those old things for you to give to the second hand shop down the street?”
“That would be great,” he said. “Let me make sure I didn’t leave anything in my pockets.” He checked over the old clothes and got any last things out of the pockets and checked that he’d really taken off all the medals before handing them back to her. “Thanks again.”
“You’re most welcome,” she replied as she ushered the boys from the shop.
The end of the semester came rapidly. It seemed all too soon that the boys were in finals and getting ready for the end of year meeting with their princesses. Adrian had shrunk again and Gelasia was desperately trying to make shoes for him that would disguise the lack of height as well as look somewhat normal. The biggest problem was that his skin was beginning to become paler and sometimes took on a greenish tinge, making him constantly look ill. The boys spent much of their time outside in hopes that they could tan away the odd color. When that didn’t work, Gelasia taught Adrian how to powder his face with a tinted powder so that he would look normal. The worst change was that anytime Adrian heard buzzing, his tongue would shoot out. “You can’t do that in front of Allegra. She will notice and she will become offended,” Lucian warned the day the princesses were coming.
“I’m not trying to. It’s the bugs. They’re buzzing and I just can’t…” he was interrupted by his tongue shooting out again. “I can’t help it. What am I going to do?”
“Just ignore the buzzing,” George said. “Don’t listen to it. Put all your attention on Allegra.”
“If worse comes to worse,” Jacobi added, “turn around when you hear the buzzing and then it won’t be a problem.”
“It’s not that easy to ignore,” Adrian said. “And I don’t necessarily know when I’m going to stick my tongue out.”
“Well then glue your mouth shut,” Kaelen suggested. The others glared at him and he laughed, “I’m just teasing, guys. Adrian, you’re going to have to concentrate on not doing it. Otherwise, Allegra’s going to notice that there’s something different about you.”
Adrian groaned. “This is going to be a disaster. Even if she doesn’t notice, someone’s bound to.”
Their conversation was interrupted as they saw the carriages from Fair Damsels begin pulling into the drive. Kaelen excused himself to go up to his room. Calista had told him that, as with the winter meeting, he would need to spend this meeting in his room. Since he didn’t actually have a princess of his own, there was no real reason for him to be there anyway. But he did miss the time with his friends and their princesses.
The others waited for their princesses and were soon leading them inside for breakfast. The meal passed with pleasant conversation. Soon, parents were filtering into the building for the meetings with their children and for the graduation ceremony. Adrian was spared having much time to talk to Allegra as the ladies began planning their annual trip to the sea. “It’s become a sort of tradition, hasn’t it?” Lavinia asked with a smile as they chatted about what they could do.
“It has and we enjoy every minute of it,” Alexandra replied. “I’m so glad that our children were paired together. I don’t know that we would have met otherwise. And I enjoy your friendship.”
“I think we’ve all gained from the experience,” Lavinia agreed.
The conversation ended as the meetings with Calista and Melantha began. Lucian and Lysander waited together outside Calista’s office. Lysander was looking at his son. “You weren’t kidding when you said you’d grown a lot. I had hoped it was a bit of an exaggeration.”
“I’m afraid not, Dad,” Lucian replied. His pants were once again too short and he knew that he would soon need new ones.
“Your voice is deeper, you’ve been shaving and you certainly aren’t short anymore,” Lysander said with a smile. “I do believe you’re taller than I am now.”
Lucian laughed and told him about the sudden growth spurts and that he had been teased that if he continued at that rate he’d soon be taller even than Kaelen.
“I assume his parents haven’t changed at all since last time?” Lysander asked.
They stopped as Calista welcomed them into her office. When they had all sat down she began, “Well, King Lysander, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how pleased we are with how Lucian is progressing. He is one of our top students.”
“Thank you,” Lysander said as Lucian blushed to the roots of his hair.
“Lucian, you’ve been doing an excellent job this semester and throughout this year. Morghana is quite pleased with your progress and asks that you continue your study over the summer. Vulcan was highly impressed by your performance and has recommended that you be in his class twice next year. I have agreed to this as you will see in your schedule. All of the teachers had nothing but positives to say about you. You’re doing remarkably and we are all quite proud of you.”
