"I'm gonna get to the bottom of this..." said Darius. "The Queen took Wilfred into the palace as a servant and as her ward! That means that whoever screws with Wilfred screws with US. Bretton, get me my walking stick".

Bretton jogged away and came back a few minutes later with his master's walking-stick. Darius got to his feet.

"Tristan, perhaps you should come with me. And you, Wilfy. And you, Javelin. Come on".

"Where are we going?" Tristan asked.

"Down to the servants' quarters! Where do you think?" Darius asked. "Come on".

Tristan took Wilfred by the hand.

"Come on, buddy", he said. "It's alright, you're not in trouble..."

Tristan poked Darius in the belly. "Is he?"

"Huh? Oh...no!" said Darius. "But someone else is gonna be".

Wilfred stared at the enormously fat prince and his best friend, the enormously muscular prince, and at his friend and master, the Prince Tristan, who, like him, was dwarfed by the young giants who stood either side of them!

Darius sweated as he headed downstairs. He wasn't used to this much walking. His servants usually did things like this for him. But the Crown Prince was so angry that other servant-boys would bully someone as small and as unfortunate as Wilfred, that he wanted to see to this himself! When he reached the servants' hall, he pushed the doors open and waddled heavily inside.

The prince didn't bother to clear his throat, blow a whistle, call out or shout, wave his hands or even move very much. His sheer size was enough to draw everyone's attention to him. Slowly, everyone fell quiet.

"Everyone..." Darius said slowly, "...this is Wilfred".

Darius shoved the timid servant-boy forwards!

"Wilfred is Prince Tristan's servant. He is also new here at the palace. And, he is a mute. That means that he doesn't have the ability to speak. But it doesn't mean that he can't also hear. He's also smaller than most of you. But that doesn't make him any less useful than anyone else here! Now, I've been told that some of the boys here have been picking on him!...QUIET!"

Everyone had started whispering and chatting. At once, they became silent.

"The next time I hear of someone picking on Wilfred, or of servants picking on any other servants, the bullies will pack their bags and leave the palace IMMEDIATELY, without a reference. Some of you have been here for a few years. You know what it's like. Some of you are new. Don't forget how scared you were when you started here! If I hear anymore of this stuff going on, it won't be me that you're going to have to answer to. And it's not going to be Prince Javelin, either. Any actions you take, you'll be explaining to the king!"

The room went very quiet.

"That's all I got to say", Darius said. "Come, Wilfred. Let's go upstairs..."