Chapter 14: Varian meets Xavier

"So your name is Varian?" Daniel asked.

"Aha!" he answered. "And your name is Daniel?"

"Prince Daniel, actually. And my dad is Prince Lars of Sourthern Ilses. That's far away from here. I've only been there once, but I don't remember. My mom said it was a dreadful place and she hated it."

Varian was a little struck by the realization that he was sitting next to a prince. "Well your Majesty..." he replied as politely as he could, and gave a slight bow from where he sat. "I hope you'll forgive me for now standing up and bow properly as I should, but I was strictly told by the doctor not to move." he grabbed his head gently. "And I think I'll pass out of I even try to get up."

"That's alright. But who are you, and where do you come from?" Daniel nevertheless demanded to know.

"Well Your Majesty..." he said, making a nod. " I'm an alchemist. From Old Corona. "

"Oh?" Daniel puzzled and arched an eyebrow at him. "What's... alachemie?"

"I think the real question is; how did you get in here, young man?"

The boy froze at the voice interrupting them. Varian turned to look at the physician, and arched an eyebrow at the other, bigger man beside him.

"I can't recall letting anyone in. It's running over with mysterious appearing boys here, or what Xavier?"

"It certainly does, old friend." the old blacksmith chuckled in the background.

"Now?" the old physician approached the red haired boy. "Care to tell me where you came from, and maybe who you are as well?"

The boy seemed a little uncomfortable by the presence of the old man, but then he suddenly straightened up and looked him straight in the eyes. "I am Prince Daniel, and my father and I are here from South Corona for a visit, just so you know!" he replied in a rather sassy tone, looking straight up at him with half closed eyes and his nose straight up.

Phineas seemed to realize the royal company. "Oh, from South Corona? I believe that you are related with the Duke of South Corona then?"

"That's my uncle Walponce!" Daniel said. "But uncle had to leave because a cat made him sneeze so much."

"Ah. That explains." He chuckled and turned towards Xavier again. "Was I right?"

"Why, seems like it." Xavier chuckled, making his whole body shake.

"Or my father actually said it was something else, he said it was a racking... or something like that. It was gray and had a striped tail."

"Do Your Majesty by any chance mean a raccoon?" Xavier said with half closed eyes squinting at him and an arched eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's what he said!" the boy jumped up.

"A raccoon in the Castle. Well well, what do you say to that?" Phineas said, stroking his beard.

"I actually have a raccoon back home." Varian said.

Both Phineas and Xavier looked at each other at this, but Daniel got excited. "You do? Maybe it was yours I found in the corridor. "

"I doubt it." Varian shook his head slightly. "Ruddiger don't like to leave home."

Suddenly, Phineas broke into laughter. "So Ruddiger is a raccoon? Well that I must say... I thought at first that he was a horse or perhaps a pony since you mentioned he was found of apples."

"What?!" This made Varian burst into laughter again. "You... you'll never see me on a horse. Never!"

"I must say, this is the most interesting day in a long time." Xavier said as he approached them. The blacksmith had kept a certain distance, but now he walked on the other side of the bed towards Varian, and grabbed the boy's gloved hand in his. "But anyway, sonny, it's nice to finally meet you."

"I'm sorry?" Varian asked as he let go of the huge man's hand. "Do we... know eachother?"

"We've met before. Long time ago. I doubt you recall, cause you were this tiny." Xavier held his hand towards the floor with tree feet's distance. "I think I gave you a pretty good scare at that time. I hope I don't have that effect on you now." the old blacksmith gave a wide smile and a look Varian wasn't able to read.

"Huh? No no, don't worry about that. Few things frighten me now."

"Except your own blood." Daniel said with arms crossed.

"Eh..." Varian felt he blushed again as the grownups begun laughing, and begun to rub a finger underneath his nose, a thing he did whenever he felt embarrassed.

"You two are dressed almost the same!" Daniel concluded as he spotted Xavier's huge leather apron and pointed at them in turn. "Are you an alakemist too?" he asked.

"Ah..." Xavier were a bit startled by the question when Varian helped him understand.

"He means alchemist."

"Ah! No sonny, I am a blacksmith. I make shoes for horses and other things of iron."

"Wow! Can you show me?" Daniel asked with big eyes.

"If I get the chance, I will!" the blacksmith said. "I come here to the castle every thrird month to change the horses' shoes. I bet I get a chance to show you."

"But I still don't understand..." Varian started again, but Xavier interrupted him. "I have a feeling of seeing you before somewhere."

"All in time, sonny. All in time. Hmm..." he closed in and picked up the goggles with the broken glass. "Hmm... Those were not in a good condition at all."

"Hm... Dad is gonna curse me for breaking them like that. Or even worse..." Varian said upset. "Darn, now he has an excuse for forbidding me to do my experiments."

"Well, he doesn't have to know, does he?" Xavier got a sneaky smile on his face as he carefully folded them and put them into pocket of his apron. "Let me fix them up for you, sonny, and we don't have to let your daddy know."

Varian's face broke up in a moved smile. "Wow... Will you do that? I don't know how I..."

"Don't think of it, sonny. Right now I leave you with my good friend Phineas here, while I go and unload the wagon before the guards has me thrown out for illegal parking."

"I hope you don't mind that I stay behind here." the old physician said. "I am not finished with our young friend here."

"No problem." the blacksmith said. Then he turned to Varian. "Take care then. And..." he made a deep bow in the door. "Till we meet again, young Majesty!"

Daniel's face broke up in a wide smile by the recognition of his title.

"Young Prince..." Phineas said and kneeled down to Daniel's level. "I need to study how damaged Varian's head is. Do you think you can help me here? I'm quite sure such a bright young boy like you can manage that?"

