Here we are, Chapter 5! Enjoy!

Chapter 5 : A Trip To Town

Arthur and Alfred never went riding after all. Arthur felt a little depressed after being unable to convey where Matthew was and Alfred spent the time trying to cheer him up so Alfred decided to take Arthur riding the next day, although it got off to a rocky start. Arthur eyed the four-legged beasts that Alfred called Horses with a little wariness, never having seen such creatures before and, at first, was afraid to approach them so Alfred selected a nice, quiet mare called Chestnut, because of her colour for Arthur and put some oats into Arthur's hand and slowly guided Arthur toward the docile animal, making Arthur hold out his hand to her. Arthur trembled slightly as the horse sniffed his hand and then began to nuzzle it to get as many of the oats as she could. Arthur began to relax when the creature did not harm him and when his hand was empty of oats, Alfred put Arthur's hand on the horse's nose and encouraged Arthur to rub it. The horse revelled in the attention and nuzzled Arthur's face, making the mer giggle. The mare and Alfred's horse, a black stallion called Ignatius were taken out into the courtyard where Alfred faced his next challenge...getting Arthur on to the mare's back so Alfred demonstrated.

"Artie," he called and Arthur looked toward him. Alfred put his left foot into the stirrup and pulled himself up, swinging his leg over Ignatius's back and putting his right foot in the stirrup on the other side, sitting on the saddle and then he pointed to Arthur.

"Now you," he said. Arthur looked at Al in shock and then at his horse. Al wanted him to sit on this creature's back! Why? Arthur was sure that the animal would not like it, he knew he would not if someone sat on his back so Arthur shook his head and patted Chestnut's neck. Alfred got down from his horse's back and came to Arthur's side to try and get him on the horse.

"Artie, come on," he said, trying to get Arthur to put his foot in the stirrup and Arthur was struggling against him. "You have to get on the horse so we can get going. You still have to learn to ride!" But Arthur was having none of it, wriggling in Alfred's grip. Both losing their balance and falling to the ground, Alfred landing on top of Arthur.

Alfred took a moment to recover from the fall before pushing himself up a little on his hands to find himself staring down at Arthur, his hands on either side of Arthur's head and Arthur looking up at him in surprise. Then they began aware of their intimate position and they both blushed, Alfred getting off Arthur and to his feet with surprising reluctance. He helped Arthur up and began wiping the gust that had coated Arthur's blue riding jacket when he fell to the ground.

"You really don't want to ride?" Alfred asked Arthur who just looked back at him. Alfred looked over to the grooms in the stable. "Take the horses back to the stable and get the carriage ready." Two grooms came forward to take the horses back to the stables and other went to get the one of the carriages and the horses to pull it.

They had to wait awhile for the carriage to be prepared, a small, open air one for two people and then they were off in the direction of the town, unaware of what was happening at down at the beach.

"Are you sure about this, Matthew?" Yao asked as they gathered by the beach. It was very early and no land-dwellers were about so the royals had to do this quickly before they appeared. "We can't reach you if anything goes wrong, aru."

"We need to find Arthur," Matthew replied. "And I'm the only one with any kind of land-dweller knowledge, it has to be me. I've arranged with Warrior Lars to lead the guards to protect the palace and the city in my absence, he's very capable."

"Matthew," Yao said. "You were very young when you left the land-dweller world. Things have undoubtedly changed since then and you could run into problems, aru."

"It has to be done, Yao," Matthew replied. "We need Arthur back. If I find him, I might get lucky and find the king too." He turned to the Jokers. "Let's do this."

"Get yourself beached," Gilbert ordered as Peter handed Matthew clothes, coming prepared this time and Matthew swam to the shoreline and pulled himself out of the water while Gilbert and Peter prepared to sing the song, giving them a feeling of de ja vu.

"We'll alter the song a little so your vocal cords can articulate the land-dweller language," Gilbert called over to Matthew. "But you'll still be able to speak mer so you can communicate with Queen Arthur when you find him. Ready?" Matthew made himself comfortable on the sand.

"Ready!" he called back. Gilbert held up the sapphire and both he and Peter began to sing. Just like with Arthur, the sapphire produced the misty light that covered Matthew and he felt the tingling, his tail separating into two legs, his gills vanishing and his finger webbing disappearing. Matthew gazed at his hand just as Arthur had done, vaguely remembering his hands being like this once but very small and it was like a misty dream. Matthew struggled to his feet, wobbling a little as he tried to remember his balance, leaning against a rock until he was sure he could stand up without falling over.

