Chapter 25 –– Consequence

In the middle of the crowd, Moshe just lost his sight of his intended.

"Noam? Where are you?"

Moshe tried searching for him through the crowd. Suddenly, people started screaming and running away in panic. Moshe started getting anxious and began to look for Noam frantically.

After tracking down where people were running away from, Moshe finally saw Noam, on the stage where the dance competition was held. Noam was held hostage by a woman who pretended to be one of the dance groups for the competition. She was the one who took Noam while hiding under the giant puppet.

"Noam!"

Moshe shouted his name and ran towards him. He stopped his step right after he saw the woman pointing a knife by Noam's throat, threatening him not to come any closer.

"We finally meet again, mr. puffer."

The woman spoke to Moshe as if she knew him already. Moshe didn't recognise her and didn't understand what was going on.

"Moshe! Don't come closer!"

The moment Noam said something, the woman shut his mouth using her hand. She was on the verge of slitting Noam's throat due to rage, but she held herself back.

After examining the woman and the situation, Moshe finally realised who the woman was. She was the one who attacked him two days ago with an arrow that penetrated through the carriage he was in, on the first day Noam arrived to the village.

"Who are you!? What do you want!?"

Moshe exclaimed in anger. He couldn't believe that he allowed such a thing to happen right in front of his eyes.

"Who am I, you say?"

The woman smirked after hearing that question. She sounded like a lunatic.

"How dare you ask that after what you did to my brother!?!?"

The woman shouted in fury. She sounded spiteful and vengeful, as if she had been wronged by Moshe.

Moshe just stood quietly, listening to her. He didn't want to make a wrong move that could cost Noam's life.

"Stop right there!"

Suddenly, Lady Zara came to the scene in a hurry. She heard of what happened at the square and came to the scene immediately. Aaryn came along with her, to make sure that Moshe was alright.

"You! You were the one who did it!"

The woman pointed her knife at Lady Zara, blaming her for what happened.

Lady Zara looked guilty, as if she just confessed of having done something wrong. She knew what the woman was talking about.

"Your mother was the one who put my brother in prison."

Everyone was frozen still. They were afraid of what the woman would do to Noam if they made any reckless move.

"Mother?" Moshe asked in confusion.

Lady Zara let out a big sigh. She didn't know it would come to this.

"She is Dasya, the sister of the dealer who sold the puffs to you, Moshe. I put her brother in prison after I figured out where you got the puffs from."

Moshe and Aaryn were surprised to hear it. They didn't know that Lady Zara was able to find out who the dealer was.

"You put my brother in jail while you let your son wander free without any consequences.....does that sound fair to you!?"

Everyone was silenced. The woman had the rights to be angry.

"And you! You were the one who started all this!"

Dasya pointed her knife at Aaryn. Everyone turned their heads toward him, not having a single clue of what Aaryn had to do with all of this. They were all waiting for his reply.

"Tell them what you did, Aaryn!" the woman screamed in rage.

Aaryn was hesitant to say, but he had no other choice.

"I was the one who introduced Moshe to the dealer," Aaryn revealed.

Everyone was shocked. Nobody would have expected that Aaryn was involved in all of this, not even Moshe himself.

"After seeing how depressed he was, I thought letting him try a puff or two would alleviate his pain. I made sure to make it look like that they met by coincidence so that Moshe would think it was his choice to start puffing. Never would I expect him to be so addicted to it that he couldn't live without it."

Aaryn finally revealed what truly happened. He was the one who started all of this, even though it wasn't in his intention to let it get this far.

"Why....did you do it?" Moshe asked in disappointment, he felt like he had been tricked by his whole family and started to lose trust in them.

"Because you weren't talking to anyone. I know you just see me as a step brother, but I was seriously concerned for you. I was just trying to help," Aaryn replied, trying to justify his actions.

"And yet, you didn't do anything when my brother was put in prison. Even though this all started because of you."

Dasya was gravely angry at Aaryn for having started all of this. She wouldn't have let her brother get involved in this if she knew what would happen to him.

