Chapter 31

Lord Parafon and the entire palace were worried. Malin and Revina had taken too long to return. What worried them even more was the strong wind that had shaken the palace as if it wanted to lift it to the sky. Such kind of wind was known to the Emperor and the High Priest as capable of originating from only one person, Nicadeaus. What the Lord couldn't understand was whether Nicadeaus had met with Malin and if so, what was causing the havoc that was threatening to tear the palace down. When the blowing wind quieted and everything calmed, their fears worsened for if it were Nicadeaus, it meant that they had met with Malin and a fight had ensued. In most circumstances, Nicadeaus would only use his tornado when faced with a formidable opponent and the calmness only returned when Nicadeaus had won. He had never lost.

When Malin ran and Revina followed him, it was the empress who suggested that they be left alone. But with all the time they had taken and what was happening in the palace, she was beginning to doubt the wisdom behind her decision. They had been out for hours and there was no sign of them returning. "What if Malin never recovered from the spell?" She asked herself as uncertainty started to rob her of peace.

Lord Parafon and the Oracle were mostly worried because of time. It was already approaching night and still, it wasn't clear whether Malin and Revina were going to make it back. Was something wrong? They wondered. It was only thirteen hours left before the first child was born, only thirteen hours to the ruin of Dalawa empire. What was taking them so long? Could it be that Pell took Malin away? But what about Revina, what would Pell want with her? Maybe she could just make Revina her slave too. But that would be too much. Pell couldn't do that.

The Emperor, worried that the wait was turning into something rather uncomfortable and unpleasant, decided to send out a search team. He couldn't sit and do nothing just like anyone else. He didn't wholly believe the story but somehow, he saw something in Malin. When Malin wanted to attack him, his face transformed into Medan's and the Emperor saw Medan, not Malin. That was the third time he had seen Medan through Malin and this really bothered him. Lord Parafon had claimed Malin was Medan's son but the Emperor was beginning to believe otherwise.

When the search team reached the palace gate, Malin and Revina were already standing outside the gate, holding each other's hands. They smiled with the soldiers, Jonathan included.

"Wow!" Jonathan said. "I can see somebody woke up from a deep..."

"Jonathan," Malin called, smiling with him as always in a friendly manner. "Thank you."

"For what now, punching you in the face?"

"What, you punched me in the face?"

"You forgot? Should I show you how I did it?"

"No, just show me the way in my friend," Malin said as they entered the palace, Jonathan leading the way. "By the way, you fought well."

"Yeah, and you were too weak. But I'm glad I managed to fulfill a certain dream of mine."

"Really? What dream was that?"

"Punching the man who slayed the beast."

They laughed as they walked in to the courtroom, Malin and Revina walking hand in hand while Jonathan walked next to Revina, putting her between the two of them. Everybody rose to welcome them, hugging and embracing them happily as they made their way in. The empress was overwhelmed with joy when she saw them. She embraced Revina and looked into her eyes, seeing the speckles of happiness sparkle in her eyes.

"It worked, didn't it?" the empress whispered to Revina's ears as she held her in a tight motherly embrace.

"Yes My Lady," Revina replied as she struggled to contain the tears of joy that were forming in her eyes. "It worked and thank you very much empress."

"No my dear, don't thank me. It was the love that you have for each other that made it work. Never forget that."

"I won't. I love him too much to forget that. But what you did for us made me realize my mistake. I misjudged Malin and almost did something extremely stupid. Had you not found..."

"Stop it my dear," the empress shushed her and gently kissed her forehead. "It's supposed to be a victory of love, not a regret of a misconstrued action."

While still exchanging pleasantries, a guard walked in and informed the Emperor that two of the forest guards had come to see him over an urgent matter. The Emperor allowed the two guards in. The two guards were surprised to see Malin and the Emperor talking rather too sweetly. They had not expected the Emperor and Malin to reconcile after what Malin had done. According to the laws, what Malin did was treason punishable by death and seeing him with the Emperor was something never expected by them. They bowed before the Emperor and the High Priest, Lord Parafon, before starting with permission from the Emperor, to narrate why they were in the palace.

According to the guards, the strong winds that blew through the empire and rattled roofs of buildings as if it wanted to blow them away transformed Medan forest into a blanket of darkness and nothing was visible beyond two yards. The trees, instead of swaying and dancing with the flow of the wind, stood still as if unaware of what was happening around them. Once in a while flashes of light would be seen in the forest as if struggling to break through the darkness but the darkness would only be temporarily defeated for it returned with much depth and strength of every time the flashes of light receded.

The wolves began to make very scary sounds as if in pain and struggling to stay a live. Once in a while they would stray away from the forest and in the redness of their eyes, their pains seemed to intensify with every gaze or gasp of air they breathed outside the forest. Their sizes began to shift, at times shrinking until they looked as small as puppies while at times they grew as big as humans in terms of hight. With every wind that blew past the forest, something strange happened and the guards could have been certain had it not been for the darkness that limited their views that Medan forest started to live. There were sounds, inaudible sounds of people emanating from the forest. There was movements and at times they were sure the movements were shuffling of human feet in the forest.

At one time, a strong sparkling light hovered over the forest, defeating the darkness for a while. During this time, the guards were not sure whether they were in the right place for the Forbidden Medan Forest was as clear as a field with only a few horses running from one end to the next. A river seemed to be flowing through the centre of the field and with every water that bathed on the shores of the river, houses seemed to be sprouting on the edges of the river until the guards could see the river no more but the beautiful houses that were gradually towning the field. Then a man and a woman appeared on a road that snaked through the town where they had formerly seen a river. The man and the woman seemed to be struggling to break free from chains that had tied them together and on to a metal rock that seemed rooted not on the ground but on the roofs of the palace back in the capital city.

As they struggled to break free, the darkness returned and the new town disappeared again. The wind slowly diminished and the darkness disappeared once again but this time, the town was no where to be seen. The guards were terrified and thought of running away and to run they could have had they not spotted a man that looked more like the fugitive prince Nicadeaus trying to enter the forest. They couldn't believe it was him for they had not seen or heard about him for years and confronted the man they thought resembled him.

When they tried to stop him, they were rudely shocked to see that he was indeed Nicadeaus. At first, they attempted to arrest him and bring him to the palace as was the Emperor's decree that Nicadeaus should be reported and arrested when seen anywhere in Dalawa empire. But Nicadeaus was too strong and too fast for any of them, overpowering them and even seriously injuring two of the guards. The two guards that remained unhurt tried to follow Nicadeaus into the forest but froze when they saw the wolves turned into half humans and half wolves. When they gathered enough courage, they had to flee for they feared for their lives.