《War of the Gruges》


 Chapter 1 - Escaping death

    Somewhere in the woods there was a big tree. Not that unusual for the woods. What made this tree stand out from the other was that underneath the tree, between the roots, someone had made a home for himself. Due to some heavy winds, the tree had been de-rooted for a bit, causing it to have formed a hole underneath. The person now living there had made it bigger, covering up the entrance with some vines in order to make it less obvious. Inside of the hole wasn¡¯t much to brag about either. There was small bed, a chest and a pole in the middle of the room with on the pole nothing but an oil lantern, a bow and a quiver with arrows.


    Not that far from the tree through the thick and plenty bushes was a dirt road. The only thing keeping the clearing and the tree from anyone passing by. On the other side of the road was nothing. A great deep fall down to some rocks, spelling the end of anyone not too careful about their movements.


    Over the entire width road was a small almost invisible tripwire. It was a rather long rope, leading all the way towards the hole under the tree. The wire was attached onto a singular bell hanging right above the bed, there to wake up the homeowner sleeping in the bed. Unfortunately for him, his sleep wasn¡¯t going to last much longer.


    A bit down the road around a corner, two horses were galloping, approaching fast. A bit further behind them were what looked like two more horses, going as fast if not faster than the ones they were chasing. As the first pair turned the corner and continued to run, the tripwire got triggered, tugging on the bell. Unfortunately for the horse and their rider, the tripwire was made poorly and tugged on the leg of the horse.


    Underneath the tree, the bell started to ring. The guy in bed woke up fast, rolling out of bed onto the ground. He wasn¡¯t fully awake yet, groaning and looking around. It took him a second before he got up and grabbed his bow and arrows, getting outside the tree.


    On the road, the horse that had been tripped was the one next to the ledge. The horse started to neigh as they fell down with the rider getting thrown off. She yelled together with the horse as she was barely able to miss the ledge. Unfortunately for her, the horse felt a bit too far to the side, disappearing in the depth. On the other horse was also a woman. She jumped down, grabbing what little she could in the small amount of time that they had. It wasn¡¯t going to last long before their pursuers would appear from around the corner.


    ¡°Get up fast!¡± It didn¡¯t appear like she was too concerned about her companion for now, giving the horse a hit on his behind.


    The horse let out a neigh as well as it started to run again, going down the path without a rider now. The woman that hit it quickly knelt down, grabbing the other one and pulling her up and to the side of the road, into the bushes.


    Behind those bushes in the clearing was standing the man from the tree. He had heard the commotion but didn¡¯t know what had transpired. He had an idea but nothing more than an educated guess. Hearing the two people in the bush in front of him, he would grab an arrow out of the quiver. He wasn¡¯t that experienced with it, almost dropping the arrow from the stress.


    Just as he managed to put the arrow on the string, he froze as another pair of horses came closer. The horses stopped right next to where the first horse had plummeted into the depth.


    ¡°One of them fell down.¡±


    The voice came from a man who sounded out of breath. As the other person said something, it was clear that the pursuers were both male.


    ¡°Leave her. If she fell down then she¡¯s as good as dead. We need to catch the other one before we lose her.¡± Without waiting for a reaction, he went back onto the chase.


    The other man quickly following in his tracks. ¡°She won¡¯t get far! Her horse is too tired to keep it up for much longer!¡±


    As they left to pursue the horse, nobody made a sound. The girls in the bush stayed silent and so did the guy with the bow. After what felt like a minute, movement could be heard in the bushes. One of them seemed to stand up to look and see if the men on the horses had left. That was the cue of the bow wielder to start talking.


    ¡°Thank Pan that they kept following the horse.¡± Said the first person. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if it was the right idea but I didn¡¯t see another way out.¡±


    The other person took a bit to answer, panting and seemingly still on the ground after being pulled in. ¡°T-That was a good move. I wonder what caused my horse to fall.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ That¡¯s a good question. In any case, get up, we need to get moving before they catch the horse.¡±


    It once again stayed quiet for a bit outside of one of them grunting. It wasn¡¯t clear if it was the on standing up or if it was the other one helping the other person on her feet.


    As soon as the one on the ground found her footing, she let out a deep sigh. ¡°Damn it! That stupid horse took my bow and snacks with him down that ravine!¡±


    The guy with the bow took a deep breath, lifting up the bow as he aimed the arrow at the bush. He started to talk before the other one could, wanting to get this moment over with so his heart could finally ease up. ¡°You two in there, come out with your hands up!¡± He was speaking rather loud but with a soft tone seeing as he didn¡¯t understand the situation fully. Sadly enough for him, the bushes were thick and plenty, giving him no vision on the people he was trying intimidate.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Both of them went silent fast, both of their movement having come to a full stop. It took for a bit for one of them to start moving again. A rather young woman came into his view. She had brown hair and was fully naked.


    Expecting the man in front of her to be shocked with her nude body, she was rather surprised to see that it didn¡¯t faze him in the slightest. She didn¡¯t did what he demanded though, holding her bow and a quiver in her hands.


    As he didn¡¯t see her friend appear, he wouldn¡¯t stop pointing the bow are her, waiting for the second person. Neither of them spoke a word as he was getting more and more nervous about the situation. ¡°Where¡¯s your friend then? And put your hands in the air.¡±


    This demand made her grin. She could see that he was getting nervous as he started to dance from one foot onto the other. With her bowhand, she took an arrow out off the quiver before dropping it, putting it with ease onto the bow but not aiming it at him just yet. ¡°And why would I do that?¡±


    Seeing the threat but not wanting to kill anyone, he would give her his full attention, exactly what she wanted from him. His full attention as her companion used the bushes to sneak around the clearing to get behind him.


    Just as he was about to answer her, a loud crack could be heard to his left. For just a split second, he looked to the left. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first girl coming forwards. He quickly took a step back, looking back at her. ¡°Where¡¯s your friend?¡±


    The girl looked behind her towards the bush that she just came out of and then back at him. ¡°Not sure, I could swear that she was right behind me. Lily, come out before mister nervous here decides that the string becomes too heavy for him to keep pulled back.¡±


    No answer came as her words entered his mind. She wasn¡¯t wrong about the string getting too heavy. Keeping it pulled back like this for this long was exhausting. His arm started to ache as if to beg him to let go. Not wanting to accidentally kill her either, he would slowly let the string come forwards, still keeping the bow raised.


    ¡°That¡¯s better don¡¯t you think? How about this, you stop pointing your arrow at me because if you don¡¯t then you might get executed.¡± She said this with a big grin on her face, playing with the feather of the arrow on her bow.


    That only confused him. He knew enough about the Gruges to know that human private executions weren¡¯t allowed. ¡°And who might you be then that you can just order an execution?¡±


    His question remained unanswered as she looked behind herself towards the bush and the road behind it, trying to listen. After a couple of seconds she focused back on him, lifting up her bow and drawing the arrow back with a certain grace, one that her opponent didn¡¯t seem to have.


    He didn¡¯t like this one bit though, quickly drawing the arrow back and aiming at her once more. ¡°Lower your¡­!¡±


    Before he could finish the sentence, he felt a sting on the side of his head. The sting went to his brain as his vision quickly started to fade. He fell down like a sack of potatoes, letting go of the arrow.


    He had been hit in the head by the second girl. It wasn¡¯t a heavy hit but the place that she hit him was rather well chosen, causing a quick knock out. The arrow that he had been holding back flew towards her friend, almost hitting her.


    She let out a yelp, quickly ducking out of the way, not that she needed to. This caused her friend to quickly run to her. ¡°Hey! Are you alright?¡±


    With a shiver in her body, she would slowly look up, nodding slowly. ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m alright¡­¡±


    As it happened to be, both were naked for some reason. As they gave each other a hug, they looked up at the person on the ground. He was nothing impressive. He was almost as big as them and not that much older it seemed like. His blond hair was on the shorter side which wasn¡¯t uncommon.


    Seeing as he didn¡¯t immediately shoot them, it was obvious to them that he was a third party, someone not included in their affairs. ¡°What shall we do with him?¡± As the one that had hit him who¡¯s name was revealed by the other one being Lily. Lily looked at her friend who looked almost identical to her.


    ¡°Not sure sis. Perhaps we should leave him here?¡± She looked around the area, hoping to see any clue to why he would be here.


    ¡°There.¡± Lily pointed towards the tree where the custom vines were still pushed to the side after the guy had barged through them. ¡°My guess is that he lives here.¡±


    ¡°Looks like you hit the nail on the head. Grab his arm and we drag him to the tree. Perhaps we can find something to tie him up.¡±


    ¡°Do you think he has food?¡± Lily sounded rather hopeful.


    ¡°Is that really your main concern? Food?¡±


    Lily¡¯s sister shook her head as she grabbed one arm, waiting for Lily to do the same. As they started to pull, Lily would look a bit closer to him. ¡°Look Emma, what the hell is¡­ he wearing.¡± She had to take a break in between the sentence in order to breathe.


    As they pulled him towards the hole which wasn¡¯t too far, Emma would look closer as well. His clothes were weird, something she had never seen before. Keeping that mystery for another time, she threw him in, letting out sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ Must be something very exotic.¡±


    Having pulled an unconscious man over the ground cause the quiver to be emptied over the forest ground and his bow to be left outside. For now they didn¡¯t give that a second thought and instead went inside after him. They gave his humble abode a look of disappointment.


    ¡°What a sad way to live.¡± Said Lily, walking to the bel over the bell, flicking it with her finger before turning around to look at her sister.


    The only light was coming from the entrance. Light that was slowly getting more dim as it was late in the day. For now there was enough light for them to see. The pole in the middle seemed to be stable but not helping with keeping up the tree as the tree had stabilized on his own. Emma walked over to the chest, opening it up. In the chest was a big assortment of items but for now the one she was most interested in was a rope.


    ¡°Hahaa! Lets wrap us up a gentlemen.¡± She said with a chuckle, walking over to him and kneeling down. ¡°Gimme a hand pretty please.¡±


    Lily jumped up, walking over to her and putting him in a sitting position against the pole as they started to tie him up. They seemed to be rather alright for just having been hunted for their lives. Neither of them showing any signs of stress or despair. That didn¡¯t take long as when Emma went to tie the knot, she couldn¡¯t do it and failed quite often. When Lily came over to help, she saw her hands shake.


    She softly put her hands on the rope and took away the ends from her sister. ¡°Hey hey¡­ take it easy okay? Let me make the knot. Take a deep breath.¡±

 Chapter 2 - Getting to know each other

    Emma let go of the rope as she took a deep breath. She shivered as she could remember how close she was to falling of the edge. Wanting to have a distraction, she went back to the chest and opened it up, looking inside.


    As soon as Lilly was done, she would get up. After throwing a quick glance at Lilly, she would decide to get out of the hole. As she did so, the vines irritated her, getting in her face. Without any patience, she would tear down the vines. Surprisingly, they came down with ease. Once outside, she started to collect the arrows and the bow that he had dropped, bringing it inside together with her sisters bow and arrows.


    As Lilly came back inside, Emma just closed the chest, being empty handed. Emma sat down on the chest, thinking of something while Lilly walked to the bed, putting the weapons onto the bed. Seeing as she had been focusing on her sister, she wouldn¡¯t realize that the arrows slid down and fell on the ground. When she finally noticed, it was already too late making her shrug. ¡°Anything useful in the chest? Any food or clothes?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm? What? No not really. There are small pots in the chest but they¡¯re too small to be food.¡± She looked at the guy they just tied up, tapping her finger on the chest. ¡°You know, we can always take his clothes.¡±


    Lilly looked from Emma to him, starting to chuckle as she shook her head at the idea. ¡°Seeing as there are no clothes in the chest, I doubt that those clothes are fresh.¡±


    Her argument made enough sense for Emma to not mention it anymore, instead looking at Lilly. ¡°We can wait for him to wake up so we can question him? I doubt that he doesn¡¯t need to eat so there has to be food somewhere hidden.¡± She didn¡¯t sound so sure about that though seeing how small his house was.


    She got off the chest and started to push it in front of the guy as there were no chairs in the home. Lilly helped her pretty fast, getting it in front of him before sitting down. Lilly waited to sit down as she want to his bed, grabbing the bedsheets and sniffing it. It didn¡¯t smell bad so she brought it to Emma. As she sat down, she wrapped it around herself and offered the other half to her sister. Emma scooted over and got into the bedsheets as well.


    Just as they both got comfortable, the guy made a soft sound, slowly opening his eyes. It took him a bit before he was able to focus his eyes on something, his eyes continuously rolling away. When fully conscious, he felt a sting on the side of his head. As he tried to rub that spot, he realized that he was tied down. Only then did he see the girls in front of him.


    It stayed silent for a bit as both parties seemed to look at each other before he started to laugh. It didn¡¯t sound joyful at all. ¡°Great¡­¡± He said with obvious sarcasm in his voice. ¡°Tied up in my own home by two naked females.¡± He shook his head as he looked down at the ground, feeling uncomfortable. During this, both Lilly and Emma stayed silent. ¡°Come one, what do you want from me?¡±


    ¡°Just some information¡± Said Lilly.


    ¡°And you think I¡¯m going to give you that information?¡±


    ¡°Well, we aren¡¯t tied to a pole are we?¡± Answered Emma with a tone that didn¡¯t tolerate resistance. But that was exactly what he was giving them.


    ¡°No you aren¡¯t, but it also looks like you two don¡¯t have clothes.¡± The guy laughed at his own response.


    ¡°Well, we can just take your clothes!¡±


    Lilly had enough of this. ¡°Stop!¡± This way we go nowhere. We need your help or information and you need us to let you free. So how about this, we ask you a question and you can ask us a question?¡±


    Now the guy stayed silent for a bit. He looked at them both before letting out a long sigh. ¡°Not like I¡¯m going to get a better deal.¡±


    ¡°First question.¡± Said Lilly as she thought about it. ¡°Let¡¯s start easy. Who are you and what are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°Hey! Those are two questions!¡± Yelling that went together with him starting to try and get free. His hands trying to untie the knot. As that wasn¡¯t so fruitful, he realized that they had been looking at him without any smile. ¡°Okay fine¡­ I¡¯m Lucas and I live here if that isn¡¯t obvious.¡±


    He was about to ask them his question when Emma kicked him in the leg. ¡°And now the truth peasant.¡±


    ¡°First of all, what kind of insult is that, secondly, how do you know whether it is the truth or not?¡± The kick didn¡¯t really hurt so he decided to ignore it for now.


    ¡°Mmm¡± Emma shrugged and closed her eyes. She didn¡¯t really have a reason to not believe him. She just wanted to seem smart which didn¡¯t really work.


    ¡°Anyway, my question is going to be the same. Who are you and what are you doing here? Seeing that you two are almost identical I can figure out that you¡¯re twins so perhaps your answer will be more helpful to me.¡±


    When they asked his question, it seemed normal to them. When he asked them for their name, they were rather confused and gave each other quick looks of confusion. Emma was the most confused as Lilly was the one that had talked to him earlier. ¡°I could¡¯ve seen this coming. If he knew who I was and wasn¡¯t hunting us then he wouldn¡¯t have aimed his bow at me like that.¡±


    Lucas saw their confusion and wasn¡¯t sure what to say at first. ¡°Seeing that reaction you two must be rather well known. You were hunted as well so I would guess rich. I¡¯m going with two daughters of a well-known baron.¡±


    Emma was the one that would answer his question. Of the both of them, she was a bit more high on her horse. ¡°We are Lilly and Emma Cantervere. We are the rightful heirs to the throne of the Human Gruge. That makes us your superiors.¡±


    Lucas shook his head as he had a smile on his face. ¡°My superiors? I think not. I haven¡¯t gotten a superior in a year or so. I told you that I live here in peace and quiet, unbothered by any tasks given by anyone that calls me their underling. By the way, what was that? A Gruge? Never heard of it.¡±


    Now the girl were even more confused. ¡°How do you not know what that is? How long have you been living here?¡± Emma seemed to not understand. This human was not making any sense.


    Lucas didn¡¯t answer right away. He looked at a wall as he thought about it. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure¡­ About a year? The exact same time that I stopped taking orders.¡± He focused back onto the girls.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°And where do you come from then if you are not from the human Gruge?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say that I¡¯m not from this world. I¡¯m not sure where I am. I just know that where I¡¯m from, there weren¡¯t any centaurs or satyrs. As soon as I noticed that I was on another planet, I decided to hide. Now can I finally know what a Gruge is?¡±


    As they looked at him, they were still skeptical. ¡°Like we have to believe that. You from another planet.¡± Emma wanted to continue talking but Lilly gave her a push with her elbow.


    Lilly wanted to keep thing at peace for now and decided to answer his question. ¡°So¡­ A Gruge is a sort of group. Me and Emma are from the Human Gruge. There are others like the Skeleton Gruge, Zombie Gruge even a Cloud Gruge where wizards live. Although they don¡¯t like to take part in ¡®earthly affairs.¡¯¡± She said that last part in a mocking tone. ¡°They keep to themselves is what I¡¯m trying to say and we can¡¯t reach them due to them living in the clouds if that wasn¡¯t obvious yet.¡±


    Lucas nodded as he understood. It was weird to the girls that he just accepted it like that, as if he had experience. But still Lucas wasn¡¯t believing them. ¡°So let me get this right. The princesses of the Human Gruge decided to come and play into my forest all naked?¡±


    Emma nodded as it indeed sounded a bit extreme. Sadly for them it wasn¡¯t a lie. ¡°We were on our way for a diplomatic missions. But apparently not everyone wanted our mission to succeed. We were swimming in a lake while our camp was attacked. Our bodyguards kept the centaurs busy for a while so we could get away. But¡­ they all died while we grabbed the little things we had and ran for our lives. I managed to get my bow while Lilly was out the water later. I didn¡¯t know where she had put her weapon so she left without hers. Luckily our servants hadn¡¯t taken the saddles of our horses yet. So before you ask, the ones chasing us were also centaurs.¡±


    This information shut Lucas up for a couple of seconds. His eyes wandered down to the ground as he repeated the information in his head. Eventually he looked back up. ¡°So nobody here is a bad guy. How about you untie me then?


    ¡°No!¡± Said both Lilly and Emma without hesitation.


    This only cause Lucas to sigh as he shook his head. ¡°And why won¡¯t you untie me?¡±


    ¡°You honestly think that we believe your other planet story?¡± Asked Emma as she didn¡¯t believe a single word of what has been said by Lucas.


    ¡°And you two think that I have to accept without hesitation that I¡¯m being held hostage by two naked whores in my own home?¡± At this point Lucas had lost his patience. He had done what they wanted but they didn¡¯t let him go. He had nothing to do with their assassination attempt. But his insult did seem to create a reaction.


    ¡°Excuse us!? It¡¯s your majesty! And second of all, our father is your king!¡± Yelled Lilly frustrated. These princesses didn¡¯t seem to encounter someone insulting them too often. They both seemed red in anger as they looked at him.


    ¡°In this land I don¡¯t have a king, let alone a country to call home!¡± Yelled Lucas back at her. And secondly, his daughters of 16 years old are standing in my home yelling at me while being naked!¡±


    Emma got up and slapped him in the face. It was a hard and loud one as Lucas his head turned with the slap. His cheek quickly turned red. ¡°We demand respect. And to be clear, we aren¡¯t 16 but 19!¡±


    Due to the power of the slap, his face was forced to the side. He remained looking to his right for a second before moving with his mouth to test it. Nothing seemed wrong so he slowly looked back at them. ¡°Congrats¡­ That means I¡¯m still superior in age.¡± He didn¡¯t take the disrespect though, getting angry as he didn¡¯t accept the smack. ¡°And if you two really were in danger then you probably need to be more quiet!¡± From that point on he just started to yell every word. ¡°Because if they find me, then at least I won¡¯t be in danger because I¡¯m not on the run for some half-horses! And if you forgot it! We¡¯re next to the road where they saw one of your horses take a dive! Where do you think they¡¯ll turn back to after they capture your other horse and see that it¡¯s empty!?¡±


    Emma was barely listening to what he was saying, about to yell back when Lilly grabbed her arm. ¡°He¡¯s right¡± Is what she said in a very soft and barely audible tone. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be yelling so much.¡±


    Emma on the other hand was still angry and looked at Lucas for a second before looking back at her sister. ¡°I don¡¯t care. You do realize that he has been cutting the ropes ever since we started to talk to him right?¡± She said this in the same soft voice, making sure Lucas couldn¡¯t hear her.


    That is what took Lilly¡¯s attention. She looked past Emma to Lucas. From this spot she couldn¡¯t see the ropes but she didn¡¯t need to. She believed her sister. She would then tug on Emma¡¯s arm as she got off the chest, letting go of the bedsheets so she was naked again, walking outside as she motioned for Emma to follow.


    Not wanting to parade nude like Lilly, she would wrap the bedsheets closer around herself, following her. When outside, it was obvious that it wasn¡¯t going to be light for much longer.


    Lilly had picked up an arrow that she had missed the first time that she collected his arrows. ¡°How about we ask a couple more questions and then act like we go to sleep. If he tries anything, we can just shoot him. You ask some questions and keep the bow ready underneath the bedsheet. Whenever he attack, you shoot him. In the meantime I¡¯ll be checking out his bow and keep an eye on him from behind.¡±


    Emma was still angry and needed a bit to cool down. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she would nod and look back at the entrance. She remembered having dropped her bow and quiver before after the event. She started to look for them on the ground, not seeing them.


    ¡°I took them inside when I grabbed his bow. Go in first to grab it and I¡¯ll come after.¡±


    Emma nodded slowly before looking back inside. From here she could see him sitting there. ¡°Don¡¯t take too long.¡±


    Having said that, she went back inside, walking past him to the bed to grab her weapons and hiding it before going to sit back on his chest I front of him. Not much later, Lilly came in as well. Getting a quick glance from Lucas due to her still being nude when going past him before being outside of his view. When at the bed she realized the arrows had fallen on the ground. Not really paying too much attention to it, she just grabbed one and put it on his bow, aiming at Lucas but not pulling the string back. From here she could see the rope easily and he didn¡¯t seem to have a knife. But even in the dark she could see that some ropes were cut.


    Lucas decided to make Emma more mad due to her being the only one to react to his jabs. ¡°Maybe you royal highness could get off my chest with her royal bottom.¡±


    This caused Emma to get red in the face but she managed to keep her cool although her hitting him wasn¡¯t completely out of the picture. She was very much capable to do it again. ¡°Do you by any chance have some extra clothes or food?¡±


    ¡°Does it look like I have extra food or clothes?¡± He asked in return as he knew that they had already looked through his home.


    ¡°It¡¯s just a simple yes or no question.¡± Said Emma acting like he was dumb for not understanding the concept.


    ¡°No!¡±


    ¡°So you always live in those weird looking clothes? I don¡¯t believe that at all.¡±


    ¡°Not everyone can afford more than a hole in the ground with only a couple of things.¡±


    ¡°Why are you so hostile towards us.¡± Asked Lily who was starting to get tired of the constant hostility.


    This time it was Lucas his turn to look surprised.¡± You mean outside of the fact that you knocked me unconscious, tied me down in my own house, robbed me, hit me because I didn¡¯t show two good looking robbers respect?¡± But after saying that last part, he shut up and looked away, shaking his head slowly.


    ¡°So that is how you think about us.¡± Said Emma with a bit of amusement in her voice.


    Lucas didn¡¯t react anymore though. It dawned to Lilly that he was embarrassed and he was probably done for the evening. ¡° I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to talk much more if I have to be honest. Maybe it¡¯s better that we continue later.¡±


    It also helped that it was getting too dark to be able to see much anyway. The further the sun set the faster it went thanks to the trees and bushes.


    Even though he had managed to make Emma upset, she was still smiling when she got up and walked to the bed. Now that they both were next to the bed, it was obvious that the bed wasn¡¯t really made to support more than one person. Not that it stopped them from trying. Lilly got in first, followed by Emma. Both had their bows ready underneath the sheets as neither of them planned on sleeping, just watching Lucas who was with his back to the bed.

 Chapter 3 - A set trap

    As they went to bed, Lucas started to count. When he got to a thousand, he decided that it was time. The ropes weren¡¯t fully cut yet due to Lilly interrupting him by sitting behind him. He slowly continued with the knife he had hidden in his sleeve. Eventually the ropes broke and he got up, making sure not to make a sound. As he looked at the two girls sleeping, he shook his head. ¡°Beautifull or not, stupid all together.¡± He then turned to the exit, slowly making his way out of his house.


    After climbing out, he took a deep breath, feeling a bit weird about it. It dawned quickly on him that they had ripped off the vines. This made him groan as it had taken him a while to put up. Looking back inside to where they were asleep made him feel bad again. Just because he was resistant to them when they questioned him, didn¡¯t mean that he also didn¡¯t care. To him death and life was just a state of a being. Suffering it what made him more compassionate and they had suffered quite a lot of fear, even though they didn¡¯t show it. He walked to the other side of the tree, getting some help of the little moonlight. After looking for a while, he would find what he was looking for. He grabbed a rope and started to climb up the tree. There was a hidden path that he had created over the months that he lived here. It wasn¡¯t anything fancy but it was functional.


    High up in the tree was a platform with on the platform multiple chests. The last owner of that hole had put all the chests onto the platform for more space. It had taken him a while to discover it and accidentally stumbled onto the rope. As he sat down in front of a chest, he let his fingers run over a small sigil that had been inscribed. He didn¡¯t know what it meant. As he did that, he thought about the previous owner. He had found him dead in his own house. A skeleton with clothes. Lucas had given him the name Frank. Later that same day he had buried Frank with the shovel that was also in said house. The platform he was on had been camouflaged. But then there was the problem of rain. The chest wouldn¡¯t stay good for long so there had been a slope roof to protecting it. This wasn¡¯t completely effective but good enough.


    He opened the first chest. In it he had his food stored. It wasn¡¯t a lot nor was it tasty. Just some old hard bread and some dried jerky. He took the bread and a bunch of jerky which he put on the chest. In the second chest was a backpack. This one he had made himself. It looked very bad put it was just way to carry extra things. Then he skipped some chests. Whatever was in them was not useful to him. In the fifth chest were clothes. All male of course seeing as he lived alone. After grabbing 2 sets of clothing, he closed the chest again, putting the clothes on the bread. In the last chest were little jars and clay pots, a map and more. In them were things like spices. He grabbed a singular one and put it in his bag. The map was poorly made. But that map also went into his backpack. He also grabbed a rope and very small crossbow bolts that looked like oversized toothpicks with hair.


