Humid air filled Brice’s chamber as a soft patter echoed in the background. The young lord didn’t even look up as he asked: “So how did it go?... Did you manage to stabilize your family?”.

His returned servant bowed and was about to make a status report when they got distracted by Gibby the second. The little salamander-like dinosaur licked its skin with flames and afterward, it yawned lazily. William couldn’t resist staring at the creature that used Brice as its personal heat source.

William smiled at the sight, “Congratulations my lord!”. Brice snorted with pride. His eyes wandered across Gibby before they closed in content. “May I perhaps… Touch it?”, William asked with caution and excitement. This plea woke Brice from his daze. He found the behavior of this servant quite odd at times. For he had shown this exact dinosaur to Vivian, Talia, and some of the servant girls, but they had all reacted in secret disgust when they saw the reptile.

This fact, Brice had to point out to the girl, “Haven’t you heard of proper etiquette?... Am I wrong or aren’t girls supposed to find reptiles repulsive?”.

Hearing this false stereotype made William smirk in disbelief as he approached the pair, “Why no, my lord? I think you’ll find girls more accepting of this dinosaur if you head outside of the Blaise territory. Or have you perhaps forgotten that most girls in this castle, have seen them devour human enemies and the like?... I find their fear of these dinosaurs very logical… Unlike you, who seem to fear snakewomen?”.

This remark made Brice’s eyes spring up in shock. Without warning he retaliated, saying, “That’s utter nonsense!... Any more words out of you and you might as well live permanently at your family’s house!”.

His haughty servant didn’t apologize immediately. Instead, they went over to pet his dinosaur that was too lazy to act against the foreign touch. After a few pets, the servant girl finally bent in defeat, “I’m sorry lord Brice…”.

The apology didn’t appease Brice at all. He frowned, while a bad taste permeated his mouth. “Just get on with it… All is forgiven”, he mumbled, not sure why everything had to be so complicated with this servant...

****

A week had passed since William’s return…

Rex followed his lord’s hasty footsteps. He wasn’t sure why the route to practice was different today, so he asked a bit out of breath, “Where are you headed, my lord? As a bonded squire you need to practice with the other squires again? No?”. Brice formed a punchable smirk as he said, “I heard a certain page came back…”.

Rex rolled his eyes in the shadows and commented, “Oh… Someone you haven’t shown your dinosaur to yet?... To think such a thing still existed”. For having the audacity to say this, Brice playfully bumped his fist into Rex’s arm, “And what of it? Can’t a man be proud of his bonded dinosaur?”. Rex massaged his sore spot and grinned, well knowing of the fact that these sorts of jokes have consequences...

The weather that day was wonderful, both sunny and yet comfortably cool.

The sun had absorbed all that was green and conformed it into its own glorious yellow kingdom. Intermingled with these new colors and scents, Brice had been unaware of as an unbonded, he suddenly got the sniff of something that shouldn’t be there in his current surroundings.

His giddy walk abruptly came to a halt. He stood on the edges of the training ground as he lifted his nose and took in a couple more sniffs. Rex, who saw this, wrinkled his nose, “What are you smelling for? Has the scent of rot come again?... But normally it doesn’t come around this time of year”.

Brice didn’t respond. Instead, he scanned the area for a certain someone. By following the scent he came across a group of pages. They were chatting up a storm before the instructor would come and disperse it. All of them were asking William where he had been.

Said page laughed awkwardly and said, “Such rotten luck I had!... It was while I was out gathering herbs that I stumbled and sprained my ankles. And yes! I sprained both of them at the same time! It was insane! And a real bother to boot... Just the act of getting back to my house took me a whole day to accomplish, since walking wasn’t really an option for me anymore, haha. But luckily the sprains I got weren’t too severe. They managed to heal within a few weeks without help from a physician...”.

The boys surrounding him found his little spun-up tale both comical and brutal. But most importantly, they believed his every word…

“So that’s why you were absent?”, a chilling voice commented. In shock, every page turned around to gaze at their young lord. William didn’t like the look on Brice’s face. He was not like the others. Eating every word he spun. Thankfully, the focus on William quickly shifted over to Brice’s new dinosaur. Not a second went by before many praised the occasion and let out sighs of envy.

William felt cold sweat trickle down his temples. He knew that by having the page William and the servant girl Mirabelle disappear simultaneously, he would arouse suspicion. But this was also the reason why he had waited to reappear as William for at least a week. And yet… Was this inkling of an effort enough to protect his identity?

Brice generously let the peasants adore his dinosaur, while he performed his little investigation. The scent was definitely the strongest here but there were no signs of the servant girl. It was very odd…

As more pages saw the lord and his new dinosaur, a steady stream began to flow to the area; taking up most of the space that surrounded Brice. Because of the mass gathering that occurred in front of him, William felt strangled and on the spot. Thus he went over to Avian who had just arrived. While on his way to ‘safety’ he evidently brushed up against Brice’s arm.

The young lord furrowed his brows and soon after he smoothly ended all social interactions. As his adoring fans left him to his own devices, Brice took a quick glance over at Avian and the page, who had become quite friendly with each other lately. Then left for his own practice area...

On his way through the many stone corridors, he muttered to himself unsure of what he had just observed, “Strange… Are William and the servant girl having an affair? Or…?”. Brice found this mystery very hard to crack as the answer could range from something as mild as sharing the same soap to something of a traitorous degree. Although he couldn’t settle on an explanation as to why these people smelled the same, the possible answers made him feel perturbed...

William, on the other hand, did find Brice’s behavior as he left somewhat odd but not alarming. Therefore he took his time appreciating Avian’s last day together with them. And that is not to be understood as his last day with the Blaises but with the pages, for this wolf had managed to beat all of them at least once. And as the instructor had promised, he was now free to join the squires...

Since it was Avian’s last day there, the other pages decided to hold the usual graduation ceremony for him, which was Mud-wrestling.

It was a joyous event held outside the castle walls, in a man-made pit of swampy soil. William was thrilled to participate in the fun. Fortunately for him, they got to wrestle in their armors. Weapons, on the other hand, were not allowed. Since it was all about drowning the other party in mud and not about shedding their blood and tears. Soon the horn sounded to commence the battle.

People were expecting a large scale battle to commence amongst all the pages and yet it looked like the majority of them went solely after Avian. The person of honor was of course not allowed to stand unsoiled for even a second!... William smirked as he watched the clean image of the noble get destroyed. He really shouldn’t have. For the next in line was him!

William stood in shock as a wave of ‘mud-monsters’ crawled and ran towards him in a massive wave. These lackluster brown creatures all wore shiny grins as they chuckled. There was nothing William could do in this horror but give up and say, “Well, **** it!”. And *SPLAT*, within the blink of an eye he was forced to become one of them…

When the fun was over, people went home to change and clean themselves. As for William? He knew he couldn’t go back to the castle for a rinse as it would seem too strange. Thus he went along with the flock of returning pages, and with great timing, he managed to slip behind the Castonale house without getting seen.

As William took a break up against the wall, he saw an intimate scene. It took him by great surprise. So much so, that he could do nothing but remain up against the wall as their secret little stalker in the background.

It was Joss and Remony who sat near the island’s edge. Knowing that there might have been some development between these two that had gone unseen by him, William decided to obey his curiosity. Thus he watched on in silence…