CH53 Out for a walk

"I have a great idea" Dylan announced at breakfast "we should hold a competition to find the new royal, it might take a few weeks to set up and find someone but we can manage" Dylan shrugged
"But people competing won't show their true colours, and like you said it will take too long, we need a faster solution" I said
"We can't rush this, we need to make sure whoever becomes the next king or queen will do a good job" Damon told us
"I have an idea" I told them, they all looked at me expectantly "we should leave the castle, and explore"
"How will that help?" Dylan asked I went on to explain
"We've been doing this all wrong, the people that come here, come here with problems, they're not looking to being king or queen, I think we should go out there and explore, even if we hold a competition everyone will be out to impress us, to impress me, we'll never find the true royal, this way no one knows what we're doing, no one will be out to impress us" I explained looking at the men expectantly, the guys looked at each other as if asking what they each thought
"It will definitely be faster than a competition" Dylan shrugged the others nodded too.
So here we are an hour later walking outside watching people, we came to a market and saw people buying and selling, some recognised us and greeted us we nodded in acknowledgment.
I heard it before I saw it
"Mister how much bread can I get for this?" A little girl was asking a man selling bread, and cakes, and other baked goods she had a few coins in her hand, the man picked up a loaf of bread and a cupcake, he handed them to her, she tried to give him the coins
"Keep them" he smiled at her
"No, dad says nothing is free" she said sadly trying to give him the money
"You're not getting it for free, you're my one hundredth customer today, which means you won" his hands were behind him moving frantically, I couldn't see what he was doing as I was looking nearly head on, but when his hands came to the front I saw a poster in his hand, that read 'one hundredth customer gets their products for free'
"But what do you want in return?" She asked sounding a little worried the man seemingly thought for a bit
"You just have to do one thing for me, you must tell everyone you meet about my stall, tell them I have the finest bread and baked goods in town" he smiled and leaned forward "you think you can manage that?" The man asked her, she nodded her head vigorously probably smiling wide, I smiled too, when the girl moved away I quickly walked to the stall,
"I have no money on me, what can I get for free?" I asked him before he could answer Damon was standing next to me
"There you are" he addressed me then he looked at the man "is everything ok?" He asked me
"Everything is fine I'm just talking to this man" I assured my mate "what's your name?" I asked the man
"Alejandro" he told me, but looking at me suspiciously
"Alejandro you didn't answer my question" I told him to which he furrowed his eyebrows "what can I get for free? I have no money" I told him, he smiled
"You don't look poor" he commented I raised my eyebrow at him "sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude" he tried to explain
"I saw what you did for that little girl and..." I began but he interrupted me
"Wait, did king Paul send you? Look that girl hadn't eaten for a few days, and I'm willing to put my own money in, I'm sorry, it won't happen again, please, please don't kill me" he cried
"Relax, I'm not hear to cause you problems, and I don't work for the king" when I said that Alejandro looked up
"You don't?" He sniffed, I just shook my head
"I just saw what you did with that girl and I thought it was cute" I shrugged, Alejandro smirked
"You did?" He smiled
"Do you do that a lot?" I asked him, the smile on his face faltered
"Why are you asking?"
"Just curious"
"Umm, no" he chuckled nervously
"Excuse us" Damon said as he grabbed me by my elbow and dragged me away "what are you doing?" he whisper shouted
"Alejandro is a good guy, I think he'd make a good king" I told him
"I think you're scaring him Anastasia, you have to be careful" Damon told me I nodded and we walked back to the stall when Alejandro looked at us Damon and I laughed nervously
"So, how long have you ran this stall?" Damon asked Alejandro
"About fifty years" Alejandro answered, more customers came to the stall and Damon and I moved away, we found Dylan and Charlie and told them about Alejandro
"So he's a nice guy, so what? I'm nice too" Dylan said I just smiled,
"Then you become king, please, it'll make things easier for me" I assured Dylan, Dylan just looked away and I smiled "look it's not just about him being nice, I saw something, in his eyes, in his attitude, I can't explain it but I know he'd make a great king" I really couldn't explain what I saw when he helped that girl, there was something about him that screamed king.
