'I suggest that we take a trip,' Lucifer announced the following week, while Lou wallowed in self pity and Hale polished some knives. Hale had taken to learning the princes signature double dagger technique, but the servant in him made him try to keep the knives clean as possible. Which was hard to do when stabbing them into living beings.
'My coronation is in four days and I have two dates this week,' Lou said.
'So should I pack your things then?' she asked.
'Hell yes, but how can we go without mum throwing a fit and nothing becoming an issue with Elsie's family and Pat's getting mad,' Lou asked.
'Already taken care of,' Luci clapped, 'we are going away to perform the cinder traditions. That will prove you worthy of being king. She can't argue with those and the people would see you as finally taking responsibility, because all you have done since you got back was go out flirting.'
'The whosie whatsies?' he asked.
'The cinder traditions are ancient and not been use in centuries. They were used to prove a crown royal's worth to take the throne. You would travel through the Bilk caverns with two chosen allies and return with the water of balance and the brand of justice. I think you had to do it at certain times throughout life, so when you finally were branded it was the tree of life. Proving you were the lifeblood of the nation,' Hale provided.
'The trials of the Bilk are also used for everyday quests to prove worth. But it is the last two that hold the water and brand to prove a worthy sovereign. So doing all the trials would also help just round you out,' Luci added.
'Oh, yeah, I remember that. The brand would be shown to the kingdom for them to acknowledge their new ruler. So in other words, the three of us go and get Hale branded,' Lou grinned. Then he collected himself and began to pack a small satchel and collect anything he assumed would be of use.
'Ok, he is really dense, but not naïve,' Lucifer said when Hale glared at her.
'How does he not realise that I don't want the throne but I am sticking around because he has asked me too? And he is all like, once you become king love will be on the backburner. Honestly what can I do? I sincerely think that love is very important to not only kingship but an essential for life. And the more that he attempts to take notice of my belief of it, he just ends up insulting me,' Hale huffed.
'This is hilarious,' Luci said with an expressionless face.
'Are you two packing or what, I want to leave before mum hears and we are faced with the nightmare of having to take her with,' Lou called from his room. The two left the room in a slight frantic mess at the mention of the queen.
When they made it out to the courtyard, each laden with small bags and cloaks, the Regent came out to see them. He was out of breath and had red puffy cheeks and he leaned down and tried to regain even breaths.
'Do be careful. And Lucifer I am trusting you to make sure that he does not get himself killed or seriously maimed. Otherwise this kingdom will be your problem, because I refuse to stay in power for any longer,' Lane informed and quickly left.
Lou then refused to waste anymore time with theatrics and rushed them down to the garage. Still worried that his mother could possibly come out and drag them back into the palace to decide on the best jewel that he should have fitted to his coronation cape. And the seating arrangement of all the eligible people attending.
'I vote the tank,' Luci screeched when the doors rolled open. Her face had lit up at the sight of the huge dirt green machine. It's tracks still clogged with mud, and a huge barrel pointing straight at them.
'I was going to suggest one of the off roaders,' Lou muttered pointing to the logical choice of vehicle for the trip. All the large bulked up, four-wheel drive, petrol pumping monsters, lined in a shiny row.
But Lucifer was not backing down and instead of arguing Lou agreed and the three climbed into the tank. It was as they made it into the forest that Lucifer found out the tank was in fact not limitless. Or a good idea to take on a quest. As she drove it into a mud ditch where the tracks just ground up dirt and refused to move. Also the fact that they had barely made past sixty kilometres an hour. So they then abandoned the tank and returned taking a yellow off roader instead, Lou and Luci both being forced into the back seat after they had been the cause of the crashed tank. But Lucifer was undeterred and dubbed Hale as their chauffer, reinstating her superiority.
'How do you crash a tank,' Hale wondered watching them in the rear view mirror.
'He's going to make a great king, already bossing us around,' Luci huffed.
'I know, he's practically perfect,' Lou grinned, ignorant to the blush and sudden jolt of the car.
