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"My queen, I am terribly sorry for this interruption, there is a group of travelers that requests an audience with you immediately." A butler said, bowing low, his voice sly and smooth as velvet.
"It's quite all right Dominique. Do me a favor and fetch my guard dog while I get ready." The queen, Eleanor Rose, said primly as she stood up and brushed off her dress. The butler got a rather scary smile.
"Why, of course, M'lady." Said Dominique, very pleased at the opportunity to make Frostbite despise his own life even more. As he came out of the low bow to leave, Queen Eleanor stopped him.
"Oh, and Dominique? Do be a little careful. We can't have these travelers think we abuse our own staff." The queen sounded bored as she waved him off.
"Of course." Dominique said, turning and leaving the room.
"My, what will I wear?*sighs* Elsie! Come here, dear." Queen Eleanor called. A maid poked her head into the room.
"Yes, M'lady?" She asked, her voice a chirp, as always.
"We have unexpected visitors. Please find me something suitable to wear." Queen Eleanor asked, and honestly? She sounded like she couldn't care less.
"Of course, M'lady! I'll get right on that!" Elsie said, stepping into the large room and heading over to the walk-in closet.
"Hmm...now what... oh, Niamh ?" Queen Eleanor called, another girl who had been pouring tea looked up.
"Yes?" She asked, setting down the tea pot and straightening up, a hand on her hip.
"Can you please collect some First-Aid supplies?Dominique went to fetch Frostbite. He hasn't been in the best condition since his last training exercise, but I doubt Dominique will show much sympathy." Queen Eleanor drawled. Niamh stiffened, seemingly angry about something, but she quickly schooled her expression.
"Of course. Your Majesty." She said, before taking a quick bow and walking out the door.
~~~
Frostbite was curled up in a corner of his "room" (cell), trying to find the most protective position, that didn't jostle his leg too much. It was definitely broken, there was no way it wasn't, he let out a small whimper as another jolt of agonizing pain shot through his leg. Why couldn't it just stop?? Then the door banged open and he wanted to groan as he heard the sadly familiar, measured, steps of Dominique Delgado.
"Good day, mutt." He sneered. Frostbite really wasn't in the mood for this today. Or any day. But especially today.
"Well? Aren't you going to stand to greet your superior?" Dominique asked, venom dripping from his words, before he lashed out and kicked Frostbite. Right. In. The. Leg. The one that was broken. Frostbite screamed in pain, doubling over himself into an even more curled up position, only to find out that, too, hurt. Bad. Dominique just tsked, like this was some trivial thing. Probably was to him..
"Tsk, tsk, did I find a weak point, today?" Dominique said, and Frostbite really didn't like his tone.
"Your Handler, The Queen, has requested your presence. As it turns out we have some unexpected guests. Get. Up." Dominique almost growled that last part, kicking Frostbite again and earning another heart wrenching scream (if you, ya'know, had a heart. To feel sympathy.)
That's about when Niamh came storming through the door, First-Aid kit held tightly in one hand, the other curled into a fist.
"Dominique! The queen requested that he be in decent shape because of the visitors. What are you doing?" She hissed out angrily as she stalked towards him and positioned herself protectively in front of the curled up, shaking and quietly whimpering, lump that was, apparently, the deadly Frostbite that was so feared.
"Watch your place, maid. You're fortunate it is on Queen Eleanor's orders, or else you'd be in a lot of trouble." Dominique growled as he turned around to leave the room. As soon as he was gone, Niamh quickly turned on her heel and kneeled down beside Frostbite.
"Hey. You alright?" She asked as she started to rifle through the First-Aid kit, before realizing she didn't actually know where he was injured or how.
"Where does it hurt?" She asked, she was starting to get really angry at Dominique for finding pleasure in hurting him.
"I—I'm...f-fine.." Frostbite stammered out, quietly.
"Uhh, no. You are not. You were screaming bloody murder a second ago, so something is clearly wrong. Just tell me where it hurts or what happened." She said sternly. And, after a minute of silence..
"M.........My leg...." He muttered, so quiet she barely heard it, but that was more to go off of than what she'd had. She nodded and pulled up the pant leg of the led that was exposed to her and not curled protectively under him. It was bruised and maybe a little swollen, slightly weird angle, too... but it honestly didn't look that bad or out of place.. for him.
