HOWL

22

Life is the art of dying

- Atticus

Leondre dashed out of the room and the guard followed right behind him.
"Pass this order to the commander, tell him to surround the castle with as many guards as possible. No one enters and no one leaves" He ordered the guard who was right behind him,"Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes your grace" and with that the guard left to do as he had been ordered.

Leondre was scared, it was true that he didn't have a good relationship with his Father but that didn't mean that he would wish death upon him. This was clearly an assassination like they had done with his Mother and now it just happened to be his Father's turn.

He opened the door to his Father's room immediately to find the Royal physician already attending to the King with Reuel and Levi's Fathers present too.

"He collapsed during our meeting" Lord Magnus went up to Leondre, he had imagined how the prince would react when he gets the news and all scenarios that he had visualized didn't turn out good.

"This is clearly an assassination" Lord Cilian folded both hands as he watched the King.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would love to be alone with my Father now"

"Of course your grace" The two Lords bowed in unison and left the room. The royal physician was asked to stay since he was the one attending to the King.

"Alwyn, can you do something?"
Leondre regarded the royal physician who was by the King's side.

"My lord, the poison is spreading fast, his wolf is trying to keep him alive and it is only a matter of time before the wolf itself dies then he follows"

"What do we do?" Leondre was obviously in panic and he held onto his Father's hand and watched the old man silently fight for his life. He noticed the wrinkles that had appeared on his forehead as he fought for his life. His Father was obviously in pain and he could feel it, the poison was serving its purpose.

At Leondre's command, the castle was surrounded with guards and the action alone sprouted tension. The nobles began wondering what was happening for so many guards to be running round and taking positions at different places.

Out of the nobles that were present, Adeline and her Mother had heard the noise that was happening outside and they peeked out the window.

"What do you think is happening, Mother?"

"I don't know but whatever it is, it isn't good"

****

Leondre watched his Father calmly while so many thoughts ran inside his mind stealing away his peace. He hadn't slept a wink through out the night, he had been sitting and watching his Father who was close to his dying moments.

"Your grace" The physician snapped him out of the daze that he had entered and even though Leondre was well aware of the man's presence in the room he didn't acknowledge it.
It was irrelevant compared to what was before him, a moment that was happening all over again but this time around he had the chance to watch his Father die.