On the tree-lined highway there stood a luxurious carriage with the royal coat of arms affixed to it. It was surrounded by a dozen or so knights also sporting the royal crest – a rampant crowned golden griffin on a royal purple background – but strangely enough they had directed their weapons at the person they ought to protect.

The coachman had sought refuge at the nearby forest edge together with the horses he had hastily unhitched from the vehicle. He was accompanied by the prince’s personal maid whose terrified face had gone pale with fright.

Prince Wynkin himself had seemingly fallen out of the carriage, seized by violent spasms, frothing from his mouth, the eyes rolled back so that the white color became visible, but shouting with pain all the same with an inhuman voice. It was a bizarre spectacle watching how the skinny, downright weedy boy who was quite small for his age – he was only as tall as a nine years old in spite of being almost thirteen – began to grow taller at a visible rate, his puny muscles twitching and bulging at the same time.

The boy’s travel escorts had soon understood that they were witnessing a case of early berserk syndrome and thus tried to put an end to it before it was too late. A berserk could only easily be killed during his first growth spurt. Later attempts would be increasingly difficult or even impossible to achieve.

It was currently impossible to reach the spastic changing prince though, for a violent gale hindered them from coming even remotely close to their target.

Violant, who rapidly approached while riding Huwcyn and accompanied by Malford, saw with relief that Prince Wynkin was still alive.

The cause of the heavy gale hindering the prince’s escorts from closing in and slaying their master was quickly identified by the girl. The phenomenon was caused by no other than Rambold and Waldolf, the two wild huntsmen, who guarded their surveillance target from his own subordinates.

That Violant was able to see the two ghosts who had turned invisible was thanks to her silver eyes which not only gave evidence of her party nonhuman heritage but also were magical eyes giving her the sight, the ability to see through magical camouflage and illusions, albeit enabling her to see the invisible warriors only as shadowy figures.

The red-haired girl closing in didn’t remain unnoticed for long. Surprised by the suddenly approaching traveler, some of the flustered escort knight pointed their swords at the newcomers instead.

The grey horse stopped right before the wall of shining blades, allowing his rider to dismount gracefully.

Malford, who had jumped to the ground the very same moment Huwcyn had come to a stop, confronted the hostile knights with a furious expression and a fire of righteousness in his blood-red eyes – although, his childlike appearance didn’t help supporting his intimidating aura.

“How dare you?” he asked “How dare you point your swords at Her Serene Highness Violant of Avallach, niece of His Serene Highness Margrave Orderic himself? Even for royal escort knights such an outrageous behavior will entail serious consequences, of that I assure you.”

The knights were flustered even more when hearing which illustrious personage had joined them. There could be no further doubt about the identity, for the style of Serene Highness was exclusively used for the margravial family, the marquises and marchionesses being addressed as Lordship or Ladyship respectively instead. But it couldn’t be held against the knights that they had been unable to identify the newcomer at first glance. For one thing Violant’s official debut in noble society was still a matter of the future. Another thing was her getup, dressed in an ordinary plain dress of a pale blue color that might have been made of first-class fabric but was many times less conspicuous than even the dresses of a baronetess, the lowest ranked landed nobility in the kingdom.

“Now, now Malford.” Violant spoke with a generous smile “Please don’t berate these gentlemen who are only acting according to their orders and obligations.”

It was shocking even to the ceffyl dwr and the vampire how the refined noble young lady differed from the tomboyish brat that she usually was.

“Please lower your weapons, honorable sirs.” she continued, masterfully joining truth and lies inseparably together “I have only come to help, alarmed by a little fairy who witnessed His Royal Highness’s most unusual state. As luck will have it, the healer of my retinue back in Avallach has recently developed a remedy for berserk syndrome. The medicine is still untested, I must admit, but I believe it is still the better choice compared to killing a member of the royal family.”

Listening to the young lady’s statements, the guard captain couldn’t help but believe her and agree. Who didn’t know that the margravial house of Avallach had tight connections to the other march where nothing seemed impossible? Thus he signaled his men to sheath their swords again and to allow the noble lady to approach the afflicted prince.

As soon as Violant neared the gale for a few steps, the roaring winds came completely to a halt. Unobstructed she closed in to the prince who was suffering even harder than before. Prince Wynking threw his body from one side to the other while howling in pain like a mindless beast. At one glance there was no chance for the girl to feed the nascent berserk any medicine even if she had some.

