Pandora

Chapter One

The morning breeze blew calm with the scent of sweet grassland blended into one with some wild flowers inside the forest.

The horizon was tranquil…calm…peaceful…quiet… breathe in, breathe out…

"Princess Celestine!" a young woman was running and shouting calling the name of the woman who was sitting on the grass in a lotus position. She ran and then trembled down to the ground, rose for running again as her hand was pulling up her long skirt as high as she possibly could fly as she could make it.

She panted as she stopped running to come out from the forest and sat on her knees in front of the woman who she called ‘Princess Celestine’. She threw the empty water bucket next to her.

"I told you, Ersa, don't call me 'princess' again," Celestine’s voice changed so heavy in the pitch as her eyes were staring at the young woman.

Ersa nodded her head and tried to regulate her breathing rhythmic.

"Celestine, something happened!" She looked at the woman with her short hair cut and tomboy look in a worried sight.

"What you mean? It's a forest! Anything could happen here," Celestine got up from her sitting position. She breathed deeply. Her nose could smell the aroma of some wet reeds just were poured down by the breeze in the morning.

"I just took some water to boil over there," the young woman pointed at behind her, some leaves on trees were swayed.

"I saw something!" She rubbed her face with her two hands.

Celestine looked at her, "Go inside the hut!" She took her sword and sheathed it. She threw a bottle of potion to Ersa.

"Smear it whenever you hear something growling! It can vanish your human smell from wild animal or anything, something else! Wait for me there," Celestine looked at her and asked her to go into the hut behind them.

She waited for Ersa to lock the hut's door.

She walked thoroughly, entering the dark of the forest with some big shady trees, in silent footsteps as she learned how to step using the front part of arch pads of her feet.

Her Guru always asked her to walk along with the wind, not carried the burden of the weight forward or fall behind, the masses, just moved into the wind with emptiness. She always remembered the lesson that he taught her when she used to spend her time in the kingdom.

"Remember to stay harmony with the wind, feel the breeze, let them to move your body, let your soul guides you how to move!" Her Guru, Brahma Aditya taught her. She sighed as her mind was carrying those cores.

Celestine stopped her steps as she smelled the body aroma of an animal. She moved in silent way as she uncovered her sight away from leaves shrubs in front of her squatting position.

'A white horse,' she thought and tried to find out whose the horse was. The horse tried to drink from the water pond between them.

Celestine felt suspicious with the water color. She came out from her place to avoid the horse drank the water of that pond.

"No, don't! Hush," she tried to make the horse jumped as it was frightened. Celestine stood still in front of it. She tapped its neck as the horse seemed to reach its stable emotion.

"Where is your master?" She rubbed its neck and spread her sight around. She couldn't see anyone but she found that the horse had its halt rope and saddle on it.

"What happened to you?” She asked as she held the rope and walked it to the river stream nearby.

"It's safe for you to drink, Buddy. Choose the water that it flows," she whispered on the horse's ear. She stood beside it and watched it drinking.

Celestine was sure that the horse had to belong to someone, its instinct did led it to choose the water that it didn't flow as the horse got used to drink from the water tank or container provided. The wild horses would choose reversely, they preferred to drink any water that it flowed.

She sighed and spread her eyes to surroundings. 'Should I take it to the hut?'

Celestine thought as she looked at the horse. She was about to unsheathe her sword when she saw some leaves were moved by something.

"Who's there?" She asked out there. She saw the horse looking at the bushes around them too. She held the rope and moved it behind her.

The leaves were moving noisily as something was walking throughout. She was waiting, and her ears tried to capture any sounds. 'Something was moving there, as the breeze delivers the aroma, my gosh, what kind of smell is it? It smells so stinky!’ She rubbed her nose.

The horse stayed calm as Celestine took a look at it. ‘It didn’t react strangely,' Celestine could inhaled in more relaxed way. She just kept waiting whatever that appeared from behind the bushes.

A few second later, she saw something was crawling.

A man with some leaf covering on his head and back, and he smelled so stinky. He stopped crawling just a few steps in front of Celestine’s lower legs.