Warm Bed

Both kids looked at the dog's corpse; the water puddle slowly turned red as the blood flowed from the dead body.

Felipe didn't say anything as he turned around and returned to his route toward civilization, and just like always, Henry now followed behind him.

"You know, we might be walking into a revolting city. You know, you and I have been abducted." Felipe said as he looked at the houses in the distance.

"Uh?" Henry didn't quite get what Felipe said.

"…" Felipe didn't bother to repeat himself and just kept going. He was not really in the mood to repeat himself.

10 Minutes later, they finally entered what is called a city… though it was more like a small town at the time.

No one was outside as the amount of rain was rather unholy. The canals for draining water were spilling the excess water everywhere.

"…You know your way?" Felipe asked in a loud voice.

"No… I don't know where we are; I only know the main streets." Henry answered in also a loud voice.

That city had been the Capital of the Kingdom of Haiti before the current king decided to burn it down years ago to be able to defend themselves from the Napoleonic troops.

They walked for a bit and finally began to see places with their fronts open and people inside them.

"Help!" Henry yelled in French.

Nonetheless, the number of people paying attention to them was pretty large; after all, Felipe was white, and in the past two days, the entire country had been plunged into chaos because they were searching for the Crown Prince and the White Saint.

Nonetheless, that was not enough for people to look at him with surprise even more. There was another more obscure part of everything, which everyone felt surprised and weird about it.

Rumours and news in the city spread like wildfire, so the people knew very well what had happened. Especially when there are 9 people dead in a house, all without eyes and tongues.

In other words, the two of them were considered dead a long time ago by the people of the city. Yet, there they were.

"Why is no one helping us? They clearly see us." Henry said as he was about to go there before Felipe stopped him by holding his wet shirt.

"Now you know where we at?" Felipe asked loudly.

"Yes, I know."

"Good, take us to the government building; normal people might not be friendly to us… Remember that most people resent your family due to your palace." Felipe said as he looked at the surprised expressions of the few people looking at them from a distance.

"…" Henry understood and just nodded. He became paranoid just like Felipe; after all, anyone could be an ally of the people who kidnapped them.

"Let's go." Henry was now the first to lead the way out of there. Felipe just followed; while he had the better judgement in the jungle, Henry knew the city; he would not pretend to know what he was doing because he didn't.

Felipe looked back and saw that some people had come out of their houses to look at them—the sight of them was more critical and shocking than the desire to stay dry.

"…" Felipe was glad there was no aggressing in their faces. If they decided to lynch them, they would have been dead in no time. Felipe didn't understand that the very fact that he was alive was proof that he was more divine in the eyes of those people.

The floor was clearly different; it was only hardish mud before it was stone pavement. The constant rain had cleaned them from horse shit and all fifth, leaving only somewhat Sperry rocks and rough solid mortar between them.

Felipe's feet were already at their limit, but they were in a city, about to be rescued, feet be dammed.

It was not long before they entered a zone where there were soldiers on the outside of a building, being protected by the roof of the building, which extended a few centimetres from the building's wall.

"HELP!!!" Henry yelled as if he was being followed, though they might as well be observed as many people were coming out of their houses at the news that the white saint came back alive.

The soldiers at the entrance quickly saw Henry waving his hand above his head and Felipe shortly behind him.

The Soldiers quickly went to their help.

Felipe felt a wave of security going across his body. He didn't think the soldiers had turned against the king; after all, his memory tells him that the Haitian Kingdom ended when Henry the 2nd was shot dead right after Henry the First killed himself.

In other words, he was indeed safe.

When soldiers are rescued from very stressful and intense survival situations, they usually go into cardiac arrest when they get into a rescue helicopter. Such a thing happens as the brain enters into a state of safety while the body is in intense survival.

Felipe felt his heart palpitate, but it gave him nothing more than a sensation that he forgot to breathe. He did not have a heart attack; having had a long walk with Henry calmed their stress.

Nevertheless, the moment he was inside the city's prison, he found a bench and fell asleep in an instant, not even a second, to accommodate himself.

--

5 Hours Later.

Felipe woke up, and he could not recognize where he was, though everything that mattered to him was that he was no longer wet and he was inside an actual bed with warm blankets and a soft pillow.

He didn't want to wake up, after all, he could tell that the moment he tried to do something, all the pain he was not feeling he would feel it, so he just pushed the back of his head on the pillow even more and rubbed the left side of his cheek with the pillow after rotating his head a bit.

'God, please let this be real and not heaven.' Felipe thought as he knew there was a very high possibility he had died right after being rescued. He regretted going to sleep right after being rescued as the possibility of being in heaven grew larger inside his head.

The sound of rain had not stopped, though the water was not splashing his face this time the house's roof.

The room door opened, so a servant entered with a bed warmer; she was wearing mittens. It was how the mattress could stay warm; coals were put between the bed and the sheets at the bottom of the bed to create artificial heating.

"Oh! Oh!" She didn't know what to say when she saw that Felipe had his eyes opened.

She had her hands full with the bed warmer full of coals. Thankfully, her surprised behaviour alerted the fellow servant that helped her open Felipe's door.

The other servant looked at him, so he looked at her and said nothing; he was not in the mood to speak.

"Lord Felipe." The servant didn't wait for Felipe to say something and just left; she would notify other people, leaving the servant with the bed warmer full of burning coals, still not knowing what to do.

"Put it in my bed; I want to stay in this bed for a while," Felipe said gently as he was already feeling pain, completely negating that he was in heaven.

"Ah, yes." She modestly fully entered the room, put the bed warmer on the group, and quickly took the other bed warmer inside his bed now. She slowly replaced it with the new one and tensed the sheet to make it seem like they had never been picked up.

"Merci."

The servant bowed elegantly as she quickly fled the room, not knowing what to do. Felipe only smiled as he thought it was funny. He quickly felt the warmth of the burning coals and just enjoyed it. He could not get enough heat in his feet; Felipe had been barefooted for 2 days over, and ½ of a day or so had been in constant rain while crossing the mountain range.

Not long before Luciano, his father arrived at his room, and he entered without knocking.

"Son!"

"Father." Felipe smiled as he gave up on going back to sleep.

There was an awkward situation with just a bit of silence between them. Luciano knows about Felipe's condition, and the doctor has told him that he needs to be still, so he feels somewhat fearful of trying to hug him.

"I survived."

Luciano began to chuckle as he saw the smile on Felipe's face.

"How do you feel?" Luciano asked as he fully entered the room.

With his wife out of the picture, Luciano has become more feminine and protective of Felipe.

"Very happy," Felipe said vaguely.

"That's good," Luciano said as he didn't know how to follow the conversation that had died out.

"I want to sleep more," Felipe said as he gave his father a clue to leave the room.

"Right, right…Yeah, of course, I will go; if you want something, say it, and we will get it for you."

"Father, you are not going to be king but an Emperor, just like the Emperor of Rome," Felipe said with a burning gaze.

"…" Luciano looked at the eyes of his kid. His kid was indeed not normal; typically, a child that was abducted and has gone through hell would not want to do anything with such life, yet, Felipe's eyes were burning with passion.