Chapter Text
“Too slow, Jane. Again, you signal every stroke,” Gunther said amidst his sparring with Jane. As he was about to land another blow on her, Jane crouched, dodging his sword before getting on her feet again and crossing swords with his.
“Boring,” she said, having expected his next move. “Come on, surprise me!”
“Jane, Gunther!” a voice interrupted, bringing the spar to a sudden halt; of course, not before Jane could playfully hit Gunther’s backside with her sword as though to signal that she had now won, having caught him off guard. An ‘ow’ escaped the thwarted squire as he and Jane turned to look at Jester, meanwhile the other adopted a mischievous grin, proud of what she had done.
“Sir Theodore commands all knights to the throne room,” Jester explained in a haste. “Come on, let’s go!”
Both curious, Jane and Gunther looked to one another, each an eyebrow raised in question to silently ask whether one or the other knew what this was about. Simultaneously, they then both shook their heads before running off after Jester who, as though having read their minds, explained that Lavinia was missing and the King and Queen were worried.
Jane was unsurprised by such news, both in the case of her little sister and their parents; Lavinia had been confined to the castle this last week after the stunt with the maze, and today was, as she had called it, her first day of freedom again, and quite honestly Jane would not have been surprised if she’d managed to scamper off outside the castle walls again. Her parents were likely thinking the same. Although, on the same hand, Lavinia had been quite frightened after last week’s maze incident, so perhaps –
“Has anyone looked in her favourite hiding place?” Jane suggested upon entering the throne room.
“Hiding place?” Sir Ivon questioned, as though the idea Jane had thrown out was ludicrous. “Ridiculous! I have personally searched every nook and cranny of this castle!”
“Jane, where might this hiding place be?” Gwendolyn asked, ignoring Sir Ivon, preferring instead to listen to her eldest child; Jane knew her siblings more than anyone else after all, including the likes of their parents.
“Actually, Mother, you are sitting on it,” Jane said, to which both Gwendolyn and Caradoc looked at one another before a little, yet all the while strong, voice echoed from behind Gwendolyn’s throne.
“I am not coming out!” Lavinia said, causing Jane to smile. Like hide and seek, as soon as she was found anywhere she would speak, but any other time she would be as silent as a mouse. Slowly then, Jane approached her mother’s throne and peeked around the other side, coming face-to-face with the littlest princess.
“Lavinia, are those naughty pirates or monsters after you again?” Jane asked, kneeling to be eye-to-eye with the girl; usually, she only hid here when she was playing a game, although as of recent Jane had noticed she had in fact started hiding when remembering the maze.
“Pirates and monsters are for babies, Jane!” Lavinia exclaimed, stamping a foot. Not a game then – she was scared. Of last week’s wolves though, or something completely different? “I have a grown-up problem – a loose tooth!” The girl proceeded to show Jane said tooth, and as soon as she did such a thing, Jane’s brain went into overdrive trying to think of something that would manage to calm Lavinia down; Jane herself had been quite frightened whenever a tooth of hers came out at that age, and she would have loved if someone could have made the experiences happy for her. Of course, her mother and father had both tried to comfort her on multiple occasions, even Sir Theodore would from time to time. Quite unfortunately though, with the influence of Sir Ivon around, even with all the attempts from her family to keep her calm, each time a tooth came out it would end with a screaming Jane.
“That is a problem,” Jane sympathised, completely understanding her fear.
“No one can pull it! It will hurt!” Lavinia cried, her eyes watering a little; Jane gave her sister a quick hug for comfort.
“But it looks like it will fall out soon, all by itself,” Jane observed once having let go of her sister. “And then, you are sure to get a visit from the tooth fairy!” The tooth fairy; she’d thought of that off the top of her head and hoped desperately that this idea – this tale she was concocting in her mind – would work on her sister to keep her calm and hopefully make this losing tooth business a happy occasion for her instead of a scary one.
“What, what?” Lavinia questioned, leaning forward to listen, suddenly very intrigued. Good, this was going perfectly to plan.
“The tooth fairy! Have you never heard of it?” Jane asked, acting as though she hadn’t just made this up herself. Lavinia shook her head.
“That is a champion story! Tell us, Jane!” Caradoc then exclaimed. “I mean, tell Lavinia,” he quickly corrected, causing Jane to smile at her father’s own intrigue.
