It took me a few moments to process the harrowing account I had just listened to. No wonder Prince Arthur had anxiety in crowds!
"Well I don't know about you, but to me that proves there's no demon living inside you. You have a perfectly reasonable explanation for not feeling comfortable in crowds!"
"It's of great comfort to me to hear you say that." He sighed, standing up slowly, "I simply wish I could convince everyone else of that too."
"I have confidence you'll be able to." I told him firmly, springing up from my seated position. "Your fear might not go away, but if you don't believe their accusations and you defend yourself adamantly, they will see!"
He nodded firmly, his eyebrows narrowing. "It is a good thing that I met you here today. It is comforting to have an ally that I can rely on."
I rested a hand on his shoulder tenderly and he turned to look at me with an expression of surprise and kinship. "Since loosing my memories, I too have felt lost a times. I also am pleased to have an ally nearby, and an ally that doubles as a friend at that."
A smile spread across his face; a wonderful, toothy grin that lit up his whole countenance and made him appear as an entirely different person. I smiled too, glad that I had succeeded in reassuring him.
"Oh!" Prince Arthur suddenly chirped, "Do you hear that?"
I listened carefully for anything out of the ordinary but all I could hear was the rushing of water and the chirping sounds of the forest . I shook my head, baffled.
Prince Arthur whipped his head from side to side, "I can hear the sound of an animal in distress."
A voice scoffed from behind us and we be both spun around in unison, remembering that Josiah had been standing there the whole time. He leaned against a tree rambunctiously, his arms crossed and his face amused.
"What are you smirking at?" Arthur chided, cocking a blonde brow.
Josiah sauntered forwards, biting his lip in concentration as he tried to pick up the sound that Prince Arthur had pointed out. "It's just very in your character, is all. It's like you have animal instincts."
I side-eyed Prince Arthur as Josiah searched his way down the streambed, slightly befuddled by his amusement. Prince Arthur blushed from next to me, and I struggled to ascertain whether he was amused or offended by the guard's colloquial teasing.
"I was right!" Josiah exclaimed from a few paces away, "An animal radar you must have. There's an otter tangled in some kind of material here."
Prince Arthur rushed forwards, ignoring Josiah's remark to run past him. I also prepared to make a move but found Josiah's words lodged in my head, paralysing my movement. He allowed Prince Arthur to tend to the animal as he came back to where I was frozen, mouth agape.
"What did you mean just then?" I asked, an edge of franticness creeping into my tone.
"Oh, Prince Arthur loves animals, he's hired me to personally guard his cats on multiple occasions."
"No, that's not what I meat. You said 'he's got 'animal radar'."
"He does." Josiah smiled.
"But 'radar', you shouldn't know what that means!" I shouted.
Josiah shrugged, "I simply do know."
"That's not possible-"
My indignant response was cut off as Prince Arthur returned with the slick-furred creature writhing about in his arms. It's tail flapped wildly as it's body spasmed in distress. It was caught up in what seemed to be a kind of white sheet curled up to look like a sack.
Ignoring the baffling conversation for a moment, I darted to help Prince Arthur let the creature free. We cautiously peeled back the tarp, opening up the wet fabric. As soon as the otter felt that it was no longer trapped, it scurried off into the distance, its flat tail flapping behind it as it plunged back into the water.
As soon as it left, I noticed other things curled up inside the tarp. I reached inside and pulled out a small wooden puppet, two dimensional, but very detailed in its carving. Obviously, it was of a dragon. I gasped as I pulled it out and Prince Arthur immediately leaned in to look too.
"This must have been what created the effect, our perpetrator probably projected the shadow of this puppet onto the tarp."
Prince Arthur nodded, "And maybe they used these as a light source behind it with the magnifying glass to intensify the light."
He held up a couple of the regular sized fire lilies, soggy and wilted from being thrown into the stream along with a thick, weighty magnifying glass.
"Wonderful!" I cheered, looking intensely at the evidence. "The craftmanship on this little dragon is beautiful, whoever devised such a scheme must be very intelligent and highly creative."
"But that still doesn't narrow down the suspects." The Prince frowned.
"Maybe not, but we can now prove for certain how the forgery was carried out, which can only help if you come to presenting the case to the people and the King." I shrugged, "Every detail is important when investigating a murder mystery." I said, waving my finger at him.
"So what do you think this is for then?" Price Arthur asked, moving back to the area where he had discovered the otter and pulling out a weighty metal disk attached to a string .
"Wow!" I exclaimed, "That's weird. I have no idea. How about we do a re-enactment?"
Prince Arthur sighed melodramatically, a smirk spreading across his lips.
🌿🌿
I laughed heartily as I heard screaming echoing from down the hill. I lay with my body low to the ground, holding the puppet in front of the light source created by the magnifying glass and the wilted fire lily that admittedly didn't produce a flame that bright anymore.
Prince Arthur and Josiah held the mangled sheet in the distance. The projection was blurry and poorly formed but it was there as proof it was possible to accomplish. There were a few factors that were off; the time of day, the weather, the damaged equipment, but overall the experiment was a success. There was just one thing missing... The fire.
I laughed harder as Freya came running to my side, her face flushed.
"Joan!" She exclaimed, slapping me on the back. "When I saw that shadow from through the trees I almost thought I'd been wrong about the dragon being a fake."