Lucian wasn’t sure that his face could get any redder, but was sure it must have matched his hair by the time he finally stammered a quiet, “Thanks.”
Calista smiled and continued, “Next year will bring many changes. Some of your more routine classes will be dropped. You are coming quite close to graduating. Only two more years left with us before you begin your quest. During these next two years we will truly emphasize the skills you will need to be successful. Use your summertime to continue honing the skills that you can at home. We of course will continue your instruction when you return. Do either of you have any questions?”
“I don’t believe so,” Lysander said. “Lucian?”
He shook his head. Calista said, “Do have a good summer. King Lysander, I’m sure Lucian has probably already told you, but if you intend on taking Kaelen home with you again this summer, I’m going to have to ask that you stay after all the other parents have left. It’s tragic that it must be this way, but…”
“We have no problem waiting for him to be ready,” Lysander interrupted. “I’m only sorry that he must be put through this.”
Smiling, Calista said, “As always, King Lysander, you are a great man of fine quality and we appreciate your generosity and that of your wife. Extend our thanks to her as well.”
“It would be my pleasure to do so,” he replied as they all stood.
“In that case, I will see you at the beginning of next school year. Have a very pleasant summer."
The two replied in like and then they went downstairs to await the graduation ceremony. They sat together with the other families, sitting close to their friends. As they watched their older peers cross the stage, Lucian couldn’t help but be struck by how soon his own graduation day was coming. “Adrian,” Lucian whispered leaning over, “in two years that will be us!”
“Scary, isn’t it?” Adrian replied.
Eleanor and Leticia watched particularly as Benjamin walked across the stage for the copy of his quest. They listened as Calista commended him on his honor and wished him well. They cheered with everyone else and watched as he came back to sit with them again. As he did, Eleanor had a fleeting feeling that this would be the last time she saw her older brother. She frowned as the thought came and he winked at her. “Don’t worry, sis, I’ll be the best Prince Charming there ever was,” Benjamin whispered as he sat between his sisters. He took each of them by the hand and squeezed them.
“I’m sure you will be,” Eleanor replied with a smile, squeezing his hand back.
“Without a doubt,” Leticia agreed.
When graduation was finished, Lucian watched one by one as each of his friends’ families left. When asked why his family was waiting he would simply look up the stairs and the others understood. George leaned over and whispered, “But Kaelen’s family was among the first to leave.”
“Calista doesn’t want to risk any of the others seeing him,” Lucian replied.
“Oh, I suppose that’s wise. She doesn’t want rumors to reach them. Well, have a good break.”
“You too, George. I’ll see you in August.”
Year 5 Chapter 1
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A few weeks into summer vacation, Adrian’s family joined the others at the beach in Maltisten. Adrian had been desperately trying to keep his family from noticing that he was starting to change. He’d noticed brown flecks in his eyes and hoped that his mother wouldn’t notice. He wasn’t as concerned about Nana, who he was sure already suspected something, or Moira who never really looked at him much anyway. But he knew that his mother would notice a change like that if he wasn’t careful. So he spent mealtimes looking at his plate and desperately trying to ignore the sound of bugs outside. They sounded so…tasty.
On arriving at the seaside castle, they were shown to their rooms and then both families went out to the beach. Kaelen and Lucian went with Adrian to a more secluded part of the beach where he could swim without people noticing how pale he had become. “I hope you brought some of that powder with you that Gelasia made,” Kaelen said as Adrian got in the water.
“Yeah, but it’s not going to cover all of me,” Adrian replied. “I save it for when people are really going to notice that I look different.” He ribbeted and then covered his mouth. “I wish that would stop. It was terrible the other day, Mother kept looking over at me like I was doing it on purpose. I tried to say it was hiccups, but I’m not sure she believed me. I know Nana didn’t. Do you think maybe she knows already?”
“How would Nana know?” Kaelen asked.
“Nana’s great-great grandmother was a fairy. She notices things that the rest of us don’t,” he explained. “It’s not good, especially when I can’t tell my family.”
“Eventually they’re going to find out,” Lucian stated. “What are you supposed to do then?”
