Six months later...
"You need to move out of the house Elizabeth. Move on with your life."
"Yes , Doctor." Her green eatery eyes, were in a trance. She was too depressed to even move out of her house. She had even stopped eating properly and would lie on her bed whole day crying!
"I am your psychiatrist, but as a woman I know how a loss of baby feels. But please just try to move on! May be just move to States. Your body has also healed completely now!"
"Yes, Doctor." She wiped away her tears. Images of her dead son, still fresh in her mind. She had to undergo an immediate surgery after she was found unconcious by the hospital staff. Lillian"s mother too had a nose and knee fracture, from the fall and was rushed for the treatment too.
"You wanted to be an actress, why not try it now. Just s.h.i.+ft from here for a few years and don"t forget you have to make your parents proud!"
"Ok, doctor." She thought about it. Davis"s men will always keep an eye on her! Maybe if she goes to U.S, fir s few years a change of place would help. Besides Lillian was already there. Lillian"s mother too wanted to s.h.i.+ft, but she stayed back to look after Elizabeth.
I can"t burden them anymore! I should s.h.i.+ft and start preparing for auditions. I have to earn and support my family too!
Meanwhile....
Xio Lee rushed inside the monastery.
"Phra Basho, have you seen Rhehan? He is not in the garden!"
"No! I"ll help you look for him."
"Ok!" They both searched every corner of the monastery and the garden, but could not spot the infant. By this time few other monks had also joined the search party!
"Where did you last see him?" Phra Basho asked, looking below the empty bamboo crib.
"Just 15 minutes back, I placed him in the crib and went inside to fetch his medicine. As soon as I came back, he was missing."
After another 10 minutes, two more monks were searching the entire area. Suddenly they heard loud giggles of the baby not far away. They all quickly followed the voice and gaped at the sight in surprise.
The imperial guardian female lion was clutching Rhehan inside her mouth, but Rhehan was giggling instead of crying. The lion was swinging it"s head up and down, cracking up the baby in splits of laughter.
The monks looked at each other in surprise. Offcourse all the other animals in the mystical woods were amicable to few selective people, but never had they expected the serious natured imperial lion to play with a human baby!
Xio Lee, who had literally spent 9 years in the woods was also surprised. He had been playing with the hyenas, monkeys and all other animals but never the Imperial Lion.
Suddenly the big white elephant came from behind, walking closer to the Lion and showered water over Rhehan, with its trunk. The infant was in splits of laughter again!
Xio Lee and other monks too could not help but smile at the enchanting sight.
Suddenly they noticed, old teacher standing behind them, also looking at Rhehan and smiling.
"You were right old master! He is no ordinary boy!"
"He has the ability to win hearts! He is a gentle soul and animals can sense it more quickly than us humans! Fate has brought him here!" Old teacher replied, still looking lovingly at Rhehan.
From that day, Rhehan would often be stolen from the monstery premises. At certain times, he was found on a branch amongst the monkeys, sometimes sleeping over a hyena"s back or at times being played like a ball by the elephants. Xio Lee would at times get jealous seing how happy Rhehan was with them. He had started to get possessive for the baby, just like a mother!
Things got messier when Rhehan started crawling! He would crawl out of the monastery, over the back of two imperial lions and pull their hair!
"Wow! This boy has some guts!" A monk gasped, when he noticed Rhehan pulling the Lions"s beard for the first time.
Time rolled away quickly and Rhehan had recuperated completely, developing like any happy normal infant...
While at the same time, Elizabeth and her aunt s.h.i.+fted to States.