"Come on Soren, you can do better than that!"

Soren rubs his injured side and looks up at his mother, who was holding her hand out to help him up. He accepted it, allowing her to pull him back onto his feet and dust him off. The two of them were busy training, Hildr wanting to spend some time with her son to see how well his training had been since she last had seen him. So far he seemed to be doing well against her attacks, though he wasn't as quick on his feet as she hoped.

"Mom I'm fine, really." He assures her but Hildr made a scoffing noise and shook her head.

"Just let me check, I need to make sure I didn't injure you."

"Ma- ma!" Soren manages to yank himself out of his mother's grip. "I'm fine! I've taken harder hits than that in training, I'm fine!"

"Alright, alright, just wanted to make sure you were okay." Hildr says, holding her hands up and backed a foot away. "Last time I smacked a recruit like that he complained about me bruising his ribs."

"Yvette! Callum! Get back here!" The two look up to find Enya chasing the young prince and Soren's baby sister through the courtyard. "I still have to measure you two for your formal clothes!"

"No!" Yvette screamed. "No no no no!"

"You can't make us!" Callum adds frantically.

The sight brings a small smile to the two soldier's faces as they watch the little scene.

"Faster! Faster!" Soren calls out and laughs. "Come on Enya! Don't let a slow prince and my baby sister get away!"

"You're...sleeping on the floor...tonight for that!" Enya yells as she stops to catch her breath and Hildr chokes back a laugh. "And no amount of kisses or hugs...will change my mind!"

"Ouch." Hildr laughs as her son rolls his eyes. "Does she normally do that?"

"Only if I annoy her enough. And that's not all the time, if I don't act too annoying she just puts my sword or her dog between us when we go to sleep." Soren says with a shrug. "Of course, I do tend to win her over with my charm and get to fall asleep hugging her."

"Bull droppings!" They hear Enya yell. "Come back you two!"

"Charm, huh?" Hildr laughs. "Well, that's the married life."

She could see that look in her son's eyes as he watched the girl manage to catch up with and scoop up the young prince, a look she hadn't seen someone look at another person like that since...Harrow. And prior to that, Viren.

"She's a strong one, I can see why you are so smitten with her." Hildr chuckles as she and her son watch Enya somehow manage to catch Yvette and hurry across the courtyard with the two children under each arm back in the direction of her workshop. "Reminds me of the day I met your father, you somehow managed to inherit his type."

"I liked Enya long before I found out she was strong enough to carry more than one person with no trouble. Last time she did it was with me but it gave me another reason to love her a little more than usual. And I'm surprised you're casually talking about dad again without looking so upset." Soren says as he wipes his brow of the sweat. "You two never mentioned to me and Claudes how you met, were you actually carrying something pretty heavy?"

"Yeah, a horse."

"Wait what?"

Hildr gives a small laugh. "Oh believe it or not my boy, your father fell in love with me after witnessing me lift a horse. Harrow would relentlessly tease him about it years later during our marriage."

"You absolutely have to tell me about it." Soren says with a chuckle. "And it's weird to think of dad being as smitten as I am, he always seemed so...grumpy."

"Oh Viren wasn't always grumpy as the young king's toad, in fact he was just as cheerful as you when we met." Hildr says with a soft smile and gives a small laugh. "He was about your age when we met, I'll honestly never forget that day, it's one of the few fond memories I still have of him before he turned so bitter."

⚔️💞⚔️💞⚔️

Twenty some years ago - Katolis

"I'm already going to punch that boy in the nose Florian, I'm already close to doing it!" Hildr mutters angrily as she rode beside her friend, the young prince of Del Bar. "If I hear him tell me "you'd look nicer in a silk gown" one more time...ugh!"

"You have my full permission to hit him in the face and anywhere else." Prince Florian agrees. "But avoid talking about it with my father a few paces from us." He gestures to the man riding ahead of them with several soldiers, king Bjorn.

"Okay fine, but I'm serious. Please have my back when I actually do it and people start trying to take that excuse if a soldier's sob story. I'd like to at least relax and enjoy this trip to Katolis before we have to return and I have to listen to him again."

"I can have him thrown into the dungeon if you want when we get home, it's against the rules to harass the friend of the crown prince."

