[Music Recommendation: Rescue ~ Lauren Diagle]
"Adric...in all you do, always put your family first."
A young Adric raised his face, his reddish-brown eyes staring at his mother curiously, and asked,
"You mean you and Father?"
The young Queen shook her head. "Mhm...not just us." Her words sounded more like a question. "When you have your own family someday, your wife and your children...put them first before anything or anyone else." The woman smiled, touching her son’s silky crimson hair. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
"What about Nicholas? He is not my family but my friend," Adric said, as his shoe slipped off his foot. A boy the same age as him quickly rushed to help the Prince fit his foot back into the shoe.
Adric paused in his steps, looking at the boy his age. When he smiled at the boy, the young boy looked away with a small frown on his face before returning to his position.
"Your friend can also be your family. It depends. Yes, Nicholas and even him," Queen Charlotte pointed at the young boy behind Adric.
The boy’s frown deepened, but he refused to say anything. The Queen, who had noticed this, asked,
"Why? Do you not want to be a friend to the Prince?"
The young boy muttered words under his breath that nobody else heard.
Charlotte stopped walking and gently touched the boy’s hair. "What is your name?"
"Rowan..." His small voice was heard, as he blinked, staring at the Queen fearlessly.
Queen Charlotte hummed. "Rowan, do you not want to be Prince Adric’s friend?"
Rowan shrugged. "I don’t want to be friends with someone who cannot wear his own sho-" before he could finish his words, he stubbed his foot on a rock, and his shoe came off.
Adric rushed to the boy, helping him pick up the shoe. Before giving it to him, he said, "I also don’t want to be friends with someone who can’t wear his shoes." Then he started laughing, and Rowan joined him.
Queen Charlotte watched as the two boys ran around the palace, playing. Though they were not of the same class; one was of royal blood and the other just a commoner but they were happy.
"Mother! I can also have Rowan as my friend, right?" Little Adric shouted, smiling at his mother.
. . .
The memories of the past faded slowly as Adric stared blankly into space. He was supposed to put his family first, but what his mother didn’t explain to him was what he should do when he had more than two members of his family in danger. What was he supposed to do? Who was he supposed to save?
Going to the Eridor camp was a risky plan; just him, all alone but it was also the only shot he had at saving Rowan. Rowan was a friend who had been with him through everything, someone who was ready to die for him, smiling. Then there was his family, Oriana.
Adric didn’t know the entire situation back at the palace, but he had a feeling he should be going home. A life for another life. He never had anything to lose before, going to war fearlessly, afraid of nothing. But now he was afraid of dying, afraid of losing people, afraid of never making it home to the woman he had come to love.
"Your Majesty, I still do not support you going into the camp alone. At least let me go in with you," Malcolm said, breaking into Adric’s thoughts. All day the general had been worried, afraid of sending the King to an enemy camp all by himself.
"I know how all this works. They’re trying to test our weakness. So many kings have tried this, and they were killed, causing their kingdoms to surrender." Malcolm sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly.
Adric moved his eyes from the space and settled them on the general. "I know all of that, but we can’t leave Rowan alone to die in an enemy camp...which is why I have to go alone."
"You’re not even in the best state to go in there all alone," Malcolm pointed at Adric’s stomach, which was still healing.
Adric exhaled. "That I know," he muttered, looking at the sky, which was now getting dark. "I should get ready to leave now."
Now fully dressed in his royal robe, unarmed, and without armor, Adric walked straight to his horse, Kato. Gently rubbing the horse’s ear, he noticed the solemn look on the soldiers’ faces.
"Did someone die?" Adric asked them with a small smile. "I am still alive and breathing. Why do you act like I am heading to my death?"
The soldiers cleared their throats but didn’t say anything because sending a king to an enemy camp unarmed was equivalent to death.
"I will be back, and with victory for Avon. We shall all return to our families." Adric skillfully jumped onto his horse. He looked at his soldiers one more time.
"Mother, you’d better be right... I’m putting my family first." Adric muttered under his breath before kicking the horse gently and turning to leave the Avon base camp.
Malcolm, Louis, and the soldiers of Avon bowed deeply as Adric set out for a place where his fate was unknown.
"Return to us alive, Your Majesty," Louis muttered. Hearing this, Malcolm repeated it, and soon the entire army shouted in unison,
"Return to us alive, Your Majesty!"
Their chants were so loud that even on his horse, Adric could hear their voices. His horse galloped without missing a beat, straight to the base camp of Eridor. Before darkness covered the sky, Adric finally arrived at the camp.
The guards outside first took his horse, searched him for any weapons, and then led him inside the main camp. As Adric walked inside, he saw Rowan tied to a stake outside the camp, his face covered with blood, and his clothes stripped, leaving him only in his trousers.
Adric cursed under his breath when he saw his friend in that state.
As if noticing Adric’s presence, Rowan raised his face. He grimaced, spitting out blood from his mouth.
"Your Majesty...you came all alone? You’re getting soft..."
Adric sighed. He knew what Rowan meant. Rowan didn’t mind being left to die, but he wasn’t going to let that happen.
"Welcome, King of Avon," the Crown Prince of Eridor stepped out of his camp with a smile on his face. "We should give the King a proper welcome."
Before Adric could understand what the Crown Prince meant, someone struck him harshly with a piece of wood from behind, and darkness took over.
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