“Well,” Jane then started, taking a breath before reciting this tale she had created only seconds ago, “whenever you lose a tooth, you merely place it under your pillow, and while you sleep the fairy takes it and leaves a beautiful trinket.”
“What sort of trinket?” Lavinia asked, showing more and more intrigue by the second. How exciting this was!
“A surprise trinket,” Jane said, deciding it best not to try and detail exactly what trinket it could be. “But you have to wait ‘til your tooth falls out.”
“Tooth, I command you to fall out right now!” Lavinia proceeded to command, pointing a finger as she did. A rush of relief fell over Jane then as she laughed with the others in the room; her tale had worked, her sister was no longer frightened, and now she could go back to sparring with Gunther again.
-*-
As it turned out, Dragon too had a loose tooth, and Jane found herself having to employ the same tale on him so as to convince him to get it removed. And though she had intentions of telling Dragon the tale was made up after he had his tooth pulled by Smithy the following day, that ended up being thrown out the window as Lavinia had come to watch. She supposed though, at the end of the day, it wasn’t such a bad thing considering Dragon’s loud mouth, and the last thing Jane needed was for Lavinia to not believe in this tooth fairy thing. And as Jane would discover the following day, there was yet another positive to her dragon believing in this whole tooth fairy thing.
“… Gunther is a champion tooth fairy,” Dragon had said that night. And at first, when Jane had heard such a thing, she was quite angry that Gunther had stolen the tooth – likely for his father’s business, no doubt – but once the morning came she found herself quite entertained. Only after their morning spar, of course, when Jane had made sure to get all her anger out and get the point across to Gunther that she was terribly upset.
“Good morning, tooth fairy,” Dragon greeted, crashing into the training yard just as Jane had finished her lecture to Gunther. “Thank you so much for my trinket,“ the dragon showed off the last-minute, crudely made ring Jane had created the night before, as a gift from the ‘tooth fairy’. “When it catches the sun, I can dazzle sheep with my brilliance!”
“You are both mad, I am not a fairy!” Gunther protested. Jane began to smirk.
“But I saw you,” Dragon stated.
“Gunther has to say that, Dragon,” Jane said, playing into this newfound Gunther-Tooth Fairy ordeal with great pleasure. “Fairies have secrecy rules, you know; they have a code of behaviour, just like knights.” She pointed a finger at Gunther, annunciating the last few words to him as she did so – she was still a little mad.
“Oh, right, no problem, fairy. Your secret’s safe with me,” Dragon said, now up close with the two squires. He winked at Gunther. “Well,” he then corrected, “me and Jane. And a shepherd I mentioned it to.”
“Just .. leave me alone!” Gunther then said, a noticeably upset tone in his voice. He ran off then, Dragon ignoring his request and following after him, asking various tooth fairy-related questions. For a second, Jane admittedly felt a little bad – deep down she knew Gunther had likely been forced to take the tooth, and she knew after last week’s maze ordeal that he was definitely capable of feeling emotions other than spite, especially when it came to her – but, he had also stolen the tooth. At the very least, until he returned it – if he decided to – having her dragon chase him wouldn’t be the worst punishment in the world.
-*-
All morning, Dragon had chased Gunther around nonstop. He hadn’t even taken a break at midday, leaving Gunther to go hungry. It was by this point that Jane was starting to feel a little more merciful, and she was about to call Dragon off in such a case, although, she couldn’t find him. Nor could she find Gunther for that matter, and she was a little worried that Dragon had decided to take him up to his cave, but, to her fortune, she managed to find Gunther in the training yard, squirrelled away behind the archery practice targets.
“Jane. Jane! Call off your dragon!” he pleaded desperately once she approached.
“Certainly, as soon as I get his tooth back,” Jane said in a lie, hoping this, aside from giving Gunther a bit more of a fright (because, well, she was feeling only a little merciful), would get the truth of where the tooth was out of him. He’d lied this morning during their spar, after all, and though Jane knew the tooth was likely with the Merchant, she still wanted to hear it from Gunther’s mouth.
“The tooth has gone!” Gunther began to explain hurriedly. “Even if I wanted to get it back, there is no –“
“What do you mean, it has gone?” Jane asked, trying to figure out if Gunther was telling another lie, or if he was being truthful. Gunther did not speak, although cast his eyes to the ground. “Gunther, is this another –?”
“No, Jane,” he said before she could even finish the question. “Knight’s honour.”