"No it's not, and I'd like to deal with that...you know what, on my own." Despite her harsh words, Hildr was trying to hold back her laughter. Florian really did know how to make her laugh, which was what she loved about him. Being friends with the crown prince of Del Bar had its ups and downs to it, such as some noble lord having the audacity to suggest they should marry due to how close they were with each other or that she got to train him in combat herself, but at the end of the day she just enjoyed having him as the one friend she needed in her life. Florian was more like...a brother than a potential lover in her eyes, so she couldn't really see herself loving him romantically like that in the near or far future.

"So, maybe when we reach the castle we sneak out and snag a few jelly tarts before the prince goes looking for us?" Florian whispers, moving his horse to be closer to hers so she could hear him. "And we avoid him the rest of the day, explore the town."

"He can't be that bad, besides, it'd be rude if we avoided prince Harrow." Hildr scolds him. "I may never have met him, but he can't be so boring that you'd want to avoid him."

"It's not that, he hangs around with this mage in training who's just...very weird."

"Weird how? Covered in boils and has a hunchback weird or stares at you with a creepy look like he's deciding which body parts would make perfect ingredients for a spell weird?"

"You'll see if we meet him."

⚔️💞⚔️💞⚔️

"Why do we have to spend the day with the prince? We were going to go fishing today!" Viren asks his friend as he slams his book shut. "And apparently he's bringing his guard with him, which will suck the fun out of this."

"Well my father told me I was to do it, and besides he's not as bad as you think." Harrow responds as his friend placed the book back onto the table and grabbed another one off the tower of books they had been reading together. "I'm sure his private guard is only going to consist of one person, and you do know why the prince is supposed to have so many soldiers guarding him, right?"

"Because king Bjorn is paranoid after a little accident during a previous summer tourney."

A few summers back during a celebration between the five human kingdoms, someone had misfired an arrow into the audience during the archery contest and nearly hit the young prince of Del Bar. Bjorn had ordered that the archer, a young woman from Duren, to be imprisoned for nearly killing his son and outright accused her of attempting to assassinate Florian. Though the archer was found innocent, since then Florian wasn't allowed to go anywhere without the supervision of a few soldiers the his father had trusted.

"Still, if something happens to him while we are both hanging around him, those guards are going to spin the story out of proportion and we'll get in trouble." Viren points out. "As much as I don't really like going fishing, at least with you it's fun because you actually let me use magic to fish so we can find that big trout."

"Well you don't have to hang with us, you can stay in this boooooooooooooooooring library by yourself while I give the prince the usual tour of the castle." Harrow says, a small grin coming to his lips. "And show him every secret tunnel in this castle.

Viren made a loud choking noise and dropped his book to give Harrow a horrified expression. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

"Harrow."

"Viren."

The young mage gave an exasperated groan. "Fine! I'll go with you and deal with the prince! But no showing him our secret tunnels and hiding places!

~Back To Present~

"So king Harrow only got dad to meet you because he didn't want Florian to know about the secret passages?" Soren asks his mother and Hildr laughs. "I didn't even know there were secret passages!"

"Well how do you think Barius gets his sweets stolen on a daily basis?" Hildr asks and chuckles. "Oh I could tell you the number of times the two of us would sneak into those passages just to have some alone time together to avoid your grandfather, who was attempting to supervise us on our little dates. But that's a set of stories for another day, I have to finish this one."

⚔️💞⚔️💞⚔️

"Prince Florian, I see you're not accompanied by your private guard today." Harrow says as he and Viren approach the prince. From the corner of his eye he could see his friend trying not to roll his eyes as the two shook hands.

"I've managed to convince my father to let me only have one accompanying me while we're here, she's just taking care of our horses and will be joining us shortly." The prince says in response. "And lucky for us, she's our age so you won't have to worry about an older soldier ratting us out on whatever you have planned for fun."

"Oh joy." Harrow hears Viren mutter and quickly elbows him to stay quiet.

"Then perhaps we should head to the stables to retrieve her?" Harrow suggests. "I didn't know your army had young crownguard recruits."

"Oh Hildr is special, she's been part of the guard since she was seventeen. She's my best friend as well, so my father trusts her enough to have her be part of my private guard. And she was the one who convinced him to let her be my only guard for the trip."

"She sounds quite interesting, right Viren?"

"Yeah, interesting." The young mage says, not even sounding that interested at all but Florian luckily didn't hear it.

The three made their way over to the stables when they heard loud shout and a laugh before a blonde girl around their age wearing the standard Del Bar army armor with her hair pulled back in a thick ponytail came walking out of the stables with what looked like a yearling horse slung over one shoulder.

