Chapter 43. Nigel's dream

So I got this chapter up and going at last. RL caught me up, and made it difficult for me to write properly. And, while working on this chapter I found another angle I wanted to explore, and I am curious to see how people react on it.

And I have posted some art of some of my OC's at my tumblr page Rain4evah-art

Nigel was deeply frustrated.

Not only was there a winter blizzard outside that no one had seen in decades, but the situation around was completely desperate. As he looked around, he spotted people in the castle that would normally not be inside the Castle, the doors were wide open and the harsh wind kept blowing the cold snow inside the Castle halls. The Captain and the guards were freezing were they stood, waiting impatient for orders from the Princess Rapunzel.

Only she was nowhere to be seen!

"Nigel, where is the Princess?" the Captain asked harshly, his breath turning white as he spoke. "We must make a decision!"

"I will find her, Captain!" Nigel said in a hurry, looking around. He searched the room, but couldn't find her. She would normally be outstanding with her long blond hair, and her pink winter coat was more visible among the other more practical winter garments, but he spotted her nowhere. He spotted instead her boyfriend, Eugene Fitzherbert, with his nonchalant companion Lance, wearing the King's hat of all things; they didn't seem the least concerned about the situation as they were both enjoying a cocoa.

"Perfect weather for a cocoa, don't you think, my friend?" Fitzherbert asked his friend smiling.

"I couldn't have said it better, buddy!" Lance said and had a sip of his drink.

Upgiven, Nigel sighed and headed over towards them. "Gentlemen, have you seen the Princess?"

"Nope!" Eugene said before slurping his warm beverage and let out an inappropriate loud sigh afterwards. "Man, I love cocoa!"

Nigel rolled his eyes and scoffed before he went on with his search. As he turned around he almost bumped into Princess Rapunzel's lady-in-waiting Cassandra. "Oh dear..."

But before he was able to gather himself, the young girl gave him a pair of dark eyes and frowned. "Watch where you're going, you fancy scarecrow!" she cried right into his face.

Normally Nigel would have been able to give a reply that would put the young woman in place, but now he was so confused and desperate that he was only able to stumble. "Eh-eh-, Cassandra, where... where is Princess Rapunzel?

"How am I supposed to know?" the lady-in-waiting moaned and rolled her eyes, making a frustrated and annoyed face. To Nigel's huge surprise, the lady-in-waiting was carrying a huge box of meowing kittens. "She probably ran off to brush her hair!"

"Brush her hair?!" Nigel squeaked and ran past her and towards the corridor, closing the door behind him, shutting out the snow and the crowd as he begun looking for Rapunzel. "Princess, where are you?" Nigel called frustrated and desperate. "Your Highness? Princess? Princess Rapunzel?"

As he felt like he had lost all hope, he suddenly heard low giggling behind him, and suddenly found the door behind him slightly open, light peeking out rather brightly in the dark corridor. It was the door to the strategy room. And the laughing voice was not to be mistaken.

"The Princess, at last!" he said and rushed towards the door, flinging it open. "Princess Rapuznzel, I... What in the seven kingdoms...!"

If the snow in the other room wasn't bad enough, the sight that met him inside the strategy room made him loose his breath. There, the Princess of Corona was leaning across the table of the miniature impression of Corona, where she was busy painting flowers in the water. She was smiling brightly to her chameleon friend, who were busy helping her making little dots with a smaller paint brush, and both of looked all carefree and absentminded. But the most outstanding detail was that she wasn't even wearing her winter garments, but wore her pink and purple gown, and had nothing on her feet, even in the snow.

And the worst of it all; the strategy table looked like a circus. The little houses were all painted in different colors, the castle itself were in all the colors of the rainbow and there were flowers all over. Even the miniature guards had been painted differently.

Nigel was barely able to keep his voice calm when he spoke. "Your Highness... What is the meaning of this?"

He had raised his voice rather loudly, but Rapunel only looked up at him, her huge, green eyes looking at him with childish enthusiasm. "Oh? hi, Nigel!"

"What-what...what have you done!?" Nigel said, his desperation raising to the roof.

"I thought it needed some color. Don't you think it's WAY better with the houses looking all different?" She rose from the table and looked rather satisfied with her work. "Now for the rest of the room!" she said and grabbed her brush and palette, and went on to one the columns hear the window.

"But Princess, the whole Kingdom is trapped in a blizzard. We need to decide what to do next!"

But the blond Princess wasn't even looking at him as she painted a pink bird on the column. "Nigel, I can't make a decision now. I have to finish decorating the Castle."

"Decorating the Castle?" Nigel cried out and slapped both his cheeks, and he somehow turned his look upwards where he discovered that the strategy room had already been decorated. There were flowers and birds and ornamental decorations all over, all in the same disturbing colors like the table. He lost his breath a moment and had to look down again. "Princess, for Heaven's sake, use common sense; there is no time for this now. We have to..."

