45. The Masquerade Party
Akshara looked stunning in her looks along with wine in her hands; she reflected the luminosity from the fireflies which usually used for decoration in Frozen Crescent and thought to her,
“Since it is a masquerade party, he cannot find me. With the help of this mask, no one can identify me. I must act wisely by not falling into any traps set by filthy men… I must shut my ears and will not provoke by any kind of language I hear… My ruthless mind is lingering with his thoughts. Will I encounter him today? Oh… no… I must not think of him… I deleted him from my mind… He is the crown prince for the kingdom I stay to where I don’t know how I reach here in first hand… But I am now a barmaid… We can’t share our destiny. So…“
While it submerged Akshara with his thoughts, apart from the overloaded crowd, Dev could able to identify his heart throbbing beauty Akshara, even though she had a mask to cover her face. That’s the power of true love!
As the primary chamber was way big than any other cave, it loaded many people to drink the natural taste of wines. Akshara looked elegant in her dress with the perfect look of a princess in the customized dress predominantly designed by Dev.
Dev was sipping his red wine along with feasting the beauty of Akshara through his iris blue eyes. The mixed soul of dragon and wizard of Dev overwhelmed with joy to look Akshara in his customized dress and unknown fear gulped his powerful mind, “How will I confess my love to her. Will she accept me? Huh... Since I am the crown prince, every girl in my kingdom fascinates me. Why would she reject me? Since she wears the dress I gave her, it signifies that she has accepted me. What if she rejects me? I can’t allow her to reject me. I will pursue her since she is mine.”
Over the loud noise of music of Frozen Crescent and jabbers of Nora, he could hear his heartbeats loudly as it would jump out of his chest to fall over his wineglass. He gulped his favourite flavour of wine with much difficulty.
The sweat beads appeared on his forehead while he practised many trials to talk to her about his major decision in his life, which is going to change the future of his kingdom later.
Akshara could see Dev, who was dressed neatly to show that he was the prince of the kingdom as he stood ahead in dressing and his approach.
Akshara saw Dev and told herself,
“I must not look at him. I must not fall for him. Who could be the girl he accompanied? Huh... she is purple; it’s her, the same girl I met the other day. His girlfriend accompanied him. I must stay away from her. His girlfriend looked stunning in her look. I am no match for her beauty. (looked at herself) Axe! Don’t turn your eyes towards him... Move away from him... Please my dear legs, don’t stop at him, move on, move on...”
Akshara was instructing her organs to move away from him and so she took away her eyes from him. Dev gestured her to come near him, but she ignored him to reach the man behind him. She filled the empty glass of the man who was standing behind Dev with a beaming smile.
It infuriated Dev initially and grew curious by her ignoring attitude towards him. Though she ignored him, Dev could enjoy his visual feast of her beauty.
Dev's mind voiced him, “I have seen many girls in my kingdom who wanted to fall in my hands, who wanted to respond to my finger movement. Many women wanted to gather in front of me only to grab attention from me.”
Dev continued his mind voice, “Yet she ignored me… Ignored the crown prince, so-called handsome in this entire world… She is interesting. What kind of jinx does she possess on me being human? (He thought while rubbing his lips) Tricking me who the white wizard, one of my kind, to fall for her beauty. She has occupied my mind, heart and soul, everything slowly drowning in her exotic eyes. (He closed one half of his face with his hand and looked Akshara at the other half. ) Her eyes act as magnets. When she more and more ignores me, she is making me attentive to her presence. I like her attitude. She is the perfect match for me. Mine!”
Nora knew Dev didn’t give his ears to hear and not even his eyes. So she stated something which could reach his mind, “Dev... Did you look at that barmaid...? The costume doesn’t suit her. She looks ugly at that. Trying hard to fit the raven with the phoenix’s feathers.”
Even though Dev didn’t listen to Nora, he nodded his head unconsciously. His action irritated Nora after looking at Dev’s inattentiveness towards her, whose eyes were on Akshara rather than Nora and an idea of evil sparked in her devilish mind.
One of the Ayruzians asked, “Hey, our Night fury is furious today. What’s up? Huh, running out of wines?”
Their giggles irritated Nora more than Akshara herself. When Nora tried to walk away from them, her evil mind plotted more evil things in her mind. Some men teased her.
Nora called those men who were fully drunken, “Hey you drinkers of Ayruzglow! This entire kingdom is proud of you with your filthy soul. (The men got enraged) Just alone the wine wouldn’t give you ecstasy,”
“What are you suggesting, Night Fury? Are you going to amuse us this night?” another Ayruzians asked Nora.
Nora replied with her flaming eyes, “I will be honoured then. Why don’t you first try my gift and then come after me.”
“Gift?” one of the Ayruzians asked her.
“I wrapped gift in the wine colour dress and it’s wandering over there. (Nora pointed at Akshara and directed the men to Akshara.) You can enjoy that with your wines.” Nora vanished after tricking some to abuse Akshara by throwing them with gold bars. They did what Nora said.
So, one man called, “Hey beauty… Come here and fill my empty glass.”
Akshara went to that man and filled his glass with wine. Dev’s eyes trailed to Akshara wherever she goes. Another man called her by filthy names, which made Akshara’s brows frown and vowed to her, “I am here to help my friend Ruko and her mother, Madame Anura. I must not mind whatever happens today.”
Akshara didn’t mind their language and concentrated on her work. Dev was observing keenly every gesture of Akshara, couldn’t tolerate her frown. Dev stated in his mind, “Only I have all the access on her, even a frown on her face must be caused by me. Need to tell of a smile?”
So, Dev went near the man, who made Akshara frown, leaving Nora behind. Dev shared his sharp eyes with the man. The man looked above and said, “What, are you going to defend that wench? She is a barmaid, all men may use her. You can wait until we finish with her and then you can...”
Before the man completes his sentence, Dev smashed the wine bottle on his head. The glass pieces scratched open the skull of the man and his blood flew like falls. “Dare to raise your voice against me?”
Dev’s tantrum action scared the other men accompanied to the skull opened man. Akshara hesitated to look at the violence and hide in the corner of the Ice Cave Bar. Some men tried to attack Dev with their broken wine bottles.
Dev snapped his fingers and jinxed the men to become fireflies to join the decoration. The other men feared turning into a firefly and withdrew their actions of enjoying Akshara.
The brief fight paved the way for some Ayruzians to gossip about Akshara and Dev, who stood behind Akshara.
“Why our crown prince is defending that barmaid?”
“Maybe she is his possession”
“When they tested her virginity, they found the trace of golden blood in her.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Only two dragons have golden blood in the entire cosmos. One is his father, other is him. As you know about his father, it’s our crown prince’s golden blood. He has imprinted on her, probably.”
“What?”
“Can’t you see the human is marked as possession of our crown prince?”
“Look at our crown prince the way he looks at that barmaid…”
After smashing random men’s heads, Dev searched every corner of the Ice Cave bar for the sign of Akshara, thinking, “She might be scared. I must console her. She needs me.”