"All right, Ace Matthew," Peter called and Matthew began to turn to look at them when he realised that he was completely exposed and fell over in shock.

"Yes, I'm fine," he called back over Gilbert's kesese laughter and scrambled into the clothes that Peter had given him. His voice sounded strange to the other mers now, although they could understand him, a side effect of the change in his vocal cords. When he was dressed, he stood up again and took a few steps to get used to being upright. He was still a little unsteady but he was getting better. "You better go, the land-dwellers will about soon. I'll go and look for Arthur and I'll call for the Jokers when I'm ready to come back."

"Be careful, Matthew," Yao replied. "We don't want to lose our Ace as well, aru."

"We'll be waiting for your summoning song, Ace Matthew," Gilbert said. "Good luck!" They began to swim away, Yao rather reluctantly and when they were out of sight. Matthew began to carefully walk up the beach. As he left the sand, he saw the sight of the land-dweller settlement and began to walk in that direction.

A local fisherman was walking down toward the sea to begin his work when he saw a man walking toward him, a little unsteadily. He was wearing a white shirt and black breeches but had no shoes and, as the fisherman got closer, he could see that the man was wet, his blonde hair slick against his head and, as he got closer still, he recognised the man.

"Your Highness," he gasped and running forward to help the Sea Prince. The fisherman had heard that Prince Alfred had been swept up by the tide, just a few days ago and now it looked like he had been in the sea again. Work would have to wait, he needed to get Prince Alfred back to the palace.

Matthew heard the land-dweller call to him but it took him a few minutes to remember land-dweller language and realised that this man had called him Your Highness and seemed to know him but how? He was four when he left life on land so no one here should know him at all. The man put Matthew's arm around his shoulders and put his own arm around Matthew's back and began to help Matthew toward town.

"Don't worry, Your Highness," the man said. "I'll help you get back to the palace." But there was only one thing Matthew really needed help for.

"Arthur," he said, his land-dweller speech, rusty from lack of use. "Must find Arthur."

Arthur's eyes could not stop darting about as the carriage drove into the land-dweller settlement, there was just to much to see. Land-dwellers strolled everywhere or stood and talked to each other. Land-dweller fry ran around playing, either with each other or with fluffy four-legged animals that enjoyed the pats and stroking that were bestowed on them. Other walked around carrying things that held items like lumps of brown things or round things of greens or reds or long things of orange with green seaweed like stuff coming out of the top of them. One carried a tray with red lumps with coatings of white on them that Arthur did think look particularly appealing.

Arthur noticed something else that confused him, somewhat. While not an expert on land-dweller couture, Arthur noticed the difference in the coverings on different land-dwellers, some wearing coverings that seemed to be like the ones he was wearing but others wore things that looked more coarse but what confused Arthur the most were the land-dwellers sat in corners, the coverings in tatters, their hands raised toward passing land-dwellers as if asking for something and ignored by most of the by-passers.

Alfred saw them as well and his face saddened. He tried to do what he could to relieve the suffering of the poor with soup kitchens and such and many nobles pretended to show interest in his causes but he knew that, privately, a lot of them sneered behind his back for wanting to assist that they considered to be the refuse of their society and saw the beggars as a problem, not to be solve but to be swept off the streets. Alfred turned to look at Arthur, praying he did not see a look of disgust on his face but was surprised to see a look of puzzlement, as if Arthur did not understand what he was seeing. Like he had never seen a beggar before. Alfred was further intrigued by the mystery that was Arthur...just where was he from that these things were so foreign to him, even poverty?

Alfred stopped the carriage by the local stables and he was greeted by the stable owner like an old friend who agreed to look after the carriage while Alfred took Arthur around the town and they walked to the market square where many stalls selling many things were set up and, once again, Arthur was entranced by the many different things on display but was distracted when Alfred was surrounded by the village children who were well acquainted with the prince and loved to see him. Arthur smiled at Al as he greeted the children with genuine warmth and seemed to know all their names.

