highness, I think we should trade with other clans. Therefore, were would expand our income. The jaguar clan is not willing to sell to us at cheap prices. They keep hiking the price after every two market days. The bat clan and viper clan are willing to sell at half the price. Even the metal clan are willing to sell at an even less price. All we are waiting for is your permission and we will start buying from them."

The minister of trade spoke. It was obvious he was not happy with the jaguar clan and he wanted to get other clans to buy from. Buying from other clans would not only help the economy but also, would form alliances with more clans.

The King heaved a sigh. What the minister said was good and it would help the people. It would make the clan more prosperous and no one would have to worry about feeding their family.

"The jaguar clan has been trading with us for years now and it's most likely that they are witnessing famine. We would not stop buying goods from them..."

When he said this, the ministers were quite disappointed. But he continued.

"But that doesn't stop us from buying from the clans you have mentioned. We can continue purchasing from the jaguar clan to help boost their economy and we can also buy from the bat and viper clan to build a relationship and ease the mind of our citizens."

Some of the ministers found what he said meaningful while others found it absurd. Why would he want to help boost another clan's economy wasn't that like placing them on par with the Lynx clan?

Ever since the Leo clan fell, the Lynx clan had been enjoying all the benefits and had been tagged the strongest clan in the domain. Why was it that the king did not want to dominate instead, he wanted to help other clans. Isn't that absurd?

Even though they had it in mind, none of them wanted to speak up because the king had the final say besides, they could always buy products from the bat clan and also the Viper clan. The king had given a decree and it didn't affect anyone.

"Any other complaint?" the king asked and the health minister spoke up.

"We have noticed something unfathomable in the East. The clans around the east have noticed that the fishes in the water have a new level of strangeness."

"One of the fishermen ate the fish with his family members, and the next morning, they all disappeared into thin air. We didn't know that the cause was the fish until other villagers began to disappear. There are currently only two fishermen in the east and they have stopped fishing for now."

"I fear that the disease will soon get to the Lynx clan and if that happens, we wouldn't know how to curb it."

The King sighed. This was indeed a serious problem. How is he going to solve this? Just as he was thinking of a solution, the door to the courtroom opened drawing everyone's attention. Who dared to disturb the minister's meeting with the king?