The physician stood up after putting some ointments and wrapping a cloth around the burns. Seraphina stood in the corner all the time watching as the physician did his work. He was sleeping peacefully but she knew he was bearing all the pain by himself.

"The ointment will cool down the burns and soothe the pain." He said as he turned to look at Seraphina with his deep concerned eyes, "I will come to have a look at His Highness in the evening." 

"All right." Seraphina said as she looked at Demian.

"Princess?" The dwarf physician called for her attention, "may I request something?" 

Seraphina nodded at the small individual hoping it wasn't something major. "Yes?"

"I think it would be wise if he rests here for two more days because His Highness needs to gather enough strength before his body can take more strain." 

Seraphina nodded again, her eyes drifting over to her husband who wouldn't listen to this advice. She knew he was stubborn and wouldn't accept his weakness and would push through any adversity even if it meant his life. 

"I understand." She finally said, "I'll try to convince him." 

Seraphina knew he was always so hard on himself. People had failed to see how Demian considered others before his life. All they had done was talking behind his back as in how cruel and rude he was, how much he disrespected others or how much he would discard anyone without a second thought. From what she had learned, he was certainly disrespectful and rude but to them who had somehow harmed someone. All those rumors about him were fake and made up. 

She slowly reached out and brushed his silky dark hair, he sighed softly and she felt her heart sinking. How could someone bear so much pain and still keep up a strong face? The more that she thought about how Demian always put up his angry face to keep people away from him so that no one would see how much pain he was in made her heart wrench. She wanted to protect him and do everything she could to keep him safe, at least till the time that she would be by his side.

*****

The morning came with a need to stretch her legs for Seraphina, she looked at Demian's sleeping figure and slowly got off the bed. As soundlessly as possible she dressed herself and went out, the guards immediately perked up at her sight.

"Greetings, Princess." She almost jumped at their greeting and hushed them.

"Be quiet, he is still sleeping." She whispered and the guards exchanged looks among themselves before nodding.

"I am going out to see the town." She whispered.

"You can't go alone, Princess." One of them said.

"But you'll have to stay here to keep Demian safe." 

"We still cannot ignore your safety, Princess."

"Fine then, two of you can accompany me and two of you stay here and make sure he doesn't go anywhere and takes full rest." She said and the guards again exchanged a look amongst themselves before obliging.

On her way out Seraphina ran into Reginus, he smiled and greeted her warmly.

"Has His Highness not awoken yet?" He asked and she shook her head.

"How is his condition now?" 

"He didn't seem to be in pain throughout the night so, I guess the medicines of the physician are working." Seraphina said making him smile with satisfaction.

"I am glad. Would you like to have breakfast with me, Princess?" He asked and Seraphina shook her head again.

"I'm out to see your town."

"Oh, is that so? It's an honor." His face visually brightened.

"But what if His Highness wakes up while you're gone?" He asked.

"He needs complete rest so, if he comes down here please ask him to go back to bed." She said and he gave her a sheepish looking smile. 

"I'll try to keep him occupied." He said and Seraphina smiled as she headed forth.

The town was alive with activity, the people were going back and forth doing their work. The markets were opening and the doors of the houses were opening with people greeting each other. She received greetings from the dwarves and she greeted them back with equal warmth. Some dwarves dressed in leather coats with scabbards attached to their hips quickly flanked her and she looked at the one who looked like their leader.

"Greetings, Princess." He bowed, "We are the task force of this town and we are ordered to keep you safe until you are in this town." 

"What's your name?" Seraphina asked.

"Gorof." He answered.

"All right then, let's go." She said as she led the group of guards.

"So, Gorof. What is your town's specialty?" Seraphina asked.

"We're mostly self sufficient, Princess. We have our own fields where we grow the vegetables and fruits and then we have the blacksmiths here who make the best weapons and armors. Thanks to them we had kept good relations with the Ogre race." Gorof said.

"How so?" 

"The Ogre race has the manual strength but most of the time they fail in strategy and planning. They also don't have much knowledge about farming and lack financial resources. We collaborated with them so that they would give us the protection and we would provide them with the grains and tools with which they work. Most of the buildings here you see are built by them." He said pointing at the large buildings.