"Can you tell me what happened to your leg?" Niamh asked, Frostbite just shook his head, still curled up on the floor. Niamh just sighed, he was not making this easy.
"Can you stand up?" She asked, and he, after a minute, gave a small nod before actually raising his head up to look at her for the first time, and a thought suddenly occurred to her. Exactly how old was Frostbite? Because he looked a lot like a young teenager, right about now. His icy blue eyes, that were always described as cold, lifeless, and merciless, well.. they looked just downright terrified,
His snow-white hair hung messily in front of his face and he just looked overall...vulnerable...I have the distinct feeling I'm older than him.. Niamh thought, and, yeah. She wanted to punch Dominique.
Frostbite tried to push himself into a sitting position, immediately flinching and hissing in pain as he did so, but he continued on. The problem arose when he tried to stand, said problem was, as soon as she had helped him stand up, he crumpled to the ground of a yell of pain.
"Frostbite?! What happened!?" She exclaimed, immediately bending down to try and help him.
"Nothing. I'm fine." He growled through gritted teeth.
"A-Are you sure?" Niamh asked, to say the least, he didn't have her 100% convinced.
"Yes." He muttered, as he started trying to stand back up, which, obviously pained him, a lot. But, for some odd reason, he wouldn't admit it. Eventually, he managed to balance, and, after almost yelling at her in his insistence that he was "fine." They made their way back to the queen's room, however, it did not escape Niamh's notice how heavily he was limping.
~~~
There was a knock at Eleanor's door.
"Come in." She said, looking up from where she had been reading in her chair, awaiting Niamh's arrival with Frostbite. The door opened and said people walked in, the queen raised an eyebrow at Frostbite's limp, but Niamh just shrugged.
"Frostbite. We have some unexpected visitors to deal with. You will be following the normal procedures. Is that understood?" Queen Eleanor asked, standing up.
"Yes, your highness.." Frostbite said, his voice barely a whisper.
"Very well. Then let us depart." Queen Eleanor said, brushing past them without another word. Frostbite fell into step behind her, head low. Niamh had a very bad feeling about this.
~~~
Queen Eleanor walked gracefully into the throne room, Frostbite a respectful couple steps..or should she say, limps? Behind her. She didn't know what was wrong with him, or what had happened during training, and, honestly? She didn't care. He was moving around and acting normal, so what did it matter?
"My apologies for the delay. We were not expecting visitors." Queen Eleanor said, her words less an apology and more a warning as she sat down.: Don't Do Anything Stupid.
The leader, she presumed, a tall boy with messy, red, hair and matching red eyes stepped forward.
"We didn't mind the wait. Let's get to the point, shall we?" He more stated, than asked. Voice sharp and threatening. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Frostbite move a couple steps forward, now looming over her shoulder, glaring at these "travelers". Queen Eleanor leaned back in her throne.
"We shall." She said, rising to the challenge in his voice. No matter which direction this went, it was going to be interesting. Besides, Frostbite would keep anything serious from happening to her.
"Our friend, Austin Hunter, went missing a little over a year ago. Reports of a famed assassin that answers solely to the queen have been circulating, said he popped up out of nowhere just a couple months after our friend's disappearance." The leader said, glaring at her. Queen Eleanor bristled at the name, she had to de-escalate this before they found out, quickly. However.. Frostbite tended to be protective, and..well.. not the best at de-escalating situations. But, boy was he good at escalating them.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Frostbite said, voice clipped as he took a step forward, would have looked more threatening if he wasn't limping, but, oh well. He was plenty threatening as it is. The two girls with the red-haired boy gasped, while he just sucked in a breath of air.
"Austin..?" The girl with long, blonde, hair asked tentatively, taking a step forward. Frostbite just frowned.
"I have no idea who you are talking about, but I need you to leave. You are causing the queen emotional distress and it is my duty to protect her." Frostbite said, voice a low threat.
"You and me need to have a very long chat." The leader growled as he started to advance towards the queen. Frostbite was on him a second, more specifically.. they were on the floor in a second, because Frostbite decided to bodyslam him. Frostbite grunted in pain as he pushed up on his arms, effectively pinning the leader.
"Edgar!" The blonde haired girl cored out as she tried to run over to him, but the other girl with short, black, hair, grabbed her by her shoulder and stopped her.
"Alicia. Even if that is Austin, it's not the same Austin we know. She did something to him, and he obviously doesn't recognize us. It's not safe." She whispered in the blonde's ear.
