Chapter 28: A Promise - 4
Evelina knelt on the cold stone floor of the training hall, the Knight’s Trial Elixir clutched in her hand, tears streaming down her face. Her raw scream of frustration had torn, echoing in the vast, empty space of the hall.
Evelina, still lost in the painful labyrinth of her past, saw herself as a child again, in the sun-dappled gardens of the Sapphire manor. The rescued puppy, Evedee, a small bundle of white fur, jumped around her feet, its tail wagging. It was a game of catch, simple and joyous.
Evelina would throw a tree branch, and the puppy, a blur of white, would quickly sprint to retrieve it, its tiny legs churning. After a series of successful catches, Evelina, with a child’s playful mischievousness, decided to make the next throw a little more challenging. She wound up and hurled the stick deep into the forest that bordered the manor grounds.
She waited. And waited. Minutes stretched into an deepening silence. The puppy didn’t come back. Evelina’s heart began to pound, a cold fear tightening in her stomach.
Where was Evedee? Was he hurt? Was he lost? Worry for the puppy’s safety quickly overshadowed her initial playful intent. She knew the forest was thick, full of thorny bushes and possible wild animals. Her fear of insects, of spiders and beetles and crawling things, prevented her from searching for the puppy.
She contemplated calling for a guard, for a maid, for Prudee. But a stronger, burgeoning sense of responsibility, ignited within her. This was her puppy, rescued by her knight. She had to go. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she decided to overcome her fear of bugs. Slowly, tentatively, she began to crawl beneath the thick, low-hanging branches of the bushes, inching her way into the forest.
Meanwhile, across the manor, in his own room, Prudee Sapphire lay on his bed, body facing the ceiling, a history book resting on his chest. His gaze was distant, unfocused. He read aloud, his voice flat with disinterest, a passage from the text: "Calvados was essential to the victory of the allied forces in the southern campaign, leveraging its unique mountainous terrain to funnel the Tumedian cavalry into the waiting..." He snapped the book shut with a sigh of exasperation. "Boring," he muttered, tossing the tome onto his bedside table.
History—lessons about war and politics and long-dead strategists. He gazed at the simple, blunted metal sword that rested in the corner of his room, a gift from a visiting blacksmith. His eyes lit up. He quickly grabbed it, leaping from his bed, swinging the thing left, right, center, mimicking the movements of the knights he read about in adventure stories.
After a few minutes, his enthusiasm waned. He got bored. He wanted to play. He wanted action. He wanted Evelina. He decided to check on her in her room, eager to play Knights and Queen. But her room was empty. He checked other familiar places in the manor – the grand hall, the library, even the bustling kitchen, asking various maids and guards if they had seen his sister. One of the stable guards finally told him he had last seen young Lady Evelina in the garden behind the manor, playing with the new puppy.
Prudee quickly made his way to the back garden, his small sword clutched in his hand. But the garden was empty. His heart gave a slight anxious flutter. He scanned the lawns, then the edge of the forest. He saw faint footsteps, fresh ones – small paw prints next to the distinctive, dainty marks of a child’s shoe. Evelina and Evedee had been here recently. Perhaps they had just moved to the front garden, for a change of scenery, he thought.