Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (46 page)

Captain Bagas nodded, and took one of
the tube from her hand. He walked to the door and tried to hack the
hinge. "Puteri, I think this would work." He said with
excitement.

"Great!" She walked to the door with a
tube in her hand. "You work on the top hinge, and I'll do the
bottom one." She said while kneeling on the floor.

Ali stared as Paramita kneeled in front
of Captain Bagas. "Mita, what are you doing kneeling like that?"
With two big strives, he arrived by her side and pulled her
up.

"Someone has to take the responsibility
and save our lives, you don't seem to have the mind for it." She
sassed.

"Give me that!" He said taking the tube
from her hand.

"Pangeran, Puteri, I've succeeded in
taking out the pin up here. I'll do the other one, I think I found
a way to do it faster." He said feeling uncomfortable being in the
middle of their argument.

"Go ahead, Captain." Ali said to
him.

It took Captain Bagas several minutes,
but he succeeded in pulling out the pin that held the hinge.
"Pangeran, it's off. Sir, please help me to take out this
door."

Ali walked to the door, and held on it,
they both pulled the door towards them. Paramita was surprised when
she realized how close Dewi was standing near the door. She saw
that it was to fall on top of Dewi, Paramita hurriedly ran up to
her and pushed her out of the way, in consequence the heavy door
hit her arm hard making her fall side wards. She grimaced at the
thump she felt.

"Mita." Ali bellowed, approaching her,
"Are you okay?" He held out his hand to help her up.

Paramita shook her head while holding
her arm, "I'll survive." She said. "Let's get out of
here!"

Ali helped her get up anyway and they
walked to the door, while Captain Bagas helped Jonathan to walk.
The whole first floor of the Palace was covered in flames, there
was sound of wood crackling under the fire and black smoke filled
the air. "Bang, the stairway is ten steps in front of us." Paramita
said to him. She grabbed him by his upper arm, "Bang, do you
remember my three million reasons?"

He turned around, "This is not exactly
the right time to talk about it."

She smiled, "I think I'm going to make
your dream come true."

"What are you talking about? Don't do
anything crazy! Mita, I....." She quickly kissed him on the mouth,
making the others look away in embarrassment.

"The stairway is ten steps in front of
us. Let's go, hurry up." She said.

Ali nodded and repeated for everyone
else to hear. "Let's move forward, ten steps ahead."

The walked quickly but cautiously. They
reached the stairs and walked down closed together. Seeing the
bottom of the steps covered in flames, Dewi screamed in panic,
"We're going to die, help us, somebody help us, we're going to burn
to death, we're going to die!" She screamed. She felt her body limp
and stood against the railing unable to move.

Ali released his arm from Paramita and
walked to her, "Dewi, pull yourself together, we have to get out of
here!" He said shaking her.

She just stood there crying while
shaking her head in fear. "No....no....."

Ali picked her up from the floor and
carried her. "Come on, let's go." He said to the others. They
walked again heading towards the front door that was almost covered
in flames. Paramita looked at him as he walked in front of her with
Dewi in his arms, she felt her heart burn.

She stepped backward turned around then
sprinted towards the kitchen. Through the crackling and banging of
the wood beams falling on the floor she heard Ali calling to her,
but she didn't care, she continued to run in a zig-zagging line to
avoid the falling objects.

She heard a loud sound of glass
shattering on her left-hand side, Paramita turned her head, it was
one of the main windows, she ran towards it and jumped out, rolling
on the soft grass. She ran as fast as she could to the row of
trees.

Paramita hid herself behind a tree then
looked at the building to see what had happened to the others. She
saw Captain Bagas and Jonathan Tan walking out of the door,
followed by Ali still carrying Dewi in his arms. They rushed to the
grass. Captain Bagas helped Jonathan to sit, as Ali put Dewi down
on the grass.

From the distance, she saw Ali turning
around to the burning Palace. Dewi pulled his hand back, Paramita
didn't expect to see him push her hard making her slump to the
ground. He pointed his finger at her and Jonathan as if he was
saying something. Then he ran back inside the blazing building. She
stared in terror as his body became surrounded by the flames. Her
ears rang with the sound of his voice crying out her
name.

* * *

"Bang, you can't go back in there!"
Dewi cried while holding on to his arm, "The whole building is on
fire, that woman is probably dead by now."

Ali could feel the blood rushing to his
head, he abruptly pulled his arm away and pushed her back causing
her to fall with a thump on the grass, “This is your fault! The
both of you. You tried to harm my wife. I won’t forgive you. I’ll
make you pay for this, or don’t call me Ali. Captain Bagas, make
sure these two criminals don’t try to escape, once the rest of the
Royal Guards arrive, make sure to detain the both of them in the
political prisoner’s holding cell at the Sultan’s Palace. They
should remain there until my further orders!”

