The Tigers Tale

Chapter Four: Life Goes on

It had been a month since Alastair's mother was announced dead to the kingdom of Weverchen. The funeral took place three days after her "Death" and many attended, even if she was the old mistress of the King. Of course, there was one notable absence which was Queen Meredith, against her wishes though Edward snuck out and attended, he was front and centre right next to Alastair.

Since the funeral, Alastair had barely left his room. The boy felt so empty and alone, like a part of him had just been ripped away. He ate in his room, he bathed in his room, he studied in his room from time to time but he never really did anything outside of his room. Whenever someone came to talk to him he would hardly respond to them, even when his father tried convincing him to leave it was clearly pointless. Young Edward had tried on many occasions but nothing came of it, he left feeling defeated each time and it certainly hurt. Meredith was enjoying this, Alastair's self-destructive nature was certain to get to Ragnar who would hopefully just get rid of the boy who was pulling everyone down to the dark pit with him. She was so hopeful that everything would soon be sorted, so full of joy that soon she would finally be rid of that bastard. The joy within her was so strong in fact that she smiled so brightly every day and was quite cheery even while her son was down and her husband barely spoke to her. She did not care as she hoped, no she knew that Alastair was going to get himself kicked from the kingdom... That is what she thought she knew.

Edward the prince had been to see his big brother many times, he wanted to make sure he was ok. He was young but he did understand what had happened and the poor boy could feel nothing but sympathy for Alastair. He wanted to know what he could do to help him, what he can do to get his brother back. That was when an idea came to him, he remembered how Elise would always call Alastair her "little cub" as in a tiger cub so he thought that maybe if Alastair had something to remember that, remember who he was then maybe... Hopefully, he would go back to being that boy he used to be. With this in mind, Edward had wandered into town, accompanied by a guard and Holda since Meredith was too busy arguing with her husband last Edward saw. Holda had asked the young prince what he wanted to do as she was the one who was normally spoken to of such matters by the children and the king, she was always there and was like a second mother or a grandmother perhaps. Once she heard what the young prince had wanted to do, she took him to the blacksmith in town instead of the royal blacksmith as it was known the blacksmith in town was trained in far more superior ways but he refused the chance at being a royal blacksmith.

The blacksmith of the town was Jonas Gregor who has been made fun of by some, being called a "Knife-ear lover" since he has a half-elven daughter but he was also called "turncoat" or "traitor" as he had his daughter in a time of war... He was a soldier for Weverchen that was sent to aid the King on the Elven Assault in the Whispering Woods, nearing the last years of the war. He appeared to be a sole survivor of an ambush and was taken prisoner by the Elves. It seems that his jailer took a liking to him and soon he was freed but kept under close watch at all times as he was kept in the Elven kingdom. His soon to be wife, taught him many things before the kingdom was attacked... The Elf queen managed to flee but Jonas lost his lover during the conflict while he ran with his child. Once they got to Weverchen once again, he was called coward and deserter by people and once news got out about his half-elf child he was insulted much further but since then it has died down to just a few people he tends to ignore. He is the best blacksmith in all the Human Kingdom practically as he knows Elven secrets, no one really insults him anymore if they want to try and get some good gear from him. However, he is not accepted as the royal blacksmith officially.

Anyway, Edward was taken to Jonas who was standing in his forge where he was forging a sword at the very moment. Holda was standing to the side of his shop, behind Jonas as she spoke out "Working hard I see Jonas" She spoke out.