Immediately Kurda and the others rushed out of the mountain and started searching in the wilderness around. Owing to Kurda's stronger sense of smell, they found him, lying next to a severely wounded bear.

"Oh, my God!" Darren gasped and nearly passed out as he saw the gross sight. Blood was flowing out of Paris's body's every wound, dying the snow around crimson, most of his bones were broken and the splintered bits stuck out of his flesh at odd angles. The sight of his body was so revolting that even the afraid-of-nothing Arrow turned his head around. Kurda need not ask for descriptions; the blood seeping into his shoes told him everything he wanted to know.

By now, Darren had broken into great big sobs. He put his head onto Larten's shoulder, and Larten patted him comfortingly, even though the corners of his own eyes were shimmering with tears. Mika was in a state of senses disarray. He simply stood rooted to the ground, staring blankly at the mess. It was Kurda who gave the orders for Paris's body to be brought back to the mountain for cremation.

"Are you cold-blooded or something?" Arrow asked in a steely tone.

"No," Kurda replied, calm as ever. "He sneaked out in the middle of the investiture unnoticed so as to not spoil the mood of everybody. He would not want us to mourn his death at this hour."

But from Kurda's silence as he walked up to the Halls and the unnoticed tears that rolled to the floor, he definitely hurt more inside than anybody else.

"Why him?" Vanez crossed his arms. It was already a month after Paris had been cremated, and most vampires had gotten over his death already. However, this brought a problem. As the saying goes, a country cannot be without its ruler for a day, Mika and the other Princes had to elect another Prince to fill the space left behind by Paris. Majority had voted for Larten, but he refused again. Then something incredulous happened.

"Yes?" Kurda asked as he stood tiredly in front of the vampires congregated in the Hall of Princes. He had just undergone a public strip search. It was even embarrassing to show one's naked body it front of one's family, so one can easily imagine the humiliation Kurda went through. However, years behind bars had taught him to be extra thick-skinned, therefore embarrassment did not get into Kurda easily.

"Well, you know…" Darren started, but broke off with a shrug.

"No, I don't," Kurda raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, you do!" Darren argued.

"I don't!"

"Shut up!" Arrow broke off the 'conversation'.

"Can you all just get on with whatever it is?" Kurda snapped. He had gotten up from the wrong side of bed that day and was extremely grouchy. Trust me, the best thing you can ever do when you come across a grouchy Kurda is to avoid him.

"We need to ask you something. If, only if, I said that we have already selected a Prince and the nominee was you, what will you say?" Mika asked seriously.

Kurda stared him for a nanosecond before cracking up.

"You know what? I would say, 'go to hell'," he managed to say in between guffaws.

"Look here, Smahlt, we are being very seriously her OK?" Arrow growled.

"Fine," Kurda grabbed a hold on himself.

"We took a vote, and the results were astonishing. Practically all of them are willing to let you have another shot at this thing," Larten said calmly, a smile playing on his lips.

"Yeah, right," Kurda rolled his eyes. "Can we just stop this sick…" before he could complete his sentence, Mika raised his voice.

"Who here approves of Kurda leading us?" a thunderous roar went up as everyone raised their hand.

"No… No way!" Kurda screamed and ran out of the hall.

"I will go and try to get him to listen to some sense," Larten offered then took off after Kurda.

"I think we must have scared him," Vancha said in a small voice.

Kurda did not go back to his cell that night, but on the next night, just after dusk, Larten found him on the peak of Vampire Mountain, 'staring' at the night sky. He settled himself down next to him and lay back looking at the tsars twinkling.

"Beautiful," he murmured.

"True, even its beauty can be sensed from the heart," Kurda answered.

"True, true," A moment of silence followed.

"I supposed you have come to ask about yesterday?" Kurda enquired.

"I am, but just to inform you, when you sneaked out and disappeared for the whole two days, you could have thought about what will happen afterwards."

"Are you implying that I will be punished?"

"Yes, especially after what had happened in the Hall of Princes."

"But in the first place, nobody gave me any warning! I know you all were choosing another Prince, but… I didn't know…"

"I understand they actually picked me, but I…" Larten broke off awkwardly.

"I bet you refused," Kurda grinned. Larten nodded.

"I honestly thought it was a joke! Like it wasn't bad enough," Kurda complained.

"What was not bad enough?" Larten asked curiously.

"I mean, come on, being a Prince whose body has been seen by other people must be so fun," Kurda muttered sarcastically. Larten threw back his head and laughed.

"So that is what our dear friend is worried about!"

Kurda rolled his eyes.

"So does that mean you will think about it?" Larten probed again.

"Maybe," Kurda replied absent-mindedly as he picked himself up.

-Should I accept? Am I now thinking of my own self more that the clan's interest? This is what I have been waiting for: a second chance to prove myself. The only problem is the second chance I wanted was not such a big responsibility. I only hoped I could undertake the Trials again or something similar… definitely not becoming a prince in such a short time. But if I don't accept, the clan will suffer and I will be despised more for putting my own before the clan's. What should I do?-