In the morning, Rhun told Rosella a partial lie and a partial truth. He told her Draven had told him it was dangerous to stay nearby and to head to another village (true). He also told her he was going to said village (lie). And not to worry because he didn't want her to get involved (true), and he had everything figured out (huge lie).

When he had finally set out for the castle, his bag was packed with supplies for himself and additional ones for the boys in case they would take longer to reach the lodge or they were intercepted and had to go another way. Several Crownguards were on duty, more than the usual amount. One of the guards offered to lead him to the throne room, but Rhun insisted he could find it on his own. 

As he walked through the courtyard, he spotted something of interest. A step-prince, a Crownguard, and a mage. Rhun stopped, seeing Prince Callum using wooden swords to spar with Soren, or at least trying. Goofy as he was, Soren became the youngest Crownguard in the kingdom's history for a reason. His sister Claudia sat on a bench beneath an oak tree, reading a book. Compared to Lord Viren, she was the least-threatening thing Rhun had set eyes on for a dark mage, but he still reminded himself to be wary. A dark mage was a dark mage, no matter appearances. Though Rhun kept his eyes on them, they had yet to notice him. He was still watching the boys exchange blows until Prince Callum ran his wooden sword under Soren's arm and he fell to the ground dramatically.

Soren was still on the ground, giving a very dramatic performance—Rhun was too far away to hear exactly what he was saying, but he rolled his eyes anyway. Tentatively, he made his way over, unsure his presence would be welcomed, but figured it was worth a shot. After all, he didn't want Prince Callum or Ezran to be going off on an uncertain journey with a complete stranger. He wouldn't exactly respond well to that if he were in their position, especially once they found out the reason why. Besides, he wanted to at least introduce himself since in all the times he'd seen the boys, he didn't think he'd ever told either of them his name.

"This is what you do in your free time?" Rhun asked, looking down at Soren with a raised eyebrow. Callum hadn't heard him coming, but he certainly hear heard him speak from behind him, and jumped back a few feet. When Soren caught his shadow leaning over him, he looked up to see Rhun silhouetted in the sun. "You wouldn't think with the amount of times I've had to fix one of your swords or your armor."

Squinting to see who it was speaking, Soren's eyes widened slightly in surprise before taking the hand extended to him as Rhun helped him to his feet. Almost instantly, Rhun retreated from his touch, keeping his hands under his arms awkwardly. That Soren wasn't surprised at, it wasn't exactly a secret physical contact or closeness of almost any kind made the older boy uncomfortable unless he knew the person well. "Oh, I almost didn't recognize you out of the smithy," he finally said. "Why are you--"

"Because," Rhun shrugged, flashing him a warning look not to ask anything else on the topic. Rhun wasn't like his parents; he couldn't make up good lies on the spot. If he made him say it out loud without time to think up one, the prince might realize what was happening. The boy was almost fifteen after all, he wasn't an idiot; too many clues might lead him to figuring things out before his stepfather could discuss them with him. "The king called upon me," he answered instead. 

Not technically a lie, but not technically the whole truth either.

With that, Rhun turned to Callum and bowed respectfully, ignoring the young prince's stammering, "Um, don't...you don't have to bow."

"Royalty is still royalty," Rhun retorted as he stood back up, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. The young 'step-prince' as Soren called him, had always had a habit of staring, whether it was the rumors King Harrow had mentioned that were even among the court or because of the blatant differences everyone seemed to pick up about him. Sometimes he wondered the only reason none of the adults had ever accused him of anything was due to the pity they felt for Amadahy, probably thinking her relationship with his father was anything but consensual. Worked to his advantage, but given the chance, Rhun would deny it. "King's stepson, or not." Before he could say anything else, he caught one of King Harrow's advisers, one of many on the High Council, coming toward them, and quickly excused himself. "I have to go and speak with the king, but we'll meet again soon and exchange proper introductions."

"Well, I—"

"Trust me, Prince Callum, you will," he smiled. "In fact, we'll be seeing a lot of each other for a while." With that, he was off, although he had a feeling by soon, he meant a few minutes. 

Driven by duty and his new responsibility to protect the princes against the oncoming threat, Rhun made his way to the throne room, trying to remember which hallways were which in such a large place with many twists and turns. He tried to avoid any that looked particular sinister or dark since those didn't really scream safe. On the bright side, he found a few portraits of the royal family that caught his attention. 

