The Promise (1)
A few days had already gone by, so the king and queen of the Hae empire were set to depart the following day by noon, and arrive in Country V late into the night since it was a ten hour flight from Country X.
It was already quite late and Mistress Hae was almost done packing. The plan was for her and her husband to travel first the following day and meet with King Kim to have a discussion on the murders going on in their empire, after which, Master Hae would travel back to get their daughter so that they could settle temporarily in Country V, if the meeting and discussion went well, and in order to ensure their safety.
Although the atmosphere lately had been dull and suffocating, she was actually looking forward to meeting Queen Kim. They were like sisters when they were young and it had been so long since they last saw each other physically. Her daughter's voice soon broke her trail of thoughts as she began calling out to her. "Mummy!", Astrol shouted while approaching her parents room. Before she could reach for the door, Mistress Hae quickly opened it and swiftly carried the young Astrol in her arms and walked back into the room. "What are you doing awake dear, it's already late" "I couldn't sleep so I went to look for Daddy to read me stories, but he looked soooo busy I didn't want to disturb him anymore, so I came here", Astrol explained with puppy eyes as she showed her mother the book she wanted to be read to her.
"Mm okay let's start but, promise me you won't insist on me reading more than a chapter because you need to rest", Mistress Hae bargained with her daughter. "Okay, I promise", Astrol replied excitedly. "By the way dear, there's one more thing I have to tell you. Your daddy and I are going somewhere tomorrow so, you're going to have to be good to Nanny Yu", Mistress Hae stated which made Astrol's smile to fade away instantly. "But mummy, can't I come with you? What am I going to do here on my own", she asked with a pout, and Mistress Hae just gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You'll be fine, Nanny Yu will take good care of you, hmm?" "Okay", Astrol reluctantly replied in defeat. "Now let's start, shall we?". Mistress Hae began to read the book out to her while cuddling with her on their bed. Astrol soon started to feel a bit drowsy, when she heard her mom ask, "Do you want to listen to your lullaby now?" "Mhm", she replied yawning.
Thus, Mistress Hae sang for her while caressing her daughter's long, black, silky waterfall of hair. She was still singing to her when her phone rang. Seeing it was Queen Kim, she immediately picked the call while finishing up Astrol's lullaby. As soon as she was sure her daughter was asleep, she carefully adjusted her on the bed and stood to answer the call that she had picked minutes ago. "Ayra! I was just about to call you but I had to put Astrol to sleep first", Mrs Hae said while grinning. She was happy her best friend had called. "You still remember that song we made back then?!", Mrs Kim exclaimed instead, shock evident in her voice. "Of course I do, and Astrol loves it a lot, so I use it to put her to bed most of the time", Mrs Hae replied. "I bet it's really effective huh", Mrs Kim said giggling. "It is", Mistress Hae replied with a light chuckle of her own. The two friends then began to chat away like two lost sisters whom were suddenly reunited.
...
Astrol soon waved her parents goodbye as they boarded their car with escorts to the airport. She immediately felt saddened the moment the car disappeared out of her sight. So, she turned around and headed towards the inner garden. She laid down on the soft grass and stared up at the sky. She remained like that for a while, when suddenly a bird started to peck at her hand. She sat up and tried to catch the bird, but it kept on flying away from her, so she decided to chase after it. She didn't even realize when the clouds became dark and the winds became rough. She soon reached the bird, her hair flying all over the place, and tried grabbing it again, but then it started to rain heavily and the bird escaped her.
It didn't take long before she started feeling cold so, she hugged herself and crouched down on the ground for warmth. She stayed like that for a while till she began to hear her mother's voice. "Nico, I'm so scared, our Astrol, what's going to happen to her?", Mistress Hae asked as tears flooded her eyes. Master Hae just hugged his wife, "Everything is going to be fine, it can't end like this...it won't end like this", he replied trying his best to stop his falling tears. Astrol wanted to stand and run to her parents who were now crying on the plane that was getting closer to the ground. She didn't understand why they were crying but she suddenly got scared.
However before she could approach the incoming plane, a large gush of wind blew her back to where she was crouching, and an ocean appeared out of nowhere which the plane had crashed into. "No! Mummy! Daddy!", Astrol screamed when she witnessed the plane split in two as soon as it hit the oceans surface. "No! Mummy, Daddy, you promised...you promised!", she wailed loudly.
...
"Astrol, dear, wake up", Master Hae spoke gently as he began to shake his sleeping daughter in tears on their bed. The moment Astrol opened her eyes, Mistress Hae quickly embraced her while caressing her back. On the other hand, Master Hae just let out a sigh of relief. It took the young Astrol some time to realize that her parents were hugging her. "Mummy, Daddy, please... please don't go...please", she begged, hiccuping as tears started to pool out of her eyes again. "It's okay my love, mummy and daddy are going to be fine. We need to go, it's for our safety", Master Hae explained, looking at his daughter with worried eyes. "But...but, t-the bird, the sky was dark and...and__" "Hush my dear, nothing's going to happen to us okay?, we'll be fine I promise", Mrs Hae assured, gently wiping Astrol's tears away. "O-Okay, but you have to promise me that you won't break it this time". Though puzzled by Astrol's response, she replied "Yes dear I promise".