Author Note:

This is the chapter with the map in it.

_____

[ Bdubs Point of View ]

"For someone who values sleep, you've made me get up awfully early." Grian yawned, rubbing his tired eyes.

Bdubs ignored the avian's comments. The king was busy stamping letters, which left the hybrid puzzled.

"What are you even doing at this hour?" The light haired brunette asked. "What do you need me for? I'm the last person you should be asking to proofread your letter."

The king sighed, taking a deep breath before continuing to seal the letters with his royal seal.

"Well?" The hybrid peeped. "What are we doing up? You shouldn't need me to deliver anything to the other kingdoms, because you sent out a messenger to it for me."

"Are you always this chatty before the sun comes up?" Bdubs slowly turned to face Grian.

"Naturally." The winged male smugly grinned, crossing his arms. "Scar and I have this tradition called sleeping in. You should try it sometime."

"I would if my kingdom wasn't at risk of going to war!" Bdubs snapped, quickly regretting it.

"Are we..." Grian froze, his lavender wings dropping.

"I don't know." Bdubs buried his face into his hands.

There was growing sick feeling in the king's stomach. He often had his days planned out and sticked to schedules. However, he was uncertain about what coming. Would the Coastal Kingdom declare war after they learn he denied them of more food?

Grian fell silent. The movement of his red sweater's fabric as he clenched it was the only sound in the room.

"I'm sorry." The king apologized, his voice quiet. "I didn't mean to yell at you."

"I'm sorry too." Grian also apologized. "I didn't realize how bad things had gotten."

"Don't say that..." Bdubs pleaded. "Nothing has happened yet."

'But something definitely will.' He took a breath, shaking.

Bdubs gathered all the sealed letters, handing them to Grian. Grian set them in his satchel, turning to the open window.

"Give one to each village in the plains." Bdubs stated.

Grian stretched his lavender wings out. Both wings are about seven feet approximately, requiring him to flew out at an angle to not hit them on the vertical window.

"Aren't you going to ask what the letters are for?" Bdubs curiously questioned. "You usually do."

"I don't want to know this time." He replied.

"I get it." Bdubs frowned, watching him take off.

'The letters are only asking for the villages to keep an eye out for soldiers heading towards the Moss Kingdom, but I understand why he doesn't want to talk about anything war related.' Bdubs starred out the window, watching the wing messenger fade away.

"I'm going back to bed." The king said to himself, before a wave of drowsiness came out him.

[ Grian Point of View ]

'That's the last of them.' Grian dug his hand around in his satchel, feeling no more envelopes. 'And I managed to finish before sun rise. If I hurry, I can join Scar for breakfast.'

Grian began to spread his wings, stopping when the village's threat horn went off. He retracted his wings and jumped in the spaces the between two houses.

A horse, completely white, stopped before a crowd of people. Upon the steed was a man dressed in sea blue and black. He had a sword sheath at their hip and wore dressed chainmail armor.

"A solider." Grian muttered in a low voice. His eyes widened, as he placed where the clothing was from. "From the Coastal Kingdom!"

'I need to get back and tell Bdubs about this!'

Grian took off in an instant, hitting a brick roof on his way to sky. This catch the attention of the warrior and many of the villagers.

'I can't let them follow me back to the kingdom!'

Grian's face lit up, as he spied a forest nearby.

[ Bdubs Point of View ]

"How is he Tango?" Bdubs asked, worry in his voice.

"He's fine, but he needs a little time to recover." Tango concluded. "He should be good to go by tomorrow at the latest."

"And the earliest?" The king questioned.

"Possibly this afternoon." The blonde replied. "It depends on how his head feels."

"Thank you, Tango." Bdubs couldn't help but give his bodyguard's door a worried glance.

"Just doing my job." He replied, before taking his leave.

Bdubs was alone in the hallway. He looked to his own door, before glancing over to the scratched up door that was Etho's.

"I hope you're ready..." Bdubs quietly said.

"Ready for what?" A voice asked.

Bdubs was not alone. The king jumped, spinning around so fast he hit himself with his moss cape. He looked up to see a smiling wizard in a purple robe.

"Scar!" The king exclaimed, before laughing a little. "Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, Bdubs." Scar apologized, also laughing. "Have you seen Grian?"

"Not since earlier this morning." Bdubs replied. "I think he's still delivering letters."

"I was hoping he would be back by now." The green eyes wizard sighed, letting his arms fall to his side in disappointment.

"I figured he would be back by now as well..." Bdubs stated, before thinking of something more assuring to say to Scar. "There's probably some weather that's holding him up."

"Yeah, I guess." Scar agreed, perking back up. "Oh! Do you wanna see what I discovered yesterday?"

"Sure!" Bdubs agreed. "Actually, can we wait until we eat breakfast?"

"Of course." The brunette agreed. "I need to regain my energy for this, anyways."

* * *

Scar joined Bdubs for breakfast. The wizard asked where the protector was, so Bdubs explained Etho's absence. The two chatted—mostly about what Scar had been up to in the last few days, since Bdubs didn't want to mention what he had been up to recently.

It was nice. Bdubs wasn't able to talk with Scar much now that he's king. And when did it was usually royal business or not casual like now.

