"You're helping me-" Alaric mumbled, blinking slowly up at you. Blood trickled from his mouth as he spoke, and more tears flowed down his face. He was a complete mess.

You'd found him outside your cottage in the woods, curled up on the forest floor and crying. The runaway prince, he was trying to escape his father, the king, who not only was known to the kingdom as a tyrant, but his son as well.

"Why help me?" He'd never known such kindness, even from the servants at his palace.