Ratings: R/NC17+
Warnings: Violence/Gore, Sex.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story, living (or passed) human beings or fictional characters. These events never happened, according to history or as the original author intended them. This is a work of fiction and is not intended to offend. For entertainment purposes only. Thanks.
Author Notes:
Chapter 2: March, 10th
Darkness had descended shortly after the rain began to fall. The clouds came in from the west, after passing over Rose Kingdom, and continued to rain over the forest to the east of the kingdom until dawn. The sun had begun to rise over the tops of the trees when knights of Rose Kingdom were sent out of the castle, chasing the rainclouds to the forest, searching for the royal carriage from Sina Kingdom. Earlier that morning, before the sun had even peaked above the horizon, a weary beaten man decently dressed had fled to the castle, full of panic. He explained he was a servant of the Sina Kingdom's royal children, and that they had been ambushed halfway through the forest. He was shaking as he described his escape: he had managed to unharnessed a horse and flee to Rose Kingdom when the raiders were distracted with murdering his father, the carriage-driver.
King Smith's bright eyes widened with horror and he immediately dispatched a regiment of his best soldiers to search for the royal children. That was several hours ago and the soldiers were just arriving at the entrance to the forest as the sun rose to the height of the tree tops. Judd – the carriage-driver's son – had gone with them, hoping that he would be able to point out the scene of the crime. It was still dark inside the forest, making visibility a challenge.
Miche, captain of the first squad and overseeing of the entire regiment, squinted his eyes to see further down the pathway. "How far away did you say you were ambushed?" he asked, squinting down at Judd. The captain was a tall man, standing at six foot four, he easily overshadowed and intimidated Judd.
"It wasn't too far into the forest. We entered three days ago. If we had continued as planned, we would have arrived at the castle early this morning." the boy replied.
"Hmm." Miche hummed, "Alright then." The way Judd described it, the carriage was attacked three quarters of the way through the forest, so they would have to make a quarter of a journey to search for it. He turned to face Hanji, captain of the second squad. "We'll go thirty miles, then fan out along the pathway. You'll take the left hand side of the path, I'll take the right. Nanaba will take up the center and rear. We need to be vigilant; the raiders might still be around."
"They'd be stupid to linger." Hanji commented, his voice a drawl. He adjusted the bridge of his glasses with a hand, his lush brown ponytail gently swaying. Then he shrugged, "But I suppose you never can predict raiders. Let's just hope we find the royals soon."
Miche nodded, then gently pulled on the reigns of his horse. They began trotting forwards, paying close attention to the pathway and the environment around them. The going was slow, and it was several hours before they had even made it the first thirty miles as planned.
"Fan out." Miche commanded, throwing out an arm.
The sun had risen to its highest by the time the search had reached their checkpoint. They walked slowly, inching forwards and combing the landscape in front of them for any sign of struggle or life. But they hadn't managed to see anything. The branches of the trees blocked the sun earlier than it began to set, and by late afternoon the regiment was surrounded in darkness. Miche decided to speak to Hanji about resting.
"We must've gone too far." Miche growled, frustrated.
"We're looking for a carriage." Hanji moaned, "You would think it would be easy to find. It's not like it could just walk away!"
"Captain Miche!" A voice called from the back of the regiment.
Miche rose on his toes to see the soldier approaching him, but it wasn't really necessary. He was the tallest on the entire guard in Rose Kingdom, so he could clearly see Nanaba's blonde head rushing towards him from his point at the back of the regiment. Miche's movements were obviously due to anxiety: he didn't want his army to have to stay in a forest where raiders were close by.
"What is it, Nanaba?"
"We just passed the halfway sign."
"We passed that on the second evening in the forest, long before the raid." Judd squeaked. He had remained by Hanji's side the entire journey.
Miche turned to face Judd, trying not to let his frustration be direct at him. The ambush must've happened around this time yesterday, making it a full twenty-four hours since the royals from Sina Kingdom were attacked. To make matters worse, the carriage was nowhere in sight, proposing the probability that the royals may have been kidnapped by the raiders. They were pressed for time: he could order them to return to Rose Kingdom to call for reinforcements and permission to search adjacent cities, on the off-chance that they were taken hostage, or he could order a rest and attempt to comb through the forest once more in the morning.
He said nothing as he tried to come to a decision: he didn't want to return to Rose empty-handed, but he didn't want to gamble the lives of the Sina royals on his pride as a captain. His bright eyes moved from side to side as he mentally weighed his options. Finally he spoke.
"You said they beat your father to death?"
Hanji's eyes widened; Miche was being direct about something that should have been approached sensitively.
Judd nodded, unable to speak. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
Miche's eyes narrowed. "He died?" he pressed, "I know it's hard to discuss but I need confirmation."
Judd nodded again. "I heard him...die." he mumbled.