Of course they were painted a long time ago, but they brought a smile to Rhun's face nonetheless, to see Queen Sarai standing besides a young Callum—he looked to be about five or four— King Harrow by her side and Prince Ezran—hardly more than a baby—held in his arms. It was just them together and genuinely happy as a family, in turn then saddening Rhun to know these boys had lost their mother and in a few more hours may lose their father as well. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost his parents. Though absent often, they had always been involved in his life and loved him as much as he loved them; Rhun knew every time they left they would still be there and would come back, but the thought of knowing for certain they were gone and never would return...it would crush him.

At the same time, it would eat at him more to not know. To never know what was happening or if they were even alive. To never have some sense of closure, so he wouldn't spend the rest of his life hoping to see them again only to have it dwindle more the longer time went on.

Silently, he made a promise to explain everything to the princes when they were a good distant away. He just couldn't lie to them everything was fine when it wasn't, not for long anyway. And once the threat had passed, they would return, and he would stay to serve his new king and keep him safe from the snakes in the court that might try to manipulate Prince Ezran like a puppet on a string. What his father had said on that topic left a bad taste in Rhun's mouth. Manipulating a child, to get what they wanted, it didn't feel right. At Prince Ezran's age, children were easy to sway to persuasion, and they would likely use him to further worsen the war.

If and when this was over, Rhun would try to keep that from happening. It wasn't right in his own mind, but that was politics. He hated them, but he supposed in such, people made choices that they believed to be best for the majority.

In the meantime, he sighed and moved on to continue his search. Given the threat of Moonshadow elves, he would have to be vigilant, whether it would be his father who came for the boys or not. He swore to King Harrow that he would fight to protect the princes to the best of his ability from any threat. And if there was something his mother had taught him that stuck, it was that one never breaks an oath.

By the time he made it to the throne room, he began to regret declining the guard's directions, as the princes were already at King Harrow's side. Whatever the king had been saying was interrupted the moment he set eyes on him, Rhun beginning to bow before the king quickly stopped him. "And I believe you know Rhun. Captain Amadahy's talked of him quite a bit, and I'm sure you boys have been to his stepmother's shop before; I hear she makes some of the best jelly tarts," he went on suddenly, as if looking for any distraction. Probably trying to avoid telling his sons he might die tonight, or the reason behind their sudden journey, period.

When Ezran looked over at him, he gave a broad smile and waved. Shyly, Rhun waved back with a small smile of his own. "See? We meet again," he chuckled as he caught Prince Callum's eye.

"Anyway, boys, Rhun here is going to take you on a little trip to the Banther Lodge, isn't that right?" King Harrow exclaimed.

"Yes, my king."

Callum frowned. "The Banther Lodge? But that's the winter lodge."

"And?" Rhun prompted innocently.

"It's summer."

"Well, winter is coming...eventually," King Harrow tried, clasping his hands behind his back.

"What will we do? Everything fun there has to do with snow or ice?" Ezran asked, wearing a similar expression to Callum. 

"I'm sure you can find something. There are just as many interesting things about a place no matter the season," said Rhun, looking to the king for help.

"That's right. You can invent new versions, using dirt and rocks. You can build a dirt man! Or what about mud sledding? That could be a thing!" Harrow sighed as he took in faces of the three in front of him, his sons unconvinced, Rhun's unimpressed. "Look, this is something I need you to do, and it's already been decided."

"And what about him?" Callum demanded, gesturing to Rhun. "Is he our bodyguard now, or something?"

"Yes," replied Harrow without hesitation. "And if his mother's reputation is anything to go by, you won't be able to give him the slip like you have your others. On that note, please don't. Try not to give him a rough time."

"Dad," Ezran pleaded.

"It's been decided," Harrow repeated. "You leave before sundown, so get packed."

"I'll help," Rhun supplied, nodding his head. "Sundown may be the deadline, but I'd prefer if we left as soon as soon as you're both ready." 

With that, it clearly signaled the end of the discussion. The king glanced to Rhun for assistance, and he nodded once to show his understanding before calmly ushering the boys towards the door so as not to tip them off that anything was wrong.  They were already suspicious, but he'd rather have that conversation out of danger. Just as the doors closed completely, he turned around only to be met by sight of both princes staring at him with a million questions on their faces.

"Why's he sending us away?" Ezran asked first.

"Well...um," Rhun stammered out, then took a deep breath and stood up straight, refusing to let the uncertainty show on his face. He plastered on a small smile. "It's just for a little trip. His Majesty thinks you could use a small break away from the castle."

Callum chews on his bottom lip, thinking something over, and Rhun worried he was beginning to piece it together. So, interrupting his train of thought, he clapped his hands and said, "Might as well enjoy it, right? Things have been a bit...rocky, so it might be the last for a while." Technically not a lie, right?

