The Honorable Guest

When Marc finally opened his eyes he saw four pairs of eyes staring right back at him. Two of them were animals, the other two...

"Wha-?!" Startled, Marc quickly jumped off the large four-poster bed that he had been lying on. Who knew how did he even managed to get there. As far as he was concerned, he was still hiking up that hill they called the Green Valley.

Who knew which b*astard had named that dangerous hill that. For starters, there was nothing 'green' about the hill — only rocks and more rocks all through the hike up. Second of all, what d*mn valley?! It was a steep rocky hill, with narrow walking pathways and full of creepy crawling poisonous creatures. That b*astard must have been drunk or he just had a lousy sense of humor.

It was by luck that he had been 'kind' enough to purchase some kind of lucky charm from an old croon in that dirty old village at the foot of the hill. That old woman had keep shoving the lucky charm at his face back then. She had only stop when she received a piece of gold coin from him. The lucky charm didn't even look much like a charm — it was a sachet containing who knew what and smelled like an old man dirty sock. Either way, thankfully the 'lucky charm' had worked against the poisonous and dangerous creatures that lived on the Green Valley — they all had stayed as far 10 ft away from him.

Not much could be said about it actually working against bad luck though. For he had almost lost his life several times on the way to the peak of the hill — by either from falling rocks, tripping on the narrow pathways and the abnormal coldness surrounding the Green Valley.

Marc would never care to even dream of coming to this kind of place if it were not an order coming from his royal father — the King of Albastrom Kingdom.

Right now, after what felt like weeks of that blasted dangerous hiked up the Green Valley, he had suddenly found himself possibly within the lair of a vampyre clan. Marc had made this spontaneous conclusion based on the fact that there were currently two immortals little girls — who were still staring at him with that piercing preternatural gaze they have — in this room or prison or whatever this confinement supposed to be.

After jumping off the four-poster bed, Marc quickly ran towards the doors of the room. He hadn't much hope that it will be unlocked, but surprisingly, when he turned the door-knobs, they turned without any resistance, even as he pulled the doors to reveal the massive hallway outside.

Without thinking, Marc had sprinted out of the room, only to find himself crashing onto someone — or rather an invisible wall that had appeared out of nowhere in front of that person. Hitting something that sturdy, had him involuntarily fell down on the marble floor, bottom first.

"Oh, dear. I'm sorry. I didn't see you coming out of the room, Dear Customer," said a lovely melodious female voice.

"Customer...?" Marc looked up above when he heard the word 'customer' and saw a beautiful silver-haired young woman in a white gown. Her beauty far exceeded any young ladies he had ever seen, both among the nobles or commoners alike.

"Y-you're...?" Marc stammered out, clearly stunned by the young woman's breath-taking appearance. He had even come to forgot about the two vampyres.

"Oh, I'm-"

"My Lady." Just as the silver-haired young woman wanted to introduce herself, he heard two adorable voices greeted her together coming from behind him. Glancing behind, he saw that the voices had exactly come from the two immortals that he had just seen in the room before. They were bowing down respectfully at the beautiful young woman in front of him.

Shocked and terrified by this sudden turned of events, he ended blurting out, "Vampyre!" while pointing a finger at the silver-haired young woman.

"Pardon?" Glancing at her back for a moment the young woman wondered if there was any other presence within the Grand White Mansion at whom Marc's claim was directed at. Finding no one else, she turned her attention once again at Marc, while gesturing at herself, she asked, "I'm sorry, Sir Customer. Are you talking about me?"

Seeing Marc's still terrified face, the young woman laughed softly and said, "Sorry to disappoint you, Dear Customer, but I'm just a humble 'ordinary' young lady." Whether Marc had noticed the purposely emphasis on the word 'ordinary', was not known. For at this moment he was still looking at the young woman with a terrified expression.

Without showing the slightest bit of annoyance or offense at Marc's stare, the young woman introduced herself, "I'm Kathleen Silber, the shopkeeper of The Silvers."

******

It was a nice and bright morning at the Grand White Mansion. Gentle winds slithered through the slightly open tall windows of the mansion, bringing in fresh air mixed with the sweet smell of flowers inside.

As usual, The Kitchen had prepared a delicious meal for its resident. However, unlike any other day, Shopkeeper Kathleen was joined by Prince Marc of Albastrom Kingdom during breakfast today.

They were both seated on the mostly empty long table in the dining room. Chosen the seat right in front of each other, the two quietly ate their breakfast. All through the meal, only the clinking of teacups on their saucers and cutlery hitting plates can be heard.

Other than the two, two black cats had joined them on the dining table. They were both seated on the chair next to their owner. However, rather than eating their own meals, the cats were taking their morning nap.

The two little vampyre girls, that Prince Marc had seen previously, were standing still by the tall window behind Shopkeeper Kathleen, as they silently watched the two of them eat their breakfast.

Truthfully, this situation quite unnerved Marc, but remembering the absolute order that the King had given him, drove him to continue eating the food on his plate and drank the tea that was constantly being poured for him by the Shopkeeper.

Only when Shopkeeper Kathleen saw that the prince had finished with his own breakfast, did she spoke, "Well, shall we proceed with our business then, Prince Marc?"

Marc gulped once, before giving a slight nod.