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Chapter Three: The Boy From The North

Kori's POV

I walk along the garden of the court yard, enjoying the sound of the birds chirping and the warm sun shining down on me. I am thankful to have a little time to myself. It is only day four of the courting ceremony, but I am already thoroughly exhausted by the constant attention. I have not seen Sir Grayson since the feast, but I often find myself thinking of him. Though I could not possibly admit it aloud, when I venture out of my bed chamber sometimes, it is for no other reason than the hope of running into him.

I have even spent a fair amount of time around Lord Damian Wayne in hopes that Sir Grayson may be there as well, but he has been vacant as of yet. I know it is wrong to use the young Lord, who seems like a very kind person, in order to fulfill my desires of seeing the hansom knight, but I cannot help it. I am just drawn to him in a way that I can not begin to explain.

I am rounding the corner of the courtyard, which I often walk around five or six times in a row before returning inside, but I am so lost in my thoughts of the Black Wolf of Gotham that I do not even notice one of my suitors standing right beside the giant rose bush to my side and walk right past him.

"Princess," his voice beacons from behind.

Pausing in my tracks, I turn to find Lord Roy Harper, nephew of Lord Oliver Queen, standing there, smiling charmingly at me. "Oh, hello, my Lord. I apologize. I did not see you there."

"It's fine Princess. I'm sure you must have a lot on your mind with all of this happening," he replies understandingly. "May I walk with you?" he asks, offering me his arm.

It is a kind gesture and Lord Harper is far from the worst of my suitors, him being quite attracting and seemingly kind, so I see no harm in it. "Of course," I answer with a smile, allowing him to take my arm.

We walk in silence for a moment before he looks over at me. "You look quite beautiful today, Princess."

I glance down at the simple purple dress that I am wearing. There is no event scheduled for today, so I saw no need to dress up fully as I have the last few days, but I appreciate his compliment still. "Thank you, my Lord. That is very sweet of you."

"So, I must ask Princess, who is your favored suitor so far?" he questions.

I clearly cannot say what I wish to, so I must come up with a more... diplomatic answer to give, or as my Uncle would say, bullshit. "Well, I have not..." I pause when I hear a familiar voice nearby and I look slightly ahead to find Sir Grayson standing under the over hang of the balcony, surrounding by at least twenty guards, and judging by the way his animated hands are moving and the way the guards are all laughing hysterically, it appears he is telling them some form of story. Of course I would find him with the soldiers rather than the nobles. He clearly fits in so much better here.

I pause and turn to Lord Harper. "It was lovely speaking with you, but I have something I must attend to." I do not even know if that counts as a conversation, but I must see Sir Grasyon.

He nods with a slight frown. "Maybe some other time then."

"Of course," I answer with a friendly smile before hurriedly walking off to where the guards stand. One of them notices me coming and his laughter stifles, the smile immediately disappearing from his face. He straightens his back and stiffens his arms at his side, going to the position of attention. "Men, attention!"

All of them copy his motion immediately, except for Sir Grayson, who turns to find me approaching. A slight smile crosses his face and he bows. "Ahh, Princess. We weren't expecting you. I was just telling your men here some old war stories."

I cannot help but smile widely at him. "I did not mean to disturb your fun. I was just hoping to speak with you in private for awhile."

He nods before turning back to the royal guards. "You heard your Princess. Go guard something!" he mock orders.

"Yes, my Lord," one screams before they all begin to scurry off.

"If you call me a lord one more time, Randar, I'm will slit your throat," Sir Grayson calls after him, to which he just glances back with a smile as he keeps running.

I giggle at the antics before I address him. "You know the names of my men?"

He turns back to me with a smirk. "Oh yeah, I been hanging out with these guys for a couple days now. Even went on a patrol or two with them. I'm practically an honorary Tameranian guard now."

I can't help but to continue to laugh at him, it coming from a mixture of nervousness and the fact that he is actually quite funny. "Well, I feel very safe knowing that." I pause, beginning to feel butterflies in my stomach. "I was just curious, if you have the time I mean, if we could do something."

"I always have time for you Princess," Sir Grayson replies and I feel my heart begin to pound like war drums in my chest. He then looks around, apparently examining everything in his presence. "Although, I do not know what we could do at the castle. Things are fairly... slow around here."

"Well, I am not allowed to leave without royal guards to accompany me. Perhaps I can...," I begin before he interjects.

"Good thing I am an honorary royal guard then. Come, let me take you to my horse," he instructs, offering me his hand.

