So what if I told you guys that this will probably be the longest book I've written so far?
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Chung fell backward, right into his father's arms, still breathing but losing blood and fast. "I'm sorry," Chung managed to say while tears made themselves visible on his face. Helputt was shaking his head in denial. "No, you aren't going to die. I'm can't let you die. I'm not losing you too," Helputt said as he picked Chung up. "The fountain will save him," Helputt said more to himself than Add and Ara. "It's too far. He won't make it," Ara said.

"Think child! He can ne saved. The poison turned cure is still with Add. We don't know of its effect but it's worth a try," Eun said in Ara's mind. Ara looked to Add who must have thought of the same solution for he was already pulling out the vile of golden liquid. "Give this to him. It's a cure. Maybe it can heal him," Add said as he held out the slightly cracked container. Helputt didn't hesitate to give Chung the contents of the container which took an immediate affect just as it would have if it had still been Astrin's poison.

Ara mentally thanked Eun as she watched Chung's wound mending itself. "No...it isn't fair....I was....I was supposed to win," Astrin's unmistakable voice could be heard saying. Any of Helputt's attempts to hide his true emotions disappeared in an instant and he handed Chung over to Ara. She was a bit startled by the sudden action but she bought Chung over to Add so that she could make sure they were both okay. They watched as Helputt walked over to Astrin without his cannon and knelt down next to him.

Astrin said something but Ara couldn't hear what he was saying to Helputt whose eyes widened in shock. "You...shut up," Helputt said and then he punched Astrin's lights out. Ara honestly hadn't expected Helputt to just punch him but as long as Astrin didn't get up to harm them anymore, Ara was fine. "I believe this delima of yours is finally over," Eun said. Ara nodded in reply. Helputt stood and made his way back over to them. "You two can't stay here. Astrin's not exactly done tormenting you two just yet," Helputt said.

"What are do you mean by that?" Add asked. "It seems that he was able to erase everyone's memory of your arrival so if you're caught here, you'll be treated as intruders and killed," Helputt said. Chung was the first to react. "That's not fair! They saved the entire kingdom from Astrin and they even saved my life!" Chung said as he stood up without any help from anyone else. "Hey, take it easy Chung. You're putting yourself up under too much undue stress and you know what that does to you," Helputt said in am attempt to calm Chung down.

"I'm perfectly fine. I don't see why we can't just tell everyone ourselves about what happened here. You're the White Colossus of Hamel. Everyone would believe you!" Chung said but Helputt shook his head. "How would we explain the King's death or Astrin's betrayal. He'll deny it all. He still might have other tricks up his sleeves as well. What will we tell them about the guards? We can't say that we helped take them down to help these two escape," Helputt said. Ara quickly caught on to what he meant.

"You're saying that we're going to have to take the blame for killing the king even though we didn't do it," Ara said as she glanced at Add who likely caught on as well. Helputt remained silent but his answer was clear. "But that's not how it should go! They're heroes!" Chung said. He was truly upset about the outcome. "There's nothing we can do. The other guards should be here soon and these guards will be waking up now that Astrin really is down for the count. You two will need to quickly gather you things and leave as fast as you can," Helputt said.

"There has to be another way. I can't live the rest of my life knowing what happened here while everyone else lives this day in a lie!" Chung said seeming as though he would cry. "It's okay, Chung. We'll take the blame. It won't be a problem. We were heading home anyway," Ara said to the distraught boy. "You mean...you were never going to stay in the first place?" Chung asked as he looked back to Add who was still resting. "They've been planning to leave since they got here Chung. I should have told you sooner," Helputt said.

It was then that Ara realized that Chung didn't want them to leave because they were likely his only real friends. "No one knows what we look like now right? We can leave and head home and come back and visit sometime," Ara said to try lifting the boy's spirits but it didn't seem tk work. He seemed so heartbroken. "Come on, we need to go," Helputt said as he helped Add up. They could hear people heading their way and they couldn't afford to be seen. Helputt guided them to a spot near the wall.

"Take this servant hall all the way to the end and make a left. You should be able to exit right near your room. I don't think any of the servants will be in the halls after hearing all of this commotion. There's a vent under the bed in the middle of the room. If you follow that vent to the very end, it should lead to the stables. You are free to take any mount you want to make your escape. I recommend the Ice Hameling. Its good for cold weather," Helputt instructed as he pressed the wall in one spot that caused a door to open.

Helputt let Ara take his place and she helped Add through the small corridor. They didn't get a chance to say goodbye but they didn't really have any time to either. Add had gotten to where he was able to go on his own by the time they'd gotten to their room and he immediately slid under the middle bed to open the vent with his dynamos. Ara tasked herself with gathering everything, which really wasn't much. Once she had gotten her bag secured on her back with Dynamo at the very top, she peeked under the bed to find Add waiting for her with the vent open.

He motioned for her to go first so she did and crawled through the vent opening that led to a slightly larger tunnel-like space that only led one way. There was more than enough space for them to crawl through but they had to stay single file to avoid any discomfort. Just as Helputt had instructed, Ara went all the way to the very end but she couldn't quite get the vent open. She looked back at Add who noticed the problem automatically. Ara moved aside as far as she could so that she could let Add by to get the vent open. It was no use though. The vent would not budge.

"Would you like to borrow some of my power? You should be able to scratch right through it," Eun said. Ara agreed and let Eun lend her powers over. Add returned to his place behind Ara and let her scratch the opening apart. It would leave behind evidence of their escape but they didn't care. Ara jumped down and landed on the ground where she found herself just outside of the palace near a wooden building. Eun's power left her soon after. Add landed next to her with help of his dynamos and headed towards the building.

