Hero Vs Villain (BoyxBoy)

A New Mission

Ridley

"Hey Ridley whatcha doing?" I nearly toppled over at the sound of Percival's voice behind me. "You know I just gotta ask...why are you crouching down with half a piece of fish in the middle of the palace garden?"

I straightened, completely forgetting that I was still holding the fish in one hand. "There's a family of kittens and their mother that I've seen around here the past few days. I brought this as a snack for them."

Percival let out a low chuckle. "You sure love animals don't you?"

"I do...well...most of them."

"Most of them?" Percival asked, arching a dark brow.

I tried to push out any and all horrible memories of a certain raven. "Uh...just forget it."

"Percival! Ridley!" We both looked to the sound of a third voice. Coming towards us through the garden was prince Stefan. It had been wonderful having him around these last couple weeks. I had forgotten how much I had missed my old childhood friend. The last few weeks had been filled with interesting stories from him about his travels and studies. Stefan had always had a knack for making even the most mundane thing seem exciting. As he approached us now he wrinkled his nose.

"Gods...what's that smell?" His gaze fell to the fish in my hand. "I'm not even going to ask."

Percival grinned at him. "You out for a walk in the garden too?"

Stefan shook his head. "Actually I came out here to find you Ridley. My father wants to talk to you."

I blinked, slightly confused. "Why didn't he send a messenger?"

Stefan smiled, lowering his voice. "It's for a top secret mission, my father couldn't even trust a messenger to tell you in case they overheard what the meeting is about. I don't mean to rush you with whatever you were..." his gaze fell back to the fish. "Err...in the middle of. But this is pretty urgent."

I nodded. "Yeah, let's go." Stefan turned to leave and Percival and I started after him.

Stefan suddenly stopped, looking to Percival. "I'm sorry Percy but I just need Ridley...not you. I'm sure you understand."

Percival smiled thinly. "Yeah...yeah I get it."

My eyes widened. "Oh! Since you're staying behind do you think you could feed the cats for me?"

"Wha...uh Ridley I don't know..."

"It would seriously mean a lot to me!"

Percival sighed heavily. "Yeah...sure fine."

I handed him the fish giving him a pat on the back. "You're the best."

----------

I made my way to the throne room which was surprisingly empty. The king was sitting on his throne and he stood up when Stefan and I came in.

I gave him a little bow. "Your majesty....I'm not sure what this whole meeting is about but I'll be happy to help with whatever I can."

The king nodded. "Sir Ridley, have you ever heard of Corisathium?"

I shook my head. "No sire."

The king gestured to the prince. "Would you care to explain it Stefan?"

Stefan gave a stiff nod. "Well...to put it mildly it's an extremely dangerous drug of sorts."

I furrowed my brow. "A drug?"

"In a way. It's laced with blood magic. Now as I'm sure you know due to the unethical aspects of blood magic it has been banned in practically every kingdom for thousands of years. Even the demons decided against it. Corisathium had been long forgotten...or so we thought."