    But even then he didn¡¯t have everything he wanted. He didn¡¯t believe that he would be coming back soon so he wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed in order to make it for a while. Without hesitation, he climbed higher up the tree until he reached a very small hole. In it was a needle and threat, a small waterskin, a second knife he hung on his belt and a couple of fire stone. That was enough for him. He climbed back down to the platform, taking a small basket. There he put his stuff in to let it go down via a rope attached to the basket. As soon as the basket hit the ground, he threw the rest of the rope on the platform before making his way down. All this time he was very silent, barely making any sounds. Not wanting to climb down fully, he jumped the last meter. There he would freeze, thinking to have seen something move right next to the tree. Not sure who or what it was, he stayed still for a while.


    When nothing moved, he relaxed and grabbed the basket and rid it of the rope. Still trying to be silent, he snuck to the front of the hole, looking inside for any movement. It was very dark but he thought to see the 2 girls sleep. When climbing inside and reaching the pole, he put down the basket, putting the bread and a bit of jerky in it on top of the clothes. But after standing back up, he froze. Something seemed wrong about the room. The room wasn¡¯t that big so he went over everything. The girls seemed asleep, the chest was still closed and the nail on the pole holding his bow was empty together with the one that should¡¯ve been holding the lantern. Realising that the lantern was gone was so surprising to him that he touched the spot where it should¡¯ve been.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Makes some light Emma.¡± Said Lily. Her bow was aimed straight at Lucas¡¯s head. She was sitting on the bed together with Emma.


    ¡°You do remember that we don¡¯t have our fire stones anymore right?¡± Said Emma as she held the doused lantern.


    ¡°What was that about being dumb?¡± Lily sounded very happy and had a smirk on her face asking that.


    Emma would get up, also grabbing her bow. ¡°Oh those girls are so pretty, sleeping naked in my bed. How gullible of them.¡±


    Both of the girls were mocking him and laughing, having fun with his mistake and the fact that he had underestimated them. Before he had been making fun of them so they felt justified to do so. Lucas on the other hand felt that it wasn¡¯t justified as he had been the one tied up. ¡°Are you going to shoot me? Because I don¡¯t think you will and I¡¯ll be leaving whether you like it or not.¡± He turned around and already walked to the exit.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Replied Lily. We can¡¯t have you walking out as them finding you might kill us. So I won¡¯t hesitate to shoot you if it means that we¡¯ll survive.¡± She sounded like she really meant it.


    He stopped walking to the exit and instead walked to his chest and knelt down and opened it. He grabbed only 2 things out of the chest. It was a little pot and what looked like a miniature crossbow.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± asked Lilly, being the one aiming the arrow at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m just taking my own stuff.¡± He put both items in his bag as he then got back up. ¡°What does it matter to you?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ You¡¯re our prisoner and I want to know what you¡¯re doing.¡±


    He just shrugged as he then sat down on the chest. ¡°So what now? How will we continue this because I will not let you tie me down again. And for the love of God, please get dressed.¡± He said motioning to the basket with the clothes.


    ¡°So you do have clothes? You¡¯re a liar.¡± Said Lily throwing some quick glances to the basket.


    He shrugged as he looked at Emma taking the clothes. ¡°I didn¡¯t want you two to find my stuff and steal everything I own.¡±


    Before Emma could put on her clothes, Lily began to feel her arm get heavy. ¡°Emma, could you tie him back up? My arm is getting tired and I would hate to accidentally shoot him.¡±


    Emma got up with the pieces of rope. Due to him cutting it, it was mostly useless. ¡°Give me a second, he cut it up remember?.¡± She threw the pieces aside and would then look at him, holding out her hand as she waited for him to put the bag in her hand. When opening it, she had seen a rope sitting in it but just barely seeing as it was still very dark in here.


    Lucas let out a growl as he took the backpack off and basically threw it at her. His eyes went back to the bow and saw her arm shiver from having to keep the arrow pulled back.


    Opening his bag and taking out the rope put a smile on Emma¡¯s face. ¡°Come here lost boy. Let¡¯s get you tied up once more.¡±


    As she tied him back up against the pole, Lucas would be staring dagger at Lily. He had brought her clothes and food and yet they still think that he was the enemy. But Lily saw that he kept staring at the girls. As soon as Emma was done with not only tying up his hands but also his legs, she would lower the bow. Her arm was shivering quite a lot harder now. Not wanting to shoot her sister, she would lower the bow and threw it on the bed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget about his hidden dagger.¡± She said to Emma as Lilly walked to the basket. ¡°And while you¡¯re at it, blindfold him.


    Lucas yelled at her for doing so. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking dare! You can¡¯t just do this!¡±


    Emma grabbed a piece of Lucas¡¯s own clothes and cut off a strip using his own dagger. Then she used that strip to blindfold him. As soon as that was done, Lily would go back into the bed. When Emma saw this, she would first look at the clothes but then join her. Lucas wouldn¡¯t be able to watch them anyway so clothes weren¡¯t needed now.

 Chapter 4 - unwanted allies

    Morning came. It was fairly early when Emma got woken up. Lilly was making some noises as she was doing something next to the pole. Emma quickly grabbed her bow and aimed it at Lucas, thinking he had gotten free. After having her bow aimed at him for a couple of seconds, she would realize that he was still tied up and see Lilly sitting there. Lilly was busy with the food that he had gotten them but she was being picky about the food. While Emma had been sleeping, Lilly decided to get clothed and to look at the food he had gotten them. It was a disgusting but edible bread and jerky. A meal that royals like they would never eat. Lilly gave Emma a piece of dry bread with a piece of jerky on it.


    Emma took the food and then looked at her as if she was making a joke, putting it down onto the bed. ¡°Isn¡¯t there anything better?¡±


    Lilly shook her head as she was chewing on some jerky, gesturing to a pile of clothes next to Emma. Apparently Lilly had decided to choose who of them wore what. Emma took the clothes but then looked back at the food. ¡°Anything? I¡¯ll eat anything but this.¡±


    This cause Lilly to look up at her, swallowing her food and sighing. ¡°Just get dressed.¡±


    The clothes they had were almost identical. The pants were some tight pants that made traveling more easy although they didn¡¯t fit well for them, causing them to be sagging a bit. Lilly was wearing a brown shirt while Emma got a green shirt. Lucas never needed things like a bra so unfortunately for them that wasn¡¯t on the menu. The underwear as well was too big for them but hey, they were clothed now.


    Even though she didn¡¯t want it, Emma started to eat. While she ate, she looked at Lucas who was still sitting against the pole. He didn¡¯t say any mean comment nor did he really move. ¡°Is he dead?¡±


    It stayed silent for a bit as Lilly looked at him for a bit, not sure about it. Lucas didn¡¯t move for five more seconds or so before slowly turning his head to where the voice of Emma had come from.


    ¡°Yes I¡¯m dead.¡± He sounded annoyed and mad when saying it which wasn¡¯t unjustified.


    This made Lilly smile. ¡°That¡¯s a shame. Although if you¡¯re dead than we don¡¯t need to kill you.¡±


    Emma watched as they talked, grabbing the jerky of the bread as she wasn¡¯t going to eat that disgusting bread anymore.


    ¡°Could I at least eat as well?¡± As he said that, his stomach started to growl.


    Even though Emma and Lilly had him under their full control, Emma couldn¡¯t help it but to drive the knife deeper. ¡°Off course you can, if you beg for it.¡±


    As they talked, Lilly looked at them being rather amused by this conversation, standing up and leaning against the other side of the pole.


    ¡°Begging for my own food. What is happening with my life?¡± Asked Lucas more to himself then to them.


    ¡°People like you should be happy that royal blood like us is eating your food.¡± Was Lilly¡¯s reply. She sounded like she was talking to another high ranking royal, using a nice and fancy voice as she looked at Lucas. ¡°You should be honored to be taken down by royals.¡±


    This didn¡¯t really make things much better, causing Lucas to talk softly and to himself so that only Lilly heard it. ¡°People like you should get a good spanking in order to learn to respect other creatures and not only other royals. You¡¯re what¡¯s wrong with most leading powers.¡±


    Due to Emma not hearing it, she would sit up and looked down at him. ¡°What was that?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your plan anyway? Keeping me tied up in here until you¡¯re found?¡±


    Seeing that Emma didn¡¯t hear what he said first, she was satisfied. Lilly saw this and chuckled a bit, trying to hide it. ¡°We¡¯re going back to our Gruge. We need to warn our dad that the Forest Gruge is hostile.¡±


    Lucas turned his head away as he thought about it. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound right. What makes you say that? Just because one group kills doesn¡¯t meant that they¡¯re all bad.¡±


    ¡°Well, bad or not we still need to get back.¡± Replied Emma as she put the rest of her jerky away. It tasted too salty and she hated it.


    ¡°So¡­ going back to your own land. How will you do that all on your own?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not alone. We have you to get us there. I would suspect that you know these lands better than us so¡­¡±


    Lucas laughed a bit before shaking his head. ¡°You can¡¯t trust me and neither can I trust you. I¡¯m your prisoner so why would I help you? I don¡¯t even understand why you don¡¯t trust me.¡±


    ¡°Because your story is completely bullshit. Coming from another planet, give us a break.¡± Emma sounded a bit upset saying that as she was getting tired of the conversation, being grumpy about the lack of actual good food.


    ¡°Does it matter if my story is real or not? I brought you clothes and food. How can I be bad? I didn¡¯t even try to kill you, just trying to stay free and escape.¡±


    Emma and Lily looked at each other as they thought about it for a second. Lily then just nodded, feeling defeated. Emma looked at him an back to Lilly, watching her untie him. As soon as he was untied, he got up and pulled the blindfold off, throwing it away. He quickly opened his backpack as he backed off. These sudden movements were alarming to the girls. They grabbed their bows and aimed it at his head, ready to kill. Lucas looked at them calmer then they would think he¡¯d be after being threatened. He had taken some jerky out of his bag, starting to chew on it. His stomach growling as he was very hungry. They lowered their bows, seemingly starting to relax.


    ¡°You look like a starved animal.¡± Joked Lilly as she put her bow back on the bed.


    This coughed Lucas¡¯s attention, looking at the bow which was previously his. ¡°Can I get my bow back?¡±


    ¡°No¡± Lilly smiled when saying this, looking at him as if she was challenging him to try and take it from her. He would shrug and continue to eat. ¡°Meh¡­ I¡¯m not that good with it anyway.¡± He continued to eat, grabbing the rest of the bread as they didn¡¯t seem to eat it. He then again grabbed his bag and took the map out, throwing it to Lily. ¡°Here, read it and point where you have to go.¡±


    As they grabbed the map and opened it up, Lucas finally god a good look at the both of them. The clothes were too big for the both of them although that affected Lilly less than Emma. Lilly had a bit more of a stomach, fitting better in the shirt than her sister. Outside from that, he also noticed that Emma liked to have long hair while Lilly had shorter hair. Both still had brown hair  which made it more clear that they were twins. His thoughts got cut off when Lilly rolled the map back up, throwing it back at him.


    ¡°Your map sucks Lucas. It¡¯s too small and terribly drawn. Even I can do it better.¡±


    This made him sigh and stuff the map in his bag as he looked defeated. ¡°Okay listen, if you want me to help you two then you really need to get off your high horses and stop insulting me. Yes you managed to take me down, congrats.¡±


    Neither of the girls seemed to feel bad about their actions, giving each other evil grins as they then looked back at him, waiting for a solution.


    ¡°Okay then¡­ seems like we need to get a bigger map. I know someone special who has a bigger map. She does live a good distance away from here so we better leave soon.¡± He glanced at the entrance to see how high the sun was at this point.


    Emma looked at his face as she heard what he had said. ¡°Someone special? Does that mean¡­ someone you love¡­?¡±


    That made him look at her with anger at first which then quickly turned into a look that almost seemed to represent sadness. ¡°Love¡­ don¡¯t talk to me about love. And no, I don¡¯t love her.¡±


    Both of the girls laughed as they looked at him. ¡°Oh you do like her, don¡¯t deny it.¡± Said Lilly, joining in with the fun of teasing Lucas.


    He would put his backpack on as he walked to the exit. ¡°You¡¯ll see what I mean. Now come and follow me, we¡¯ll walk next to the river. The only problem with that is that there¡¯s no way to escape if anyone decides to attack us. The river flows too fast to be able to swim in it properly but I don¡¯t think that we have much choice. Does anyone have a problem with that?¡± He seemed to be done with the conversation and the constant teasing.


    Neither of the girls answered as they hadn¡¯t any alternate plan that they could fall back on. Both of them got up and followed him out the tree. As they got out and looked around, Lucas seemed to be missing. For some reason, nobody had shown up yet to check on the horse. Lilly being out the first would be a bit concerned about Lucas his disappearance. She and Emma both had their bows which Lilly ordered her sister to draw and to get ready.


    ¡°Something¡¯s not right. Where is Lucas?¡±


    As they both got ready for the inevitable fight, something dropped right next to them, making them jump and back off. It were 2 more bags filled up with something. Looking up, they saw Lucas starting to climb down as he had yet another bag strapped to his back above the first bag.


    Once on the ground again, Lilly would let out a sigh of relief. ¡°That gave us a scare. What is in the bags?¡±


    ¡°Tent, food, and food.¡± He pointed at the bag on his back which obviously had poles showing it being a tent as he then gestured to the others who supposedly had food. ¡°You two carry those.¡±


    This made the girls laugh, looking at each other. ¡°How about no?¡± Said Lilly as she didn¡¯t think that people like her and her sister had to work.


    Lucas just looked at them for a second before turning around and walking away from them. This caused Emma and Lilly to quickly follow him, not bringing the bags. Lucas wasn¡¯t planning on leaving though, going to what looked like a small grave.


    It wasn¡¯t much really, being a patch on the ground where the dirt was higher than on the other places with two stone on top of each other at one end. Lucas got quiet for a second as the sisters looked at him confused for a bit.


    ¡°Thank you Frank. Without you I wouldn¡¯t have been here. But I have to go now for a while so could you keep the house safe for me? Thank you.¡± He put down an amulet on the top stone, standing back up and walking away from the tree to start the journey, going in the opposite direction of the ravine.


    ¡°Who is Frank?¡± Asked Emma while Lily just followed and didn¡¯t do anything.


    Lucas ignored the question as he once again didn¡¯t seem to be wanting to talk.


    Emma grabbed his arm, not letting go. ¡°Who is Frank? Your father?¡±


    Lucas seemed to have enough of them. They had been talking down to him constantly, tied him down and continued to make fun of him. ¡°Don¡¯t talk about my father! He was an asshole who didn¡¯t care for me! As for a mother¡­? I don¡¯t have one! Frank was the dead person I found in the home before I decided to live in it.¡± He said that last part more quiet.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Seeing his outburst, the girls seemed a bit hesitant to ask any questions. Lilly seeing that perhaps they have gone too far would try to ask what both her and her sister were asking themselves. ¡°Then why do you talk to him like that?¡±


    ¡°I was lonely. Like I said, I was in a foreign world and I didn¡¯t know anyone so I need to make due with what I had and I had Frank. Now let¡¯s go, I want to make a bit of distance as I¡¯m not sure how far we¡¯ll get at this point.¡± He looked up at them and then behind them. ¡°And don¡¯t forget the bags or we won¡¯t eat.¡±


    The mention of not eating was a good way of getting them to move, both of them quickly going back to bags to grab them. When they had put them on and turned to look at him, he would already be on his way. They ran after him, not wanting to get lost. Seeing what had been sad, neither of the sisters decided to talk right now, letting Lucas stew for a bit.


    After walking for around half an hour, both Lilly and Emma started to become trouble for Lucas once more. Emme seemed to be on the edge of asking more question which Lucas showed to be not a fan off while Lilly was huffing and trying to keep up with them. Even though Lucas had a tent on his back, Lilly with her extra body weight even though it wasn¡¯t that much more still was out of shape.


    Lilly once more started to run again, getting next to Lucas. ¡°S-So¡­ When will we take a break? I¡¯m feel a bit tired.¡±


    Lucas looked up at her as he then looked up at the sky, mumbling something before looking at her. ¡°We¡¯re not even at the river. We can¡¯t stop now as they will come back to check the ravine soon. The reason I think they haven¡¯t done that yet is because they have looked around the area where they caught your horse. With a bit of luck it was far away. But I doubt it¡¯ll take them long to come back.¡±


    Emma hesitated as she looked at the ground. ¡°I could use some rest as well¡­¡±


    Lucas suddenly stopped and dropped his backpack and the tent, sitting down as he looked at them. ¡°Fine, five minutes. Take them while you can because I¡¯m not staying any longer.¡±


    Lilly let out a sigh as she walked to a fallen down tree, sitting down on the side and dropping the backpack. Emma watched her before turning to Lucas, starting to ask the questions she was brooding on.


    ¡°You said that you didn¡¯t have a mother. How did she die?¡±


    Trying to get comfortable, he would grab his bag and opened it up, taking out the small crossbow. He had been extremely lucky that it didn¡¯t break after he dropped the tent on it.


    ¡°When I said that I don¡¯t have a mother, I meant that I never had a mother to begin with. I wasn¡¯t born in the traditional way.¡±


    Emma looked at the crossbow, being very interested in what it was. It had a leather strap at the bottom which Lucas used to attach it to his wrist and then loaded with the tiny bolt.


    ¡°You really aren¡¯t from this planet are you? How did you come to be?¡±


    Even though Lucas didn¡¯t like talking to the princesses, he also realized that he actually never had talked to anyone about his past. ¡°Well¡­ I don¡¯t know to be sure. I guess that I was¡­ invented?¡± He didn¡¯t look at her when he talked about his past, letting his sleeve go over the crossbow.


    Seeing as Lucas didn¡¯t look at her while he talked, she would sit down in front of him. ¡°Okay¡­ then what about your father? Who is he?¡±


    ¡°My father is God. And I¡¯ve heard about the God of this world and no he¡¯s not my father.¡± He pulled back the string of the crossbow to try it out.


    ¡°Then how did you end up here? You never explained that.¡±


    Even though he had armed the crossbow, he didn¡¯t want to shoot it, not being sure about it yet and not having time to repair it when it broke. ¡°Well¡­ my father decided to invent me and put me to work keeping an eye on his death candles. I didn¡¯t really do much but remove those that went out and put up new ones. A task that never ended with the amount of people dying. A work that exponentially would get harder¡­¡±


    He had stopped talking as he also had stopped moving. His eyes focused on the crossbow as talking about it brought up memories.


    ¡°I was there alone for two-thousand years or something¡­ Then people started to mess¡­ and¡­ a lot happened¡­¡± He took a deep breath, looking up at her, giving her a big smile as he shook his head. ¡°Long story short, I made big ¡®ol pops mad and he banished me to what he called another universe.¡±


    As he talked, Emma stayed silent, listening to what he had gone through. As he seemed to finish up, she thought to compliment him. ¡°You don¡¯t look like you¡¯re two-thousand years old.¡±


    That was indeed true. He looked like he was somewhere in his twenties. ¡°I¡¯m physically twenty-one years old. Ever since I left that prison of a job, I have started to age. Mentally I¡¯m¡­ not sure. I might be old but I have basically no experiences in anything.¡±


    That seemed odd and rather conflicting with what she had seen. His map was indeed the work of a toddler and his bag rather badly made but functional. What he seemed to be good at was making horrible tasting bread and making jerky. ¡°What about the food? The clothes? You are great at hunting, baking a sewing.¡±


    ¡°Hah¡­ if only. I can¡¯t do any of those things. Believe it or not but somehow¡­ I don¡¯t know how¡­ but somehow these items appear at the start of the week at the same spot near my house. At first I didn¡¯t trust it but a person can get desperate fast without food. I took it in, ate, got different clothes and before I knew it, the week was over and there were new supplies. I never managed to catch the person that helped me.¡±


    Lucas looked up at the sky and then back at her. He realized tat he had been talking for too long. He shook his head, grabbing his bag and the tent, putting it onto his back. ¡°It¡¯s time. Get up.¡± He didn¡¯t sound so friendly when he said this.


    Lilly didn¡¯t like that they had to move already but she knew that the longer she waited, the further she would be behind. She too grabbed her bag and started to walk. Due to Emma being with Lucas when he started to walk, she was already a bit more ahead and waited for Emma to catch up before starting to walk again.


    The further they walked, the more bushes that started to show up. At first the forest didn¡¯t have many bushes seeing as they left his home but now that they were getting closer to the river again, he started to get aware of something. The sound of leaves cracking below their feet. While walking, he would look behind himself towards the girls who were a bit behind him, enough for them to be able to quietly talk and him to not hear them.


    As he looked at the path they had walked, he only got more worried. His attention was directed to the girls as they started to chuckle and point at him. Before he could ask why they were laughing, a sharp pain went through his head. Due to looking behind him, he had walked full on against a tree. He fell down, cursing and holding his head. The pain caused him to see black spots. The girls only started to laugh loudly.


    Keeping a hand against his head, he would get mad as he got up and turned to look at that. ¡°Shut up!¡±


    Lilly now had caught up with him as she would just chuckle and started to copy him with her hand against her head.


    Lucas grunted as he gestured to the trail they had left.* ¡°If you haven¡¯t noticed it yet, we¡¯re leaving behind a rather obvious trail. We should pick up the pace.¡±


    Both of the girls turned around. They didn¡¯t seem as worried which wasn¡¯t a surprise to Lucas. Emma shrugged as she looked back at Lucas. ¡°Like someone is going to follow us.¡±


    ¡°How can you both be so¡­ oblivious? You are actively being hunted! I¡¯m surprised that they haven¡¯t found us yet.¡±


    Emma started to tap the ground with her feet, seemingly getting nervous. ¡°What do you mean surprised that they haven¡¯t found us yet?¡±


    ¡°Simple, you two were being hunted. One of your horses fell down the ravine while the other kept going. If they captured the horse that kept going, then they would¡¯ve found nobody. What I would do then is go back to where the other horse fell down. Then again they¡¯ll notice that nobody was dead. That means that they¡¯ll be looking around as you couldn¡¯t have gone far. Eventually they¡¯ll find my home and from there on they¡¯ll be able to track us. We have to continue our path and fast.¡± He turned around and started to jog.


    As he was jogging, the weight of the tent and backpack was getting to his head literally. He started to feel his brain move or at least he imagined that that was how it felt.


    Both Emma and Lily looked at each other as they saw him starting to run. ¡°You have got to be kidding me!¡± Yelled Emma. Seeing as he didn¡¯t answer or stop, they decided to run after him, Lily obviously having more trouble. As he disappeared into a bush, they couldn¡¯t see him anymore. The sounds of his steps sounding through the forest. Another sound started to be clear, the flowing of water. As they burst through the bush, they saw the river Lucas had been talking about.


    Just before they fell in the river, Lucas stopped them, pulling them to the right. ¡°Come¡­ don¡¯t fall in as we don¡¯t have time to fish you out.¡± He started to run again, this time a bit faster. The girls barely had anything to carry while Lucas was carrying a bigger backpack and the tent.


    After a while he stopped, throwing the items to build up a tent into the river, watching it sink. ¡°Not worth it.¡± Was all he had to say about it.


    As he threw it away, it started to dawn on both Emma and Lilly how serious he was about this. Being much lighter now, he was able to keep it up longer. He wasn¡¯t good at pretty much anything but he did have good stamina.


    A they ran like this for around half an hour, Lucas lost focus. The path they were following was very monotonous. To the left was the river with eh constant sound of flowing water with on either side of the river having a path big enough for two horses to walk side by side. Then besides that on both sides were bushes. Thanks to the water and the distance, they would thrive, growing big and dense.


    Due to the never changing scenery and the constant sound, everything started to zoom past him, getting in some sort of trance. So when he was taken out by Emma by tapping his shoulder, he would stop, panting and looking at her.


    Lilly was far behind them. She had completely stopped jogging and was just walking, panting and obviously out of breath. Even with he possible threat, he knew that he had to wait for her.


    Actually happy with the break, he would plop down and lean against the backpack. Emma saw this and put her bag on the ground together with her bow, going back to help Lilly.


    As she reached her, she took the bag and bow of Lilly, allowing her to move a bit faster. Once they got to him, they would drop the bag and sit down as well.


    Lucas grabbed the bag that was just dropped and opened it u, grabbing some food and some water. He gave them all some dried jerky without bread as he started to drink, drinking exactly a third of the water flask as he then offered it to Emma. It tasted like leather and old but it was all they had.


    ¡°This is for the both of you so make sure to share.¡±


    Emma took the leather bag and felt how much was still in it, shaking her head. ¡°We need more water.¡±


    This was met by Lucas with nothing but raised eyebrows and the sound of chewing. Emma let out a moan of desperation as she started to drink, actually keeping most for her sister. She wasn¡¯t stupid and knew that Lilly needed it more than her.


    As they sat there, the sun was getting lower and lower with the minute. Before the sun was able to easily reach them as it went down at the side of the ravine. Now after moving way from the ravine, things got darker faster.


    Knowing that not much more travel would be done, he grabbed his bag and lie down, resting his head onto the bag. His eyes were focused on the water, looking as it was streaming by fast. As the sound of the rushing water got back into his head, he closed his eyes, imagining that he was swimming. Something he never learned to do or even knew what that looked like.


    As the girls also went to lie down, it would slowly get darker. After a while of looking at waiting, Emma got up. Lucas lifted his head up to look at her. She shook her head, motioning for him to stay down. ¡°I¡¯m going to the toilet real quick.¡±


    Lucas just nodded, lying back down and closing his eyes. Emma walked to the bush and slowly went through it, not liking the fact she had to walk through it, cutting her leg with a branch. ¡°For Pan sakes.¡±


    It also didn¡¯t take long for her to burst back through the leaves. Lucas being prepared sat up fast, holding his dagger, ready to stab whoever it was. As soon as he saw her, he would lower his dagger, looking rather confused.


