Etraon never did find out what Morgan said to Lance, but it troubled him. Lance began to speak less, almost as if he were avoiding conversation with Etraon on the level that they had shared before, and yet, insisted on tagging along on their quests and began setting boundaries on their fun. Etraon couldn’t, for the life of him, understand why. Once, Aurelius had suggested that they go out in search of the best herbs. Lance refused the offer, but upon hearing that Etraon had made arrangements to accompany him, changed his mind and went along. His eyes seemed to never leave Etraon, and when confronted about it, merely said that he was lost in thought.

Think nothing of it, he’d said, and though it hadn’t originally started that way, Etraon grew angry. Who it was that he was really angry with, he wasn’t sure, but Morgan had clearly said something to Lance that made him act this way. And yet Lance was also very much at fault because he was choosing to do so. Soon, Etraon stopped asking Lance along on their trips; sometimes it was simply forgetting, others quite deliberately. He knew he was being unfair, but Lance was refusing to come clean and explain his actions. Aurelius played well with both of them, but even he began to feel the separation between Lance and Etraon. If Lance felt the same, he showed no signs. He acted the same, in Etraon’s opinion, quiet, stoic faced, and not saying a word that might’ve indicated how he might feel about the current situation.

A season passed without much change and time only made Etraon more irritable. It all became clear one day when, in a moment of defiance, he quite deliberately left Lance behind. In response to yet another suggestion from Aurelius, the two had proceeded to hunt snakes. Armed with sticks and slings, they were quite successful in their quest, taking great care to avoid displaying the small, though steadily growing stack of reptiles too openly in the garden. One particularly large one that he’d narrowly missed had escaped through a hole in the wall. Aurelius had chased after it, and judging from the cry of triumph that followed soon after, caught it. It occurred to him that he might tell Lance of their whereabouts, briefly remembering the expression on Lance’s face whenever they’d disappeared off into some part of the castle without him.

But Lance didn’t care anymore, Etraon recalled. Why should he? With this as his last thought, he darted through the hole after Aurelius and the two continued on their hunt. At one point, they’d agreed to a competition of sorts, challenging each other to finding the largest snake, the prettiest snake, the most interesting kill, and the list went on.

It all proceeded to go downhill after Etraon suggested finding a snake in the most interesting location. Aurelius, enthusiastic as always, had agreed without a second thought, and promptly disappeared, leaving Etraon alone in his search of a snake’s hiding place. To be quite frank about it, if the location was all that mattered, Etraon would have won. A beautiful, lime green snake was curled up in a tree. He would’ve missed it if it wasn’t for the faint movement of the serpent’s tail hanging from the branch. By this time, he’d forgotten the incident where Aurelius had fallen out of the tree. Not that he would’ve cared if he did. What happened after that particular incident was making his life miserable and he didn’t want to think about it anymore than he wanted to speak to Lance. Who cares about Lance, he asked himself irritably, and proceeded to climb the tree.

Now, his parents hadn’t really specified exactly where Etraon was allowed to explore apart from the immediate castle grounds. It never occurred to him, nor should it, that the area he was in was still considered wild and left untouched, despite the fact that it was located right next to the castle garden’s wall. The fields of flowers nearby served an attractive view from the castle and thus, had been left alone to continue spreading as it pleased. The only place that he’d really been swimming before was the pool within the castle. Quite confident in his abilities, Etraon wasn’t the least concerned when he’d crawled across the branches to reach the snake, ignoring the fact that the limbs were thinning out the closer he got. So intent was he on reaching it, just a few feet away, that he didn’t hear the warning cracks of the branches beneath him. The fact that he was literally above the middle of the lake next to the tree had somehow escaped him and he hadn’t really thought ahead as to how he’d get down from the tree afterwards. He was almost there.

Just as his fingers were within reach, the branch he was on quite suddenly decided to oblige the action that it had been postponing as Etraon had inched along its length and snapped, coming apart in pieces. The resounding crack in his ears pulled his attention from the snake and Etraon made a desperate effort to scramble back to the safety of thicker branches as the snake fell from the branch and landed in the water below with a plop. His haste only made the disintegration of the limb more rapid and he was soon in the water.

There are privileges that come with being the crown prince of your country and given that Etraon was, in fact, capable of swimming quite well, he thought these over as he kept himself afloat. His first initial thought had been to swim away, but something sharp and gristly was wrapped about his ankle. Better to keep calm and wait for Aurelius to find him than to kick up a fuss that was almost guaranteed to result in the both of them being permanently confined to the castle.

There was the smell and the quality of the water to think about, he noted with some distaste. In a royal suite’s pool, servants kept the water crystal clear. Sometimes the pools were a little too clean, making it all the more complicated for a young boy who was determined to simply play in the water and ignore the fact he was dirty. Clean water had a way of turning slightly brown with the introduction of dirt, which made it all the more apparent, even to a boy of ten years, that he was in desperate need of a wash, and a thorough one at that. The lake’s water was already dirty, greenish brown in color with some sort of slime floating around on the top. He sneezed once when a water spider fell just below his nose and he laughed as it skittered away, choking on the disgusting muddy flavor that entered his mouth as he did so.

A newly filled pool carried with it a refreshing feel as you swallowed it, which Etraon only knew about due to the fact that the first few times he’d gone to the pool on his own, he’d accidentally swallowed some of the water as he sank up to his ears in some of the deeper areas. Lake water, he concluded, was extremely questionable in more ways than one. The slime that sat on top of the water brought some concern as to the consequences of swallowing it and the thought of fishy excrement in the water certainly didn’t appeal to him in the slightest. He coughed violently at the taste of something foul and his eyes widened as he searched the shore for some sign that aid was nearby.

Something cold and slimy swam past his legs, far enough that he couldn’t quite tell what matter of creature it was, but close enough to send him into a panic. His previous calm attitude forgotten, he struggled, with some force, to pull free from whatever it was that had tied him down. He gulped in more water, and then, gasping from effort, allowed his head to sink under the water and kicked as hard as he could. The force launched him free from the weeds and he broached the surface with quick, sputtering gasps. He turned his head and seeing the nearby deck from which someone might do some fishing and was determined to reach it to pull himself out of the water. He quickly made some calculations as to the angle, and was surprisingly accurate as he propelled himself towards it with a few strokes. His goal was just within reach. With a little more force, he reasoned, he would be within grasping distance of the nearest planks and be out of the water with no one the wiser as to what had actually happened to him.

With his accurate calculations, coupled with the enthusiasm with which he’d kicked forward, he came up directly under the edge of the plank. A violent impact on the top of his head filled his eyes with an intensely bright red. He continued to kick in his attempt to escape it, and in the brief time of clarity, realized that the water beneath the plank was much deeper and colder than where he’d been just moments before. His ears rang piercingly with a roaring sound and everything turned grey as Etraon sank into the freezing embrace of the water. His eyes were beginning to close and somewhere in the void that he was in, knew that he could no longer feel his legs. His arms somehow disappeared off into the space around him and finding his hands was going to take more effort than anything he was capable of at that point.

And that was his last thought before everything went black.

-----

Author's Note:

PSA: Lake water tastes bad.

Also, the littlest things can hurt those closest to us if left unaddressed. Not speaking from experience or anything. ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

xoxo,

Elfarine