"Okay, kids," Alfred said to the children. "I have to go now. I came to show my new friend, Artie around the village." Arthur found himself with all the young eyes on him and he gave a nervous smile, at a loss as to why all these young fry were looking at him and a young, blonde female child with eye like Alfred's ran up to him.

"Are you Alfie's new friend?" she asked. Arthur did not understand her and looked up at Alfred with a slightly panicked look on his face.

"Amelia," Alfred came to Arthur's rescue. "Artie doesn't understand our language and we don't understand his so he can't answer you but yes, he's my new friend." Amelia nodded and turned back to Arthur and held out her little hand and tapped her chest.

"Amelia," she said. "Amelia."

"Am'el'a," Arthur tried, holding out his own hand which Amelia grabbed and shook up and down.

"Close enough," she said and the other children came forward to tell Arthur their names and to hear how Arthur said them, laughing at some of his more unusual attempts. Arthur smiled at the idea that children, both mer and land-dweller, behaved the same and had the same curiosity with new things. Perhaps mers and land-dwellers were not so different.

"Okay, kids," he called out. "I want to show Arthur around so it's time to go. Sorry!" The children groaned in disappointment at having their new toy taken away. "I'll bring him back another time if I can but we have to go now." He held out his hand to Arthur and pulled him out of gaggle of children. Alfred told the kids goodbye and both he and Arthur waved at the children as they left. Alfred's interaction with the children told Arthur he was a caring and compassionate person and Arthur knew that Alfred would be a wonderful king as they moved toward the market stalls.

"Please, I need help," the fisherman shouted as he neared the castle gate. When they saw who he was assisting, the guards ran forward and took Matthew from him and began to take him to the castle while one turned to the fisherman.

"What happened?" he asked. The fisherman shook his head.

"I don't know," he replied. "I was on my way to begin working when I found the prince. He didn't tell me how he got there or in that state. He just said 'Must find Arthur'." The soldier frowned. Arthur? Did he mean Sir Artie, the man Prince Alfred had found on the beach? Speak of which, where was Sir Artie? Prince Alfred had left with him.

"Did you see any sign of another man?" the guard asked. "A blonde man with green eyes?" The fisherman shook his head.

"I saw no one else," he replied. The guard nodded.

"Thank you," he said. "The King will hear of your assistance." The fisherman nodded and walked away while the guard wondered about what happened to Prince Alfred and where was Sir Artie.

Jason was walking toward the main doors when they were opened and two guards came through, supporting another man, blonde and dressed only in black trousers and a white shirt and, from this distance, looked like Alfred and he ran forward.

"What happened?" he demanded but as he got closer, he realised something was wrong. Despite being wet and bedraggled, Jason could see that the man's hair was longer and when the man looked at him, it was not with Alfred's sky blue eyes and Jason knew instinctively that this man was not Alfred.

"What's going on?" Jason heard his father's voice as King Alex walked up behind him to see what the commotion was about. "Alfred, what happened to ….." Jason put his hand on his father's chest.

"Dad," he said. "That's not Alfred." Alex looked toward the man the guard were holding up and realised that Jason was right but he looked so much like Alfred. Who was he? Alex approached the familiar looking stranger, taking in every detail, the different hair, the way the stranger held himself, his gaze lacking the bold and sometimes over confident look that Alfred possessed, the violet eyes...

Violet eyes!

It could not be! It would be too much of a coincidence for him to turn up, just after they learnt of his continued existence but …... maybe …... given that Sir Artie knew him ….. was it possible?

"Matthew?" he said the name carefully, as if afraid the atmosphere might shatter and destroy the fragile hope that he might be right. There was only one way to prove it.

Matthew found the two men in the fine clothes familiar and he racked his brain as to why. They were land-dwellers, not mers and he had not seen any land-dwellers since he was four. The older land-dweller was more familiar and he had vague memories of a man that used to carry him on his shoulders and tucked both he and Alfred into bed at night as children, a man he called …..

"Father?" he asked but that could not be right. His father was dead, he had vague memories of clinging to someone who looked like this man when the mers found him but there was another man, a man who looked like his father, his father's brother and he was called...

"Uncle Alex?"

King Alex's breath had caught in his throat when Matthew? called him Father and then Uncle Alex. Matthew was four when he was lost so it was possible for him to mistake Alex for his father Allan but there was only one way to confirm everything. He went closer to the man, reached for his shirt, unbuttoned it and pulled it to the left. There, above the man heart was the symbol identical to Alfred's but it was a spade surrounding an A, rather than a K, eliminating all doubt.

