“Are you Raden Ali?” The girl asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“She fell down the side of the cliff, she can’t get out of there. “
“How can that happen? Take me there, right away.”
“Yes Raden.”
They walked quickly together into the forest, it was still a part that people often came to find wood, and so it wasn’t dense, making it easy for them to walk.
“Why did you bring her here?”
“We were talking in the field, then I told her about the orangutan that just had a baby, and she wanted to go and see it.”
“How did she fall down the cliff?” He persisted.
“The mother orangutan got aggressive and tried to attack her, so she stepped backward and fell down the side of the cliff.”
“My goodness.” He was feeling a little bit angry at himself for not realizing that Paramita had left the restroom and went to another place.
“It’s over there Raden.” The girl pointed towards a cliff. “There the orangutan family is still eating near that tree.”
He carefully walked over to the cliff and looked down, trying to see Paramita. “Mita, are you down there?”
“Abang, I’m here.” He heard a voice call back from below.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He called out again.
“Yes I am. My ego is all bruised and battered.”
“Stop fooling around, and tell me if you’re injured.”
“No, I’m not. Just a sprained ankle, but it hurts when I try to climb out of here.”
“Okay, stay still, I’m coming down for you.” He said while finding a foothold to climb the cliff. He turned to the girl and said, “You have to wait here, our guards will be coming soon, and we need you to show them where we are.”
“Yes Raden.” She replied.
He carefully scaled down. Paramita was sitting on a rock at the bottom of the cliff. Her left leg was stretched out, and she her clothes dirty with soil. As soon as he landed on the ground, her ran to her and hugged her.
“Do you know how scared I was?” He admonished her. “Where are you hurt?” Without waiting for her response, he squatted and took a look at her ankle.
“It’s fine.” She said, “This is my bad leg, I’m prone to get sprained there, because of a sporting accident I had when I was younger.”
“It’s swollen. Does it hurt?”
“Pretty much. It does.”
“Why did you come here in the first place?”
“I wanted to see the orangutan baby.”
“But you were in the restroom, why didn’t you wait for me, why did you go to the field?” He bombarded her with questions.
“Well, I thought I had enough time. I mean when I came out of the restroom you were with Dewi, about to get jiggy with it.”
“What?”
“You know, going to get it on……., getting ready to snog……., about to make out……” She tried to come up with other terms.
“I know what it means, I was referring to, what are you talking about? I never did such a thing.” His face was becoming red.
“Oh really? You were both hugging behind a wall, and you were kissing her and everything. Well, never mind. Most importantly is that I saw you two. That’s why I left. I didn’t want to be the in the way.”
“I was calming her down because she was crying, that’s all. Besides, I couldn’t talk to her out in public because I’m your fiancée and it’s well known that she and I used to see each other. To be seen speaking privately with her would be disrespecting you.” He explained.
“Oh…Well, I think that’s bollocks because you were speaking to her privately earlier, before the event started,” she said.
“You……” He paused, took a deep breath and said. ”Can you walk?”
“No, it hurts when I try.”
Suddenly there was the voice of the team leader of the guards "Your Excellency, are you down there?"
"Yes, I'm here" Ali replied. "Puteri is here with me, she's hurt. She sprained her ankle so she can't climb up. We have to find another way out of here!"
"I see. Raden, it looks like, it’s going t to the rain. We are going to investigate another route out of there, in the meantime you need to find a safe place to wait for us." He suggested.
"That's a good idea," Ali said.
He looked around to their surroundings. "Look, over there on the right side of the cliff. I think I see a cave, we should wait for them there."
Paramita stood up, her ankle was hurting, but she took a deep breath and tried to walk. "Ouch!" She cried.
"Stay put," Ali said, "You shouldn't put any pressure on that foot!"
"But you said we should go to the cave."
"But I didn't tell you to walk there!"
"Should I hop or crawl all the way there?" She asked.
"No, I'll carry you!"
"What? But I'm heavy."
Ali walked up to her and lifted her from the ground.
"Light as a feather!" He said. Put your arms around my neck to give us better balance.”
He walked slowly to the cave with her in his arms. Paramita could feel her face turning red, she had never been this close to a man before. She can smell his soft musky cologne, provoking her heart to beat faster.
“Are you feeling alright?” He suddenly asked, catching her off guard.
“Yes, I am. Why?”
“Your face is all red, I thought you might have a fever or something.”
“Uhm, that? It’s that I’m feeling somewhat……., nervous.” She replied.
“Don’t worry, I won’t drop you.”
“It’s not that. I’ve never been this close to a man before.” She blushed again.
“Well, now you have.” He smiled, without saying anything else. They felt drops of water falling on their skin. The rain had arrived.
The cave turned out to be small and very narrow inside, they had to squeeze in tightly to be able to fit in there together.
“It’s tight, but at least it can protect us from the rain until help comes.” Said Ali.