"What are you going to show me, Scar?" Bdubs questioned.

"We need to outside for this." Explained the wizard.

The king complied, going out to the courtyard with the wizard. The king was careful to hold his moss cape up to prevent it from getting dirty.

"You know how you told me to research the dirt and whatnot?" Scar refreshed Bdubs' memory.

"Yeah, I do." Bdubs nodded.

"Well..." Scar reached into his pocket, pulling out a glowing red crystal shard. "I figured out something."

The king observed as Scar sat the crystal on the grass, mumbling a spell into his hands, his eyes glowing purple for a spilt second, and pressing both hands on the crystal. The crystal went into the ground, leaving no hint that something was buried underneath.

"Scar, you're going to kill the grass." Pointed out the royal.

"I'm not done." He said.

Scar reached into his robe pockets again, this time pulling out a white crystal. He mumbled the same spell as before into his hands, this time with the white crystal shard. When he touched the ground with the white crystal, it turned the same color of red as the crystal Scar put into the ground.

"What did you do exactly, Scar?" Bdubs asked, confused.

"I said before that we can't stop the spread or remove the crystals that are already in the soil effectively." Scar elaborated. "I found a way around that by using this blank crystal to transfer the damaging crystal to it."

"Right..." The king needed further explanation.

"I put the red crystal's magic into this one." He held out the crystal in his hand for the king to see. "The one in the ground is now blank—powerless—no longer doing damage to the soil."

"That will help clear up the other kingdoms soil!" Bdubs smiled, excited.

"There's no way to get rid of the crystals completely from the ground, so this the best we can do." The wizard elaborated.

"It's fine!" Bdubs assured him. "This is still helpful and I'll let the other kingdoms know at once."

'The other kingdoms...'

Bdubs froze.

"Actually, I'll wait until Grian gets back before I send anymore letters out." Bdubs stalled. "I should give my hand a break, anyways. Wouldn't want to have illegible handwriting on an important letter."

Bdubs anxiously awaited Scar's next words. He was afraid that the wizard would pick up on his eagerness to change the postpone writing the letter.

Luckily for Bdubs, Scar didn't say anything about it.

"Makes sense." Scar nodded. "I should probably get back to my tower. I have to clean it."

"You clean?" The king raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"No." Scar bluntly answered. "But I'm having trouble finding things, so I should try to tidy up a little."

"How bad it is?" The black haired royal curiously asked.

"You only step on things about half the time, right now." The brunette informed. "So pretty good."

"Well, I wish you luck with cleaning." Bdubs told Scar.

"And I wish you luck with your letters, Bdubs." Scar waved, taking his leave.

'Right... The letters.'

Bdubs was not looking forward to the letters. The mere thought of sitting down to write them made him sick to the stomach. He was hoping to find another way to stall working on them.

[ Grian Point of View ]

The avian flew only a couple feet off the ground, dodging trees at an exhilarating pace. He usually wasn't this good at flying, much less flying while trying to shake off an armed solider.

'Who knows what he'll do if the Moss Kingdom goes to war with the Coastal Kingdom? There could be an army hiding somewhere that he just needs alert for the battle to start!'

Starting to be in his own head too much, Grian clipped his left wing a tree. He felt the instant pain and a crack, resulting in a low crash to the ground. He bit his tongue to not scream from the pain his wing was giving him as he use the tree to pull himself up to his feet.

He quickly got up and hid behind a tree, rapidly inhaling and exhaling. He held his hands over his chest in hopes of steadying his breathing and calming himself. After a minute or so, he poked his head out from around a tree, seeing no Coastal Kingdom Solider in sight.

'I think I lost him.'

Grian turned to his right, freezing. He held his hands up on level with his chest. A sword was pointed at his throat and the solider holding it did not look pleased in the slightest.

"You've wasted a lot of my time." The warrior said, frowning with his eyes.

"Sorry about that..." Grian awkwardly chuckled, unable to look away from the blade inches away from piercing his throat.

"I don't think you want to waste anymore of it." The warrior inched the end of his his sword closer.

'I really don't...'

[ Bdubs Point of View ]

"Cleo." Bdubs interrupted the guard captain.

"Bdubs." Cleo turned around, sheathing her sword.

Around the two was a crowd of soldiers that Cleo had been training. It wasn't everyday that the army got to see the Moss King interrupt their training, obviously they were nosy about what was happening.

Bdubs leaned in close to whisper to the orangette.

"Met me in that room in half an hour." The king whispered.

Cleo nodded.

Without saying anymore, King Bdubs left the training grounds.

"Back to training everyone!" Cleo shouted. "Skiz, I need to talk to you."

* * *

Bdubs had almost forgotten that the castle had a war room. Almost.

The war room wasn't the prettiest room in the palace. No decorations. Not even a rug. The only thing in there was a table with a map of the continent.

Rather than custom pieces, the table was equipped with white chess pieces to represent the Moss Kingdom and allies, while the black ones represented enemies.

'I didn't want to come in here again.'

Bdubs starred at the lighter green portion of the map, running his fingertips over it. A memory replayed in his head.