"You missed a spot!"

The sudden sound of the squeaking, sly voice made Nigel freeze like the cold had caught him. But somehow he managed to slowly turn around the sight that met him made him choke.

There he was; the black hair with that teal blue streak, the goggles and the apron were not to be mistaken. He stared at Rapunzel with small eyes, a sly smile on his mouth as he lifted a finger towards the column. "Don't forget to add some flowers."

"Oh, okay!" the Princess answered merrily and dipped her brush into the yellow paint before adding some dotted flowers above her bird.

"That's more like it." Varian said, smirking devilishly.

Nigel forced his look away from the boy and back to the Princess. "Your Highness, please listen! We have a..."

"Not now, Nigel. Can't you see I'm painting?" The look in her eyes as she replied him were not at all of fear. It looked like she was simply annoyed at him, like she wasn't aware of the situation in the room at all. It stroke him that this was not the eyes of a Princess, not at all the eyes of a royalty.

It was the eyes of a child!

"But-but-but..."

"Nigel..."

The advisor turned around to see the Captain and his guards suddenly standing in the room with them. They were almost completely covered in the sudden appearing snow.

"We must do something!" the Captain said with shivering voice, both he and his guards were hatching teeth and wrapping their arms around themselves to warm up, .

"But..." Nigel stumbled terrified, feeling the angst grow inside him. "It's not... my... decision..."

"Hey, Nigel?"

The royal advisor slowly turned around to face the alchemist again, every muscle in his body objecting but he had to face him. It was like a force drew him.

"Catch!" the boy said and before he knew it, Nigel saw a triangle shaped turkey slice fly from the boy's hand and directly towards him, and all went black.

Nigel woke up from his own loud cry, but he leaned backwards with such force that before he knew it, he fell backwards in his chair on the floor, tipping sideways by the loss of balance. He hit his head on the floor and the hit pushed the air out of his lounges.

He took a moment to gather himself and managed to roll over on all four, rubbing the back of his head with a hand. "Oh, good gracious... Oh, I felt that!" After being able to push himself up by leaning on the desk, he became aware of his surroundings.

His Majesty's own private office was placed in one of the round tower rooms. There he would be handling his quiet business, do his thinking and his paperwork in peace and quiet. Tall shelves on the walls on both sides were well sorted, the one to the left were organized with an archive of documents of all kind while the one on the other side had books of different kind from history to rules and everything a King needed at any occasion. An enormous grandfather clock was placed at a corner between two of the shelves to the right, ticking calmly.

King Frederic's enormous, dark brown desk with ornamental carvings around each corner would mark the centre in the room. Nigel's own desk, if not so decorated, then at least elegant, stood in 90 degrees angle to the left of His Majesty's desk, with a palm like plant separating them.

Normally the King would be there as well and they would go through all kinds of problems, diplomatic issues and dealings, and all sorts of letters and news from abroad. But this morning when His Majesty were with the Physician visiting the Queen, Annabelle still had her breakfast and while the red haired Princes were with Varian, Nigel had taken care of the annual reports and lists to be looked after in His Majesty's office. Before he dozed off, he had been looking through some of the trade letters from Neserdnia, but by the repeating sound of the enormous clock, he had started to feel rather tired. Since he hadn't slept all night this was no surprise, and before he knew it, he had simply dozed off, falling asleep on his arm.

"Oh my... Did I really drift off?" he said and looked down on the desk. He scoffed when he saw the trade letter from Nesendria all lying there on his desk with some curls. "My word..." he said and started straightening it out. Then as he put it down, he looked up at the clock, and was surprised that it showed eleven thirty.

"But... One hour and a half? Now, how long can a Physician appointment take?"

He leaned a hand on the desk, looking at the door.

"I sure hope Her Majesty is going to be alright..."

Shaking his head, he found it necessary to stretch his legs and walked over to one of the windows. As he had a look at the Kingdom, he tried to admire the warm, sunny day, and looked at the ships by the docks, the small moving creatures that would be the towns folk, and a horse carriage here and there and was able to draw a little smile.

But his smile faded as his looks turned beyond the bridge, where he spotted some dark, sharp pointy objects.

The black rocks!

The royal advisor made a disturbed sound and turned away from the view, and walked away. He leaned over his desk, suddenly finding himself panting violently.

"Ah, good blasted...!" Nigel shook his head violently before he tried to calm down by taking some deep breaths. Feeling a small drop suddenly run down his nose, he found his handkerchief and started wiping his suddenly sweaty forehead.

"I wonder if I should go and see if... things are alright. It could be that I... need a walk to clear my head anyway."