'It puts me at ease to know that I leave the kingdom in capable hands.'
'At least you are at ease,' Luci mumbled.
They continued along for what felt like only hours, stopping for fuel and food. But apparently the time appeared to be two days of constant driving. Which was mainly getting lost and eventually they also lost the car, after the last fuel stop and mountain road.
'Two days until you are crowned king, we need to get our shit together people,' Lou called behind him. Lucifer and Hale huffing and puffing as they clambered up the hill to the point where they had seen smoke.
'You're a witch aren't you,' Hale groaned tripping on another tree root.
'Do you know how magic works?'
'Honestly no clue, I just know that it is really hard,' he replied.
'Magic isn't all around like in the fairy tales, magic is just hard work and belief,' Luci snapped.
'So all my hard work to collect dragon scales and such, and the fact I believe that I can do magic means that when put it together I have magic,' she said pulling a coin sized scale from her pack.
She flipped it in the air watching it spin and fall, then it stopped, frozen in time. Hale watching the still green scale with disgust and disappointment. Then the scale dissolved to dust, swirling into a cloud to hover over Lucifer granting her shade from the assaulting sun.
Then she carried on, ignoring the insulted face that Hale pulled and the grin that Lou offered.
'You're a bitch,' Hale muttered catching up.
'You'll just have to learn,' Lou suggested.
'You don't know magic,' Hale countered.
'Don't I?' he smirked.
Lou then pulled a golden claw from one of his pockets and stalled his walking. He closed his eyes and held the claw out on his open palm. It took a while, so long that Lucifer had made it to the next rise, but the claw dissolved, and above Lou was a cloud, admittedly thinner than the one that Luci had procured.
'So I don't get shade,' Hale huffed.
'You crashed the car.'
'Because Luci jumped on me,' Hale said.
'You took the sour worms pack,' Lou defended.
So Hale was forced to walk the rest of the way to the smokestack under the sun and slight shade of trees. Though the smokestack did not bring any comfort to him as Luci had stopped short of the small cottage and planted herself on a boulders scowling ahead.
'What's wrong now?' Hale whined wishing to enter.
'What's wrong is that I know who lives here,' Luci grumped.
'So they will help us?' Lou wondered.
'Would you help the woman that sold your sister to a fishing rig for a sheep to ride in a dressage competition?' Lucifer asked seriously.
'What?!'
'Did you win the competition?' Lou asked ignoring the bizarrely.
'Of course, I did,' she scoffed.
'Why would you ride a sheep in a horse competition?' Hale wondered.
'Because I didn't have a horse, obviously,' she stated. 'Though I would say it is hardly my fault for the trade, she's the one who climbed onto the boat and started to help them haul in their nets. I was wanting to leave. Then the captain offered to buy here in exchange of his pet sheep. I figured why not, didn't have to babysit anymore and had a sheep to ride in the competition.'
'Who the hell would put you in charge of a child?' Hale gasped.
'She looked after me through my life and I turned out fine,' Lou added.
'Her older brother, who is the one that owns this house,' she nodded at it. 'You see their parents died, like way, way, way, way back four years ago. And I was in the area hunting the serpent that did it. So when I was passing through the last time he asked me to watch his sister.'
'You should never be allow around children,' Hale commented.
Then he forged on and knocked on the door, which opened to two elves. The taller male elf was keeping the smaller girl behind him as they peered out the small cottage's door. A hanging pot from the veranda scraping Hale's head as he stepped backwards looking to the others. Both of them were slowly making their way over to the cottage.
'We need directions, to the Bilk caverns,' Hale asked.
The elves however had lost interest in him and were staring at the crown prince and witch. In a single sudden movement, the girl hurried out of the house and barrelled over to the witch jumping up and clinging to her torso. The older one followed along coming to a halt beside Lou, Hale just threw his hands up and sat down.
'Luci, you're back!' the girl exclaimed. Lucifer and Lou were obvious in their shock at the girl's reaction.
