Chapter 32 part 1

Rooget was watching his father. Not that his father was aware of this fact. Rooget knew he'd be in big trouble if he was discovered, so he made extra sure he was as quiet as he could possibly be.

It wasn't easy for him to hide in this location anymore. He was starting to get taller, which meant that fitting under this particular couch was starting to get rather tight. He wasn't sure he liked being six if this was part of what he had to look forward to. Eventually he might not be able to listen to his father's meetings secretly like this anymore and have to stay in bed when he was supposed to be asleep. The idea didn't sit well with him.

Especially when all he good stuff to see and listen to happened at night. His father was always meeting with someone in the night and Rooget was confident these meetings were set up so he wouldn't be able to listen in on them.

Of course, he had fallen asleep under the couch, but woke up when he heard his father exclaim about something. He couldn't say what had gotten him worked up, but it had to be big since he'd rarely ever seen his father be more than just calm and firm.

The last time he'd seen his father display any kind of emotion was when they'd had an assassin attempt to kill his father's wife, Rooget's mother. After that, his father seemed as he had ever been. Though, Rooget was still often worried that something like that would happen again.

Yet, this time it seemed somehow different. His father was worked up about something, but he seemed more confused than angry. Rooget wanted to see whatever papers his father had in front of him, but couldn't do that because he'd most likely be seen if he did that.

"When was the last thought mage born?" Rooget's father, Delit, asked.

"I think the last one was about twenty years. He's currently helping with the negotiations with the rainbow merfolk," Delit's butler, and best friend, replied.

"Then how did one appear that's not even as old as that?" Delit asked.

"What are the possibilities? I mean, we should consider how it could be with anything, even if it seemed a little out of place." came the answer.

"True. We could go with their story that they came from another world, but how would that look?" Delit asked and Rooget was confident that his father didn't know why. "Yet, they haven't said anything that counters what they've already said." Delit sighed before adding, "If they're truly lying, they've been well trained."

"There's also the possibility that they may have been raised by cut-ears and not have been aware of it," the butler said.

"How could that happen?"

"Simple. They could have been born in a hidden location and raised together. Then their handlers send them to where we found them. The fact that two were thought mages may just have been a lucky coincidence for them."

Delit shook his head. "I don't know about that. It sounds a little too simple. For one thing, we still have no idea how they would have been sent to where they were found anyway," Delit clearly was getting nervous. Rooget knew of only a handful of times he'd seen his father so nervous. Yet, each time had been due to something entirely different. He couldn't say if this time would be the same or different itself.

A bell rang in the distance. "Ah, that should be the officers who learned about the thought mage. They might be able to shed some light about how they learned about the first thought mage," the butler said.

Rooget couldn't believe his luck. He'd heard about thought mages, but never in detail. All that had ever been said to him about them was a very generic overview of what some of their abilities were. Nothing more.

Rooget's father and his butler waited patiently. Neither seemed inclined to head to meet their guests, but Rooget knew why. Whenever there were important matters to discuss, it was typically in this room. Rarely did it occur anywhere else. Usually in those times, it was due to the subject that was being dealt with.

The door opening interrupted Rooget's thoughts and several people entered the room. Yet, Rooget couldn't see them very clearly. Largely because if he was far enough to see people in the room, they'd be able to see him. He'd learned that early on in his attempts to sneak around after the servants put him to bed.

"What is she doing here?!" the butler cried, clearly horrified.

"I was on my way to bring her here when I was informed about the discovery of a thought mage. At which point she told us about who was the second. I think she has said enough that we should at least hear what she has to say," one of the newcomers said.

"What was it that made you think she should come here?" Delit asked calmly.

"She knew about the existence of the Heart of the Forest."

Rooget was confused. He'd never heard of that before. It sounded like it was something that was important, but if that was the case, why wouldn't he have learned about it? He'd already been tutored about so much of the history of the nation he'd rule some day, so why wouldn't this 'Heart of the Forest' have been something he'd been taught about.

Gasps sounded in the room, only enhancing Rooget's confusion. Why did everyone else here know about it except him? He wasn't sure why, but this seemed to have een the night he'd long been waiting for.

"What did she tell you about it?" Delit asked, sounding rather casual, but Rooget knew his father had his guard up. He never sounded casual otherwise.