And by this he headed for the doors, and closed himself out.

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#

"Prince Lars, please wait a moment!"

Lars was about to open the door, but stopped himself as the Physician spoke up. "Hm?"

"I know you have errands, but I need a report on how it went while I was away."

"Report?" Lars asked, but then he suddenly remembered. "Oh, of course. With Varian. I'm sorry, I... Of course."

"Quite alright." The Physician smiled calmly. "So? How did it go?"

Lars put up a wide smile as he replied. "Well, it seems like despite the seven months he's missing, the rest of his memory is working incredibly well. I've never known anyone who have managed to memorize my siblings line so quickly." he said, clearly impressed.

"Indeed, the boy has an incredible brain." Phineas had a short glance back at the sick room doors before he turned his eyes back at him. "But what I mean is, did he show any sign of... you recall what happened yesterday? Or any hints of aggressive impulse?"

Lars shook his head. "No, not the least. I got the same impression of him as yesterday, only now he was less confused."

"So he asked no questions?" Phineas kept on, his eyes getting slightly smaller.

Lars chuckled and scratched his left sideburn. "Honestly, to tell the truth... he never got time to ask about anything, because you see..." he cleared his throat nervously. "Daniel did most of the talking."

"I see." Phineas chuckled behind closed lips, but gave a calm sigh of something the Prince wasn't able to detect. Lars suddenly got the feeling that he wasn't all satisfied with his rapport, and his own smile faded.

"Phineas, I know you are thinking of Varian's condition, but I'm actually more relived that it went so well with him and Daniel. My son..." Lars exhaled slowly, losing his enthusiasm at sudden. "He has a hard time making friends, and this is... not the only problem with him, I'm afraid."

"I remember you mentioned this." Phineas' look became a little softer, and he let a light hand touch his shoulder, making the red haired Prince look up at him as he smiled compassionately back at him. "Prince Lars, I have been many places in my life, and I seen allot... I recognize a troubled parent when I see one."

Lars wasn't able to look into the elder physician's wise, narrow eyes, and lowered his gaze, hiding his suddenly misty eyes. "I... I want so badly... to connect with him... I wonder sometimes if..." he drew his breath and turned around, walking a few steps away. "Helga... When he was younger, she never let me have anything to do with him, so my son and I never got time to... But I wonder if I should have..." he wasn't able to finish the sentence and remained silent as he raised hand up to his face to rub his eyes.

Lars didn't see it, but Phineas suddenly lost his smile, rather discreetly, but if Lars had looked at him now, he would have seen a slightly different expression in his almond shaped eyes. A part of him was far away when he spoke.

"Sometimes..." Phineas said low as he looked away. "...it's hard to know if your attempt to try... will be an attempt of force. Sometimes, you cannot force someone to accept your help, no matter how... much it is needed. For you might end up doing more damage than healing. All you can do is to... be there for them and wait till they trust you enough to give you a chance to give them what they need."

Lars swirled around and faced him, clenching his fists in despair. "But I'm his father! I shouldn't have to earn my own son's trust!"

Phineas was quick to return to his serious, wise mode and looked him in the eyes. "It's not about earning his trust. You need to earn his respect before anything. Because trust will easily come with respect. And if this is something that needs time... Do you think the simple wound Varian has on the back of his head will heal over night?"

"No, of course not!" Lars shook his head.

"Exactly. And I take it your son wasn't particularly happy about his mother death?"

Lars looked down again. "He... practically had his whole world destroyed."

"And that is also most likely what happened to Varian when his father were incased inside the amber."

Lars lost his desperate look and stared at him.

The Physician smiled. "I know it might seem drastic, but I find it easy to compare your son's trouble with the young man in there. And I'm not only talking about his physical condition."

Lars became rather thoughtful at sudden after hearing this.

"A wounded heart is sometimes like a simple open wound. It needs to not only be given time to mend, but it also needs care, and several changes and rounds of cleaning during the healing process to complete... and to make sure it won't be infected."

Lars looked down, puzzling. "I suppose... It does make sense. I..."

He stopped talking, as the rsund of loud laughter were to be heard from the sick room, and both men walked closer to listen. The sound of Frederic's rumbling laughter were not to be mistaken, but they also caught the sound of Varian's squeaky bubbly laugh joining in.

Lars were smitten and chuckled. "I wonder what's so funny."

"Whatever it is..." the Physician smirked. "It sounds like it was sorely needed."

Lars stifled his laughter and took a deep breath before facing the Physician again, smiling again. "Thank you, Phineas!"

"That's what I am here for." the physician smiled and bowed slightly.

Lars' smile went a bit wider before he turned around for the door, and Phineas smiled as he turned his gaze towards the sick room.

Okay, I bet some of you didn't expect this, but I'm eager to hear what you think.