'Yes Lucifer, you are back,' her brother droned.
'Yeah, sorry about last time,' Luci shuddered, 'but I see the house moved again, so the charming is still on.'
'At least we can rely on you for that,' he nodded.
'I'm Lou,' the prince introduced hold out a hand to the elf. His hand was left hanging as the elf shook his head.
Then they were all pulled into the house and set around a dining table while the elves busied themselves in the kitchen. It was a sparse and clean house, with moss and ivy crawling around. Irises and holly hung around from the light hanging like a chandelier. The table was carved from the wood that also lined the floor, keeping it in an eternal position in the centre of the room.
'So how come the girl you sold for a sheep, loves you?' Hale ventured turning back from a fishbowl that housed a cat.
'I don't know, she did seem to really like fishing,' she shrugged.
'But these are the same people right, not some other elves?' Lou checked.
'Cassias still adores Lucifer because she enjoyed the fishing rig when they caught a kraken. Whereas I do in fact remember that Lucifer sold my little sister,' the brother announced walking into the room.
'I went back to find her,' Luci defended crossing her arms.
'Yes, and that at least had her returned to me,' he sighed placing down a glass teapot.
'Echo is just grumpy because he failed his most recent attempt at a spell and burned down his study,' Cassias interrupted with a bowl of berries.
'I almost had it right, and now I have wasted all the widow legs that I had,' he defended.
'You stole a bunch of women's legs, after their husbands died?' Hale asked in shock.
'Black widows. The spider, dear,' Luci assured.
Lou had been eagerly watching his eyes darting from each person that talked, taking in the room and people. Lingering for a while on the cat fishbowl, before asking 'So what were you trying to do with them?'
'Well I am trying to create artificial sunlight rays so I can keep my garden growing over the dark season,' he answered.
'And before we start down the road to horticulture, can you direct us to the Bilk caverns,' Hale asked placing a hand over Lou's mouth.
'How come you need directions? Luci has been there before she knows the way,' Cas piped up.
'The caverns are shut off, no one can get to them. I thought news had gone to the capital, but I suppose not. A curse was lingering over the mouth and a being from within, presumably the Bilk himself, called that only the next to take the throne may enter. But because of all the people who wanted to try and just take the throne kept attempting to enter, the gorge walls that lead to it collapsed in. The whole area is crawling with Cone Sweeps and foul magic,' Echo answered.
'Wait when did the cavern originally shut off and call for the next ruler?' Luci asked.
'Three years ago,' Echo answered.
The three strangers stared among themselves, evidently having no knowledge of the claims that the elves had just made.
'I was joking when I thought that we should do this before your coronation, but now I think we should have done this a while back when it was easier,' Lucifer said.
'We still have to do it, though; it would just become one of the first requests when I become king to fix the situation. And I refuse to go back to the palace to listen to mother grumble about how the coronation should be lavender not lilac. Or whether we should serve chicken as the second or fifth dish,' Lou decided.
'No one has returned from the collapsed gorge since they began to go into it again last season. You do have a chance of getting in due to your heritage, but as I said the area is full of corrupt magic. No one knows if it is still functioning,' Echo added.
Lucifer rolled her eyes watching the two boys opposite her. Hale evidently entranced in the idea of travelling through the caverns and seeing what foul magic was. While Lou was guarding his intrigue by considering the dangers for all persons going. 'Hale you should stay here with Echo and Cassias,' Lou eventually said.
The party turned to the royal with questioning looks and he seemed to mull the issue over in detail in his mind. 'Lucifer will be the best bet of getting through the gorge and cavern, so the two of us will go. And Hydrangea Academy is not too far so we should be able to pick up Marc and Ophelia to help us,' Lou explained.
'Is Ophelia the ogre?' Luci questioned, receiving a nod.
'Oh hell yeah I love her, she is the best,' she cheered pumping a fist in the air. Cassias was watching her with a smile.
'Why should I wait here?' Hale asked, sounding very insulted. His eyebrows were very close to his eyes as he began to question the prince beside him.