    Emma put a finger up to her lips, motioning him to be silent. Lilly by now also sat up as she was confused as well. Emma would then gesture to behind her. ¡°Someone is coming.¡±


    Lucas got white as he slowly got onto his knees. Lilly followed his action as both grabbed their bags as well. ¡°If this gets ugly, jump In the river. Things might get ugly. Don¡¯t wait for me.¡±


    By now the girls didn¡¯t ask what for as the people Emma had seen were now close enough for their voices to be heard.


    ¡°¡­going back to the border then they need to go past here. Otherwise they would be going deeper into our territory. Even they wouldn¡¯t be so dumb.¡± Said a man. He was fairly close but they couldn¡¯t see him nor could he see the group trying to hide behind the row of bushes.


    ¡°Are you sure that those tracks weren¡¯t from an animal? I mean, we¡¯ve being going for a while now with not another sign of your stupid trail.¡± The other man sounded annoyed as he asked this. ¡°Let¡¯s just go back to the camp, today would be beef.¡±


    That¡¯s when the voices stopped. Both groups stayed quiet as the bush started to rustle.


    ¡°There¡¯s tracks here. Someone was here recently.¡± The rustling of the leaves got louder as a man stuck his head through the bushes. His eyes locked with the group, both frozen for just a split second while processing what was seen.


    Lucas was the first to react. He jumped up, leaving his bag on the ground as he swung with his knife towards the man.


    The man pulled away, letting out a yell in fear as he was still surprised. ¡°They¡¯re there!¡±


    Hitting nothing, Lucas would take a couple of steps back. ¡°Go! Jump in the water! Let the river do their work!¡±


    Emma got up first. She quickly moved to Lilly, grabbing her by her arm and forcing her with her, jumping into the water as they left their bags for what it was, leaving all the food.


    A bit more to the right of Lucas came a centaur through the bushes. He saw the girls disappear and then saw Lucas. He had a bow in his hands which he quickly loaded with an arrow, aiming it at Lucas.


    A cold hand wrapped around his heart as he saw the arrow going to his face. This wasn¡¯t a naked girl casually threatening him. These were hunters out for blood. Adrenaline and fear took control. Without giving it a second thought, he would dive to the ground, feeling something fly right past him where he would¡¯ve been if he didn¡¯t move.


    The second centaur came back through the bush as well. He grabbed his bag as he then jumped into the water. Everything was slowed down as he saw the water come closer faster. The cold liquid wrapping around him like a cold blanket. He didn¡¯t know how to swim but his bag being mostly water proof held him up. As his head got back above the water, he could hear hooves.


    As he looked to the right, he saw the centaur running past him. It was the one that had shot at him. He stopped to aim at Lucas, drawing the string back to shoot. Lucas instinctively raised his right arm, letting go of his bag to quickly pull his sleeve back, shooting his mini crossbow.

 Chapter 5 - A moment rest

    A full moon was above the forest with a cold but soft breeze being there to accompany him. The river ended up in what looked like a small pond before continuing a bit further away. Using the slower water, the girls swam to the side, dragging Lucas with them into one of the few open places that was surrounded by bushes for cover.


    Lilly and Emma both held onto Lucas as they dragged him out of the water. Lucas didn¡¯t move much as the girls seemed to shiver from the cold. Lilly let go of his arm, panting as she dropped down onto the ground. Her fingers felt like they were going to break soon due to the cold as her clothes were heavy from the water.


    Emma dragged him a bit further away from the water before also dropping him and his bag. They didn¡¯t know what had happened at first, only hearing someone yell. At first they thought it was Lucas until they saw the centaur stopping with his pursuit. The second centaur had followed them for a bit but with it getting darker and him having the occasional stumble due to the lack of visibility, he too gave up.


    Lucas let out a soft groan as he rolled onto his back, eyes closed es he let the cold wind blow over his face. That didn¡¯t take long though as it was quickly entering his soaked clothes, making him shiver as well.


    He got up, wrapping his arms around himself as he looked up at Lilly and Emma. They looked exactly how he felt. The moral of the group was at rock bottom and they weren¡¯t even close to their final destination. Deciding that the time to rest wasn¡¯t now, he would get up and grab his bag, still being weak.


    ¡°Thank you for saving me.¡± He said with a soft tone, not liking that he had to thank them. But if it hadn¡¯t been for them, he would¡¯ve drowned. Everything was a blur for him, the water washing over him as the cold wrapped around his face. Water creeping into his mouth as he tried to stay afloat and breathe, the arms of the others grabbing his to keep him up.


    Emma had been looking at her bow and counting the arrows she still had because she had lost some in the river. Hearing this made her smile, looking up at him. ¡°What was that? Did you just thank us?¡±


    Hearing that, Lucas stayed quiet, opening his bag and turning it upside down. The water immediately fell out as did his stuff. The full moon was helping a bit so he could see enough to be useful.


    ¡°Instead of getting smug, you could get some fire wood.¡±


    He sounded irritated until both he and Emma heard Lilly groan. Looking up at her, they could see her grab her leg before quickly pulling away and wincing. ¡°Fuck¡­ it hurts!¡±


    Emma and Lucas got up, quickly going over to her. As they looked down at her leg, they could see blood covering the bottom part of her leg and pants. Something in the water had ripped up her pants and cut her leg.


    Lucas knelt down, grabbing the cloth and trying to move it to the side to be able to look at the wound properly. Sadly for Lilly, Lucas wasn¡¯t a doctor so he carelessly pulled some cloth that had gotten into the wound out of it.


    Lilly let out a loud yell of pain, grabbing her upper leg and squeezing it while Lucas inspected it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be such a baby. ¡° Was the only thing he said before getting back up.


    That didn¡¯t sit well with Lilly, looking angry. ¡°What do you mean don¡¯t be a baby? I¡¯m bleeding out!¡±


    ¡°The wound isn¡¯t that deep and most of the blood is actually water mixed with blood. It¡¯s not too bad.¡±


    Now that Lucas got up, Emma was able to take a look as well. Blood was still coming out but what Lucas had said seemed to be correct.


    ¡°You¡¯ll survive.¡± She walked to her sister and gave her a tight hug, happy to have survived another attack.


    With that being under control, Lucas walked back to his stuff on the ground, starting to look through it. The map was ruined so he didn¡¯t give it another look, throwing it away.


    While he was sorting through his stuff, Emma had gotten up walking back to him. She saw the food lying on the ground as well.


    ¡°Why did you put the food on the ground?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Oh¡­ I didn¡¯t really think about it. Then again, I wasn¡¯t really planning on eating that.¡±


    He grabbed a piece of jerky, letting some water drip off as he looked at it. ¡°I¡¯m not sure that eating it after it got into the river is smart.¡±


    ¡°So we don¡¯t have food anymore?¡±


    ¡°Seems like we don¡¯t.¡± He said as he threw it away as well.


    Thinking on what to do next, he grabbed the little pot and one of his little bolts. Emma took this as a way to know that he had shot his little crossbow at the centaur.


    ¡°If I have to be real, I¡¯m rather surprised that your little crossbow was able to stop him. Did you kill him?¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Lucas looked up at her, holding the pot into his right hand and the bolt into his left, slowly dipping the bolt into the clay pot.


    ¡°No¡­¡± He focused back onto what he was doing. ¡°I haven¡¯t killed him sadly. I didn¡¯t apply the poison to the bolt.


    ¡°Then why did he stop chasing us?¡±


    That question made Lucas stop as he tried to recall what he had seen. Sadly enough he hadn¡¯t seen a lot. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I must have hit something either weak or important.¡±


    After having applied the poison to the bolt, he pulled his sleeve back to look at his crossbow, only to see it broken. He groaned, putting the bolt back down.


    ¡°It was a prototype. I guess it¡¯s not good enough yet.¡±


    ¡°That sucks.¡± Emma turned to look at Lilly, walking towards her.


    Lilly was still being too focused on her wound to really notice her sister getting closer. She was mostly mesmerized by the blood leaking out to notice much of anything, let alone the cold.


    Lucas realized that neither of the girls seemed to want to get firewood. He let out a sigh before getting up and started to undress fully, planning on drying his clothes.


    With Emma getting next to her, Lilly would look up, seeing Lucas getting fully nude. She sucked in some air, about to scream.


    Before she could scream, Lucas saw this and shut her up fast. ¡°Shut up! I¡¯ve had it up to here!¡± He gestured to his head forehead. ¡°I¡¯m going to let my clothes dry . I don¡¯t care what you¡¯ll do.¡±


    Trying to distract her sister, Emma would put her hand over her mouth before looking at Lucas, trying to focus on his face and not his bottom half. ¡°Where are we?¡±


    Having gotten out his anger, he started to feel a bit ashamed. He didn¡¯t have much company in his life and always lived in relative peace so perhaps it was better to wear something. He grabbed his underwear and put it back on as he thought about the question. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. We¡¯re further than I planned us to be but also with less food than I hoped.¡±


    ¡°And what about those hunters?¡±


    Lucas looked at the sky, seeing it was already quite a bit into the night thanks the position of the moon. ¡°Well, they¡¯re much faster. If they went back to get backup, then they at least had to go for a while. One of them seemed to have been hurt and it¡¯s night. They might be traveling in the dark. There are too many possibilities. I would suggest we sleep anyway as we need to get going soon.¡±


    He spread out the rest of his stuff over a rock, letting them dry before getting up. From there, he walked to the edge of the small clearing. ¡°Stay here.¡±


    As he left, Emma started to follow his example and undressed. Problem was that he hadn¡¯t given them bra¡¯s as he didn¡¯t have any. So when he came back around ten minutes later, she noticed him looking. She chuckled, not saying anything yet. Lilly saw this too and didn¡¯t seem as amused as Emma. Her eyes wandering to her almost fully nude sister and then to Lucas.


    ¡°Could you maybe keep your eyes to yourself?¡± Was her reaction after Lucas got a good eyeful.


    Lucas just now noticed what he was doing and quickly looked away. He wasn¡¯t used to seeing naked woman and right now he wasn¡¯t tied down. While Lily kept an eye on him, he disappeared again. Every once in a while he came back with firewood, noticing that Lilly still had her wet clothes.


    ¡°You really should let your clothes dry. They¡¯ll slow us down hard when wet and you already aren¡¯t the fastest.¡±


    Lily laughed, shaking her head. ¡°You must be joking. I¡¯m not going to let you show my breasts.¡±


    ¡°Like they are so special. Your sister looks much better.¡± He realized what he said and blushed hard, seeing Emma snicker. Before Lily could get angry again, he started to talk. ¡°We¡¯re close enough to my contact. I scouted the area and found some clues to where we are. During the night I¡¯ll send a signal to her.¡±


    Having said that, he turned his back to her and sat down on the ground, starting to build a pile of wood to start a fire. It took him a while, but he managed to do it using his fire rocks.


    As they all got around the fire, bringing their clothes, both groups seemed to be busy with their own problems. Emma had tried to bandage up the wound of Lilly while Lilly had been mostly busy with keeping herself covered with her arms. Lucas on the other hand had been looking at the smoke that the fire was emitting. Thanks to the full moon, it was rather visible for any other party involved.


    Unbeknownst to the other two, the fire wasn¡¯t really meant to heat them up as it was rather dangerous because of said smoke and fire. The fire itself was the signal for his contact, knowing it would be visible from where they would be.


    After sitting here next to the rather big fire, his clothes were mostly dried. Emma her clothes were also almost dry but Lilly still had hers on. They didn¡¯t get fully dried yet and were still wet. As they both got dressed, Lilly finally undressed, surrendering to the fact that dry clothes were worth it.


    Lucas finally took action, thinking it had been long enough for his ally to find them. He grabbed his bag, getting up and walking to the edge of their camp.


    Emma who had nothing better to do found it rather weird that he would bring his bag. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    Lucas thought that they hadn¡¯t been paying much attention. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯m just going to explore a bit. I have to see if anyone is coming to attack us.¡±


    Emma didn¡¯t seem to believe him. ¡°Then why are you grabbing your bag? If they are sneaking around the camp to attack us, then having a back would only slow you down.¡±


    He knew that what she said was logical but he wasn¡¯t going to be stopped now. He had enough of them and didn¡¯t want their burden of survival to fall on him. The near drowning experience had given him fear. He wanted to flee from all of this, not wanting to feel the pressure of the liquid around his head. Scared of the cold grip of death that he himself watch so many others go through.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been your ally the entire time. If I was your enemy, I would¡¯ve already killed you both. It¡¯s time you stop questioning me.¡± Before she could answer, he would walk through the bushes.


    This only made her believe that he was doing something suspicious stronger. ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re selling us out. I think you¡¯re running.¡± She said that more to herself than him, knowing he wouldn¡¯t hear it anyway.


    Lucas started to walk in the dark. His head filling with thoughts of everything. After walking for a bit, he turned around. The light of the fire was being covered from this side by the bushes but the smoke was easily visible. He shook his head before turning around again, away from the camp.


    ¡±I don¡¯t owe them anything.¡± He shook his head once more. ¡°They tied me down¡­¡± He sighed as he stopped with was he was doing. ¡°They¡¯ll die without me.¡± He looked once more at the camp, slowly deciding what to do. He didn¡¯t want them to feel the cold grip that he had felt either.


    As he looked at the camp and was lost in his mind, he thought he saw a person standing right next to the bushes. He rubs his eyes, looking a bit better. As he took the time to rub his eyes, the person suddenly disappeared. Lucas had decided, quickly running back towards the camp, bursting in as he held his dagger.

 Chapter 6 - First actual deaths

    Both Emma and Lily looked up, confused and very careful. ¡°Lucas? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Asked Emma as she grabbed her bow, putting on an arrow, keeping it relaxed for now. ¡°Why did you ran to us with a dagger?¡±


    Lucas quickly looked at the bow before looking back at where he came from. He didn¡¯t see the man so he walked to the river instead. Emma followed him with her bow, not aiming at him but still ready to use it on him if Lucas decided to attack for some reason.


    Lucas knelt down at the river, his eyes scanning the other side of the river before scanning to his immediate right and left. As he thought that there wasn¡¯t anyone, he saw the figure again. He was on the other side of the river, watching the group. He seemed to hide very well in the dark, having dark clothes and an abnormally dark face. His eyes were even hidden by what looked like deep shadows. Lucas didn¡¯t take his eyes off him, taking a step back. ¡°Get dressed.¡±


    Lilly and Emma looked confused at each other as Lucas wasn¡¯t looking at them but somewhere on the other side of the river. Lilly listened though, grabbing her still wet clothes. ¡°But they¡¯re still wet.¡±


    This rather surprised him, causing him to look back at her before focusing back on the man. ¡°I honestly don¡¯t care princess¡­¡±


    His voice grew quiet as he couldn¡¯t find the man anymore. He had disappeared once more. This was more than your regular enemy.


    Lilly started to mumble some curse words as she put the wet clothes back on while Lucas turned to face them again. ¡°Say¡­ are there people that can teleport in this world?¡±


    As Lilly was busy, Emma gave him the answer. ¡°Yeah in matter of fact there¡¯s a race of people able to teleport short distances. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°Because I think we got one teleporting around the place.¡± After saying that, he started to scan the area again but to not avail.


    This information didn¡¯t go well with Emma, getting even more concerned. ¡°Trifa?¡±


    Having never heard that word before, he looked at Emma. But before he could asked about it, a long loud howl would pierce the silence that had fallen. The hair raising howl sounded rather close, causing both Emma and Lilly to jump up, both of them holding their bows ready to shoot if needed.


    Lilly hadn¡¯t gotten enough time so her torn pants still weren¡¯t on but that was the least of her worries. Furthest away from them on the other side of the camp they had set up slowly came a wolf. His head was low, looking at them as he started to growl. His teeth bared as he was quickly followed by two more.


    They could hear more wolves running around the camp with only a layer of leaves keeping them out from a fresh meal.


    Emma wasn¡¯t going to allow their friends to join them so she pulled the string back of her bow, going to shoot down the first one.


    Lucas who was still slightly concerned about the man saw this almost too late, grabbing the string of the bow right when she let go, able to barely stop the arrow from flying out of her bow and killing the wolf.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill them!¡±


    Lilly was on the other side of Emma, out of his reach. She too had lifted up her bow and was ready to shoot, stopping right before also firing her arrow. ¡°Why!?¡±


    Not wanting to die by a stupid peasant, Emma kicked Lucas his leg, pulling on the bow hoping that he¡¯d let go. ¡°Let go! They¡¯re wolves!¡±


    While they were fighting among themselves, two more wolves had shown up, causing Lilly to get closer to her sister.


    Lucas still was holding the string as he now also instinctively bow down, grabbing his leg where she kicked him. ¡°Ah! You fu¡­ Don¡¯t kill them!¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ I rather not have you humans kill my friends.¡±


    The voice was closer than any of them could¡¯ve expected, nor did they even expect a voice. Except Lucas off course who let out a sigh of relieve as he let go of the string slowly, looking around for the owner of said voice.


    Out of the bushes right behind them came a woman, having a big smile as she looked at the group of people, her eyes going down to the naked legs of Lilly. ¡°My my Zoi. I thought you didn¡¯t do woman? Gotten yourself a threesome have you?¡±


    In the light of the fire could be seen a still rather young woman, though with some extra features. Staying in theme of the situation, she had grey wolf ears and a tail, looking rather weird to both Lilly and Emma, even in this world where they had satyrs and centaurs.


    Her eyes wandered back to Lucas who was still bend over holding his leg. ¡°Something wrong dear? Why make me come to you? You¡¯ve never done that before.¡±


    He slowly stood up, letting go of his leg as he nodded slowly. ¡°We had gotten some¡­ problems so to say and my map got destroyed. I wasn¡¯t sure anymore where to go from here. Anyway, seeing as you easily saw the fire from far away, you have to realize that others can as well. We need to get out of here fast.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Did you make the father of these girls mad?¡± She chuckled as her tail started to wag, not even bothered about the fact that the people she was making fun off were holding a bow and were obviously still suspicious about her. ¡°Who are these girls anyway?¡±


    She talked down to them as if she didn¡¯t value them much. Both of them were looking confused at the wolf woman. They had never seen anything like this before. Half humans and half animals weren¡¯t too uncommon but there were only very specific animals and also very few.


    Wanting to speed up the introductions so they could get out of here, he would gesture to Emma first and then to Lilly. ¡°These are Emma and Lilly¡­ or other way around, don¡¯t really care right now. They¡¯re the princesses from the Human Gruge or whatever it is called. Can we do this later? We¡¯re kinda being hunted?¡±Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Right as he finished talking, someone else suddenly burst through the bush, surprising them. Lucas didn¡¯t recognize him and instantly grabbed him by his throat and shoulder, pulling him closer and tackling him. As he fell down, Lucas quickly went down as well, putting his knee on his back as he grabbed his dagger, holding it against the back of his neck with the cold steel touching.


    ¡°Who the hell are you!?¡±


    ¡°No Zoi no!¡± Wolf girl grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him off.


    Lucas let go, falling on his ass on the ground as he held up his hands to show that he wasn¡¯t trying to threaten the man anymore.


    The new man laid there for a bit, couching before rolling over, looking up at the woman. ¡°We¡¯re not alone. More people are coming.¡±


    Her tail slowly swayed as she was thinking, looking from Lucas to the girls who were rather confused about almost everything. ¡°Hmm¡­ okay¡­ Lucas, meet Keanu.¡± She said as she helped him up, dusting him off.


    Finding the moment taking too long, Lucas got up as well, grunting while putting the dagger back into his belt. ¡°Ninke! Can we go now!¡± He sounded slightly mad and panicked, not understanding why she wasn¡¯t taking this seriously. ¡°I don¡¯t care what family you found. We can talk about this later!¡±


    Seeing Lucas this upset finally got her to move. She grabbed Lucas¡¯s hand pulled him towards the bush, going through it with him.


    Keanu looked at the other two who still were confused, looking from the wolves to him. He shook his head slowly, more to himself than them.¡± Come on, move it.¡±


    Emma was the first to act, grabbing Lilly¡¯s pants before going through the bushes as well. Lilly followed right after her with Keanu completely at the back. As they ran through the forest and high bushes, Lilly could be heard cursing at the bushes and the branches, stabbing and rubbing at the still bleeding wound.


    As the group ran, Ninke and Lucas had to slow down for the others. Mostly for Lilly that was. Due to not being as used to running or being active in general, she was slowing them all down. At one point as they ran, Lilly heard Keanu who was right behind her talking under his breath, even hearing him calling her a snail.


    At first she wanted to scold at him for being this disrespectful towards her, but as she was about to, a hunting horn could be heard coming from the camp they had left. Now wasn¡¯t the time for a scolding and she knew it. Not only did the horn help her being motivated to run even faster, the screams coming from that place helped as well.


    Back at the camp, a group of centaurs had arrived. They were wilding torches and found an opening in the bushes just big enough for him to burst through it. He was followed by around five more centaurs, all wielding torches as well as one of them even had an elf on his back. The one with the elf had an eye patch with what looked like some dried up blood on his face.


    All of them were armed with bows and arrows, for now not having an arrow ready as they had the torches still in their hands. The elf jumped down from the centaurs, quickly started to walk around the camp, looking at the ground for any clues to where their prey had gone to.


    Two of the centaurs turned back around, going out of the camp site to scout out the outside. There they split up, one going to the left as the other went to the right.


    The elf knelt down at one bush where a group of people seemed to have just ran through. Before he could be certain, the centaur that left the camp and went to the right suddenly started to scream. A thud could be heard as the scream suddenly stopped. The other centaur that went to the left quickly ran towards him. Due to the bushes, the group couldn¡¯t see what was happening, hearing him too scream before falling as well.


    Hearing them both scream and fall terrified the group. Both were trained fighters and something just took them both down fast and not without pain. A third centaur ran through the opening to investigate. ¡°Hey! What¡¯s going on here.¡±


    As he got out to look, growling started to be heard coming from all around. It didn¡¯t take long before he yelled in pain. He had been prepared though so as he fought for his life, the screams ended up lasting longer.


    The elf quickly moved back from the bushes, just in time as a wolf just snapped to where his face had been just a second ago. The centaurs looks at each other, nodding almost in unison before running away from the camp. Through the bushes as their hooves once in a while cause a wolf to yelp as the ran over some. The elf stayed behind, surprised that they left him there.


    ¡°Hey! Come back! You can¡¯t leave me here!¡±


    He went to the fire, grabbing a piece of burning wood and lifted it up, grabbing his dagger in his other hand. Just as he got back up, the wolves started to appear out of the bushes, one by one, all growling.


    With the fire in his back to protect him, he would look for an exit as he also tried to keep an eye on the wolves. As one came closer, he would quickly move the burning stick towards the wolf, causing him to back off again. He could choose to either run into the forest, fighting off the wolves which would mean his death, or he could jump in the water.


    That decision didn¡¯t need too long of a consideration, slowly moving around the fire, pushing wolves back where it was needed using the fire. When he had managed to get around the fire, he looked at the water. It wasn¡¯t that far away. He had to get past the wolves who were between him and the liquid. He had to be fast as it was at least a couple of tens of meters away.


    Knowing that the fire wasn¡¯t going to last forever, he would take a deep breath, closing his eyes. The growls of the wolves and the burning of the fire being the only sounds that he focused on.


    As he opened his eyes once more, he looked at the eyes of the wolves who in this light looked red. Holding the fire in front of him, he started to run, scaring the wolves in front of him to the sides, giving him an opening. He didn¡¯t make it far though.


    After running for just a couple of meters, he would feel a sharp pain in his leg. Sharp teeth sinking into his flesh which caused him to fall on the ground.


    He yelled out in pain, blindly stabbing at the wolf that had grabbed him. It didn¡¯t take long before he could feel resistance on his dagger, hearing a yelp as well. He had made contact with the wolf. Just before the others attacked as well, he started to sway the fire from the left to the right, panting from the pain.


    The wolf that he had hit started to limp away, quickly going into the bushes. Others took his place in just a second as the stayed away from the fire.


    Having gotten the chances to breathe, he looked back at the water, blindly flailing with the fire as he tried to think of what to do now. He looked back at the fire, hoping to see the centaurs come back to help. Well, he did see someone.


    Next to the fire was standing a man. His face seemed to badly burned as most if not all his clothes seemed to have either been burned off or have been melted into his skin. He was completely black as if he was cooked for too long. Out of some spots on his body came smoke as if he just recently got burned. His eyes or at least where eyes should¡¯ve been was a red light. Weirdest of it all were the wolves who didn¡¯t seem to even noticed him.


    He wasn¡¯t sure what this man was doing here or what his deal was but he was going to take any chance that was thrown at him. ¡°Hey! Hey you! Help me please. I¡¯ll do anything. I can heal your wounds!¡± He was still panting, desperate for any way that he could survive. His heart pounding in his chest.


    As the wolves slowly came closer and closer, ready to kill him, the torch suddenly started to drop, hitting the ground. The elf was gone, leaving behind what looked like a slightly burned area. The wolves stopped their growling as the camp was empty outside from them. One came forwards, careful of the fire as he started to sniff the ground. The elf was gone.

 Chapter 7 - Some peace and quiet

    After a long time of running, they arrived at a cave. In order to get to the cave, you had to climb a hill, able to look out over a rather big part of the forest as it was In the side of a mountain which the river seemed to be streaming to.


    This was obviously their home as it had a table with already some wolves next to it who didn¡¯t seem aggressive to them. Ninke walked in, her tail swaying slowly as she started to pat the wolves. Keanu came much later with Lilly. He seemed very annoyed as he just walked in, leaving her to catch her breath.


    ¡°You can come in.¡± Said Ninke who looked at the group.


    Lucas was the first to enter, walking to the table before sitting down with a sigh. He was tired and wanted to sleep but he had some things to do still. Emma stayed outside for now, trying to see if Lilly was alright. Lilly was leaning against the cave entrance, panting and couching from the run.


    The table he was sitting at was right next to the entrance, having two drinks on them and some plates with a meal. He couldn¡¯t help it but let out a nervous laugh. ¡°Heh¡­ seems like I stole you a perfect dinner.¡±


    Ninke sat down at the table, looking at the food and taking a cold piece of cooked meat, just starting to eat it as she shrugged. Keanu walked to the cave wall behind Lucas and leaning against it, keeping an eye on him.


    Lucas looked back at him, finally able to properly look at him. He had black hair and seemed to be mad about something. ¡°Jezus¡­ calm down. I know her and mean her no harm.¡±


    The mention of Jezus sparked a weird reaction as he didn¡¯t seem to understand what he was talking about.


