The Creepy prince and a Countess to be(Short Story)

Part II

The next morning prince Lucius didn't invite me on a walk and I felt free. After I completed my duties with princess Hestia I rushed outside to meet Bear. He'd run to me whenever I showed up in front of the castle entrance but he was nowhere in sight. I called out his name a few times but he still didn't show up. My intuition told me that it was a bad sign. I ran all around the palace outside while searching for him. Bear was nowhere in sight.

"Bear! Bear!!!" I called out to him in vain.

I looked all over but there wasn't a single trace of him. The terrible feeling that something bad happened to Bear took me over. I already looked everywhere, but I wasn't ready to go back to the palace yet. Suddenly some bushes on my far right caught my attention. There were a few unnaturally bent branches there. I rushed to the bushes and saw Bear lying down in the bushes.

I trembled a bit because the situation wasn't looking goof for Bear. He wasn't moving and he didn't react to me. When I calmed down and examined him carefully I noticed that he wasn't breathing. There was a very small puddle of blood coming out of its mouth.

"Bear!" I cried out his name but he couldn't react."This isn't happening."

He was perfectly healthy yesterday. There was no way he could catch a disease and die in just one day. I tried touching and shaking Bear's body to get any kind of reaction, but there was none.

"Bear! Wake up please..."

I put my finger in front of his snout to check again for signs of breathing but there were none.

"Bear!" There was nothing I could do for him since his breathing stopped.

As I was getting up, somebody grabbed my arms and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Faery, I'll allow you to cry now," Lucius said."That's why I warned you not to get close to the dog. It was sick and it died."

I wanted to free myself from Lucius' hug but his grip was too tight and I couldn't move. He kept us in the position for a few minutes. I felt Lucius warmth but it was a strange one. It wasn't a kind warmth like one would expect from a hug, it felt more like I got trapped. I couldn't stop myself from crying about Bear and I moistened Lucius' clothes.

When Lucius let me go I said: "Bear ate something poisonous. He was completely healthy yesterday. I'm sure of it."

"I am no expert in animals and neither are you. I'll ask a servant to investigate," Lucius said while looking around.

"We can't leave him here just like this. Bear needs to get buried," I said while glancing at Bear's unloving body.

"If you insist he can get buried by the flowers over there." Lucius pointed out.

I just nodded and Lucius called a servant to give him instructions about dealing with Bear's body.

"Let me take you to your room." Lucius grabbed my arm, but he didn't pull me as violently as he did before. This time he matched his pace with mine. The walk to my room felt like an eternity. Lucius and I didn't talk. I was thinking about Bear the whole time. There was a high possibility that he was poisoned and one of the culprits could have been prince Lucius, but I couldn't say my doubts out loud. Bear and prince Lucius clearly didn't like each other, but I had no proof that he did it, just a gut feeling. It would be terrible to accuse a prince of anything, especially without any evidence.

Before I entered my room Lucius promised that we'd do something fun the next day and I just nodded without thinking. Lucius didn't show any signs of sympathy and I had no one to talk about Bear until I meet Hestia the next morning. I decided to take an early rest today.