LUCIUS.
I turned around slowly but saw no one.
"Lucius." The voice called again, and I turned sharply in the direction of the sound but saw nothing.
"Let me open your eyes." The whisper came again, and then a body of water appeared like it had been there all along.
I blinked twice to be sure I was seeing correctly.
"Who are you?" I asked as I tightened my fist on my bow.
The voice laughed and replied. "How dare you?"
I looked around because I still couldn't see anyone or anything.
"Show yourself. What do you think you want from me?" I asked because I knew creatures like that always had a request they were waiting to ask.
"You took a life in my domain, a life that belongs to me; I only want it back." She said, and I looked at the dead rabbit and then threw it on the floor.
"There, you have it." I said, and there was not a word.
"You are going to have to please me because you clearly cannot raise the dead, and I'm going to use you to save someone because that person has a reason he must live, and like it or not, because you owe me, you will do it." She said, and I scoffed and turned around.
"I gave you back your rabbit; now leave me alone." I said and started to walk away when something strange happened. I felt a kind of strong pull, the kind you get from a magnetic force, and I started to go backwards. I pulled on all my strength to go forward, but I wasn't even able to move, and the moment I released myself to be able to call on more strength to move forward, I was taken totally by surprise and landed with a splash inside the water.
I went down and saw that the water had a kind of mysterious light within it. It was then that I knew all along that the water had been the one speaking.
"Now let's visit the future of the person you must save a bit." The water whispered, and the water began to glow brightly, and finally something sharp exploded in my head.
My hands went to my head after some seconds. I tried desperately to swim out of the water, but it was no use. I started to weaken as not breathing while my head seemed to be attacked wasn't exactly something everyone could withstand.
"This would have been painless but for your arrogance!" The water said, and slowly I began to black out.
~
When I woke, I was in the Palace. I was in a room, on a bed, staring at the ceiling.
"Dream?" I asked myself with an amused smile. It had been so real.
I turned only to meet my father sleeping on the bed next to me.
I jumped up in shock with a little surprised shout. I looked around me and then realised I was in my father's room.
I stood up, attempting to leave quietly without being discovered, but just then the door opened and four men in black came in.
I blinked just to be sure. Four unidentified men in black coming in to my father's room easily? Where were the guards?
I stood up from where I sat and stood in front of them.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" I asked, but they went just right past me.
It was then that I realised they weren't hearing or seeing anything.
One of them brought something out of a bag, and to my dismay, it was a plant, which I knew and dreaded.
Wolfsbane.
He put it to my father's nose, and the moment my father breathed it in, his eyes flew open, and the men stuffed the wolfsbane into his nose further. He sat up and tried to fight, but as one tackled him, the other came from behind and hit his head with a large flower vase. It made a lot of noise, and another had slit my father's throat while he was fighting.
My father touched the wound in shock, only for the assassins to slash him again in that same spot.
As guards came in, the assassins attacked them with both wolfsbane and claws, and it was a fierce battle that the assassins won because they were with that plant. Wolfsbane.
I watched as the guards all fell, and the assassins brought out a little bottle and gave it to the one who had done nothing all along. He was about to remove his mask when I felt myself take in a lot of air.
I opened my eyes and found myself on the floor of the forest. I sat up immediately and looked around. It was very dark, and I couldn't find the body of water I had seen before.
But the strangest thing was that I wasn't wet. My clothes and my hair were totally dry.
"I got into water. I saw something." I said to myself in disbelief as I held my head in my hands. “Lucius, don't go crazy.”
After a few seconds, I stood up, and then I saw the rabbit I had thrown to the floor.
I looked around and left quickly. I gave a howl to call out to my guards and waited for several minutes, but not one of them showed up.
I was getting colder standing there, waiting to hear any sound. I decided to leave because I knew they would find their way somehow.
However, when I got home, I was astonished to see that it was already dawn and that I and my men had left late at night.
I began to think of what I had seen, but it made no sense. How could someone be planning to kill my father? That was putting me on the throne, not themselves.
It was then that I heard the voices, from somewhere deep in the Palace.
I followed the voices and went down a series of steep staircases to the dark, unfrequented parts of the Palace.
Then I heard them even more clearly.
"We're killing him. To..."
I didn't wait; I barged in with my wolf eyes shining, ready to see.
But to my surprise, I saw no one.