I smirked, looking up at her. "It's good isn't it? It's just missing the flames and burning people."
She looked at me with narrowed eyes, "That jest is in poor taste."
"I'm not really 'jesting' though, It's not really that impressive without fire is it? That string and plate might have something to..." I trailed off, my voice slowly fading away as I stared into the trees.
"What is it?" She asked, indignant, "It's the height of rudeness to stop in the middle of your sentence."
"That branch up there, the branch's bark has been stripped away in a vertical strip, can you see?"
"Yes, I see." She agreed, looking up into the trees.
"I get it!" I yelled, leaping to my feet. "The rope was passed over the tree branch with the heavy plate on the other side and then lowered onto the blub of the giant fire lily when the perpetrator wanted flames."
I scrambled around in the dirt around my feet, "Perhaps they tied it around one of these exposed tree roots when they wanted it to stay suspended while still having full use of their hands."
"That's brilliant." Freya said crouching alongside me.
"Thank you." I winked.
"I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the perpetrator's plan!" Freya protested.
"Ah, you're admiring the evil scheme. It is quite impressive."
At that the boys came rushing along. I gave Josiah a hard stare as he jogged over, his stupid ponytail bobbing and his dumb face as smug as it was handsome. There was something up with him, either it was a series of weird coincidences meant to annoy me or he had some kind of link to the future.
"Thank you, Joan, for today. It has been most helpful to me."
"Your welcome, your Highness. I hope that very shortly I'll be able to prove fully who the culprit is. I just ask for your absolute and undivided cooperation in the near future."
Prince Arthur shrunk backwards, "Why has her expression become untoward all of a sudden?"
Freya crossed her arms, "It's one of her new expressions that means she's up to no good."
🌿🌿
"Am I doing this right?" I asked nervously as the music trilled in my ears.
"You're posture is too loose, square your shoulders more and lift your chin up high. Look me in the eyes."
I tried my best to look Prince Arthur in the eyes instead of focusing on the weird and I'm sure unsightly movements my limbs were making. Thankfully, for the sake of my dignity, the hall was dimly lit with sconces of fire lilies and the room was packed with dancing, lively bodies.
Prince Arthur and I both happened to be a bundle of nerves this evening, our palms colliding in a sweaty squelch whenever the choreography called for it. Therefore, we both found comfort in each other's company. I especially appreciated his patient instruction with the dancing, for I had been ordered by my mother that on this special day I should not forsake the dance.
My sisters had tried to tutor me, but I found the information simply had not stuck by the time the festivities had begun.
"At some point I'm going to teach you real dancing." I scoffed.
"What we're doing right now is fake?" Prince Arthur's blue eyes widened.
"It's too regimented for my taste."
We spun past a pair who gave us a strange look as we passed.
"Well, I look forward to trying this 'free flowing' dancing you speak so highly of."
I stepped too close to another woman and I heard her laugh to her partner heartily after giving me an amused glance over.
"Oh no, people are laughing at me." I groaned, this was not going well.
"Everyone knows of you're predicament, I'm sure they're not laughing at you."
As we linked arms and trotted forwards, the couple opposite us giggled so unabashedly their faces turned crimson. I turned to look at Prince Arthur, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
"Fine, so they're finding you briefly amusing for tonight, I'm sure they'll forget in time."
"At least it'll provide a useful excuse when I disappear for a short while. You can tell everyone I was so mortified I fled to seek solitude."
"There, a silver lining." Arthur nodded as the music came to a stop.
Everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and lowered into a dignified bow or curtsey as the King and the Queen entered the room. They strolled in with an air of unmatched grace and prestige. The Queen's blonde eyelashes fluttered at her son as she passed by and once again I was struck by how alike she was in appearance to all of her children, it certainly could never be denied that she was their mother.
The stewards parted the crowds of people so an empty space could be created in the centre of the hall. I gazed over to Prince Arthur anxiously. I grabbed at his arm urgently.
"Remember what I said earlier, focus on deep breathing and if you feel paniced remember it will pass. Clench your buttocks if you feel faint and in the event you think a similar situation will happen as to what occured before, prostate yourself low as if your extremely humbled."
Prince Arthur nodded, his face peaky. Slowly he stepped out into the empty space, the eyes of the spectators following him as if he were magnetic. I could see his hands tremoring by his side; I swallowed hard, desperately not wanting another disaster for him although I knew it unrealistic to expect perfection from him.
The King lifted his hand, signifying everyone in the hall to be at ease. Everyone relaxed, but Prince Arthur stayed stooped over.
"My Lords, my Ladies, I'm sure you're all aware why I've gathered you here for this festive occasion today. For my Kingdom faced a great terror and an unimaginable threat that cannot be underestimated. And my son, who we've all wronged so gravely, including myself as this country's monarch - rescued us from it all with the blade of his sword. Risking his own life for our peace.
That is why on this day, I make a formal apology to him in front of my most trusted subjects. And, I want to announce that Prince Arthur, my son, will be my heir and this Kingdom's next king. The coronation and the ceremony shall not be delayed and the date shall be set for the near future but in the meantime-"
Prince Arthur dropped to the floor, prostrating himself low, his body shaking.
"I do not deserve it." He said, his voice trembling.
"My son, you deserve it more than anyone else!"