Encounter with Dia

Dia cheerfully embraces Kai. It was none other than a beautiful surprise for her to meet Kai in the woods. Kai worriedly asked her, "What are you doing here in the woods? - No! What are you even wearing?"

Dia pouts sheepishly while fidgeting with her fingers, "Well..."

"Aish! Don’t tell me you are still up to your strange habits."

"These are not strange! I am training."

"Yeah, yeah!"

Looking at these two conversing Aadin and Bandai gossips in the back.

Aadin speaks indifferently, "Don’t tell me this weird creature is a woman." On which Bandai questions Aadin, "Did you know that General Kai had a sweetheart?"

"No. Why?"

"Means only we are left singles here."

Aadin rolled his eyes over him with annoyance, "Shut your mouth if you don’t want to be euthanized."

Bandai backs off, "Sorry, sorry!", he bows with respect and looks at him with corner of his eyes.

Aadin clicks his tongue looking at Kai patting Dia's head, "Tsk! What a fox!"

Kai introduces Dia to both of them with his brightest smile, he looked as if all of his worries faded away after meeting his sweetheart. "Hey guys! Meet Dia. She is my little sister."

"What? Sister? Why did I never hear of your sister before.", Aadin questions him with disbelief.

"She is daughter of my uncle’s best friend. Dia meet them, these two are my friends from capital. He is son of duke, Din and his buddy Bandai. You must have heard about the war. So I am here to find a secure place for them."

Kai tries to hide Aadin's real name as Din infront of Dia so that it won't gives anyone even a slight thought of prince. Aadin looks at Kai with anger as he questions Kai,” You sure?”

It sure was strange for brother Kai to return to tribe just for finding a secure place for a duke's son, she tries to fain ignore but her curious nature couldn't help her, "Why would duke’s son be hiding here?",

"Well he is ill and needs a proper environment to recover."

Bandai also spoke in between, "Yas, Yas! That’s why we are here."

It sure was strange but Dia held her sharp tongue, "I didn’t doubt. Why explanation?"

"You both are dead.", Aadin glares Kai and Bandai, "These two

jerks are just excited to see a unique crow.", he boldly roasted Dia

"Yahh! Do you want to die!? What do you mean by crow? ",

"Your feathers say it all."

"What do you think about yourself? A Peacock?"

"How dare you disrespect me?"

"Your hairs say it all. Don’t pick a fight with me or you’ll regret."

"Yah!!", Aadin and Dia were bickering like kids over some toy. They just met and things are already a mess. There is no way one will back out. Their competitive nature doesn't allow to back off.

Kai tries to cool them off, "Ok! Ok! Calm down both of you. Let’s sit and talk first."

As they all sat down and ate apricots, Dia worriedly asked Kai, "Brother, is it really true that our country is under  war?" Kai nodded to her and his forced smile, "Yeah it’s true. Help us get into tribe lands unnoticed."

"Ooh! Okays. Don’t you worry! It’s a piece of cake. I do it daily and no one knows it."

"What about uncle?"

"He left midnight for taking care of his business. So no one knows."

"Are you stupid?" Kai gets angry and shouts at her, "Next time I don’t want you wander around woods alone."

"Don’t treat me like a kid. I can take care of myself. I am enough strong.", Dia argues back with Kai knowing that no matter what, Kai is always gonna be worried about her. Because of her father's extreme care, she couldn't join Eden's military just like Kai.

The argument was quite noisy and Bandai uttered to himself, "Girls should act the way they should."

Dia draws her dagger on the throat of Bandai, “You are not supposed to command me. I’m sure I can win against you in hand-on-hand combat”. Aadin grabs her hand and pushes it away saying, “Don’t you dare threat my brother else I won’t go easy on you”.

"You think I got scared of you? This is our lands."

"This is my country."

Bandai holds Aadin's sleeve signaling him to stop, "He means it’s our country. We all are citizens with equal rights."

"Tsk!"

Kai holds his face with his palm, "Stop it you all. Dia they both are childish please ignore them. Just help us to find a suitable secure place for these two and enter without getting noticed."

