"Sometimes I wonder if it's too late," Menas mumbled, looking out the window of the kitchen where I sat with my three friends.
"What do you mean?" Blasius, Silva, and I asked, curiously. Silva visibly sat up straighter as she waited for Menas to answer.
"Too late to help them back in the castle, I mean. I," he hesitated, seemingly trying to choose his words carefully. "I didn't want to tell you guys then, but when they were taking people, they were s-st-sterilizing them."
"Sterilizing?" Silva shrieked.
Menas simply nodded, "I'll never be able to have children of my own. We don't know if they've already done that to everyone in the dungeon. Our races could be doomed regardless of how we go about helping them escape."
I huffed inaudibly. Sterilization was such a cruel act, and although I would expect nothing less from the King, I couldn't even believe that he stooped to that level. It was fortunate that I was able to escape the castle before that happened to me, as I couldn't imagine having that decision stolen from me.
"If they were taking three at a time every few days, there's no way they could've gotten through one thousand people in only a few months," Blasius reasoned.
"There's also the children on the other floor," I said, hoping that it would help Menas feel better about the fate of werewolves. There was nothing I could say that would make his situation specifically better in any way, but if I could soothe him about the other dilemma, then I would try my best. "They're only children, so they wouldn't do that to them too, right?"
"I wouldn't doubt it," Blasius muttered, "considering the morality of Taelman and his demands."
"In any case, I'm sorry that happened to you, Menas. I'm glad you felt close enough to tell us something like that," Silva added. Blasius and I echoed her condolences.
"Thanks you guys," Menas smiled, "let's talk about something else. I guess Amicia's spiel yesterday made me realize how close we really are and I didn't want to keep that a secret anymore."
"Aw, what has gotten into everyone recently? I can't stand the wholesomeness!" Silva beamed. "But, ahem, I think it's your turn Blasius."
"My turn?" He crossed his arms.
"To be wholesome,"
"Alright then, I suppose I'll say something," Blasius cleared his throat, looking to the side, avoiding anyone's eye contact. "Although I had always planned to escape and overthrow the King from before I had been captured, I will say that I appreciate having you three beside me throughout doing so. For more than just our friendships,"
When he spoke the last bit, he turned to me, winking and uncrossing his arms to reach out and take my hand in his.
"Wait, so is this like, a thing?" Silva asked, assuming ou referring to the nature of our intertwined hands.
"It is," Blasius answered immediately.
"We should do something together," Menas suggested, "seeing as it may be one of our last days together."
"Don't say that! We'll succeed and everything be fine!" Silva scolded Menas.
I giggled along, but what Menas said made me think for the first time about our fates. I had never even considered the fact that any one of us could lose our lives in this fight. This isn't like any of the sparing we had been doing for the past few weeks, this was real fighting. There would be injuries and perhaps even deaths. The only thing I could do to stop that from happen was to make sure everyone was thoroughly trained before going back to the castle to fight. It made me shutter as I realized that the guards in the castle had been training for years, and our weeks-long training taught by amateurs would probably never amount to the level of training they had.
"Let's have a picnic," Silva suggested.
"A picnic?" Menas sounded less than enthused.
"Yes! We were about to have lunch anyway!"
"A picnic would be fun," I agreed, looking to Blasius for an answer. He just rolled his eyes but nodded along, saying that he would join.
"Fine, you got me, you got me," Menas grumbled, standing up and heading out the door. "I'll wait for you guys outside."
The three of us gathering what we could find for small snacks and make more than enough sandwiches which we packed into a small bag, considering we didn't have a picnic basket.
Once we were finished, we walked a small way until we found an open field. The one Blasius and I had went to that one time was way too far away, so we settled on something nearby. The area was hilly, and the small mountains seemed to roll on forever. I sank down onto the grass almost instantly, taking in the feeling of the grass tickling at my legs. By this time, I felt famished, and as soon as Silva set down our bag, I dove for the sandwiches.
"It's so nice here," Silva murmured, making her way to a patch of flowers in the distance. After a few minutes, she brought back three flowers of the same type. They were colourful—designed with bright yellow and pastel orange and a deep shade of red. They were beautiful. As she reached us, she held out one to Menas, then to me, and finally Blasius.
"Do you know why I gave you these specific flowers?" She asked. We all shook our heads, mouths too full with our food. "They represent friendship."
She left again, to retrieve more flowers. Once I finished eating, I laid back, bathing in the warmth of the sun beaming down. When Silva returned, she dumped a bunch of flowers onto the ground, weaving them together into a circular shape. Menas watched her intently, while Blasius laid on his side, playing with my hair. I watched as he curiously wrapped strands of my hair around his index finger one by one, curling the snow white length around and then letting it fall. I looked up at his face, too focussed on what he was doing to even notice my gaze.
When I looked the other way, I watched as Silva's hands weaved the stems of the flowers through each other. Once she was finished making multiple crowns, she held one up to Menas and dropped it onto his head. She waved her hand, coaxing Blasius and I to sit up, which we did. Just like she did with Blasius, she drops one onto each of our heads, smiling at her handiwork.
"A King and Queen," Silva smiled, "with your crowns, and all."
I stared at my friends, hoping this wasn't the last good memory we would make together. But at the same time, if it was, if I was killed by one of the King's men in battle, I would be happy dying knowing that this was the last thing I'd remember of them.