The Lore Chapter 2

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Rylan and his troops gathered in the courtyard before the castle gates. "My men, we head into unknown territory and are here for only one thing. We do not know what types of challenges we face in Terrasen, so keep on high alert, as we are looking for the princess of Ocheral," Rylan yells, rearing his royal white steed clad in gold and jewels. "We will find the kidnapped princess!" The cavalry cheered and Rylan led them through the castle gates toward the kingdom of Terrasen. Arriving at the castle of Terrasen, Rylan devised a plan to send at least 3 of his men to scout for the missing princess of Ocheral. The 3 men returned with good news on the princess's whereabouts saying she is located in the west wing, Rylan added more guards along with himself to secure the rescue plan from being ruined by any of Tyrus's knights or, worse, his subordinates that captured her. "Egad! The door is locked!" said the knight, whispering. "And? What's wrong with that?" said Rylan. "W- well by common sense that means we can't open it-'''' I MEAN, why can't you just destroy the puny lock?" Rylan said, averting the direction of the conversation. "I- mean we can but it'd be too distracting!" the guard replied and then Rylan pushed him aside and held his sword high facing the door. "Sir! You could alert other guards we're here!" As he said that he plunged his sword toward the lock until- the door opened? The sword landed in front, between the person's feet planting itself into the ground. "Eep!" said the person as they backed away, and all the men were confused while the king kept a straight face, which kinda intimidated the poor person. "Who are you?" Rylan said in a stern voice, not as a question, but as a command. "U- um Julianne? If you're here to take me back to my cell I swear I wasn't trying to escape! I was just u-uh exploring!" (EXPLORING???!? WHAT KIND OF PRISONER EXPLORES THEIR CAPTORS' AREA???) She frantically thought and decided to continue explaining in order to save herself. "The king left me in the room with nobody in it and- and-" "Hey, hey it's fine! We're not with King Tyrus," said the knight behind Rylan. They both turned to look at the knight, and it was Kevin! Flabbergasted, Rylan asked, "What are you doing here? I thought I left you with Odom, that boy will kill himself without you near him." "I'm sorry, but I thought you may have needed my help, I couldn't just leave a poor person in distress,' 'Kevin replied. Rylan sighs and says "Fine, I'll make an exception but only since your Prince Odom's longest personal guard that has stayed with him (because he's so obnoxious..) and because your intentions were in the right place. I'll let it slide, but this doesn't mean you're granted more courtesy than other knights." "Of course, sir, I wouldn't take advantage of your kindness." Kevin bows his head to Rylan and approaches the quite frantic and confused princess, as he could tell from her expression. "Hello, I'm Kevin! We are here for your rescue, princess." "O-Oh! Um, alright.'' Kevin sticks his hand out toward her. (Is he really trying to shake hands with someone above him???) thought one guard. (He should know Royals don't do that with commoners,) another knight thought. But even if these thoughts were around, he still held his hand up staring right at her not realizing his mistake, and to everybody's surprise she shook his hand in return saying, "Julianne, Princess Julianne from Ocheral'.' They both exchanged a smile."I'd say we should leave now," Rylan says. "Right!" says the both of them who are still holding hands in the handshake. Everybody returns to the outside of the castle mounting their steeds, forgetting that there is another extra person at the party.There was an awkward silence between all the men, until one shouted, "SHE CAN TAKE MY HORSE SIR!!" "B-but what about you?" the princess said, a bit surprised by the sudden take of action. "I WILL WALK THE WHOLE WAY! IT WOULD BE MY HONOR TO SERVE YOU!!!" he responded. "O-oh! You don't have to-" "NO! The princess shall take my horse!" said another, interrupting her. "You know you don't!-" "NO, SHE'LL TAKE MY STALLION, HE'S STRONG AND FAST!" "Really! It's fine!