Dylan, Charlie and Damon trusted my judgement, and I was grateful for that, because I couldn't explain what I saw in Alejandro, it wasn't just the fact that he helped that little girl, there was something else, something I couldn't quiet see. We watched Alejandro from afar whilst he worked he talked with everyone, and he was so nice to his customers
"Okay, I think we should follow him, watch where he goes, what he does, what do you think?" Charlie asked, all of us quickly agreed as Alejandro was now packing up his stall
Alejandro, once packed, started walking away, and we followed him, we stayed far away from him as I used my hearing to guide me, he came to a small one room hut he knocked on the door, an old woman opened the door, she greeted him with a smile, Alejandro gave her a bag
"May the gods bless you" she said as she took the bag, I smiled and looked at the others they seemed happy, Alejandro left the woman and we carried on following him.
Soon Alejandro came to a cottage it was stone cottage,
"Mama, I'm home" he called out as he opened the door and walked in, we walked closer and I concentrated on my hearing, I needed to hear the conversation, don't ask me why I just had to
"Hijo" I guessed he was being hugged
"Something weird happened today" he began
"Is everything okay?" His mother asked him
"I don't know, this woman came to my stall, she was enquiring about free stuff I give away"
"Oh no Alejandro you must be careful if uncle Paul finds out we're still here.." the woman seemed worried, uncle Paul? He was related to Paul?
"She said she didn't work for uncle Paul, don't worry mama I'm always careful" they said nothing after that, the four of us moved away
"Uncle Paul?" Charlie said "what do we do?" He asked me, I had to think, I remembered the woman in the hut
"How about we go and talk to the old woman, she might know something" I suggested to which the men, thankfully, agreed, so we walked back the way we came, I knocked on the door of the hut, the woman answered and looked at me, we had decided I should do this alone as not to scare her
"Are you lost dear?" She asked me
"I wanted to talk to you, if that's ok?" I asked she moved away from the door, and beckoned me in, I walked in
"I'm glad your friends didn't come in there's not enough room" she smiled, her house was tiny, there was only one room, there was a chair near the door, and a kitchen, if you can call it a kitchen, was a small table with a portable stove, the kind you use on camping trips, she guided me to the table and I sat on a crate, she bought the bag that Alejandro had given her there were two cakes in the bag and she offered one to me but I declined with a shake of my head, this woman clearly needed it more than I did, she sat on the other crate next to me "So how can I help you?" She asked me with a smile that said she knew the answer
"The man that gave you these cakes.."
"Ahh yes, Alejandro, he's a good boy" she told me, her smile hadn't faltered
"What do you know about him?" I asked "I mean, do you know if he's related to the king?"
"Don't you mean ex-king?" She asked me knowingly, the fact that Paul had been demoted wasn't common knowledge but that didn't mean no one knew about it so I wasn't amazed that she knew
"Yeah I guess" I brushed a strand of hair behind my ear she hmmed
"Ahh, Alejandro and his parents were happy once upon a time, then his papa died, they say no one knows how he died but we know how he died, Alejandro knows, his mama knows, but no proof was ever found, Alejandro and his mama were kicked out of their home, and now, well you know where they live" she took a bite out of her cake and looked at me expectantly
"His father was king" I said to no one in particular
"You met him queen Agatha, you met king Mateo" she told me
"Oh no my names not Agatha, it's Anastasia"
"Agatha, Anastasia, Anne-Marie, they're all the same person, are they not?" She asked me with a wink, as she took another bite of her cake
"I must be going now" I told her as I stood up
"Ahh yes you must tell the others what you learned, and remember queen Anastasia, Alejandro deserves his father's throne, of course I mean metaphorically the throne was burned" she said, my hand was on the handle of the door but I turned around
"How did you know?" I asked her, the burnt throne was definitely not common knowledge
"I was wondering when you'd ask me that, did I mention you, as Agatha, had met the king?" She asked I nodded "I was there, I was employed at the castle, I was one of the maids, we loved working in the castle when Mateo was king, but when Paul took over everyone except the vampires were fired, we just thought Paul favoured the vampires but we soon heard rumors about how bad life became for them, and when no one had ever saw the vampires again we knew the rumours were true"
"So the vampires that left the castle told you" I guessed
"No" the woman shook her head "I'm a witch and my power is to see the future, to see things others cannot, a little bit like you"
"No I can't see anything" I told her but wouldn't that be cool
"Ahh, but you can" she suggested "you saw something in Alejandro that no one else could, you're lucky your mate and brothers trust you enough, but Anastasia you must trust yourself too, learn to trust your instincts" I nodded to this "you must leave now" she clapped her hands "your mate is getting restless, and your brothers are having a hard time handling it" so after goodbyes I left the hut, I saw my mate pacing and went over to him.