Surprises

[Sky]

Entering the room, Riannon remained by the doorway as she silently observed Sky's friend for a few moments before she greeted her in a voice that vaguely hinted of exhaustion, "Good morning, Christine. I suppose you were expecting my son, but I am afraid he hasn't returned yet. I would not worry too much, however. Sky knows the woods, which is where I am certain he went last night, like the back of his hand. It is still early," at this Riannon paused and gestured at the sky, whose color was still a faint orange-pink, "and I am sure that Sky will return in due time. But in any event, the reason why I am here now isn't to discuss him; I spoke with Dr. Witherspoon an hour or so ago and he says that you should be all set to travel today. I assume that you are eager to return to Red Fountain, so I do not want to make you wait any longer. A maid will draw you a bath and bring up a breakfast and then after that, you will be able to return to school."

[Chris Strongheart]

"Thank you," Christine said quietly, absently. Her gaze was still focused outside that she had no idea that she was having a "civil conversation" with Sky's mother. She finally shifted her gaze and looked up at Riannon. "It's not that I'm worried if Sky's lost or anything, it's more that I'm worried that he did something while out there," she said, trying to voice her fears. "What if someone who didn't understand what happened to Sky came across him and tried to hurt him, and Sky hurt them badly in defense? What if...?" she glanced away, not wanting to continue her train of thought.

She had a feeling Riannon didn't want to hear any more because Riannon probably had the same fears she did.

[Sky]

Though she had had that same thought many times during her sleepless night, a cold chill still ran up Riannon's spine as an image of her son being hurt flashed across her mind. Despite how it may appear to the outside, she loved her son dearly and what was happening to him was slowly killing her inside, making her feel numb and weak. For only the third time in her life, there was nothing she could do but wait, completely deprived of her power, and pray for the best outcome. The first time had been when she had been forced to marry Aldrich. But in the years that passed, that had turned out to be something wonderful in its own right. The second time had been when she had to watch her father grow more and more sick over the course of several months. In the end he had died quietly, and in many ways that had been a sort of comfort to finally let him go for he had been in great pain. But this . . . Sky was her son. Her only child. With her marriage and her father's death, there had been a definite ending that could be foreseen; she would marry Aldrich, her father would die. But with Sky, she was feeling her way through the dark. She had no idea what would happen and it terrified her unimaginably.

To fight her fears, Riannon had learned ago to act as though they had no power over her. To put on a cold, unfeeling facade. To numb herself to the pain. It was easier that way and it kept her from losing her mind to the depths of her anguish. And so, it was no surprise to her when she distantly heard her voice take on a cold tone as she spoke to Christine, "Nonsense. No one is allowed to be in the woods and there are no dangerous wild animals. He will be fine. For goodness sake, stop your sniveling."

[Chris Strongheart]

"I'm sorry, it's just Sky's not only my friend, but he's my team leader," she said softly. "I worry for all the boys on my team. Den mother kinda sorta."

[Sky]

"Well isn't that just darling?" Riannon replied with a touch of sarcasm before she continued briskly, "I expect that you will be ready to travel within the hour. Demetrius, one of the members of the royal guard, will travel with you to make sure that you arrive safely at Red Fountain. As for Sky, I am afraid he will not be accompanying you today."

As a maid entered the room with a tray of food, Riannon paused and then said with a thin smile, "Enjoy your breakfast, Christine. If I do not see you again, I hope you have a pleasant trip back to school." Then, without another word, Riannon withdrew from the room, her heavy gown making a soft swishing sound against the thick carpet.

[Chris Strongheart]

'If I never see you again, I'd be thrilled, devil woman,' Christine thought. 'Would it kill you to be human?' she continued to mentally rant. She barely had any appetite so only picked at her breakfast.

It would be good to see Demetrius again - she hadn't seen him since she had been a child and he had visited during that one summer.

[Sky]

Pouring over the stacks of documents that required his attention, Aldrich sighed as took off his reading glasses and threw them down on the desk in frustration. He couldn't concentrate for the life of him, though he needed to desperately. Putting his forehead against the palms of his hands, he sat silently for a long while as he felt his thoughts shift back to the change of events that had occurred in the last forty-eight hours. His son . . . the family curse . . . Ribestaus . . . he had not the slightest clue what to do. Never in all his years as king had he faced something as sensitive and difficult as this - probably because it directly affected his own flesh and blood. He wanted nothing more than to take action, to strangle that damned elf with his bare hands, but somehow he doubted that that would help Sky any. Right now, all he could do was to try his best to protect his son from the outside. And that meant keeping him in Eraklyon. It would simply be too risky for Sky to return to Red Fountain until a solution was figured out for this mess.