Ara followed after him although she thought it would have been better to have check for any others before just walking ahead. No one was inside of the building but there were several mounts of varying types in enclosed areas. "Do you happen to know what an Ice Hameling looks like?" Ara asked as she looked around at the different mounts. Add looked back at her with a smirk. "I may or may not have ridden one before," he said, a tinge of excitement weaved into his voice.

He walked over to a particular area and opened the gate that kept what must have been the Ice Hameling locked inside. It walked out and sniffed at Add before looking over to Ara. It seemed happy to be freed and nudged its head up against Add as if wanting to be petted. "They're really friendly," Add said to Ara as he pet the icey dragon. Its smooth white scales were highlighted in hues of blue in certain areas. The moment was interrupted when they began to hear people heading their way. "Okay, we need to go," Add said and Ara didn't hesitate to join Add as he prepared to make their escape. The Ice Hameling seemed more than happy to barge though the half open doors of the stable and knock down those that were unlucky enough to be in the way.

The moment it got through the doors, it leapt up into the sky, spreading its wings. The sudden action caused Ara and Add to almost lose balance but Add was holding on to the reigns leaving Ara to hold on to Add's waist. The icey dragon flapped its wings again and again, taking them higher into the sky until they were far above the highest point of the palace. It came to a steady soaring as soon as it penetrated the clouds. "This one was eager to get free. Ice Hameling don't usually fly so high up," Add commented to keep it from being too silent.

"We actually made it," Ara said, realizing that they really could have been killed. "He planned for us to take the blame from the very beginning," Add said, his voice suddenly going from calm to somewhat dark. "What?" Ara said, truly confused by what Add was saying. "Helputt knew about Astrin's plan all along. He had to have known. Astrin wasn't the only bad guy here. Chung was the only innocent one out of all of them," Add said. "What are you talking about? Helputt just saved our lives!" Ara said, shocked that Add would make such an accusation.

"Just think about it. From the very beginning, Helputt was a bit too trusting. He let us into the palace of all places and when he first left us in that room he'd said that we reminded him of someone. That someone was Chung who was sickly at the time. He saw us as desperate and he took advantage of that all while painting himself to be the good guy. We weren't questioned any further after we were brought in. Don't you find that a bit suspicious? Then we were taken around the palace to be treated nicely. Helputt was likely the one to order this to happen."

"Chung told me that he and his father were given certain amounts of authority before we had to take him to that fountain. Astrin and Helputt were working together, both plotting to take the king down for different reasons. Astrin had the more sinister reason although Helputt's reason wasn't any better. I'm guessing they came to a disagreement long ago and Astrin decided to take matters in his own hands, taking Chung's life as hostage against Helputt in case he decided to deviate from the plan. They've probably been searching for someone to take the fall for them for years which could explain why Chung has never gotten better until after he took the healing potion. I'm not sure if you could tell or not but he most certainly isn't sick anymore," Add said.

Ara was still confused though. "Wait, hold on a second. Go back to the part where Helputt took us in. I want to hear the full theory. How did they pull all of this off without anyone knowing? Someone should have been able to figure out that they were up to something right?" Ara said so that Add could clarify. "Don't you find it odd that the vent in our room led right to the stable. That room was designed for an escape meaning that it was likely for one belonging to the royal family. Someone should have said something to Helputt about letting us stay there but no one did because they were brainwashed by Astrin."

"Astrin put the plan into play by getting your hairpin to keep us in line. He was going to have us do the dirty work but got tired of waiting. Helputt didn't plan for it to go this way though. He invited us to dinner with the king so that he could kill the king himself and blame it on us, likely planning on using the same poison that Astrin gave us. He must have figured out that Astrin had already given us the poison but wanted to know for sure which was why he kept urging us to tell him what happened."

       "Since he could only assume we had the poison and would kill the king, he wanted to see how committed we were by introducing us to Chung and telling us how the king payed for all of his treatments. Although it may have been true that the king did that for Chung, it isn't true that the king was a good one. He was too nonchalant about us being near him despite what he knew we'd done. My guess was that he was indefinitely greedy which is why there is even a poor part of Hamel in the first place. He made up for his greed with his wisdom but it wasn't enough to keep Helputt from plotting his demise."

       "Astrin had likely just wanted the thone for himself just to be even greedier than the king. Astrin wanted to ensure that Helputt gave him the throne and so he went so far as attempting to kill Chung, who was oblivious to all of this. Chung was secluded from everyone and just wanted his father to spend time with him and acknowledge him. Astrin snapped after we took your hairpin back plus he already hated me in the first place for taking my mother away from him. He killed the king himself and activated his mind control over everyone which I'm sure Helputt knew about but assumed it would work to his advantage."

        "Astrin had tried to kill Helputt in the end of all of this. He could have easily attacked me seeing as I was the weakest in the group at the moment. Instead he attacked Helputt but Chung stepped in and saved him, giving his life for his father's not knowing what his father had done. Helputt was indeed distraught about his son almost dying and hadn't anticipated that Astrin would target him after already having control over Chung's sickness. Lucky for Chung, I still had that cure that we accidentally created and I was able to save Chung but he would have died otherwise."
  
        "Helputt went and knocked Astrin out to keep him from saying anything else. I think Helputt killed him after we left. He let us escape to thank us for saving Chung's life. Otherwise, he would have let the guards take us away without hesitation and seclude himself from his own son out of guilt. We were lucky to get out of that," Add explained. Ara was truly shocked. "Then does that mean that Chung will grow up to become like his father?" Ara asked. "I don't think so. Helputt seems likely to become king next. Chung will eventually learn of everything that happened these past two days and he'll be the one to dethrone his father. That kid has a strong sense of justice," Add said. From then on, the two became quiet and let the Ice Hameling fly them away.
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I wrote way more than usual this time. Were any of you surprised? I know I was! Until next time you fantastic readers!