"Oh hello!" She greets them and turns to the young Del Bar prince. "Florian, you remember the bet that I made with one of the other soldiers that I couldn't lift a yearling? I just found out I can!"

"Hildr I think you just scared the Katolian crown prince and his friend." Florian laughs, gesturing to Harrow and Viren, who were staring at her with open mouths. "Oh I forgot, Harrow and Viren, this is Hildr. Hildr, crown prince Harrow and Viren."

"I'd shake both your hands but mine are a bit occupied." HIldr said gesturing to the bewildered looking horse. "Hang on, I'll go put this back inside and wash them."

"You just saw what I saw, right Viren?" Harrow asks his friend as the girl walks back into the stables with Florian behind her. "A girl our age picked up a- Viren?"

The young mage didn't seem to be listening to him at all, his attention on the blonde girl. The prince frowned and waved his hand in front of his friend's face in hopes of getting his attention, but Viren seemed pretty out of it. "VIREN!"

"Ah! Wait what?" The mage said shaking his head and turning to Harrow. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Harrow squinted at him before breaking out into a smile. "Oh wait, I think I know what happened to you."

"What are you talking about?" Viren asks and frowns. "Oh you're making that face again."

"I just witnessed you looking smitten at that girl who just picked up a horse."

"I wasn't!"

"Yes you were! You were making this face!"

"I was not!"

"Viren, in all my years of being your friend I have never seen you make that face before especially to a girl of all people!" Harrow laughs as Viren gives him a shove. "Oh come on, you looked like you were in love with her, and you've only known here for like ten seconds! And just earlier you were scoffing about having her hang around us!"

"SHHH!! Do you want her to hear us?!" Viren hissed frantically as the two teens stepped out of the stables. "Shh! Here they come!"

"Florian told me he normally got a tour of the palace, I've never seen the inside of it." Hildr said as they approached the other two teens. "But since we are going to be here for a few days, I don't think he's going to want another castle tour. Is there anything else we can do before Florian's father calls for us to return or before the feast?"

Harrow looks to Viren, whose face was unmistakably flushed slightly before he nudged him gently. "Actually, what if we took a stroll through the town and take a few of the best pastries from the bakery?"

"My stepmother never let me eat anything with sugar, claims I'm allergic to it." Hildr says and Viren looked at her in horror.

"Is that even true?" He asks and Florian laughs.

"Probably not, but what she won't know won't kill her."

"Oh Florian, isn't that devious of you?" Hildr asks in mock horror. "But really, I can't have sugar. I'll settle for some fruit."

"Oh...well nothing is wrong with some good old fashioned fruit!" Viren says and gives a nervous laugh. "Or we could do the castle tour and show you two the armory once we tour the town?"

"I've seen enough armories to last me a lifetime, but a tour of the town would be nice."

Harrow was quite sure during the tour of the town that Florian could also see the little looks Viren was sending towards Hildr, but never said anything. Hildr didn't seem to notice though, always keeping her eyes ahead and wearing a somewhat stern expression that dropped to a more friendly one when children would run up to her. He honestly had never seen Viren this interested in anyone in all the years he had known him, since he seemed to spend most of his time divided between his magic lessons, the library soaking up as much information on magic as he could, and spending time around him. Seeing his often serious friend act like a blushing maiden around this crownguard knight was rather...hilarious in a way. And when he wasn't just silently admiring Hildr, he was talking her ear off about the town.

"Hey you think we should stop walking and let them walk on?" Florian had whispered to Harrow and gestured to their friends. "I feel like we're somewhat third wheeling."

Harrow had glanced over to his friend to see that Hildr was now paying attention and happily chatting back to him, a small blush on her cheeks just as visible as Viren's. With a grin and a nod, the two princes took a few steps back and ducked behind a vendor's stand and watched as their two friends walk off without noticing their absence.

~

The two did end up noticing, after about five minutes. It took Hildr and Viren quite a while to locate the two princes in a tavern waiting for them with the biggest grins on their faces.

"I swear if I wasn't your personal guard I would have punched you in the face for that stupid scare!" Hildr had screamed at Florian as she and Viren had dragged the two out. "Your father will have my head for this if he found out!"

"But he won't find out." The prince points out and grins. "And you wouldn't tell him how you lost me either, being distracted by the other prince's friend."

