"What are we gonna do?" Janet asked in panic. "Just wait…" Andrew answered her. They were standing in the middle of the gatehouse, back-to-back, clutching their swords harder. They were sent to check the mysterious sounds coming from there. They stood still as they heard the sounds again. "What was that?" Janet quickly asked in terror. Andrew didn’t answer this time. They were looking around in everywhere their eyes can land to check every spot around them.

There was extreme silence for a second. The wind blew softly passing by them, giving them a cool breeze. Janet’s dress slowly moved with the wind as her hair slowly ruffled with the wind’s action. But suddenly she said, "Andrew, I’m sick of this! We’ve been here since an hour and nothing appeared."

Suddenly he said, "Look!" He pointed towards some bushes in the distance and again they heard the sound. They both looked at each other. They slowly moved towards the bushes and Andrew hastily moved them away when they both got surprised.

"Oh Andrew you worry too much! Look, that’s a small wolf and it’s also wounded." She got to her knees and patted lightly on the wolf’s back. It had gray fur and white all over its belly and claws. It was wounded in its front right leg and it was bleeding badly. "Look Andrew, it was him who was making those strange sounds, he must be in great pain. Let’s take him inside."

"What, are you crazy? You want us to take a wolf into the castle?!" He said angrily.
"Andrew, be a little merci, he’s just a small cute wolf and he’d do no harm, trust me." She said with a soft voice.

Andrew rolled his eyes and just walked back in the castle with her and the wolf in her hands. She took it to her room and bandaged its leg then put it on the floor next to her. She looked at it as slowly fell asleep. "Poor little creature." She said to Andrew quietly. "Ok then, I’ll go to have some rest. Good night." He told her as he turned to go out of the room. She smiled and said, "Yeah, good night Andrew, we’ve been guarding the gatehouse all the night instead the guards."

He suddenly hit his forehead with his palm and said, "Oh God! Good thing you made me remember to tell the guards to continue guarding for the rest of the night. I better go now, good night again Janet."

She smiled as he walked out. She then sat on her bed. She took off her iron armor off her chest and took off her dress and wore something more comfortable. They untied her hair and then slipped into her warm soft bed.

The next day she woke up, feeling fresh and well. She looked at the wolf. It was sleeping peacefully. "I bet it won’t wake up now." She thought to herself. She slowly grabbed herself a dress from her closet and took a bath, then went to the dining room to have breakfast. She met up with Andrew. "So, you had a well sleeping night yesterday?"

"Yeah, I slept like dead." He answered. They went to the dining room and had breakfast with the queen. She didn’t seem happy at all. All you could see on her face was a frown. "What’s wrong your majesty? Is everything alright?" Andrew asked softly. "No Andrew, I have bad news." She seemed serious. She continued with a sigh and said, "Our forces were attacked near the western part of the village yesterday’s night while we all were asleep and only three survived and came to warn us here, this morning. Now King Robert II has officially owned the western part unless we retrieve it back with a battle, but then, we’d have pronounced a war."

"Your majesty, these are our lands, this is our village, our country and we have to fight for it. Your highness, I shall lead a troop of soldiers right now towards there." Andrew said.

"But if we made that battle, we’d start a war and many innocent people's life will be in great danger," the queen said.

"What do you see we better do your highness?" Janet asked.

"We better send a messenger to them and know why did they made that sudden attack after all these years in peace."

Suddenly they heard a sound of moaning that seemed more like a wolf’s moaning. "What was that?" The queen asked anxiously. "Well your majesty, yesterday’s strange sounds were all nothing but a small wounded wolf we found nearby and… I took it to my room and treated it." Janet answered as she slowly looked at her feet.

The queen smiled and said, "It’s ok, you can have it as your pet as long as it won’t hurt anyone." Janet smiled and looked at Andrew’s expression which was shock and made her want to laugh.

*****************************************************************

Later, the queen sent a messenger and sent some precious gifts with him. Andrew at the stables was waiting for him. "There you go." Andrew said as he gave him one of the horses. He watched as he galloped away.

Andrew went to the gardens and walked around, busy minded with what the queen told them about the war. Just then something bumped into his leg. He turned around quickly. It was the wolf, feeling fine and his leg seemed to get better. Andrew smiled as he lifted it and saw Janet in the distance with a smile on her lips. "This wolf should really go in acting a film." Andrew told her as she got closer and she laughed as he continued, "It can pretend being sick in a very impressive way!"

"Now don’t be rude on the little guy, his leg still hurts." She said as she took it from his arms.

"Really? It was running like crazy and bumped into my leg and still you’re trying to convince me its leg hurts him?!" Andrew said with a smile that turned into a laugh as Janet laughed again. They walked for sometime in the gardens, all quiet and spoke no word. When you see who they both go along together with everything you’d think they’re in love. But none of them actually wanted to believe that they are nothing but friends, really close friends, but still friends.

It was sunset quickly and suddenly the messenger came galloping in a very high-speed with a paper in his hand. When Andrew and Janet came closer to him, they saw signs of bruises all over his face. "Oh my God what happened with you?" Janet asked in a very worried tune.

The messenger said nothing but, "We’re starting a war…"