Will of a Prince

Jacob slowly opened his eyes. His head felt like it had been thrown into a thousand whirlpools and slammed against a stone pillar. His eyes felt extremely heavy. In fact, he was so tired that he began wondering if he was even supposed to be awake. With his eyes closed, he sat up slowly. The surface underneath him wasn’t as hard as he thought dirt should have been.

’Where... what happened to me? Am I stuck in mud? The monster I was fighting...’

Jacob tried with all his might to open his heavy eyelids, but they didn’t open. Panic rose in his chest.

’Don’t tell me... did I die?! Did I actually die?! No... this can’t be! I won’t allow it!’

"AHH!!"

Jacob screamed as loud as he could, unable to control his emotions. Suddenly, a soft hand grabbed his arm.

"Jacob. It’s okay, I’m right here. Calm down, Jacob!"

It was Maria’s voice.

"M-Maria?! You died too?! Oh no... what have I done?!"

Suddenly, he felt something slowly come undone on his face. Bandages fell from his half his face, allowing his left eye to see Maria in all her beauty. Jacob’s pupil dilated seeing her again, but a sense of guilt creeped in his heart.

"Oh... I wasn’t dead. It was a bandage."

Jacob studied Maria’s figure closely. There was something different about her that took him way too long to notice.

"Y-YOUR HAIR!!"

Maria smiled and lightly touched its ragged ends.

"Do you like it? The barber was a little bit hasty, but I think it did the trick."

"I think you still look gorgeous."

Jacob suddenly caught himself getting distracted and tried to orient himself as to where he was and how he got here.

"How are you here? What happened to the white beast? Is this a medical ward?"

Maria slowly poured Jacob a small cup of warm tea.

"I think you should relax a bit more. Your injuries aren’t going to heal for a very long time."

She slowly handed him the cup and sat back in her chair, crossing her legs. In a very rare sight, Maria was not wearing a suit of armor. She was instead wearing a long white shirt paired with a dark green skirt. Jacob slowly sipped the tea and rested his back against his pillows.

"This is good. Thank you."

Maria smiled and cleared her throat before speaking.

"Jacob, do you remember anything that you’ve done recently? What was the last thing you remember?"

Jacob stared off into the distance.

"The last thing I remember..."

He thought back to his fight with a long white monster with thin tentacles. The searing pain of being struck by its attacks were fresh on his mind. And the last thing he remembered was the vision of him being stabbed through the heart, helplessly bleeding out.

"I died... I think? I had been stabbed through the heart, my vision went black, and then everything else just stops there."

Maria nodded her head.

"So, you don’t remember taking a bite out of a friend?"

"A friend? Why would I take a bite out of someone we know?"

Suddenly, an obnoxious sigh rang through the room.

"AWW MAN! How boring! Buddy disappears for months without so much as a peep, throws his girlfriend to the side, and he can’t even remember what a small little human tastes like?! You got to be kidding me!"

Jacob jumped in his bed and looked to his right. Sitting next to him was none other than Zoey. Jacob had now just realized how many injured people were sitting around him.

"GAH! What the-?! How long have you been here?!"

Orvo sighed even harder than Zoey.

"I was really curious too! Does that mean I win the bet, Zoey?"

"You didn’t win anything! If you tasted like chicken, there’s no way he would forget that!"

Orvo and Zoey somehow had more bandages covering their face and body than him. Jacob was completely lost. There were almost way too many things to try and decipher from their crazy conversation. He looked at Maria desperately.

"Can you please help me? I’m so incredibly confused. Did I eat someone?!"

Even though Maria responded quickly, she refused to meet Jacob’s gaze all the way.

"Well... you took a few bites."

Jacob covered his mouth as he gagged.

"I think I’m going to be sick. Wait... what happened to everyone? Did the creature find you guys too?"

An eerie silence fell over the room. Jacob looked around trying to assess what the issue was. Zoey was the first to speak up.

"Oh yeah. It was a creature alright."

Maria looked at Jacob wistfully.

"One reveal at a time, Zoey. Please."

Zoey crossed her arms and looked away. Maria sighed deeply.