"Well, when she first mentioned it, she was talking about it like it was what they needed to open the gates, but apparently, the thought mage that revealed herself used it to open all of them. That it was because someone else was pushing her to open them. That someone else is who had apparently stolen the Heart of the Forest from a unicorn's forest and this person and her friends sought to retrieve it for the unicorn."

Delit sighed. "Why would a Heart of the Forest be with a unicorn? Those left us ages ago."

"When I asked this person, she said something about them hiding in their forests at the end of a war, after which they had closed all of the gates."

Delit chuckled to himself. Apparently this person had a very active imagination. There was no way that his father would accept such a story. It was beyond anything he'd ever heard about before.

"I see. So, the gates do exist then," Delit remarked, sounding more like he was talking to himself.

Rooget was shocked. How was this person talking about these things that apparently his father had even kept him from knowing?

"Yes, and it would appear that either the cut-ears have found them or these individuals really are from another world."

"If they are from another world, then why did they come to this one? What is their purpose?" the butler interjected.

"Apparently they're looking for a specific world because of something that had been dropped through a different gate."

"Why couldn't they use that same gate?" Delit asked. "Surely that would allow them to go to that world directly."

"Apparently that gate opened up above a canyon. They're trying to find another way to that world because the canyon has nesting griffins in it."

"Yes, that would-" Delit started to say but was interrupted by a knock.

"What is it?" the butler called out.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we just checked on the young prince, and we found his bed empty. We're searching now for him, but we can't be sure he wasn't taken," a voice from the other side of the door said.

Rooget felt his stomach drop. He knew the voice. His nursemaid. She was always kind to him and let him get away with a lot. He didn't like the thought that she could get in trouble because of him, but he'd managed to deal with these situations before. After all, he was aright regardless. His location was just not known.

Rooget felt something tickling his arm and he reached over to scratch it, only to encounter something that hadn't been there before. He first tried pushing it away, but was surprised at how much it resisted him. He glanced over to see what it was and found himself looking at a puppy. Yet, this was different from any other puppy he'd seen. This one had four eyes.

Rooget couldn't help but let out a small scream that he tried cutting off immediately, but still knew it was too little, too late. The others in the room had to have heard it, meaning his hiding place was revealed. The hiding place he'd been able to keep secret ever since he thought about it years ago. Sure enough, he saw the butler's face appear in front of him, looking under the couch.

Rooget gave him a weak wave, as the butler motioned for him to come out. Rooget didn't try to resist or complain. Doing so would only make things worse for him. He knew his father wouldn't be happy about him doing this, but his father would be a lot more unhappy if they had to pull him out from under the couch themselves.

"What are you doing in here?" his father asked Rooget as he stood up, the tone one that always came when Rooget knew he did something that he wasn't supposed to do.

"I wanted to know what was going on," Rooget mumbled, looking down at the floor, a little surprised that the puppy had followed him out. Though, he couldn't help but smile a little at how the puppy was just looking around, after finishing its inspection or Rooget.

His father sighed in a way that Rooget thought might be a good sign. One that said he didn't have time to deal with this. Usually that meant there was a chance Rooget would be able to get by without getting in trouble.

"Let his nurse in," Delit said, letting Rooget know he wasn't going to be allowed to stay.

Rooget glanced at the newcomers into the room and saw someone that stood out because she had incredibly short ears. He couldn't figure out why that was, though he could see the lower part of her ears. Was she the one that could be a cut-ear?

The sound of the door to the room opening drew Rooget's attention, revealing the sight of his nursemaid. The look she had on her face let him know that while he might be able to get away without much of a consequence about sneaking in here from his father, he probably wasn't going to be as lucky as with his nurse. He respected her and didn't like when he inadvertently made her job harder, but at the same time, he couldn't stand not knowing what was going on. So, he planned on accepting whatever happened. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't expected something to happen if he got caught.

Although, he couldn't help but wonder what happened to the decoy he'd placed in his bed. Had they decided to look closer at it or was it just made too poorly this time? He wasn't sure, but regardless of which it was, he was still found out. Yet, the four-eyed dog wasn't something that he'd expected. It acted like any other dog he'd seen, so he wasn't sure if it was bad or not.

As he reached the door, he looked back at the person whose ears were just so short. She didn't seem like a bad person, but it wasn't for him to decide. She'd picked up the puppy and had the puppy wave farewell to him. He couldn't help but feel a little better after that. Maybe he could see her again if she's not a bad person. The thought made him hope that was the case.