Feeling as though he was letting his son down, Aldrich sadly picked up his glasses and slipped them back on. As much as his heart went out to his son, he couldn't fall apart now. He still had a kingdom to run.

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine flipped through several pages of the book she was reading, trying to not get any food stains on it. She needed to get her notes complete so she could finish working on both projects while at Red Fountain.

[Sky]

His shoulders heavy, Demetrius stood some feet away from the outer edge of the woods. With a pair of binoculars to his eyes, he slowly panned the scenery as he tried to see if he could spot Sky yet. He had already been at this for over an hour, but still no signs of the prince.

Putting the binoculars down for a moment, Demetrius felt his heart ache. After he had been informed on the recent circumstances surrounding Sky, all he could think about was the pain his young friend must be enduring. He had known the prince for the boy's entire life and in that time, Demetrius liked to think that he had become a mentor to him. In some ways, Demetrius sensed that Sky felt closer to him than to his own father. And consequently, in many ways, Demetrius saw Sky as one of his own sons; he could only hope that his two boys would grow up to be half the man that Sky was. Sure, the prince could be a little self-centered every now and then, but he genuinely cared about people, which made his faults more forgivable.

And now that Sky had been dealt yet another blow, Demetrius wished that he could take the hardship for him. The boy was young; he didn't deserve to have to carry these kinds of burdens around yet.

Resuming his surveillance, Demetrius shook his head. Still no sign of him. Glancing down at his watch, he reluctantly put his binoculars away in their pouch. He had been told to watch for the prince for an hour and then to return to the palace in order to escort Lady Strongheart back to Red Fountain. Feeling heavy-hearted, Demetrius turned and slowly made his way back. It was his job to follow orders and as much as he wanted to wait for Sky to return, that wasn't what he had been told to do.

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine glanced up as yet another figure appeared in her doorway, a light blue scarf wrapped around her neck to hide the bruises from the other night. She gave them a faint nod before returning to what she had been reading - a passage from a book that was written by Athène, the woman at the root of this mess. Of course, it was a book of poetry but, surely there had to be a clue to the inner workings of her husband's mind in there.

She glanced up again when the figure cleared their throat. "Yes..?" she asked quietly, her voice soft.

[Sky]

Entering the room, a diminutive maid dropped into a brief curtsy as she said meekly, after having had to clear her throat to get the lady's attention, "F-forgive me for interrupting, my lady, but your escort, Sir Demetrius, has arrived to take you back to school. He is waiting for you downstairs."

[Chris Strongheart]

"It's all right," Christine said quietly, offering the maid a warm smile. "No need to apologize. My attention was a little too focused on my reading." She closed the book and placed it on the pile of reading she had done. She rose slowly and gathered her large collection of notebooks. Being confined to bed had been a bit of a blessing which gave her enough time to do her research. She allowed the maid to lead her down to see where Demetrius was waiting.

She did an awkward curtsy as her hands were full and unable to help her with the proper curtsy. "It's a honor to see you again, Sir."

[Sky]

Stepping forward, Demetrius took the many notebooks from her hands as he said, "Here, let me help you with these." As he shifted them in his arms, he offered her a cheerful smile as he said, "And there's no need for the 'Sir' formalities; everyone just calls me Demetrius - even the king and queen themselves."

As he led her outside to where a spell-caster had opened a travel portal, Demetrius said in a comforting tone, having heard that the girl had gotten sick when she had used one to travel to Eraklyon, "I assure you, we'll be at Red Fountain in a flash."

[Chris Strongheart]

"God, I hope so. I can't handle travel spells well," she said quietly. "Never bothered to find out why though," she noted with a small shrug. She glanced up at Demetrius and gracefully removed one of necklaces, a simple little cross necklace and slipped it into his hand. "If you see Sky after I'm back at Red Fountain. Would you give him that necklace? I want him to have it."

[Sky]

Taking the necklace, Demetrius turned it over in his hand for a moment before he carefully slipped it into his pocket. With a nod of his head, he replied, "Of course I'll make sure it gets to him."

Observing Christine surreptitiously, Demetrius smiled wistfully. She was in love with the prince; that was clear as daylight to him. In many ways, she reminded him of himself - of the way he had been when he had first fallen in love with his own wife. He had always wanted to protect her, to be her champion, but these days, the years had taken a toll on their relationship. It just wasn't the same anymore; the love was gone. He could only hope for the prince's sake that whatever came out of this thing he seemed to have with this here lass, it wouldn't end up the way his and Philomena's relationship had. Sky deserved something better than that, but, Demetrius knew, it wasn't likely to happen. Not with his mother, despite her best intentions, trying to marry him off to some complete stranger.

Brushing aside these thoughts, Demetrius tilted his head in the direction of the portal. "After you, Lady Strongheart."