Miche nodded. "So...where is the body?" he asked.
Hanji's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. Miche was onto something.
"Wouldn't we have passed it?" Hanji asked. "Along the side of the road?"
"Unless they moved it or we missed it." Miche stopped and looked around. The forest was alive around them. They hadn't accounted for that. He stepped towards a tree on the side of the pathway and touched its bark: still wet from yesterday's rain. He rubbed the moist dirt between his first two fingers and his thumb. "We didn't account for the mud." he mumbled to himself.
"We didn't account for the mud." He repeated, speaking louder for Hanji and Nanaba to hear. "We have to search the ditches."
"It's too dark for that now." Hanji protested.
"We rest now. Your squad first. Then Nanaba's. Then mine. We'll do a search returning to Rose Kingdom tomorrow morning. If they're not found by then, we return and seek permission for a hostage-search."
Hanji nodded solemnly. Judd's eyes widened with fear, but he said nothing. Nanaba only turned back to deliver the order to rest to his crew.
Miche sighed heavily, then began to order the regiment to set up camp. They had several wagons they would use to sleep in, one squad at a time. The other two would be responsible for staying on guard or kindling fires. He had ordered that his squad would sleep last for a selfish but strategic reason: the search would resume when he awoke, so he would be more alert compared to the soldiers that would be awake prior to when they continued the search.
He passed time with Nanaba, first collecting what little wood was able to burn to make a small cooking fire, then ordered several of his men to cook what little provisions they had brought with them. It wasn't necessary as most of the food was dried and able to eat without heating, but he figured since they were in a dark, damp forest, the warmth and the fire would be a good protection against his men getting sick. He handed out the food and paced between the camp, constantly alert for the presence of raiders. He didn't speak to anyone, besides Hanji and Nanaba, and he kept close watch on Judd; the mention of his father's body had alerted Miche not only to their failings as investigators to consider all the facts of their environment, but also to Judd's secrecy; the man had a suspicious air about him when Miche had mentioned his father, which caused the captain of the regiment to feel uneasy about the boy's intentions. He monitored his army and mused about their surroundings until it was his squad's turn to rest for the night.
March 11th:
The morning sun didn't touch their faces, but he awoke all the same. Hanji's squad was walking around, keeping watch and putting out the fires. They had also warmed some breakfast. Miche woke his squad, handing out the small portions of food. With bread still in their hands, they climbed on their horses and began to head back to Rose Kingdom at a slow pace, careful to search for any signs that something unnatural occurred in the forest recently.
Most of the soldiers were tired. It was still dim in the forest. They continued on, squinting their eyes and leaning sideways on their horses to see into the ditches on the sides of the road. A quarter of the way back, Miche ordered several of the soldiers to get off their horses and search on foot. Judd joined them, walking beside Hanji.
They had barely gone half a mile when Judd called them to stop.
"Stop! Captain Miche! Please stop! My father-" the boy's words died shortly, emotion thick in his voice.
Miche raised a hand and ordered his army to halt. His eyes were somber as he observed Judd dragging something out of a ditch at the side of the road, before cradling the body of an older man in his arms. The boy's face was buried in his father's neck, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. He allowed Judd a moment of silence to grieve for his father's death, then he turned back and raised a hand, beckoning one of the cadets to bring a wagon forwards to act as a hearse. He stepped off his horse, handing the reins to another soldier, then took the reins of the horses pulling the wagon, guiding them towards Judd.
"Judd?" he asked, "We'll give him a decent burial."
Judd nodded, but didn't look up.
"Come now, Judd." Miche urged, "We're still looking for the royals. I know it's hard, but is this where it happened?"
Judd seemed to collect himself at Miche's question. He looked up and gazed around, as if seeing the trees around them for the first time. Miche released the horse reins, bent down and lifted Judd's father into his arms. The body was heavy and cold, with blood and dirt smeared on his face and clothes. He wasn't breathing but was no longer stiff as a board – a clear indication he had died more than twenty-four hours ago. He carried the body around to the back of the wagon, where it was wrapped in a white sheet before being loaded for transport.
Judd had risen and was gazing around in wonder.
"This was where it happened." he began, "I remember that bent tree. My father and me play this game when we're on the road for long periods of time where we point out distinct sights; he had just pointed out that same tree when we were ambushed."
"But," Hanji spoke up, stepping forwards with his arms out, palms facing forwards, "Where is the carriage then?"
Miche sniffed the air, then looked around. His sharp eyes took in the trees, the path, then the ground. He remembered the mud from last night. "Tracks." He pointed out at the edge of the ditch, the only tracks that were not erased by them originally moving east to find the carriage on the road. "The carriage must have rolled."
The regiment hurried to follow the tracks a short distance from the edge of the ditch to the sloped side, where the tracks cut off and broken tree branches revealed the wreck of the carriage further below. Miche's face paled at the sight: the carriage was heavily damaged and burned. It would be a miracle if there was any survivors.