“My shoulder is hurting being pressed against the rock wall,” Paramita complained.
“Maybe we should change sitting positions. Let’s do this, why don’t you turn around and sit facing the wall, and I’ll sit behind you with my back to the other wall.”
“Okay, let’s try.”
They moved around to sit as Ali suggested. “You’re sitting there all comfortable with your legs crossed, there’s hardly enough space for me. I’m squished against the wall.” Paramita said.
“Don’t be such a Princess. Look, I’ll open my legs and you can move backward, you can lean against me.” He said.
Paramita turned her head slightly, “I don’t think that’s an appropriate position for a man and woman to be in.”
“I know it’s not, but do you have a better idea? Besides, nobody’s here to judge us, and we’re not doing anything immoral.”
“You’re right.” She shifted her body backward, feeling his body against her back, her heart started beating out of control again.
“Don’t worry, there’s no need to be nervous around me.” He said softly.
She could feel his warm breath against her neck as he was talking, giving her goose bumps.
“Are you cold?” he asked seeing her shiver. He placed his arm around her.
“Abang, what if somebody sees us?” She barely managed to let her voice out.
“Who would be out here in this hard rain? If somebody were here to see us, we can actually follow them back to the village, and we’ll be safe.”
“Hah, you’re right!”
That didn’t lessen her awkwardness, she sat there in silence, only moving a little bit to make herself comfortable from time to time.
“Abang…”
“Hmmm?”
“Can you please move your wallet to your back pocket, it’s making me uncomfortable.” She said while shrugging her body backwa
rd to make him understand her point.
“My wallet is in my back pocket.” Ali responded, “Don’t move like that, please. Keep still.”
“But something solid is pressing against my behind, can you see what it is and move it away?”
“Be quiet and stay still, it’ll go away by itself. If you keep moving like that, it will just get worse” He said with a strained voice.
“Okay,” She agreed immediately without even one word of protest. He couldn’t see her ears were ready to burst into flames. The thought of their awkward situation made her too embarrassed to say a single word.
He felt a wave of relief when Paramita decided to obey him and stop moving. This time, it was his turn to turn red. He tried to empty his mind by controlling his breathing. Her skin emitted the soft scent of jasmine causing his blood to rush away from his head. The warmth of her back pressed against his chest was making him even dizzier. He frantically tried to come up with other things to think about in order to distract himself from his invading thoughts.
Outside the sky, was becoming dark, but the rain didn’t show any sign of stopping. Ali felt restless and uneasy, he didn’t know how long he could keep calm and in control in this situation.
“Mita, what did you and Hafiz talk about at the night of our engagement?” He asked, partly curious, partly to distract himself.
She took a deep breath, “At first we talked about our misunderstanding and the fight that we had. I do admit, I had no business judging him. He also asked me to be friends again with him, which I think is a good thing, you know. We used to be so close, and we used to hang out often when we were studying. He would bale me out a lot of times money wise, when I was stubbornly insistent to not use my allowance from my mother. So decided to tell him you know, how I felt about him back then” She paused.
“Then what happened? How did he end up confessing to you?”
“I was about to go back to the hall, when he suddenly told me that he had always known about my feelings and that he felt the same way, it’s that, at that time, I was weird and ugly. Maybe you don’t know this, but I spent the first two years of college, going around campus in flower printed clothes, but not the good type, it was a disaster.” She laughed remembering that time, “Oh well anyway, he told me that he kept changing girlfriends because, none of them hit it off with him like I did, but he was embarrassed to be seen dating me. So basically to him all the other girls, including my best friend Laila, were to fill-in his void. That’s the back story. Now, when your parents told him that he might have to marry me, he said he was upset because, as a good friend of his, it felt somewhat gay for him.” She paused.
“I remember him mentioning that to me,” Ali said.
“But he told me, that as soon as he heard that I was going to marry you instead, it flipped a switch in his mind, because that means I’m going to belong to someone else. Something that never worried him before, because he was confident that no man will look at me.”
“What? Did he say that? How could he disrespect you like that?” Ali responded angrily.
“No, don’t be upset, I made the last part up.” She corrected herself. “But anyway in my opinion, he sees me as interesting now, because of my status as a Puteri here in Jothar.”
“Mita, Hafiz is my only little brother, and I've known him since he was born, he might be many things, but he’s not the kind of person to take advantage of other people for personal gain. He sometimes does things that are irresponsible, but he would never intentionally hurt people. Besides, he’s not an ambitious person.”
“What are you implying?”
“I think that he really believes that he has feelings for you.”
“Do you think so?” She asked doubting him.
“I know so!” He affirmed.
“Well, there’s nothing that I can do about it. He missed his train with me. I've passed through the pain of getting over him, and I’m not crawling back into that hole again. Besides, it’s not like I'm marrying you because I choose to.” She said.
