Chapter 2: News

"WHAT!?"

A yell echoed through the misty mountains where a small army encampment was set up.

Lancelot and Royce quickly ran through the path between the tents and entered the tent decorated with a large crest of a red dragon with two crossed swords, the crest of Camelot.

As they entered they both looked around the tent, Royce with his bow ready to fire an arrow. The two young men saw their friend Archer stand in the middle of the tent, a letter in his hand and a shocked expression on his face.

"What's the matter?" Lancelot inquired of his friend.

Archer looked up and showed his friends the letter. "A letter from Ben, sent a couple of weeks back. It's just-, well I mean-, here!" he said as he passed the letter to Lancelot. "Read for yourself."

Lancelot smoothed out the letter and immediately recognized Ben's hand writing. Lancelot, Archer and their troop were currently stationed deep in the mountains, where no cellphone signal could reach them. They only corresponded through letters, which had to be brought up through a treacherous pass and could thus take a long time to deliver.

He started to read.

Dear Archer,

Sorry I haven't wrote you in a while, this whole becoming king stuff has been awfully time consuming. It still sucks that you and the guys won't be able to make it to the coronation, but I understand it completely. I asked dad if we could maybe postpone it for a week or so, but he would hear none of it.

Things here have been quite crazy lately to say the least. You remember how I wanted my first proclamation as king to be to take children from the isle of the lost and give them a proper education at Auradon prep? Well, I did it! We took four kids from the isle and they have joined our class for a few weeks now.

The four kids are Jay, Jafar's son, Carlos, Cruella De Vil's son, Evie, the evil queen's daughter, and Mal, Maleficent's daughter.

"MALEFICENT!" Lancelot thought to himself with a shock. "He invited the most dangerous villain's daughter to Auradon!?" he read on.

So far there have been ups and downs with them. Jay and Carlos have both joined the tourney team (by the way, we beat Sherwood in the final, tell that to Royce, and not to brag but I scored the winning goal), Evie seems to accel in most of her subjects and Mal is really something special.

Lancelot didn't doubt that.

That's another thing I really wish we could have talked about face-to-face. I broke up with Audrey.

"Good." Lancelot thought, "she had always been a pain."

And started dating Mal.

"WHAT!?" Lancelot exclaimed loudly when he read that part.

I know what you're thinking about her being a villain kid, but I promise you that what I feel for her is real. She's talented and funny and completely different from all those typical Auradon princesses. She's also breathtakingly beautiful, but you'll see that for yourself when you get back, whenever that may be. Mal has agreed to be my date for the coronation so there's at least a small part to look forward to. By the time this letter reaches you it will probably already happened, and I will probably be allowed to say that it went great.

I haven't heard the latest updates of your mission, so I don't know if your leave will be extended or not. You and the guys probably won't be able to join us for at least a few months, but I hope that you'll at least be able to make it to cotillion. I've been bragging about our stories so much lately that people have started questioning whether or not I've been making things up, so it would be great if you and the guys would be here to back me up.

I also have to put in greetings from Anxelin, Ruby and Herkie, though I'm sure they've each written letters as well.

I hope the mission and everything is running smoothly and I can't wait for you guys to get back to Auradon.

I look forward to your reply.

Greetings,

Ben

Lancelot looked at Archer with a serious expression and he nodded when he saw his distress as well. Lancelot handed the letter to Royce who hastily started reading it. He exclaimed his surprise at the exact same part of the letter as they had done and gave a similar perplexed look to the others.

"He's been spelled, he must have!" Royce said. "Why else would he want to even be around such filth?"

"That's enough!" Archer said with a stern look at Royce. "We do not know the girl and will not judge her before we have any reason to. She might be Maleficent's daughter but that does not mean she should be judged as her. I do however agree with you that there has to be some sort of investigation, this is a risk I'm not willing to let pass."

"The coronation happened two days ago." Lancelot said, "Any news of it has yet to reach us, and we have no faster way to reach them."

Archer suddenly looked at Lancelot with a bit of a pained look. "Can't you, just for this once, use a teleportal?"

