Braya, Princess Rosepost, and Alaris were still in the throne room when King Bakdrel walked through the doors and told them James had been hurt. He guided them to a large white tent near the castle that was filled with injured soldiers and doctors tending to their wounds. Silhouettes of the dwarven soldiers sitting on stools and lying on table-like wooden beds as the doctors treated them could be seen from outside the tent due to the mass amount of lanterns inside.

“What happened?” Alaris frantically asked Aviar, who was standing next to the bed James unconsciously laid on.

“Is he alive?” Braya questioned.

“Queen Sorlia stabbed him,” Aviar answered, wiping his arms, hands, and face with a white cloth to clean the blood. “She would’ve killed him if Bakdrel and I didn’t get to him sooner.”

“He will be fine,” a doctor said. She wore a brown cloak with black leaves painted on the sleeves. “I closed the wound and spread honey on the bandage to combat infection. Just make sure the bandage stays on for at least a few days before removal.” She then left.

That isn’t normal, Braya thought after briefly placing her hand on the skin of James’ arm. For a moment, she questioned if she was touching ice or some form of metal. The coldness of his skin began transferring itself to her, slowly crawling up her arm. She snatched her hand away and immediately, the icy feeling went away. Braya was met with the confused faces of King Bakdrel, Alaris, and Aviar.

“Is something wrong?” Alaris asked.

Due to her threatening his and James’ lives, which made her sick to her stomach, she was shocked he even made eye contact with her. Does he even remember?

Instead of leaving him with no response, she shook her head from left to right.

Her muscles tightening, Braya raised her eyebrows as she looked at James. She scanned every part of his body, from his feet to his head. To her surprise, everything seemed normal, with his body at least. But the normality of one’s body being so cold—it could be felt deep within the skin of someone who touched it—didn’t exist. But there wasn’t anything she could do about it, nor was there anyone she could tell without sounding like she needed medical attention herself. It wasn’t like Alaris would have believed her anyway. He was likely worried about James’ well being more than she was. And given the nature of their relationship, he would probably brush it off as another lie.

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“I’d like to have a word with all of you outside.” Bakdrel stated.

Each of them followed King Bakdrel outside the tent where they stood under the starry sky, the cold breeze dancing on their skin.

“Princess,” he began, “I saw how your kingdom -or what’s left of it- looked. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to rebuild on your own, therefore, us dwarves will be happy to help.”

Princess Rosepost smiled. “Thank you.”

“As for the rest of you, there are multiple inns within the kingdom for you to stay in until your departure. Come to the castle tomorrow and I’ll give you horses to quicken your journey home. And I will be sending as many materials and skilled dwarves as possible along with you to get a head start on rebuilding.”

Everyone nodded as Bakdrel began walking away.

“Oh, one more thing,” he started again, turning back around. “It’s possible for your friend not to remember anything that happened when he wakes up. Just give him time and he should be back to normal.”

“I’ll see you all tomorrow.” he said as he walked away.

“So,” Princess Rosepost began,” I guess we should go find an inn.”

After searching the cold, dark streets of the kingdom for a while, they eventually came across a building with the name CLOVERFIELD INN built into it with bright blue letters, barely visible in the moonlight. Inside, there were chairs and tables everywhere, each with a lantern or candle placed on the center of it.

“You all aren’t from around here.” said a female dwarf with a smile, who was cleaning a table with a soaking wet cloth.

“We were hoping to stay here for the night.” Aviar stated.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” the dwarf said. “Go through that door and up the stairs.” She pointed to a short green door. “There should be at least two doors with green signs on them. Those rooms aren’t occupied. Flip the sign over to the red side when you go into it. Each room has two beds in it though.”

“Thank you.” Princess Rosepost said.

After walking through the door, going up the stairs, and walking down a long hallway with doors on each side with red signs on them, they eventually found the two doors with green sides on them. Aviar and Alaris went in one room, and Braya and Princess Rosepost went into the other, flipping the sign over before entering.

The moonlight shining through the window was enough to light their path to the beds, where she and Princess Rosepost both fell asleep.