The King's Servants

Chapter 16

The next morning, the sun's rays traversed through the glass of the king's window, laying their bright light on the occupants of the table just beside the window. The bright light shone on William's face, causing his eyelids to shine orange against his eyes. The strange sight caused him to wake up and blink his eyes at the extreme brightness.

He sat up, immediately escaping the harsh lighting. He noticed that his bed seemed a lot softer than usual and that he had never woken up to such brightness in his life. "Since when was there so much light in our room? Is there a hole in the wall or something?" grumbled the young man as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Once his vision was clear, he looked ahead, expecting to see the rust on the back of the hatch door that led to their room. What he actually saw was an absolute surprise. He saw what looked like King Baritorin's chambers, just from the other side of the room. He was taking in the unfamiliar area, trying to understand what had happened and how he had ended up in such a place, when he caught the gaze of a ginormous set of blue eyes looking straight at him.

"Confused, aren't we William?" asked Baritorin, an amused smirk on his face. William blushed, realising that he had been staring for so long and that the king had been watching him the whole time.

"Don't be ashamed my dear boy", said Baritorin as he rose from his bed, "I would have been shocked if you weren't surprised to wake up in my room, as you have never slept here before".

"I guess so", replied William, still somewhat red in the face from the strange encounter. Baritorin had spoken in his normal thunderous voice and this succeeded in waking all the other kids up.

"What is that awfully loud noise?" asked Camilla, clearly irritated by the rude awakening. She opened her eyes to see King Baritorin looking down at her, with a playful smile on his face. It seemed that Camilla was not a morning person.

"I'm sorry Camilla. I didn't mean to wake you from your slumber. I was just addressing William here". His response made Camilla realise that she had just called the king's voice a loud noise. It was her turn to blush now. Baritorin immediately assured her that he was not upset by her little complaint, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

"So, I guess we must have all fallen asleep in the basket on the way home, right sire?" asked Thomas, processing the situation which could have led to them being in the king's room.

"That's exactly the case, Thomas. Now, as much as I know that you love looking at my beautiful face, you need to go and wash up. You played outside for very long and a good bath is needed", said Baritorin as he set his hands down for the kids to climb on.

The six teens pushed the sash blanket off of themselves, wore their shoes and proceeded to climb onto the living, fleshy platform that had been provided for them. A bath actually sounded like a good idea.

Once everyone was comfortably seated in his hands, he carefully lifted his hands off of the table and slowly walked over to the other side of his room to deposit them gently onto the ledge that led to their little door. Once he put them down, they all bade him goodbye for the meantime, except for Jack who stayed on the ledge even after his siblings had left.

"Just wanted to say a big thank you to you sire. Thank you for taking such good care of us", said the young human with sincerity.

"No problem Jack. Promise me that when you're done cleaning up that you will bring me the portrait that you painted of me".

"Of course, anything you want Father", said Jack, a small smile on his little face. He hadn't realised that he had referred to king Baritorin as father.