Serendipity

Free

Naida's pov

It had been a week and my dad hadn't given me any news on what was happening with Eret. I was sitting in the infirmary at Sam's bedside, holding Sam's hand. There really wasn't anything else I could do.

"Naida, Bad is looking for you." Ant said as he entered the room.

"Do I need to go? I want to spend time with Sam." I said.

"You don't have to but I think it's about Eret." Ant said.

That drew my attention.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"The throne room." Ant replied.

I dropped Sam's hand and began making my way to the throne room. The second the automatic doors opened my eyes fell on Eret talking to my dad. He was dressed in a plain white shirt and dark grey pants. His crown was nowhere to be seen. For the first time since I met him he didn't look like a Prince.

"Eret!" I cheered.

I raced across the room and enveloped him in a hug. Eret chuckled and rested his chin ontop of my head.

"I see I was missed." Eret said.

"You were down there a whole week! Of course I missed you." I said.

"Sorry about that muffin, we had some stuff to sort out first." Dad said.

"Sort out what?" I asked, pulling away from Eret.

"What was going to happen to Eret once he was released." Dad replied.

"What's going to happen?" I asked.

"I'm free. I can go wherever I want." Eret said happily.

"And you're more than welcome to stay here in the Badlands." Dad said.

"Please say you're going to stay." I said as I turned to him.

"Please." Dad added.

"Did I just walk in on you trying to beg Eret to stay in the Badlands? Seriously Bad?" Skeppy said as he entered the room.

"If he leaves then my muffin will want to leave too." Dad whined making Eret and Skeppy laugh.

"I'm planning on staying, you don't need to convince me. I doubt you'd let me take Naida with me if I wanted to leave anyway." Eret said wrapping me in a hug again.

"I'm just going to have to figure out where I'm going to stay." Eret said.

"What? You don't want to live with us? Are we not good enough?" Skeppy joked.

"What do you mean?" Eret asked.

"When I said you could live here in the Badlands I just assumed you'd want to live here in the Palace with us." Dad said.

"Are you sure you want me here?" Eret asked.

"Of course we do! Please stay here." I said.

Eret smiled at me, one of those genuine that had been few and far between while his guards were around.

"Okay, if you're sure." Eret said.

"Of course we're sure you muffinhead!" Dad said.

Suddenly the doors to the throne room flew open. Someone had obviously pushed the automatic doors because they weren't supposed to open that quick. Ant came into the room huffing and puffing completely out of breath.

"Ant, what's up?" I asked.

"Sam.... awake... now..." Ant huffed out.

We all reacted immediately, taking off in a sprint towards the infirmary. My dad was the first one to burst into the room. Skeppy wasn't too far behind him, then it was Eret and I with Ant lagging very far behind us.

"Sam!" I exclaimed as I rushed forward and hugged him.

"Hey Naida, are you okay?" Sam asked, his voice was horas and weak from having gone over a week without talking.

"I'm fine Sam, it's you we're all worried about." I said.

"You muffin head, you had us all worried sick." Dad said.

"Sorry." Sam said.

"Why are you apologising? You litteraly saved Naida's life." Skeppy said.

"What happened with Daniel and Nathaniel?" Sam asked.

"They're both dead, Eret killed them." Ant replied.

"Thank you Eret." Sam said.

"I don't know why you're thanking me, I should have been able to stop it long before then." Eret said.

"You still protected Naida. That's all that matters to me." Sam said.

"Can we quit with that stuff, I've missed a week of bullying you." Skeppy said.

I guess in the end it all worked out. Everything was backbto normal. Better than normal actually, everything was perfect.