Author Note:

My excuse for the late update is that this chapter took longer than normal for some reason. I think it's the longest one yet, so it took me a while.

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[ Bdubs Point of View ]

The king and his personal bodyguard entered the room. There was a person with a long magenta robe–the messenger–who had been patiently waiting for them. Their face was covered by a hood, though there was no malicious aura that emitted from their presence.

"The council of wizards requests aid from your kingdom." The messenger stated, getting straight to the point.

"What kind of aid?" Bdubs questioned, unable to feel anything other than unexplainable anxiety. "Food?"

"Yes." They nodded. "Our land has been cursed with a famine, and we're in desperate need of help."

"I'll see what we can spare," The king gave an answer that was less definitive than for the last food request. "I'll write a letter as soon as I can."

The messenger soon took their leave, leaving the king and his protector alone in the palace. The moss wearing royal was in a troubled state, as he had never dealt with an issue as large as this before. He expected to have guidance during the first big issue he would face as a ruler, yet there was no one alive to help him. Bdubs was left to prepare for a potential land-wide issue alone.

"What now?" Etho awkwardly asked, breaking the silence.

"We go to bed." Bdubs answered, eagerly looking towards the upper floor of the palace.

* * *

Despite all of the king's current worries, he managed to get a peaceful and refreshing sleep. He was even met with the surprise of being greeted by the silvernette equipped with a sheathed sword. The moss lover was a bit thrown off by this, as he was expecting to have to wake Etho up again.

"You're actually up this early?!" Bdubs gave his shocked reply to the silvernette.

"I don't want our breakfast to get too cold." The masked male smiled under his mask.

'He actually listened to me.' Bdubs thought to himself, still processing the other man's actions. 'I was expecting him to completely dismiss what I said about getting up early.'

The king and his protector took their normal route of walking down the spiral staircase in order to get downstairs. The ravenette was careful as always not to step on his cape as he went down, though he noticed that the silvernette was making sure not to step on it as well. The royal found this odd, though he figured he was looking into things too much and brushed it off as nothing significant.

"I have a question." The masked male blurted.

"Go ahead." Bdubs responded, a bit thrown off by the sudden break of silence.

"Why do you need a personal guard to protect you?" Etho asked.

"In case I'm attacked by either a civilian who dislikes me or someone who has the intention to kill me." The moss wearing king explained.

"I know that—why did you feel that something like that would happen to you?" The light haired male rephrased his question, before providing more explanation. "From what I've seen so far, you're fairly liked amongst the kingdom."

There was hesitation from Bdubs. He wasn't sure what to reply with. There were reasons why he went out to seek a bodyguard. His struggle came with putting those reasons into words.

"This kingdom has a bit of a reputation for being the weakest. We've never won a war, or a battle for that matter, which reflects a majority of this kingdom's strength." The black haired royal mentioned in reply. "When my father passed, I was worried that I would mess up and send things into chaos."

"So you were afraid that if you messed up, the people would want you dead?" The foreign man made an educated guess.

"I am still afraid..." The king corrected in a low voice.

The silvernette acted like he wanted to say something to the royal. Naturally, there was a disturbance that followed once the two reached the table, cutting a quick end to their pleasant conversation.

Much like the previous day, a certain winged hybrid had done his duty as the kingdom's primary messenger. He held a pale pink envelope in his hand; it was sealed with the same blue wax as the letter from the previous day was. Light bags had formed under Grian's eyes, yet that didn't stop him from doing as he had been ordered.

"The Queen wrote this one." The feathered brunette informed me.

"Thank goodness," Bdubs let out an exhale of relief. "That last letter was painful to read with all the errors and sloppy handwriting."

Grian outstretched his arm, letting the royal take the letter. The ravenette, who was obviously accompanied by the taller silvernette, took his seat at the table. They both skimmed the letter as they ate their breakfast. Etho finished reading it first, since he ate much faster than moss king.

"What are you going to do about it?" Etho curiously questioned, as he turned to Bdubs for an answer.

"I guess we'll do as she asked," The moss king answered with confidence. He went on to explain. "We'll investigate the soil to make sure that this kingdom's crops aren't contaminated."

"Here is the soil sample she provided to me." Grian chimed him, holding up a vial of dirt. "This is what her kingdom's soil looks like."

"Why is it red?" The masked one was quick to ask.

"I don't know." The winged brunette shrugged, putting the small class container away in his pocket. "She mentioned something about it possibly being magic related."

"Magic?" The king repeated in surprise.

"I have no idea if that's true." Grian gave an uncertain answer to his majesty.

"Can you go get Scar?" The king requested his feathery messenger. "I think you two should be there when we collect samples."

