CHAPTER 2: Togon

"Your Highness, it is time for your breakfast," the palace maids bowed and carried in trays of food.

Prince Togon rubbed his eyes and sat up on his bed. "Get out!" Togon yelled, "I'm not hungry yet!"

Togon stood up and grabbed his sword from its stand, unsheathing it and swinging it at the palace maids wildly. He was unsteady on his feet and had a wild look in his eyes. The palace maids backed out of his room hurriedly with the trays.

"Another of his bad dreams, I suppose," the palace maid said to the other once they were outside.

She was right. Togon dropped his sword and sat down heavily on his bed, shuddering when he recalled his nightmare. He had dreamt of the murder of his mother three years ago, where he witnessed everything but was helpless and couldn't do anything. He had been in her room, chatting with her happily when assassins burst in and plunged a sword into her back, before disappearing out from the windows and doors as quickly as they had appeared. He remembered the shocked look on his mother's face as she clutched the spot where the sword had impaled her and collapsed onto the ground. Togon wept bitterly at the memory.

Wiping his tears, he brought his bracelet close to his face. It was golden and studded with precious jewels, a gift from his late mother. Togon took in a deep breath, composed himself and called in the palace maids.

They dressed him in his royal robes and pulled his long hair into a topknot, placing a headband and his crown carefully on his head. Helped into his seat, Togon sat down and began chewing on his meal.

After his breakfast, Togon decided to take a walk. A visit to the Secret Garden would always help to calm his nerves. It used to be his and his mother's favorite place to hang out in the palace. Now, it was only him.

As he entered the Secret Garden through the entrance in the hedge, he tilted his head to the sky and whistled a tune. A second later, a blue bird burst out from the trees and landed on Togon's shoulder, chirping excitedly. Togon tamed the wild bird himself a week ago, with the aid of some crumbs, and his gift for animals, and they soon became fast friends. Togon took out the leftover crumbs that he had saved from breakfast and fed it to the excited bird. It gobbled everything up greedily and fluttered to the nearest branch. Togon laughed.

Suddenly, a squirrel scuttled past on the trunk of a tree. Togon took one look at it and decided that it would be his next friend. It would take a few hours of work, but Togon had all the time in his life.

He walked slowly towards the tree that the squirrel was on. The squirrel scampered upwards and disappeared among the leaves. Togon places his palms on the trunk of the tree and peered upwards. The squirrel was nowhere to be seen. He peered left and right to make sure there was no one in the garden, before beginning to heave himself up the first branch carefully, so as not to startle the squirrel. Halfway through, he was stuck with his elbows and belly on the branch, but the rest of his body still hanging in the air. He struggled and strained to bring his legs up onto the branch as well, before rolling over and finally flopping down on the branch, panting heavily. The branch was just thick enough to support his weight. Togon kept still, resting his back against the trunk. He would wait here till the squirrel appeared.

Hours later, as he was just beginning to doze off, he suddenly felt something ticklish at his feet. He realized that the squirrel was there, peering at his feet curiously. Suddenly, it hopped forward and nibbled on his toes with its sharp teeth. "Ouch!" Togon cried, stretching his arms towards his feet. As he leaned forward, his crown, which was already lopsided on his head, slipped off and fell onto the ground below. Togon decided that it was not worth the effort to climb down and up again to retrieve the crown, so he just left it there, and turned his attention to the squirrel. He felt around underneath his royal robes and found some nuts that he had hidden there for situations like this.

"Hey, would you like some nuts?" Togon spoke to the squirrel softly and politely. He stretched out his hand towards the squirrel slowly. The squirrel scurried away and turned back to watch him from a distance. It then inched towards him when it saw that he didn't move.

"I'll call you Nibbles. For nibbling at my toes the first time we met," Togon smiled.

A few minutes later, the squirrel was already on his arm and Togon was stroking its bushy tail.

Togon heard footsteps approaching from a distance. He froze. He hoped that he was high enough and the leaves would help to hide him from whoever was below. Only the royals and some other high ranking officials were allowed into the Secret Garden, so he was guessing that it was either his father who was the King, or maybe Balthazar, his uncle who was only six years older than him.

Peering down, he realized that it was Balthazar, and he heaved a sigh of relief to see that Balthazar hadn't noticed him yet. Suddenly, he remembered his crown was still lying on the ground below him and his heart skipped a beat. But it was too late to do anything about that. Balthazar had just noticed the crown lying there.

Balthazar made an exclamation of surprise that sounded something like "errhmm?" and made his way towards the crown, bending down to pick it up. He examined it before looking left and right to look for the owner, but fortunately, not upwards. "Crown Prince's gonna get into trouble for this," Balthazar smirked, walking in the direction of the exit.

Togon realized that he had been holding his breath all this time and let it out all at one go. He flopped down and relaxed on the branch, relieved. The branch swayed dangerously, and with a deafening "CRACK!" it snapped and down tumbled Togon and Nibbles and Branch along with Tons-of-Leaves, falling one and a half meter onto the ground.

"Ack!" Togon yelled and accidentally bit his tongue as he landed heavily on his bottom. Nibbles scrambled off his shoulder and scampered off, out of sight.

"Hey! Come back! I didn't mean to scare you," Togon yelled after Nibbles. A burst of pain shot up his spine. Togon sucked in his breath and grimaced. He must have hurt his back in the fall. Togon hoped that Balthazar had gone far enough to not hear the cracking branch. Wincing, he struggled to stand and made his way painfully towards the exit of the garden.