"That's good." Seraphina marveled.

"And, that's the workshop of our most talented blacksmith." He said pointing at the small building which had a chimney on its roof.

"Great, let's go see him." Seraphina said as she walked towards the building which had the iron board named Iron Arms on it.

The warm air with the smell of sweat and coals touched Seraphina as soon as she entered the workshop. There were three men working inside one was striking the hot iron with a large hammer and another two were accompanying him.

"Hey there, Brutus." Gorof called out making one of the blacksmiths look up.

"Gorof? And? Oh, it's the Princess!" The man called out looking at Seraphina, the one beside him turned his attention as well and the two bowed quickly but the third one was still busy with his work ignoring the presence of others.

"Please don't be offended, Princess. Varius gets a lot focused when he is working." Brutus said.

"Welcome to the Dwarf town, Princess. I hope you are enjoying your stay here." The second blacksmith said, he had quite thick eyebrows and bushy beard with a stout body. Brutus was bald with a thin beard while the last man who was sweating profusely had a busy beard and a bandana tied over forehead keeping his long hair back. 

Seraphina talked to the blacksmiths and after a few minutes she saw Varius standing up from his spot. He breathed deeply and picked up a cloth to wipe his face off. 

"Princess, I hope I haven't offended you. I am Varius and this is my workshop." Varius said as he saw Seraphina watching the weapons and tools.

"No, no. I'm not in the least offended. And it's quite a nice place you've got here." Seraphina said as she looked at the workshop with stone walls and various tools and weapons decorated on them.

Varius let out a laugh, "You seem quite free minded, Princess, unlike the Dragon Prince."

"Ah! He is a little uptight." She agreed with a smile as she picked up a sword and whirled it in her hand trying out a few slashes.

"This is quite a nice sword." She complimented, "And, it's also light in weight."

"You seem like the warrior type to me, Princess. Have you wielded a sword before?" He asked, Seraphina smiled.

"Yes." 

"That's good. Maybe I could make a sword for you." He said making Seraphina's face brighten.

"You will?"

"Sure, Princess." Varius said.

After the blacksmiths Seraphina found herself back on the streets again with her personnel accompanying her. Gorof showed her various places and introduced her to various people with whom Seraphina quickly formed ties. It was comparatively easier to be with these people than with the dragons for Seraphina. She visited various shops and saw some precious gems for sale which she hadn't ever seen in her life.

"Where do you get these from?" She asked as she pointed at the precious colorful gems.

Gorof looked at her and then said in a casual manner, "These are the gems from our mines. It's our capital income." He said.

"I want to see those mines." Seraphina said and Gorof shrugged his shoulders as he took the lead.

Suddenly Seraphina stopped and looked at the building which seemed rather different than the other buildings of the town. It seemed quite weird with a large chimney on the top and a large wheel and some tools hanging off the walls.

"What is this place?" Seraphina asked Gorof and he looked at where she was pointing.

"Oh, that's Rordon's place. He's a crazy guy who calls himself an inventor." He said.

"Let's go see him." Seraphina said and before Gorof or anyone could stop her she walked off towards Rordon's house.

She knocked on the door and a strange voice followed making her frown, "Who is it?" A man's voice came at last.

Gorof came up beside Seraphina asking her to step back, "It's me Gorof and Princess Seraphina is here to meet you. Open the door Rordon." Gorof said.

There were sounds of some things falling on the ground and then of someone's groaning as if they had stubbed their toe. Finally the door opened revealing a dwarf who had stringy grey hair along with bushy beard and mustache. He wore a long white apron and had a curious look in his deep set eyes.

"My, my Princess herself has come to see me." He marveled, "Please step in, my Princess. I welcome you into my humble abode." He stepped aside giving Seraphina way to enter.

She walked in and was more in awe as she saw the drawings and lot of papers attached to the walls and scattered along the floor. There were also some strange objects which she hadn't seen in her life, this place seemed more like a new world to her.

"Please excuse the untidiness, Princess. I am currently working on my newest invention and it is called the steaminator." He announced as he showed her the large drawing of a metal box like object.