"Of course." The shorter of two short males responded with a nod. "I'll go wake him up and meet you at the carriage."

Feathers fell to the ground where Grian had previously stood. He had flown off to retrieve the castle's wizard. That left the king and his protector to finish their breakfast, as well as getting a head start going to the carriage the four would ride in to make sure the crop field soil was not contaminated.

"I take it we're examining dirt today?" The silvernette remarked as the two walked outside.

"Looks like it." Bdubs said back. "I think you'll be getting out of your training with Cleo today."

"That's a relief." Etho shamelessly admitted to the ravenette. "I wasn't looking forward to it."

Within the matter of seconds, an unusual sight caught the attention of the foreigner and the royal. They both noticed a familiar blonde, standing close to the driver of the stand coach that was planned on being used. Red liquid was dried into the stone path, giving off the implications that something had happened that required the doctor.

"What happened, Tango?" The king questioned the red eyed blonde.

"Just the usual." He nonchalantly answered with his typical dry tone. "Someone got kicked because they can't handle a horse properly."

"Are they okay?" The silvernette asked.

"Yeah. The best doctor in the kingdom was around to save their life." The blonde spoke as if he wasn't talking about himself so highly. "But what are you two doing out here? I don't remember anything being planned for today."

"There's a last minute change to today's schedule." The black haired male stated. "We need to investigate the soil to make sure there isn't any contamination in the crops."

"Sounds boring." Tango blunted told the two. "Have fun looking at dirt."

As the blonde was about to depart from the area, the duo of the wizard and the bird hybrid finally made it. Scar was dressed in a violet colored robe that could definitely pass for pajamas with a matching hat that had to be pushed out of his face in order for him to see. Grian had added a satchel to his unchanged red sweater appearance.

The sight of two and then watching the wizard step into the carriage made Tango's annoyed expression become a small frown. His crimson eyes darted back and forth from the carriage to the hybrid, king, and protector that still stood outside the transportation wagon.

"How come wizard boy and feather duster get to go on the adventure away from the palace?" The blonde asked with a bit of salt in his voice.

"Because Bdubs likes having us around, Tango." Grian replied, only to get back at the doctor for calling him a feather duster.

"Whatever." Tango brushed off the hybrid's words like a leaf. "I have stitches to give or something."

Once the doctor had left and Grian had entered the carriage, Etho turned to Bdubs for an answer. He didn't have to say anything as the king already knew why he was confused.

"They have this weird rivalry going on," The royal tried to explain. "I have no idea how it started, and I doubt it'll ever end."

The ravenette and silvernette took their seats sitting across from Scar and Grian in the carriage. The hybrid fell asleep on the wizard's shoulder rather quickly, as he was quite tired from delivering letters within the last few days. With the hybrid asleep, this gave the wizard an opportunity to talk alone with the king and his protector.

"So..." The magic user in a grape purple robe eyed the mossy royal. "What are we doing? Grian explained it to me, but I was half asleep and I didn't really understand what he was saying."

"Basically, we need to make sure our soil isn't contaminated with the weird red magic stuff that other kingdoms' crop fields are infected with." Bdubs summarized for the wizard.

"What's so bad about red magic in the dirt?" The green eyed man tilted his head in confusion.

"It's causing food problems." Etho quietly mentioned.

"And if our kingdom doesn't have enough food to share with the other kingdoms, things could get bad." The ravenette added on. "Really bad."

There was no response from the wizard. The magician seemed to be processing everything, while trying to figure out how he could contribute to a solution. Scar glanced away from the duo that sat across from him, now facing the lacking glass window of the carriage.

"What will you do if the dirt is red, Bdubs?" The wizard questioned in a monotone voice.

"I... I'm not sure." The king gave a hesitant reply. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

The rest of the ride was silent. The king found himself dozing off rather quickly after the conversation ended, most likely from the sheer boredom of the ride. He had seen all the scenery and landscape of his kingdom thousands of times, therefore finding it uninteresting to look at as the carriage was passing it.

A few light taps of his shoulder brought the king back into reality. The ravenette didn't realize that he had copied the winged hybrid who fell asleep across from him. He had unknowingly used the protector's shoulder as a cushion, since leaning up against the window seal was the least comfortable of the two options. When the king sat up, he anxiously glanced up at the silvernette to see his reaction. The silvernette had no particular reaction, appearing to be fine with the events that had unfolded.

"Sorry." Bdubs felt the need to apologize.

"It's fine." Etho told him in response.

The protector and the moss loving king were last to step out of the carriage. The wizard and his loyal assistant had already begun speaking with the owner of the nearby fields, finding out where they would be allowed to extract a soil sample to investigate.