Lancelot was shocked. "We have discussed this before Archer." He said loudly. "Teleportals have been officially decreed as forbidden magic. It can only be used by fully licensed mages in very extreme situations that involve either death or serious harm, of which there is none to speak of now. Sorry my friend, but for this I'm not willing to break the law."

"When are you ever?" Royce said skeptically, nut Lancelot chose to ignore him.

"Your best option is to send a letter back immediately with the outgoing mail. You can't go there yourself, you have a duty to this army!" Lancelot said.

"Like I don't know that!" Archer said agitated. He started to walk around in the tent, seemingly pondering the question. He suddenly smacked his own hand. "Won't there be another food delivery tomorrow?" he asked.

Lancelot thought. "I believe so, it has been two weeks."

"Do you think they're aware of current Auradonian news?"

"Probably, especially the coronation. My guess is that the entire kingdom watched along with that."

"Maybe they'll be able to tell us at least if anything had happened during the coronation, so we can write that off. I agree with you Lance, I think my best option is to simply send a direct letter with the outgoing mail."

"I'll grab you some paper and I'll go and inform Alex and Aden as well." Lancelot said before leaving the tent.

Royce looked at Archer as he sat down on his bed. "Do you really believe that we should trust any of those villain kids?"

Archer stroked his chin. "I wouldn't know, I've never met one. But I like to think that you always have to believe the best of people."

"Yeah, but these? You do know what their parents are, what they did? Don't you think at least a bit of all that has carried over to the children?" Royce asked.

"I do not know!" Archer said with clenched jaw. "So, until we receive news about the coronation or another letter from Ben, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Ben is not stupid, he knows when he's being played, I trust him."

"I do too." Royce answered. "It's her I don't trust." He said as he handed the letter back to Archer.

Archer stared at the letter. "She's apparently a great beauty. Maybe she could have simply seduced him. Ben might have his qualities, but he's far from a lady's man." He said smiling and Royce laughed along with him. "Should he need us though." Archer continued, "We will be there." He said seriously, and Royce nodded solemnly.

Their thoughts were interrupted when two other people entered the tent.

"What happened?" Aden asked. "Lance said something about Ben."

"He sounded serious." Alex followed up.

Archer handed them the letter and sat back down on his bed, lost in his own thoughts. "Prince Ben and Mal from the isle." He thought to himself. "Boy, what the press wouldn't have to say about that."


It had taken almost two hours of bantering and discussing amongst the five of them before Archer pointed his friends to the exit and sat down to write his letter.

The differing proclamations made by his friends still echoed in his head. Royce's notions about not trusting villain kids, Lance and Aden's similar confusion to his own on the situation and Alex simply stating his happiness for Ben that he supposedly found love.

It took five minutes of staring at the blank page before he finally placed his pen on it.

Dear Ben,

I have just received your latest letter, to be clear it is now two days after your coronation, and as you might have expected, I have some questions.

You might have expected how each of us would react once we would hear the news that you took all those villain kids from the isle, though you must know I fully support your proclamation. We were all a little extra surprised when you said that you started dating the daughter of Maleficent.

I just want to know if this is true, or rather if your feelings are true. No offence to either you or her, but you must have realized at least some people would believe that you have been spelled. I just want some reassurance.

Tomorrow we will likely receive word on how the coronation went but I have to send the letter today with the outgoing mail. If any news reaches us tomorrow that might make the questions asked in this letter irrelevant, then you have the right to ignore them and I apologize in advance.

On a different matter, I regret to inform you that we probably won't be attending cotillion. The situation here is still tricky and I can't afford to pull out now, even though I would have loved to attend, you know how much I love dances.

I fully expect however for me and the guys to attend the next year at Auradon prep. I have made arrangements with my father and king Phillip to install new officers in the army temporarily.

With some luck I'll be able to see you sooner than expected, if not I'll hear from you in your next message. Please know that I'm only looking out for the safety of you and the kingdom.

Congratulations on your tourney victory.

Greetings,

Archer, Lancelot, Royce, Aden & Alex

He then wrote a similar letter to Ben's parents, simply asking for information. Afterwards, he put down his pen and stuck the piece of paper in an envelope. "This would have to make do." He thought to himself as he exited his tent to hand the letter over to outgoing mail.


