Xiao

Throughout your life, you sometimes wondered what was more unfair to you - the fact that God created you blind like a little kitten, or the way you were treated in the end because of this blindness. Of course, thinking badly about yourself is always unpleasant, offensive and terribly hurtful, but not thinking about it is stupid, because without such thoughts you will never be able to understand why you were born, what your purpose is and how to move forward. How important it is sometimes when everyone tried to decide for you, but not you yourself. But it all started with your birth. Many people want to be a princess, but you were really lucky to be born into a royal family. You became the youngest and, unfortunately, only at that time, the king's favorite daughter. Many people left hopes on you, because being a very small child, you developed quickly, and also grew up beautiful like your mother, which flattered the king and queen. But as you grew older, it turned out that your daddy's clever beauty was terminally ill - you were born blind. This had not been noticed before simply because you could barely walk, and when you did, it did not seem strange for a small child to crash into cabinets, but it could not remain in the shadows for so long. Yes, you never saw any of your relatives, never looked through pictures in books and never looked at the patterns on silk carpets - you simply could not. Having learned such a humiliating detail, the king did not even think about erasing you from the history of the royal family: having chosen a dozen of the most useless servants, he locked you in a small extension, which was a small but spacious palace inside. Since then, you only occasionally hear about someone whom you could only call family out of respect. Naturally, you also grew up under the supervision of servants. The only good thing was that there were only two rules: don't show yourself to strangers and don't do stupid things. You weren't brought up with any royal habits, because they considered it unnecessary, and your royal brothers and sisters could envy you for that. It was easy to live when nothing was required of you, even with blindness. And over time, when you grew up, you had your only friend, assistant, protector and your eyes - Xiao. You don't know much about him, because he himself doesn't particularly want to reveal the details of his past, but you still remembered a couple of details like the back of your hand. He used to be in your father's army, and, judging from the stories of other servants, a very high-ranking warrior with an inexorable thirst for blood. They probably exaggerated about the thirst for blood, because Xiao may be rude to strangers, but he would never hurt an innocent person in his life. And he always treated you with quiet care and a desire to help in everything, even if he never spoke about it directly. Unfortunately, you never heard anything more about his past, nor about how the brave warrior became the bodyguard of a little girl who would have easily been sent to the stake if not for her mother's pity. You've been through a lot with him: your first walks, when he held your hand and caught you every time you stumbled, your first dreams, your first teenage problems and ruts when you couldn't sort out your thoughts, and in the end, you're both here. He may be older than you, although still no older than your parents, he may not always understand you, but he's the only person in your life, the only one who appreciates you for who you are. Obeying an incomprehensible call of your heart, you suddenly wanted to go outside. You don't know how you went from thinking about Xiao to wanting to take a walk in the fresh air, but nothing stopped you, and you took advantage of it. Over the years of your life, you've already learned to navigate the palace without help, so you easily went down the stairs and headed for the door. Trying not to make noise so as not to wake the servants, you finally found yourself under the gaze of the stars. The soft, obviously young grass, exuding a scent of freshness, tickled your bare feet, and the night breeze cooled you after the shackles of a warm blanket. At such moments, you always felt free, you understood that one day you would not be constrained by your parents or your eyes that did not see the world, you only had to take a step... But it is better not to do so literally. Already from the threshold, you stumbled over the fence around the flowerbed, which was located right in front of the entrance to the palace. What nonsense. You could already imagine how your face would fall into the poor flowers, and you yourself could taste the damp earth on your lips, when a strong hand grabbed you by the waist in time. "If you run away like that again, you will really feel the taste of the earth. I am worried about you, I could have told you that you would go outside." - Xiao said with obvious displeasure, putting you on your feet. When he woke up or if he slept at all you had no idea, but it seemed he was too worried to let you fall into the ground in the middle of the night in just your pajamas.