Declared as his

Chapter 6

One year later

Prince Marcus POV

It’s been a year of constant training and nagging. I never knew there was so much to it. It’s almost like running your own business and keeping your clients happy. I’m officially a businessman at 18. It’s been challenging and I must say I enjoyed it at times, even though it was more theory as practical, but sometimes my father gave me some trail runs. He let me go out on my own. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment. Today is one of those trail days. There is a a carnival in town and we need to be present at all town function. I’m going instead of my father due to our town being plagued by attacks from some sort of beast. No one has given a clear description of the beast. It could be a bear, a wolf or even a mountain lion. We haven’t had any predators on these mountains for quite some time. It’s always been a safe place to go and walk trail or camp. The complaints started about a month ago with campers finding dead animals that have been mauled. The funny thing is they aren’t eaten, it looks like the predator was torturing them. They are all covered in slashes that weren’t deadly, but very painful and then there was one finally gash across the throat or right across the belly. It was a very sickening sight to behold. The beast seems to be very smart in order to plan his attack so exactly over and over again. The people were bothered by the incidents, especially if it happened that they were camping with their children, but most of them just claimed it was nature and it isn’t necessary for us all to step in. That was until children started to go missing at first they returned just terribly scratched up, some were so bad that they were put in comas to avoid the pain. Then about a week ago the beast killed a child. A little girl was killed and carried to the edge of town, like the body was almost displayed for everyone to see. This caused an uproar, the girl was so cut up that they had to prove her identity with her teeth x-rays from her dentist. She was the only one to have disappeared so it had to be her, but on one side no one wanted to admit it that it could be her. There wasn’t an inch of her body that didn’t have bite marks or claw marks on. After a long time of convincing her parents they let specialists investigate her body. They used a study that compared the jaw shapes and bite marks of 12 different species. The study had 486 specimens. The problem was that none of the bite marks lined up. The size is as big as a bear, but the teeth looked more like those of a wolf. They thought it could be a hybrid mix or some cross breed. The town was scared and wanted retribution. Which is why I am going to the carnival and my father is going hunting. He is pretty good at hunting it is one of his hobbies. He goes hunting at least once a month all over the world hoping from one hunting season to another. He has a group of friends who usually go with him. They are all going with him today to kill the Beast. If anyone is going to do it, it will be them.

Dear Marcus

I’m sorry my letters are few, getting them out of here is quite difficult with Madam Chari always around. She is very strict with this being isolation. I’ve tried telling her that I don’t need to be isolated from you. You only put me in isolation to I guess hide me away. Which wasn’t necessary at all since I wouldn’t dishonor our agreement, I’m not that type of person. If I promise to do something I do it. It is also one of the rules to stick with commitment, there is quite a few that goes on about commitment. It all handles about verbal promises, engagement commitments and even when you invite someone you can’t uninvite them. On a completely other note I now believe in short notice invitations. Can you imagine inviting someone to your house a month ahead of time and then you have a falling out and you can’t disinvite them. My lessons are still going very well and they are forever constant. It’s kind of scary how things can get stuck in your mind, not that I think Madam Chari will let me of this island if I’m not 100% transformed in the ideal lady and perfect future queen. I’ve been working really hard on my school work this last year and I’ve managed to advance to my second last year of high school. Which means that by the end of this year if I work really hard I could finish high school. Then I could maybe take some online courses. Madam Chari thinks it is a horrible idea, because one of the rules is that I can’t work in an office, basically I’m not allowed to work. I’m just allowed to be a perfect little object. I could use what I learn in many situations though. I just don’t want to feel like I gave up all my dreams. One of those was to study. I won’t have the university experience, but at least I’ll have the knowledge. Oh I also started a charity. Charity work is very important and I have to start building my charity portfolio so for my first charity I put my allowance in a savings account, the idea is that it will become a scholarship fund for someone that wants to go to university. I know it isn’t the best type of charity and the money could go for so much better things, but I value education. I even thought that once they are done studying that I could help place them somewhere where they could really put that education to use. I know it’s silly, but I’m 15 and suddenly I need to be running a charity and a house. I guess I’m doing my best.

Your letters give me a sense of hope. You make me feel like I can do all of this. You make it seem like when this four years are over everything will be okay. I miss you. It’s crazy, but true. Reading your letters have made me feel like I know you, like I’ve known you all along. The way you talk about me makes my heart race and gives me butterflies. The idea that somewhere out there you are waiting for me. You are longing for me make me strong. I never thought anyone would care so deeply for me. I always wanted a normal life with a normal guy. I wanted normal feelings I wasn’t reaching for extraordinary, but with you it seems I found it. The only fear I have is that the distance have made you build me up in your head. I don’t want you to be disappointed with the reality once we see each other again.