    ¡°Right¡­¡± Lucas focused back on Ninke, shaking his head. ¡°Different world different rules.¡± His eyes wandered back out the cave. He got up and stretched his arms, looking at where he had come from. The mountain was big and in the dark it would¡¯ve taken him too long to find this place. From here he was able to see the fire he had made right next to the river.


    Ninke asked him something right as Emma and Lilly walked in, both going straight to a chair and falling into it. They were too tired to really do a lot but closing their eyes for now. Emma didn¡¯t keep her eyes closed for too long though, looking around the cave.


    They didn¡¯t seem to have a lot in here. There was a dresser and a wardrobe and then the table and chairs there was sitting at. At the back of the cave seemed to be another part that might have more.


    Zoi!¡± Yelled Ninke, snapping her fingers. ¡°Do you have ear damage?¡±


    ¡°Hmm what? Oh no sorry¡­¡± He still seemed distracted as he walked away from the table. ¡°Can I ask you something?¡±


    Ninke finally lost her humor. The jokes she had been making back at the camp seemed to all have disappeared as she was concerned about him now. ¡°Yeah off course. Go ahead.¡±


    As they talked, Lilly seemed to be uncomfortable. She opened her eyes and looked around the cave. She had went ahead and sat down on the chair that Lucas had been sitting on. Finally she saw Keanu behind her, shaking his head when he saw her looking before looking at Ninke.


    Lucas had said something to her, keeping things quiet so only she could hear it. Ninke was seen nodding before turning around, facing the deeper part of the cave, yelling at someone. ¡°Darter!¡±


    From around a corned which was fairly well camouflaged in the back came a younger looking wolf, quickly running towards her. He looked up at her, seemingly happy but Lucas couldn¡¯t tell with the lack of tail movement, something he knew dogs used to signal that they were happy. This wasn¡¯t fully the case for Ninke though, wagging for both happiness as for when she was nervous or thinking.


    Ninke knelt down, rubbing his chin before pointing at the tree line down the hill. ¡°Search.¡±


    The wolf called Darter quickly ran down the hill, disappearing in the tree line and bushes.


    Both Ninke and Lucas walked back to the table, sitting down as they looked at each other before looking back outside. It stayed quiet like this for a while with Emma focusing back on the group. Lilly was the first to break the silence.


    ¡°Can he maybe put on a blindfold?¡±


    Everyone looked at Keanu who was still leaning against the wall, his eyes looking at the back of Lilly¡¯s skull.


    That made Ninke laugh, watching Keanu as he pushed himself off the wall and walked to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ninke wagged her tail as she put her head on his hand. ¡°No, let¡¯s not. He¡¯s my boyfriend and you¡¯re in his home after all.¡±


    As he put his hand on her shoulder, Lucas felt a weight fall of his shoulders. A little voice in his head was slowly convincing him that Keanu was keeping her hostage or threatening her in some way but the way she reacted to his touch was enough to convince him otherwise.


    ¡°How did you two meet?¡± Was the first thing that came to Lucas¡¯s mind. He forgot about the whole reason that they were here.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Sadly for him, that was a sensitive topic for Ninke, shaking her head. ¡°Perhaps another time.¡± Instead she would look at Emma and Lilly, waiting for them to talk.


    Lilly sat up straight, head tilted a bit up as she tried to act as if she was more than Ninke. ¡°We are Emma and Lilly. We¡¯re the princesses of the Human Gruge.¡±


    Ninke wasn¡¯t really impressed at her act of royalty, just gesturing at Lucas. ¡°So he said.¡±


    Emma wasn¡¯t really interested in introductions, instead focusing on Lucas as she had picked something up about him. ¡°Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself? You said you¡¯re Lucas but she calls you Zoi. What¡¯s that all about?¡±


    Lucas slowly looked at Ninke. He hadn¡¯t noticed it but now that she mentioned it, it was true. Ninke realized her mistake and looked at the table, not meeting his eyes.


    ¡°Hmmm.¡± He didn¡¯t really answer her question at first, being a bit annoyed but not mad. Luckily for him before he had to answer them, the wolf had come back.


    Ninke looked down at the wolf, waiting for him to do something. The wolf just looked up at her before looking at Lucas, finally trotting off back to the back of the cave. Ninke would look back at Lucas, shaking her head slowly. ¡°I think you¡¯re seeing things hun.¡±


    That answer didn¡¯t seem to sit well with Lucas. He looked at her, starting to pat with his foot on the ground. ¡°You sure?¡±


    She just nodded as she got up and walked to him. ¡°Are you alright? Feeling sick? Perhaps it¡¯s because you¡¯re stressed?¡±


    He got up and grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the entrance of the cave. When they got there, he noticed that Keanu was right behind them. He looked at Ninke with a question in his eyes.


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to start trusting him Zoi. I love him and he won¡¯t hurt me.¡±


    Lucas shook his head before pointing in the distance. To him he was pointing to the man, to Ninke, he wasn¡¯t pointing at anything special. Not for as far as she could see.


    ¡°There! Do you see him?¡±


    She shook her head as she tried to find the man that Zoi was talking about.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything either mate.¡± Said Keanu who was also looking around.


    Emma and Lily watched from a distance, not knowing what was happening.


    Lucas sighed as he turned to Keanu and Ninke. ¡°Ever since the campfire, I¡¯ve started to see a man. He¡¯s badly burned and smoke emits from his body. I don¡¯t understand what¡¯s happening or why he¡¯s here but only I can see him.¡±


    ¡°Can you maybe explain where he is?¡± Asked Keanu, trying to figure this out.


    Lucas surprisingly didn¡¯t answer instantly. ¡°No¡­ He moved.¡±


    ¡°Okay, then where did he walk to?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing, he doesn¡¯t walk for as far as I can see. He just disappears when I blink. I heard one of the girls talking about a Trifa? Could that be¡­?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t even done with talking as Ninke was already shaking her head. ¡°What you just described doesn¡¯t sound like someone from the Trifa Gruge. They can teleport but that¡¯s about it. Have you seen a third arm on his back?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. He never turns his back to me.¡± He looked around for a bit longer before giving up. He turned back around to walk back in the cave. ¡°No wait¡­ I can describe where he is. He¡¯s at the entrance of the second part of your cave.¡±


    Both Ninke and Keanu spun around, looking at that spot. Her ears turning to try and find any sound as her tail was slowly swaying. Not because she was happy, but very nervous. ¡°Nobody¡¯s there Zoi¡­¡± Said Ninke who grabbed Keanu¡¯s hand for comfort.


    Keanu grabbed her hand tightly before turning back to Lucas. ¡°Hey, you know Lehtern right?¡±


    Lucas nodded, not knowing where Keanu wanted to go with this conversation.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t he live in that cave of prophecies? With that one prophecy that talked about a man only visible to certain of men?¡±


    Before Keanu could continue, Lucas would shake his head. ¡°I don¡¯t even know where he lives. I¡¯ve only seen him a couple of times.¡±


    Keanu didn¡¯t have a response to that, also not knowing. Ninke on the other hand seemed to have an idea.¡± Gurgen would know.¡±


    That named caused Lucas to shake his head once. ¡°The Armenian Beast? He¡¯s weird. Something isn¡¯t right with him.¡±


    ¡°Just because he¡¯s stupid doesn¡¯t mean that you can call him weird.¡± She didn¡¯t like it if people were judged, something she had to deal with a lot.


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand. He¡¯s from my world as well. I knew him when we were both still there but I disappeared thanks to my god and when he appeared here, he claimed to have been here for many many years and didn¡¯t seem to recognize me. Something is up with him. Not only that, I still need to bring them back home.¡±


    Ninke looked at them and tilted her head. ¡°What is the deal with them. Since when do you deal with saving princesses?¡±


    Lucas wasn¡¯t completely sure what was going on with them. ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure. I know that they were on a diplomatic mission to do whatever when some creatures¡­ from what I understood creatures from the Forest Gruge decided to attack them. Ever since that I¡¯ve been their guide to safety.¡±


    Lilly and Emma understood that the conversation had shifted to them. They weren¡¯t sure about what exactly but they could already guess what it was.


    It stayed quiet for a bit. Nobody talked as it slowly got clear to everyone that it had been hours now.


    ¡°Anyway, I insist that you sleep here.¡± Said Ninke. ¡°Tomorrow I¡¯ll help you with your quest by giving you the direction to go to. As you have fun with them, I¡¯ll try to look into your invisible guy thing and perhaps why the girls are hunted.


    Lucas nodded as he gave her a hug. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Keanu straightening his back. It was obvious that he wasn¡¯t happy that he touched her. ¡°Thank you Ninke, I don¡¯t know what I would¡¯ve done without your help.¡±


    She just nodded as she looked at Keanu. ¡°How about you go and get them something to sleep?¡±


    He grunted as he just turned and started to walk away. Before he even got to take more than three steps, Ninke had grabbed his hand again and turned him around, putting her arms around his neck. ¡°Don¡¯t be so grumpy. It¡¯s just for one night.¡± She gave him a quick kiss before letting him go, giving him a playful slap on his ass.


    All of this was seen by all of them. Lucas just shook his head before walking to the other girls, pointing to a spot near the entrance. ¡°That¡¯s where we¡¯ll rest for the night. He¡¯ll be back soon with some things for us to sleep so¡­ For tonight, we¡¯ll be safe.


    Emma got up. She seemed to struggle with something as she slowly came closer to Ninke. Ninke watched her come closer, not sure was going to happen. When Emma got in front of her, she took a deep breath. ¡°Thank you.¡± She quickly turned around and walked to where they would sleep.


    Ninke looked up as she was a bit confused on why it would be so hard for her to say, but Lucas understood it. Although instead of being happy that Emma was starting to see the trouble of day to day life, he was a bit upset that Ninke got a thank you instead of him. He shook his head as he too walked to their sleeping spot, grumbling some bad words towards Emma. It didn¡¯t take long before Keanu came back with some pillows and blankets.


    As everyone was distracted, Lilly would look back at her wound. It was a swollen and pus had started to form. Deciding to ignore it, she got up, limping to Ninke. She tried to be quiet and discreet, asking for a couple of bras.

 Chapter 8 - Freedom fighters

    It was morning when Lucas woke up. He yawned as he at first wasn¡¯t sure where he was. The longer he looked around, the more he realized how far from home he was. He groaned, covering his face with his hands, feeling very tired still. But he wasn¡¯t the only one awake. Not that far from him, Lilly was awake as well. She seemed white as she looked at her leg.


    ¡°Does it still hurt so much?¡± Asked he with more compassion than he had shown previously.


    She looked up at him, ready to give him an answer that wouldn¡¯t be princess worthy, only to be shut up by her own thoughts. Lucas got up and walked to her, kneeling down. There he saw that he leg seemed to be infected.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. We can¡¯t have that¡­¡± Lucas got up, starting to worry.


    ¡°How bad is it?¡± Was her only reaction.


    ¡°Oh, not that bad, you¡¯ll survive.¡± And that was a lie as he wasn¡¯t even sure that she would. He didn¡¯t know much about mortal wounds. ¡°I should really get some sort of education.¡± That was more to himself than to Lilly.


    Lilly trying to be funny in times like this would chuckle. ¡°Hah¡­ If you want then I can ask Emma to teach you how to swim seeing how you liked her naked.¡±


    Even though they weren¡¯t talking that loud, Ninke appeared out of the second cave, coming over to them. She looked at them as she too seemed very tired, being clothed because she had guests. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Lucas walked to her as she walked to him. He motioned to her that she needed to stop walking, grabbing her arm and turning her away from Lilly. ¡°So yeah¡­ Gurgen seems to be our only option. Her leg had been cut open and now it¡¯s infected.¡±


    Ninke quickly looked with a worried face to Lilly. ¡°Infected? How bad is it?¡±


    Lucas now looked at Lilly as well. She knew something was up seeing as both had worried face. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not a doctor. But seeing how bad it is¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ a week?¡±


    As they talked, Keanu came out of their cave as well, looking at both of them.


    ¡°Go get the tents. They¡¯ll need it.¡± Said Ninke as she looked at Lucas. ¡°And bring them some food as well.¡±


    Keanu looked at them before turning around without saying a word.


    ¡°You said that you knew where Gurgen was. Care to tell me or are you going to join us on our quest?¡±


    She quickly shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, saving princesses isn¡¯t really my style.¡± Her tail was slowly moving as she thought about it. ¡°Gurgen lives somewhere close to the lesser used border road between the Human Gruge and the Forest Gruge. Go there if you want her to survive.¡± As she explained where it was, she would grab a map out of her pocket that she put on the table, pointing out the path.


    Keanu came back with in his arms a bunch of items. He put the food on the table and dropped the tents on the floor. Lucas wasn¡¯t going to decline the gift but he was confused about one thing. ¡°Why do you have tents and why do you have two?¡±


    This question made Ninke shut up, looking at Keanu who was about to tell him why. Under the gaze of his beloved, he would only smile, looking at her with joy in his eyes. It took Lucas staring at Ninke for her to break.


    ¡°Okay fiiine¡± I like to go camping with Keanu once in a while even though it¡¯s basically the same as living here. The extra tents because we have more than just two extra are for the wolves to sleep in. I don¡¯t want them to get wet when it rains.¡± She smiled and a bit embarrassed that she put up extra tents for her wolves.


    Lucas didn¡¯t really see anything wrong with that, shrugging as he knelt down to grab the tents, struggling with the weight even though Keanu seemed to have carried them with ease.


    Keanu smirked, seeing him struggle with it. It was almost as if his struggles were causing him to have fun. ¡°Have fun carrying that.¡± It was obvious that Keanu didn¡¯t like Lucas and that feeling was mutual.


    Making a quick decision, Lucas walked to Emma, giving her feet a kick, causing her to stir awake. ¡°Wake up, we¡¯re traveling and you¡¯re carrying a tent.¡± Having said that, he would drop one next to her.


    ¡°What?¡± Emma was still waking up, looking at the tent. ¡°Nuh uh. I¡¯m not going to carry that.¡±


    ¡°Well, then you can sleep in the rain.¡± Said Lucas with a big smile on his face. Then he looked at Lilly. ¡°Here, take the food, that¡¯s all you have to carry.¡±


    ¡°Hey! Not fair!¡± Yelled Emma who took the bag of food and dropped the tent.


    ¡°Yeah well, your leg aint torn open and your leg isn¡¯t infected. Now carry it because I¡¯m leaving!¡± He turned around, waved at Ninke and then left the cave, Lilly and Emma quickly grabbing whatever they had and going after him, Lilly hobbling as she came closer.


    As they left, both Lily and Keanu waved them goodbye, Ninke a bit worried about all of this. ¡°Do you think that we should¡¯ve gone with them,¡±


    Keanu shook his head. ¡°No¡­ it is better this way. I can¡¯t protect you when we leave this cave. Not when enemies are everywhere. I rather have you here next to me.¡±


    She nodded and put her head on his shoulder, watching them disappeared into the woods.


    As they walked, Emma came to Lucas. She seemed a bit nervous, throwing looks at her sister. ¡°Tell me, how bad is it?¡±


    Lucas just moved a branch out of his face as he looked at Emma. He didn¡¯t want to tell her the truth but it seemed like not lying would be the better thing. ¡°Not good¡­ If we don¡¯t make it to Gurgen¡­ Yeah well, I don¡¯t know enough about wounds to really make a judgement call; but it won¡¯t be good.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    She looked at her sister, white as a sheet as she nodded. Trying to distract herself, she decided to ask him about his crossbow. Her voice cracked as she tried not to cry, but tears still slowly appeared. ¡°I saw you busy with your crossbow once m-more¡­ D-Do you expect more t-trouble?¡±


    He stopped walking, first looking at her and then looking at her sister. Her sister was a bit behind, slowly making her way forwards. He put his hand onto her shoulder as he didn¡¯t know what was the best thing to say. ¡°I know. I wish that I could say that I understand your pain but I never loved anyone. You have to keep strong if you want to get her to The Armenian Beast.¡±


    As he talked, she hid her face from her sister, knowing that if she saw her upset that she would know that it was because of her leg. Lucas on the other hand would be occupied by something else.


    ¡°So much for your compassion¡­¡± Said Emma as she got a bit mad, shaking her head. She still felt like a princess although she knew that Lucas wasn¡¯t impressed by that fact. Nor did anyone they meet lately. This showed to her that many people if not all actually don¡¯t care that they are royalty.


    Lucas held up his hand, trying to get her to shut up. ¡°Shhh¡­ be quiet.¡±


    He looked back at Lilly, wanting to say to her that she had to stop walking, but that was too late. One he looked at her, he could see that there was a man holding an arm around her throat, pulling her against his chest as he had a dagger pressed up against her side. He had a cloak, hiding his face.


    Emma turned around as well, seeing her sister having been capture. Not wanting to lose, her, she would draw her bow and put an arrow on it, immediately aiming at the man and her sister.


    The man didn¡¯t seem to be moved by the fact that there was a bow aimed at his head, slowly turning around his hand to show a mark being burned into it. It seemed to be three vines in a circle running down as at the bottom seemed to be a fire. A very specific symbol, one that Emma didn¡¯t recognize but Lucas did.


    The man started to poke the knife into Lilly. It wasn¡¯t hard but hard enough to make her feel it, almost puncturing the skin. She let out a whimper as she would try to move away from the knife. Lucas saw everything going downhill.


    ¡°Wait hold on!¡± He got in between the both of them, trying to keep them from doing something that they might regret. ¡°We don¡¯t seek peace but freedom!¡± He sound panicked and unsure as he looked at the man, hoping for something.


    ¡°And with freedom comes peace.¡± The voice of the man sounded deep as he let go of Lilly, taking a step back.


    As he had taken a step back, multiple creatures started to emerge from behind trees and bushes much to Lucas his irritation. There were creatures from a multitude of different gruges.


    Lilly stumbled to Emma, looking at the hooded figures. It wasn¡¯t easy top see but they could distinguish multiple different creatures. There was skeletons, humans, elves and so on. The only creatures missing were the wizards, zombies and mermaids. That didn¡¯t surprise her though as wizards keep to themselves, zombies were too dumb and mermaids didn¡¯t go on land ever.


    ¡°If it were up to me, we¡¯d be burning down these bushes.¡± Said Lucas softly but didn¡¯t go unheard. He put a hand on the bow that Emma was pointing at the people.


    That move irritated her as she almost gave him an elbow to the face. ¡°What¡¯s the point in having a bow if you never allow me to use it?¡± She sounded mad, still being upset from the lack of empathy.


    ¡°How about you lower your bow. If you haven¡¯t noticed it yet, we¡¯re pretty outmatched right now.¡±


    Most of the creatures surrounding them were carrying bows. Some had spears and swords. One had a battleaxe and another had throwing knives. The most important feature was that they were all wearing capes. As Lily started to look around to the man who almost cut her, she saw that her had disappeared between the others as he looked rather similar to the others with that cape of his.


    A centaur came forwards, holding a greatsword in one hand. It was unusual to see a centaur wielding such a sword like this but that was besides the point as he started to talk. ¡°You know our code yet you have such a violent outlook on nature.¡±


    Before he could respond, Emma came forwards, angry as ever. ¡°Lucas? What is going on!? Who are these people and why did they threaten us!? You almost killed my sister, assholes!¡± That last part was aimed at the centaur, although he didn¡¯t seem very impressed.


    He shook his head slowly as he put down his backpack. ¡°Try dealing with them for a full day and you¡¯ll see that staying civil is rather difficult.¡±


    Emma was about to let out an outburst but was stopped by Lilly, grabbing her hand. When her sister looked at who grabbed her hand and saw it was Lilly, she saw her shake her head slowly.


    Lucas saw this and took a deep breath, needing a clear mind for whatever was going to happen. He reached in his back, starting to look for something. This movement caused multiple bows to be raised and pointed at him, probably expecting some kind of weapon. Instead he stood back up, holding a ring in his hand.


    The centaur saw the ring and immediately held his hand up, causing everyone to lower their weapons for now. ¡°So¡­ you saved one of us.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ It was a long time ago. He was being hung by the neck for trying to free some of you people the day I arrived¡­ here¡­ Before he was dead, I cut the rope around the tree causing him to fall and be saved until you guys could show up to help him. But that was years ago. He said his name was Lentefin or something?¡± He put the ring back in his bag.


    ¡°Lentefin is dead¡­¡±


    That news made Lucas freeze for a second. He looked up at the centaurs, not being fully sure what to say about that. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ sorry?¡±


    The centaur only nodded, not giving another answer as he looked at Lucas and then to Lilly and Emma. As he looked at them, he squinted his eyes as if he recognized them from somewhere.


    Lucas saw this and knew that they are probably very recognizable. He didn¡¯t think it was that common to get identical twins as a royal. ¡°Well¡­ I have a question for you. What if we didn¡¯t know who you were? You just grabbed one of us so if we didn¡¯t know your secret group, then what?¡±


    After that was said, it was rather obvious that their way of dealing with things weren¡¯t really thought through. ¡°Well, we heard that there was two girls and one guy, stealing from hard working people and leaving them for dead. You know what we stand for.¡±


    After that was said, the screaming of the centaurs that night sounded back in their ears. They didn¡¯t do it but corpses could¡¯ve been a reason to be hunted by not only their attackers but also the freedom movement. ¡°So you came to check on us to see if we were those killers you heard about. I think you¡¯ve been misinformed.¡±


    Even though Lucas was being reasonable, the centaur didn¡¯t seem to like admitting fault, still searching for any flaw in his story. ¡°You could¡¯ve killed someone and stolen that ring. So I ask you this. What are you doing in this part of the forest where we stay hidden?¡±


    Lucas straightened his back as he looked at the centaur without any hesitation. ¡°My name is Lucas and I¡¯m trying to fulfill my task so I can go back home and live in peace.¡±


    The centaur now looked at Emma and Lilly. Emma was the one who decided to answer the question. She had enough of all of this and seeing as her sister almost got gutted, she demanded respect. ¡°We are Emma and Lilly, princesses of the Human Gruge! And you dare to attack us!¡±


    Lilly immediately facepalmed, closing her eyes before pinching the top of her nose, letting out a soft groan. Lilly had started to think about everything that had happened and decided that perhaps keeping their identity hidden was better. The damage had been done though.


    ¡°Death to the princesses!¡±


    A small humanoid threw off his cape, revealing a dwarf, holding two battle hammers. Nobody else joined him as he started to charge. Lilly and Emma were frozen in either shock or fear. Lucas didn¡¯t really care which one it was, lifting his right arm ad revealing the crossbow before anyone else could react, shooting off the bolt.

 Chapter 9 - A horrible fate

    The bolt wasn¡¯t that big but it was still enough to slow down the dwarf, having been hit in his arm and dropping the hammer.


    Everything started to move at once, people lifting their bows and aiming it at either Lucas and the girls or the dwarf. One person twirling a dagger in between his fingers as he moved a bit to the side to get a better angle in case that it was needed.


    As the dwarf looked at the princesses, he would get mad again, lifting the hammer in the air. Before he could take another step, the centaur hit him with the side of the sword, knocking him down. Two other hooded figures coming closer to restrain him.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t help it, smirking and looking at the princesses. ¡°So much for having a bow.¡± He was giving them a hard time seeing as both had a bow.


    His gloating was cut short as the centaur started to talk again. ¡°Imir the dwarf! You shall be executed and tortured in the name of treason against the freedom movement!¡±


    Hearing that he was going to get tortured was surprising to Emma and Lilly, getting white as they saw the centaur lift up his sword with both hands. The hooded figured holding the hand with the mark pulled on the and pushed back the dwarfs sleeve. Everyone knew what was going to happen.


    Seeing the sword, the dwarf started to beg. ¡°Please no! I beg you, don¡¯t do this. I didn¡¯t want to do this, I had no choice!¡±


    As the dwarf was begging, the centaur slowly lifted the sword higher and higher until it was above his head. With a fast and merciless swing, it came down onto the wrist of the dwarf. The sound of something being cut, the screaming of the dwarf as his hand was cut off. The smell of blood being spread through the air. Everything needed to make someone sick.


    ¡°What did you do that for!?¡± Emma took a step back as she put a hand over her mouth. She was shocked, even though he was about to kill them.


    ¡°He betrayed us ma¡¯am. So we cut off the mark of the freedom fighters to show that he was a traitor. Now we shall take him away to be punished accordingly.¡± Explained the centaur as he walked back to his original place.


    Now that everything was done, Lucas would sigh as he looked at his crossbow. It once again seemed to have failed as a piece was hanging of loosely. As he took it off, he looked at the centaur. ¡°I have a request and something to trade for it. You endangered us and kept us from continuing on our journey. I request that you won¡¯t hold us u any longer. And as you just noticed, we¡¯re having some trouble with¡­¡± He stopped talking as he didn¡¯t actually know who was after them. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know who is after us but I request that you try to find out who it is and perhaps put a stop to it.¡±


    The centaur nodded as he slowly put his sword in a sheath on his back. ¡°I understand. What is your trade though. This¡­ event isn¡¯t enough to cover what you¡¯re asking for.¡±


    Lucas took off his crossbow and gave it to the centaur. ¡°An almost fully functional hidden crossbow. You have cloaks so they¡¯ll go well with your outfit. I just can¡¯t seem to find the right strength of wood.¡±


    As he gave the weapon to the centaur, another dwarf walked forwards, taking it instead and inspecting it. Weirdly enough, nobody had been able to make such a small yet powerful version. Mostly because the dwarves tried to build other more intricate weapons and tools and weren¡¯t really interested in these hidden practices, rather using their hammers and pickaxes to fight their fights than ranged weapons and humans were too busy doing what they do best, destroying nature. Altogether, not a single gruge had ever made this item.


    ¡°Looks like a good deal Misk.¡± Said the dwarf to the centaur. ¡°With this prototype, we could make multiple well functional weapons.¡±


    As the dwarf hobbled off, both Lilly and Emma let out a sigh of relieve. They were obviously still shaken by the events. The centaur who apparently was named Misk would nod.


    ¡°A deal is made then. We will try to get information and let you be. If we get information then we will find you and reveal this information to you. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll find you.¡± Before anyone could say anything else, he turned around and quickly ran off, all of his subjects quickly disappearing into the woods, using the bushes to quickly disappear.


