Pain. It burned like a white hot poker that radiated out from the point of contact out to the rest of his body. Such was the pain that the rest of the world was dulled to the point of being nothing but muffled background noise. Like his ears were covered with some thick fabric and the rest of the world was just barely there on the end of his conscious mind.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">“…..!”</span><br/><br/>There was someone calling his name and speaking to him. At least he thought so. Right now all he could think about was how cold and hard the ground felt. The longer he laid there on the ground the colder it all felt to him.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Why was it so slick? The ground should have been harder than it was becoming….</span>Foggy thoughts flittered through his mind, gaze on the now reddish brown mud.<br/><br/>“BRAD!” the voice held a level of urgency and concern to it and was now accompanied by frantic hands that pressed against a wound on his side. Slowly, the face of his would be savior game into view and he was surprised to see it was the Prince.<br/><br/>“I…I…Ivor?”<br/><br/>“BE STILL YOU FOOL! THE GODS YOU ARE LUCKY TO EVEN STILL BE ALIVE!” he hissed and pressed on the wound to try and slow the bleeding. “GUARDS! GUARDS!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs for the guards that had split off from them.<br/><br/>“Wh..wh…wait…what is happening?” Brad just managed to get out though the world was still very fuzzy and foggy to him.<br/><br/>“The boar, it gored you,” Ivor tried to explain. “It charged me and you pushed me out of the way…” that fact was still staggering to the prince who would have expected the man to allow the boar to gore him. Instead, Brad had actually gotten in the way to protect him. “You got it with your spear but not before he got you,” the prince tore off a length of cloth and pressed it to his wound.<br/><br/>“It…what…” the entire incident was still not clear to his pain wrecked mind and body. The only thought that was clear in his head was Maria, as he thought about her in the world with his child alone.<br/><br/>“Just stay with me and I will get you back to the castle….I promise….”<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg285/eferhilda/5GRk28C_zpsh16j6lz6.png">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/>“Think nothing of it, my child,” the Queen assured with a sweet tone as she signaled for the appetizers to be brought forth. “I know the woes of pregnancy and know the good fortune of having a<span style="font-style: italic">Lady in Waiting</span>who would do anything for me. Even risk the ire of a Queen and do so without any regrets,” her wine was poured and she took up her glass for a small sip. “Such loyalty is hard to come by, so I am pleased to see that you have it given your condition and how important you are to the future of our two Kingdoms.”<br/><br/>A small salad was placed before the trio, though Abby reframed from doing much save for drink her wine. The glass immediately refilled the moment that she emptied it. It earned a look from her mother, though not a word was said to her at the moment.<br/><br/>“I think I might still have some of the clothes that the twins had when they were babies?” Like a mother speaking to her own daughter the Queen pressed on with the conversation. “While it has been a number of years I still kept a few of my favorite outfits. Most of them are very simple so they will work for either a boy or a girl.”