Yours Calla    

She is insane to think that I will be disappointed in her. I fell in love with her at first glance. Both of us were still young and we can only improve from that point. She could never disappoint me. I put the letter down and quickly got dressed in my royal attire. Then I set of to the town square where the carnival would be taking place. The people were afraid and wanted to cancel the event all together, but my father encouraged them not to. He wants them to be distracted for awhile. It provides a different reality for just a few hours at least. My father also let all our bodyguards surround the event ensuring that no kids leave the area and go wandering in the forest. We don’t need anymore bodies showing up. That is the one thing that has been bothering me about this. After the animal attacks you’d think that parents would warn their children to stay out of the forest. The parents claimed they had warned them, but still after every attack another child had gone into the forest. I can’t get myself to believe that children could be that stupid. They would be to scared to go in the forest. All of it just doesn’t sit right with me. The carnival looks spectacular. There is lights and rides everywhere, I can see it from the road leading into the town. As I arrived I made a speech that opened the carnival. I was the first carnival guest to step in and then all the kids and parents rushed past me. The whole thing was such a success. Everyone had fun and momentarily forgot about all the things that was happening around us. Even I managed to enjoy myself. The kids made me get on some of the rides and all the vendors wanted me to taste their items. One rule that my father was very specific about was that as a royal you have to accept all and any gifts given to you. Of course someone tasted the food before I got to, but I had to eat so many things. I actually wanted to go back to my old ways and hide so that people could stop feeding me. The carnival finally closed down at 9pm a curfew we had to suggest. Everyone went home and all the cleaning will be left for the next day. I was grateful to go home. I want to write Calla a letter so that it can be send out tomorrow. I also want to hear if they found The Beast. I would like to see it. I guess I don’t do good with mysteries. We finally made it back to the castle and I rushed inside to talk to my father. It’s strange doing event without him. Yes I’ve done a few solo, but it is always weird. We’ve just become a lot closer in this last year with the constant training.

“I’m Home!” I screamed out as I entered the castle. I know not good manners, but I’m a work in progress. I saw a servant approaching me.

“Where is my father?” I asked him and he gestured for me to follow. He lead me to the drawing room. I guess my father and the hunting party are celebrating with a scotch in front of the fireplace. I burst in through the door. All to excited to tell my father how great a success my night was and to hear about his night. What I saw was a bunch of my fathers friends all sitting around the room with their head hanging low. I guess they had less success than I did. I looked through the room for my father.

“Where is my father?” I asked which made everyone look up at me.

“Marcus…” My fathers closest friend was the one to speak. Uncle Jared, my mothers brother.

“We were attacked, it was so huge, almost pitch black…it was fast, like it was a part of the darkness. We could hardly see it. We only saw big yellow eyes. Every bullet missed. It was like the beast could read our movements, but it had a clear destination. It ignored us. It was set on your father. It happened so fast, it lunged and then your father was down. There was so much blood.”

“Where is my father?” I asked again. Uncle Jared being the only one who was still looking at me all the other men was looking at the ground avoiding my eyes.

“He didn’t make it. The beast slashed his throat within a second. Before we could even reach your father he was gone.” No, my father can’t be dead. He is the King. A ruler and an excellent huntsman.

“WHERE IS MY FATHER!!!!” I screamed which make everyone look at me again and I saw the sadness and the tears they were all hiding. It’s not possible.

“He is in the infirmary.” I didn’t wait another second I took off towards the infirmary, running full speed until I burst through the doors. On the one bed laid a body, covered from head to toe, the linen covered in blood. I rushed over and ripped it off expecting this to be some sick trick, but there laid my father with a huge s***h across his throat his head almost completely separated from his body. My legs gave out as I fell on my knees hugging the bloodied linen to my chest. I screamed out as I started crying violently. My father is dead how is this happening. I just kept crying loudly, people were rushing in some of them trying to talk to me. Someone tried to take the linen from me and I only pushed them away. They even tried getting me up. I just thrashed out of there hold. Once my tears stopped the anger set into me. I found myself thrashing the whole room throwing tables over, all the medical equipment was scattered across the floor. The space felt suffocating, so I ended up throwing a chair through the window. After the anger the rage made it’s way to my heart and settled there. I stormed out to see a servant waiting outside.

“Clean that f*****g place up! Clean my fathers body properly this time! Useless all of you!”