CHAPTER ONE: A CHILD TORN FROM REALITY

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Snippet One: A Present for the King

Early afternoon, King Alcandor sits at a desk writing a schedule for the upcoming week. He sits back after getting finished and starts drinking the cup of cocoa previously placed by his secretary Cascade. He then gets out a new folder, but before he does, he gets interrupted by the door being knocked on and opened.

"Excuse me, King Alcandor, you've got two advisors and the healer here to speak with you," Cascade says she opens it the rest of the way. "I know they weren't supposed to be here for four more hours, but they insisted that it was important."

Alcandor sighs and says, "Let them in Cascade, it is not your fault that they do this." He gets up from his desk and sits on a couch with 2 chairs with an end table. "Please also bring in refreshments, as I am sure they will want it." He says as he internally rolls his eyes.

She nods her head while gesturing the three Merrow to go into the room. How they had the audacity to do this to him, she had no clue, but she had a job to do so she would.

Inside the king's chamber, the king sits on the couch and pointedly stares at the three Merrow forcing his hand. "Well? Are you not going to greet your king as you should?" He grouchily says. "Well! Do it and sit down. Don't waste my time!" He yells angrily.

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The three jump in unison and scurry inside to all give a bow to their king. "I'm sorry my king," says the purple Merrow, "I was content on waiting for our scheduled time." He stares at the two other Merrow. "But some wanted to get this done sooner than later." He coughs, looking down at the floor. "Your Queen's results are fine, but she is not pregnant yet. She must just have eaten something that disagrees with her."

"Well, that's a relief." King Alcandor says. "I'm not looking forward to having a child just yet with the problems on the surface right now. A child would be quite a pain right now." He says looking outside the windows. "Well, is there anything else to discuss? I'm quite busy with the Hunt happ-." Alcandor suddenly stands up as a bright light hits the middle of the room. And then a body suddenly hits the ground. "Kesmar’s bloody reefs!" He yells before continuing with, "Wait, she looks like my mother! Alanni, is that finally you back??" He tries to peer at the person on the ground.

The young woman whirls around and says "Alann-?" before plummeting to the ground in a faint.

Alcandor looks at the medic before bellowing "Get her to a healing room now! She's either my sister or someone else lost to us!"

The medic hurriedly grabs the child before running to the closest healing room and starts to do a diagnosis. "Your majesty, she has a bruise on her chest and on her right side. Her lungs also look to have been damaged. She also has cuts, scrapes, and bruises from getting hit with something. Shall I heal her?" He says.

"Yes! Heal her! I may have no clue who she may be, but she deserves to be healed at the least. Let me know when she is healed and close to waking up! I want to be there along with that brain-dead cousin of mine Alphaeus along with Kieran." King Alcandor says walking out of the room. "So much for not having a child in our life..." He sighs and heads his way to Killigan.