-" "THAT'S A LIE! PRINCESS! MY HORSE IS THE BEST!" "But-" "WHO SAID YOURS IS?!'' Then all of a sudden the whole troop started arguing about whose horse the princess was to take, making them stop a few miles away from the castle of Terrasen, where they left their horses. Everybody was yelling over everybody, making the king of Asheatha more annoyed when he tried to settle the situation but failed. Miserably. The princess was purely confused about why they were all fighting over such a trivial matter, not letting her say her opinion since they kept talking over each other, and it made her distressed for the most part. On the other hand, Kevin understood why they were all acting like this. They all wanted to impress the king or princess hoping they'd get probably more riches in return or maybe adoration as if they'd worship them as a god, and it made his eyes roll. He stayed silent the whole time until he noticed the princess looking uncomfortable and finally decided to say something. "What if the princess takes my horse?" he said all of a sudden making everybody silent and staring at him. "Oh no, it really is fine!" she said, Kevin being understanding, (unlike the others) nodded his head in response. "Yes, but, I was thinking you join me on my horse." he replied, making everybody feel stupid for not thinking of such a simple idea. "IF!" he started again, "The princess is comfortable with it," he says, turning his head to look at her and holding his hand out again for her to take. She smiles, accepts his hand, and joins him on the horse. Kevin flicks the reins, making the horse move forward, and as the horse walks slowly past the large group, all the knights had a face of envy toward Kevin for taking the chance to impress the king and princess, or stupidity for not thinking of such a simple compromise. As they got a little farther away from the group, King Rylan soon joined them and the cavalry followed, as Rylan's horse sped up to surpass Kevin's. He stated, "Good job, Kevin," and continued forward to lead the group. Kevin decided to break the silence and asked, "So, Princess Julianne, was it?" "Yes, and it was Kevin, right?" she said. "Mhm, that's me! Kevin. '' She giggles. "You seem quite close to the king," she says. "Ah, not really. I'm just the personal knight of the crown prince." "Oh, yes! He said that earlier. '''' Yeah, I think he only appreciates me because I'm his longest-lasting guard," Kevin says "Longest... Lasting? Does that mean?!-" she says with a concerned face. "What? Oh. OH. NO, NO, don't worry, I don't mean that the others died! I just mean the crown prince can be... a bit... obnoxious,'' he says, and it relieves her. "You were in a locked room? How did you open it?" he asked. "Hm? Oh, I picked the lock... for half an hour.." He tries to hide his laughter but fails. "Half an hour?" "OK, look! I didn't know what I was doing! So, I just improvised. '''' Understandable, as I'm in no condition to judge," Kevin laughs. For the rest of the way, Kevin and Princess Julianne continue to talk and laugh. Once they arrived, Kevin helped her off and escorted both royals inside the castle. The others either went back to wherever their post was or took all the horses back to the stable. As they entered the castle, Rylan, Kevin, and Julianne were greeted with familiar faces, one of which seemed to be drawing nearer once they spotted the princess. She was greeted with a surprise hug that nearly made her fall over backward, but she caught herself and found herself staring at her trusted handmaiden, Sofia. "Your majesty! I am SO SORRY. I should've kept a better eye! Or maybe try to fight them o-off?! I DON'T KNOW, BUT I SHOULD'VE DONE SOMETHING!~" She continues to ramble on quickly as Julianne tries calming her down. All the royals, including Kevin, witness this, and once Kevin regained his state of mind he approached the princes. The young princess followed, and she was holding a teddy bear close to her chest with one hand and Roland's hand in the other. As Kevin was about to bow, he caught sight of Roland's face and quickly panicked, asking, "Your Highness! Are you alright?!" His forehead and other parts of his face were a shade of pink, faint but still noticeable. What looked like a small bit of dried blood was on his nose, which was probably caused when he fell flat on his face after Kevin left the room a few seconds later. Since he was unconscious, his siblings didn't know how to handle it and just left him there on the ground. Of course, it wasn't Princess Meadow's idea, since she did ask, from time to time, to see if it was ok for 'Roly Poly' to stay like