Prince Raziel paused, and his eyes widened in surprise. "Green you say..."
His lips curled into a pleased, satisfied smile. There was a gleam in his eyes that wasn’t there before, and Soleia instinctively stepped further away from him.
"Is there sothing wrong?" she instinctively asked before pursing her lips, ntally chiding herself for asking sothing so dumb.
"Not at all," Prince Raziel said. "Your Highness must spend a lot of ti with Sir Ralph, to notice and rember the color of his eyes so distinctively."
"He has saved from a fair share of beasts while on our travels," Soleia admitted.
It wasn’t a false statent― Ralph had indeed pulled her from a pickle more than a handful of tis. Prince Raziel didn’t need to know that those monts had also seared every detail of Ralph’s handso face into her mory. Prince Ricard was already enough trouble; Soleia didn’t need Prince Raziel poking and prodding about this as well.
Prince Raziel obviously didn’t buy that excuse, but he didn’t harp on it. Instead, he rely nodded once and smiled in understanding.
"I heard that the forests surrounding the paths between Drakenmire and the capital can be quite dangerous," he said. "It is truly fortunate that Sir Ralph had been there in your tis of need."
Soleia could only ekly smile. Thankfully, there was no need for her to further reply when Reitan quickly tugged at her arm. She looked down, and right as she did, Reitan quickly shot to hide behind her.
"What’s wrong?" she asked.
A short chuckle left Prince Raziel’s lips as he gestured ahead. "Perhaps young Prince Reitan hasn’t quite yet recovered from the ordeal. It seems like the howlers have left quite the impression on him, both alive and dead."
Soleia sucked in a cold gasp of air through her teeth.
In front of her was a hellish landscape. The galeborn howlers that had managed to escape previously had all but fallen here, their bodies freely bleeding onto the ground. At first, Soleia was rather skeptical that they were all truly dead. But upon closer inspection, she ca to a conclusion that there was no possible way they could remain alive.
They were drowning in a pool of their own blood. However, the only injury on most of their bodies was a circular hole that ran right through them, oddly similar to the shape of icicles.
"Oh, speak of the devil and he shall arrive," Prince Raziel said with amusent. "If you would excuse , I shall take my leave, Your Highness. I will leave you in the safe hands of your guard."
Without giving Soleia the chance to question his words, Prince Raziel turned and left, quickly disappearing in the direction of the palace. She stood there with Reitan with barely the chance to even wonder what had happened, much less panic about being left alone, when she quickly heard the sound of footsteps.
When Soleia turned around, her legs nearly gave out in relief.
"Soleia!" Ralph called out, coming forward in a hurry.
He quickly checked her through before fussing over Prince Reitan. When he was sure that they were both uninjured, other than the small scraps and bruises that were too small to trouble Prince Raziel to heal, Ralph exhaled in relief.
"Ralph," Soleia said, tears welling in her eyes. This ti, she was thoroughly sure she hadn’t recognized the wrong man.
She looked at the carcasses of the howlers, pointing to them.
"Did you do this?" she asked. "I thought you were on the other side of the forest."
"No," Ralph admitted frankly. "I just arrived. The monsters on the other side have been stabilized― Orion is there right now. I heard that there was a group of galeborn howlers here that have yet to be found, and thought to head over."
He then frowned. "Why are you here in the forest? You were supposed to be outside. Safe."
"It is because of , Sir Ralph," Reitan muttered, stepping forward to wedge himself between Ralph and Soleia. "She ca to rescue ... If she didn’t co find , the howlers would’ve..."
Reitan gulped, his eyes watery with unshed tears.
Sir Ralph bent down, kneeling on the ground so that he could look at Reitan at eye level.
"You have been very brave, Your Highness," Ralph said.
The mont he said that, Reitan burst into tears and threw himself forward and into Ralph’s arms, hugging him tightly as he sobbed.
Ralph looked up, and he and Soleia exchanged a smile before the forr easily picked the Prince up in his arms. The young boy buried his face into Ralph’s neck, and quickly, his shoulder shaking violently as he cried.
"Either way, we should return," Soleia said. "My sisters must be worried sick."
She could faintly recall the way Bellaflor and Celestina had yelled for her when she dashed into the forest without a care. Admittedly, that was an unwise decision, but Soleia would’ve done the sa thing again in a heartbeat. If her father wasn’t going to ensure Reitan’s safety, then Soleia would.
"Of course," Ralph said. However, his eyebrows scrunched up just slightly as he looked in the direction of the palace.
"Is sothing the matter?" Soleia asked.
"I hope you don’t mind asking," Ralph said. "But was that Prince Raziel with you previously?"
Soleia blinked in surprise. "Yes," she said.
"What did he want?"
The confusion that swirled within Soleia grew even further as she reeled back from the hostility in Ralph’s tone. She had hardly heard him like this before, and given how Prince Raziel hadn’t done anything — surprisingly, unlike his older brother — Soleia wasn’t sure what to make of Ralph’s reaction.
"He caught just in ti," she said. Soleia recalled the events of how she had saved Reitan, carefully and deliberately leaving out how she had managed to use Celestina’s powers once more. It was too volatile of a piece of information for now.
When she was done, she observed Ralph’s expression, only to find that she couldn’t read what was on his mind. His expression was blank.
"Sir Ralph?"
"Be careful of the Raxuvian princes, Your Highness," Ralph enigmatically warned. "I fear that little of them have good intentions."
There ca a crackle of magic, and Ralph reached into his pocket to pull out a small sodalite. He tapped it, and quickly, Orion’s voice rang in the forest.
"Where are you?!" he barked out. "Soleia is missing."
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