"Matthew!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his newly recovered nephew. "My dear boy, you really are alive!" The King's eyes filled with joyful tears that another part of his beloved twin brother had survived and was back with them. If he was the superstitious sort, he would think that Sir Artie was some kind of good luck charm. First he reveals that Matthew was alive and he knew him and the next day, Matthew turns up.

"Dad?" Jason asked, questioningly. "Is that really Matthew?"

"Without a doubt," Alex replied, releasing Matthew. "Your cousin has come home, Jason!" Jason could not believe it. They had only just heard Matthew was alive yesterday and now he stood before them and he looked at the man his father had just hugged. The blonde hair was a little longer and the eyes violet but he really, really looked like …..

"He's the image of Alfie," he said. What Jason remembered of Matthew was of a little, quiet boy who trailed after Alfie and it was hard to tell the two apart, only Alfie's boisterous personality was the way to tell who was who.

"Well, they are twins," Alex replied. "It's really not that surprising."

"Al's alive?!" Matthew blurted as he realised that they were speaking of Alfred in the present tense, as if he would walk through the door at any minute. Alex smiled and put comforting hands on Matthew's shoulders. Poor boy had clearly thought that his brother was dead, just as they had thought Matthew was.

"Of course, he's alive, my boy," he smiled and then he realised. "We need to get him back here, he needs to know you're alive too." He turned to the guards. "Send a messenger to the town. Tell Prince Alfred that he needs to come back now." He took Matthew from the guards so they could do their appointed task and he would take Matthew to be taken care of before something occurred to him. "Don't tell him why! Let's keep this as a surprise. Just tell him its important."

As Matthew was hustled away by his uncle and cousin, he felt overwhelmed. He had not even found Arthur yet but, within the space of a couple of hours of leaving the water, he had found his land-dweller family and discovered that his twin was still alive! Not what he expected when stepped on land but welcome.

"Now my boy," Alex said as he and Jason took him further into the castle. "We'll get you all cleaned up and properly attire, some of Alfie's things should fit you and you can tell us where you've been all this time and how you came back. In fact, we need to have a party! A big celebration to welcome back the Lost Prince of Altheia." That cast a shadow over Matthew's joy at discovering his family again. How was he going to explain that he was just here to find the Queen of Spades, and the King if he was lucky, but then he would have to leave again. How was he going to break the news that he could not stay!

The messenger mounted his horse and set off on his task to bring Prince Alfred and Sir Artie back to the castle, galloping toward the town, not seeing the ship appearing out at sea on the horizon.

While Alfred had been to the town many times and knew every part of it by heart, there was something about showing it to someone seeing it for the first time made him see it in the same way. Arthur look around with a child's excitement at everything but one thing that Alfred noticed was that Arthur was not necessarily attracted to things because of value but rather to things that just caught his eye, pretty but sometimes inexpensive things, one thing being a case in point.

They had passed the jewellers and Arthur stopped to stare at a ring with a blue stone that was meant to imitate a sapphire but was pure paste. Alfred got the feeling that Arthur was attracted to the colour of the stone (Arthur was always distracted by blue things, the colour seemed to mean something to him) and the ring was pretty enough but it was not especially valuable, it was not even gold but Arthur looked at it like it was the most priceless thing imaginable.

"Do you want it, Artie?" Alfred asked and Arthur turned and looked at him in puzzlement. Alfred smiled and took Arthur's hand to pull him into the shop. The jeweller smiled at his royal customer but was disappointed that he was looking at, what was essentially, costume jewellery and tried to steer them toward jewellery that was more real and more expensive but Arthur had his eye on the ring so nothing else would do and they left with the ring that Alfred had put on Arthur's finger because he did not seem to realise that that was where it went. Whether the fact that Alfred had placed it on the third finger of Arthur's left hand was a conscious or subconscious decision was anyone's guess.