“I don’t know. I figure at the rate I’m going, I’ll be lucky if Mother hasn’t figured something out by the time summer’s over. Look at my eyes!”
“They’re green,” Kaelen said.
“Yeah, but they’ve got brown flecks in them now and the green is starting to look yellowish,” Adrian complained. “Mother absolutely loved Dad’s eyes. She’s bound to notice that mine aren’t the same anymore.”
“Well, don’t look her in the eye,” Lucian suggested.
“Yeah, because that’s real easy to do,” Adrian scoffed. “Who does Calista think I’m kidding? I can’t keep this a secret all summer. And I don’t know what I’ll do if Allegra figures anything out.”
“We’ll keep her from noticing,” Lucian said.
“Just don’t look deeply into her eyes anytime soon,” Kaelen teased.
“I wouldn’t anyway.” The others looked at him, clearly disbelieving. “Okay, so maybe I like her, but I’m not going to have a mushy staring contest with her. She’d win too easily. Ribbet! Ugh!” Adrian moaned as his tongue shot out and then back into his mouth. “I think I just ate a bug.”
Lucian and Kaelen started to laugh. “Come on, let’s go for a swim,” Lucian said. “Then you’ll be a little farther away from the bugs.”
The boys put on swim goggles and enjoyed the feel of the cool ocean water against their skin. Kaelen was enjoying the strange, yet pleasant, sensation of the water running through his fur. Like Lucian, he was a fairly strong swimmer and would spend long periods of time under the water. It was almost amusing watching the fish dart away from him. It wasn’t until he realized that the fish were fleeing without seeing him that he started to feel a little nervous. He turned slowly and saw a large shark heading in his direction. Quickly kicking to the surface he called out to Lucian, “Shark!”
He immediately turned, “Where?”
“About twenty yards that way,” Kaelen said pointing.
“Okay, swim with the current towards shore without making too many sudden moves,” Lucian instructed, also beginning to go towards shore. “How fast is it swimming?”
“I don’t know; I wasn’t paying attention! Where’s Adrian?”
“He went to shore a while ago,” Lucian replied, continuing his swim towards shore. “He said his eyes hurt and they were really bugged out, so we thought some time out of the water would do him good.” Lucian saw a fin slice through the water. “Okay, that shark is moving pretty quick. Try not to panic, but keep moving towards shore.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Kaelen muttered. His eyes grew wide when he saw the fin disappear. “Uh, Lucian? Where did it go?”
“Swim faster, Kaelen,” he replied. “You’re almost to shore. Hurry!”
Kaelen turned to see that Adrian and Lucian were both standing on shore. He knew he was close, but this part remained fairly deep almost to the shore itself. He felt something bump against him and jumped sideways, seeing the shark come to his side. He could barely hear Adrian and Lucian calling to him over the thunderous beating of his heart. The only way he was going to avoid becoming a snack was if he took the shark out first. Feeling rash, he dove under the water, ignoring Lucian’s shouts. He saw the shark coming at him and charged it, wrapping his arms around its body. Crushing it against him, he fought to keep it from wriggling free. He was suddenly grateful for the fur. It protected him from the shark’s rough skin. As it thrashed wildly, trying to break free, Kaelen concentrated on not loosening his grip until the shark quit fighting.
“Kaelen! Kaelen, are you alright?” Lucian asked as he saw Kaelen come back to the surface. He had sent Adrian to go get his parents.
“Yeah.” He coughed up water as he emerged and threw the shark on the beach. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Lucian sighed in relief before spouting, “You idiot! Just because you’re a beast does not mean that you can just take on a shark like that! You should have kept swimming.”
“Hey, I beat it didn’t I?”
“That’s beside the point, Kaelen. You could have been killed. How would I have explained to my mother that you decided to be fish food?”
Kaelen was spared answering as he saw people running towards them. “Oh my goodness, Kaelen, are you alright?” Alexandra asked as she and the others came running up the beach towards him. She wrapped a dry towel around him and started rubbing the water out of his fur. The others crowded around him as well, asking the same question.
“I’m fine, really,” he said, almost embarrassed by the amount of attention he was getting.
“You’re bleeding, son. Let me see that leg,” Lysander demanded.