"I'll have a talk with him as soon as he gets over his capricious phase." Ali assured her.
"By the way, why did you agree to marry me?"
"There are three valid reasons to marry a woman, first her beauty, which you definitely have, the second is her fortune and position, and the last is her religion." He paused, "You have two and the third remains to be seen. So why not?"
"Don't try to run in circles with me! Tell me the truth" She said.
"Because I want to be a part of the ruling family, I want to be one of the governing prince's and eventually be the Finance Minister. My father was able to get his position as the Minister of Foreign Affairs because of the closeness to the Sultan, but when your brother takes over the throne, I will be too far away from the inner family circle to be even considered for the position. At first when I heard that you were going to marry Hafiz, I thought I could use his position to bring me into the circle, but this marriage gives me more political weight." He reasoned.
"So you're using me as a stepping stone for power and position?" Paramita asked.
"Honestly, Yes. Just like you used me to get three million dollars." He said.
"Well, being ambitious is normal, I guess." She whispered.
"Mine is not ambition. Look, Jothar relies on petroleum for the government expenditures, like subsidies for the general population and the building of infrastructure. But remember our country is small and so is our petroleum source. What happens when in the next fifteen or twenty years, we exhaust that resource? Or the price of petroleum drops in the international market? We have no significant national production besides petroleum, we don't export anything that can be a national source of income, and most of our people rely on subsidies for food, gas, electricity, education, and medical benefits. What happens when the government can longer subsidies? The economy will collapse, the government will collapse and eventually our country will collapse. I always planned to get involved into politics, but now with this marriage arrangement, I can reach my goal faster. As the Sultan's son-in-law, people will listen to me, and we can get to work on an economic reformation."
"Ah....now I understand why my father wanted you as his son-in-law. So maybe my theory wasn't so off after all."
"Could be, I've discussed this with my father so many times, maybe he spoke to the Sultan about it."
"That's not such a bad cause. You’re quite noble" Paramita praised. "And what about Dewi?"
"I feel sad for her. The thought of breaking her heart, tears me up inside. But if I have to put on a scale between my future with her, and the future of my people, there's no doubt which one I'll choose."
"Well you can count on me to help you in your cause, until we divorce, of course." She glanced at him.
"Who said I'm going to divorce you that easily?"
"What are you saying?"
"To strengthen my position, I must have a child with you first. After you give birth to my child, then we can talk about divorce. That's if you have the heart to abandon your own baby and husband."
"You! I take back all the good thoughts I had about you, you're a horrible and conniving human being!" The thought of having a baby with him made her blush.
They sat in silence for a while, lost in their own chain of thoughts
Paramita began to shrug again, her body felt stiff, she took a deep breath, “I wish, they’d found out a way to compress objects and fit them in a capsule. Then we can carry a helicopter in our pockets, put water on it to make it big and get out of here.”
“You mean like what they do in Capsule Corps?” Ali replied.
“Oh? Did you read that comic book too?” She asked in surprise.
“I have a complete collection of Dragon Ball comic in the library at home, among others, I love reading comic books.”
“That’s funny, you never strike me as the comic reading type.”
“What type do I strike you as?”
“I don’t know, you’re a
company director, aspiring to be a minister, have a stable girlfriend, and from a noble family. I would have thought that you’re the elegant, stuck up, and high-class type.”
“Well, you don’t strike me as the comic book reading type.”
“I don’t?”
“Just kidding, you do, it’s written all over your face,” Ali laughed, “So what else have you read?”
They spent hours talking and laughing about their favorite books, movies, and television series. They found out that they had many things in common. Ali never felt this comfortable before, how many years had it been since he could show his true side, and not hide in a façade of being a responsible public figure.
“I didn’t know we had some much in common!” Paramita said.
There was no answer.
“Abang, what are you thinking?”
“I suddenly remembered what Dewi said to me today.” He finally answered.
“What did she say?” She said while yawning.
“Nothing important. Mita, it’s already dark outside, and there is no sign of the rain stopping. I don’t think they will be coming for us tonight, for safety reasons. It would be a good idea if we try to get some sleep to conserve energy.”
“Try to sleep? Here? In this position?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything weird to you.”
“I know, I didn’t mean to accuse you of that, I’m sorry. I know your feelings are only for Dewi.”
“Be careful of the way you think, men can easily be tempted to do perverted things to woman. What keeps him from doing those things are high moral values.” He said.
“I understand.” She replied softly.
“You know, once in a man’s life, he meets someone who confuses him and turns his world upside down, forgetting everything that he planned, felt and dreamed before he met her. Forcing him to a crossroad without knowing which way to choose, to continue on his planned journey, or to change his course. Someone very special who completely bewitched his mind and soul without even realizing it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Never mind, go to sleep.”
“Ah, okay.” Her voice barely audible, it had been a long day.
Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 Page 12
