Amber Eyes

Lorelai felt as if her body no longer belonged to her. 

Pulled by some kind of an invisible force, hypnotized by the dancing orange lights ahead of her, her legs began to move without her permission, and before she knew it, the princess was already standing among the tall colorful tents sprawled across the square, long, colorful string lights hanging over them akin to chained fireflies. 

Even though the festival seemed like the epitome of color and light, the celebrations among the nomads looked absolutely ethereal. 

The air was thick with the scent of spiced meats, burning incense, and the faint sweetness of wildflowers crushed beneath the dancing feet.

Laughter and music mingled in the air, the rhythmic strumming of lutes and tambourines blending with the haunting melodies of flutes that echoed through the loud night.

Brightly colored tents, covered with vibrant fabrics and strings of flickering lanterns, surrounded the open clearing where the real celebration took place.

A large group of people, men, women, and children mixed together, moved with fluid grace, their brightly embroidered skirts and headbands twirling in time with the music, their bare feet dancing on the cool paving stone.

Flickers of firelight danced across their skin, casting warm shadows as couples spun together beneath the wide starry sky, their dark eyes locked in silent exchanges that spoke of love, passion, and unshakable harmony.

Children ran freely, their laughter harmonizing with the music, while elders looked on with fond smiles, sipping from cups of spiced wine.

Everywhere, there was movement, color, and life, a celebration of freedom, of tradition, and of the bonds that tied them all together. And that alone made Lorelai feel incredibly out of place. 

All of a sudden, someone grabbed her by the wrist, pulling the princess deeper into the moving circle of dancers. Startled and lost in the moment, she could not understand what was happening and when she finally came back to her senses, she was holding a large cup of warm spiced wine while a tall, gorgeous woman was looking down at her with intense black eyes. 

"Drink!" 

It was a rather loud and stern command, but something in the woman's voice felt somewhat welcoming. 

Spreading her red lips into a wide smile, the woman brought the cup closer to Lorelai's face and repeated. "Drink!"

As if bewitched, once again, the princess found herself unable to resist. Closing her eyes as if scared of the aromatic red liquid inside the cup, she emptied it completely, exhaling loudly as she opened her eyes again.

It was strange. The moment her lips moved away from the rim of the cup, her entire body felt light and loose and the annoying throbbing in her right hip almost vanished completely. 

'What was it?' She wondered inwardly, utterly bewildered. 'Was it a potion?'

She raised her eyes to face the Gypsy woman again and the latter smiled, taking back the empty cup. "Want some more?"

Lorelai wanted more. Even if it was poison, somehow, she wanted to taste it again. 

"Yes," she nodded timidly, "please."

The woman laughed so loudly that it almost felt as if the earth was about to split from her laughter alone. She grabbed the princess by her skinny wrist and pulled her deeper into the moving crowd, snatching a new cup from a passing teenage girl while tossing the empty one onto the ground.

Without saying a word, she offered it to Lorelai and when the latter downed it too, the Gypsy woman pushed her forward and the princess was instantly pulled into a bizarre dance. 

Spinning and jumping, she found herself surrounded by laughing women, holding their hands while tapping their feet or twirling their long black skirts embroidered with large colorful flowers. 

Everyone moved so fast that Lorelai could not even catch her own movements, getting completely lost in the shared frenzy of a chaotic dance. 

At last, feeling dizzy and lightheaded, she managed to detach herself from the crowd and hid behind one of the tents, struggling to catch her breath. Strangely, her leg was not throbbing even after so much movement, but she credited it to being drunk. 

The moment the princess felt like she could breathe again, she spotted an old woman smoking a long pipe in front of the entrance to the opposite tent. 

Staggering, Lorelai walked up to the woman, adjusting the hood of her cloak to make sure she would not see her face. 

"Excuse me," she started quietly, "do you... do you know where I can buy a potion? I mean..."

She could not finish her thought as the old woman moved the piper away from her lips and motioned for the princess to follow her inside the tent. 

As Lorelai stepped inside after the woman, her nostrils were instantly hit with the intense scent of herbs and scented tobacco, and her already intoxicated head began to spin once more. 

It did not help that it was intimately dark inside the tent with only a couple of oil lamps throwing long black shadows from the opposite corners. 

The old woman took a seat behind the small round table covered with a colorful cloth and motioned for the princess to take a seat opposite of her. 

In that darkness, Lorelai spotted several other women, all of different ages, sitting behind another round table positioned to her left. Their dark, almost black eyes were firmly fixed on the strange guest, their heavy gold jewelry flickering with each subtle movement of their bodies. 

Once Lorelai was seated, the old Gypsy woman took another drag from her long pipe and grinned as she slowly puffed the fragrant smoke out.

"You are here to buy a potion. What kind of potion do you need?"

Lorelai hesitated. She still could not believe that she was sitting in the Gypsy tent, ready to buy a bottle of poison that would kill her. 

Shifting her deep green eyes to her left, she felt a shiver running down her spine as the other women glared at her with a look of subtle mockery. 

Perhaps it was a mistake. But she could not recoil now. 

"Poison," she finally blurted out unexpectedly loudly. "It's... for me."

Lorelai prepared herself to face a strong negative reaction to her confession, but the old woman only turned her face to her right and nodded at a young short girl at the other table. 

"Deynara. Bring your brother here."

The girl nodded back and quickly left the tent, following the old woman's order. 

All the women finally moved their sharp eyes away from the princess while the old woman leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, puffing another cloud of fragrant smoke. 

"It won't take long."

Lorelai was beginning to feel restless and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Who was that brother that had to be brought there? Was he the one making the poison? 

Somehow, she felt strange to have to deal with a man. 

As they waited in total silence, the wine she had drunk, started working again, and her body felt limp while her eyelids turned heavy. She was scared to fall asleep in a familiar place like that, but it was beginning to feel impossible to fight her drowsiness. 

Suddenly, she flinched as her body reacted to a strong but rather new scent that seemed to have entered the tent. 

It was a distinct smell of something woody and musky, mixed with scented tobacco, but not the same as the one smoked by the old woman. 

The scent began to intensify and Lorelai realized that whoever was carrying it was getting closer to her. 

Dazed, she slowly turned her head to the right and opened her eyes only to see a pair of bright amber orbs looking down at her.