But soon the rampaging Prince was confined to the ground as if pressed down by some strong invisible hands. Indeed, the two wild huntsmen had now come to aid the young lady without showing their appearances even once.

Violant nodded gratefully before turning to her patient immediately. Wynkin was still throwing his head wildly around while frothing from the mouth.

“Malford, your help please.” the redhead requested.

The childlike butler came to her side, kneed on the ground and grasped the prince’s head with two hands, thus retaining it from moving any further. Wynkin’s escorts, when witnessing this scene, opened their eyes so wide in disbelief that their eyeballs nearly seemed in danger of falling out of their sockets. An elder vampire’s strength was nothing to scoff at after all.

Then Violant opened the bag with the anti-berserk medicine, carefully took out one of the dark violet pills, and gently put it into the boy’s mouth. As he was at risk of spitting out the remedy directly after, the girl closed the prince’s jaws with all her might while paying attention to prevent him biting off his tongue.

Soon the medicine’s effect became apparent. Wynkin’s facial expression relaxed visibly. He stopped frothing and his white eyes rolled back to their original position before being hidden beneath closed eyelids. The prince stopped his attempts of squirming around at the same time, instead lying on the ground almost motionlessly. His erratic breathing also normalized but the increased heart rate and pulse rate remained unchanged. The prince’s transformation was not over yet after all. He still continued to grow in both body height and muscle mass while being unconscious but free from his bone-splitting pain.

Violant rose to her feet after confirming her patient’s situation. Malford and the wild huntsmen also backed off. Then the young lady turned to the prince’s escort and began to explain:

“I am afraid that the changes His Royal Highness’s body is experiencing will prove to be permanent, for the process of berserkification can neither be stopped nor reversed. The only effect the remedy achieves is reducing the unbearable pain His Highness suffers and preventing him from falling into insanity. Both effects are permanent – at least as long as His Highness continues to take those pills I have given him on a daily basis until his berserk transformation is completed. This may very well take several years. For now I will wait with you for His Highness to regain consciousness before explaining any further.”

The escort knights and the other entourage appeared quite surprised but deeply grateful as well. The Prince’s maid thanked her master’s savior while shedding tears of gratitude. The servant likely had witnessed her master growing up for many years and had thus formed a deep emotional connection to him. That the boy could be treated against berserk syndrome in such a timely fashion was nothing short of a veritable miracle.

While waiting for Prince Wynkin to wake up, Violant now had the first real chance to closely observe the boy she had saved at least temporarily. His shining golden blond hair strongly reminded her of Gervase but she wouldn’t hold it against the boy. Most of King Baldwin’s sons had inherited this hair color from their father after all. Wynkin’s current facial expression appeared deeply peaceful although his body was undergoing more changes than ever. The clothes the young royal had worn had long since been torn apart by his ever expanding body which now was covered by a large blanket the maid had taken from the carriage to preserve the prince’s dignity.

It took almost an hour for the physical changes to come to a halt and for Prince Wynkin to wake up again. The boy had a terribly confused expression on his face when he found himself on the ground and, more importantly, when registering the changes his body had gone through. The sickly, short, and weedy boy he had been just one or two hours before existed no longer. Now he was literally bursting with health – a more than welcome side effect of the berserk syndrome – almost as tall as an ordinary grown-up man, and so brawny that it looked almost ridiculous on a twelve, almost thirteen years old boy still retaining a majority of his childish facial features if it hadn’t been so imposing instead.

The guard captain took on the task of explaining what exactly had happened to the prince. Violant took over when it came to the topic of his treatment.

“Here is the medicine I have given Your Royal Highness.”

She gave the bag full of pills to the boy curiously mustering her with big hazel eyes while attentively listening to her.

“Your Highness will need to take one of those pills daily for the time being, lest you turn into a mindless berserk posing a threat to all around you. To be honest, I don’t know about their taste but I believe that my healer also took it into account since she is really capable. There is no other remedy for your affliction at the moment. Therefore please contact me if you are in danger of running out of medicine. I will then immediately arrange for new medicine to be produced. I ask Your Highness to pardon the fact that I am incapable of sending said healer to the palace to treat you directly but she is an especially hoary woman and any kind of voyage will likely take a huge toll on her health. Therefore I would prefer serving as your supplier instead. I will also soon supply you with more of the medicine since it was impossible for me to bring with me all that was already produced.”

