The Bond || ONC2022

Chapter 3

Sweat rolled down Bhallar's spine, staining his pale blue robes. They were the only formal ones he owned. Though they were slightly worn-out, the physician thought he looked good in them.

Not anymore.

His hands trembled like the time years ago when he had wrapped his fingers around the scalpel for the first time.

'Steady does it, my boy. Feel its edges; make them your own. Careful, or you will hurt yourself.'

The physician took a deep breath. Steady. Now was not the time to fall apart.

Until yesterday, he was a man without hope. Today, almighty Ra had given him a chance. A chance to be a brother that Mayeen could count on to protect her, a brother she deserved.

'When you are too close to the patient, you may sometimes miss what is right in front of you. Take a step back. Look. Now tell me, what do you see?'

Bhallar took a step away from the poster; his back made contact with a warm, solid wall.

"Watch where you are going, boy!" A man dressed similar to the ones occupying his spot snapped.
Bhallar cowered in fear. He thought he was done for, luckily though, at that precise moment, something else caught the large hunter's eyes. He looked past the physician. His eyes lingered hungrily over the poster.

"A beautiful bitch, indeed." The man's equally large hand fell on the physician's shoulder, "I don't blame you for hogging the board, boy!"

Anger coiled in Bhallar's gut. He knew his way around the human body. His mind conjured up images of the hunter on his table...at his mercy. Begging.

The physician's fists balled at his sides.

The hunter was twice his size and almost that much taller. The light-eyed physician was many things, but he was not stupid. He stayed silent.

The huge hunter narrowed his eyes, "You look familiar."

Oh. Oh. "Do I?"

"Yes. Well, I don't know... "

Bhallar smiled brightly.

'Dada, you look like a fool when you smile like that.'

The hunter shook his head, "On second thought, maybe not." He turned to the poster, and without giving Bhallar a chance to scurry away, he threw his arms over the latter's shoulder, "What do you think she did?"

Bhallar tried to shrug. He failed.

"Our gang thinks that she is too pretty to be house-help and too delicate-looking to be a Siyari." the hunter leaned in and whispered, "That leaves us with just one option, doesn't it?"

Bhallar blinked, looking lost.

"She is a run-away concubine, boy."

Bhallar sucked in a sharp breath. That couldn't be, could it?

Mayeen was soft-spoken and kind. She was no longer the spunky little girl she was before her father had passed away. How and why her personality had taken a one hundred and eighty-degree turn, Bhallar didn't know, but after completing his training when he had returned home, the young woman who had greeted him was nothing like the one he had left behind.

Mayeen had been gone for six months. Even if she was captured right away and taken to Tutuamen, she would have spent at least five months in the palace with all those conniving women in the harem!

How had she survived? Not only that, she had escaped! No concubine had ever done that and survived.

Mayeen, how did you do it?