    Lucas shook her head as he found it scary, grabbing his bag as he started to continue on his path. ¡°Why are there bushes everywhere in this land?¡±


    ¡°Because we¡¯re in the Forest Gruge.¡± Said Lilly, using Emmas help to walk. ¡°A king a while ago didn¡¯t like that there were so many bushes, hiding enemies and bandits and all. So he had them all removed for the entire Human country. The Forest Gruge decided to keep them.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    As Emma helped her, she would have some questions to Lucas. ¡°Now how about you tell us about the freedom fighters, who you really are and who this Armenian Beast is. ¡°


    A loud sigh could be heard as Lucas knew that if he didn¡¯t answer, they would keep bothering him. ¡°The freedom fighters is a group or a cult, whatever you want to call it, who believe in the freedom of thought. That means that they free creatures from their group or gruge as you call them. Then they take them under their wing, being free of the political lies that your leader spill. And before you ask what they will do with the dwarf who betrayed them, let me tell you what they¡¯ll do. They¡¯ll string him to a tree with no food or water. They do that for two full days. After that they¡¯ll start to cut him up, making sure that he¡¯ll suffer. I know that it¡¯s horrible but it¡¯s to make sure that no other member decided to screw over the freedom fighters. Scare tactics¡­ and a very effective one.¡± He shivered as he just thought about it. He might seem cold but he was still human. Partially human¡­


    ¡°And your question about who I am¡­ My name is Zoi Thanatos. Name chosen by my God who isn¡¯t Pan. Where I¡¯m from, Pan is just a god from an older civilization. God of the nature. He wasn¡¯t the only though. I¡¯m not sure if he was real. I lied about my name because I¡¯m free from my God and honestly? It¡¯s more peaceful like this. He send me to this world since he was mad but that also meant that he kinda lost track of me. I¡¯m trying to disappear by using another name.¡±


    ¡°Lastly The Armenian Beast. I¡¯m not even sure where to started with him. He¡¯s weird and¡­ I don¡¯t know. At first I was confused hearing the word gruge since his name is Gurgen. He came from my world as well but when I got send here, I was rather surprised to see that he was here as well although he doesn¡¯t remember me for some reason. I was told that he survived a terrible explosion causing a big area to be unlivable. Last time I saw him, he had managed to befriend a chicken who laid special eggs that he could use to fashion into some kind of healing brew.¡±


    All of this information was quite a lot and gave them enough to think about, walking further in silence. Lucas not having his crossbow anymore would grab his dagger. ¡°I forgot to tell that centaur guy that the bolt was poisoned¡­ guess he¡¯ll find out sooner than later.¡±


    As they kept walking, Emma and Lily ended up a bit behind, starting to talk quietly.


    ¡°He knows a lot of what is going on around here.¡± Said Emma as she looked at the back of his head.


    ¡°Perhaps when we reach our own gruge, we could offer him a job as a spy? You know¡­ Gather secrets of other gruges.¡± Answered Lilly, grabbing her leg as she dug her nails into it to shift her attention from the infection to the nails.


    ¡°And perhaps Ninke can work for us too. She¡¯s agile and has the wolves working for her. Who knows what else that we don¡¯t know about.¡±


    Lilly grabbed Emma¡¯s hand, wanting to change the subject. ¡°What do you think? Does the Dwarven Gruge want us dead as well? So we have the Forest Gruge and the dwarves after us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, you¡¯re the smart one. Perhaps they put a prices on our head. Or perhaps he had a very compelling reason to try and kill us even though he knew how horrible his faith would be.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± said Lily as she pushed a branch away, letting it fly back into his original spot.


    Emma wouldn¡¯t reply to that anymore. She was focused on something else, namely her stomach. ¡°He better stop soon, I¡¯m starving.¡± As she said that, she felt her eyes get wet. She had started to think about her sister once more. With what she knew about infections is that in best case scenario she would be healed fully, worst case, it would spread and eventually infect her heart.


    After hours more walking, Lucas decided to set up camp. He had checked the stand of the sun and just sat down in what was barely considered a clearing. ¡°Here is where we¡¯ll set up camp.¡± He grabbed the bag of food and took out of it some bread and jerky, the exact same food he had when Lilly and Emma had first found him. It was now obvious from where he had gotten the inspiration. He started to tear pieces off, giving it to both of the girls and himself. Emma ate them slowly and with a disgusted face.


    ¡°Disgusting pork¡­ again¡­¡±


    As Emma complained, Lilly was busy wanting to know more, unaware of her demised. ¡°So this Gurgen, what explosion did he survive?¡±


    Lucas swallowed his meat, taking a deep breath as he didn¡¯t seem as annoyed that she asked a question. ¡°Gurgen¡­ I believe that non of you ever heard of a place called Chernobyl?¡±


    Emma looked up, slowly shaking her head as Lilly did the same. They seemed to try and recall that name but to no avail.


    ¡°Okay, that was to be expected. Chernobyl is a spot that comes from another earth than mine. I mean, my world also had one but it never exploded. It¡¯s a bit weird...¡±


    He thought about what to say, starting to regret trying to explain it all as it wasn¡¯t so easy.


    ¡°So where I came from I was a normal person. Then I had a dream of a special kid in a war between angels and demons. That world that I dreamed about did have a Chernobyl. Even though it had one, I never met a Gurgen in that world.¡±


    He put his food away as he turned around, looking at the tent that Ninke got them, starting to untie it. He saw that both of them were very confused.


    ¡°When I woke up I had powers and was the kid I dreamed about. My brother and sister changed as well, brother into a demon and sister into an angel. Then we got split up and into the original world where I did meet a Gurgen. Then we got into a fight with the demon which is my brother and I got send away by my god who didn¡¯t actually went with us to the real world¡­ but still had enough power to look over us and deciding to punish me.¡±


    He stopped talking seeing as both girls didn¡¯t understand a bit of it.


    ¡°Nevermind¡­ Gurgen came from yet another world with a Chernobyl¡±


    Lucas turned back around as he looked back at the girls.


    ¡°I guess I still haven¡¯t answered your question then.¡±


    The girls looked at each other as they agreed with that statement. As Lilly was still hurt, it was Emma who got up and started to set up the second tent. After traveling with Lucas, they knew that demanding his help wasn¡¯t going to work. But to their surprise, Lucas came over ad started to help with the tent.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think this will become something regular.¡± He said as he looked at Lillys leg.

 Chapter 10 - No sleep for the wicked

    The moon stood high and was giving off a lot of light. A near full moon to lead everyone on their way, both friend or foe. The sound of cold wind could be heard as the only other sound was the sound of leaves being pushed out of the way. It was soft enough to not be noticed by the sleeping people. Even though the moving of the leaves could be just the wind, Lilly still woke up.


    ¡°Ah fuck¡­!¡± She opened her eyes as she grabbed her leg once more. She was feeling sick and her leg stung like hell. She slowly moved her blanket away, using the light that pierced through the tent to look at her leg. She saw her leg getting worse and worse, the infection having spread as puss leaked out. But her pondering about her leg was getting cut short as she now heard it, someone was walking around the outside of the tent. ¡°Emma? Emma wake up, there¡¯s something out there.¡±


    Emma didn¡¯t wake up, being deep asleep. Lilly saw no other way but to slap her sister.


    ¡°Lilly what the¡­!¡± Her words were cut short as Lily covered her mouth.


    ¡°Shhhh¡­ There¡¯s something walking around her tent.¡± As she said that, a creature on all fours would slowly walk around the side of the tent sniffing.


    Emma grabbed her bow and arrows, getting ready to fight if needed. After she got her bow, she slowly got up, crawling to the entrance and opened it a tiny bit. Not wanting to go outside and hoping for the tent to keep her safe, she would wait. The creature kept walking forwards along the sides. As it rounded the corner and got into her field of view, Emma sighed out of relieve. ¡°It¡¯s Darter. That wolf from Ninke.¡±


    ¡°What? What is he doing here?¡±


    Emma shrugged as she opened the tent. Even though she trusted the wolf, she was still careful. The wolf froze when he noticed movement, sniffing the air. As their scent hit the wolves nose, he would wag his tail, sneaking forwards.


    ¡°He has a paper around his neck.¡± Said Lilly as she saw a rope holding a paper. She started to untie it while Emma started to pet the wolf, enjoying dogs a lot. The wolf made her think of their own dog at home.


    ¡°So cute isn¡¯t she?¡± Said Emma. The wolf tilted his head, hoping to get more pats.


    Lilly finally managed to get the rope loose, grabbing the message off him. ¡°It¡¯s a he.


    As soon as the wolf felt the rope get taken off, he turned around and ran off. Emma seemed a bit sad by this, wanting to pet him a bit longer. Lilly on the other hand was busy with more important stuff, trying to read what it said. It didn¡¯t take long for her to give up, giving the paper to her sister.


    It took her a total of three seconds to stand up and leaving he tent. That was something that Lilly didn¡¯t like.


    ¡°Hey! Where are you going, you¡¯re naked!¡± Lilly didn¡¯t yell but she still spoke loudly while whispering.


    Emma gestured to Lucas his tent, not being bothered that she was naked.


    ¡°Yeah well, he already has seen us naked so what gives?¡± She turned back around as she continued to walk to Lucas. She didn¡¯t even wait, opening his tent, kicking his leg. ¡°Wake up sunshine. You have a message!¡±


    Unlike them, Lucas slept with his underwear on. He was confused when he woke up, looking down and seeing her standing there with the moonlight mostly able to enter through the opening of the tent, showing her features more clearly.


    ¡°What? What¡¯s for dinner?¡±


    Emma threw the paper in his face. ¡°Look, we got a paper with symbol on. It¡¯s from your girlfriend and we need you to translate it.¡±


    Lucas grabbed the paper, opening it up as he started to read through it. His focus quickly disappeared though, looking back up at Emma. ¡°What is it with you and being naked in my tent anyway? What happened with being royals and having high standards. Are you even allowed to look at your subjects while being naked?¡±


    ¡°Read it now before I cut off your manhood worm!¡±


    ¡°Okay okay! Hold your horses¡­ or in your case centaurs.¡± He laughed at his own joke, shaking his head slowly as his laugh quickly disappeared as Emma didn¡¯t think it was so funny.


    ¡°Okay I¡¯ll read it.¡± He opened the paper again as he started to read the symbols. It didn¡¯t take long for him to change from happy and cheerful to worried and scared. ¡°Get dressed, we have to go now!¡± Lucas himself jumped up as he grabbed his clothes and got dressed. ¡°Now!¡±


    ¡°Why!? What¡¯s wrong!?¡± She didn¡¯t sound mad anymore, leaving his tent as she waited for him to get out as well.


    Lilly showed up behind her, hearing that something was wrong. Unlike her sister, she was dressed, not wanting to be naked in front of Lucas if she didn¡¯t need to be.


    Lucas got up, grabbing everything that seemed important. ¡°Emma! Clothes! Now!¡± He saw her turn around and run to their tents. This gave him a chance to talk to Lilly. ¡°They followed us to Ninke. She didn¡¯t betray us but they kept following our trail. They¡¯re right on our asses!¡±


    As they talked, a light could be seen coming out from above the bushes from where they came. It still was a fair distance away but Lucas and Lily both shut up, looking at the light.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Lilly sounded scared as she felt the pain in her leg disappear a bit. ¡°They¡¯re here¡­¡± Lilly turned away from the light, starting to hobble in the way that they had been going. ¡°I¡¯m going ahead, my leg¡­!¡±


    As Lilly went ahead, he would groan, looking back at the tent as he grabbed his clothes, getting dressed. While doing that, he would look at the newly obtained tent, knowing he had to leave it behind. He grabbed his bag and the bag with food, turning around to see Emma leaving their tent. He threw her the bag with food, pointing to where Lilly had gone. ¡°She went ahead, run!¡±


    ¡°Do we really need to carry this bag Lucas!?¡± She ran past him, holding the heavy bag with food.


    ¡°If you want to eat then yes! Now shut it and run!¡± He slowly caught up to Emma, holding his own bag. Emma had to carry her bow and arrows and also Lillys weapons seeing as she didn¡¯t go back to the tent to collect them.


    As they ran, it didn¡¯t look like they were spotted yet. The light continued to move at the normal pace at it was still far enough away to not have heard them and they also hadn¡¯t found the camp yet, giving the enemy no reason to go faster.


    As Emma and Lucas ran, the would suddenly get into a rather big open area. There was a stone road going from the left to the right that was elevated of the ground using dirt in order to have the water run off. That¡¯s where they saw Lilly standing, panting at the bottom as she wasn¡¯t sure where to go. It wasn¡¯t more than a meter high but still enough for her to wait.


    Emma and Lilly were about to run up the Hill when Lucas grabbed both their shoulders.


    ¡°Stop, we go back and hide in the tree. They¡¯ll think we got onto the road as it leads back to the Human Gruge.¡±


    Neither of the girls seemed to understand the plan really. They followed him but hesitated.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that good? We¡¯re close to home.¡± Asked Emma, not wanting to waste time hiding in a tree.


    Lilly wouldn¡¯t be so lost as her sister, understanding why Lucas wanted to do this.


    ¡°Lucas is right. We heard them say that they blocked of all the roads. And even if we get past them, just because we¡¯re in the Human Gruge doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re safe. They¡¯ll keep hunting us until we reach the castle.¡±


    Glad that someone else saw the logic, he would choose a tree. ¡°They¡¯ll think we¡¯re stupid and follow the road to try and catch up. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if at this point we have a bounty meaning the ones to capture us gets a reward.¡±


    Sadly for them, in the distance they could hear multiple hooves on the ground. They were closing in fast and it was clear that they were following their tracks. Lucas looked at the bush line, separating the rest of the bush filled forest with the road and around 20 meters of only trees connecting said road with the bushes.


    ¡°Fuuuuck¡­ Get in now!¡± Even though he was keeping his voice quiet, the panic was audible.


    Emma started to climb as she didn¡¯t have an infected leg, completely forgot about her sister. Lilly saw this and felt slightly betrayed, but she couldn¡¯t stop her as she knew that it was life or death. The voices could be heard, centaurs galloping quickly. Their voices getting louder and louder.


    ¡°Oh come on, get in the damn tree. I¡¯m not going to die for you.¡± Lucas was serious about it. He lifted her up and saw her flailing and missing the branch right above her head as her useless leg wasn¡¯t able to help her. ¡°I swear I¡¯ll drop you!¡±


    She finally managed to grab the branch, lifting herself up as Emma finally helped her sister. Lucas didn¡¯t even care that she wasn¡¯t fully in yet. He threw his bag as far as he could which wasn¡¯t far, knowing that he probably didn¡¯t have time to get himself in the tree with the weight of the bag dragging him down. With some cursing he lifted himself up into the tree, climbing as high as the branches would allow it, Emma and Lilly following him.


    Just as they entered the pack of leaves, a group ran out of the bushes following their tracks to the road. They knew which road this was and also what it meant if they reached the border. Without checking for any other tracks, they ran down the road. The border was still a fair distance away as the road made multiple turns.


    As they ran off, Lucas would sigh, closing his eyes and leaning against the tree. Even though he was relieved, Emma didn¡¯t understand how this worked. ¡°Why? Why aren¡¯t they checking around?¡±


    Lucas looked at her, shaking his head. ¡°This is because they don¡¯t know how recent we left our camp. For as far as they know, we¡¯ve gone hours ago. They know that the border is closed off by their own groups but they don¡¯t know that we know. So this is¡­¡± He shut up, hearing another group talking.


    Out of the bushes came a wide assortment of creatures. One human, a couple of elves, satyrs and a big brown creature that looked like a humanoid bull.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Asked Lucas to himself. He had never seen anything like it before.


    ¡°What¡¯s what?¡± Asked Emma to him. She looked down, not knowing what the problem was.


    Lilly who knew what Lucas was talking about would come a bit closer to talk to him. ¡°That¡¯s a minotaur. It¡¯s one of the commanders of the Forest Gruge.¡± Lilly sounded a bit surprised though. ¡°That means that we can¡¯t trust the Forest Gruge¡­¡±


    Emma was a bit scared. They always had the suspicion that it was the whole gruge. Seeing him being part of the hunters meant that they were right. ¡°We¡¯ll never make it alive.¡±


    As they sat in the tree, they watched how the group followed the path of the centaurs but slower, jogging in order to keep up but they were never going to catch up. As the group got onto the road, they would hesitate for a bit, not able to see any tracks. One elf pointed into he right direction. ¡°That¡¯s the border.¡± Not much else had to be said, starting to run down the path.


    As they started to run down the road, a singular satyr stayed behind. He had a two handed battleaxe and walked back to the side of the road, looking at the tracks. The moonlight wasn¡¯t enough to clearly show him what happened here but he thought that something was off.


    He ran back down the hill to where Lucas, Lilly and Emma had been, seeing a trail going to a tree with a bit further away being a bag. He started to walk to the tree, playing with his axe as he tried to be silent.


    Not that him trying to be silent mattered. They had been watching the hunters the entire time. As he started to get closer, Emma would grab her bow and arrow, giving Lilly hers. Both of them got ready, keeping the arrow resting for now.


    As the satyr came closer, he started to look up in the tree. His eyes slowly scanning through the branches and the leaves. After a while he started to notice three dark spots, blocking more light from the moon.


    Just as he was about to call for back-up, something hit him in the chest. It felt like something had rammed him full speed, causing him to stumble back, gasping for air. He felt something warm run down his chest as he started to couch, some thick liquid coming out of his mouth.


    A sudden searing pain erupted from his chest, causing him to grab at whatever it was. He looked down, seeing that he grabbed an arrow which was deep in his chest. Arm strength was the first to go, dropping the axe as he took another step back. The warm feeling of blood slowly turned cold as his legs gave out as well. He fell to the ground, looking up at the sky, couching once more as he tried to call for help. His mouth open and closed like a fish on dry land. The cold spreading through his body as the light disappeared from his eyes.

 Chapter 11 - Calm before the storm

    Lucas let out a loud sigh as he would lean back against the tree. Seeing what just had happened, he felt sick and didn¡¯t think that he would  be able to sleep the entire night. In order to have something to do, he would grab a piece of jerky and started to bite on it. He gave Emma and Lilly a piece as well.


    Emma would not accept the jerky as she held up her hand, causing both Lilly and Lucas to stop moving. Hooves could be heard as someone appeared from where the hunters just had ran to. At first a centaur came to mind but it was the minotaur, running down the path to the other side.


    Luckily for them, he didn¡¯t see the dead elf in the middle of the night, continuing on his path. Not knowing what he was doing or where he was going, they decided to stay quiet from now on in case they were accidentally heard.


    That morning, Lucas would yawn. He and the others had been falling asleep slowly, trying their best to stay awake and every once in a while giving each other a little push to wake them up again, their eyes closing and shooting open when they were about to fall.


    Now that it was morning, they could start to move once again. But when looking at the ground, Lucas noticed something weird. The body was gone. ¡°What? Where is that elf?¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± Asked Emma as she rubbed her eyes. She too was tired to really take note of what Lucas was talking about.


    Lilly would notice it as she looked at Lucas and then the ground. ¡°Ah¡­ Yes the elf. There¡¯s this Gruge for zombies. Basically, when you die you¡­¡±


    Lucas would hold up his hand as he nodded and yawned. ¡°Yeah yeah¡­ I know what zombies are. I¡¯ve met someone stuck into a tree. Nice bloke when he isn¡¯t growling constantly¡­ which is always so¡­ Not really so nice¡­ The only thing that I¡¯m not so sure about is why he just walked away? Doesn¡¯t he hate us? Like doesn¡¯t he want to kill us? Or are they also mindless in this reality?¡±


    Emma got on the ground first, helping Lilly with her leg to get down as well. As Lilly was getting help, she would give him more information.


    ¡°Zombies are pretty mindless yeah. They have a leader who¡¯s special ability is having a sound mind which isn¡¯t so impressive. This also means that the zombies are the only faction not being ruled by royalty but by the choice of Pan as he choses who gets the mind when the zombie dies that has it. Secondly, you never said that you knew zombies.¡±


    ¡°Yeah well¡­ you never told me zombie were a thing here.¡± He had wanted to said more but Emma pushed a bow in his face.


    ¡°Here.¡± Said Emma, holding out Lucases bow, having a second one in her other hand. ¡°You can have yours back, the elf had a much better one.¡±


    Lucas took the bow, feeling a bit hurt by what she said but knowing that she was correct. ¡°Yeah well¡­¡± He walked to his bag that he had thrown away as he wanted to know more about the minotaur.


    ¡°Okay, last night one of you let it shine out that you know more than me about what¡¯s happening here, so tell me, why is it bad that you saw him right now.¡±


    As Emma was too busy looking around for some arrows the zombie might have dropped, Lilly decided to continue to educate him. ¡°As I probably said before, each Gruge has three creatures with special powers. Each Gruge puts them in leading positions in their army to utilize the ability. What you saw was a minotaur, the only one of their species as one of the special powers is getting turned permanently into a minotaur.¡±


    Hearing this, Lucas didn¡¯t seem to be so impressed. ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound like a nice power if you ask me.¡±


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Well¡­ nice or not, it¡¯s his special power. It makes him stronger, able to run longer, something like a bear. It¡¯s able to take quite some hits.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, what you¡¯re saying is that because you saw the minotaur, you think that the Forest Gurge is after you. Can¡¯t he be corrupted?¡±


    That question was indeed a good question as neither Emma or Lilly answered it. That was enough for Lucas to see at least a bit of hope.


    ¡°Okay so¡­ What are the powers of the Forest Gruge and the Zombie Gruge?¡±


    Lilly looked around, seeing everyone being ready to go, she would lean against a tree to rest her foot for a bit, not sure if it was smart to talk about it right now but doing it anyway as she wasn¡¯t going to complain about getting more rest. She yawned before talking again.


    ¡°Euh¡­ Forest Gruge¡­ So I told you about the minotaur. The other generals of the gruge are the bow master who never runs out of arrows as long as he has a quiver and is automatically the best shooter in all the lands¡­¡±


    Lucas already put a hand up to silence her, not able to keep his question on the backburner. ¡°So what if everyone suddenly sucks at using a bow? Does he then get worse as well seeing as the best shooter suck as well?¡±


    This stunned both the girls, looking at each other before looking back at him. Lilly being dumbfounded shook her head.


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. Anyway¡­ euh¡­ You also have some kind of magic caster, able to make runestones for others to use. These runestones are filled with magic which is tied to the run on the stone. Only the general can make these runestones.¡±


    ¡°Then you also have the Zombie Gurge. Like I said before, they aren¡¯t run by royalty but are run by a singular entity. He is then made the zombie king as he¡¯s also the only creature that gets powers in the Zombie Gurge. Therefor he¡¯s also the only leader to have these special powers since actual royalty can¡¯t get these powers for as far as is known. Never in our history has any royalty ever gotten powers.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, the powers of the zombie king are that he can control all the zombies mentally. He can summon a hammer that scales with his size as he can also grow to the size of a giant. I¡¯ve never seen him before but imagine a giant rotting corpse with perhaps some organs hanging out but now as a giant.¡±


    Lucas just nodded as he took in all the information, thinking what he could do with this. ¡°But there are more gruges so more powers. Next time we rest you can tell me all about it. For now the minotaur of death is after us and we should get moving.¡±


    He walked to the road, slowly climbing up the small hill leading up to the road. When reaching the top, the girls were almost there. He would tilt his head, looking at the path going to the left to the Human Gruge before suddenly going back down to the sisters, pushing them down. ¡°Get down, stay silent.¡±


    Neither of them knew what was going on and got down like he told him, following his lead and slowly crawling to the top where they looked to the left. A group of horses could be seen coming down the road on the left. This time it actually were horses with humans, seeing creatures that weren¡¯t from the Forest Gruge. The horses in the front were holding banners high in the air, showing their allegiance and clan.


    Since Lucas never had any history lessons about these clans, he had to look at the sisters, Lilly on his left and Emma on the right. ¡°Who are that?¡±


    Emma¡¯s eyes got big, seeing the banners. ¡°The white banner with the blue bear is the clan from the north, close allies of our clan. And the yellow banner with the red lion is our clan.¡± Right as she was about to jump up to run to them, Lucas held her down.


    ¡°What are you doing? If they managed to corrupt the Minotaur, who says that they aren¡¯t traitors either? Perhaps they¡¯re trying to get you to expose yourself?¡±


    As the people appearing were a fair distance away, they didn¡¯t see Emma standing up to run to them. Right behind the first two horses now appeared a man, not wearing any armor, only wearing clothes. He seemed to be quite big for a man, having a big sword on his back. He was riding on a big black horse, able to support the weight of the man.


    Behind him, more and more horses started to show, having a group of around twenty well armored knights. The one¡¯s on the left behind the lion banner mostly opting for longswords with the knights from the north wielding big battle axes. In the middle of them all seemed to be someone important, having a crown.


    Lilly this time was the one to jump up, wanting to run to the man. ¡°That¡¯s dad!¡± She almost yelled this, causing Emma to also jump up. Lucas wasn¡¯t having any of it, grabbing both their hands and pulling them back down, having to grunt as he did it. ¡°Something is wrong. Stay.¡±


    Both of the girls looked angry at him, trying to pull their arms away from him. Their movements didn¡¯t go unnoticed, one of the banner wielders pointing right at them. Before they could speed up to check who they were or what was going on, a horn could be heard coming from right beside the knights.


    Lilly and Emma finally decided to not move, heading Lucas his words and waiting, seeing a multitude of creatures emerge far away from the out of the bushes to run at the knights. From here it was difficult to see who was attacking.

 Chapter 12 - A downfall ensured

    As they rode further into the possibly hostile gruge, the knights seemed to be nervous. Since nothing had been pointing at an attack or that this was hostile territory, they weren¡¯t wielding their swords and axes as their shields were on their back, able to be grabbed with a single movement when needed. They looked around for any possible danger, still vigilant every since they got into this territory. One of the banner wielders seeing movement in the distance. From here it was difficult to see but he pointed to the right of the road where Lucas, Lilly and Emma were. ¡°There¡­ some people are trying to hide next to the road.¡±


    Before any sign of danger outside of Lucas and co could be spotted, a horn sounded through the woods. Not taking any chances, the king would take off his crown, quickly putting on a helmet, yelling at his troops. ¡°Vizors and shields!¡± Just as he managed to make it so his helmet was secure on his head, the arrows came. He too grabbed his shield, feeling most arrows bounce of his armor and shield. The men around him getting thrown off their horses when some got hit as other men yelled in pain. To his right was a man lying on the ground with an arrow that managed to find a gap in his armor and find his way into his shoulder.