"I'll do it only for you. Don't worry. Leave it on me, brother."

Kai thanked her as half of his worries vanished, "Thank you so much! I don’t know how to thank you."

"What about fulfilling the promise you made back in childhood.", Dia pouts and looks at him with her lovely doe eyes. Her personality didn't made a good impact on Aadin and Bandai but still her duality was quite impressive.

Kai embarrassingly spoke to her, "Don’t joke with me, I’m serious."

Aadin was listening to them quietly when he finally asked, "What promise?"

Dia smirked, "He promised to m—", she was about to speak when Kai covered her mouth by whispering into her ears, “Save some face for me. I will get you a new dagger”. Dia stands up smiling and nods,” You got it boss. You go ahead to your home. Leave these two to me”.

General Kai pats Dia’s head saying, “I got lucky to meet you here. See you around. Update me as soon as you can”. He rode his horse and charges towards the tribe’s land. Dia asks both of them to sit down and wait for the signals.

Bandai asks her, "What signals, missy?" -  "You’ll know soon." After little wait, they saw people gathering around the

tribe’s entrance. A smoke of green color was launched in the sky and drummers lined up and people gathered at the entrance with beacons in their hands. They finally could see the General Kai’s horse’s view from up of valley as he

entered the tribe’s land.

"What's happening? Are they going to attack him?"

"Nahh! My brother is a general. People are distracted with him; we can enter the tribe’s land with your horses now."

Aadin stands up brushing the mud off his cloak, "Let’s move. I’m tired."

Aadin and Bandai rode their horses. Bandai offers Dia to ride with him.

"Then let me control the reins.", Dia insisted with her cute cute face.

"You know how to ride a horse?"

"Of course!"

Dia lead the horses from the tribe’s side hill and rushes to the field ahead while everyone in the tribe was busy welcoming General Kai. Slowly yet steadily they reach the lands where they could see the cemetery, passing

by the lake and woods. “This cemetery is of our forefathers’. One day I’ll be sleeping here as well”, says Dia. She stops the horse and shows them around, “We are in Wisteria lands, my home.” They slowly walk through the cemetery as they could she the mansion with a Greek goddess fountain in the front mansion’s door. Dia steps off the horse and twirls around and welcome them, “Welcome to my home. Make yourself feel home. Leave you horses here and let’s go inside.”

Butler Chen rushes outside the Mansion, "My lady, Where have you been?", His gaze fell over two unknown people. These two definitely are handsome he never saw them before, "Who might they be?, my lady."

"My guests, They are Kai brother’s friends. Tell everyone (servants) to keep their mouth shut and not letting the voice go out. Prepare their rooms and serve them dinner."

Butler Chen nodded to Dia,"Yes young lady." He led both of them to the mansion’s courtyard. Courtyard was decorated with beautiful colorful flowers as they looked like the colors from kaleidoscope.  As the maids brought

out the dishes of diverse variety snacks and tea served in beautiful antique western set. Butler served them organic herbal tea with delicate style, "Enjoy the tea. I’ll let you know once your rooms are ready.", He leaves the two gentlemen alone in courtyard.

Bandai was in awe and totally mesmerized by the aesthetic decor, "Its like a castle but in some other world. Our castle is so traditional and ancient."

Aadin nods to him, "Yeah. It’s so different. I can’t digest myself. Why are dishes so different here? Are we still in Eden?"

"Well its western style. You won’t find these delicacies even in castle.", Dia cuts Aadin while entering the courtyard after changing her disguise. Her beautiful pink floral hanfu goes well with her rosy lips. Aadin and Bandai both were in awe with this sudden tranisiton to her style from that weird feathers and masks to an elegant hanfu. They stopped talking about what they were talking and studied her facial features, from coffee brown hairs that were comber backward showing off her sparkling grey eyes and  and flawless forehead to long-broad nose, from her symmetrical cheekbones to very perfect jawline all sharp like a dagger.

Aadin was eyeing her already when Bandai noticed him and coughed. He queries Dia, "How do you know about castle’s style?"

Dia replies back to Bandai indifferently, "I’ve been there before. Don’t be too surprised."

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