that. Every time Odom responded with, "Yeah it's fine, I don't think he'll care." Since they left him like that, he woke up minutes before it was announced that the King had returned with the missing princess. He began to panic and ran down with his siblings hoping Kevin was still alive, completely unaware of how he looked. "KEVIN! You're alive! I'm so glad," Roland said, who wasn't paying attention to Kevin's current comment of concern. "Well, I did promise to come back for you, your highness. '''' ROLAND! I said you can just call me Roland!" he corrected. "Right, of course, I'm sorry your high- Roland, my apologies, Roland," Kevin said. It seemed to put a smile on Roland's face. "Ehehehe, it sounds so pretty when you say my name," Roland says in a dreamy voice, closing his eyes and fantasizing "I'm sorry?" Kevin asked, "I- I MEAN, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU SAVED A PRINCESS TODAY!" Roland quickly replied with a flushing face. "Oh yes, her name is Julianne from the kingdom Ocheral," Kevin said with a smile. Up from behind him a figure says, "Hello!" which caught Kevin off guard. He twisted around quickly, nearly causing him to fall, but the person quickly caught his hands. It was Princess Julianne, and she apologized for nearly tripping Kevin once he got his balance. He said it was fine, but she still felt bad and then he asked, "Did you need anything?" "Ah, I just wanted to tell you thank you for saving my life. I already told the king and decided to also 'thank you' for helping me," she said. "Well, I'm not the only one who came to the rescue, my lady," he replied."Well, I shall be counting on YOU to spread the word," she says, leaning in closer and flicking his forehead with a smile. "HEY, what was that for??" he yelled in an angry joking tone and they continued to laugh and play with each other. In the background, Roland was both confused and filled with jealousy but was surprisingly keeping it in with a dumb-founded face staring at the two. "Hey, Kevin, who is this??" Odom said, and they both stopped and stared at the royal family of Asheatha. "Right, of course, I don't mean to be rude, I am Princess Julianne of Ocheral," she said, smiling and curtsying at them. "Excwuse me, miss?" said Princess Meadow. "Yes?" Julianne responded. "Are you s- sin- swingle! Are you swingle??" she asked, with a big happy smile for remembering the word. Meanwhile, in Julianne's state of mind she was surprised by the sudden question and everyone else there also took it by surprise, "U-um yes I am?" she said with an embarrassed face. And the next thing Princess Meadow said innocently completely went south. "Well my bwig broder Odom is swingle too! Mwaybe you can mw- marry him!" Both Prince Odom and Princess Julianne turned very pale. Roland and Sofia were completely speechless about how to respond to such an innocent child. Kevin tried avoiding this conversation by saying " *Pointed cough* Your majesty we can't just let Princess Julianne leave" "And why is that?" Rylan asked "Well, if she goes back she'll just be taken again and if I recall Terrasen has a bigger advantage compared to Ocheral, no offense" Kevin stated "None taken" Julianne replied. "Hmm that is true'' Rylan said "Then why doesn't she just stay here?" Everybody turned to see who suggested the idea, and surprisingly it was Odom. "Until things cool down of course" he continued "Attaboy!" said Rylan "I'll have everything arranged, how about you four show Princess Julianne and Sofia around the castle" "Right away your majesty," the servants said in the background leaving to go set everything up while Rylan left the room too, thinking (That was easy, too easy though, there were so little guards and when my sword landed making the loud bang nobody even came. It's like it was deserted or something...)

"What made you finally decide to use your brain?" Roland said, directing the insult to Odom "HEY!" he said "I, CAN BE SMART" continuing, "Right, so you're insinuating that you choose to be dumb most of the time?" Roland shot back "I- NO- LET'S JUST START THE TOUR'' he says stomping off as some giggled and followed him, but Roland doesn't move from his spot, and as Julianne is last to walk following them, she says while passing Roland ''Your nose is bleeding by the way" and walks off. Roland was surprised and ran to his bedroom and looked in the mirror.

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