Arthur could not stop looking at the round thing that Alfred had got from the land-dweller in the building that was filled with these yellow things with shiny stones. Some of things were whitish-grey but still had stones stuck on them and the land-dweller tried to show them to he and Alfred but Arthur like the one with the blue stone, it was the shade of the stone that Gilbert used to send him here and Alfred said something to the land-dweller who went to get the round thing and brought it to them and Alfred handed it to Arthur who held it between his finger and his thumb, turning it to see it from every angle while Alfred looked at him like he expected Arthur to do something. After a minute, Alfred took the ring from Arthur, took hold of Arthur's left hand and put his third finger in the hoop and pushed it up over his knuckle as far as he could. Arthur smiled and looked up to see Alfred digging into a little bag and pulling out some reddish-brown disks and gave them to the land-dweller who bowed and Alfred ushered Arthur out of the building.

The giving of the little disks confused Arthur but, as he and Alfred went to other places and Alfred collected other things, giving the land-dwellers displaying them some more of the disks, some reddish-brown, some whitish-grey and some yellow. Alfred gave Arthur a little bag of coins of his own to purchase anything he wanted and tried to teach Arthur the difference in the value of the coins and Arthur began to understand a little. Alfred was trading the disks for the items but Arthur wondered what use the disks were to anyone. Arthur understood trade, Spades traded with the other kingdoms regularly but it was for useful things that one kingdom possessed that others did not and the other kingdoms would swap for useful items that their kingdom had that the other kingdom wanted but this was for necessary and useful things and Arthur could not fathom what use small disks could be.

Having made that connection, Arthur made another one as to why the land-dwellers seemed to differ from each other. Those land-dwellers dressed in finery had many of these disks, those displaying things to trade for these disks were trying to acquire them and those dressed in rags had none and no means to acquire them other than to ask by-passers for them.

This inequality of resources was something that Arthur did not understand. In Spades, in fact in all four kingdoms, everyone had a task, hunting, gathering, maintaining the city, looking after the young, guarding the city, defending the kingdom and, of course, his own task as Queen, seeing to the smooth running of the kingdom, along with the Jack and, traditionally, the king while the Ace commanded the guards and saw to the security of the city and the palace. The hunters and gathers caught enough fish and collected enough seaweed, plankton and shellfish to feed the population, the maintainers effected repairs to everyone's dwellings as they happened, which was surprising frequently, the carers looked after everyone's young as their parents worked at their tasks, the guards defended everyone from the predators of the mers, like sharks and the occasional octopus and the warriors guarded the kingdom from attack. Everyone did their part and everyone benefited from the fruits of their labours and no one needed to trade for essentials and no one had less than anyone else. Even the royals received the same as any other citizen of Spades for their contribution to the kingdom.

The idea of some having more than others was a foreign concept to Arthur, mers did not have a monetary system so nothing really had a value beyond its usefulness or sentimental value. Mers collected trinkets but a pretty stone found and given to a loved one was worth more than a valuable land-dweller diamond to a mer...if they knew what a diamond was. Arthur was still trying to get his head around all of this when …..

"Oh! How nice meeting you here, Your Highness!"

Arthur cringed at the sound, it was almost on par with a mer's battle cry and both Alfred and Arthur turned to see a woman dressed in the finest, strolling determinedly toward them. Behind her, a young girl, dressed in less fine clothes, burdened down with parcels, rushing to keep up. Alfred groaned. Lady Cassell was a shameless suck-up to the royal family and an unmitigated snob to anyone she considered beneath her and Alfred could not stand the woman, feeling sorry for the poor maid, running around after her under a mountain of purchases while her mistress sneered at the townspeople. Everything Alfred hated.

"I never expected to find you here, Your Highness," she simpered and Arthur took an immediately dislike to the woman. Not that he could understand a word she was saying but there was a tone in her voice that was weaselling and insincere. He did not like her at all.

"I'm just showing my new acquaintance around the town," Alfred replied. "Lady Cassell, this is Sir Artie." Arthur smiled at the woman who gave him a snooty look before returning his gaze to Alfred.

"Oh yes," she sniffed. "I heard about the castaway, swept up on the beach. I understand he doesn't speak the language. You should more be careful, Your Highness, he could be anyone or anything. I mean, how do you know this man isn't a criminal?"

Alfred did not appreciate her observations of Arthur and he certainly did not appreciate her talking about Arthur like he was not there. Alfred did not care that Arthur could not understand her, it was still rude.

"I'm confident that Sir Artie is no such person," he replied, putting a friendly hand on Arthur's shoulder and smiled at him and Arthur smiled back.

