I was walking past the carved goods stall when I heard someone yell my name, it was a young voice, that of a little boy. I turned to see a boy around the age of six running towards me, he had brown hair and green eyes with a red face from running.
"Daniel? What's wrong?"
He had tears pouring down his face, his breaths coming and going in gasps, "It's Ben! We- we were playing an- and he was jumping from branch to branch an- and he fell! H- he hurt his le- leg!"
I kneeled cupping his face, "Calm down, where is he?"
He a deep breath, "He's beside the travellers track, heading to the mountains."
"Ok, go to your mum and tell her what happened. I'll get Ben."
He nodded and ran off, fresh tears running down his face. I ran in the opposite direction, heading to the stables. The royal carriage was still there, in the stable beside it was a small group of brown horses. One of the stable boys was about to unsaddle a horse.
"Wait! I need that horse!"
"Why?" He asked irritated.
"There's a kid injured on the track, I need to get him."
"Fine, just bring her back in one piece. I need her this afternoon."
I nodded and hopped on, kicking the horse into motion. Damn stable boy. Cares more about the horse than a six year old kid. I travelled down the track towards the mountains, keeping an eye out for Ben. I stopped five meters before the forest ended and the path to the base of the mountain began, the whole way I didn't see him. This wasn't right. He was too far away from the stalls. It was too dangerous. I hopped off the horse and tied it to a tree.
"Ben! Ben!" I screamed his name at the top of my lungs. I heard crying and a voice yelling, "Help! Over here!"
I followed the voice to a boy with brown hair and brown eyes and a tear stained face.
"Ben! What are you doing so far away from the stalls? It's so dangerous!"
"I- I know. I- I'm sorry." He forced out between gulps of air as fresh tears poured down his face. I looked his leg, his ankle was swollen as was his knee. It didn't look broken but I knew I had to get him to Cornelius.
"Ok Ben, I'm gonna pick you up and put you up on the horse ok?"
He nodded and wrapped his arms around my neck as I gingerly lifted him, trying not to move his leg too much. I got him to the horse, "Ok I need you to lift your good leg up as far as you can so I can get you into the horse."
He nodded and did as I said, I lifted him as high as I could, sliding him onto the front of the saddle. I untied the horse and climbed on behind him.
"Hold on, this is probably gonna hurt your leg ok?"
He nodded, preparing himself for the pain that was to come. I urged the horse to move, going at a trot. The slow movement still caused Ben to cry out in pain, tears continuously pouring down his face. It took much longer to get back to the stalls, I pulled up the horse at the stables and hopped off as the stable boy held the horse in place (rather reluctantly may I add), I slid Ben off the horse and carried him to Cornelius.
"Cornelius! He fell out of a tree. His ankle and knee are really swollen."
"Sit him on the stretcher."
I laid Ben on the stretcher in the back of the medical area, where Cornelius could work on him. Ben's mother came running in with Daniel in tow, "Benjamin! What on earth were you thinking?!"
"Mu- mum I'm s- sorry." Ben replied through tears.
"Where did you find him?" She asked me.
"Five hundred meters along the track." The boys looked at me shocked at my answer. All that mattered was that their mother believed me. She nodded kissing her boys on the forehead.
"You two stay here. I need to go back to the stall. I'm so happy you're both safe."
After she left, Cornelius looked at me, "We both know that he didn't fall from a tree five hundred meters away."
I nodded, he called my bluff. The trees we use all have safety ropes and bridges, they go for a four hundred meter radius. I turned to the boys, their eyes faced the ground.
"Now you two, what were you doing all the way out there?"
"We wanted to see what the mountains looked like." Replied Daniel. I looked at Ben.
"What about jumping from branch to branch?"
"I wanted to prove that I could do what you did."
I smiled at him, "Ben, you can do that here, where you're safe. Out there, it's too dangerous. You don't know who passes through the forest."
He nodded, not looking at me. I kneeled beside his bed, Daniel standing in front of me. They were twins, the only way you could tell them apart was there eyes. Daniel had green and Ben had brown.
"You boys need to stop giving your mother a heart attack every two seconds. She works so hard to look after you, to protect you." They both drew their eyes to me, I smiled at them, "that's why I need you to make me a promise."
They both nodded.
"Stop going past the safety ropes in the trees. I won't always be able to help you two. Ok?"
They nodded again.
"And help your mother out. She might think that she always needs to protect you guys, but you need to protect and help her too."
They nodded a third time.
"Promise?"
"Yes Cora." They replied in unison.
I smiled and ruffled Daniels hair, "good otherwise I'll have to teach you two a lesson."
They both giggled as I left them with Cornelius. I stepped around the corner just to receive a dirty look from the stable boy. What on earth was his problem? I walked past the stable to see that the royal carriage was gone. I mostly felt relieved, at least I knew for certain that I wouldn't see the so called murdering king for another week.
