Rushing down to the dinning table, he took a pause and then a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever he may face.
His tummy too felt his anxiety and offered condolences as a mild rumble.
From the moment he stepped into the room, he felt impatient and peeved eyes piercing his every step.
Never before had he felt as self-conscious and uncomfortable as he did then.
Judging by the single glance he managed to steal at his parents, their irritation was expressly unconcealed and intensely palpable.
He refused to look their way again, shuddering at their unwelcoming image – a terrifying mingle of disappointment and disgust.
He graced towards a seat at the extreme of the table. The table was so long that he estimated how many trees must have been chopped to make it.
His seat happened to be stationed next to Max, not that he was intending to.
After taking his seat, while still avoiding their faces another session of headaches raged once more.
'Another?! Where're these things coming from?', Max questioned.
This one was slightly more intense but fortunately bearable.
He looked over the table and noticed something off. There wasn't any meal placed on it yet.
They claimed to have been waiting for him but the dinner wasn't even plated.
'What could this really be about?' Zayn pondered through pensive depths.
Click
Click
Click
His thoughts were severed by the tension-rousing clicks of his father's fingers over the furnished surface.
"Zayn Blaze..", he spoke in a tone so guttural and rage-packed that it invited an even deeper silence in the room. "I don't even care what care other name is. I'm not one for words so I'll ask you one last time where is it? And you just may keep your life", he scowled mercilessly in a firm blaze.
The first thought that lanced through Zayn's mind was the question to the truth if actually he was his father.
What could have been done to arouse such wrath?
From his words, Zayn solely discerned this was a pilferer case.
Whatever it was that was lost, it must have been of invaluable importance and he seems strongly convinced that Zayn is behind its disappearance.
Surely Zayn didn't take it but he had a strong clue on who.
But before the who, following the proof, the what is keenly just as important. So he asked:
"Can I be informed on what exactly you think I lost?"
His tone was imploring and gentle, audibly void of any form of insulting intension but in his father's ears, his words burnt like fire – Lord Blaze.
For a second, his manner of speech stunned the entire room before the cynical mentality got a little whisper in and got his father boiling to a meltdown.
Perhaps he didn't think this quite through.
"Excuse me! Such insolence", he barked. "I honestly never thought you could grow worse than than the disappointment you already are to me..."
He went on for a minute or two probably longer. Amid his scowls, the worried look on the face of his mother, dripped with sympathetic and perturbed emotions.
The looks of worry, was as lucid as it could be and spoke in a distinct language Zayn clearly understood.
He turned over to spot the mocking smirks dotted over Xavier's cheerful face, barely even trying to conceal his expression.
Meanwhile, Max just kept his head hanging solemnly, unable to utter a single word.
They all thought in the same vein, Zayn included. They knew what was coming next and being a noble's son unfortunately didn't excuse that.
In that moment, his head pulsed and his belly too roared in uncontrollable discomfort as if what he was going through wasn't already enough.
What was this that was consuming him? Max thought hardly able to keep a straight line of thought.
"... I have just about had it with you. Infact–", he was interrupted.
"Excuse me. May I use the rest room? Thanks", before he was even given a reply, he ran quickly into his room buried in a sea of worry and pain.
Bashing through the towering doors of his room, he collapsed onto the stony floor, palms first.
His tummy felt like the inside of an active volcano, melting and bubbling tempestuously beyond the reach of Zayn's control.
He tried but couldn't hold it back any longer.
SPEW!!!
He irritatingly purged.
As soon as he did so, the earlier pain he'd been feeling had significantly diluted but what he saw next amazed him greater than the strange fact of his outpour.
What painted the floor was unexpectedly shiny and bore a bright show of purple.
Even more bewildering was that it was not at all viscous but purely crystalline shards.
"W-What?", he shuddered. "What is this stuff?" He said reaching out to feel the unknown substance.
As his hands felt through, a faint raise of purple dust hovered almost like dew.
As many the questions that there were about this whole thing, he just didn't have time source anything.
He needed a plan.
He brainstormed for a while holding a lingering feeling in deep parts of him that his attempt was surely a hopeless one.
To many guards. It would never works. And Lord Blaze very much was sure of this that was why he excused his hasty exit.
Though he tried, he couldn't produce any that might actually work, in all this he kept a serene demeanour unwilling to refrain from his puritanical nature.
"What's taking so long" Lord Blaze tapped impatiently. "You there", he said pointing at two of the guards who stood dutifully still at their post. "Go fetch him", he ordered, with the sounding terror of his brevity.
The two marched towards the young lads room only to spot a pool of dust and an unalarmed boy sitting comfortably on his bed.
"The king requested your presence", one of them conveyed.
"So soon," he said, taking his steps back to where he was waited.
His family probably weren't expecting whatever he gave them, judging by the surprised looks on their faces.
A tranquil expression was miles from their first guess.
He silently took his seat and sat well in, reflecting a stoic and blank expression.
Following him was one of the guards who has gone to fetch Zayn. He whispered some words into Lord Blaze's ear.
Words that would never make his life the same again.