The Royal Mishap

Chapter Fourteen

"Nijel. Nijel!" Hazel yells excitedly, shaking me awake.

I open my eyes, and look up at Hazel, her eyes flashing with excitement and delight. I raise an eyebrow at her.

"You can see it now. You can see the tower. That's where she is, isn't she?" Hazel claps her hands together.

I immediately look ahead. A large seventy foot tower, with a large curved roof. It's of a peach color, and has bushes and vines around it.

"That's it. That's the tower." I nod, smiling ear-to-ear.

Edwin doesn't look half as amazed as us. He has no toothy grin, no wide smile, no present happiness for me. I don't take that to heart. He didn't like me very much after our fight, and I can understand that.

We still have a few yards ahead of us to go, but the excitement doesn't wear of just yet.

Without exchanging any words, we continue.

Bucephalus and Luna come to a stop a yard away from the tower. I get off promptly. I look at Hazel expectantly.

"I'm going to wait right here. Go get her." Hazel says.

I rush towards the gap between the bushes.

"Hold on." Edwin yells. "I'll come too. Just in case that dangerous life force thing is guarding it."

"So you don't think I can fight her off on my own?" I ask jokingly.

"I don't, infact."

I roll my eyes, and wait as he walks over.

There's a large lock. The princess must've had no way of getting out from the inside.

"A rock- we need a rock." I say, searching around in the bushes.

Edwin finds one and hands it to me. "Actually, I wanted to come with you and talk to you about something."

"Oh. About what?" I ask, hammering the rock into the lock. Oh, that rhymes.

"A who actually. About Hazel." He replies. I square my teeth and sigh.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"See the thing is," he pauses, the lock breaking in my palm, "I like Hazel. I think I'm in love with her."

What?

I knew it. I knew he likes her. And she likes him too. I always had my suspicions. But I never, ever, thought he would say that to me. Right to my face.

The funny thing is, he made me realize something. He made me realize how much I love her. That I can't let Hazel date or marry someone like him. I would never let someone as amazing as Hazel like a bloody snake like him. Never.

"So?" He asks me after a short pause as I step inside.

He steps in after me, and a long line of stairs await us. I begin climbing up as Edwin struggles to keep up behind me. "Answer me!"

I look back and give a small chuckle. "Here's the thing, bud. You think you're in love with her. I know I'm in love with her. That small difference changes everything."

He looks stunned. I see a twitch by his mouth. I knew he wouldn't expect me to have enough courage to tell him that to his face.

I continue walking.

"It's not like you can marry her anyway!" He yells. "You're just going to have to marry that hideous princess waiting for you."

"How do you know?!" I spit. "I'm going to go back. Become king. Marry her. And make you watch my happy life with her!"

"If you knew Hazel at all you would know that Hazel would hate to be locked in a castle all day without going out and about!"

"If you knew Hazel at all you would know she would much rather live with privileges than in the dump she previously lived at." I counter.

Edwin scoffs. "You're hopeless, Nijel. You know you won't ever marry her, but yet you like to go off with pointless arguments like these hoping go restore the faith in yourself that maybe one day you'll find someone amazing, like me, which is my Hazel."

I unsheath my sword slightly, "You forget I'm the one with the sword, not you. Mind your words."

"You'll kill me will you? You're a bloody wimp, you're a nobody, an absolute-"

I raise my sword and touch it to his Adam's apple. "Another word." I warned.

He glares at me. He gulps, pressing the sword away.

"I thought so." I smile to myself, knowing I won the argument.

We walk in silence for a couple of steps.

And then a few more.

And more.

Until it just feels like we're walking in circles over and over and over.

I know it isn't a circle, though, because they all have different cracks and sounds, creeks and floors.

As I walk, it comes to me that maybe I was a little too aggressive with Edwin. And probably not, at the same time, too. He shouldn't have said such things that he knew would make me furious. He shouldn't have directly said the he loves Hazel, when he knows I love her just as much, perhaps even more than him.

But he shouldn't have done anything indirectly either. He knows she's mine. She will always be mine. Forever, whether he likes it or not. He'll just have to get used to it. If he doesn't, then too bad.

And before I realize it, the door knob to the entrance of her room was already in front of me. I share a butter sideways glance with Edwin before exhaling deeply. I hold the door knob and turn the knob sideways hastily.

It doesn't work. It's stuck?

I try again, and even let Edwin try, but no luck.

I bang on the door. "Is anyone in there?"

I hear sobbing, growing louder and louder, as though it's approaching me. Until I hear a weak sound, "Please! Help me!"

"We'll get you right away!" I yell.

Another helpless sob, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my head hurts!"

We keep on pushing at the door, but nothing works.

The damsel sniffles and speaks again, "That won't work! I've tried, believe me. It's magic. That witch, she's put some spell on it." Her accent became a bit clearer, and I could recognize how French she sounded.

"Witch? Do you know how she did it? How to reverse the spell?"

"No! She did some sort of a chant. I don't remember it, or the gist of it. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She broke apart again, in another fit of apologies and tears.

Hey, hey, relax, I tell myself, you freaking out will only worsen her state, you need to get it together.

"Hey, hey, relax." I repeat at her. "My name is Nijel, and this is my fri- assistant, Edwin. Can I get your name?"

There was an awkward and long pause. "Sylvie. My name is Sylvie."