Wandering around to the other side of Peter's bed, the king slumped in the chair, eyes closed, running his hands through his long grey hair.
"I wish to God that I'd never sent him on that blasted assignment," he ranted angrily. "There were others that could have gone in his place, but none were as good as he was. No matter what, he always got the job done. I still have no idea to this very day what happened to him and his team. I've done everything I can think of to find out. I'd give everything I have just to know."
Richie and Tank sat rigid on the edge of the bed, the quiet, out of the way hospital room punctuated by only the sounds of the king and Peter sobbing.
Moments passed, seconds turned into minutes, and the crying stopped. To his credit the king, although upset, was determined to carry on and finish off the story.
"Some time before all that, a few years earlier in fact, your grandfather had taken me to the Purbeck nursery ring to see you. We travelled incognito, not wanting to be recognised. It was difficult not to recognise you with that bent whistle marking that, even as a young dragon, stood out very clearly. While we were there, perched on the wall by the side of the walkway, watching you listen intently to your tor, he asked a great favour of me. He asked that I look out for you, should anything happen to him. Telling me that he'd left you his house and all the belongings inside it, he was very serious about making sure you were looked after. How could I possibly refuse?
The other thing he went on to mention was the fact that he'd fallen out with your parents. I have no specific details as to why, but something very bad happened between them. So much so, that when they deposited your egg at the nursery ring before they disappeared, they left explicit instructions not to let your grandfather have anything to do with you, for as long as you were there. As you are aware, those instructions have to be followed to the letter. And so it was they upped and left as many parents do."
Peter covered his eyes with his hand, thinking that he might cry again. It was all too much to take in. He felt sad that his parents had left him without so much as a thought. Why couldn't he have grown up in their company? Where had they gone? He'd known their names on leaving the nursery ring, and had looked them up on the dragon register. But there was no sign of either of them anywhere. They seemed to have abandoned him and disappeared into thin air.
Despite his disappointment at a life without his parents, he felt great pride and love for the grandfather he'd never known. From what he'd heard this afternoon, his mother's father sounded like such a decent dragon, making sure his house and its contents were passed down and that his best friend (the king) kept an eye on him. Through watery eyes and snot filled nostrils, he desperately wished he could have met him, just once. As he delved deeper into his thoughts, anger leapt up to the forefront, threatening to consume him.
'Why would they not want my grandfather to come near me? What did they fall out over? It must have been something really bad to cause all that. Did it have something to do with them leaving?'
Startled back to the present by the sound of the king clearing his throat, Peter continued listening.
"Despite the instructions that he wasn't allowed to have anything to do with you, I know for a fact that your grandfather would spend most of his time when he wasn't working for me, sitting alone on that wall next to the nursery ring, watching your development, looking over you in his own special way."
On hearing this, Peter's head fell into his hands, the tears readily flowing down both cheeks again, dropping onto the polished white floor.
"Only a month or so after he took me to see you at the nursery ring, your grandfather left a large trunk with me (not the grey sort with the meanest wakeup call in the world) to be given to you when I thought you were ready for it. To this day, it remains untouched in my home, waiting for you. Perhaps when you've fully recovered you can come and claim it; your friends would be welcome too."
Continuing to cry, Peter gave a large sniff as he nodded in reply.
The king's mood lightened a little, a weight lifted from his shoulders.
"Have you ever wondered why your grandfather's house is in Salisbridge?" he asked cheerily.
Peter shook his head, as both Tank and Richie looked on.
"It seems he fell in love with the place while working there. I bet you can't guess when that was?"
With Peter still distraught, Tank thought he'd try and break the silence that was becoming more awkward by the second, so he replied, trying to lighten the mood,
"During your fight with Troydenn... you know, George and the Dragon and all that."
"Exactly!" roared the king, much to Tank's astonishment. All three of them looked up at the monarch, thinking that perhaps he was building up to one of his jokes.
"It's true," exclaimed the king. History books only ever mention that I battled Troydenn in some rural part of England. They never actually say where, but it was in fact Salisbridge. Your grandfather once told me that from the moment he arrived there as part of the aid effort, he felt a connection of some sort, not just to the people, but to the city itself. Throughout the years, whenever he was off duty or recovering from one of the missions that I'd sent him on, he could always be found in Salisbridge. Eventually he bought his own human house there around the turn of the century I believe," said the king wistfully. "And he remained in love with the place right up until he... until the day he left on that fateful mission."
Peter's head sprang up, looking the king right in the eyes.
"Can I ask what the mission he set out to do was... please?"
This clearly caught the king off guard. He hadn't for the life of him been prepared for this, but perhaps he should have been. Wandering over to Peter, the monarch crouched down in front of him.
"I'm afraid it's not quite that simple, my young friend. You see, the mission and all information pertaining to it is top secret. And while I would be quite happy to tell you and trust you with that information, if it ever got out that I did so without the permission of the Council itself, my political enemies would use it against me. I can, however, put in a request to the Council on your behalf, asking for the details to be shared with you, so that you may put to rest the memory of your grandfather. Would you like me to do that?"
Peter nodded vigorously.
"Yes please."
"Okay son, I'll do that for you. Hopefully by the time you're well enough to come to visit me and pick up your grandfather's belongings, I'll have some sort of decision as to whether or not the details can be revealed to you."
With the king looking as though he was about to make his excuses and leave, Tank raised his hand to ask a question about something that had been bugging him for a little while now.
Smiling at Tank's manners, the monarch asked,
"What's on your mind, big fella?"
Tilting his head to one side, giving the king one of his lopsided grins, Tank asked,
"We were always taught in the nursery ring that the dragon king wasn't allowed on the surface of the planet... ever! If that's so, how is it that you're here?"
"And I thought it was this young lady here, who was the smarty pants of the group," laughed the king, gazing at Richie.
Richie blushed, lost for words once again.
"It would appear that I've been... busted!" announced the monarch, opening his arms wide, whilst whirling around in a circle. "Guards, guards, guards, come and arrest me!"