"But- Edgar.. he's in trouble!" The blonde, Alicia, said desperately.
"Not entirely. Did you see how he was limping? He's injured, 'thus giving Edgar an advantage. On top of that, Edgar's taller than him. If things even go in that direction, Edgar has a very good advantage." The black-haired girl said.
"Frostbite. Heel." The queen commanded, Frostbite, almost immediately, rolled off of Edgar, stood up, flinched, and limped back to loom behind Queen Eleanor's throne. Edgar picked himself off the floor, feeling sick. She treated him like some kind of animal..
"My apologies. He can be..overprotective, at times. However, I will be needing you to leave now." Queen Eleanor said, eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Frostbite. Escort them off the grounds." Queen Eleanor said, snapping her fingers as she said his name.
"Right away." Frostbite mumbled before stalking towards them once again.
"Follow me." He said quietly he started to walked towards the exit and then stood to the side of it, obviously waiting for each of them to exit. They did as they were instructed.
The walk back was..awkward... to say the least. Emily, the girl with black hair, once tried to start a bit of small talk:
"What happened to your leg?" She had asked, that was met with no response. Things only truly got interesting when they were nearing the forested area that surrounded the castle grounds. Apparently she truly had meant to escort them all the way off the grounds. However, Edgar saw an opportunity..and he took it. Entering the forest, with Frostbite's back turned to them, Edgar pounced, tackling Frostbite to the ground who cried out in pain as they tumbled to the ground, Edgar pinning Frostbite this time, who struggled against him, but Edgar was holding both his arms against the ground as was using his body to pin the rest of him.
"Edgar!" The two girls both cried out and exclaimed at the same time.
"Sorry about this buddy.." Edgar muttered, before quickly rearing back one arm and delivering a swift and powerful punch to Frostbite's jaw, his head snapped back into ground, knocking him out. Edgar climbed off of him and stood up.
"Edgar!! What are you doing?!" Alicia demanded running over to him. Edgar just cocked his head at her as he lifted Frostbite into a fireman's carry.
"What does it look like? Let's go." Edgar said.
~~~
“Well. His leg is definitely broken.” Alicia said, standing up from where she had been examining said leg.
“Emily? Can you please grab me bandages and a splint?” She asked. Emily nodded and left to go collect the supplies, Edgar, who had been kicked back in a chair with his feet resting on the table, brought his feet down and straightened up.
“What do you think caused it?” He asked.
“I’m not sure, though it’s pretty obvious he hasn’t had any medical attention for it.” Alicia said. Emily came back in around that time with the supplies Alicia had requested.
“Thank you, Emily.” Alicia smiled as she took the supplies.
“No problem.” Emily replied. Alicia sat back down next to the cot that they had laid Frostbite on and got to work, but.. as she tried to set his leg, he bolted upright and in one, expert, move, wrapped both his hands around her neck before she could even react.
“Alicia!” Edgar cried out, falling out of the chair, scrambling to his feet, and rushing over. Alicia was trying to pry his hands off her throat, that wasn’t working, so Edgar quickly hooked his arms through Frostbite’s and pulled back, managing to both pull him off of Alicia, who started gasping for air as soon as he was off, and then effectively restrain him as he struggled to get free.
“Bro! Calm down! You’re gonna hurt yourself ” Edgar snapped at him, as Frostbite thrashed, seemingly uncaring about his leg.
“Let me try something.. Frostbite.” The way Emily said it, commanding and firm, must have stuck a bell because, almost immediately, he froze. Not moving a single muscle.
“Let go of him, Edgar.” Emily directed.
“But-“ Edgar started to protest.
“Do it.” Emily said. Edgar did, he released Frostbite and stood up off the cot. Frostbite slumped into a submissive position, the back of his neck seemingly intentionally exposed to them.
“I’m sorry…” he muttered, voice barely audible, his entire body shaking. Alicia and Edgar were stunned into silence, Emily just seemed sad.
“Buddy— W-We’re not going to hurt you..” Edgar said, worry creeping into his voice.
“I think it’s less he’s scared of you, specifically, but more that’s how he’s been trained to respond.” Emily whispered to the two siblings, Alicia looked like she wanted to murder someone, while simultaneously looking like she’s about to break down. Edgar felt sick to his stomach.
Just what had they done to him?