Darryl followed the voice and it led him to a part of the forest that had a shallow cliff. There he saw a silhouette of a person dragging an motionless body from the water. Since he was not sure whether they were friends or foe, Darryl hid himself off completely from the two and it took him a minute of scrutinizing before he concluded the person being dragged was Huzey. He knew Huzey"s built and even how frail the light from the moon was, having acquainted with the prince for quite some time made him sure that it was he. Aside from that, he knew Huzey was missing, so there was no doubt it was him.
But who was this girl?
He observed her and tried to have a glimpse of her face but he can"t have a clear angle of her. She was bending down the prince, shaking him off while murmuring a couple of words. He understood some words she uttered, but the rest, he couldn"t. She had used a mixture of languages, some of it was plain English and some were something Darryl couldn"t understand. Darryl knew how to speak a couple of foreign languages but the one the girl was using was alien to him.
What language is that?
Darryl watched the girl as she attended to Huzey even though he wasn"t exactly sure what she was doing with him. But one thing he was certain about was that, she was worried and was trying to save him.
However, Darryl thought it was kind of weird for the girl to have not brought Huzey to the hospital immediately. If she wanted to save him, why did she even bring him here? She should have asked for help right then.
For sure she knew a lot of people were looking for him now. Doesn"t she?
He was ready to show himself and chide the girl for keeping Huzey there instead of asking for medical aid, but his plans was halted when he saw some sparkles of light coming toward their direction and heard the sound of gus.h.i.+ng engine that was cras.h.i.+ng in.
"Prince!"
"Huzey"
Then the once quiet place was flooded with people screaming for the diamond prince"s name. It didn"t take time for Darryl to realize that help was coming as tugboats of search and rescue operations were heading towards their direction.
The girl who was attending to Huzey also noticed this, and much to Darryl"s surprise, instead of responding to the rescuers call, she stood up and ran immediately toward Darryl"s direction as if she was fleeing from something.
The girl"s action caught Darryl off guard so he failed to hide himself when she suddenly gushed in to him, almost b.u.mping upon his chest. Of course she was surprised to see him and the shock almost made her scream. Good thing Darryl was able to shut her mouth by pinning her against a tree, his hands covering her mouth, preventing her from making any sound.
"Sshhhhh" Darryl chided on her and encouraged her not to make a sound.
Knowing that rescuers were nearby, her scream will surely catch their attention and since both of them were uninvited guest in Xhemin"s birthday party, then surely they both will become an instant suspect in the case, no matter how innocent they were.
Both of their presence in the party was suspicious, so the least they could do right now was to let someone know they were there.
"There! There"s something right there" Someone from the tugboat called everyone"s attention and in a minute, lights were casted on the direction where the girl left the motionless body of Huzey.
"It"s him" The familiar voice of the Montreal boy filled the place "That"s him! Over there!"
Soon the tugboat"s engine become louder and Darryl saw how one tugboat halted on the side of the cliff as rescuers went over to check on Huzey"s body lying off the ground.
"G.o.d Huzey!" The Montreal youngest sire shouted upon seeing a clear view of his best friend "Hand me a cloth now!"
Since the place was now well lighted sponsored by the tugboat"s lighting equipment"s, Darryl saw Huzey"s injury clearly. His head was wounded and that probably was the reason why he became unconscious. He wasn"t moving at all but he knew, judging by how Ziggy attended to him that the latter was still breathing.
"This place was a little far from the where the incident had happened" Someone asked suspiciously "How did he end up here?"
"He probably swam all the way to here" A rescuer answered "Before his consciousness drift off, he could have save himself by swimming as he could"
"His head injury was terrible. I guess he was already unconscious when he fell" Another one answered.
"That"s impossible. If that"s what happened then who brought him here?"
"There"s no one around here"
"Enough!" The team leader chided his men, "We have no time for that. The important thing is that the prince was found"
Ziggy had given Huzey first aid and that only took him a couple of minutes. Soon they carried him carefully to the tugboat and leave the place immediately in haste. Since Huzey"s injury was bad, they need to bring him to the hospital as soon as possible.
The tugboats and rescuers left without noticing that someone was watching them closely. They left in haste because of Huzey"s need of medical intervention and so they didn"t had enough time to observe the place.
Soon enough, the sound of engines faded out and the place was left empty, apart from the sound of the running water and few forest insects that had nested on that place. Darryl"s hands was still on the girl"s mouth covering it and now that everyone left, perhaps he could asked her for some information.
He looked at the girl in front of him and the first thing he noticed about her was her eyes. Despite the darkness her eyes were bright—it was red.
Phoenix red.
Darryl shook a bit at her glare. He had never in his entire life saw eyes like hers. Those kinds of eyes were rare and aside from its inimitability, there was something in her eyes that gave him some thrill and creeps. It was soo deadly like an eyes of raging carnivores.
Did she really sob at Huzey earlier?
It doesn"t seem so. Her eyes displayed total strength and bravery, as if she wasn"t capable of crying, as if she doesn"t contain any weakness at all.
"Do you know Huzey?" He asked her and all she could do was nod. Darryl wasn"t sure if she was telling the truth because her eyes hid all the expressions inside her. Darryl also noticed that he was pinning the girl hard since earlier, probably because she was full of force and one wrong move can make her escape from his grip.
Darryl tried his best to get a clear picture of her, observing her inch by inch but the darkness and her clothing hid off some characteristics in her body. The only thing he noticed aside from her eyes was that her hair was very long, longer than Xhemin"s and that it was in a complete mess.
"Who are you?" Darryl asked again but she didn"t say a word even when he took his hands away from her mouth.
"I haven"t seen you before. Do you really know the Montarini prince?" he asked suspiciously at her.
"tskncksifrssfitb" She answered in words Darryl didn"t understand and that only made Darryl more suspicious of her.
"Where are you from? What language is that?" Darryl asked confused. "I know you speak English"
"The man left…" She answered him back in a calm voice.
"The man? Huzey? You were referring to Huzey right?" He asked her again "He needs to be brought to the hospital, that"s why they took him"
"No not that man" She answered in the same tone "The man with you left"
"What?" Darryl exclaimed totally confused, and then he remembered he was indeed with a man. He was previously dragging off the motionless culprit and he kind of forgot about him when he saw the girl and Huzey.
He looked toward the direction where he left the man and his jaw tightened in fury when he saw that he was not there anymore. He had fled already without him noticing. The culprit was very skillful, of course he can escape without a sound, how could he forget that?
"F*ck!" Darryl let go of the girl and move to check if he could still feel the culprit"s presence. However, he couldn"t feel anyone around anymore and that fact made him cursed himself.
How could he be that stupid?
He thought the man was weak already, couldn"t even move anymore, that"s why he had to drag him. But his judgement proved him wrong, the man could have pretended to be weak and waited for a chance to escape.
"He went that way" The girl tells off pointing to a particular direction "If you are fast enough, you can still catch him"
"Hey you!" Darryl called unto the mysterious girl. But much to his surprise, she was gone in an instant.
She moved like a wind, fast and light, Darryl didn"t even notice her leaving and she left him nothing but questions about her ident.i.ty.
Who was that girl?
Why did she save Huzey?
Judging from her actions, it seemed that she knew him for long. It was like she and Huzey both had a bond that he couldn"t quiet comprehend.
A bond that can only be threaded by time, like Huzey and Xhemin had.
But he hadn"t seen her before.
Nor did Xhemin mention any friends of Huzey aside from her and Ziggy?
So who was she?