    Right after the first volley of arrows had been shot, the foot soldiers came. A small horde of skeletons deciding to try their luck at taking down the king. Seeing the amount of skeletons, he knew that they would never win. ¡°Everyone with a horse, take someone without a horse and flee!¡±


    The skeletons charging at the group wore little to not armor. Most wore an open face helmet as some wore nothing. This choice of armor was because their bodies weren¡¯t strong enough to be able to take many hits and any amount of force to their legs or arms already would prove enough. They had to rely on pure skill and to not be hit in the first place.


    Sadly for him, as he yelled that, before the skeletons had made it up the hill to the road, a second volley was fired, this time aimed more at the horses than the people, killing or heavily injuring every horse that wasn¡¯t already on the ground. Some of the knights were trapped underneath the horses, trying to make their way out of underneath the bodies.


    Now the skeletons had reached the road, grabbing the unfortunate souls that were trapped and starting to stab their daggers in whatever opening the could find. This was a painful way to go as the blades went into their bodies over and over again, killing them rather quick.


    This is when the real fight started, of the remaining sixteen knights, four had an arrow in their shoulder. They grabbed their weapons in their remaining good hand and opted to not use a shield.


    Thanks to their armor, they weren¡¯t so easy to kill, even with the obvious overpowering amount of people. Swords hit swords as shields blocked attacks as well. Slowly, the group of knights tried to get together, but for now they weren¡¯t able to do so, mostly focused on saving their own hide. The king experienced this as he saw two skeletons stab a fallen knight, turning their eyeless skulls to him. His horse lie dead beneath his legs. The white fur being covered in red as many arrows were deep in the poor animals blood. Angry at the heartless act, he would swing his sword to the skeletons.


    His sword was able to decapitate the first one with easy, his head falling onto the ground and rolling down the hill. As he swung for the second on, he lost his footing as the skeleton duck and he hid nothing. As he tried to find stable footing again, the skeleton came back up the hill, being accompanied by two more. As a series of attacks were released on him, he started to parry and fight back, using his sword to parry two attacks while a third had to be redirected with his shield, forcing the sword down into the body of his horse. Thanks to this, the sword got stuck, exposing the skeleton. As an automatic reaction, he would stab him, hitting nothing as it went between the bones. He didn¡¯t have time to realize what had happened, needing his sword back to protect his right as the other two attacked again.


    As the king fought his battle, it started to get clear which group of the knights were finding it difficult to win. As the right side of the king had been his own people, trained with the sword and shield, they realized all too late that any stabbing attack barely did anything. The knights on the kings left that were trained in the art of axe wielding opted to completely forgo their shields, dropping them and using brute strength, chopping into any bone that even dared to show itself.


    While his left side was showing a promising fight, his right started to falter, three more knights fell down, being taken down as the skeletons managed to get through their defenses and pull them down the hill, letting other skeletons finish the job. The kings general was also fighting next to the road, finding the skeletons trying the same strategy with him. His bigger mass proving it difficult to do so. But while he was busy ripping off ones head with his bare hands, it got too much for him too, disappearing and rolling down the hill as the skeletons jumped on the opportunity.


    With the fighting continuing, a lower ranked commander wielding an axe had time to breathe. He turned to look behind him and saw the sword wielders having it difficult. Not only that, he saw the king holding back a group of six skeletons by himself. ¡°Ulf and Jackson!¡± The commander had chosen two of his men that he could see weren¡¯t having it too busy as one had just mowed down a couple of skeletons with his heavy strikes. ¡°Other side! Go hard!¡± Being very well organized, they would grab their helmets, opening the vizor. With one hand they grabbed a small knife, cutting the leather straps keeping the helmets on their heads and throwing them off.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    He watched for just a second as his men charged to the other side of the road, saving a knight from being stabbed in the neck. That was all he saw as he ran to the king, jumping forwards even with his heavy armor, using his body weight to floor four of the skeletons going at it on the king, giving him the chance to focus on the last two, striking them down quickly, leaving a pile of bones at his feet.


    As the commander was now on the ground with the skeletons next to him, he had to get up quickly. The skeletons were faster though, having no armor to hold them back. As he tried to stand up, he felt a pain in the back of his knee, a sword having found an opening in his armor and causing him to be unable to stand. He swung his axe at the legs of the skeleton who couldn¡¯t parry it as the sword was still in the commanders knee, knocking the bones from underneath the skeleton to make it drop to the ground, not dead yet. The commander used to back of his axe to pierce a hold into the skull, finishing off the skeleton.


    With the kings help, they killed the last three, the king dropping his shield to drag the commander away from the edge as he wasn¡¯t able to walk anymore. This left the king open to an unseen attacker that had managed to sneak through the lines. The clattering of his teeth could be heard as he laughed, swinging down his sword towards the neck of the kind, aiming at the weakest part. Right before the sword hit the king, the sword would find his way digging into a naked arm.


    The general that had rolled down the hill had managed to fight his way back up to the king. He was bleeding from multiple wounds but didn¡¯t see fazed. Even when the sword dug into his arm, he would just grab the arm of the skeleton, ripping it clean off before taking the heft of the sword, pulling it out of his arm. The skeleton turned to face the general. Due to the lack of flesh and muscles, not much of emotion was shown. But scared or not, the general drove the swords with an overhead swing into the shoulder of the skeleton, breaking the bones going all the way down to his pelvic bone. The skeleton dropped down dead, nothing more than some bones.


    The fighting stopped for a second, the skeletons pulling back from the group on the hill. Of all the knights still able to fight, there were only two sword wielders and five axe wielders. The commander that was stabbed in the leg unable to fight since he couldn¡¯t stand up by himself. The general knelt down, grabbing an axe of a fallen knight, dual wielding weapons now as he still had the big sword on his back.


    Surrounding the king and his knights were still a rather big group of enemies, being around four against one. To make things worse, a new yet smaller wave came out of the bushes, these skeletons were wielding crossbows although some had bows and arrows. The general having no armor would quickly be surrounded by the knights, all having their shields ready to block the arrows. As the new volley of arrows and bolts started, the general had to duck for his enormous stature to stay safe.


    The armored knights were protecting their shoulders and face with the shield, feeling the impacts of the bolts and arrows but not really being hurt by it. Even the general seemed to be alright, standing back up as both groups now stopped, looking at each other, waiting for someone to make a move.


    As the fight was happening, nobody had eyes for the group of three being a fair distance away, trying to remain unseen. Lucas was still trying to hold Lilly and Emma back, having their wrists in his hands. If they really tried they would be able to get out of his grasp in order to go and help, but both knew that Lucas was right, this was an unwinnable fight. Emma had started to cry as Lilly was watching them in silence, not sure what to even say or whether she would even need to say anything.


    The skeletons didn¡¯t really seem to have a leader, everyone hesitating to attack. If the knights attacked, they would lose the high ground and the defensive power. If the skeletons attacked than they would probably lose a lot of men. Not only that, this was the end of the road in terms of their lives. When dying as any creature, you¡¯d come back as a zombie and then a skeleton. Dying now means death, forever, eternal, they weren¡¯t so keen to meet their end.


    The king knew that they had to react first. They had to try and make their way back to their own land, even if this was a long walk. Sadly enough, the commander was unable to walk which meant that the general would have to lift him up, limiting his ability to fight and with the arrival of the ranged adversaries, their odds got even worse by around six attackers for every available defender. As the kings eyes went over the small battle field, his eyes would fall on what looked like a weaker part, having a group of what looked like undead dwarves.


    ¡°Men! When this fight is over and we get home, I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯ll be drunk for a month!¡± The speech was nothing big or too inspiring for some people, but these men knew the king and wouldn¡¯t have wished for anything else. As the king charged at the dwarven skeletons down the hill, they had some time. Their backs being protected as the skeletons had to first run up the hill to then cross the road. The flanks being exposed to any attacks but they knew that, getting out of sight of his daughters.


    As the started to cut down the dwarves, arrows started to fly again as they swarmed the king and his men. For a few seconds, the only thing that could be heard was metal on metal and softer more blunt noises when a sword or axe hit bones.


    They were doing well to begin with, that was until the ones in their backs caught up and they were surrounded once more, this time not having any high ground to help them. One by one, the knights would find their way to the ground, being difficult to be taken down but not immortal. Even the king who had trained the most and was the best fighter would find his end, leaving the general on his own, the commander being left behind on the road.


    As the commander didn¡¯t move, he would be left alone for now, the general huffing and being wounds so badly that any normal man would be dead already. As he was alone and surrounded, he threw down his axe and sword, instead opting to take the big sword on his back. He wasn¡¯t going to go down so easily. Before anyone could try something, he would¡¯ve cut down two skeletons with one swing, running back to the road.


    His path was blocked by multiple skeletons, using his sword to cut a path. As he turned around to face this horde of skeletons, they didn¡¯t seem to follow him, all staying back. The blood of the general continued to leak out of the many wounds. Seeing the lack of movement, he put his swords onto the ground, leaning onto it, panting and groaning in pain. As he was resting, keeping the skeletons in his eyes, a sudden pain came seemingly from his ankle, making him scream. As he turned around, he saw a full black bunny biting a chunk out of his ankle, seeing more run to him. ¡°What the actual fuck?!¡±

 Chapter 13 - A broken alliance

    As he kicked away the bunny, he would look around a bit better, seeing a group of bunny arrive, slowly surrounding him. He quickly looked back behind him, looking at the skeletons. For some reason no skeletons seemed to come closer, focusing back on the bunnies. ¡°What is this? What¡¯s going on!?¡± The general seemed to be a bit scared, never seen a bunny bite out meat out of a man.


    Right as he was about to run down the road to try and get away, the bunny¡¯s started to move. It looked like a wave of water of different colors all going to one point. Without thinking about it, he swung his big sword at them, not hitting anything as his sword was too slow for little creatures like this. The started to crawl onto him, biting into his skin, jumping higher than he had ever seen before. He didn¡¯t yell in pain, didn¡¯t say anything, grabbing whatever bunny¡¯s he could and squishing them into his hands. But too much was too much. Even if he barely felt pain and was stronger than anyone else, his power was limited. He collapsed onto the ground, shaking and shivering as the blood loss was too much.


    From where Lucas, Lilly and Emma were looking, it was difficult to see everything. They saw these creatures coming and attacking the general, seeing him collapse after not that long. Not that Lilly and Emma cared much, waiting to see their father again. When that didn¡¯t happen and the skeletons got onto the road.


    The skeletons had divided into two groups, one gathering all the horses and bodies, bringing them to the side of the road where the king was lying as the other group collected bones and weapons, also bringing them away. It took a while but eventually the smell of burning flesh started to fill the air.


    It took a while but Lucas asked Lilly and Emma what was up with that. ¡°Why¡­ Why do they do it? Why burn the corpses? Are they trying to cover up?¡± His words were forgotten for a bit when they started to hear screaming. The screaming sounded like someone getting tortured, perhaps even being burned alive.


    Emma was sobbing too hard to say anything, leaving Lilly to explain as she tried to not listen to it. ¡°They¡­ hah¡­ they¡¯re¡­ They burn the corpses in an attempt to perhaps skip the zombie phase.¡± As she talked, it was obvious that she too wasn¡¯t feeling so well and was mad.


    Lucas didn¡¯t bother to ask what was wrong or how they felt, not really having bonds with people. Not really ever having had family. Never really had people he stayed around for long enough to start caring about. Never lost anyone important to him. He lie his head down, listening to the screams as he was hoping that they wouldn¡¯t be seen lying here.


    They continued to lie there next to the road, waiting for everyone to leave. It took a while before they were all gone, hours having passed before Lucas decided to stand up. Everything was silent, the smell of burned flesh still lingering in the air.


    Emma helped up Lilly, following Lucas as they went to where the battle had taken place. The ground was still full of blood and bone splinter as not everything was removed. All the weapons from the knights were still there and so was the armor. Burn marks could be seen in the grass as the armor was also left behind without anyone in them. There weren¡¯t many of them but there were some bunnies as well.


    Lucas knelt down, looking around battlefield. ¡°Why are they leaving only the kings stuff? Why try to remove all the proof of them being here. What¡¯s up with the bunnies¡­¡±


    As they looked, Emma knelt down, grabbing the crown their dad had been wearing before putting on his helmet to fight. Emma showed it to her sister as she started to shake, seeing her sister sit down onto the ground to relieve her leg from any weight. Lucas looked at the crown for a quick second before shaking his. ¡°We can¡¯t use gold¡­ leave it¡­¡±


    He turned around, looking for any path for them to go further. ¡°We should continue to the other side of the road. I¡¯m pretty su¡­¡±


    As sudden pain hit him in the head, causing him to drop down on his knees. He held his head, groaning in pain. ¡°Ah! Shit!¡± He got onto his stomach before rolling over, looking up in the sky. ¡°What happened¡­¡±


    Emma was standing over him, looking down at Lucas as she held the bow that she had picked up from the elf. She didn¡¯t answer him as she got onto his chest, legs on either side as she threw down the bow, her hands closing around his throat.


    His eyes got big, grabbing her wrists as she pressed down. He tried to pull her hands away, kicking the air with his legs. Emma pushed down hard, obviously angry. ¡°We could¡¯ve saved him! You¡­! You let him suffer!¡±


    Lucas looked to his left, trying to get Lilly¡¯s help. Lilly was aware of what was happening, looking at him as her eyes stood cold, without any mercy or care.


    No sound escaped from him as he reached up, clawing at Emma¡¯s face as he already felt his power fade. His eyes started to go dark as his arm dropped down, mouth open as he tried to gasp for air. He heard fast footsteps running towards them. He couldn¡¯t see who it was or where it was coming from. The sense of danger seemed laughable at this point, hearing Lilly say something.


    Right as his eyes rolled back, he could feel Emma¡¯s weight being pulled of him. ¡°Zoi!¡± Someone yelled his name, feeling someone grab him and lifting him up. Being released from her grasp, he started to cough, arching his back as he did so.


    A big man had seen what was happening, having ran to the group. Once on the road, he saw Lucas being choked. He didn¡¯t even hesitate, grabbing Emma by the back of her neck and throwing her to the side, grabbing Lucas and throwing him over his shoulder. He started to run back into the woods in the opposite direction that they had come from. Lilly having grabbed her bow and shooting at the man. An arrow dug deep into his back without any effect, letting him continue his run.


    Lilly already had a second arrow on her bow but decided not to shoot. She was feeling weak and didn¡¯t want to spend the energy trying to shoot down a fleeing enemy. The last sight of the man was of a guy being around two meters big, holding Lucas like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder as he had a thick animal skin or something over his shoulders, keeping him warm and protecting him from nature or arrows as it appeared to be.


    While Lilly looked at him disappear, Emma would get up, looking at Lilly as she didn¡¯t understand why she didn¡¯t shoot again. ¡°Why¡­ why¡¯d you let him go? He attacked me! He took that fucker with him!¡±


    Even though she was right, Lilly shook her head. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know, what¡¯s the point. Just let him go.¡±


    That didn¡¯t sit right with Emma, she grabbed her bow as if she was going to go after them. ¡°Because of him we couldn¡¯t help our dad! He¡­ He held us back!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think we even could¡¯ve saved him. I think that Lucas did what he had to do. No matter how much I hate him for it.¡± Said Lilly with a sad tone. ¡°We also have other things to worry about now. Why does the skeleton Gruge have murder bunnies?¡±


    Those questions made Emma stop with her rant, Lilly was right. She had a frown when she thought about it. Since when did they have murder bunnies? This wasn¡¯t something that they were known for.


    Lilly grabbed the crown of her father again, looking at it as she let her finger go over a gem. ¡°Not only that. What do you think mother shall do when she finds out that father has been killed in the Forest gruge? What if she goes to war with them? What if she decides to burn down the forest?¡±


    As they had been focused on the ground and the possibility of what was going to happen. They didn¡¯t see anyone else come closer which made them surprised when the person spoke up.


    ¡°That¡¯s indeed something that worries me.¡±


    Lilly and Emma quickly turned around, looking down the road at who had just said something. The person that arrived was seemingly young, around as young as they were. He was a centaur having a bow and arrow. His horse body was black with a big white spot on his left shoulder going halfway to his stomach as the human part had a white shirt. He had come from the opposite side from where their father had come from.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Still having the loss from their dad to deal with, they would grab their bows and put an arrow on it, aiming at him. This seemed to work a bit as he would take a step back, not even trying to lift his own bow nor to try and take an arrow from the quiver that was hanging on his side. He started to dance from hoof to hoof as he looked at them both. He then dropped the bow, seeming as if he was disappointed in them.


    ¡°Really?¡± He gestured with his arms as if he wanted to ask them what the hell they were doing. ¡°Is this necessary?¡±


    Lilly didn¡¯t have the strength to keep the arrow pulled back onto the bow, slowly letting the string go back to the rest position as she instead tried to talk. ¡°Who are you!?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Jackson! I saw everything! You¡¯re right, if we don¡¯t warn the others, a war will break out! I¡¯m not the enemy!¡±


    Letting the girls think about his words, he looked from side to side as if he was scanning for something. An answer wasn¡¯t what he would get though as Lilly decided to lie down, trembling. Emma stopped aiming at him, relaxing the string as she knelt down. ¡°Lilly!¡±


    Jackson started to walk forwards, wanting to help but quickly stopped when Emma aimed her bow back at him, arrow ready to fly. ¡°Stay back!¡±


    He again would show he that he had no weapons as he looked down at Lilly. This can¡¯t keep going on. I don¡¯t know what she has but I can see that something is wrong. You can¡¯t keep her safe and me at a distance.¡±


    He was right and she knew it. He didn¡¯t seem hostile and she needed to help her sister in some way. Normally Zoi would¡¯ve done this but that boat had sailed. The arrow that she had been holding back for quite some time started to get too heavy as well, being forced to relax the string yet again. ¡±Then what do you suggest that I do?¡±


    ¡°What I suggest is that you don¡¯t kill me and my friends so that we can help you. Although I¡¯m not sure that you¡¯re worth it seeing how you tried to kill that guy.¡± Even though the arrow wasn¡¯t ready to fire, it was still aimed at his face.


    ¡°Your friends? Who are your friends?¡± There was an audible concern in her voice as she said that.


    Jackson would give her a small smile, putting two fingers in his mouth to let out a high pitched whistle. Out of the bushes came another centaur. This one didn¡¯t look like Jackson, that was if you wouldn¡¯t count the fact that they both had horse bodies. This one had grey horse body as his hair was blond. He too had a white shirt. In his hand was a bow as on his hip was a quiver with arrows. It was horizontally bound to his horse body with a cap to keep the arrows in. He would drop the bow as well and went to stand next to Jackson.


    ¡°So¡­ Here I am. I¡¯m Medi.¡± He didn¡¯t seem like a threat either although he did look like he was as old as the other centaur.


    Lastly out of the bushes came a white haired satyr. She seemed older than the two but also seemed rather short to be a satyr. She had a bag over her shoulder with a brown shirt that was being held up by only one shoulder as it seemed to be made that way. She had a grey fur just like Medi.


    ¡°My name is Zoala, general of the Forest Gruge. I was wondering if you could so kindly drop the bow? I don¡¯t like being held under threat.¡± As she said that, she seemed to be playing with a rock.


    ¡°General? If you¡¯re a general¡­ I don¡¯t see a bow so are you the runemaster?¡± Emma was hesitant seeing as another general had been hunting them but it¡¯s not like she had a choice regarding her sister. She put the arrow back into her quiver, looking back down to Lilly. ¡°Can you help my sister please?¡±


    Zoala seemed happy that the arrow was going, skipping towards her as the rock that she had been carrying was put into the bag she was holding. When next to them, she put down the bag, Lilly had started to breathe faster at this point, causing Emma to be more concerned. ¡±Now let¡¯s take a look shall we?¡±


    She took out a knife, cutting open her leg seeing as Lilly had been clutching her pants right there. It was a wild guess but she was right, seeing the infection in her leg.


    As soon as Emma saw the knife, she grabbed an arrow, ready to stab her when needed. When she noticed that it was just to cut open the pants, she would relaxe slightly, putting the arrow back.


    While Zoala was working, Jackson and Medi had grabbed their bows again, coming closer as well and inspecting the battlefield, being rather interested in what transpired. Even though Zoala was inspecting the wound, she started to ask questions.


    ¡°So who was the guy that you tried to kill just now?¡±


    Emma looked away, feeling a bit guilty about that. But right after that, she would see the crown next to Lilly and her guilt disappeared. ¡°That was Lucas¡­ or Zoi¡­ whatever the liar¡¯s actual name is. He was trying to help us get back to our gruge and to also heal her.¡±


    ¡°So someone innocent then?¡± Zoala continued looking at the wound. After a bit she would open her bag, looking for something, the sound of rocks could be heard. ¡°Now that your guide is gone, what are you planning now?¡±


    That question was rather important, something neither of the girls had been thinking about. They were now stranded without help if they decided not to help them. ¡°I¡­ It hasn¡¯t been long enough to decide that.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± The question was asked quietly, not really expecting a question. After a bit, it seemed like Zoala couldn¡¯t find what she wanted. She closed her bag as she looked up at Emma. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like I can do much here. Perhaps if we were at the main camp we could do something about it.¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t we go?¡± Asked Emma. It was obvious that she was getting more and more concerned about this.


    Lilly looked up at her sister, giving her a warm smile. ¡°I¡¯m alright, don¡¯t you see that?¡± As she started to laugh, it quickly turned into pain. ¡°Ach! Well, not fully but a bit.¡±


    That small joke only hurt Emma more than it helped. She looked at Zoala, still waiting for an answer, although as she looked up again, she saw that Zoala had a bird on her shoulder. The bird and Zoala seemed to be talking. ¡°Hey! I asked you something!¡±


    This caused Zoala to look at her a bit annoyed. ¡°Sounds like a royal person indeed. I know that your sister is in pain but we have bigger problems.¡± She turned to face Jackson and Medi. ¡°The skeleton king is negotiating with our king. If they get in an alliance and the Humans declare war¡­ The humans will be destroyed.¡±


    Jackson and Medi looked at each other. This information didn¡¯t sit well with either of them, Jackson starting to play with his bow string, obviously getting more nervous the further events moved forwards.


    Seeing as it was Emma¡¯s gruge that they were talking about, she would get even more upset. ¡°Then we¡¯re too late. We can never get there in time. Can we?¡±


    Zoala grabbed a rock out of her back, turning it over to look at it. Seeing that it was still empty, she would start to drag her finger over it, starting to mumble to herself as a blue light started to appear. After a bit, she had carved a rune into it, overing it to Lilly.


    Lilly grabbed the rock, feeling a warm feeling go into her body, slowly spreading as the pain disappeared, feeling better than she had in a while. She sat up, looking at the rock as it dissolved in a red rune, slowly sitting up. ¡°What¡­?¡±


    ¡°Energy stone. It easy to create due to the weak effects. It¡¯ll buy us some time.¡±


    Medi came closer to Emma, looking at her as he hung his bow over his back. ¡°You can ride on our backs if you want. We can get there in time to help your sister and to stop the negotiation.¡±


    This caused Lilly to smile, trying to motion her sister to get her up. ¡°That sound amazing. Not many people get to ride on the back of a centaur.¡±


    Even though Lilly seemed to be fine for now, Emma didn¡¯t like that she was acting like nothing was wrong. Trying to put her thoughts on something else, looking at Medi and Jackson. With a little smile she would look at Lilly, brushing the hair out of her face. ¡°Sure, as long as I get to sit on the grey one.¡°


    For Emma, saying that didn¡¯t really do much, but she would immediately feel uneasy as Jackson and Medi started to stamp with their feet as they moved from left or right. Medi looked very mad about that comment while Jackson shook his head, shooting daggers at Emma.


    Medi looked at her as he then looked at himself. ¡°If you want to ride on me then you should know this. Never talk about a centaur as if you¡¯re talking about a horse. That¡¯s extremely disrespectful. You do realize other species used to use centaurs as slaves right?¡±


    Jackson put his hand on his shoulder to calm him down. ¡°Easy¡­ They¡¯re still young and need to learn some¡­ to learn meeting other gruges. I bet that¡¯s why they were sent here for a diplomatic mission.¡±


    Emma got red and looked away, waving her hand as if trying to apologize. ¡°I... I¡¯m sorry.¡± As she was apologizing, something seemed to click. ¡°Wait¡­ how¡­ how do you know¡­ that we were here on diplomatic mission?¡±


    Her asking this made Jackson a bit scared, hoping she wouldn¡¯t start to think that he knew that since he was there to hunt her. ¡°Because I was part of the group supposed to await your arrival which never happened.¡±


    Seeing where Jackson was going and that this might get out of hand, he would come closer to Emma. ¡°Listen, we don¡¯t have time for this. You want to save your sister, let us take you to the camp. Although if you don¡¯t mind, after that comment I rather have your sister on my back.¡±


    Seeing as the time was a pressing matter, he knelt down onto the ground so Lilly could get up. Jackson did the same, being next to Emma. Lilly couldn¡¯t get up on her own, getting help from both Zoala and Emma as she got onto Medi, being followed by Emma going on Jackson. When both of them were seated, Jackson and Medi got up. As they weren¡¯t used to this, they would take a couple of steps to test it out.


    Medi looked behind himself, looking at Lilly. He gave her a warm smile as he got ready to go. ¡°Hold on miss. This might get a bit rough.¡±


    As they wanted to leave, Zoala saw something out of the corner of her eye. ¡°Watch out!¡± She tried to push Medi out of the way but he was too big for her, getting hit in his horse side by a arrow close to his back leg, causing him to fall down with Lilly.


    On the side that the skeletons originally had disappeared appeared a group, armed with both bows and swords. They charged at the group, more arrows flying towards them.


    Jackson saw his chance and started to run. The sudden movement cause Emma to wrap her arms around his chest. After a couple of seconds and some near misses with the arrows, she realized what he was doing. ¡°No! You have to go back! We need to get my sister!¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t! We have to go and stop the negotiations!¡± Jackson knew that they couldn¡¯t do much with their bows. Skeletons didn¡¯t really have much surface area to shoot at and they were in the minority. ¡°We¡¯ll come back for them!¡± With that being said, they disappeared.