I know if my father discovered I left the castle's grounds with only one guard, and that guard wasn't even Tameranian, he would be really upset with me. I myself know that it is dangerous. There are probably countless individuals beyond the walls of the castle that would love to get their hands on me, either to hold me for ransom or... worse things. In truth, I just met Sir Grayson himself, and know nearly nothing about him besides the things that I have heard. For all I know, he could be just trying to get me outside of the castle to abduct me and help his father seize the throne... but... I don't think that is the case in the least. It's quite odd, but I trust him. Genuinely trust him.

With no hesitation, I take his hand.

Dick's POV

We ride through the city streets of the Tameranian capital, me on front of the horse, controlling it's movements, and Princess Koriand'r hanging onto my waste as if her life depends on it. Apparently she has never rode a horse before because she is clearly frightened of falling off, so I am taking it much slower than I normally would.

I like the Princess. She is different that I would have imagined. Most nobles I know, male or female, are stuck up and believe everything she be given to them, but not her. She is surprisingly down to Earth, a very refreshing quality. As we slowly make our way down the city streets, I notice all the eyes looking us over. I'm mostly looking for any suspicious activity or attempted assaults, but I'm also just trying to take in a little bit of the culture here because the odds are once I return to Gotham in a couple of weeks, I'll never return here. I do have an army to lead back home after all, and that is quite time consuming.

She is quiet so I turn to glance at her over my shoulder. "Are you okay, Princess?"

She looks up at me and offers a slight smile. "Oh, yes, Sir Grasyon. Just a little sick at my stomach is all. I never learned to ride a horse."

I laugh at her. "Well, perhaps I can teach you before I leave."

I see her eyes become distant and she looks away from me. "Perhaps."

I know she has become fond of me for whatever reason. I am not naive of that, and in all truth, I am quite fond of her as well. She is... beautiful and kind and everything a man could want in a woman... but that is why me leaving soon is for the best. If I were to develop some form of... attachment to this girl, I mean the Princess, then it would end badly for me obviously.

Seeing that she is clearly sad, or at east in deep thought, I attempt to change the subject. "Princess, what is that building?" I point to the biggest building I've seen in the city besides the castle itself.

"Oh, that is the temple of X'hal," she replies.

"X'hal?" I inquire.

"Yes," she nods. "Tameranians worship the Goddess, X'hal. We believe she is the bringer of light and all things good and just in the world."

I nod. "I see." I am about to question her further on it, but before I can, I notice a disturbance just up ahead. Three much larger teenagers have a smaller one pinned against the wall of a brick building and are raiding his pockets for coins. The smaller boy is clearly homeless, judging by his torn brown clothes, which is truly sad because he can be no more than thirteen.

One of the boys grabs him by his throat and issues a threat that I am too far away to here, but regardless, I will not stand for this. "Hold on Princess, I have something to take care of."

"What do you yeeeeeeep!" She screams and clinches to me for dear life as my horse begins to gallop toward the boys, before coming to an easy stop just behind them, they still clearly unaware of our presence.

"Do you enjoy picking on smaller children?" I question as I dismount my horse so that I am towering over them, my black armor shining in the light of the sun.

The bigger boys turn to see me standing there and their faces become as pale as ghosts, but they are even more shocked to find the Princess sitting on the horse just behind me. They stay speechless, their eyes wide in terror. I glance back at Koriand'r. "Princess, these boys were attacking the smaller one, attempting to steal his money. What is the punishment here for such a crime?"

She seems to get the sense that I am attempting to frighten them and instantly plays along. "For thievery? I am afraid you must cut off their hands, Sir Grayson.

I nod at her. "Very well," I reply drawing my sword.

"No! Please don't!" one of the boys beg, falling to his knees, the other two following suit.

"Spare us and we will never do it again! I swear!" another one adds.

"Hm, it's up to the Princess," I tell them before turning to her.

She glares down at them, a surprising fire in her eyes. "...Sir Grayson will pardon you in the name of X'hal this time. There will be no such luck on the next occasion."

"Thank you for your mercy, Princess," says one of the boys as they all stand and bow.

"Leave here now," I command and they nod before quickly sprinting off, thrilled to just have their lives even though they were never truly in danger. I then turn my attention to the boy, who is standing against the wall, looking on timidly at us. He has brown hair and pale skin, clearly from northern decent rather than here.

I place my sword back in its holder to show I mean no harm, then I approach. "Are you okay?"

