The Love That Bonds Us

Chapter 3 : Return Of The King

AGNARR

There was a throbbing in my head.

My entire body ached dully.

And I was resting on something rather uncomfortable and rough.

As my eyes blinked open, light flooded my vision and I was momentarily blinded.

My first immediate thought was where was I? The last thing I remembered was someone saving me from the Enchanted Forest after the war broke out and my father had been -

I bolted upright and felt a hand touch my shoulder.

"Agnarr! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Where am I?" I managed, blinking and rubbing my eyes.

"Arendelle Your Majesty." the gentle voice responded, "How are you?"

My vision came back and I saw Halima staring at me, concerned. I noticed I was sitting in one of wooden carriages on some sacks, and I suddenly realised I was in the Castle courtyard.

"What happened? How did I get here?"

Halima's face fell into confusion, "I was hoping you would know the answer to that."

I shook my head, but the throbbing didn't cease. "All I remember is someone saving me from the Forest after I hit my head." the exact memories were a bit fuzzy.

"You hit your head alright. But it would seem someone's already patched it up. We need to get you inside."

But before I could make sense of her statement and she could take my arms to help me out of the carriage, an enterage of worried people were hurrying across the flagstones and fussing over me.

Halima was pushed away as they took ahold of me and practically dragged me back up to the Castle, bombarding me with all these questions about what had happened and whether I was alright.

I winced as my head suddenly felt like it was about to burst, and I desperately looked over my shoulder to Halima, who followed in a solemn, obedient manner.

Once back inside the Castle, the servants took me to my room where they removed a torn piece of fabric from my head and cleaned and dressed the wound there, still fussing like I was a really ill seven-year-old boy; it was annoying and just made everything worse, but their ignorance was insistent and relentless.

Halima watched from a distance with a slowly deepening frown until, finally, she realised they weren't intending to leave anytime soon.

"Out of the way now." she ordered then, pushing her way past the other servants and batting them away impatiently, "Give the boy some space."

I mumbled a very faint thanks, as the servants tutted and reluctantly left the room.

"Sorry about that Your Majesty." she said, perching on my bed beside me.

"That's the second time you've called me that." I said weakly, the eruption of answers to questions I shouldn't have had to answer reflected in the volume of my voice.

Halima began to wipe my face clean with a warm, damp cloth.

"Well, not everyone who went to the Forest made it back. Those who did seemed too traumatised to tell what they had seen. So, after having no luck getting any answers, Royal Guards were sent to find out what had happened instead. They reported that the Forest had been blocked off by some kind of mist, though we don't know why or how. We assumed that everyone who had not returned were trapped inside, including our King and Prince. But then I found you unconscious in a carriage that was well behind all the others. No one knows how you got there - not even those driving the carriage - and you were in no shape to have made it aboard yourself, so the only plausible explanation would be that one other, unaccounted, person made it out of that Forest." Halima explained, "Those to return are currently being either treated for wounds or interrogated for answers. Is there anything you can add to this current knowledge?"