It was cold. The mountains had never been forgiving when concerning temperature, but this morning brought with it a light snowfall and an occasional, biting gust of wind. Archer and his friends sat at the edge of their campsite on a collection of rocks, waiting. They all remained focused on the small, treacherous path ahead of them, which was where all their supply trucks came from. They would normally arrive around dawn, but the weather might have complicated their journey.

Suddenly, all five stood up. They had all heard the noise. A soft cracking, rumbling noise. Barely ten seconds later, a large truck appeared from around the nearest corner. When it eventually stopped, a number of soldiers from the camp quickly appeared to carry the supplies. Archer went straight for the driver however.

"Soldier." He said to the driver.

"Sir!" the soldier stated, and he saluted.

"At ease." Archer said. The soldier was older than him and he had never felt comfortable when being addressed as anyone's superior. "I have some questions for you."

"Of course." The driver said. "How can I be of service?"

Archer nodded towards the camp and the driver followed him and his friends to his tent. Archer offered him a chair before sitting down himself. "Can I offer you a drink before we start?" he said kindly.

"That would be splendid sir." The driver said, and Lancelot quickly approached with a glass of cider.

"I'll just cut straight to the chase." Archer said. "Have you already received word of the coronation?"

The driver had taken a small sip of his cider before answering. "Yes sir, it has been quite a spectacle."

"What happened?" Archer asked piercingly.

"Some incident with fairy godmother's wand." The driver said. "Some sort of accident which caused the barrier to be deactivated momentarily."

Lancelot and Aden gasped, Royce cursed, and Alex simply looked confused. "How did this happen?" Archer asked, he was quite shocked, "And what happened afterwards?"

"Apparently Maleficent herself appeared in the cathedral sir." The driver answered.

This time everyone cursed, but Archer shushed them. "Who made that happen? Was it her daughter? Or the other villain kids?"

"Ehm, no. From what I've heard it was an accident caused by fairy godmother's daughter, ehm, Jane I believe."

Now everyone was perplexed. They all knew Jane, a timid and shy girl who would, to their knowledge, never harm a fly. "What happened with Maleficent?" Archer then asked.

"She was defeated, by her own daughter no less!" the driver said enthusiastically. "When Maleficent asked her daughter to join her, she refused. Maleficent turned into a dragon and they fought before Maleficent was defeated."

"Her own daughter defeated her!?" Archer asked totally flabbergasted.

"Yes!" the driver said. "The press has been eating it up, you know. 'Villain kid saves the kingdom' and so on. There was a huge party to celebrate their victory and our new king Benjamin is now dating her."

Archer turned his back on the driver and thought. Mal had apparently sided with Auradon and had personally prevented her own mother from taking over the kingdom. If that was the case, she could definitely be trusted. And if Ben was still dating her it meant that his feelings were true. He felt more at ease.

"What about the barrier?" he asked the driver.

"It's been fully restored. And as far as is known, no other villains have escaped the isle." He said.

This calmed Archer down almost completely. Ben was safe, the kingdom was safe, the barrier was intact, what more could he worry about? "Thank you." He said. "That was all."

The driver put his glass down, saluted and left the tent.

There was a short period of silence between the boys. "Well, I guess that clears it." Aden said as he stood up. "Auradon is safe, I guess we can continue with our duties."

"I would have never expected this." Lancelot said suddenly. "Maybe the villain kids not actively trying to break out their parents, but to actually help in defeating them is something else completely." All the others agreed.

"Does this mean that we trust them?" Royce asked hesitantly.

"We haven't even met them yet." Archer said. "But, from what the guy just told us I see no reason not to trust them. They're pretty much heroes if what he told was true. What matters is that Ben is safe, and the kingdom is safe. Anything beyond that is no concern to us. Whatever happens with the villain kids now is up to Ben, it was his proclamation and his duty to resolve any conflicts concerning it." The others once again agreed. "Don't give it any more thought." Archer told his friends. "In less than a year we'll join Ben at Auradon prep and we'll talk to him then. Now, back to your posts!"

The others gave a slight bow before exiting the tent. Archer leaned back in his chair and thought. He was more excited than concerned, mainly because he wanted to meet Mal and the other villain kids as soon as possible. He had never seen a dragon, let alone fought one, these were exciting times indeed.