Daniel was happy for being appreciated, and smiled at the physician. "Sure. What do I do?"

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Out in the corridor, the two princes walked through the corridors when they spotted a gurd running past them. "Say, it it just me, or is it something odd going on?" Jonas asked looking after him. "Nigel was kind of peculiar too, and His Majesty as well."

"Hm, hard to say..." Lars scratched his beard. "I guess we..." He stopped himself when they heard sound of Princess Annabelle i the distance.

They met Annabelle and the Queen around next corner. Annabelle was chatting loudly about how she wanted her wedding gown in the newest fashion with these wide skirts and double layers of ruffles.

"I want it to go just as wide as this..." she held out her hands as far as almost eight feet, and Arianna widened her eyes and covered her mouth by the description of how wide it would go. "And then I thought... " She stopped herself when she spotted the brothers approaching. "There you are! What took you so long?"

"I'm afraid it was my fault." Jonas said as he approached her, grabbing her hands and raised one of them to kiss it. "I begun talking with my brother about the wedding, and we forgot the time. I hope I didn't keep you waiting?"

Jonas' huge green eyes made Annabelle smile back. "No no, it's alright." Then she turned towards Arianna, smiling like a thousand suns. "Auntie, this is my fiancé, Jonas!"she said with proud in her voice.

"Your Majesty!" Jonas made a deep bow as he took the hand Arianna was holding out, kissing it gently.

Arianna couldn't help but smile when she saw how pretty he was. When he rose up again, he exposed to be rather tall, the same as his brother, and about the same width. He had a long face with a matching, long well shaped narrow nose, fair skin and a light dust of freckles on his cheeks. His bright red hair was tied into a tight ponytail in a blue ribbon on the back of his head with a split on the middle, and his well trimmed, long grown sideburns framed his face on both sides and were hanging a little underneath his ears. Not to mention a pair of dreamy green eyes and a acuminating smile, gave him the appearance of the perfect gentleman. He wore the same kind fashion as his brother, the blue uniform like jacket with buttons on both sides and, only his were of silver, and the gray pants were a bit simpler; where his brother had two black lines down the leg of the dark blue pants, his had some, and he had taller boots as well without any buckle, only buttons at one side. He could very well be a dashing prince dragged out of a fairytale book.

Even Rapunzel would have been fascinated by this man, Arianna thought to herself. A good thing neither she or Eugene isn't here now. He would have been disturbed and felt rather threatened by this one's appearance. Even though the former thief were rather proud of his looks, she knew it was only a shell to hide how insecure he really was. This was a similar trait she had seen in Fredric many years ago, and the reason for why she had fallen for him.

"How nice to meet you at last. I have been so curios, and I look forward to hear all about you." She turned to Lars, who bowed just as deep to her. But then she looked around. "But... isn't your father present, Annabelle?"

"He had to leave because of a sudden allergy attack." she sighed, all joy fading from her face and were replaced with an up given frown and she crossed her arms. "It's so unfair!"

"Oh dear! I... I hope he'll be alright."Arianna said, folding her hands.

"He will manage, but I think it was for the best that he took his leave." Lars explained. "Besides, he had business to take care of, so he wasn't planning to stay."

"I wonder though..." Jonas said chuckling. "...how much sneezing a simple raccoon could cause!"

Arianna felt how all color faded from her face and she really had to gather herself to not fall apart. "A...a...a r-rac-coon... you said...?" she cursed herself for trembling while speaking.

"I know, it was awful." Annabelle said. "Auntie, you really need to give those guards a lecture. To let such wild beasts into the Castle..."

"Hehe... You're absolutely right." Arianna cleared her throat. "I will make sure that does not happen again. But..." she turned to Lars. "Prince Lars, I was told you brought your son along? Where is young Daniel?"

"Right... That's what I would like to know as well." Lars' eyebrows frowned at Annabelle. "WHERE is my SON?!"

Annabelle just huffed. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Annabelle...!" Lars' mouth fell open and he stuttered like he was about to get choked. "You were supposed to look after him."

"Really uncle, you never said that." she replied absentminded and looked away with half closed eyes. "He was told to stay with me, so it's his own fault if he has disobeyed."

"For goodness sake, lass!" Lars rolled his eyes and bit his teeth together in frustration. "He's your cousin..."

"And does that make me his wet nurse?" she turned to him, getting angry. "It's your own fault, you're spoiling him!"

"Oh, you're the one to speak!" Lars replied chilly.

"Why you...!" Annabelle never managed to finish off her respond and Jonas spoke up, interfering their argument.

"Your Majesty? Is everything alright?"

Lars and Annabelle both looked at Jonas, who were looking concerned at Arianna. When they turned to face her, they saw that the Queen had gotten pale with a frightened look in her wide green eyes.

"Your Majesty?"

"Auntie?"

Their voices brought her back from her state, and she looked at them in turn. Then she chuckled lightly. "Forgive me, I... I am not being myself at days." She folded her hands and forced a smile. "Should we not... go and find young Daniel then? I want to see how much he's grown."

"I believe your Majesty is right. We better find him. Fast." Lars said as he offered the Queen his arm. As Arianna let her own arm slide around his, he looked back at Annabelle, giving her an angry glare, silently telling her that he was far from done with her.

Annabelle only rolled her eyes in reply.

"Let's be off, then..." Arianna said, letting herself be supported by Lars' steady figure as she was rather dizzy, and started to walk back to where they had come from. She tried her best to appear normal, but inside her she was ten times troubled than she had been already.

Little Daniel on his own in the castle, along with a dangerous Varian on the loose, both anywhere in the many corridors. The thought was almost too much for the Queen to handle. If the situation wasn't already out of control, it sure was now.