Walking past the people Bladen saw Drupal on the ground. He sat on one knee and waved his hand over Drupal's head gently. As he stood back up, Drupal was back on his feet but no one could see him anymore. When Bladen turned towards the others, well then one could see Drupal clinging to his knee and crying big tears, not at all letting them go.
Bladen with one hand rubbed his head again and said in a low gentle voice this time,
" Drupal, I did not forget you, please would you let my sleeping knees wake or not?".
Drupal held his tears back and jumped down on the floor. Now it was visibly clear how cheerful this little lad was.
Before any further words could have been exchanged, Bladen swiftly moved across the room, out onto the stairs n finally was in front of the closed giant doors that led the way out. On his approach as if the doors could sense his presence, wildly flung to the sides and beautiful land was in sight.
"My Lord, is there something wrong?", Cedric asked when he saw an expression of concern on Bladen's face.
But no one was able to see what he could see with his eyes, that was way too strong. He had the eyesight of an eagle or maybe better than that as he could spot a strand of hair from the skies above. But now was not the time to boast as the matter at hand was way more serious.
On the foot of the enormous staircase, twenty bodies were laid next to each other, as someone had arranged them in that manner. Bladen ran to the site and saw the condition of the bodies, bloodied with multiple deep and shallow wounds, it was visible that these wounds had come from claws and not some weapon unless the weapon was a gauntlet. But what stood out was a shadow, instead of blood, the shadow was oozing out of their wounds. Bladen shook his hand and came down to one knee, with two fingers he lifted the shadow just like someone would dip their fingers into blood, bringing his fingers near to his nose and sniffing it, with his eyes furrowed and a frown on his face he said,
" A threat I see ."
Scrouche could hold back no more and said with concern, "But my lord why kill the guards?".
"It's exactly what I would have done, Kill the Messenger, and send your message to the only one that needs to know ". Bladen now stood up and started walking towards the stairs. His right hand went into the air for a moment, his fingers clicked and sparks of fire were seen for a brief moment before they disappeared. Only for the others to see what exactly had happened, as he turned around and started heading in the direction of the castle, the lifeless bodies on the ground had caught fire and were now levitating in the air, but unlike the usual cremation, there were no ashes rather the bodies started to break down in small particles that dispersed into the air and nothing was left to be seen.
..…..
Into the deep dark waters of Tirad sea, a faintly glowing body of a girl was sinking gently, deeper and deeper into the nonexistent end of the sea. Only to be caught mid descend by a tentacle. It was a giant one thought and the body to which it belonged was nowhere to be seen. Slowly a dark figure started to ascend and a two-headed octopus-like creature with twelve tentacles was resurfacing holding a limp body of a young girl in one of its tentacles. He glided over the surface of the sea and then finally rested at the shore of an island, far, far away from any eyes. He caressed her like a treasure and placed her on the wet sand.
While on land the so-called octopus-like creature with three eyes on each head watched intently as the girl coughed water from her lungs and smiled goofily as she woke up. Seeing such a giant in front of her Veronica was afraid and started to back away, and tears could be seen shining in her glossy big eyes.
" Ohh No, Please don't cry, I was just trying to bring you up on the shore, humans are not made to live in the sea, you know ." A bit childish voice sounded in Veronica's head. And in shock, she just stared at the creature to confirm if it was this giant speaking like a cute little child in her mind and if so then how?
As for understanding the concept, the creature folded his two tentacles like one would fold their arms and one tentacle went to scratch its nonexistent chin. " Well Hello, human, my name is Pup, and I'm the prince of the sea, I'm still a kid just four hundred years old ."
With the revelation of the kid and age, Veronica could not hold herself from giggling.
The pup pouted for a second and then the other started to speak again, " I saw you drowning in the sea and rescued you but how come you are so small I think you are also a kid just like me, not more than two hundred years old. Right !". This time he was happy with his very correct guess in his head, and even Veronica did not try to correct him.
"So where am I, am I still in the dock city ?"
"I don't know where we are but this is not Miranda, this place is a secret as I keep my treasures here, now I can keep a human pet here too." Pup was
excited beyond belief to get this cute little pet.
Veronica was fine for now but wondered how long until she could leave the island and go back to the world where she belonged.
....
Far in the distance on the unknown island, a very old tree bearing a single bud started to faintly glow and the bud started to bloom, slowly this beautiful flower will bloom to its fullest. For what will happen then no one knew !!!