As promised, the boys led Rhun to their rooms to help them pack their bags for this "little trip," Rhun doing his best to appear casual while keeping his guard up. Before taking up the throne, his father had been an assassin for a reason. Moonshadow elves were trained to be calculating, deadly, and a hardened bunch. How else would they be able to do what they did? Once or if they realized their cover was blown, they might forgo using the moon to their advantage to retain the element of surprise with an attack in broad daylight.

Thankfully, Ezran remained blissfully ignorant of any danger as he clutched his pet glow toad in his arms whose name was apparently Bait, or so he picked up, the crown prince going on and on about Bait, his love of jelly tarts (not that Rhun needed telling), and stories that seemed to be a touch exaggerated in some aspects, occasionally pausing to ask Rhun things about himself before continuing to talk about how much he hoped they would become good friends. Callum, however, seemed more anxious, and kept sparing Rhun glances out the corner of his eye.

Finally, once they reached the courtyard, Rhun paused, and let Ezran run on ahead while still making sure to keep him within his line of sight, then turned to Callum.

"Alright, what is it, Prince Callum?"

"You don't have to call me prince," he immediately corrected, but then sighed. "If you're trying to spare Ezran's feelings, that's fine, but tell me the truth. What's really going on?"

"It's complicated, and that's all I can really say on it."

"But you just came here out of the blue to take me and Ezran—"

"Ezran and I," Rhun couldn't help correcting automatically.

"Whatever! Anyway, you're here suddenly to take us on a trip to the winter lodge in the middle of summer and trading secret looks with our dad, and telling us everything's okay. Usually, whenever someone insist something's okay, it's not okay!"

"Everything is okay," Rhun insisted with a pasted-on smile. "Just relax. The king just thought you might like a nice getaway. After all, you are almost fifteen, so maybe this is an early birthday present." At his unconvinced frown, Rhun relented. "Fine, there...is something wrong, but I'll tell you later," he huffed. "Now is not the best time to be wasting seconds."

Just as he began to think he'd deflected Callum's questions for now, they passed beneath an open window, right when someone's voice drifted out, practically announcing, "You're saying they'll kill the king?"

Caught off guard, Rhun gazed up to see none other than Lord Viren appear in the frame in front of Soren. For a long moment, he held Viren's gaze. With a withering look, he then slammed the window shut. Turning to Callum's wide green eyes, he knew he'd heard every word. 

"You were saying?" he demanded, those wide eyes now narrowed.

"Callum, I need you to understand something." Rhun kept his voice low, though Callum was doing the exact opposite.

"What's there to understand? Assassins are coming to kill the king, aren't they, and you came to get us as far away as possible so we're not here when it happens. Why?"

"Because your stepfather cares about you and because I volunteered because I was one of the first to know about it."

"That's what you meant when you said you'd tell me later? You were going to tell me after he was dead," he snapped.

Taking a deep breath, Rhun pinched the bridge of his nose. "We can talk about this later, because that's not the complete reason, Callum. They're also coming to—"

"You know what? Nevermind," the step-prince huffed, "I have to go. Just go look after Ezran."

"Callum, we do not have time for this, believe me..."

"You're losing Ezran."

"You—" Rhun turned to catch Ezran disappearing around a corner. Giving in with a loud sigh, he turned to run after him. "This conversation is far from over." he called over his shoulder, hoping Callum wouldn't do anything reckless with this new knowledge.

Sure, his responsibility was to protect both of them, but Ezran was the one in more danger and the one completely oblivious to that same danger unlike Callum, the younger of the two who wouldn't be able to defend himself. He was also the Crown Prince, the more important of them both who would need to inherit the throne once the assassins had finished their job with King Harrow. It was a cruel way of thinking, realizing that if he had to choose between the two, he'd choose Prince Ezran because child or not, he was still Katolis's future.

Rhun could only hope Prince Callum wouldn't do anything too stupid. Then again, when Rhun's father told him the news, he ended up doing something stupid, too; he volunteered to babysit two kids who already seemed to be giving him a headache—not Ezran of course, Ezran was a sweetie. But Rhun had to pray this wandering off thing wouldn't become a habit.

Callum was older, but teenagers were known to do rash things without properly thinking them through, too young to tell the recklessness of their actions. Children, on the other hand, while pleasant, were small, naive, innocence, which could also be a liability. Not to mention, they could not stay still for more than a few minutes at a time.

Babysitting or elven assassins? Which were more stressful?

Either way, guess he'd just have to stay on his toes.

(Author's Note: As someone who has babysat before/helped babysat before, it can definitely be as if not more stressful. Anyway, new chapter! Hope you like it!)