 Chapter 14 - A bone to pick

    Since Zoala saw the arrow fly, she was the most prepared. While Medi was lying on the ground, trying to get back up, Emma would crawl out from underneath him, her leg having been crushed between him and the ground, hurting a lot.


    Zoala reached in her bag, grabbing a flute. She started to play a quick song, vines starting to sprout out from underneath the first couple of skeletons, entangling them. This wasn¡¯t enough to stop them though, others going around them and continuing the charge up the hill.


    She reached in her bag, grabbing a stone and throwing it in the air. A yellow rune got visible as the stone disappeared, making a soft cool breeze appear. The vines suddenly got encased in ice, freezing the skeletons they had captured together with the skeletons that were nearby.


    She started to laugh, feeling as if she was going to win this on her own. Sadly enough a sudden forced pushed her onto the ground. The air got pushed out of her longues as she lay there, the pain finally getting to her brain as she realized that she had been shot. The arrow went into her left shoulder, dropping the flute. With her right hand, she grabbed a rock that wasn¡¯t in her bag but that she had attached to a rope around her neck. She pulled onto the rock, the little rope breaking. She then slammed the stone onto the ground, another yellow rune appearing as a green orb surrounded her, Medi and Emma, keeping them protected in a small yet unbreachable space.


    The sound of hooves on the ground was the only thing Emma could hear. She had her head against Jacksons shoulders. Jackson himself was focused on running, his eyes scanning the trees as they ran. He was scared as well but he was also more focused. It therefor also took a while before he noticed that Emma was crying. The longer that she cried, the slower he would run. Eventually even stopping as he looked at her.


    ¡°Are you alright? Are you hit?¡± He started to scan her for blood, panting due to the running as he was having difficulty to look at her due to her sitting behind him.


    ¡°We left them.¡± Emma was barely audible when she said that. ¡°We just ran off.¡±


    ¡°We didn¡¯t really have a choice. They attacked us. We need to make sure that we warn our king, my king.¡±


    After saying that, he started to run again. It was slower than he was going originally, feeling tired as he had ran for a while now but he knew that he couldn¡¯t stop. He tried to shut off his thoughts, not focusing on how long he had to go or how long he had been running so far. The wind was blowing through his hair as the weight of Emma on him slowed him down.


    It took them all together around an hour of running before it started to get obvious that they were getting closer. The already plentiful trees and bushes got even more plentiful. The path which up until now was almost always straight ahead started to slowly go the right. As soon as the path got straight again, they saw two centaurs in the distance, standing in front of what looked like an entrance of a big bunch of bushes.


    As they were able to see them, the centaurs also were able to see Jackson and Emma. One of them would get take a couple of steps forwards, holding up his hand in order to stop them. ¡°Stop right now!¡±


    After yelling that, he and his friend would notice that the centaur coming had a human on his back. This was very confusing to them. Jackson didn¡¯t stop, causing them to get on the road, blocking his path. ¡°Stop now!¡±


    Since they had blocked the path and going around would slow them down a lot, Jackson would stop, panting and breathing hard as he had his hand on his chest. He tried to speak but nothing came out.


    Emma saw this and knew that they had to move. ¡°I¡¯m the princes of the Human Gruge. We¡¯re here because we need to stop the negotiations. You need to let us through.¡±


    The centaurs looked a bit confused when she said that, knowing that negotiations with the Human Gruge were supposed to happen a while ago but nothing happened. They got out of the way to let them pass.


    As they passed them, Emma would motion for them to follow, feeling that something was going to go down. Jackson started to run once more, going into the thick coverage while the other centaurs followed but being hesitant while doing so, soon riding into a clearing.


    The Forest Gruge didn¡¯t really have any castle and their main clan was very close to the border. In the clearing were a bunch of people. Straight ahead against the other side of the clearing was a big table being covered by a roof made of stick and leaves. On one side was a skeleton delegation as on the other side was sitting an old looking satyr


    There were around ten skeletons. The leader had fancy but damage clothes while the two right behind him also had fancy clothes. The seven other seemed to have some kind of special armor that Emma recognized as kinetic energy absorbing metal made by the forges of the Mountain Gruge. They were quite difficult to kill. Some even said that these skeletons were able to take out small armies on their own due to their training and incredible armor. It was amazing seeing seven of these armors in one place being rarely made.


    The satyr had on his side quite the group as well. There was the minotaur who immediately grabbed his axe upon seeing her but didn¡¯t draw it, his eyes looking from her to the satyr and then the skeleton. There also was another satyr who looked identical to the older one but being younger, having the symbol of the royal lute on his chest. Then you had six elves. Two of those having a different symbol on them, one having the symbol of a clover as the other one had the symbol of a pinecone. The rest seemed to be their body guards rocking swords and shields instead of their usual bows.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Of all the creatures here, the only royal species missing were the centaurs which was weird. There were more royal creatures for every species but each had their own rule of electing their representative for negotiations.


    Not that the people around the bench were the only people since in the whole open area were people doing different things but all stayed away from the table, being quiet to not disturb the negotiations.


    The Satyr would look up from the paper when Jackson and Emma rode into the open area. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± He even sounded old as he looked at the two, obviously already having gotten a long life behind him.


    Emma hesitated, trying to think of what to say as her eyes would wander to the minotaur. His black eyes were now peering into her soul, almost as if he could see her shivering spirit inside of her. His nose shivered as if he tried to smell her fear. Trying to not pay attention to him, she would focus back on the satyr leader. ¡°We have reason to believe that the skeleton are trying to trick you and my gruge into a war your highness.¡± She even gave him a seated bow seeing as she was still on Jackson.


    Both the satyr and the skeleton stood up, looking at her. The skeleton didn¡¯t speak as no emotion could be seen on his face while the satyr looked from Emma to the skeleton before going back to her. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then who are you to be riding on the back of a centaur.¡±


    This was indeed a good question seeing how Jackson told her that Centaurs used to be slaves. ¡°I am Emma, princess of the Human Gruge. We believe that the Skeleton Gruge has hired people from the Forest Gruge to assassinate me and my sister on your soil. When that failed, a group of skeletons murdered my father¡­ and¡­¡± She started to have a difficulty talking, remembering the crown of her father. ¡°When we fled¡­ they¡­ my sister¡­¡± She stopped talking, starting to cry.


    Jackson walked forwards a bit, letting her cry and get her resolve back. ¡°I saw it happens as well your highness. I also saw how the skeletons tried to clean the battlefield, only leaving behind the royal armor and the armor of his knights together with the corpses of the horses. We think they¡¯re trying to frame us so the humans will attack.¡±


    Emma would now look back at the minotaur, suddenly feeling anger was over her. She pointed at him, breathing deeply. ¡°He¡¯s one of them. We hid and saw him walk past us together with the hunters. He¡¯s one of them!¡±


    The minotaur was obviously not happy that she yelled that out loud. He also wasn¡¯t that scared of her originally, not thinking that she had seen him ever during the hunt. He would grab his axe as he looked at Emma with burning eyes. ¡°Your false truths will end now!¡±


    He grabbed his axe and lifted it to his chest, ready to start swinging. Jackson and Emma weren¡¯t that close to him but he was rather big and fast. With his head a bit lowered and the axe ready, he was a sight to behold.


    Now that the minotaur had grabbed his weapon, the skeletons did the same, drawing their swords but waiting to see what would happen.


    The satyr would sigh, holding his hands up to usher everyone to cool down. ¡°Hold on, hold on. There¡¯s an easy was to see who is lying and who isn¡¯t.¡±


    This didn¡¯t really have the best effect on everyone. The minotaur quickly turned to look at the satyr, snorting deeply as he seemed to stamp with his hoof while the skeletons didn¡¯t show any facial feature. Sadly enough for them their bones got to them, shuffling around a bit as they weren¡¯t feeling so sure anymore.


    As everyone showed their reaction, the satyr was keeping his cool, looking at everyone before going what must be his son. The son had a bag like Zoala had, filled with rocks. The father dug through the rocks until he pulled out a runestone, going back to where he was originally, looking at it before focusing back on the group.


    He then waited for something, looking at the stone as he didn¡¯t seem to be sure what to do now. After a bit of mumbling to himself, he came back into action. ¡°Ah yes.¡± He held the stone in the air before squeezing hard on it. The stone disappeared and left behind an purple rune. Instead of disappearing like the others, the rune stayed for now. The satyr looked at the minotaur, having a small smile. ¡°So¡­ Pantyr¡­ Tell me who is right here.¡±


    Almost everyone in the clearing fell silent. Before there had been soft whispering between the forest Gruge but now everyone was listening. The minotaur who was called Pantyr didn¡¯t answer anymore. He still had the axe in his hands and seemed to be breathing faster and faster. His eyes were focused on Emma and Jackson. They were 20 meters away from him, but it wasn¡¯t that much for him. Everyone In the Forest Gruge ran faster than the regular human and he was the fastest of all.


    ¡°Pantyr?¡± The satyr looked from the minotaur to Emma. ¡°What about you girl?¡±


    Emma wasn¡¯t sure what was happening. The minotaur was suddenly silent for seemingly no reason. She on the other hand had no idea why. When she opened her mouth to talk, a purple hue got around her as she couldn¡¯t stop talking. ¡°I¡¯m not lying. We are being hunted. At one point we hid in a tree and a group of Forest Gruge creature came past, seemingly hunting. Not much later he came as well with more of you. It seemed to be the same group who made us flee our camp at the lake before.¡±


    The minotaur looked up at the rune and then at her. She didn¡¯t have time to say anything else as the minotaur already had lifted up his axe in the air, charging at her with his head bow down a bit. Seeing this beast run at her filled her with fear, causing her unable to move, the sound of his hooves slamming onto the ground sounded like thunder in her ears.


    He had made it pretty far when suddenly multiple low sounding thuds could be heard. Around seven arrows had hit him in the chest, having been shot by both Jackson as the two centaurs that came with them. This didn¡¯t slow the beast down a lot but just enough for the satyr to grab a fluit and started to play a quick tune. Just like Zoala had done, vines started to sprout and wrapped around his legs. Together with his upper body weight and speed, he fell forwards with his full weight on the arrows. As he forced them deeper in himself, he wouldn¡¯t move anymore, blood slowly leaking down the arrow shafts.


    Just to be sure, Jackson took a couple of steps back, looking at the dead body. Both his and Emma¡¯s hearts were pounding like hell, being close to death like this doesn¡¯t happen often although more often than before in Emma¡¯s case.


    Just as Emma started to cool down a bit and slow her breath, one of the two centaurs behind her fell on the ground. He grabbed his heart, screaming in pain. Out of his skull grew two horns, piercing his flesh as hair started to grow around his upper body. The white hair on his horse part started to darken as his ass seemed to get closer and closer to his front as his legs started to merge from four into two. His overall height started to grow as his screaming to more and more deep. Eventually it all stopped, a minotaur lying on the ground, breathing with a raspy throat.


    Jackson seemed unimpressed while Emma stood there with her mouth open in shock, hand in front of her mouth. To her surprise, the minotaur got up and walked past them without even looking at them. He then picked up the axe the original minotaur dropped, walking to the king and taking guard, almost as if he had been there all along.


    The satyr just nodded at him as he then turned to the skeletons. ¡°Seems like our previous general was a traitor, my apologies. Do you have anything to add?¡±

 Chapter 15 - An honorable duel

    The skeleton tilted his head, almost as if to think of what to say. He looked at the rune in the air and scoffed. ¡°I was going to frame you for the death of the princesses. Sadly it didn¡¯t work and they continued to run. Now imagine my surprise when I learned that her father came to find her so soon after. It was as if Pan blessed us. Neither you or the humans would¡¯ve survived the following war.¡±


    He suddenly stopped talking, slamming his sword in the table to keep himself under control. It seemed like he had more to say but had difficulty not to.


    With that, the satyr would chuckle. ¡°The rune of truth. It takes a long long time to create but very handy. Zoala won¡¯t be happy when she learns that I used one of the last remaining ones.¡±


    While he thought that he had won, the skeleton took his sword back out of the wood, pointing it to him. ¡°In the name of Pan, I challenge you to a dual.¡±


    The words had just left his mouth of he and the satyr both disappeared. Emma gasped, almost falling off Jackson when this happened. Everyone turned to look at her. As she looked back at them, she realized that nobody seemed to be shocked at the sudden disappearance.


    Before she could ask them what just happened, she too disappeared together with the satyr¡¯s son.


    The satyr and the skeleton had landed in what looked like a castle ruin. It was built like a square. On every corner was a big round room but due to it being a ruin, no roof. There was a wall connecting all the round rooms, leaving a big area open in the middle of the walls. The satyr and the skeleton had appeared on either side of the big open area as there was nothing but a big tower in between them. In this tower is where Emma found herself. She looked down at the ruin, seeing a staircase running up in every round room, leading to a crosswalk that ran over the walls. Even if this wasn¡¯t a ruin, the castle would¡¯ve been a horrible one.


    Emma didn¡¯t understand what had happened right now, but just a second after she wanted to try and find an exit to go down, the son of the satyr appeared next to her. She tilted her head, looking at him with big eyes. ¡°What the hell is going on right here?¡±


    He looked around for a couple of seconds, going to the window and looking down. ¡°Ah, this is the duel ruin. Did your father not explain this to you?¡± As he asked that, concern could be heard in his voice. ¡°He should¡¯ve told you.¡±


    Emma would shake her head. She was scared at first but seeing how calm the son was, she would calm down a bit. ¡°Never has he said anything about any of this.¡±


    He would nod, looking down as something was happening to the two figures down below. A green glow surrounded them both, both getting a sigil above their head. He didn¡¯t know either of those so he didn¡¯t point it out to her. In the meantime Emma had come next to him, leaning to look down as well.


    The son would take a deep breath, not really wanting to explain it. ¡°Okay look. Any royal member can challenge someone of royal blood to a duel. This duel is then activated by Pan and all the participating members get moved to her where they will battle it out. Each person can invite someone to look at the battle. We are the spectators and can¡¯t intervene to their fight. As you can see, there¡¯s no way down. Anyway, both participants get seven rune stones which float around their heads. Some runes that Pan gives are to give them power to cast the other runic stones that contain creatures to help them fight. It¡¯s turn based as well. Pan chooses who starts. Every turn you can only summon one power orb. This is to prevent from the participants to cast too strong creatures too fast. This battle is often done in no longer than five minutes.¡±


    Emma would look around the room and indeed noticed no stairs to go down the tower. ¡°Good thing I¡¯m not scared of heights then.¡± She purposefully didn¡¯t react to the story he told not wanting to show that she absolutely didn¡¯t understand a single word that he just had said. What bothered her most was the little she knew about this. ¡°Why didn¡¯t father tell me this. And why allows Pan this to happen?¡±


    To this, the son did have an answer, leaning against a wall as he looked at the sky through one of the windows. ¡°Because it happened in the past that children challenge their family for fun, not realizing it¡¯s serious or that after a challenge is called, only one can survive. Because of this, families started to opt for not telling their kids this secret. In terms of why¡­ Well¡­ amusement?¡±


    While they talked, the battle down below had started, both satyr and skeleton having their runes around their heads.


    The Satyr looked to the runes stones flying around his head. He didn¡¯t know what most meant but as he looked at them, he could see flashes and visions of what these runes did. Through this, he saw that he had given the power of life and death. He felt his hand get warm as it started to glow gold like, showing that he was allowed to start.


    As an eight rune appeared, he would grab a runestone, throwing it up in the air, creating a green orb that continued to orbit around him but higher. The golden glow disappeared from his hand and went to the skeleton. Seeing as neither combatant had done anything yet, they both stood their grounds.


    As the skeleton got the golden glow, he would look at his runestones. He got the power of death. Not only death, but poison at that. He started to laugh, his teeth clacking as he knew what this meant, a painful death. He ended his turn by grabbing a runestone and creating a black orb instead.


    With the skeleton being done, the satyr grabbed two runestones. The first one also created a black orb as the second one wasn¡¯t just throw and release. He knelt down, stretching out one hand to draw power from both his orbs, putting it in the runestone before slamming it into the ground. Where the stone had hit the ground, a thick forest started to grow. His half of the courtyard turned into this forest, a flower appearing next to him. As the petals opened up, a runestone was seen lying in it, flying up to be added to the other runestones.


    There were good things and bad things about this for the skeleton. The good thing was that no creature was summoned yet. The bad thing was that the Satyr now had more cover to hide in and had another rune stone from the flower. He grabbed his second runestone, throwing it in the air as he got a second black orb. With these orbs he did¡­ nothing. He was patient.


    Seeing that the skeleton didn¡¯t summon anything yet was good news, or so he thought. He would grab another runestone, the one he gotten from the flower, summoning another black orb. He now had three orbs in total. He then took his fifth rune, this time holding it up before just dropping it. All his orbs seemed to fly to the rune, going in it as a human started to form. It started like a baby, but quickly grew bigger and bigger. Each time a power orb was used, it seemed to dim out but still was there. It only came back when it was your turn.


    Even though it wasn¡¯t his turn yet, the skeleton saw the creature forming. He grabbed a runestone, fueling it with one of his orbs and aimed it to the forming man. Even though he was all the way on the other side, the beam still hit the man in his heart. The man wasn¡¯t even fully formed as he already started to scream, slowly shrinking back into the stone that he came from. When he was fully in again, the stone exploded. ¡°Give up Tyron! Beg to Pan to let you live and maybe he listens!¡±


    The satyr who was called Tyron couldn¡¯t do much to stop it, feeling the stone explode at his feet. It wasn¡¯t the shards that hit him that caused pain either, but there was a black soul, flying out of the broken pieces, flying into his chest. He let out a groan, stumbling back on his hooves as a black spot appeared where the spirit had entered him. ¡°Ah¡­ poison¡­¡±


    As the first casualty had fallen, Emma would yelp seeing the spirit hit Tyron. ¡°What! I thought you said he could only use those runestones in his own turn!¡±


    The son would hesitate, slowly nodding. ¡°There are exceptions but it¡¯s difficult. When you¡¯re on the field, you¡¯ll understand.¡± He still didn¡¯t want to explain it, knowing it would take hours to explain every single possibility that can take place.


    While they were busy talking, the skeleton had started his turn, already getting his power orb back. He then grabbed a runestone, adding another black power orb to the others. Then he grabbed his fifth runestone, putting his three power orbs in them, dropping the rune. Instead of it turning into a scorpion, it turned into a scorpion. He didn¡¯t even need to say anything as it ran off towards Tyron, disappearing from view.


    Tyron had seen the skeleton summon the scorpion but not where it went. Not wanting to stay behind on creatures, he would grabbed three runestones. One of them he threw it in the air to add a green orb as he dropped the other two. The one runestone absorbed a green orb while the other absorbed two black power orbs. The one with the green orb turned into an elf, wielding two swords while the other one also turned into an elf but this time with antlers.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    As this was a game of luck to some extent, the skeleton would realize that his power orbs ended here. He hadn¡¯t gotten another one since. Being the one allowed to take his turn, he would take his time to think. After a bit, he took three runestones. The first one he would put one power orb in. It started to glow before exploding in his hand into three black power robs. Unlike the ones he already had flying circles around his head, these would stay in front of him, shimmering to show that these were temporary. He used all three plus his second permanent orb to drop it on the ground. The ground now split open as a red-green cobra started to crawl out. It was one of the bigger cobra¡¯s he had ever seen and immediately left to go to Tyron. He now had one power orb left, putting it into the third runestone. As soon as he did, he saw Tyron¡¯s runestones appear in front of him, softly shimmering. He took one of them, making it crumble into dust as the others disappeared from in front of him.


    Tyron saw the snake being summoned and slowly moved back. The elves followed him as well, their eyes scanning through the freshly made forest for the scorpion as the snake still had a fair way to go. Tyron had gone to the right, through a door that lead to one of the four big round rooms. With how much he had already casted, he was running low on runes. As he was looking for which one to use now, Pan had given him just as he had done a couple of times before. For now he grabbed another one which turned to dust when he grabbed it. ¡°No!¡±


    That was the rune that the skeleton had destroyed. Being angry, he would take the newest rune and looked at his bladed elf. The elf understood what he wanted, kneeling down and putting his swords on the ground. He closed his eyes, almost as if he was praying. A green orb coming out of him. The elf was still alive but also exhausted now. Not that that mattered to Tyron, using the green orb together with his own to summon the newest creature. He dropped the stone, taking a step back. Out of the stone came a big armored man, his armor being black holding a black sword. He was almost twice as big as Tyron. His helmet rocking two horns as he two eyes could barely be seen, sending out an aura deadly to any divine creature. He walked through the door into the courtyard, going straight to the skeleton.


    Seeing this monster come towards him, the skeleton suddenly didn¡¯t feel so sure. He looked at the remaining four runes. The last rune he had gotten was the exact same as two others, giving him little to no options to do stuff. The fourth rune could be helpful if he had more power. ¡°Shit¡­ Sorry cobra, seems like you have to die.¡± He didn¡¯t know where the cobra was, but with a psychic connection, he would order the snake to attack Tyron. Even though the snake wasn¡¯t too strong, he would take one of the three of the same runes and used a power orb on it. It turned to dust, but the snake¡¯s fangs grew as even more poison started to drip out. As the armored guy had left the door open, the snake would jump forwards, mouth open with fangs forwards.


    The big armored entity saw the snake flying towards the door. Before the snake could go through, he would stomp on the tail of the snake. The snake hissed, falling on the ground and turning around to sink his enlarged fangs into the leg of the armor. The man yelled in pain as his insides burned, the teeth easily piercing the black armor. He kicked the snake in the face, instantly killing it, but he himself fell on one knee, poison filling his body. It wasn¡¯t going to kill him but it did hurt him badly.


    Before Tyron could do anything else and while the snake was fighting the big entity, the skeleton would grab another rune that made three more orbs. Sadly just like last time, these orbs don¡¯t last and can only be used once. Then, he put all his power into one rune, causing the dead snake was just killed from being kicked to turn back into a rune, flying towards the skeleton who caught it. The stone that absorbed the five orbs didn¡¯t disappear like the other rune stones, staying in his hand before flying back in the air to be used again.


    Tyron let out a sigh of relief because of the armored man having killed the snake. The snake wouldn¡¯t have killed him, but it would¡¯ve hurt him a lot if it had bitten Tyron. Wanting to have a advantage, he would climb up the stairs going around the round room to the top. While he was going up, he took another power stone, adding a singular black power orb to it and just like his adversary, made three temporary power orbs. Using those three plus his four remaining orbs. The elf once more knelt down, summoning a green power orb that now made a total of eight, adding it all to another runestone. Tyron dropped the rune onto the ground while running further up the stairs. The ground started to shake as a crack appeared in the ground. It went to the edge of the castle arena until it got out of his side. When he got on the wall, he could see what was happening. Right next of the castle came a huge hole, a big creature climbing out of it. It had spikes all over his back, his skin had no hair anywhere. Claws as big as big as Tyron was long with tentacle coming out of his mouth. A primal roar sounded through the battlefield. ¡°Yes! Take that Mortel!¡± As the big beast bursted through the outer wall into the courtyard, Tyron looked at the elf with horns, motioning for him to go as well. The elf jumped down the wall, running towards Mortel right as the armored guy also reached him.


    Mortel saw both the armor and the elf run towards him. Not only that, in the distance was also a huge primal beast coming straight for him. He wasn¡¯t so sure on what to do, not that he had much time with the armored man swinging at him. He ducked underneath the sword and rolled away. This didn¡¯t help much as the elf had already reached him. He might not have a weapon but he was fast, hitting him with the antlers. It knocked a tooth off Mortel¡¯s jaw, making him stagger back. Before he could retaliate, the creature disappeared, appearing next to Tyron. The armor would swing at him once more. Even though he was big, the poison from the snake was still hurting him. So when he hit Mortel with his sword, it didn¡¯t do as much damage then he would have done before the poison. He also disappeared, returning to Tyron. Now that he was finally not getting hit, he would summon his fourth power orb that he had just gotten from Pan. ¡°Finally some power.¡± He used it to summon the snake back as it was one of his only options. The snake seemed to be his only shot, even against the primal beast. He had a problem now though. He didn¡¯t have any more power orbs to power up the snake like last time and the primal beast was getting closer, leaving a path of destruction.


    Tyron felt a bit more relieved seeing that Mortel was struggling. Although as he then looked at the remaining power stones, his heart dropped. He didn¡¯t really have many more stone to his exposal. He pulled out another triple orb generation but quickly put it back away as it wasn¡¯t going to do anything for him. The only other rune he had also didn¡¯t really make him smile but he summoned it anyway. A monk slowly emerged after four power orbs went in. The monk seemed to have rotten flesh as if a disease was living inside of him. Pestilence had arrived and was awaiting Tyron¡¯s command.


    The big beast had arrived at Mortel, towering over him. The snake he just summoned fled, leaving Mortel on his own to deal with the primal beast. The huge animal bow down, grabbing Mortel with his mouth tentacles, pulling him in. Mortel tried to struggle, the tentacles starting to make his bones creak as the teeth pierced his bones. He yelled in pain before also that creature disappeared before appearing back next to Tyron and saving him. This way of combat ensure pain and injuries without instantly killing the combatants. Mortel now ran away and going into the opposite round room that Tyron had gone into. Pieces of bone were hanging loose as he tried to carry one of his ribs without dropping it. As soon as he closed the door, he looked at the rib before dropping it. There was no point to keeping it. When he looked to his runestones once more, he saw more stones that he should¡¯ve right now. ¡°I guess Pan felt bad for letting Tyron start first.¡± He took out another cobra rune, summoning another cobra. The first cobra who had fled from the big creature had found his ways up the stairs sneaking towards Tyron and the two elves. As everyone was looking at Mortel, he snuck by the 2 elves and the armored man as nobody was paying attention and none of them could stop him now. Right before biting Tyron, his teeth grew once more, courtesy to Mortel casting the second rune of the three copies.