_

Beth watched the door close behind the boy. She still wasn't sure what was going on, but apparently her puppy had found someone that these people didn't want present. She wasn't able to understand what they were saying, but didn't really care that much. She was told that she'd be able to say her piece, but at the moment, she knew that only the Piya would likely understand her, although, she couldn't say that she understood how.

For one thing, she did recall that when she first saw Piya, they couldn't understand each other, only when she'd left and had something in her hand were they able to understand each other. Beth could only assume that whatever Piya left to get was what made that happen, but she had no idea what it was. She certainly hadn't heard anything about something as useful as that, but she was sure that if Heathcliff was aware of it, he'd probably have used it to be able to communicate with the centaurs and arachnoids if he already knew of something like this.

Beth looked at the sofa that the boy had been hiding under. It was a different style from what she'd seen on Earth, but it looked comfortable, and she'd be shocked if it was a similar style, so she walked over and sat down, making sure to not disturb what the others were discussing. She didn't really know what was being said, but that didn't matter if she could just get off her feet and maybe doze for a bit. After all, there wasn't anything that concerned her anyway. After all, she had no idea what was being discussed and knew they wouldn't be able to understand her if she did say something.

She rested her head on the armrest and closed her eyes. Her puppy seemed to have a similar mind and rested her head on Beth's lap. Beth sighed as she allowed herself to relax and let the discussion that she couldn't understand become background noise. Even though she'd already closed her eyes, she could feel them begin to grow heavy.

Suddenly, the door to the room shut and Beth looked up, startled. She could only tell that she'd fallen asleep because there was light shining through a window that she hadn't noticed when she had first entered the room.

Beth stretched, not sure what might be expected of her, but not wanting to just let things go without seeing if there was anything that they would want from her. After all, Piya had brought her there, but nothing had happened then.

Yet, she knew there had to be food somewhere. Even if they couldn't understand her, she wondered if she'd be able to score something to eat. After all, she was getting hungry and she was certain her hellhound was as well.

She looked around and didn't see anyone in the room, so she walked over to the door and turned the knob, carrying her puppy who didn't seem to have been bothered by the door closing. The door opened up easily enough and Beth stepped out. The hallway was rather large and she wasn't sure which direction she should go it. Yet, she didn't spend any time on deciding. She just picked going to the right because it was the first way that came to her mind.

As she walked, she could hear sounds of people in the distance all around her, but it didn't feel like there were any groups that would lead her to a cafeteria, dining hall, or whatever this place might have.

She wondered why they might have left her in the room. Had they actually forgotten about her or did they think she'd still be asleep when they got back? Though, as important as that was to her, she also couldn't help but wonder how her friends were doing. Were they still at that jail or were they like here, somewhere comfortable?

Yet, while she'd be able to likely figure out how they were if she used her magic, for some reason she felt hesitant to do so. She couldn't quite explain it, but it felt like it might be a time that might not have all of them awake. Although, that felt more like an excuse than it did anything else.

While Beth would like to say she knew where she was, she couldn't say that she knew exactly was where she was, just that she was right here. While it was not that important, she couldn't help but let her mind dwell of that for a minute.

Yet, given the fact that she didn't know where anything was, she couldn't help but feel lost and more than a little helpless because of it. As she turned another corner, not paying attention to any one she saw, as she knew that there wouldn't be anything she could do if they didn't like her being there in addition to the fact that she couldn't be able to understand them, even if she asked and where they were.

Not that she was going to let that stop her. After all, exploring could always help her out in the future. She couldn't say what else might be in this building. SO, looking around would be fine, and if a guard felt she should have remained in that room, then she'd accept that. Although, she wasn't really that worried about it. As far as she was concerned, if they wanted her to remain in that room, they'd have locked it.

As Beth made a left turn, more on a whim than having any idea that it might lead to where she could get something to eat, she noticed that there was what looked like a garden ahead of her. Seeing it suddenly made her think of Charlie and she wondered how her friend was holding up. Especially with the whole excitement about her being a thought mage.

Beth decided that she was going to enter the garden, rather than continue looking for where she might be able to get something to eat. At least the garden would be a relaxing environment, and there was a possibility that it'd have something she could eat growing in it.