"Perhaps not," Lady Cassell huffed. "But you don't know his position in society. It would not do to take in some vagabond." She sneered at a point behind them and Arthur turned to look, seeing a bedraggled brunette female in ragged clothing and carrying a bundle, holding out her hand at passing strangers, calling out something Arthur did not understand. Alfred saw that too.

"People on hard times need our compassion, not our condemnation," he scolded and Lady Cassell realised that she was crossing a line with Alfred.

"Of course," she simpered. "We must do something for the poor unfortunates." 'Poor unfortunates' had a hint of patronising about it and Alfred did not see Arthur wandering over to the female beggar as he tried to extract himself from the sycophantic snob.

Arthur kept looking at the woman on the corner, holding out her hand to people passing, everyone ignoring her and he wandered over to her. She saw him coming and turned toward him with her hand held out and he could see that the bundle she was holding were covering wrapped around a fingerling, a very young fingerling, less than one season old. The child was crying and the mother bounced it up and down to try and settle it but the child continued to cry and Arthur knew why. The child was sick, he could hear in the child's cry and the, he assumed mother, was not well either and Arthur wondered why. A mer would always heal another mer if one was sick or injured so why was this female and child being allowed to suffer?

"Please, sir," the woman begged. "A coin for the child, I beg you." Arthur cocked his head at her, not understanding her words. He looked at the crying child and then looked back at the woman before kneeling in front of her and taking out the little bag of disks that Alfred had given him. He did not need to trade them for anything as, when he returned to Spades, he would not be taking them with him, except for the ring. He would be keeping that, Al gave it to him.

Arthur placed the little bag in the woman's hand and she marvelled at the bag that would contain enough money to feed her and her child for many days and smiled at her benefactor. Arthur smiled back at her but he could not leave it like this. No mer would leave anyone to suffer so he placed a hand on her and the baby's cheek and opened his mouth.

"Since you're feeling so charitable," Alfred said to Lady Cassell. "Perhaps you would care to make a donation to the poor fund? Every coin is welcome." Lady Cassell smiled, tightly.

"Of course, Your Highness," she muttered with insincerity. "I would like to help the poor." Alfred, however, knew that no such donation would materialise or she would donate the minimum she could.

"I'm happy to hear that," Alfred replied, happy to make her uncomfortable after all her sucking up. Then she looked over his shoulder and saw something that she disapproved of.

"I think you need to teach your …..acquaintance," she sniffed. "That, while compassion is all well and good, it does not do to befriend all and sundry." Alfred turned to see Arthur kneeling by the woman and child that Lady Cassell had sneered at earlier. Arthur was giving the woman the bag of money that he had given Arthur earlier and he smiled as he watched Arthur put a hand on the woman and the child before opening his mouth.

Then everything seemed to stop as the most beautiful singing filled the air, even Lady Cassell was entranced and everyone in the street turned to listen, mesmerized and no one dared breathe for fear of ruining the atmosphere but Alfred just froze on the spot and transported back to that morning on the beach when he awoke after the storm with someone singing above him.

I was right! It was Artie who saved me!

Arthur sang his healing song and he could feel the sickness ease in both woman and child as he continued to sing, his song weaving into the female and baby, driving out what was making them sick and the child began to settle, crying less and began looking at Arthur, soothed by the singing even as it made the baby well again. The mother was staring at Arthur as well, enchanted by the beautiful singing. As the last of the sickness left both mother and child, Arthur's last note sounded and vanished into the air. The woman did not know how but she knew that the singing of the man in front of her had healed her and her baby of their sickness.

"Thank you," she whispered. Arthur did not know what she had said but he guessed and smiled at her and stroked the baby's head before standing up and, with one last smile, turned to return to Alfred, only to find him standing behind him.

"It was you!" he said. "It was you that saved me from the shipwreck! Why didn't you stay?" Arthur just cocked his head at Alfred in that 'I don't know what you just said' way of his. Alfred took Arthur's face in his hands.

"It was you!" he whispered and moved forward. He did not know if he was going too far, nor did he care so he placed his lips over Arthur's, pressing softly against them. At first, Arthur froze at Alfred's sudden kiss but then he melted into it and Alfred put his arms around Arthur and pulled him close, not caring that the snooty Lady Cassell and the entire town was watching as they were locked into their own little world and Arthur was lost in bliss. He had fallen in love with Alfred, almost from the moment he pulled him from the sea and now he knew that Alfred just might feel the same about him. This was his King and would be Alfred's queen, it was fated.

