Two Words

The story about the chieftain's daughter and the loyal man lingered in Aranea, Elenea, Leonel, and Zanns thoughts. With Professor Grisham, the five of them already entered the cave, their curiosity about the location already surfacing.

Zann lit up their surroundings by opening his palm, a flame appearing above his hand as he stayed in the middle, Aranea beside him, Professor Grisham in front of them, Leonel and Elenea behind them.

Professor Grisham was right! This cave did not have any turns—only going straight as they were only led in one area of the cave, a dead end.

Oddly in the cave, there were torches in the circle where they are, making Zann light every torch present with his flames.

The moment the location was lit up well, everyone could see one pedestal in the middle, making the twins and the familiar cock their heads to the side, curious.

"A pedestal?" Elenea mumbled, enough for everyone to hear. "Professor Grisham is right about one thing that there is only one place inside the cave. But a pedestal?"

Professor Grisham furrowed his brows as well, his head cocking to the side as he started to voice out his thoughts as well.

"Curiouser and curiouser… do you think we should get closer to the pedestal?" he asked, the familiars and the twins looking at each other before they looked back at the professor.

"Sure!" Aranea shrugged, already making way towards the pedestal. "Why not?"

Professor Grisham, Elenea, Zann, and Leonel, widened their eyes when they saw Aranea walking towards the pedestal with ease.

They were thinking that there might be traps and that Professor Grisham was only joking but with her going there with no caution, it surprised them.

"Hey, Aranea! Be careful! There might be—"

"Huh?"

When Aranea was already in front of the pedestal, she cocked her head to the side as she turned her body to look at them, her reaction interrupting her twin sister.

"There is only a gold coin on top of the pedestal."

"What?"

When Professor Grisham immediately walked over towards her, he knitted his brows together to see that only a gold coin indeed was only seen on the pedestal. His lips turned into a tight line as he did not expect to see only a small object.

"I thought that we are going to see a big treasure since they said a magical item resides here," Professor Grisham commented, the familiars and Elenea already walking towards them when they noticed that their surroundings are safe.

The three who were left behind now looked at the pedestal, the three of them sighing as well as they only saw a gold coin.

"That's it?" Zann was slightly disappointed, everyone looking at him. "We went here only to see a coin of the old civilization. Other than that, it was being guarded by the Catoblepas."

When the four of them talked amongst themselves about what they have seen, Aranea couldn't help but look at the gold coin. When she touched it, cool air suddenly blew inside the cave, getting the others' attention as they looked at Aranea in wonder.

"What did you do?"

Aranea shrugged, pulling her hand quickly away from the pedestal.

"I—I don't know! It just suddenly happened! I—"

But Aranea stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes started glowing, surprising the others as her sudden silence was unexpected, along with her eyes glowing out of the blue.

It was as if Aranea was seeing a movie that was in fast forward in her memory. Figments and clouds of memories appeared in her mind as if she was seeing it right before her eyes.

She saw a handsome brown-haired man, bowing in front of a very beautiful woman.

The moment he was beckoned to stand up, she saw how the red-haired woman pulled the handsome man towards her, embracing him as she wrapped both of her hands around his waist.

It was then that Aranea thought if the two of them were the ones from Professor Grisham's story.

The chieftain's daughter, and the man whom she loved.

***

Laughter alighted the room as both of them had each other in their arms.

The red-haired woman's head was resting on top of the brown-haired man's chiseled chest, the man cautious of hugging her tight, afraid that he might hurt her.

"Darenn," the beautiful woman spoke, getting his attention as the man before her looked at her straight in the eyes with love. "I have something to tell you," she added, Darenn, the brown-haired, muscular man, nodding as he flashed her a smile.

"What, Hyacinth?"

He only said two words, but Hyacinth, the beautiful woman in Darenn's arms, laughed as if he told her a joke when he did not mean to be funny.

Soon after, a melancholic expression appeared on her face, Darenn's smile slowly fading away as he sensed that Hyacinth was serious and bothered about something.

"I'm really going to miss you and your few words."

Hearing this, Darenn couldn't help but furrow his brows. Somehow, his heart started to ache, wanting to ask why Hyacinth was talking as if she is going away.

"I'm here."

"Again," Hyacinth giggled, "Two words. When are you going to tell me a lot of words, Darenn?"

The man did not reply. He tucked some tendrils of Hyacinth's hair behind her ear, asking her a question in two words.

"What's wrong?"

"Darenn…"

Hyacinth looked up to him, her hands holding both of his cheeks. Tears then started pooling in her eyes, the woman feeling a painful lump in her throat as she tried her best to keep her tears at bay.

"I'm going away," she said, Darenn, furrowing his brows in confusion as he continued staring into Hyacinth's green eyes.

"Where to?"

Hyacinth just shook her head, forcing out a smile as some tears escaped from her eyes. Worrying about her, Darenn couldn't help but wipe her tears away, his heart aching seeing her this way.

"Hyacinth… tell."

But the woman just shook her head. She did a tiptoe as she planted a soft kiss on Darenn's lips for a few seconds, before slowly pulling away just beside his ear to whisper something to him.

Darenn's eyes widened in shock, tears already forming in his eyes as Aranea felt in this flash of memories how painful his heart broke when he heard what his dear Hyacinth had said.

"I love you, Darenn, but I'm sorry… I decided to sacrifice myself for the people."