'Because you are sixteen year old kid, and shouldn't be going into active danger,' Lou said in a tone that alluded to Hale as dumb. 'You are also valuable to me, so I need you in one piece to possibly take the crown.
The servant's eyes widened, and he gathered himself from the table, disappearing silently to the kitchen with his tea. Lucifer watched him go over her mug, seeing the water gather at the edges of his eyes. Lou just shrugged and turned to ask the elves for their help in keeping Hale safe. Lucifer sensed the stilled anger and humiliation that Hale felt when Lou referred to him as 'basically a child, but he seems a lot like my little brother. Like we have known each other for a long time,' in conversation with Echo.
So in pity of the poor sod, she excused herself and left Lou to his scheming with the two elves that were open to trading with the assumed future king.
Hale was sitting on the floor beside the counter his head in his hands, the stillness of his shoulders showing how little he allowed his feelings to show. He was taking loud deep breaths and tapping his right foot on the tiles.
'Again, he is really dense. But he means well,' Luci started.
'Why does he have to see me as a child,' he whined looking up to her.
'Yeah, really looking like an adult now,' Lucifer mumbled looking a pathetic being before her.
'You have big dreams, belief in love. You want everyone to be treated equally and to help each other. You have no care for controlling people. It's an innocence and loving sense that most adults lose, especially after what you have been through. He sees these things as childlike, so he sees you as younger than you appear. Even if you are legally of mental age to make decisions, by law you are still a minor,' she offered.
'He wants to run away and chase dragons, exactly how mature does that seem,' Hale sneered.
'First, that is my job, so I think it is very mature,' she began in defence. 'Second, he's mature because of how broken that he is. He lost his father, who he idolised and loved. Along with him he lost his uncle, who had helped raise him, to the job of Regent. He lost his mother to her madness, and his home was traded for a boarding school.'
'So because I don't let my trauma define me, I am a child?' Hale scoffed. 'You also forgot the princess, but then again she left so long ago that barely anyone knows her name anymore.'
'No, I think in some ways you are the most adult of us all, facing head on the things you do. I mean every time I do something I regret I go and find another dragon to follow around for a couple months. But it is not you who currently decide who is adult and who isn't. Right now, you are nothing but a servant who must do as their master orders them,' Lucifer answered.
'But if I were king, I would get to decide, right?' he snapped.
'Oh, no, if you were king you would have to act exactly like Lou. And I'm starting to see that you wouldn't manage it. Because you don't actually know Lou, you have an idea of what he used to be. You have heard rumours and seen him as the palace staff see him, but you have no clue who he is. That is why you are struggling to connect your childhood love with the man you are currently seeing. You need to sort yourself out first before I can leave the kingdom in your hands. That's why I brought you along,' Lucifer answered.
'You brought me along, so on the journey I could find myself,' he laughed.
'No, I brought you along because I was planning on using you as bait for the Snap Snap. You seem their type. Though it wouldn't have been a bad thing if along the way I could make you reveal all your dirty little secrets,' she shrugged.
'The Snap Snap?' he echoed.
'The big mean dragon slash eel slash badger slash oak tree that protects the cavern we were going to. I call it the Snap Snap.'
'What the hell is wrong with you?' Hale asked breathlessly.
'Would you like the list chronological or alphabetical?' she grinned.
'Luci, we are leaving. Hale stay here and be good for Cassias and Echo,' Lou announced poking his head round the door. Lucifer nodded and snatched up a bowl of fruit from the counter and a cast iron pot of fresh bread. Before she left the kitchen she patted Hales head and said, 'you be a good boy. We might bring you a bone back if Echo and Cas say you behaved.' For that she got a kick in the shin so she hobbled as she followed the prince out of the house. Cassias waving them off from the door while Echo attempted to close it.
'This is unfair,' Hale mumbled from the hallway watching them leave.
'Not to me, you are going to help me with my chrysanthemums,' Echo smirked.