"I swear I am going to PUMMEL you into the courtyard pavement when we get home!"

"Quite a temper." Harrow chuckles and nudges a flushed face Viren. "You sure know how to pick them old friend."

"If you don't shut up I am going to enchant your blankets to keep you from getting out of your bed tomorrow." The mage mutters in annoyance and looks away in embarrassment. "Why did you two have to do that?"

"Well you two looked so cozy just talking to each other we figured it was best to leave you alone. Who knows how long it would have taken either of you to notice we were gone."

"Some days I question our friendship."

~

By the next morning, Viren honestly wasn't sure how he was feeling about Hildr. He'd never felt this way about anyone before, ever! Okay maybe he did like her that way that Harrow suggested, but how did she feel about him? During their walk through the town before discovering the princes had abandoned them, he had actually seen the slight blush on her cheeks that he was sure were as bright as his. If she did seem to like him, what was he even supposed to do? How could he tell her this? Last night during the feast he had wanted to sit next to her, but one look for that tall and intimidating armored man who he later learned was her father scared him from even getting close.

Okay Viren, you can do this. You have one more chance before she leaves and you'll probably never see her again. The young mage thought as he glanced out his bedroom window to where he could see the Del Bar soldiers saddling up their horses. He couldn't see Hildr among them yet, but that didn't mean she would be mounting one of those horses soon and he'd be too late. He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly to calm himself and repeated the process a few times. You can do this. No need to panic now.

Viren made his way out of his room and hurried through the hallways until he reached the doors that led outside. He hoped she hadn't left yet, or was in the process of leaving.

"Viren!" Viren literally thought his heart was going to leap out of his chest when he turned to see Hildr approaching him.

"Oh Hildr! I-I was just going to look for you!" He says quickly when she was close and gave a nervous laugh. "I see you're not ready to leave yet though."

"Well I decided to come looking for you while my father gets my horse ready." The young guard says, jerking her thumb over at the horses. "Listen, about yesterday."

"Yes?"

Viren wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't Hildr stepping forward and standing slightly on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. His whole face flooded with heat and felt his lips twitch into a smile, Hildr looking equally as flustered as him when she pulled away with a soft smile on her lips.

"Thank you, I actually enjoyed it." She said softly. "Ah, perhaps next time Florian and I come to Katolis we could-"

"Hildr! We have to leave!" They heard someone shout loudly.

"I'm coming!" She yells back before turning to Viren with an apologetic look.

"I can write." He manages to blurt out. "If...you wish to talk."

"Yeah, writing." Hildr agrees and smiles. "Until next year?"

Viren smiles back, his heart racing. "Until next year."

💞💞💞

"Aw dad really was that smitten with you." Soren laughs. "So since then you two started writing to each other?"

"Oh yes, and I'd keep all the letters he'd write to me in a small box I hid in my closet to keep away from your nosy uncle's, every time I'd go to Katolis he and I would just leave our friends and spend the day walking through the woods or the town or reading in the library together." Hildr chuckles. "It wasn't until we were about nineteen your father finally got the nerve to kiss me back on the lips several weeks after I first kissed him. And we were in our early twenties when he decided to propose to me, got married and had you. A shame everything went downhill after Sarai passed away, your father just started drifting away and burying himself in his work. It wasn't until then that our small fights turned ugly and awful."

"Well it's not like I'm going to busy myself too much with training new recruits, Enya and I often take breaks from our work to spend time together and talk things out." Soren says with a small shrug. "And we hardly fight over things, I can't even remember when was the last time we had an argument over something."

"Best you two keep it that way." Hildr says with a small smile and looks to the sewing workshop. Callum and Yvette were leaving and Enya had stepped out looking quite tired. Soren glanced over to her before looking back to his mother.

"Can we be finished for today?" He asks her. "We can pick up with training tomorrow."

Hildr smiles and nods. "Of course. I'll have to console your sister, she looks upset from having to be standing still for that long for her fittings."

She watched as her son hurried over to Enya and practically tackled her in a hug, earning a startled yelp that turned into a laugh as she returned the hug before getting on her toes to kiss him. It was a soft sight to see, reminding her again of those old days with Viren, the ones where they were just so in love and couldn't wait to start a life together. Her son looked genuinely happy with her, and it made her smile to see him so happy.

Oh Viren, if only you could see how happy our little boy is, just like you when we first met.