"Father, you made a mistake coming here. How did you not notice the disputes going around in your kingdom?The power struggle. I thought you were more careful."
Placing the liquid antidote inside his father's mouth, he pushed him to a sitting position that will allow the liquid to travel to his stomach.
He then placed clean water mixed with the antidote in his pocket and walked away. His father will know what to do with the dead bodies of his men.
It's difficult to function normally like a man after surviving poisoning. Waking up seems like a warm hug especially opening your eyes to a clear sky above you and to a smell of wet fertile soil. However, ever since Lord Stefano woke up, he felt like he was weathering away. His body laid still unable to do as he commanded it to stand, except his eyes were fortunately obeying, rotating side to side, enough to see his men also laying still compared to him who was leaning on the rock almost in a sitting position.
He forced himself to stand up, supporting himself on the granite rock under his palms. It was obvious that the poison was still inside his body but he survived. Baldman have failed to kill him.
He straighted his back as the man he was and faced his friends.
Silent chests greeted him. Unmoving.
And blood. Clots and clots of blood.
His heart skipped.
You will not question me again.
How dangerous the tongue can put someone in an unthinkable situations. He thought.
At that moment, looking at the lifeless and possibly bloodless bodies of his friends, he understood the lethality of that warning.
Silent environment and silent horses few yards away, it seemed like the horses were paying respect to his friend. It was as if they felt the impact of death that they were not even eating.
'My friends...My dear friends' He mourned.
'Until we meet again.'
He tried closing their eyes but due to the long hours they stayed dead, they couldn't. He took out his dagger from its sheath and cut from their clothes enough cloths to cover their eyes and mouths. He then removed all of the bows, arrows, shoes and royal necklaces and dragged the bodies to a decomposing tree trunk.
That was no funeral they deserved. He only hoped that it won't take him long to reach the palace to deliver the news so that the bodies can be collected and buried in their native land.
Looking at the corpses for the final time, he saw a field of wild purple and red carnations behind the decaying stem.
This is indeed the loss of innocent blood and funeral of his friends.
Even though his heart screamed to go get some carnations, to spread petals over their bodies according to their ancestry records, his body refused to go toward the field.
"I'm an old man but this is traumatic." He sadly said, talking to himself.
Purple carnations were believed to be a symbol of funeral however Lord Stefano believed that they bring even more death if used at such occasions. So he turned away from the carcasses of his friends, noticing almost immediately that the horses had resumed eating. The realization that they are the same horses they use during war and had been trained to recognize such occasions sneaked in his thoughts making him silently curse as a result. The trainer who no one met either was rumoured to be a girl living in the City Hall but though the King tried to invite her to the palace, she never came nor send a message back. It was not a surprise to him why the invitation kept on being sent multiple times over the years. The King was intrigued by this girl. The unique trainer of horses. He once addressed the kingdom that he wanted to be taught how to train his horse as well but some intentions can't be hidden no matter how much you attempt. Like adultery.
After he finished tying the belongings of his friends to the horses he followed the small path into the forest. If his vision was precise the path led to a hill, there he can recognize the way home.