"We need to get down there." He ordered, "Now."
He glanced around his regiment, taking in all the soldier's faces. Hanji raised a smoke flare gun in the air before pulling the trigger, releasing a bright green streak of smoke into the air to signal to the soldiers further back that the carriage had been found.
"I want you to take Judd and his father back to the castle. Right away. Take your squad of soldiers back with you." Miche commanded Nanaba.
The blonde nodded and wrapped his arms around Judd's shoulders, leading him towards the wagon. It was obvious why Miche wouldn't want Judd around to see the wreck: he didn't want the boy to feel guilty for being the only survivor.
Miche turned to face Hanji. "Me and you are going down there."
"We're going to need to rappel. The rain has turned the ground to mud, it would be impossible for us to get back out without a rope." Hanji stated, nudging the dirt below with the toe of his boot.
Miche nodded. "We'll need to take a small crew, say three others. We'll need five up here to maintain the ropes. The other ten will have to stay on guard."
Hanji nodded, then turned away to gather the equipment. "Alright, we need rope." He ordered.
Miche turned to his squad, handpicking Petra, Gunther, and Eld to go down with him. He chose Oluo, Moblit, Nifa, Dita, and Flagon to handle the ropes. The rest were going to stand guard. As an afterthought he headed over to Luke Siss, who was watching the horses harnessed to the last wagon.
"Prepare three burial sheets." he murmured.
Luke nodded, his mouth a tight line. "That bad?" he asked.
Miche nodded once, "The carriage is also burned, Luke. It would be a miracle if the two royals and their servant lived."
Luke looked down, making a soft noise of understanding.
Miche nodded, then headed to where Hanji stood waiting for him at the lip of the gulley. He rubbed his hands together, before grasping the rope in both his hands. He considered tying it around his waist but reconsidered when he toed the mud with his boot; if he were to slip and fall the rope would act like a noose around his waist and break his spine, so instead he would take his chances on tumbling down to the wreck should he slip. With his mind made up, he began to lead their descend along the slippery mud into the gulley with the wreckage.
It took them a third of an hour to reach the charred remains of the carriage safely. At the bottom of the gulley, Miche tied the end of his rope around his waist so as not to lose it, then began to investigate. The window of the carriage had been struck, but hadn't been broken, and he cursed under his breath. The glass had been fire-hardened, making it impossible to break even for them. And to make it worse, the door – set on hinges to swing outwards – was jammed by the thick trunk of a tree. He had to find a way into the carriage.
He began to walk around it, keeping a hand on the singed wood to help support himself on the slick ground. Hanji tapped the glass with his knuckles, trying to see if there was any response from the inside. Petra frowned at his side from the lack of response.
Miche's eyes widened as he stepped around the carriage and took in the sight of a body hanging out of a small rectangular window. The window was built into the front of the carriage, so that the occupants would be able to speak to the driver, but with how the carriage had landed, this was now the rooftop. Miche wanted to shake his head at himself, he was surprised he himself had overlooked it as a route of escape. The person who was slumped out of the window was intelligent to use it as an escape route, especially given that the carriage had been set on fire.
Miche immediately reached out and pulled the boy out of the window. He was short, slender, and light, and easily fell into Miche's arms as soon as his legs were pulled out of the carriage. The body was cold but not remotely stiff; a conclusion that made him think the body had been dead for over twenty-four hours, given that the rigor mortis was already fading.
"Hanji?" Miche asked. He handed the body over to the brunette, determined to gather the other two. "Petra?" He asked.
She came forwards and Miche easily lifted her up and into the carriage window.
"What do you see?" he asked immediately.
"It's dark in here." the girl replied. "And wet. It's like a small pool. The rainwater must've collected in here."
"I can't give you any light." Miche replied. "The carriage is a tinderbox. The rain must've staved off the flames, or else nothing would have been left."
He sniffed, inhaling deeply. His nose was beginning to run, making scents seem sharper than usual and being at the bottom of the gulley only increased the scent of petrichor and mosses. It bothered him to have his sense of smell so played with. It was cold and damp at the bottom of the gulley. He wanted to hurry this up and get back up to the where the sun actually met the forest floor.
"I found them." Petra replied after several minutes. "Sending the girl up first. Both have head injuries."
Miche nodded. "Alright."
Petra was a small girl, standing at five foot one, but she was strong. She dragged the princess over to the front of the carriage, then lifted her up so that Miche could reach inside and haul her out. He handed the princess over to Eld.
"Another boy. Careful, he's got a broken leg." Petra replied, lifting the second body up to Miche.
He huffed in response, then handed the boy to Gunther. Afterwards he came back and helped Petra out of the torched carriage.
"There's blood all over the walls. I assume they took quite a beating in the fall." She immediately reported.
