Horns sounded from the palace, and soon, along came the palace messengers going around the kingdom to announce the king's return. One such messenger passes through the market, giving announcements and having them posted on the walls, and as soon as the messenger had left, Peter looks towards his companions with a proud smile.
"Now, what did I say? I said he'd be back, didn't I?"
Felix only looks at him with his eyes still wide. But a few seconds later, and his eyes narrow in suspicion as he stares at Peter with his hands on his hips. "Well... What have you done again this time?"
"What?! What do you mean? What did I do?!" Peter asks defensively as he raises his hands.
"Well, it's just that, everytime you disappear, something always happens."
"What?! That doesn't even make any sense!"
"Oh, really now?" Felix asks, now looking at Peter with an accusing gaze. "Well, what about that one time you disappeared and came back with many merchants?"
"That was only a chance encounter. I only got lucky."
"And the time you were brought to Christopher's house by royal knights the night before the king passed a law that people from the market place need not pay taxes?"
"Oh, come on, now, Felix! You know I'm friends with the king!"
"So you asked him to pass that law?!" Felix asks, his eyes wide in disbelief. But Peter shakes his head.
"No! That was merely a coincidence."
"Then what business did those knights have escorting you?!"
Peter opens his mouth to respond, but nothing comes out. Instead, a frown forms on his face, and one that makes him look very confused.
"Well?"
"'Well', that doesn't prove anything!" Peter responds. "I just got lucky, I guess."
"Then who is that?!" This time, Felix gestures to Lucy standing innocently behind Peter, Lucy of which raises her brows attentively upon noticing Felix's gestures.
"Oh, this?" Peter replies, turning briefly towards Lucy before turning back to Felix and gesturing to her as well. "This is just my long lost sister."
"P-pardon?" Once again, Felix's eyes are wide as he looks towards Lucy. He could not believe what he was hearing. Since when exactly did Peter even even possibly have a sibling. "Now, wait a minute–"
"Shh!"
Felix is stopped, and only by Christopher who had shushed them both and looked up, towards the sky as if waiting for something, listening for something that could possibly be.
"... Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Felix and Peter ask simultaneously. Once again, Christopher shushes them briefly, and both younger men listen finally. And there, they heard it. The sound of several hooves clacking against the cobblestones.
Another horn sounded, but this time, it seems to come from somewhere much closer.
"Messengers from the palace!" Peter exclaims, as his eyes light up, and he tilts his head to face towards where the horn must have come from. Soon, men on horses arrive, but they weren't just men. Some of them were even knights on foot, and it would not take long before they stopped in the middle of the market, scanning the place.
"But... what are they doing here?" Felix asks, confused.
"Hmm... I think I might know why," Christopher responds, before he turns to Peter with a playful glint and a slight roll of his eyes. "Peter? I believe the king wants you in his palace again... And I believe that includes your long-lost sister?"
Peter raises his eyebrows, and Felix's eyes widen yet again, before he directs his gaze to a nervously laughing Peter.
"Well, I guess His Majesty just misses me a lot," Peter teases, before he quickly avoids Felix's annoyed attack, soon pulling Lucy behind him and revealing himself to the knights and messengers and greeting them ever so casually.
Meanwhile, Christopher and Felix watch him in disbelief, yet somehow still not so surprised by their friend's casualness as he approached the workers from the palace. After all, that was how Peter always was. Almost as if, he came from a different world.
"Is that how orphans usually are? Unafraid of... anything?" Felix asks, brows still furrowed and eyes still shocked as he eyed Peter so easily teasing one of the scary-looking knights.
"No, I believe, that's just Peter," Christopher replies back, almost as if holding back a laugh.
Soon, the party picks Peter and Lucy up before they depart for the palace, and Christopher stands straight to pat a still-surprised Felix on the back.
"Alright! Time to work. I'm sure we will be seeing Peter again later anyway."
•●•
"Wait, wait, wait... let me just repeat that. So you just mentioned... 'a royal wedding'?"
Arthur nods, looking surprised, as if somehow, he was expecting Peter to react differently from Sam and Lily. Yet, it seems even this boy from the market wasn't so happy about it either.
"WHAT?! Arthur, what's gotten into you?!" Peter carelessly grabs the boy's shoulders, and it shocks all the servants in the room and even leads some knights on guard to grab the hilts of their swords, but Arthur quickly signals them to calm.
"Peter..." This time, the young king tries to calm his friend, trying to free himself from his grasp. "Do you remember when I tried to reach Kilune before I went missing?"
"... Yeah? Why– wait." Peter stops, pauses, then he looks towards Arthur as if he couldn't believe the idea that had just entered his head. "So the reason why you were going...?"
"Their king had sent me a letter, telling me that his sister would like to meet me. And I was set to travel to Kilune to meet them–"
"But Arthur!"
"Peter–"
"Are you out of your mind? Kilune has always been an enemy of Viridus since the last two kings! And you're telling me you trusted them enough to go through Wallowing Woods?!"
Peter eyes the young man, begging him with wide eyes that he was just joking. Both paused in silence, but soon, the young king would break it, as he would finally free himself from Peter.
"I trust them, Peter. I believe they actually want this treaty."
YOU ARE READING
The Orphan King and The Witch of the Woods (KINGDOM Arthur X Female OC)
Fanfiction"Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, Lavender's green, When I am king, dilly, dilly, Who will be queen?" An orphan had become king. But on the day of his coronation, the one person most special to him had disappeared, forever gone in the Wallowing Woods...