+ + +

"These are more than just ordinary bandits." Stated the Moss King, stretching his hands across the table as he leaned over.

Bdubs watched his father closely. This was his first time in the war room, since the Moss Kingdom hardly ever used. It was only his father's second time in the room, but the prince thought that to be fib based on how the man carried himself.

"One of our scout retrieved a sword from one of their cadavers." The king explained, turning a solider across the room.

The solider presented the table with the sight of a magenta sword, red crystals lined the handle.

"What is that?" Asked a solider in the room.

"An enchanted sword." Replied the king. "These bandits pose a threat to the villages of the plains."

"But the villages in the plains don't concern us, do they?" Questioned another solider.

"They do." The king confirmed. "The villages help us in our time of need and serve as a wall between us and the other kingdoms. It's only right that we come to their defense."

Bdubs quietly sat through the meeting, watching as his father pushed chess pieces across the table. Eventually, everyone in the room came to an agreement.

"I will personally lead an army to defend the villages of the plains." The king declared.

No one opposed him.

Prince Bdubs wished someone would have opposed him.

+ + +

Footsteps brought King Bdubs back to reality. A single tear drop fell onto the table. The king covered his eyes with his hand, turning around.

"Should I give you a moment?" Cleo asked, stepping backwards.

"No." Bdubs wiped his eyes. "We need to go over battle plans."

"Just in case?" Asked the orangette.

"Just in case." Bdubs nodded.

* * *

Bdubs had been on edge all day. He had been looking forward to dinner time, where he could relax and forget all of his stress over fresh steak with Scar and Cleo.

"How nice of you to finally join us, Etho." Cleo commented.

The king turned his head, seeing the silver haired male walking down the stairs. However, he was slower and much more careful than usual.

"Etho!" Bdubs face lit up. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Etho replied, taking his seat. He smiled when he saw the dinner.

"Are you all rested for training tomorrow?" Cleo questioned, grinning.

Etho conveniently took a bite of his steak so that he didn't have to answer the captain.

"I hope Grian gets back soon." Scar glanced over to the plate beside him. "His food is going to get cold."

"Where's Grian?" Etho asked.

"I sent him to deliver letters to the villages in the plains that surround our kingdom." The king explained to his bodyguard. "I didn't expect for it to take him all day."

The four faces at the table all grew worried. It was most prominent on the wizard's.

Before Bdubs or Cleo could say any assuring words, a servant came in.

"Your highness," They respectfully addressed the king. "Your presence is requested."

"I'm eating right now." Bdubs said, annoyed.

"I have a feeling you need to meet wit—" The servant was interrupted.

"Where's the Moss King?!" An unfamiliar voice demanded from another room.

Bdubs quickly got up, Etho and Cleo following after him. In the other room, they saw a man dressed in sea blue and black. He held a sword to Grian throat, irritated by the action.

"I have a message from the Coastal Queen." The man stated.

"What is it?" King Bdubs asked, shaking at the sight before him.

"She first wants to apologize for her threat of war. She doesn't want to go to war anymore than you do." He said.

A weight was lifted Bdubs' back.

"However..." The man continued.

A much heavier weight was dropped on Bdubs' back.

"She invites you to her kingdom to discuss a diplomatic solution to this conflict." Explained the man.

"When is this meeting?" Cleo asked for Bdubs.

"Three days from now." Stated the messenger. "That gives us time to prepare and time for you journey."

"Thank you." The king thanked him. "I'll be there."

The man removed his sword from Grian's throat, gracefully sheathing it. Grian sunk to the floor, processing everything. The man turned and walked towards the entrance, stopping before he stepped foot out the door.

"Don't be late." He turned, the side of his face barely visible due to his hood.

The messenger left, leaving the three to stand over Grian.

"Scar!" Cleo called out to the wizard in the other room. "Grian's back!"

Bdubs bent down, eye level with the hybrid.

"I'm sorry..." The brunette said, unable to look Bdubs in the eyes.

"You shouldn't be." Bdubs told him. "Are you okay?"

"I hurt my wing." Grian glanced to his left wing. "But otherwise, I'm fine."

Bdubs helped Grian back onto his feet, Cleo quickly taking over to help him stand.

Scar's green eyes lit up from the doorway, a big smile across his face.

"Grian?!" The wizard ran towards Cleo and the hybrid, stopping himself before a collision.

"Scar!" Grian jumped into a hug with the the brunette, burying his face in the purple robe. "I missed you."

"I missed you more." Scar replied, wrapping his arms around the wing man tightly.

Cleo lightly smiled to Bdubs, before leaving. Bdubs turned to Etho, who seemed a little confused.

"We just dodged a war." Bdubs boosted, grinning in relief.

"I didn't have any part of that." Etho corrected him. "You dodged a war."

'He's right. I successfully avoided war.'

"Now we need to make sure to keep peace when we visit the Coastal Kingdom." Bdubs stated.

"It shouldn't be too hard, right?" Etho guessed.

"Yeah." The ravenette nodded, not agreeing with the protector. "It shouldn't be too hard."

_____

Author Note:

Yes, the Protector world is canonically flat. The map covers everything that exists in the world.