Ballad Of The Forgotten: Chapter 5: Part 2:

The world fell apart around him in shades of yellow and orange. He would often comb through his hair and find tiny leaves nestled in the crooks and curls.

Although the pain often overwhelmed him, he didn't have anything better to do, so he often reflected on whatever happened, more importantly, what she spoke about. Her words were careless and unhurried, but sometimes they hit him like arrows and kept echoing in his head. 

He was used to living as a prince. The walls of his childhood were ornamented with decorum and courtly endeavours. All his life, he was told that he was supposed to take care of his people because his ancestors almost decimated their population in their raging wars for power. He has prepared his whole life to be the protector and the leader of the people. They might be in peace, but he needed to preserve that peace.

How strange it was. He was cast out of his family, his society, and his kingdom, but the need to protect still arose inside him, sometimes as a soft murmur, sometimes overwhelming him. And what was even stranger was that he had never felt the need to know him. The man he was, the human that he was, what he hungered for, what he lusted for.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was in this desolate wilderness, with this strange woman, with nothing to keep him occupied with, that he was forced to face the emptiness that had long occupied a part of him.

"What's on your mind?"

He looked at her beside him, jolted out of his thoughts. She was walking steadily, eyes forward.

"I'm just a little tired."

"Well then, we'll sit down."

They had returned most of the things she'd borrowed. Well, most of them, because there was a sturdy copper kettle that she couldn't return. When they arrived at the owner's home, it was deserted. They waited for the better part of an evening, but he didn't return. So, they set off the next morning.

She was seated before him, the meagre belongings set in a small pile beside her. He was absentmindedly running his hands through the grass, feeling the blades and sometimes getting cut.

"Which part of the kingdom is this?" he queried.

"I don't know…maybe just outside the villages."

"I have never seen this part of the kingdom. Why is it so bad here?"

She raised an eyebrow. "How is it bad?"

"Well, people have barely enough to eat or to clothe themselves. Their houses are prone to calamities."

"No. They have just enough to eat, to clothe themselves and their houses are strong. Didn't you petition for better building materials a year ago?"

He faltered. "Yes…I-I did."

"I believe your brother saw to it that everyone in the kingdom had a place to live. Even the wanderers. Though he often sends soldiers to patrol the places."

"Wanderers?"

"Most of these people are wanderers, like me. Some might be from your kingdom."

"Why do they live like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like…", he couldn't find the words, so he stayed silent awhile. She waited.

"Isn't there a loss…a sense of loss to this kind of life?" 

"Why would there be?"

"They are not doing anything fruitful with their life. They don't contribute to society. No one knows about them. What meaning is in living here, like this?"

"But why do you need this to mean anything?"

He looked at her blankly, a look of pure shock appearing on his face. She kept looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. But he couldn't say anything.

They sat in silence for several minutes.

She laughed suddenly, breaking his thoughts. He didn't know what has caused her to laugh, but he smiled, even though his head was still muddled.

"What?"

"I couldn't help it. How alike you and I are."

"Ho-how so?"

"Before I started wandering, I was a high-ranking member of society in a different kingdom," she glanced at him, "no, don't bother scratching your head. You have never heard about it." 

"I was so convinced of this higher purpose nonsense, that when the kingdom gained stability and peace, I thought about killing myself."

"Why? What were you suffering from?"

"Nothing. I was bored."

"Bored." He looked at her, deadpanning.

She grinned at the look. "It was a very boring part of my life because I just didn't have anything better to do. No one needed me."

"I used to roam the market squares from day to night, sleeping under restaurants, or in public toilets. The palace often sent someone to bring me home, but after a while, they got tired of locating me everywhere. So, they started stationing guards to keep watch on me."

"I got bored of that as well, so I started sleeping with them to alleviate boredom. I was quite obsessed with sex for a while."

He blinked, not knowing how to react. 

"That's how I slipped away."

"And what after that?"

"I kept wandering until I understood how to live on the bare necessities. And it has been like that for a while."

"And if your kingdom falls into chaos again?"

"It's not my problem."

Anger heated across his chest. "How can you just abandon your kingdom like that?"

"I can because I have understood that containing human nature is not in my abilities."

He was flabbergasted again, this time, utterly shut up. She smiled again, which was getting on his nerves.

"Then…what's the point in all of this?"

She heard him and this time it made her quiet as well. Scratching her chin, she stared at the distance. 

"I don't quite know."

He felt the fatigue of the long journey suddenly. Lowering his head onto the ground, he folded his arms to himself and fell asleep.