"So we've taken care of the Deranged Beast ourselves." King William closed his amber eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he does. "Well done Kiera." He congratulated her. A previous Kiera would have smiled happily at the praise, but Kiera knew the investigation resulted in some casualties, namely the merchant and the prince.
"Yes Your Majesty, fortunately we were able to find the Beast and kill it before it went on a rampage. Sadly, it did manage to maim a little boy's father." Kiera waited for a moment before continuing. She did not find it easy to admit to her failures. "The prince," she began, "he was injured during the fight."
King William opened his eyes abruptly to look at her. There was worry in his eyes. She felt uncomfortable by the look as he did ask her to protect the prince after all.
"Is the prince alright?"
She nodded her head. "Yes, he is. He only needed a few stitches," she remembered the way the prince seemed just fine, claiming it was only a scratch. "He is strangely resilient for a human." Like when she had talked with Helios, the compliment rolled off her tongue before she could stop herself.
"No one said humans weren't resilient, they're not as strong as us, but they can be stubborn to a fault."
"Stubborn, yes." She thought of how the prince had stubbornly attached himself to her. She knew he surely hadn't forgotten their three-month deal as well. Maybe the prince had focused all his energy on the investigation so that he could resume chasing after the Beast General. She wondered briefly what else the prince would do to pique her interest. What other schemes was he planning while inside his palace?
"What's gotten into you?" Her King's voice shook her from her thoughts. He looked at her interestingly, smiling at her as if he had already read her mind. "I suspect that you are smiling for a reason?"
Kiera chuckled, caught. "Maybe." Instead of denying it, she shrugged off his teasing. The more she vehemently reacted previously to his comments, the more she dug a hole for herself. It was better for her to act as if there was nothing going on between her and the prince. They were on friendly terms with each other, but other than that, they weren't romantically involved with one another.
"Hmm," King William leaned his head back, eyeing the expression on her face.
"I believe we will have to celebrate soon." His comment made a crack into Kiera's controlled attitude.
"Excuse me?" She sputtered, "What are you implying?"
A sly smile spread across his lips.
"Why are you asking that? I'm talking about a celebration of a job well done. Your investigation was a grand success."
"Oh." She quickly pulled her facial expression back to the original one, feigning her aloofness.
"A celebration should be in order as soon as we go back to the Forest." She nodded her head and agreed with him. "A lot has happened since we first arrived at the Solomon capital."
"Kiera, I am leaving soon to go back to the Forest." The news of his return back to their homeland made another crack in her expression.
"What?"
"You and Helios will stay here as my delegates. Both of you will take my place at the table of kings, do you think you can take on this next task for me?"
Kiera gave him a clear nod of her head, but her confusion was still evident on her face.
"Are you returning to Solomon?"
"Yes, I only need to check on some things back home, then I'll be coming back." He rose up from his seat. "I estimate it will take me about two weeks."
"In the meantime, I hope you will finally take some time off and relax." His eyes flickered in an impish way. "Prince Sam hasn't asked for recompense for his time spent helping us with the investigation. I would suggest you find an adequate way to pay him for all his efforts."
"What could he possibly want from us?"
He watched her, "I wonder what it is he wants. Clearly, there was no other motivation the prince had. He helped us purely out of the kindness of his heart." She steadied her eyes on the smiling king.
"Alright, that's enough sarcasm Your Majesty."
He only laughed at her.
"Take him out on horseback. Let him meet Lassie." He suggested to her.
Kiera drew out a long breath. "A prince wouldn't find horseback riding fun."
He raised one of his eyebrows at her, "Have you ever asked him?"
"You want me to pay the prince, that helped us with an essential investigation, with a horseback ride?" She asked him as if she had trouble understanding the line of logic he was presenting her with. "Is that right?"
"I'm sure he would love going out for a ride, except I would wait a few days for his wounds to heal."
"Fine, I will ask the prince if he would like to ride out with me one day."
"Excellent! You need to make sure you ask him in a manner that does not reveal I had any hand in this."
"May I ask why Your Highness?"
"It isn't as romantic. No, make it seem like it was all your idea." With that, he waved her out of the room. "Now go, you should ask him as soon as possible."
She exited her King's room, shaking her head at the irresponsibility of her kingdom's ruler. He was acting as if was rooting for Kiera and the prince's growing relationship. It felt odd to her, shouldn't he be dissuading her from meeting the prince? Did he not need her talents anymore?
Instead of going to the prince's palace as King William had suggested, she headed towards the training grounds. She wanted to share the news that she had safely gotten rid of the Deranged Beast with her captains.
She found Cody training with the other Beasts. As she approached the group, she slowed down her pace, her ears picking up voices as they talked. She wanted to hear what it was they seemed to be gossiping about.
"The General was dancing with the Third Prince at the ball, and I saw her with him as they left the stables the other morning..." Their whispers were comical to her, but she listened to them so more.
"She's definitely head over heels for the prince." One of the Beasts chirped in.
"Oh, but our General is too precious to be wasted on some human!" Another one of them wailed.
"Don't worry men," Cody assured them, raising a clenched fist in front of him, "she listens to me. If I tell her to keep away from the prince she will do it."
She crossed her arms over her chest as she heard her captain speak. One by one, the Beasts that were gossiping all went silent as their eyes widened when they saw the General standing behind the oblivious Third Captain.
Cody noticed their attention had shifted from him to somewhere behind him. He followed everyone's eyes and jumped nearly out of his skin when his eyes met with the Beast General's.
"Ah! General!" He said, his cheeks picking up in color. He rubbed his hand behind his neck. "I didn't see you there..." He trailed off.
"Men," Kiera ignored him and looked around at the faces gathered around Cody. "This doesn't look like any training to me. It looks as if I stumbled across some gossiping older ladies." As if Kiera had snapped her fingers, the Beasts dashed away and began training.
She turned her attention back to her Third Captain.
"What is the meaning of this?" She asked him straight away. "And what did you say? Something about me always listening to your advice?"
"I admit, I got a little carried away back there, but what is the harm in that?" His eyes turned upward into half-crescent moons as he brought his arms up behind his head as if shrugging off what had just occurred.
"Now that you are here, do you want to spar with me General?" He changed the subject as Kiera was thinking of a way to punish her captain for the remarks he had made about her.
She smiled as the suggestion came from her captain.
"Perfect." She said rather threatening, but Cody did not pick up on her slight change of tone.
The sudden agreement from her made Cody bring down his arms in shock. She rarely wanted to spar with him anymore because she had said she had grown tired of winning against him. This was his chance to show he was no weakling. Cody has always wanted to become the twelfth Beast General.
"Are you sure?" He asked her. "You can't take it back."
She scoffed at him, "I should be the one asking you that question. Are you sure you want to have your teeth bashed in by me?"
Cody grinned, his eyes flashing dangerously as she issued her challenge.
"Let's begin then."