Chapter 3

"King Herbert and his Son"

While Calla and Gregor departed Dunwyn for the wedding, Prince Herbert of Swamp Castle sat in his room in the tall tower dreading the forced vows that he would be forced to say in the arranged situation that he was in. Unlike Prince Herbert, King Herbert was eager to see his son married and was going to stop at nothing to achieve this goal.

"One day lad," he said, showing Herbert all of the land he would one day inherit from him. "All this will be yours."

"What, the curtains?" asked Prince Herbert, being completely oblivious to what his father was trying to show him.

"No, not the curtains, lad," rebuffed King Herbert, briefly hitting his son in the back of the head in an effort to get him to see sense to what he was trying to say. "All that you can see stretched out over the hills and valleys of this land. This will be your kingdom, lad."

However, Prince Herbert chose not to listen and instead try and weasel his way out of this situation. Unlike his father, Herbert had other ambitions that he wanted to pursue.

"But father," cried Herbert. "I don't want any of that."

Knowing that his son was going to try anything to get out of this planned marriage, King Herbert resorted to how he became king in the first place.

"All right, then listen lad," he explained, pacing back and forth as he spoke. "I've built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was here was swamp. My father and your grandfather said it was daft to build a kingdom on a swamp. But I built it all the same just to show them. It sank into the swamps, so I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one that burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp. But, the fourth one stayed up and that is what you are going to get lad: the strongest castle in these isles."

"But I don't want any of that," answered Prince Herbert, clearly not on the same page. "I'd rather…"

"Rather what?" huffed King Herbert, disgusted that his motivational speech for his son fell on deaf ears.

"I'd rather just sing…" replied Prince Herbert, stretching his arms out towards the boundaries beyond the Swamp kingdom.

As he spoke, random music began to play and King Herbert, a dislike of music, ran out in front of his song to stop the music.

"Stop that, stop that," he cried, waving his arms out, before grabbing Prince Herbert and pulling him to his face. "You are not going into a song while I'm in here. Now listen lad, in two hours you are getting married to a girl whose father owns the biggest tracts of open land in Britain."

"But, I don't want land," replied Herbert, meekly. But, King Herbert was not convinced in any way. No matter what his son said was going to change his mind.

"Listen, Herbert," remarked King Herbert. "We live on a bloody swamp! We need all the land we can get!"

"But, I don't like her."

"Don't like her?" cried King Herbert, walking away from his son for a moment. "What's wrong with her? She's beautiful, she's rich, and she's got huge…tracts of land."

"I know, but I want the girl that I marry to have…a certain special something."

As Prince Herbert replied, the music began playing once again and at this point, King Herbert began to lose his patience with his son.

"Cut that out! Cut that out!" he cried, waving his arms out once again before grabbing Prince Herbert once again by the scruff of his shirt bringing him to his face. "Look, you're marrying Princess Lucky, so you'd better get used to the idea!"

To make sure that his point came across, King Herbert slapped his son with the back of his hand before turning his attention over to the guards.

"Guards!" he shouted, walking over to them. "Make sure the prince doesn't leave this room until I come and get him."

The guards saluted King Herbert with those orders, but Prince Herbert continued to protest.

"But, father…" he said and to King Herbert, the time for listening to his son whining about being married against his will was over.

"Shut your noise, you," ordered King Herbert, pointing to a really ridiculous tunic and feather two-cornered hat that Prince Herbert would have to wear at the ceremony. "And get that suit on!"

Having no choice but to accept his fate, Prince Herbert sat back down at the window and looked out over the horizon as the random music began playing again, catching King Herbert's attention.

"And no singing!" he ordered as one of the guards hiccupped. "Oh, go and get a glass of water."

Soon, King Herbert left his son alone to his fate. But, Prince Herbert was going to find another way to get out of the situation he was in. All he could do was think about it for a while.

Meanwhile, King Gregor and Princess Calla's coach arrived at the gates of Swamp Castle and were allowed into the courtyard. Calla was surprised at the fact that a place so foul and disgusting would clean up so nicely.

"I must say that King Herbert really made it clear that this was a wedding," chuckled King Gregor as the carriage stopped. "This is to be a historic day for this kingdom, Calla."

"Indeed," she replied as two footmen opened the doors of the carriage. "I could only imagine how Prince Herbert must feel right now."

But, Calla's mind was not just focused on the wedding, but also on the large trunk above their carriage containing the wedding gifts for Prince Herbert and his new bride. Inside the trunk was Sunni, hoping that she wouldn't be exposed for any random humans to see.

"I just hope Sunni is okay in there," she thought to herself as the footmen grabbed the trunk and pulled it off the carriage. But, before Calla could worry any further about Sunni, King Herbert emerged into the courtyard and walked over to greet Gregor and Calla.

"Ah, King Gregor," laughed King Herbert, hugging his friend. "I'm so glad that you could make it to my son's wedding."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world, Herbert," replied Gregor as they broke apart. "Today is certainly a historic day for your kingdom if I do say so myself."

"And this must be the beautiful Princess Calla," remarked King Herbert, taking hold of Calla's right hand and kissing it. "You sure have grown into a lovely young woman."

Calla didn't whether to swoon or regress her feelings towards the king of Swamp Castle. But, out of respect for her father, she simply smiled and nodded in politely.

"Thanks for the compliment, King Herbert," chuckled Calla, nervously. "Charmed, I'm sure."

"Indeed you are, then," said King Herbert. "Now, if you will just follow me, we have so much to catch up on, old friend."

Normally, Calla would either accompany her father or be under personal guard in case of any danger. But, since Calla proved at the Squire's tournament that she needed no protection, Gregor allowed her to go around the kingdom as she pleased.

"We will be in the main hall if you need us, Calla," said Gregor.

"Thank you, father," replied Calla as she waved at the two kings. Once the two kings were gone, Calla went off in search of Sunni, who was still in the trunk containing the wedding gifts from Dunwyn.

"Hey, watch it!" cried Sunni as she bounced up and down inside the trunk. "Can't you see that I'm…?"

But, before Sunni could say anything else, the two footmen roughly dropped the chest down, ending Sunni's rough ride in the chest.

"Glad that is over," groaned Sunni. "Now, if only I could get out of this cramped compartment."

Luckily for Sunni at that moment, Calla emerged into the main hall and discovered the chest. There wasn't a whole lot of people, so Calla could easily get Sunni out without attracting the attention of anyone. Acting hastily, Calla hiked the white skirt of her dress and quickly opened the trunk and wrapped Sunni in a dark green shawl to hide her from the view of the other people in sight.

"Are you all right, Sunni?" cried Calla as she carried Sunni into a closet and removed the shawl covering Sunni. "Sorry about that."

"Well, it's much better than being discovered by anyone other than yourself, Calla," replied Sunni, straightening her dress out. "Didn't you wanted to tell me about something concerning the wedding?"

"Yes," whispered Calla. "Prince Herbert is being married against his will in order to get land and we have to convince him not to go through with this."

"How do you suppose we do that?" wondered Sunni.

Calla wasn't sure, but all that mattered was that her friend needed her support. Seeing a small matching dark green shawl that both matched Sunni's dress and was her size, she picked it up and Sunni wrapped it around her body to conceal her identity.

"Just follow me," replied Calla and the two lifelong friends went out in search of Prince Herbert's room…