Unafraid to get his hands dirty, the wizard collected the soil samples. The four then stood around for a few seconds, looking at the contaminated soil to their own soil.

"This was a huge waste of time," Grian groaned, putting the contaminated vial away in his pansy pocket. "Our soil is fine."

"But what if the bad stuff spreads to our soil?" Etho inquired.

"Scar, is there anything you can do to protect the fields from this deadly red stuff?" Bdubs asked, turning to the wizard in desperation.

"I can cast a protection spell on the healthy soil, but there's no guarantee that this unknown red stuff is even magic related." The purple robed wizard elaborated. "If this red stuff in the dirt is not magic in any way, then a protection spell will only make it spread across the field faster if it does get to the soil."

Bdubs did not give a reply instantly. He thought long and hard, trying to make the best decision he could for the kingdom. After a minute or so of pondering, he came to a result that he was happy with.

"What if we study the sample that the Coastal Queen provided us?" The ravenette suggested. "If we discover that magic is linked to it, then Scar will cast a protection spell over all the fields as a safety measure. If we find out that it's not magic, then we'll excavate any soil that is contaminated and prevent spreading the best we can."

"And we only do that if red stuff is found in the dirt, right?" The brunette wizard questioned for confirmation.

"Yes." Bdubs was quick to confirm.

"That sounds like a pretty solid plan." Etho commented, seeming impressed with the royal's plan.

"What do we do now?" The hybrid questioned the kingdom's leader.

"Uhh..." The king blanked, unable to think fast on his feet twice in row. "Tell all the farmers to check their soil for the red stuff daily. If any of the red stuff is found, then get Scar to do his thing."

"Got it." Grian nodded, stretching out his wings to take off.

The hybrid took off instantly, leaving no time to waste. Scar had a melancholy look in his eyes as he watched the winged male fly away, before he turned to the silvernette and the ravenette.

"Now that we did the dirt investigation, what's next?" The green eyed male cheerfully asked with a smile.

"We go back to the palace and you'll begin your research on the dirt." Bdubs answered as faced the carriage.

"What?" Scar's eyes widened from surprise.

"You're a wizard, aren't you Scar?" The mismatched eyed protector asked, not expecting an answer. He then proceeded to state facts. "Magic is your field of expertise."

"But research takes a lot of work..." The magical brunette mumbled back, reluctantly following behind the other two.

* * *

The day went on as usual when the king, his protector, and the wizard returned to the palace together. Scar went on to research the soil as he was told. Grian returned about an hour later, just in time to deliver a few letters. Much to the wizard's dismay, the hybrid flew off as the king commanded him. Since Etho missed his training session with Cleo, she taught him a little bit about poisons and how to work with and around them in and out of battle. The ginger explained this over the course of one dinner.

"I did not know you knew that much about poisons, Cleo." Etho awkwardly complimented her.

"It's all part of the fun of being the captain." Cleo stated, before taking a sip from the glass she loosely held in her hand.

Before the conversation could change to how to mask poison in someone's drink, the king stood up in his chair. Like a puppy following its person, The silvernette did the same.

"As much I'm sure Etho loves talking about poison, Cleo," Bdubs looked at her, yawning. "It's my bedtime."

"Alright." The orange haired woman didn't argue with him. "Goodnight you two."

"Goodnight!" The ravenette waved to her.

During the tedious walk up the spiral stairs, the king suddenly remembered him and Etho's conversation from the morning. He also remembered how they were interrupted and unable to finish.

"Hey, Etho," Bdubs turned to his bodyguard with a wide smile.

"Yeah?" The taller of the two turned to the ravenette.

"Remember how you asked me why I wanted a personal guard this morning?" The moss man tried to refresh the ice man's memory.

"I do." The silvernette nodded.

"I have a question for you." Bdubs told him, before asking his question. "Why did you decide to enter the tournament?"

"I wanted to see where it would take me," Etho gave a hesitant response.

"You sure?" The ravenette doubted his reply.

"No..." He sheepishly mumbled. "I didn't think I would win, but I imagined that if I did I would be enjoying luxurious accommodations within the palace."

"Wait, really?!" Bdubs seemed to be in denial of the answer. "You just wanted to enjoy a life of luxury?"

"Yeah," Etho shamelessly nodded.

'Actually...' Bdubs took a moment to think about the foreigner's behavior so far. 'That reasoning makes a lot of sense.'

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow morning," The king quickly changed the subject. "Goodnight Etho!"

"Goodnight." Etho quietly said back.

The king watched his protector walk into his room. Before Bdubs went to his own room for the night, he stopped a butler in the hallway to ask for his services.

"Could you share the word of a stagecoach being needed for tomorrow?" The king asked.

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Author Note:

This chapter was the start of the long waits In been chapter updates.