He swallows hard before nodding. His eyes then grow wide and he stands up straight. "I mean yes, my Lord. Princess," he says quickly, bowing to us.

"I am no Lord. My name is Sir Grayson. I am the knight commander of Gotham, and of course this is Princess Koriand'r of Tameran, future ruler of all nine kingdoms."

"Hello," she greets him with a friendly smile and wave

"The only real question is, who are you?" I ask.

"Um, I'm nobody. ...I mean, I have a name. It's Garfield Logan... but I like to be called Gar... Sir..." he studders, still looking like a wide eye doe.

"I see, Gar. Where are your parents?" I question.

His eyes fall to the ground. "...Dead, Sir. They were here leading an expedition in the Tameranian jungle looking for plants to make new medicines, but they came down with some virus and it killed them both. That was two years ago."

I see the boy's pain in his eyes. I recognize it quite well. It's the same one I saw in my own for so long. "You're telling me that you have been living on the streets for two years?" I continue to interrogate.

He nods solemnly. "Yes, Sir."

I can't and won't let this boy suffer alone any further. "Gar, do you know what a squire is?"

He slowly shakes his head no.

Didn't think so. I continue to explain. "A squire is a teenage boy, who assists a knight on whatever he needs to get done, rather it be delivering messages for him, cleaning his horse, or taking down notes for him and in return the squire will have food to eat, water to drink, a place to sleep, as well as learn the skills to become a knight himself one day, such as riding a horse and swordsmanship. I currently happen to be in the need of squire, and I think you're just the man for the job."

"...I ... Sir, I ...I would love to assist you," he answers clearly stunned.

I nod. "Very well. You will accompany myself and the Princess back to the castle. There we will get you a bath and find you some food to eat. Sound good?"

"Yes, sir Grayson."

With that, I begin to lead the horse back toward the castle, Gar walking along side me. I am glad I helped him. Maybe I can save him from becoming like me. Empty.

Kori's POV

I sit on the edge of the bed in Sir Grayson's room, watching as he takes off his armor, while Gar is getting himself situated in a nearby room as he preps for bed. Sir Grayson removes his breast plate and arm guards, placing them on the far table before removing all the armor from his legs as well. He then takes off his damp shirt and tosses it to the side, revealing to me his perfect, rock solid muscles, which glisten from the little beads of sweat dripping down them. It is exactly how I imagined his body would look, and trust me, I imagined it. ...numerous times. Despite the fact that he is clearly perfect in every way, there is one detail about his form that I was not expecting.

On the right side of his chest, there is a scar. It's not too large, but it is clear that it is from a blade. I stand from the bed and slowly approach him. "Sir Grayson... I mean, Dick. This scar," I begin, softly running my hands across it, feeling the muscles in his chest as I do. "How did you get it?"

He stares down at me, his eyes meeting mine, and I just cannot get my mind off of how much I... I should not even say. "The night of the siege, a sword pierced my armor. Any deeper than it was and I would have died."

I place my hand flatly on his chest. "Well, I must thank X'hal for saving you then," I say softly.

"Why is that?" he asks in a similar tone.

"Because... meeting you has been everything I wish it would be with my suitors, and more," I admit.

He says nothing, but I feel one of his arms inch it's way around my back and somehow I find my body pressed against his, my every curve fitting against him perfectly. My heart is pounding in my chest, my mind racing, but I can't comprehend in a single thought. It is just too jumbled. All I am able to do is just stare at him, his eyes, his lips. Oh how badly I want his lips to mine.

This urge, this wanting I have for him, I can no longer control it. If this was not X'hal's will then she'd give me the strength to fight this, but I have no strength, and no will to fight any longer. Without a second thought, I stand on the tips of my toes and press my lips to his, and to my utter delight, he passionately kisses me back before lifting me into the air with his inhuman strength and carrying me over to the bed where he lays me down before situating himself on top of me.

The kissing continues, and my body is practically screaming for him as his hands run under my dress, caressing my sides and my breasts, causing my back to arch, my hips pressing against his in extreme lust. I can't take this any longer. I want him and I cannot fight it. "Dick," I whisper, out of breath.

"Yes?" he answers while kissing my neck and collarbone.

"Take me," I plead.

He raises up and stares down at me. "Whatever you wish, Princess."

Not long after my dress, as well, as his pants found there way to the floor.

Lust got the better of them, but what will be the consequences? I like this chapter. How about you guys? Review