Through the grey smoke, a golden figure caught his attention. As he approached it, he could see that it was the famous royal cloak, the one that every Oltremare monarch wore at their coronations.
"Arne?" he called to her.
He took a few more steps and saw that the figure had long black hair; he knew that his friend had had her head shaved for the past two years.
The person cloaked in gold coughed, "Ar-Arne...". Jatty looked up as he heard the prince's footsteps, "Is that you? You're back already? You need to get out of here Arne", he struggled to articulate the words without being interrupted by loud coughs. His vision was blurred from lack of oxygen and loss of blood, and the smoke didn't help him distinguish faces.
Caudata knew who the boy was, Arne wrote about him constantly in her letters. She said his determination to save her was greater than his determination to save himself. When he read those claims, he thought that the then princess was exaggerating and she just had a crush on her squire. But that boy, whose body was clearly on the verge of collapse, crawled to his feet, "G-Get out of here...N-Now!", he pushed his legs. Was that squire trying to move him?
"What are you doing?", he laughed, even if the situation was serious, he found Jatty funny.
"Getting you out of here", he whispered as loud as he voice allowed him.
//But believe me when I write these lines that Jatty would die before he' d let me die. I don't know how to feel about it, I don't know if I could go out of my way for him as he goes out of his way for me, Caudata. He has grown up thinking that what he thinks is what defines him, so when the fleeting thought of hurting me crosses his mind, the more protective he becomes.//
"Let me die with you", the Alcora heir squatted down, eye to eye. "Even better, why don't you kill me now, Chat?", Caudata drew his sword and placed it at his own throat. He took the weak boy's hand and placed it on the hilt. "Just a little push and I be a goner!"
//He is a Green one. His siblings were beheaded after trying to kill the former king.//
"No, you twat", Jatty released his hand from Caudata'd grip and looked directly into what he thought were his friend's eyes, "You are strong, but not inmortal. Not even you could survive a massive fire like this one." He grabbed the prince's hand gently, "If you don't get out of here at the count of-"
Sudden silence. While the prince waited for he to end, a piece of cloth, which appeared to have been ripped from its place, lay next to the boy. His collector's heart made him put it in his back pocket without further thought.
"Are you going to finish the phrase or...Oh, you passed out."
Jatty collapsed. He talked too much for the amount of air he had; however, he was still holding Caudata's hand firmly.
//Green one or not...//
"...He would never hurt me. I told you so", Arne appeared. "Why are you testing my squire, Caudata?"
Caudata jumped in surprise, "What are you doing? How long have you been standing there like a freak?"
Arne ignored him and walked over to Jatty, holding him in her arms.
His friend had dirt on his face, burns on his legs and arms, and a stab wound in the middle of his stomach. Seeing him like this made Arne's insides twist with pain.There was not time for playing doctors.
An idea came to her; her fiancé was there. She picked her squire up efortlessly.
"Take him with you."
"Eh?"
"Take Jatty to Alcora and cure him", the queen repeted.
There was a dramatic pause in which the only noise was the crackling of flames.
"You think I'm a wizard? A saint, perhaps? Look at him! He will be dead before we arrive to Alcora."
Arne did not listen and shifted Jatty into the other boy's arms as if he were weightless. A man of nearly 1'80 m and 80 kg was being treated as if he was the baton of a relay race.
Caudata thought he could catch him as easily as she did, overconfident and unprepared, he almost fell over when he received the body.
"Be careful", said the Oltremare queen, evidently alarmed.
"How could you pick him up just like that!"
"I am strong."
The fire had begun to die down in the vicinity shortly after Caudata had encountered Jatty. The landscape of what had once been a central square with wooden buildings and cobblestones was now ruins and rubble.
Arne's hands were red, blistered and probably stinging, but the adrenaline seemed to keep the pain at bay. At least she kept her composure and didn't utter the slightest complaint.
"Where were you, by the way?", Caudata asked while lifting the dying man onto his horse.
The girl helped him place the body so that Jatty wouldn't fall, "I was evacuating people from their homes."
"Huh...Impressive."
"Not at all, it is my duty."
He had heard thousand of rumors concerning her, that is why he agreed to go to the bachelors royal party two years ago. Arne's was Oltremare's biggest pride and viceversa. Caudata wondered why he could not say the same about Alcora. Maybe it was because it was larger than Oltremare and richer, and its people were more complicated. Maybe he did not see himself taking so much responsability. He asked Arne about this in one letter: why was she so devoted to her kingdom? At the end of the day, they could betray her.
"There you go, he should be alright until the East Castle", she said after supporting the body of the squire with one of the ropes Caudata carried in his luggage: a small backpack with the rope, a blanket and a few coins. "You should get going before the culprits make a reconnaissance round and two royal heirs are found together. They would kill us before they could even surprise us."
"Wait. You are coming with us, right?"
"No, I am not. There are a few things I have to take care of bef-", someone's footsteps shushed the girl, who stood at attention, wielding her sword and inviting the prince to do the same.
The owner of the sudden agitation quickened their pace, the rhythm indicating that they were running. Cuadata and Arne could not yet see them, but it was only a matter of seconds before they appeared through the smoke.
"Oh my! Were you planning on attacking me? As if you stand a chance", a soothing, melodious voice whispered in the back of the heirs' necks. They hadn't even seen her approach; yet, her breath was on their skin. If Ursue was a killer, the kingdom would be covered with posters warning about an invisible criminal.
"You fucking dumb ass!", Cauda shouted, but he was relieved that it was her and not a group of delincuents. He was not the bravest of the group.
Ursue let out a small laugh and grinned from ear to ear, "You're such a coward , Cauda!"
She was as tall as Arne, but slimmer; her arms and legs were toned enough not to want to challenge her to a fight, but Ursue's strength did not lie in brute force like Arne or Caudata's. She was known for her agility, which Lope analysed when she watched her train. It was not that Ursue was so fast that the human eye could not perceive her; she was elusive. One moment you had her in front of you, the next she had a dagger pressed against your jugular.
The queen of the smallest kingdom on the Fourth Continent, Norso, had been walking around Oltremare longer than Caudata. Like Arne, her hands were red, her clothes torn, she had a cut on his right knee and dried blood around it, and a handful of her dreadlocks were burnt at the ends. Apparently, she had evacuated people from the Norso/Oltremare border and was looking for survivors. Once again, the prince felt the pressure of monarchy.
"Don't you have an army to do that, Ursue? Why are you by yourself?", he asked. It was understable that, after a coup and the commotion, Arne was acting on her own, but Ursue's throne was secure.
"I was not when we saw the grey sky and smoke at the end of the forest but, as soon as we arrived, some of my soldiers were shot with arrows. It seemed as if those in charge did not want anyone to enter or leave the royal city."
Arne frowned. She seemed to know what was going on and who was behind the great fire; however, he did not ask.
"You should leave now", she said to him. "Take good care of him, please." He nodded. "Oh! And he dislikes you, like, a lot! So keep that in mind." The prince wondered if he was taking home a person or pet sitting a grumpy cat. "I will come for him. Just act like this did not happen."
"...How? I mean...", he looked at Jatty and smirked, "Hehe...This could be actually fun!"
Caudata left. The last thing he saw was the two queens talking, but they did not let him be part of the conversation.
When he had ridden a safe distance, he looked at the piece of cloth he had found next to Jatty. A royal shield with two swords, a bear in the centre, and a skull at the feet of the animal. Someone had merged the coats of arms of Alcora and Norso. The skull resembled the later kings beheaded ending.
"The Green ones."