What a miss

Sylvester felt a weird sensation in his body but did not pay much attention to it since it was a faint one. His attention was on the flowers until he subconsciously raised his head to the direction he came from.

He saw Cordelia but before his gaze could settled on her, he saw something coming at him in a swift rotational movement.

Instantly, he jerked his head backwards and that thing flew right in front of his face. The sound of the object flying cut sharply through the air until the object pierced the bark of a tree.

Sylvester's eyes widened when he took in the shape of the object. It was a knife, a sharp short knife.

He was dazed.

He turned his head from the knife on the tree to the other side. He was looking at her with a shocked expression on his face.

Cordelia might looked calm on the outside but on the inside, she was boiling with anger. Her jaws were locked. Her fingers balled into fists so tightly that her nails dug into her flesh imprinting semicircles on her palm.

What a miss!

'Damnation!', she cursed inwardly, 'I missed'.

Why was it so hard? Or luck wasn't on her side anymore?

'You dodged! You shouldn't have dodged dammit!', she cursed him inwardly.

This was her second attempt in trying to kill him and she missed. Twice.

Sylvester was still staring at her with wide eyes. 'Was this woman trying to get me killed?', he thought and looked at the knife that pierced the tree with it nose deep into the bark.

"Your Royal Highness!", Cordelia shouted, "Are you hurt?", her voice sounded concerned.

She skipped to him, looking at his face worriedly.

"What was that for?", Sylvester asked while pointing his finger at the knife.

"I saw a lizard on that tree and thought of using a special technique to kill it", Cordelia simply replied.

"And I was the special technique?",

"You told me you taking me to the forest. I thought we are going for hunting. I took the little knife with me and thought about doing a little practice before we go for the real hunting. I wanted know how good I could be if I use a method like that to kill an animal", she explained innocently with her eyes feigning guilt.

"What if the knife really pierced me? What would you have thought?", He inquired. He was just so surprised at her audacity. Really? She wanted to practice how to hunt by using him as a bait? Smooth lie.

Cordelia moved her eyes away from him to the knife on the tree. She went ahead and removed the knife before turning her gaze back to him.

"Apologies, Your Royal Highness. If my target wasn't missed, you wouldn't be scolding me like this", Cordelia spoke, "In fact, you will be praising me", She smiled at the end. The smile wasn't stiff or forced. It was still a fake smile but looked so genuine to be fake. She was a fast learner.

Sylvester's countenance normalized upon seeing her smile. He couldn't stay angry at her with most especially her cute smile, which her two dimples. His palm plastered on her face. His thumb caressed one of her dimples. Even though she did something daring and dangerous; something that could cost her life, he believed her nevertheless, "We are not here to hunt, Delia. There are no animals to hunt in this forest", he revealed.

"There are no animals?", Cordelia's brows raised.

He nodded.

"How, why?", she probed with confused look on her face.

"Because of a very dangerous beast that comes out at night in the forest. The beast killed most of the animals while the rest escaped and never found their way back here", he explained with a grim look on his face.

"I have heard of the beast before", Cordelia told him, "Can't the beast be get rid of?",

"I was told it can but we still looking for a solution", Sylvester said, looking at the flowers, "This was what I wanted to bring to you", he handed a bouquet of the hand picked flowers to her.

Cordelia looked at the flowers which red petals with rimmed white edges . The flowers petals were arranged axial and round, making the flowers looked a small ball. Cordelia collected the beautiful flowers from him and inhaled them.

"It smells good", her voice was neutral but her answer was genuine. She liked the flowers but she did not like the giver. Her failure in getting rid of him spoiled her mood but she concealed it as much as she could.

"You like them?", Sylvester asked, sounding happy.

"Yes, Your Royal Highness", Cordelia replied. " What did we come to the forest to do actually? Your Royal Highness?", she asked.

"Sylvester",

"huh?",

"Call me Sylvester", he said again.

"But, Your Royal Highness, a mere woman like myself can't call a royal like you by name. It all soun-",

"You can call me by name when we are alone", he interrupted.

Cordelia paused a little before saying, " Sylvester",

"Good", he remarked.

Cordelia knew that calling him by name brings more closure to him. She wanted to get close to him but also stay far away. She didn't want to be familiar with him but also wanted to know more about him.

"There is a special place I wanted to take you to?", Sylvester announced, "Follow me".