Will of a Prince

Maria slowly opened her eyes, trying to orient herself. There was a strange liquid being poured into her mouth, but the taste was excellent. Her emerald eyes studied the figure in front of her carefully. She tried moving her hand, but the person seemed to already be grabbing on to it.

"Maria? Are you okay?"

Maria squinted her eyes.

"Jacob?"

Jacob hugged Maria tightly as she woke up.

"Ow. My everything is sore."

Jacob let her go and gave her some space.

"I’m sorry. I was just worried that you wouldn’t wake up. Doc! I have another one!"

Doc rushed over with a large plate of cooked meat. The smell of the meat reminded her of the days when she was Jacob’s servant in the kingdom. Her body moved on its own, her eyes ignited with avarice, and she pounced on the food like a wild beast. Doc jumped back and yelped, dropping the plate of meat. Maria continued devouring the food at an alarming rate.

After the pate was empty, she seemed to have finally come to her senses and looked around. William and Luna were still laying against the tree asleep with cloth laid over their foreheads. However, multiple people were walking around her, talking with each other. There was a tense feeling that hung in the air.

"Where is everyone else? Shouldn’t there be more of us than this?"

Jacob was used to getting asked this question from the others who had already woken up, so he wasn’t as affected. But it still hurt him to tell his girlfriend the awful news.

"I’m sorry. This is everyone that made it."

"Made it? What do you-"

Maria studied the small makeshift grave near her and jumped backwards. Panic started rising in her chest.

"Where’s mom?"

"She’s okay. She is helping Slimo hunt some more animals right now. That’s Emma’s grave."

"Emma died? Who else? How did they die?"

Jacob walked up to her and held her hand.

"Emma died to the malnourishment. Three others were attacked by a pack of monsters when we were trying to escape the hellish wasteland after the battle. It was Jack, Caleb, and Bryce."

Maria dropped to her knees and put her hands on her head.

"This can’t be happening. We just saved them. We were all okay. We were supposed to survive."

Jacob bent down and hugged her tightly.

"I know. I should have prepared us more for what happened after the fight. I was too focused on trying to save everyone that I foolishly forgot what kind of unforgiving world we live in."

Suddenly, Sarah walked over with a fresh plate of grilled meat and bent down towards Maria.

"I’m sorry about your loss. I was waiting to make these for you until you woke up. I know you liked them back at my shop."

Maria slowly picked up the meat and nibbled on it slowly.

"Thank you. It means a lot."

Instead of leaving though, Sarah sat behind Maria and laid her back against hers. Maria was a bit shocked by the gesture but welcomed the company.

"Hey, can I tell you both something?"

Maria had her mouth full, so Jacob decided to respond.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Have any of you felt different since that attack on Iron Kingdom? It feels like ever since that attack, something has changed deep inside me that I can’t explain. Do you guys understand what I mean?"

Jacob almost coughed on his own saliva hearing what she was saying. Of course, both of them felt much more different after everything that happened, but what Sarah was saying was implying something much scarier for herself.

"Well... yes, but maybe not the same way you do."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Can you explain to us what you mean by feeling different?"

"I don’t really know how to explain it. Maybe like something in my heart evolved. Is that a crazy thing to say?"

Jacob paled slightly.

"Unfortunately, it seems to be a normal thing to say these days."

’Uncommon my ass, professor...’

"Tell me, do you feel more powerful?"

Sarah sighed.

"Powerful? I guess you could say that."

"Okay, don’t freak out, but you may have unlocked a Zalo."

Sarah didn’t seem to react hearing the news. She simply kept leaning on Maria.

"Ah. I kind of expected that’s why those masked freaks must’ve wanted me. So, how do I know what my power is?"

Jacob scratched his head embarrassingly.

"Well, you just have to try and test that kind of thing out through trial and error. Sorry."

"It’s okay. I hope it has something to do with cooking. I’m not really a fighter. By the way, where the hell did you guys find that blue eyed man? He’s one hell of a cook! I’m glad he wasn’t my competition back in Iron Kingdom or I would have went out of business for sure!"

Maria seemed to cheer up a bit hearing Sarah’s positive attitude. Right as they finished talking, Lidia, Slimo, and Squabee all walked over to them with bright smiles on their face.

"My daughters okay!"

Lidia tackled Maria to the ground, causing Sarah to be thrown back with them from being so close.

"Mom! You’re embarrassing me!"

Slimo jumped on top of her as well, embracing both of them. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"I’m glad you’re okay too!"

Squabee joined the pile soon after.

"This looks like fun! I want to join!"

Maria’s face turned blue at the bottom of the pile.

"You guys... I’m being crushed."

Sarah and Jacob helped roll everyone off Maria. She sat up and dusted herself off before running over to Lidia and giving her a better hug.

"Sorry for scaring you. By the way, did I do that release right? I blacked out as soon as I threw the punch, so I think I sent too much energy into my fist."

Lidia smiled and messed up her dark black hair.

"We can work on it. It took me a while to get used to mine."

Slimo was chewing on an apple that appeared out of nowhere.

"We got extremely lucky with this spot. I remember there being a lot less vegetation in the east. Maybe the land has gotten more rain this past year."

Jacob nodded his head.

"It did lightly rain when most of you were passed out. That’s why you all woke under the tree. We tried keeping you as dry as we could."

Coughing started sounding from behind them. They all turned to see where the sound was coming from. Doc ran over to Gabriel and Luna as they slowly woke up from their deep sleep.