He turned around and ran towards the
burning building, Ali covered his face with both arms to protect
himself from the flames then rushed inside.

“Mita…!” He called, “Mita where are
you?”

He heard a cracking sound directly
above his head, he looked up to see a burning wooden beam
collapsing from the roof. He jumped forward, rolling himself on the
floor to avoid the blazing wood.

He grimaced in pain as he felt a hot
metal pole scorching. He pulled his arm away and held it with his
other hand.

“Mita……” He called out in despair, he
accidentally inhaled a large amount of smoke, causing him to cough
uncontrollably. Ali pushed himself up from the floor. Moving
forward blindly not able to see clearly through the thick
smog.

Ali gasped for air, his lungs were
hurting, and his eyes were becoming blurry and teary. He was
becoming dizzy, almost collapsing to the floor

“Are you stupid? Why did you run back
in, knowing that the building is burning and about to cave in?” A
familiar voice said while catching him.

“Mita…” He barely managed to
whisper.

“Let’s get out of here.” She said
putting his arm around her shoulder to support him.

“Mita, are you alright? Are you hurt?”
He refused to walk.

“Of course I’m alright! But you’re not.
We can talk later. Help me get you out of here!”

"Mita, if anything were to happen to
you, my life wouldn't mean anything anymore...." He
muttered

"Stop talking nonsense!" She said
leading him towards the broken window that she used to get out and
back in again. He was getting heavier for her as he slowly lost
consciousness. “Bang, stay awake, stay with me…” She
panicked.

She caught sight of the window,
avoiding the falling lumber from the roof. Paramita was also
beginning to feel her breath getting heavy. She glanced at Ali, she
could see his eyes half closed. “If I didn’t love you so much, I
would never do this.” She grumbled.

She stopped bowed down, putting her
left shoulder under his waist. She flung his right arm around the
back of her neck, taking as much air as the dense smoky air would
allow her, she stood up flinging him over her shoulder. “I hope
nobody will see this.” She said to herself.

She slowly walked to the window,
wanting to go faster but wasn’t able to, because of his weight
slowing her down. A big lump of wood fell a few centimeters to her
right. Paramita tried hard to keep herself from falling down, she
found it hard to keep her balance, as Ali’s body on her shoulder
was dragging her towards the left. She closed her eyes,
concentrated then put out all her strength to rush to the
window.

It seemed forever to her when she
finally arrived at the opening, there was nothing she wanted more
to do than throw him out on the ground to relieve the pressure on
her body. But she knew that fall might hurt him. She braced
herself, stepping over the window sill.

She arrived on the grass and carefully
laid him down, she checked his breathing, it was normal although he
was unconscious. The sound of the sirens filled the air around her.
She could hear footsteps and voices approaching, Paramita quickly
bent over Ali giving him a kiss on his lips. "I love you." She
whispered. She stood up, then dashed towards the trees
again.

She hid herself behind the tree again,
she saw Captain Bagas followed by the other members of the Royal
Guard running towards Ali who was still lying on the grass. She saw
them shaking his body, and him finally coming to. They helped him
get up and walked him to an awaiting ambulance. Paramita exhaled in
relief. She ran to the fence that surrounded the property then
climbed over it, landing on the ground outside the Palace complex.
Paramita looked around her to make sure that the coast was clear,
then she ran as fast as she could towards the main
street.

Glossary

[1]
Puteri is Melayu for Princess

[2]
Raden is a title given to noble men

[3]
Permaisuri is the title given to the Queen

[4]
Batik Prada is when the batik is drawn on silk and is lined with
gold ink

[5] Baju
Kurung is the traditional loose fitting dress worn by Melayu
women

[6]
Ananda honorifics to refer to one’s child or a young person with
the age to be one’s child

[7]
Ayahnda honorifics to refer to one’s father

[8]
Wirakarta is the fantasy capital of Jothar

[9]
Rumah Makan means restaurant

[10]
Padang is an ethnical community of Indonesia, famous for many
things including delicious typical “fast” food

[11]
Alam Melayu is Melayu Realm

[12]
Kakanda honorifics to call older sister or older brother

Evida Suntoyo is the author of
December Sunshine, Puteri: Nuance of Love and Rebound
Love.

She has been living in Colombia with
her husband and three children for more than 8 years. Living far
from her native Country of Indonesia has made her realize that not
many people are aware of the Indonesian people and culture except
for a very small part of the archipelago which is Bali.

Thank you for reading my book, I hope
it has inspired you to get to know a little bit more about
Indonesia and it’s culture.

If you like my story, please give me a
good review, I appreciate it.

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