Kaelen hadn’t even noticed that his leg hurt at all, but now he felt a rush of stinging as saltwater ran into the wound.
Lysander was shaking his head. “I don’t know how you got so lucky, but apparently you don’t taste very good. You’ve got a nasty bite here, but luckily he didn’t take your leg.”
“No, I took him,” Kaelen replied, nodding to the dead shark lying on the beach.
“How did you manage to wrestle that thing?” Nana asked. “It’s as big as you are.”
Alexandra frowned as Lucian and Lysander helped Kaelen get to his feet. They had wrapped one of the towels around the leg to stop the bleeding until they got to the castle. “I’d like to know what the shark was doing in these waters. We never see sharks out here.”
“I don’t know, dear,” Lysander replied. “I suppose there wasn’t enough food in its normal territory. Anyway, I’ll send someone down for that shark. No use wasting a perfectly good fish.”
“I guess I’m a pretty good fisherman,” Kaelen said, trying to lighten the situation as Lucian and Lysander steadied him on their slow walk back to the castle.
Everyone laughed and Lucian teased, “Next time you want to catch a shark, use a fish as bait.” Upon getting inside, Lysander instructed for the cook’s assistant to go and collect the shark from the beach before asking the butler to bring him some hot water and clean rags. “I’ll also need the ointment in the back cupboard of my room.”
“Right away, sire.”
“Alright, sit down, Kaelen,” Lysander commanded. He got Kaelen’s leg propped up and said, “Alexandra, dear, would you get me my shaving kit? I’m going to have to get rid of some
of this fur to be able to see how bad this is.”
“Lavinia,” Nana said, “why don’t we take the girls out to the gardens for a while? I’m sure King Lysander has this well under control.”
“An excellent notion.” She and Nana shooed the girls from the room, leaving Kaelen, Adrian, Lucian and Lysander in the room. When Alexandra returned with the shaving kit, she also left, joining the others out in the gardens while the butler walked into the room.
“Here’s the hot water and the rags, sire. I’m afraid you’ve run out of ointment,” the butler said.
“Wait, is it the poultice that Mom uses when we get scraped on the coral?” Lucian asked.
“Yes, it is. We’re going to need that to prevent infection,” Lysander replied.
“I know how to make it,” Lucian said. “Please, if someone can get me the ingredients, I can make some.”
“Are you sure?” Adrian asked.
“Please tell me this isn’t the poultice you blew up,” Kaelen added.
Lucian rolled his eyes. “No, this was one of the basic poultices. I didn’t have any problem with it at all.” He turned back to his dad. “Please, I know I can do this.”
Lysander looked at his son with pride. “Tell the butler what you need.”
Smiling, Lucian ran after the butler and gave him a list of ingredients that he would need before going into the kitchen to ask the cook if he could borrow the stove.
While Lucian was preparing the poultice, Lysander gently shaved around the bite before beginning to wash away the blood. He used a set of tweezers to gently pull out a tooth from Kaelen’s leg. “Well, dinner isn’t the only souvenir you get,” he said. “You’ve got yourself a rather fine shark tooth, once I get the blood off of it.”
“Really?” Kaelen asked. “That’s cool!”
Lysander shook his head. “Only a teenage boy would think getting bit by a shark and having a tooth stuck in his leg was cool.”
“I think it’s cool,” Adrian said defensively, looking over Kaelen’s shoulder at the tooth.
“That just proves my point the more. You’re a teenage boy.”
“Well, I don’t want to get bit by a shark.”
They laughed and Lysander continued working. Some of the cuts were wide enough that Kaelen needed a few stitches. Lysander told Adrian where to find the emergency kit and began stitching up the bigger cuts when Adrian got back. As he was finishing the last one, Lucian came in with a poultice. “Here, it’s ready.”
“Alright, thank you, Lucian,” Lysander said, taking it from him. “When I finish, put the extra in the ointment bottle please.”
“Okay,” he replied.
“This is going to sting a little, Kaelen,” Lysander warned. He gently rubbed the ointment over Kaelen’s leg and Kaelen bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain. When he’d finished, Lysander wrapped clean rags around the wound and said, “There you are. You won’t be able to go in the water