Cherish || A Chase x Sweetie Fanfiction ||

(S3-C21) • Impending War •

"Catch the ball, laddie!"

The boy threw his small arms up in the sky as he tried to predict where the oblong would land. It almost hit his face, fumbling on his grab but was ultimately able to hold it in his hands.

"I did it, dad!" The young boy claimed, earning a hearty laughter from his father and a smile from his mother and older brothers.

However, as the boy cocked his hand back, there was a small groan and heavy footsteps in the same grassy hill they were, leading up to the keep of their favoured princess, Diane. Turning around in morbid curiosity, his fingers loosened and the ball dropped down to slide downhill in awkward tumbles from its shape. Terror entered his eardrums as the sounds of shoes crunching on grass before him came closer.

"What's wrong, Timothy?" The father ran over, catching sight of a pup, all battered, bruised, and gasping for air like there wasn't enough in the world.

He spoke with nails in his throat, "Please, help me."

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Heels and furry paws headed over to the front of the keep, clacking on the tiled floor. Princess Diane and Maria peeked over their doctors and nurses, taking care of a pup on the shaded entranceway surrounded by worried people, and not just any pup.

"Prince Julius," Diane stuttered with a hand over her mouth, Maria's eyes in disbelief of what they were seeing.

Garments removed, they were presented with scars and infected wounds, his furry chest holding a slight shape of his ribcage cursed by hunger, and his eyes swelled.

It took a few minutes for Princess Diane to calm her people down, advising them to go home. On the other hand, Maria tended to the pup she had a heated argument with before, holding his body steady for the cleaning and stitches he needed. Every whimper broke her heart, and that was pain through anesthesia.

Is this their doing again? Maria went back to the story the police Shepherd told her after he informed about how he couldn't see the Sweetie 'inside his head' anymore. He told her there was something wrong in Barkingburg and that they were in a prepared state of war. It lacked detail, however. Clearly, he was hiding something from her. "War against what?"

Just as Princess Diane came to check up on the victim with quick steps, her heart and feet stopped from the sudden words of the supposedly unconscious.

"Against us."

A moment of silence from everyone, the cleaning halted and every conversation went silent.

"They've gone insane. Barkingburg is no longer a safe haven that proclaims to be free of violence. In a few days, they'll launch an all-out attack against every kingdom in our lands, and soon, the whole world."

"You can't say that, Prince Julius," one of the female nurses backed away, engulfed in fear. "You're probably just confused, that's all. You did came here in a bad shape—"

"You're wrong. He's telling the truth."

Everyone turned around. Even Julius, with only one of his eyes open, tried to lift his head up to see who spoke, and the sight was utmost displeasing based on his expression.

"Princess Coraline has lost her mind. She wishes to use the Orb of Promise for some selfish reasons, but I think Julius here already knows the lot of it. He was their slave after all."

"Nice to see you too, Chase. Happy to see the results of your fleeing? Feast your eyes on my ravaged body."

Maria could hear the small growl Chase emitted through his teeth. The information itself was unknown to her, though. One thing for sure, it seemed that there had been a recent connection between the two present individuals that turned sour.