Alaisdair thought speaking and listening to Prince Clayton would be easy, but it became emotional.
Alaisdair asked Clayton, "Do we need to stop to discuss this matter?"
Clayton, who had not realized he was weeping, stopped and looked at Alaisdair. "No, I must be with Mercy, so we should continue."
"You said this started in childhood..." Alaisdair prompted.
"Yes, I did say that, and yes, all this mess started then.
Your wife and I went to the same school and were in the same class. We became study buddies. She is so intelligent, and I always seemed to need help, especially in Mathematics. I thought I loved her and asked her to marry me when we grew up. I was ten years old. She said no, she could not because she loved someone else.
She pointed at Mercy and said she thought I loved Mercy because I was always helping her and was very protective of her. I told her I could not marry a servant. I loved her, but it could not go further than that. Your wife told me that Mercy was the daughter of an Earl, so marriage was possible."
"This does not sound like it is a problem but more of a solution," said Alaisdair.
"Yes, it was at ten years old. I did not tell Mercy I loved her, but I continued caring for and protecting her, knowing she loved me."
"Go on," said Alaisdair.
"I went into training after schooling to become a Doctor, and when I returned for a break after the first semester, I was told Mercy and TomTom, my best buddy, had run off to live in the wild and were killed by a hunter. I didn't even know they knew one another. Hearing the news of a betrayal and that both of them died was devastating," said Clayton.
"Who told you they had died?" Asked Alaisdair.
"My father, King Purses," Clayton mumbled."That night, I went to an Alehouse, and I don't remember what happened, but I was told I fell off the cliff near our fortress and sustained significant brain damage. That was the end of my sanity.
The last thing I could remember was asking your wife to be my wife; she always avoided me. I just sunk into more and more delusion. Then you got married. I missed my two friends and was told again they died. Your sister married my brother, and he died soon after. He was one of the fighting troops. More death - I could not take it.
My father always called me a weakling. When your sister married my older brother, I was enraged. I ended up kidnapping your wife and following you into this Land.
"What happened on the Island of No Return?" Asked Alaisdair.
"It was the one thing that brought me back to my senses. When I saw Mercy, she was nursing me. I was in a stupor from getting another brain injury, and I kicked out and hit her. She got injured from hitting the next tree, falling to the ground, and morphing into her human form.
The Land was soft, but she was not breathing when I got to her. I had learned CPR, so I started pumping her heart and breathing into her. Thank God she had gotten the wind knocked out of her, and her heart was healthy.
Then I met her children - the girls all looked like her as a child. Some differences - hair and eye colors. And she told me how both she and TomTom were made to get married by both of our fathers.
She has more damage to her than I did. Her father rejected her mother and remarried. She looks like her mother. She was out into service to learn her place in society. Her father tried eradicating her mother and did not care about his daughter.
And my father is a cold man. He cares only for the country, not his people, just what will be the best economically for him and the royals.
I knew Mercy was a Tiger, but she was always a human with me, even when I turned into a Pegasus. I would take her for rides. I don't know TomTom's background - we were best buds, which was enough for me. I did not know the cat was Mercy until I looked down and saw her. My heart was beating so fast, and I morphed into a human.
"How did you escape the Island of No Return?" Alaisdair asked.
"I was sitting under a tree a little bit further back into the jungle when the girls came rushing up to me saying their mother was fighting the giant Beast from the water; I instantly morphed into a Pegasus. I came down on his neck and kept pounding him with my hooves.
He finally let go of Mercy, and she ran to the girls, pushing them into the jungle. Then she returned and looked around the palm tree - I was telling the Beast what I would do to him if he returned to the beach.
Then I went to Mercy, and the girls were all yelling at once. And finally, I understood Mercy was injured severely and knelt down, and the girls helped her on my back. I told them to get her tight to my neck so she could hold onto my mane; then I told them to get behind their mother but face my tail and wrap it around them, but first, turn into cats - I figured they would have a tighter grip and not fall off. I was going to head into the jungle, but I saw the vortex open, and we got there in time and, thank God, entered the exit tunnel and landed by you.
"The girls called you Papa Prince. What do you intend for Mercy and her children?" Asked Alaisdair
"I want to marry Mercy and help raise her children. They are the children of my best friend and the woman I have loved all my life."
Alaisdair thought, then asked, "What about your father, King Purses?
"He has no care for his family. I want to ask your father for asylum here in the Land of Myst. He understands and allows Pegasi, but even if he forbids me to become a Pegasus again,
I know Mercy would feel more secure here with a King who is also a cat. And we need to find her mother. She is somewhere in one of the Scots' cities. The children should have at least one grandparent to nurture them.
And I genuinely have no wish to see my father after the cruel thing he did."
"Okay, I will speak to my father before you meet with him. Let me tell him all you have told me. I don't know the political stances, but we will find a safe place for you and your family. That I do promise."
Alaisdair had taken on his mantle of Prince of the realm and was serious when making his promise.
Alaisdair had thought about all these injustices wrought on this couple and others and felt that his father was the one to bust this open and could and would deal with it. But even being here for only a few days, he has learned to quiet his tongue and would reserve his talk to his father in private.
Alaisdair called Fallon to him, "Uncle, please exchange Prince Clayton for Pretty Lady. He needs to be with his family, and I must speak to Pretty Lady."
When Pretty came to him, Alaisdair asked, " Which way do you wish to travel, as my wee one on my collar, walking beside me as my Princess, or in my arms as my love?"