Traitors and an Alliance?

"Stay close, Princess, we're under attack," Varis said calmly even though his body language said he was nervous.

Two more arrows came hurdling towards them, which Varis deflected with ease. Cautiously, he started to back up, scooping Emilia up and carrying her with him.

A few seconds later though a man with ragged and torn bunny ears leaped over a wall of flower bushes and charged at them with a sword drawn and poised to strike. Varis sat the princess down quickly and stepped between her and the attacker.

Emilia crouched down in fear, unsure of what to do or what was going on. It was a good thing that she didn't just run off, as whoever had shot the arrows was still shooting when the sound of swords clashing rang out through the morning air.

Two attackers made things more difficult for Varis, especially since one was shooting long range while the other controlled his movements with close combat. Plus there was the fact that there could always be more that he just did not know about yet.

Every time Varis went to strike an arrow out of the air, the man who wielded a sword would strike out at him, and similarly, every time Varis went to block the sword baring down on him, an arrow would come sizzling through the air.

Luckily for him, the swordsman seemed to be an untrained fellow, simply given a sword and sent out to attack them with maybe a few instructions. The archer, however, was a true marksman. If Varis hadn't been knocking the arrows down, they surely would've met their target each and every time.

Soon more guards showed up to help and the confrontation was over. The man shooting the arrows was shot down, dead, and the simple man with a sword was taken into custody alive for questioning.

As soon as it was over Varis kneeled down beside Emilia and offered her his hand, saying in a soothing, calm voice, "It's alright now, Princess. Everything is over. The assailants have been caught."

Looking up cautiously with tears in her eyes, Emilia took his hand shakely and got up. Not sure what to do whilst seeking more comfort, she stepped closer towards him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

He felt his heart squeeze with empathy, and held her in a firm embrace, saying calmly to comfort her, "There, there, it's ok, Princess Emilia. Everything is alright now. You're safe. I would never let any harm come to you. Why else must I stay so close to you? I'll always be here to protect you."

Tightening her embrace whilst shaking more, she looked up at him teary eyed and asked, "Promise?"

"Promise," he said with a charming smile as he took a finger and wiped her tears away from under her pretty hazel eyes. He thought to himself that she was really cute when she was depending on him instead of trying to escape his watch. This made his heart beat a little harder.

As soon as he promised, Emilia loosened her embrace but did not quite let go, resting her head against his chest. She was still trying to calm down and didn't quite feel safe yet, so he just held onto her gently and began to stroke her soft, golden hair.

She was almost back to herself as they stepped away from each other awkwardly, some maids coming over to help guide her back inside to get ready for her lessons. Naturally, Varis followed closely behind.

The rest of the day seemed to go by rather quickly for Emilia, who was behaving for once and not trying to run off or escape. Lessons on manners and etaquit first with her lunch, followed by dancing, literature, basic history, and lastly politics, took up most of the afternoon.

At the end of her politics lesson she was informed that the attackers that morning had been traitors to the kingdom, protesting a forming alliance by trying to assassinate her and pin it on the new ally. When she asked about the new alliance that she'd never heard of before this, her instructor only replied, "I cannot tell you any further details. The rest will be announced to you at a later time."