patience, little grasshopper

 At breakfast that day, we sat silently as we munched our toast and consumed copious amounts of coffee. Miles stood up, cleared his throat, and declared it was time to roll. Without wasting a moment, we all went to meet the princess. Princess Ivy sat in a chair that was loaded with bright pink pillows. " you're late." she scolded. I half expected Noah to retort but instead, he bowed his head and apologized. he apologized!!. okay, I'm not so shocked but can you believe it? The undefeated wrestling captain of the school's wrestling team was taking orders from a five-year-old, I was in shock. At this point, the princess was not in immediate danger we took up our posts knowing that danger could strike at any moment and we did not have to wait long when part of the wall was blasted away with a small explosion. Noah who had been leaning a few centimetres away from the point of impact sprung into action only a split second late because Miles had already scooped the princess out of her chair and sprinted her to safety. I ran over to Noah who had a cut on his temple so I placed a piece of gauze on his head in an attempt to slow down the bleed. I helped him and gently led him to my room where I would patch him up before we left to look for the enemy. 

 we examined the damage and looked for clues. As we stared at the damage, Miles held out a small device over the rubble and immediately started beeping. He sighed and returned the device to his pocket. " looks like we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." He said as he pulled out an infrared pen from his other pocket and started walking to the edge of the property. I followed him over to where he stood. he had stopped and was looking at the ground in puzzlement "Huh? The trail ends here." he said in disappointment. I then decided that it was a good idea to try and find more clues so I walked back to the wall. Upon further inspection, I discovered a small piece of shrapnel and yes, I know what that is. In the previous ten weeks, I had received training in martial arts, super secret surveillance techniques and how to identify bomb blast patterns on top of that I also learned Spanish and was also required to learn five more languages. The spies always look cool in movies. they hardly break a sweat but I have just one thing to say about that " hogwash." Since Noah was out like a light, it was up to Miles and me to get to the bottom of the matter. I took the little piece and handed it over to Miles who took it gently in his hands and started looking it over while mumbling. I busied myself with continuing to inspect the crime scene and to my surprise, I found another much larger piece of shrapnel to my utter shock, I found a familiar label on it one I had not seen in half a decade. I hastily picked off the piece of paper, pocketed it and handed the shrapnel to Miles who took it happily. " yeah..... I need to go check on Noah." I told him. it was only a half-truth. I was going to check on Noah but I was also going to do something else, get to the very bottom of this. 

for a moment, I watched him sleep. he just looked so peaceful and I had to fight hard to resist the urge to brush the hair that had fallen into his face away. I slowly backed out of his room and made a beeline for the balcony before sticking my hand into my pocket retrieving the paper from earlier and staring at the familiar logo. I hope Uncle Gary has a good explanation. the huge mansion loomed over me but I had no intention of backing down so I reached out my hand and rang the doorbell. almost instantly the door swung open revealing a man who was in his late forties he looked at me silently asking me to state my business "Uh..... I'm here to see Gary Green." I said suddenly feeling the urge to crawl into a hole and never come out. The man smiled warmly at me exposing his pearly whites and said in that all too familiar voice " Hey kiddo, what's up?" Uncle Gary greeted happily. I wrapped my arms around him and when we pulled away from our hug, he stepped aside and let me into his house. Uncle Gary led me to the living room and called for his butler to make for us tea. The butler, Mr Anderson, who was now in his early fifties handed us cups of tea five minutes later, I remember when I was little and used to have tea parties with Uncle Gary and right now felt just like old times. " just like old times, eh kid?" Uncle Gary said as he scooped sugar into his cup and then poured tea into it. " so tell me, kid, to what do I owe this visit?" I sat there for a while contemplating whether I should just come out with it. and at that moment, the paper was burning a hole in my pocket so I slowly reached into my pocket and produced the piece of paper before then gently placing it on the table. " this turned up at a crime scene after an attack on the palace where the target was the princess." I said with a calm tone but really, I was freaking out. " uh, I see you finally joined the family business." he said calmly but the way his eyes kept darting all around the room told me loads. " so you do know about this?" I asked, "No, I had no idea.... is the princess okay?" He said sounding sincere but once again, he never once looked me in the eye. " hey my eyes are up here." I said while pointing at my face making him let out a short chuckle for a few seconds when all of a sudden, his face became serious and he reached into his coat pocket producing a small remote with a single button which he then pushed and looked all relaxed.