Prince Wynkin nodded to signify his understanding and said: “Thank you, Lady Violant. Thank you for the medicine too. I will surely tell mother about how you have helped me when I return home.”

His innocent, still childish way of expressing himself that was so unlike what you normally expected from a prince of this age only achieved to show how sheltered the youngest prince’s environment must have been, overflowing with the doting love of his mother the queen, his older sister, and their servants.

Regarding the further continuation of the boy’s journey, it had in fact been decided that urgently returning to the capital now clearly took precedence over reaching the destination as planned.

The margravial young lady then bid goodbye to return to Avallach with her companions, both visible and invisible ones. Her route back would also lead through the pathways because she was now more than a week’s journey away from home.

After her return she had three, no four tasks she had to complete.

She had to thank Rambold and Waldolf for their hard work and to give them leave again to return to the wild hunt.

She had to tell old Alarun about the effectiveness of the medicine and had to look for her magic teacher Eibhlin to apologize for leaving so suddenly and also for giving her such a scare.

Finally she had to report what had happened to her foster father Orderic. Not the whole truth, of course. Her connections with the wild hunt should best remain a secret for now, not to mention the memories of her past life.

Prince Wynkin sat in the shaking carriage wearing some of the knights’ spare clothes since his own didn’t fit him any longer. The maid sitting across from him was deeply asleep, seemingly overcome with fatigue after the precarious situation had been solved in the best way possible.

The prince shortly patted the bag of pills. The expression on his face didn’t show the slightest sign of the childish innocence and naiveté he had sported before. A cold light shone in his eyes that now appeared rather calculating. The childlike Prince Wynkin was nothing more than a mask, an extremely elaborate one though.

Being the queen’s only son and the chief minister’s brother-in-law was reason enough for some people to be after his life. That he had no interest in succeeding the throne and that he was placed lower than his other brothers in the line of succession was of no consequence for those schemers. Especially since the boy’s former frailty was caused by his extremely high magic aptitude putting a massive strain on his body. Thus he had to grow-up mentally faster than normal children and was likely even more cunning than any other prince.

That Wynkin disguised himself as a harmless child had two major reasons: One was to keep his enemies in the dark about his true capabilities, the other to not worry his mother any sister any more than they already did.

For a short moment Wynkin’s irises changed their color from hazel to golden. Then he spoke with a cold voice: “Dryp, come out now. I know that you are there. Don’t forget that I can see you even if you turn invisible.”

Dryp had no chance against the golden eyes which enabled its owner to the highest grade of the sight, meaning they could see through all magical illusions and invisibility as clear as day, which was even better than Violant’s silver eyes. Thus she decided to appear visibly. The maid stood under the influence of a sleeping spell anyway and nobody would look inside any time soon.

Dryp was the name of a tiny, extremely beautiful fairy no bigger than a bumblebee, with delicate limbs, shiny transparent wings reminiscent of a dragonfly’s, and curly long auburn hair she had plaited into braids coiled around her head like crown. Her dress appeared to be made from flower petals.

“Now, Dryp. I have heard that a fairy has asked that Violant of Avallach for help. It wasn’t you, was it?” Wynkin asked sharply.

“No, no. Definitely not!” the fairy demented with waving arms. “It must be those fellows from the wild hunt who have told her about me.”

“Makes sense.” the prince asserted “Thanks to you confronting them we also already knew about me showing signs of berserk syndrome. Well, I was still skeptical before it actually happened but at least we were prepared. I must say it is intriguing. How did that girl already know what would happen? Well, it doesn’t matter. Now that I know about her I will have enough time to learn about her everything. She could prove a crucial chess piece for my plans after all, not that I would mind assisting her myself for the one or other of her plans in exchange though. She is my benefactor after all.”

The corners of Wynkin’s lips slowly began to rise, ultimately forming a smile that couldn’t be described as anything other than pure evil. Witnessing this smile, Dryp shuddered all over. The sly prince only showed this smile when somebody had picked his interest. The fairy offered the lady of Avallach her condolences, for Prince Wynkin would never let go of her as sure as the jaws of hell never would open again for a sinner they had devoured once.