The Duke’s Companion

“Aryl, good night.”

Mamella turned off the light on the stand and pulled the quilt. Laying down on the bed a little away from Mamella’s bed, I blinked as I listened to Mamella’s breathing, and I quickly fell asleep.

‘Oh, I can’t sleep because I took a nap earlier…’

After being dazed, I finally got up from my seat and walked towards the window.

Standing on the cool glass window, I looked up at the night sky in early summer. I sat still and counted the number of stars in the sky to somehow relieve this boredom.

But I heard a noise from below. I let my head down, with an involuntary crinkle in my ear. It was night, so a foreign entity appeared in a rather dark field of vision.

‘It’s Mamella’s family. Where are you going at this hour?’

Appearing in my sight, he goes all the way along the road as if there’s always a set course, then gets on the wagon that stops in front of the gate and disappears.

The time zone has only changed today, so he’ll be out in no time.

But contrary to what I thought, he soon took a step that was going well in the direction of the garden. He held two white lilies with beautiful petals in his hand.

He went deep into the garden and disappeared from view.

It was the first time I had seen him at night, and although the light in the sky had gone out, he was still a recognizable human being.

But he appeared as lonely as he was quiet, perhaps because he lacked the day’s hustle and bustle. He also appears to be a little depressed.

I jumped down from the window. Moonlight was pouring in through the curtains from a large window leading to a nearby terrace. It was nice to stare blankly as the new white light drenched the bed canopy.

Slowly, a yawn came to view. Then, I stretched out my front paws and opened my mouth wide. 

Rumble—

“…?”

I turned my head to the sound of the window swaying. Beyond the large moonlight terrace window, a tree pushed by the wind was seen leaning to one side. It was quiet until earlier, but the wind suddenly blew hard.

‘You’re going to get pulled out, poor tree.’

I shook my head with regret. It must be a very windy place.

It was the time when I was remembering the last time I flew in the sky. Suddenly, the window began to shake with force to break. I stepped back in surprise.

‘Wow, it’s okay. The windows are locked…!’

I was relieved to look at the latch that was hanging tightly. But as the wind blew again, a strange thing happened.

The bar on the window made a clicking sound of its own accord and turned and slid slowly by itself.

Before I could grasp the situation, the window creaked open. The wind was so strong that it was hard to open my eyes.

“Ugh!”

I couldn’t stand it with my tiny body. It was only for a moment that my body, floating in the air, could not withstand the wind and was thrown against the wall.

Thud! 

With a distant sound, my eyes were tinted with darkness.

ꕥ

“…Ryl!”

I frowned at the buzz of the cut. It was strange that the sound echoed in my head many times and disappeared.

It’s weird. I felt like my cramped mind opened up. The sound struck my head again, making me shiver with fear.

“Aryl!”

I opened my eyes instinctively. The star-like eyes met mine right in front of me. I was gradually relaxed…

‘Oh, it was Mamella… I must have woken up from my fainting.’

I look at Mamella. Maybe because I passed out, Mamella’s face was distorted by tears. 

Mamella spoke in a tearful voice, “Aryl, are you okay? Where… is there any pain anywhere?”

What… Why?

For a moment I was dazed. Because the words that flew in Mamella’s soft but slightly passionate voice were conveyed with meaning. I mean, because I could understand Mamella.