"Jacob, do you have any idea how long we were away from Paria?"

Jacob rubbed his chin.

"Maybe a week or two? Why?"

"Jacob, we’ve been missing for months."

"Months?! How is that possible?"

Maria twirled a small strand of her hair.

"I think it may have been the dream world we got stuck in. Time must have been moving differently while we were trapped."

Suddenly, Maria’s eyes widened and she jolted upwards after remembering something extremely important.

"Jacob, where is the baby?!"

Jacob’s heart dropped.

’Shit! I’m so dead!’

"I’m... not sure."

She grabbed Jacob by his collar and pulled him close.

"WHERE THE HELL IS IT?! YOU LOST OUR CHILD?!"

Jacob shivered seeing Maria’s glare.

"I-I’m really sorry, Maria. I don’t know. And wait a moment, it’s a pet, not a child!"

Maria dropped back in her chair, put her hands on her head, and let out a soft groan.

"Everything just keeps getting more complicated. My child is missing."

Jacob’s eye twitched slightly.

’What the hell kind of mess did I get myself into?!’

She rubbed her face and continued speaking to Jacob.

"As for how everyone else got injured, that was because of you."

Jacob felt like fainting. His brain pounded against his skull, trying everything in its power to remember.

"That... can’t be true."

Maria continued.

"At first, we thought it was simply a dangerous corrupted beast. Paria had stationed an Elder Leviathan at the front of our gates to help deter other creatures or foes. However, it was suddenly killed with little to no trace of where the murderer had gone. Not many things are capable of killing such a beast, so we knew that Paria was in danger. The very walls of this kingdom were split in half, and on the other side, an army that extended beyond the horizon was present."

Jacob leaned in, listening intently to Maria’s story.

"However, when we tried to attack them, it turned out that the army was nothing but an illusion. You, in your beast form, was somehow able to wield such a power. Using the surprise opportunity, you drove you claw through Zoey’s heart, instantly leaving her on deaths door and beginning our fight."

Jacob looked over at Zoey who weirdly smiled and waved at Jacob while the part of her near-death experience was being brought up.

’What kind of reaction was that?! I almost killed her for crying out loud!’

"From there, you ruthlessly overpowered all of us. Even with Zoey’s extremely powerful combined transformation with Serena, you were able to keep up perfectly."

She looked deeper into Jacob’s eye.

"You were keeping up with every single one of us all by yourself."

Her emphasis on her words was clear: you are much stronger than you think you are. This made Jacob feel even more guilty about his actions, because it also proved something else that he didn’t want to think about. This being true meant that Slimo was right to keep his power secret, or at least right to try and suppress it.

"However, Lidia had been storing up some special power of hers for months. Right as you were about to land a devastating attack on her, she managed to hit you first with the help of Squabee’s luck. What followed was nothing short of... strange. Everyone appeared to remember Sydney and William, Slimo’s family was finally able to know the truth of what happened between him and his brother, and the monster that we were fighting slowly turned into... you."

A flash of memories crashed against Jacob’s brain. It felt like he had finally found something he had been searching for, for a very long time.

"That’s right. William and Sydney were our friends. How could I possibly forget such a thing?"

Maria coughed into her hand.

"I also forgot to say, when you were a monster, you sort... took a bite out of our friend Orvo over there. He’s the one sitting next to Zoey. I think that covers almost all of it."

Orvo waved his hand in a friendly manner just like Zoey. Jacob looked at him oddly. He didn’t know what it was, but he sensed a strange connection to Orvo somehow. However, after just hearing what he had done, that feeling made him sick to his stomach again. He covered his mouth once more trying not to puke.

’Please don’t tell me we’re soul bound or something because I ate some of his body!!’

Maria raised a finger after thinking one last time.

"Oh! I forgot to mention."

She pointed at a man sitting in bed right across from Jacob on the other side of the room.

"Slimo is over there, and he has a few words for you!"

Slimo had bandages wrapped around his torso, no doubt healing from an injury Jacob had given him. Jacob gulped loudly and began to sweat.

’I’m so dead!!’