Miche huffed again, "I agree. The raider must've torched the carriage to hide the evidence since they couldn't get in it."
Petra nodded in agreement. "He was smart to find a way out." She finally stated, "That first boy."
Miche nodded.
"Two boys." Hanji muttered. "Do we know who's the Prince?"
"Rumour is the Prince had dark hair and fair skin." Miche replied, then shrugged.
Both the boys were dark-haired and fair skinned; they would need someone to confirm identifications. However, the first boy appeared to be more lavishly dressed; a thick, expensive coat with trim and gold buttons and his hair neatly held back in a ponytail were clear indications that he was no servant. Miche reached out and brushed his thumb across this boy's forehead, intending to push the hair back from his face and wipe off some of the dried, dark blood, when he thumb felt something solid and small resting on his head. He scowled, then rubbed his palm against the boy's forehead, surprised to find the damaged and bloody evidence of a crown.
"But from their appearances, I'd say the prince was the one who was smart enough to climb out." He took the body from Hanji, then surveyed the eyes of his small crew. "Alright, we're heading back now. Petra is going to lead. Followed by Eld, Gunther, myself, and you'll bring up the rear, Hanji. The strongest men in the middle will carry the bodies."
They all nodded in agreement.
It was a tough ascent, and slow going. They took one step and the mud would slide them back two steps. They were burdened with bodies that weighed them down. Miche grunted with the effort and shifted the body against his chest, shifting it so that the boy's head would rest on his shoulder. He splayed his fingers out against his back, holding him against his chest. Never did he imagine he would be hugging a stranger's corpse so close to his chest. Gripping the rope tightly in his other hand, he took another step up the muddy hill, trying to brave through the uncomfortable task. And then he felt it. A cool breeze on his neck. He nearly dropped the body in surprise. A breath!
"Hold! Hold!" He ordered.
Bracing his feet in the mud, he released the rope and shifted the body so that he could rest the boy on his thigh, then shook him by the shoulder's gently. Several strands that had escaped his ponytail swayed and his lips parted, and then his eyelashes fluttered and opened. The boy whimpered, then coughed, and Miche's eyes widened with fear and relief.
"You're alive?" he asked, surprised that one of them managed to survive the fall. Especially after being left out in the rain. His body was still frozen. "You're alive." He breathed afterwards, confirming it.
The boy's breath was heavy and shaky after he regain consciousness. His silver eyes glanced around and his hands struggled to come up to hold Miche's forearms.
"The princess-" he began.
"I know." Miche replied, tucking a strand of hair behind the boy's ear. "We got them. What is your name? Name, what is your name?" he clarified himself after noticing the fog beginning to cover the boy's eyes again. He was slender, pale, and dark-featured, but he was quickly becoming exhausted with being conscious yet again. Miche struggled to gather information from him, hoping he would survive, fearing that he would die on the way back to the castle.
"Levi." The boy replied.
"Levi?" Hanji asked, "The Prince was Levi, wasn't he? Or Lev? Or Len? I can't remember."
Levi's swayed, moaning softly. A thin stream of blood escaped the corner of his lips.
"They all started with an 'L.'" Miche replied over his shoulder. He turned his attention back to Levi, his eyes widening in alarm. Glancing him up and down in silence for a short moment, he attempted to hold the boy's gaze – there was something about the boy's eyes that made him hesitate on his words. Then, taking into account the formal attire he was wearing and the band of vibrant gold around his head, he came to a quick decision. Licking his lips, he seemed to make up his mind and nodded at Levi once, his eyes dark with decision, then turned his attention to the front of their lineup.
"Prince Levi is alive but injured. Advance quickly."
Levi fell against Miche's shoulder, his eyes closing again. He shivered, his breathing raspy and his voice weak. "I'm not-"
"Shh." Miche whispered into his ear, holding him close to his body as he ascended the muddy hillside. The prince's words were hard to make out; asides from being wrought with fatigue, his words were oddly twisted and rigid in comparison to the flowing, romantic language of Rose Kingdom, evident that he was used to speaking another tongue. "Prince Levi, you must've just hit your head."
Levi closed his eyes and leaned his head against Miche's shoulder, feeling his heavy hand on the back of his head. He wasn't sure why the man was referring to him as a prince, but surely the soldier was mistaken? His head throbbed and his mouth wouldn't move in the way he tried to make it in order to inform the man he was mistaken. The soldier was warm and kind, and Levi felt like he could trust him. He barely had the energy to wrap his arms around Miche's shoulders. 'Prince Levi is alive.' He couldn't smile at the words. His brain pushed past the title. 'Levi is alive.' So did that mean...Lana? Len? He wanted to ask. He wasn't able to ask. The steady, repetitive rocking of their bodies as they climb was oddly soothing. Against his will, he found himself falling asleep.