“Then where is it? Sold? Lost? Already made a sword?” Jane questioned, crouching to be eye level with the sitting Gunther as she did so.
“It is –,” Gunther then started, hesitating a little. He knew his answer would sound foolish to Jane’s ears; she had loving parents after all – he did not, “– it is in my father’s house. And if I take it back he will –“ He stopped in time to avoid oversharing; Jane need not know just how bad his relationship was with his father behind closed doors, after all. “– I will get into a great deal of trouble with him if I take it back.”
Observing, for only a split second, Gunther seemed to show an expression of fear, one that Jane had never seen before. Of course, she had seen him fearful before, such as this morning when they were sparring, for it would be foolish not to fear an angry Jane. But this was a different expression to what was seen on his face this morning; whereas this morning’s was temporary, this one seemed almost permanent. And considering Gunther had, for the most part, mastered the art of hiding his true expressions, well –
“I will help you get it back then,” Jane promised, beginning to realise more now the nature of the relationship between Gunther and the Merchant. She of course knew it wasn’t the best, as did everyone in the castle, but all simply thought he was just a strict punisher, not someone that very likely hurt Gunther, or at least did something to him to scare him so badly. “And if he asks questions, you can tell him it was Dragon and I. Hopefully that should lessen his blow.”
“Jane, he will not listen –“ Gunther tried to protest then, the fearful expression returning, unknowingly to Gunther. If Jane squinted she could almost see his eyes beginning to water, and all of a sudden she was overcome by a great force of anger.
“Then I will make him!” she snapped, causing Gunther to flinch, having not expected the outburst. “I will wring his neck if he tries to lay another hand on you –!”
“Jane, please, stop,” Gunther pleaded, and so she did, seeing a very clear tear running down his cheek. The anger seemed to only linger in the back of her mind now, and instead, she felt great sorrow.
“Gunther, I –“ she then tried to apologise, coming close to him and, without thinking, wiping the tear on his cheek away.
“I know, Jane,” Gunther forgave quietly, and against his will, a second tear slipped out, and then a third, and before long he was on the brink of sobbing. Jane had never seen such an emotional display from him as this before, and it quite honestly saddened her to see such a thing. Secretly she had always admired his ability to keep his feelings to himself. Of course, it could be terribly annoying at times, but it was also a useful skill for the battlefield that Jane had desperately wished to learn. But knowing now what Gunther had had to go through to get to that point –
A memory flourished in Jane’s mind then, one that she had had many a time throughout her year since knowing Gunther – the earliest memory she retained of the two. The one from when they were, respectively, no older than one and two; the one where Gunther had been forced out of the room for making too much noise with Jane. The one where Sir Theodore took Jane from the house, not a minute later as she wailed because he knew – he knew what the Merchant was like.
Amidst Gunther’s tears, Jane proceeded to crawl behind the target to sit with him. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do from there, as this was all so new to her, but it seemed she didn’t really need to figure it out, as only a moment after Jane had sat down, Gunther put his head on her shoulder, starting to shake as he continued to weep. Instinctively, as though dealing with one of her teary younger siblings, Jane proceeded to run a hand through his hair, hoping this would help him, and so it did.
“You will never speak a word of this, to anyone,” Gunther managed to mutter once his tears dried, head still rested comfortably on Jane’s shoulder, meanwhile her hand continued to tangle into his hair. Jane nodded her head in promise; it was against the code of conduct, after all, to reveal another knight’s secrets. So, even if she ever did want to speak of this moment for some reason, she would be punished greatly for doing so. “We will take it back tonight,” Gunther added then, voice a little stronger and now almost back to its usual tone.
“But, Gunther –“ Jane protested. She could care less about the tooth now after all of this! And, for goodness sake, he was going to get into trouble if they did this, even if the Merchant was told that it was all Jane and Dragon’s doing!
“It’s the least I can do for you now, Jane,” Gunther sighed, finally lifting his head from Jane’s shoulder. “Besides,” he then said, looking into Jane’s eyes, “I trust you to keep me from any major harm.” Jane felt a little breathless after hearing that. He trusted her. But, Gunther didn’t trust anyone, not even Sir Ivon or Theodore.
“I will go alone then,” Jane spoke quietly. “That way if he wakes and he sees me, you will be spared of any punishment. You may have to lie to him though if he asks questions tomorrow –“
“But what if something happens to you?”
“Gunther, I am the crown princess. If he so much as breathes in my direction he will be sent to the dungeons.”