"Dasya, we can still talk about this. Let Noam go and we'll talk," Lady Zara said, trying to persuade Dasya to release Noam.

"It's all too late. You shall now know what it feels to lose your loved one."

Dasya raised her knife up in the air, posing dramatically.

"This is justice."

Right before Dasya swung her knife at Noam, Noam bit her hand that was closing his mouth to get out of her grasp. Dasya flinched due to the surprise attack and accidentally let Noam go.

"Ouch!"

Noam then ran towards Moshe who was waiting for him. Moshe stood in front of Noam, guarding him from Dasya.

"Urgh....you!!!"

Dasya was enraged that things didn't go as she planned. She then ran toward Moshe frantically, trying to stab him with the knife.

Suddenly, Dasya felt a needle stabbing her neck. She plucked it to see what it was. Turned out, she was stabbed with a tranquilizer before she could notice.

"It was a good thing I became a chemist," Aaryn muttered after he threw the tranquilizer like a dart at her.

A few moments later, Dasya felt her consciousness fading away and passed out on the stage.

"Noam?"

Suddenly, Moshe just noticed that Noam was dripping with blood from his neck. It seemed like the knife that Dasya was holding grazed Noam's neck and made a cut.

Moshe tried to stop the bleeding by pressing his paws against Noam's neck. However, following Dasya, Noam fainted a few minutes after due to loss of blood.

Lady Zara immediately called the healers to get them treated immediately. Dasya was brought to the hospice, while Noam was brought to the manor for special care.

“How is he?” Chieftain Zara asked.

“He is in a stable condition as of right now. Thankfully, the wound was shallow. He will recover soon enough,” the healer explained.

Soon after Noam collapsed from the incident earlier, Aaryn, Moshe, and Lady Zara brought him back to the manor and called a healer to have a check on him. The four of them then stayed in his room as the healer explained about his condition. The healer then left the room not long after that.

"So, what's gonna happen to Dasya?" Aaryn asked Lady Zara.

Lady Zara took a moment to think before replying. She already had something planned in mind, but she was still unsure of it.

"She shall receive a suitable punishment for trying to harm the heir of the village and our valuable guest. She will not get away for what she had done."

Aaryn felt terrible. He felt guilty for having caused all of this.

"However, she made a point. Moshe should not be able to walk freely without any consequences for what he did. He will also receive a suitable punishment."

Lady Zara wanted the best for her people, so she tried to be just towards everyone, even if it meant punishing her own son.

Moshe nodded in agreement. He also believed that it was the best course of action that they could take, considering what happened.

While listening to Aaryn and his mother discussing about their plans for the future, Moshe looked at Noam with concern in his eyes. His eyes seemed like a child who just lost his puppy.

Aaryn noticed how Moshe looked at Noam. He’d never seen such an expression coming from Moshe before. Noam truly unlocked a new side of Moshe that neither Aaryn nor Moshe himself knew about.

“You’re truly in love, huh,” Aaryn said.

Moshe turned his head and looked at Aaryn. He didn’t know what to say to him. Lady Zara smiled looking at their interaction.

“I’ve never seen you making that face before.”

Moshe looked back at Noam to think about what Aaryn just said. He didn’t understand what it meant to be in love, because he never was. All these emotions and feelings, everything was new to him.

Soon after, Noam regained consciousness. He had bandages all over his neck. He still couldn't speak, but he refused to stay in bed any longer.

Moshe and Aaryn were trying to understand what Noam was trying to say. Noam asked for a piece of paper and a pencil to write down what he wanted to say.

"You want to see the popstones?" Aaryn asked after reading what he wrote.

Noam nodded enthusiastically, not wanting to miss out his first time seeing the popstones*. Moshe was concerned at first, but after Lady Zara assured that they would be fully guarded, Moshe finally accepted Noam's request.

"I think I'm gonna sit this one out. You two can enjoy the show," Aaryn said, giving them space to spend the rest of the night together.

Moshe and Noam looked at each other in the eyes and held each other's paws. They then left the manor to see the popstones at the square, followed by guards right behind them.