Alfred held Arthur tight as they kissed, his heart leaping as Arthur responded to him. Arthur liked him too and Alfred could not be happier. Alfred had not given the idea of marrying Princess Erica for an alliance between Altheia and Mertoris any thought and any idea of it now flew over the horizon. He only wanted Arthur, he was the only one for Alfred now.

He pulled away and did not know that many townspeople were smiling at them, except for Lady Cassell who looked faintly disgusted, whether it was because they were two men or that she suspected Arthur of being of lowly status and, therefore beneath the prince, was up for debate but Arthur and Alfred were still lost in their little bubble.

Until the sound of galloping interrupted and everyone turned to see a man in castle livery come riding into the market place and stop when he spotted Alfred and Matthew and jumped down from his horse, running to the two men.

"Prince Alfred," he said, bowing. "Apologies for interrupting your day but King Alex sent me to request that you return to the castle. It is a matter of some urgency, I understand." Alfred frowned, what could have happened while he and Artie were away?

The carriage rode into the castle courtyard and Alfred helped Arthur down before the two of them hurried into the castle and made their way to the King's study. Alfred knocked on the door before he opened it and walked in.

"What's wrong, Uncle Alex?" he asked urgently. "What's happene...?" he stopped when he found he was looking at a mirror image of himself but with longer hair and violet eyes who seemed to be wearing some of his clothes. The mirror image looked just as surprised as him but then he stepped forward.

"Alfie?" he asked, as if unsure of what he was seeing. "Alfie, is that you?" Alfred stood there, not knowing who this man was but feeling like he should.

"Ma'ew?" Arthur said, coming in after Alfred and spotting Matthew stood beside Alex and Jason. Alfred looked at Arthur and then back at Matthew.

"Matthew?" he said. Matthew became bright-eyed and took another step. And then another. Alfred step forward too and then they both move forward into a brotherly hug.

"I thought you were dead," Alfred whispered, hoarsely, barely believing that it was his long lost twin he was hugging. "I thought I lost you and Dad."

"I thought I'd lost you too, Al," Matthew replied, holding on to his brother like he would vanish it he let go. "I can't believe you're alive."

"Ma'ew, whistle chirp ack eek at?(Matthew, what are you doing here?)" Arthur asked.

"Chee at ack, (Looking for you)" Matthew replied and the rest of the Altheian royals turned to look at him.

"Matthew, can you understand Sir Artie's language?" Jason asked.

"Sir Artie!" Matthew said with a hint of mirth. "Yes, I can understand Mer. Arthur was asking why I was here."

"Mer?" Alfred asked. "What's Mer?"

"Arthur's a mer," Matthew replied. "And he speaks Mer."

"Arthur? Is that his actual name?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Matthew replied. "How did you meet him?"

"Arthur saved me from drowning," Alfred said and looked at his uncle and cousin. "I know it for a fact now, I heard him sing."

"You're the one Arthur saved!" Matthew gasped. Arthur said he had rescued the next King of Spades but if it was Al he pulled from the water, that meant..."Oh, this makes so much sense, us being twins and all but I thought you were dead so the possibility never occurred to me."

"Possibility of what, Matthew?" Alfred asked. "And who exactly is Artie and how did he become connected to you?" Matthew sighed.

"It's a long story, Al," he replied. "The truth is that Arthur is …..." Matthew was interrupted by a knock on the door. King Alex gave an exasperated huff and called 'Come in' and a butler entered.

"Whatever it is," King Alex said. "It will have to wait." The butler bowed in regret.

"My apologies, Your Majesty," he replied. "But we have a guest ….." The butler was suddenly knocked aside as Princess Erica swept into the room without waiting for an introduction.

"Prince Alfred!" she exclaimed when she saw him. "I made it here at last, now we can finally be married!" Everyone in the room watched with shock as Erica came forward to embrace Prince Alfred.

Please excuse any grammar mistakes, I kind of rushed proofreading this to get it out. I'll give another look later. For now, I'll start Chapter six and pray that I get it done for next Friday.

So with fingers crossed, till next week.

Hasta la Pasta!