"Steam... inator? What does it do?" She asked.

"It helps people travel fast." Rordon said with bright eyes, "Once I build this it will surely help people travel to long distances in less time with the help of steam energy. At this moment I'm trying out the experiment you can see if you want." 

"Sure." Seraphina answered with glee not seeing what the reactions the rest party with her had.

"All right!" Rordon cheered as he went off to work on the metal box.

He mumbled something incoherent and then he spoke out, "Uh oh." 

"Let's get out of here Princess." Gorof said and pulled Seraphina and the rest out before she could say anything.

A loud sound of something exploding resounded behind them and the black smoke rose from the large chimney. Gorof sighed with relief as he looked back and Seraphina looked slightly confused.

"What happened?" 

"Rordon is an expert in exploding things. It is dangerous to stay around his workplace." Gorof said and his companions nodded in agreement.

"So then, let's go to the mines now." Seraphina announced and the tour continued.

*****

The warm pain blossoming in his back forced Demian to wake up from his slumber, he slowly turned keeping in mind the displeasure of his back and noticed the empty side of the bed. He looked across the room finding no one else besides him. His eyebrows furrowed as he wondered where his harebrained wife had run off to now.

"Guards!" He called out and instantly two guards entered the room and bowed.

"Greetings, Your Highness." The spoke in unison.

"Where is Seraphina?"

"Princess Seraphina has went out to see the town with the dwarves, the other two knights are accompanying her, Your Highness," one of them said, still looking at the ground. 

"She what?" Demian's brows twitched. That ogre! She hadn't even informed him. Lately, Seraphina had become so out of hand that he thought he would need to restrain her. But then again she wouldn't listen. It would only encourage her to do more. 

"Take me there," he ordered as he stood up and wore his clothes. The pain had subsided from before but there were still some stings and the ointment had a calming effect. He needed to know what kind of ointment it was. Perhaps, he can take some with him. 

"But Her Highness had ordered us not to let you go..."

Demian looked at them, eyes glinting with mischief as he cast a cruel smile, "She's learned to order me around, eh?"

The guards stayed on the floor unmoving and Demian asked them, "Whose position is more important among us?"

"Yours, Your Highness."

"Exactly!" He said, "Now, lead me to the fields."

Demian walked out and was welcomed by the warm sun rays that bathed the entire town. The village was very lively and active and it felt different from last night. The dwarf children playfully roamed around the roads while the older ones were already occupied by their work. Some were buying vegetables, some were coming with big carts and large, raw jems. A few cartwheels had goods and some had woods. As Demian went ahead they bowed and greeted with their big smiles, occasionally saying 'good morning'. 

"How are you feeling, young Prince?" The village elder came and asked. He wore an equally big smile. 

"I am feeling better."

"Oh! Our village physician is very good at his work. It always works on my joint pains." 

"That's very good to hear." 

"Why don't you join me for breakfast?" He asked, "I'm sure, you haven't had your morning meal yet?"

"I would be happy to but I need to find princess Seraphina." And certainly to lecture her for not going anywhere on her own, he thought the rest of the sentence as his teeth grinded. It was already dangerous to stay here in an unknown village where they had barely four guards and a chauffeur. One of the chauffeurs had died already and yet she had been wandering around as if the enemy wouldn't find her.

"Ah! Princess is probably visiting the fields right now and Young Prince..." the old man scratched his jaw, "you need to rest all the while."

From his way of talking, Demian could understand that they were Seraphina's words. 

"Tell me, is that what Seraphina said to you?"

"Err... No?" He averted his eyes from him to the children beside him who were busy playing. 

"She did, did she?"

A nervous chuckle left from the old dwarf's mouth, "well, she has certainly told me not to let you go anywhere."

"But I'm afraid, we have to depart soon."

"No! You can't go Prince, the doctor has asked you to take full rest."

"I'll do that once I reach my castle. Now, guide me to the fields." He ordered curtly as he felt his blood pressure rising. 

Not having enough power to disobey his Prince, the elder dwarf informed the route and Demian and his guards spun on their heels.