    As Tyron got bitten by the snake, the teeth would go deep inside of his leg. Black poison started to spread through his body, making him squirm and fall down. A new runestone appeared which he immediately took, using all the green orbs he had together with the elf mana to summon a humanoid spirit fairy. It flew a bit before sitting down onto the wood. ¡°P-Protect me!¡± Everyone around him immediately took guard, looking to only way that he could be attacked from seeing as the colossal beast had broken the wall and therefor the other path. The colossal beast on the other hand would charged back at Mortel, although this time much faster.


    Mortel was taking a breather before climbing onto the stairs to the top which looked weird since he didn¡¯t have longues. Once he arrived there, he saw the huge animal come to him once more. He didn¡¯t know what to do as his brain that didn¡¯t exist wasn¡¯t working. Like a deer in headlights was he standing there. Then something unexpected happened. The scorpion he had summoned in the start of the battle never saw an opening to attack Tyron. He had come back and attacked the huge beast, slowing him down in his tracks. This didn¡¯t do much, but the beast was distracted. It tried to stamp on the scorpion but didn¡¯t seem to be able to due to how small it was in comparison.


    Tyron saw what was happening, realizing that was a huge problem. He would look at the monk and then at the elf that had given him green orbs multiple times, helping him a lot. ¡°Sorry loyal servant.¡± He started to gather his black orbs, giving them to the monk. He opened his eyes, starting to let out a loud monastery like singing and humming. His eyes didn¡¯t have any pupils anymore and stared into the soul of Tyron before everyone on the battlefield fell down. Both of the elves started to writhe on the ground, their bodies started to wither away as pestilence corrupted their body. The big armored guy also fell down, clutching the part of his armor where his heart was. With first the poison and now this, he perished as well. The little scorpion didn¡¯t even last a second, dropping dead in front of the now satisfied beast. Even the big animal seemed to have his flesh wither a bit. Enraged he would charge forwards again. Then there was Tyron and Mortel left to be affected by the pestilence. Both of them felt it take a spot in their bodies, making them weaker.


    Mortel was on one knee. He was holding his skull, feeling pestilence rolling over him. Even though he was already nothing but bones, this was something magical. As he was distracted by the sickness, the animal had reached him. It smashed into the wall making it collapse and taking Mortel down with it. Enraged he would start to dance on the rubble, not knowing where Mortel was.


    While Tyron had difficulty seeing what was happening, he felt a sudden pain once more in his leg. He looked down, seeing that the snake was able to survive the pestilence and had made his way back up the stairs. With his teeth now deep in his leg for a second time, he would feel the poison spread through his body. It was weirdly warm, making him feel a burning pain but as it hurt, it also felt soothing. The pain was still higher than the soothing warmth, making him scream as he grabbed parts of his body that continued to burn. His scream stopping quickly after the snake had disappeared. With a flash, both the now dead Tyron and the healed skeleton appeared back in the forest, a soft but demonic laugh coming from Mortel as he had won.

 Chapter 16 - second combat

    His laugh slowly disappeared as the people looked at the obviously poisoned previous king. Mortel looked at the people around, seeing Emma standing there, seemingly shocked at the death of Tyron. He got angry again, pointing towards Emma as he walked forwards. ¡°You! My plans failed because of you! In the name of Pan, I challenge¡­¡±


    He didn¡¯t get further than that as an arrow would graze his skull, causing him to flinch and look at where the arrow came from. Jackson lowered his bow as he had a grin on his face. ¡°King Mortel! In the name of Pan, I challenge you to a dual.¡±


    Both Jackson and Mortel disappeared, leaving behind confused Emma, looking at the spot where Jackson had been standing. ¡°I thought only royalty could do this.¡±


    The landscape changed from a forest with thick trees and bushes to a pretty empty landscape with not much to be seen. There was only sand for as far as the eye could see with two big, flat rocks not higher then their knees in front of Jack and Mortel who were standing around thirty meters away from each other. On the rocks in front of them were lying the same runestones that originally were flying around Mortel and Tyron¡¯s heads in the previous battle.


    Mortel didn¡¯t even try to understand what group was given to him by Pan now, looking at Jackson as he was angry, yelling at him. ¡°How dare you interrupt me! You insult me challenging me! I¡¯ve lived for seven hundred years! How old are you then to challenge me?!¡±


    As he was being angry and yelling at him, Jackson knelt down onto the ground in order to be able to reach the runestones, looking at what each did. He never had done this before and only knew about the theory, seeing the flashes of what each runestone did. He seemed to have some kind of army group in front of him. He wasn¡¯t sure why but he started to glow gold, showing that he was allowed to start. He grabbed a runestone, throwing it in the air to gain a green power orb. That was all he could do.


    After Jackson had done his turn so nonchalant and fast, Mortel realized he wasn¡¯t ready for the battle. He started to look through his own stones, seeing he had gotten a pretty fast paced battle in front of him. He ended up gabbing the same runestone as Jackson, creating a green orb as well. Then he grabbed a second runestone, throwing it past his stone onto the ground as the green orb flew in it. A little green creature started to form and climb out, increasing in size, growing bigger and bigger until it was slightly bigger than a regular human. The creature was green with two big teeth coming from his bottom row of teeth going up and two big ears. As soon as it was born, it started to make his way to Jackson, seemingly having no haste in attacking.


    As the golden glow returned to Jackson, he would grab two runestones, creating a red power orb before dropping the stone next to him, both the red and the green orb flying into it. It slowly started to turn into a woman, wearing little clothing around the waste while the rest was covered in a very thin green leather armor. Her arms were naked clothing wise but she had metal armpads going from her wrist to her shoulder. Her ears pointy to show that she was an elf with nails that could rival a cat. Unlike the big green creature coming towards them, she would stay by his side.


    From where he was, Mortel didn¡¯t see exactly who or what he had summoned, needing to point at her for Pan to show him what she did. Not that the information would change his next action as he didn¡¯t have much to deal with her. He once again grabbed two runestones, summoning another green orb and this time putting both into the next stone. An animal started to form, slowly growing into a combination of multiple animals. His body seemed to be a combination between a hyena and a lion with the tail of a deer. He had the teeth of a wolf and the tusks of an elephant, sized down to shape him. He had the antlers of a deer but they seemed more pointy and demonlike with red eyes to match. Seeing the creature in front of him like this made Mortel happy and excited, laughing as the singular elf for now was no match for the attack he was creating, watching his newest creation storm off.


    For now, Jackson was almost defenseless. As the green ogre came closer, he ordered the elf to stand down, letting the ogre attack him. He could try to escape him but the longer he tried to move out of the way, the bigger the chance he could lose his turn and not summon anything. The ogre lifted his hand above his head, towering above the lying down centaur. He sung down his fist, hitting Jackson on the top of his head before disappearing and reappearing next to Mortel. Mortel didn¡¯t even wait, sending him out again. This time the ogre started to run, having gotten the will to fight this weak horse human amalgamation.


    Being slightly bruised, he looked back at his stones, grabbing three now. The first one was another red power stone while he used all of orbs to put them into the second stone. It slowly started to reshape into what looked like a locket. In the locket was the picture of a fist in both red and white colors. He then looked at the elf, nodding at her. She didn¡¯t even need to be told to know what he wanted of her, driving her long nails into the ground. Everywhere her nails were in the ground, grass started to grow. Out of her chest came a red orb, flying towards Jackson. He then grabbed his locket which started to glow as another red orb came out. The two combined and flew into the third stone. Behind Jackson appeared a red and white banner with once more the closed fist on.


    Mortel was slightly surprised seeing Jackson not move when the ogre came. He was even more surprised when he saw Jackson having summoned nothing but power orb generators instead of actual creatures to protect himself. Not that it was his problem. Seeing how things were going, he grew pretty relaxed, grabbing two stones. Almost like clockwork did he summon another green orb and then put all orbs in the second stone. Just like Jacksons stone reshaped into a locket, his reshaped into what looked like a pink veigny dragon tooth. Right as his ogre reached Jackson for the second time, he would snap his fingers, instantly transporting the tooth to the ogre.


    As both the ogre and now the hyena-lion reached him, Jackson wasn¡¯t so keen on sitting down and taking it like the first time. The hit on his head was still hurting and might have given him a sleight concussion and he wasn¡¯t willing to take another hit. He quickly got up on his hooves, ready to move. Even though he was ready to evade, he also knew that he couldn¡¯t run because that would make him forfeit his future turns. Every source that he ever heard of and read said that it was impossible to fight the creations but that didn¡¯t stop him from trying.


    Even though he was ready to fight, there wasn¡¯t a lot he could do. On his left side was the beast charging at him head down as on his right was the ogre with out of nowhere a pink giant dragon tooth in his hands. He grabbed his bow and arrows, aiming at the charging beast first. He quickly shot three arrows after each other before having to focus on his right; The beast only got hit by two of the arrows, one landing in his back and the other in his side. It didn¡¯t even bother him as he continued to run. Jackson saw the swordlike tooth swing at him, forcing him to use his bow to redirect it away from his face. The force of the swing was a lot though, making him stumble to his left right when the beast hit him in his side. The antlers would pierce into his horse chest, forcing him to fall on his side as the pain and force made him unable to resist the power. Being exposed now, the ogre would drive the tooth into his human chest. Both of the attackers disappeared, appearing back at Mortel. The beast roared in triumph, prompting the ogre to do the same. The sword tooth turned back into a normal pink dragon tooth, lying down on the ground next to Mortel.


    Jackson continued to lie down for a bit, feeling blood leak down out of his body as the stinging pain made him groan. With the golden glow now on him, he knew that he had to move and summon stuff or he was going to die. Putting his hands onto the ground, he pushed himself up, able to each his stones again since he didn¡¯t move too far away from the rock. He knew that if continued like this, he wouldn¡¯t be able to survive much longer.


    He grabbed once runestone and threw it down, letting one power orb go into the banner behind him. The banner started to glow and gave a red and white one in return. Then he let those two together with a green orb go into the power stone. Out of the orb came a bear having stripes on his back. It didn¡¯t look all too impressive, being a smaller type bear. Even though the bear wasn¡¯t too impressive, it was still handy as it came closer to Jackson, spitting out another runestone. He picked it up, looking at what it was. Using a green orb summoned by the elf and a red orb that he still had flying around, he was able to summon this creature as well, summoning a second but different elf. This one just had a dress, no weapons or anything. The only thing she did do was give Jackson yet another runestone. These summons weren¡¯t strong but they gave him more option to cast.


    Mortel wasn¡¯t sure what Jackson was doing, seeing him summon orb generation and weak looking creatures. Either Pan gave him some useless stuff or he was planning something. He didn¡¯t really care at this point. This was a slaughter and he was all for it. He grabbed two runestones yet again, although this time not summoning a power orb. Using the three he already had, he put them all into the first stone. As he did it, the second stone he had was shown to also be a power stone but this stone went into the other stone, bursting into little pieces. He had to sacrifice an unsummoned power stone to summon it.


    As he dropped the stone, it started to slowly form into what looked like a snake. Although the longer he waited; the bigger he got. Eventually it wasn¡¯t a snake anymore, having a full grown wurm in front of him, almost able to stretch out across the entire battlefield. As he was busy with the wurm, the ogre and beast already made their way back to Jackson. This time he would snap his fingers and gave the tooth to the beast.


    Jackson watched as the wurm was summoned. That seemed to be something very dangerous and he started to get concerned. For now he had the other two creatures to focus on. The dragon tooth had been shrunken and taken their place in exchange for one of the tusks, glowing a little. Grabbing his bow once more, he would get up, focusing on the ogre while he send the bear to intercept the beast. He then looked at his elves motioning to them to stand down.


    The bear was almost as big as the beast, being just a bit smaller. As they reached each other, the beast would hit the bear with his antlers just as when he had hit Jackson. The bear wasn¡¯t as weak though, immediately swiping back at the beast with his claw. It hit the beast in the head, leaving behind a pretty big scar going over his right eye. Growling in anger, the beast moved forwards, evading a second strike before biting into the neck of the bear. His tusks driving into him while his sharp teeth drove into him as well. Trying to get free, the bear started to frantically pull and roar, swiping at the beast to be let go. It didn¡¯t seem to do much though, tearing open his flesh while the beast continued to bite down. Eventually the bear slowed down, his eyes slowly closing as the bloodloss was quick and much. The beast being mortally wounded didn¡¯t give up, continuing on his path.


    Jackson was busy with the ogre, using his bow to fire arrows which did seem to slow down and hurt the ogre. Sadly for him with a fast moving target that for some unknown reason had a lot of agility would be able to predict his shots. This caused him to not hit his head and instead the shoulder and arm. Using his still functional arm, he would swing for Jacksons ribs. In order to lessen the blow, he moved his bow in the way of the trajectory, hearing the wood crack as he was hit full force in his human ribs, hearing something else crack underneath his skin. Just as the ogre disappeared, he felt a sting in his left side. The beast had reached him but not with a charge. He was too weak too charge and instead drove the tooth turned tusk into his side. The tusk burned, scorching his flesh where it had hit. He yelped, falling back down as his legs gave out. He already couldn¡¯t move and the fight wasn¡¯t even close to done. Well¡­ it would be if he doesn¡¯t start to do something. As he was back on the ground, he felt the ground shake a bit as the beast fell down as well. His bear might not have stopped him from reaching Jackson but he managed to kill it.


    Bleeding from multiple wounds, he would try to focus back on the rocks. He grabbed three runestones now, throwing the first one in the air to create his second green orb. Using the orbs created from his banner and locked together with the orbs he had flying around his head, he would put it half and half in the rocks. The first rock he dropped as the second on he held up in the air. A small beam came out, reaching out two meters before turning into a portal. On the other side were multiple goblins around a campfire. Two of them standing up and coming through the portal. As soon as they did, the portal closed and the stone turned to dust. The stone he had dropped had turned into three separate entities. All being humans having basic soldier armor, two with a sword and a third with a spear.


    with the combat going in his favor, he would sit down on his knees in front of the rocks, not finding any reason for having to be ready for anything. He casually watched how his wurm and ogre once more went on their way to attack Jackson, in the meantime grabbing two runestones. The first one got two green orbs while the second one only got one. As both of them now started to grow the creatures inside of them, he would snap his fingers for the tooth, giving it back to the ogre. Looking back at the creatures he was making, both stone creature two beings. The one that got one rob started to grow elven bow wielders while the other runestone made made two dwarflike creatures. One wielding two swords and no armor and the second having a sword and shield, having a very simple helm on his head.


    Jackson looked at the creature coming back for him. The wurm was the most dangerous one, even if the ogre had the swordlike tooth. Looking at his creatures so far, he couldn¡¯t afford to sacrifice the orb generating elf and he knew the other elf that gave him the runestone was too weak to win from the ogre. Instead he would send all his creatures except the orb generating elf to fight the worm. While they advanced to the wurm, he faced the ogre. This time he wasn¡¯t going to try and protect himself. He was already too weak and now didn¡¯t even have a weapon to try. As the ogre got near and swung at him, he would close his eyes, scared for what would happen. As the sword dug itself into his side, he would yell in pain, the tooth causing a burnspot to appear. It was weird that it happened now as the first time the ogre wielded it, it didn¡¯t do that. Not that it mattered a lot since the ogre dissapeared once more, leaving a very hurt Jackson to whine in pain.


    His small army ran towards the worm who was slithering towards Jackson. The creatures underneath him didn¡¯t seem like much of a threat but they still distracted him. There were two goblins with daggers, three normal soldiers and an unsuspecting elf.


    Not one to say no to a snack, he would go down towards the goblins, immediately snapping one up in his jaws. Just because he was big, didn¡¯t mean he was also invulnerable. During the time that he was busy with one goblin, the others went to his sides, driving their swords and daggers into his side. As the wurm got ready to attack once more, the soldier with the spear made sure to protect his mates, preventing the wurm to attack them. The goblin on the other hand didn¡¯t have anyone protecting him. Seeing the snake come towards his, he would go to the snack, jumping to try and land on his head. Instead as he jumped, the snake opened his mouth, swallowing him as well. The elf having done nothing so far held her hand out as her eyes turned white, a small light beam shooting from the palm of her hand into the side of the wurm, causing him to screech and recoil.


    In the meantime, the two soldiers have been continuously cutting away in his side, causing deep wounds and chunks of flesh to fall down. They hurt him more than the annoying light of the woman. He turned to look at the three soldiers, seeing that the spear wielding bastard was still keeping him from diving into them. Blinded by anger and pain, he would attack them anyway, snapping at the soldier. A fresh pain entering his mouth as the spear went up into his head and skulls, his own teeth breaking the soldier like a twig. He didn¡¯t even scream as he was swallowed and dead within a second. The damage was done though, the spear was far into his skill, making the snake unable to think anymore. The elf came closer now, shooting two more light bolts into his mouth, hitting where the spear was. It made a big hole, blowing a hole into his skull. As he screeched in pain, he fell down. Bad luck hit the remaining soldiers as they were crushed by the dead snake, leaving the elf to return to Jackson alone.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    As the elf returned to Jackson, he would sigh as he once more was reduced to only two creatures. He took one runestone now, putting in one green orb and two red before dropping it. Out of the stone now came what looked like a normal elf, fitted to hunt animals with his bow. Once he was summoned, Jackson used his other green orb and a red one created from his locket to put it into the elf, copying him so he had two of them.


    The difference between Mortel and Jackson started to show in their runestones. While Mortel had been able to summon cheap but strong creatures, Jackson was able to summon more given if he survives. Mortels runestones were slowly running out, having to work with only the supply that Pan provided over time while Jackson continued to get them from both the creatures he summons and from Pan. The soldiers he had summoned had given him three exactly the same runestone allowing him to summon three more groups. With other words, Mortel started to lose the momentum.


    Mortel was also starting to get aware of this problem. He needed to keep adding pressure to Jackson if he wanted to win and kill him. This time he would hesitate with his actions. The death of his wurm left his Ogre to fight alongside the archer pair now. As they ran towards Jackson to fight, he knew that ranged attack often didn¡¯t work against the summoners so he wasn¡¯t surprised when the archers decided to go for a melee attack against the centaur. Looking at the dwarflike human soldiers, he would grab a green orb, giving it to these soldiers to power them up. They both sank to the ground, eyes closed and in concentration while two spirits looking exactly like them left their bodies, following the ogre into battle. As the tooth was back with him, he would this time give it to the archer pair, on of their bows turning into the sword shaped tooth.


    Having only two orbs left, he would summon the same creature that Jackson had summoned, creating the elf that had fought against his wurm. After having grown, she too gave him a runestone. This runestone was exactly what he needed, throwing it up in the air to create another green orb. With the new green orb, he would grab a runestone, putting the rob into it and now throwing it a little distance away. The orb he had used to summon the forming creature started to fade, turning back into a runestone before shattering, an extra cost for this cheap yet powerful beast. Out of the stone came a full grown adult elephant, not even waiting for Mortel to command him, charging to attack.


    Seeing the elephant appear made Jackson groan, closing his eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me.¡± He didn¡¯t have any time to relax either, the ogre already being a threat once more. He didn¡¯t know how much more he could withstand, his body burning all over in pain as blood continued to slowly leak out of the wounds. Even though the elf managed to defeat the wurm, she had gotten a lot of help and he knew that she couldn¡¯t take either attacker. Therefor he send his two hunters to stop the ogre, gritting his teeth as he then faced the enemy archers coming straight for him with nobody to stop them. Once more before they could hit him, he closed his eyes, getting ready for the attack. When the sword hit him in his chest, he would gasp for air, feeling the weight of the weapon disappear as both archer went back to Mortel. He grabbed the wound, panting and almost collapsing. He was still breathing but almost every move hurt. He knew that taking another hit was probably going to be enough to floor him, already shaking and shivering as his body was filled in pain.


    The hunters seemed to be ready for the ogre. Both of them starting to fire their arrows towards the charging abomination. What they didn¡¯t account for were the specters of the dwarven soldiers. The one with the shield seemed to be very good at wielding it, able to block most of the arrows while his counterpart blocked some arrows as well using the swords. The ogre now having a free path to attack the elves would do so. Using his fists, he would swing at them both. Neither first hit as they dodged without a lot of trouble, both of them grabbing daggers for melee combat. With the specters on their way to help the ogre, they had to be fast. Jumping at the ogre, one got grabbed mid air by his throat while the other one started to violently stab the ogre¡¯s chest. Even though the ogre was big and strong, a dagger driven deep in his heart was still enough to kill him. While the elf was laughing with his victory, it was cut short when he was stabbed in the back by the specters swords. Both he and the ogre ended up dead on the ground while the other hunter was freed from the choking hand, gagging and gasping for air. With the death of the ogre, the specters returned to the owners.


    Even though things didn¡¯t look too great for the poor centaur, he still saw a chance to win. He took two of the three runestones he got from the soldiers, summoning both. In the end, he now had a total of six soldiers, a hunter and his two elves. Even though his army wasn¡¯t strong, it was still able to protect him from any attack from now on.


    Mortel was getting to his last runestones, now having to work with whatever Pan given him. He had one other runestone but he knew what he did and it wouldn¡¯t help him. The rune he got from Pan was a nice one, immediately summoning it. The beast from the beginning had returned, growling as it was ready for another fight. For now he would put his last mana back into the dwarven soldiers, getting them back into spirit form to aid the elephant.


    Jackson knew that Mortel could give the elephant a boost in power with that tooth weapon. The hunter was stronger than the soldiers he had summoned and therefor didn¡¯t want to just waste him by sending him to get killed by the elephant. Instead, he let his six soldiers form a lone, giving them aid from the elf that killed the wurm. The elf positioned herself in the middle of the two groups, holding out her hands and starting to fire off her light bolts, blinding the elephant. Blinding the elephant seemed to be smart at first, that was until you realized that he just didn¡¯t stop charging at them, completely trampling the elf.


    The soldiers next to her started to stab the elephant, driving in spears and swords. The pain caused by this made the elephant even more angry stamping around and swinging with his tusks to those humans, piercing one of them with a tusk. The specters had reached them now as well. While a separate fight started between two sword wielding soldiers and the specters, seemingly evenly matched. The remaining three soldiers going back at it on the elephant. Just like any battle before them, it ended after not too much more fighting, every creature having bitten the dust except those specters. Wanting to know what they did, Jackson would point at them, getting a close up vision of who and what they were just like when he inspected his stones. These were supportive soldiers, only able to use their specter form when another creature was attacking.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ so the amount of creatures he can summon is limited now, but the ones he summons are stronger thanks to those fucks¡­¡± He said this to himself more than to anyone else, trying to keep his mind going and not pass out. He grabbed a runestone just gotten by Pan, summoning another hunter and like the first one, putting two more power orbs into him to make a copy.


    Mortel got his next runestone from Pan and was extremely disappointed when he learned that it was a powerorb. He summoned it nonetheless, using two of his orbs to summon a dryad. She was a special creature, not allowed to attack and hence, useless to him. Not having anything else to do, he would power the dwarven spirits once more and giving the tooth to the beast. The amount of creature he had started to get depleted. Beside those two, he now had the protective dryad, the weak archers and the even weaker elf. He finally started to get a bit nervous.


    The beast together with his spectral companions reached Jackson. Jackson not wanting to get another meeting with the beast would send his two hunters to deal with him, knowing that even though they will die, they would manage to kill the beast fully. Sadly enough for him those specters helping the beast would cause both of his hunters to die as well. For every creature he managed to kill, he lost double if not more.


    Although he did notice that Mortel didn¡¯t summon a lot on his last turn, showing that he was running out. This gave Jackson some leeway to play first of all, he grabbed the stone given by Pan, putting two power orbs into it, summoning what looked like an astrolabe but with many copper spinning rings around it, each ring being bigger than the others. In between all this rings were all the powerorbs available to him. He put two more orbs into it, making it explode, giving him two exactly the same runestones. Basically using four powerorbs to get two powerorbs permanently in return. He immediately used one of those runestones to create a white power orb. He now had a great supply of them, two green, two red, a white, an elf able to make on of those colors, a banner that could make both red and white and a locket that basically did the same. If only he had something to use it on. Surprisingly he had something, keeping it hidden as he increased his powerorb supply.


    Even his next turn was a disappointment. The stone given by pan was yet another powerorb. He didn¡¯t need these orbs anymore, he needed flesh to throw against Jacksons defenses. He was so close to victory. Wanting to keep up the pressure, he send out his mostly useless elf, hoping that the aid of the specters was going to at least take down a stronger unit.


    Jackson could feel Mortel starting to panic, seeing the light shooting elf approach from across the field. Wanting to speed up the battle, he send out his last hunter and his three soldiers. Unlike the ogre and beast, this elf wasn¡¯t so fast which meant that it would take a while for her to reach him. With his men now prepared for an actual fight, they set up a bit in front of Jackson, the hunter starting to fire his arrows towards the elf. As a response, she started to shoot her bolts as well. While the bolts themselves weren¡¯t too strong against uninjured opponents, the arrows were being stopped by the specters. Seeing as ranged failed both sides, they all approached to kill each other up close.


    The hunter was the most threatening and everyone knew that, the specters going for him while the elf got focused by the soldiers. She threw one look at them before turning around and trying to flee. The elf wasn¡¯t so scared from the specters. He swung at one of them with his dagger, using his bow to block the other. Up until now, nobody had managed to hit a specter, so he was surprised when after a series of blocks, he managed to break though one of them, killing the dual sword wielding specter. His surprise wasn¡¯t there for long as directly after that, he got stabbed by the other specter, falling down dead onto the ground. The last specter disappeared after it appeared to be that the three soldiers absolutely massacred the poor elf before returning to Jackson.


    Jackson took the second runestone that created the white powerorb, increasing his summoning capability. He immediately used it to summon the stone given by Pan which was another bear. The bear giving him another runestone just like before. As it happened to be, the stone given was another power orb that he could summon when Pan allowed him to. For now that was all he did, trying to lure Mortel out to keep using his troops.


    As it so happened to be, Mortel finally got another creature summon. As he send out his archers for a second time to fight, he would drop his newest runestone on the ground, summoning his ogre from the start back. It wasn¡¯t the strongest but it would be able to do something.


    Jackson would look at the archers and the specters helping them. One of the archers wielding that infernal tooth as the other still held her bow. He send out his last soldier band, grabbing one of his five remaining runestones. He had this one for a while now but never saw a good opportunity to use it. He put fours orbs into the stone, holding it in the air as spirits of fallen soldiers shot out. They flew to his soldiers and went into them. They suddenly got a surge of energy, war cries sounding in their heads as they started to run towards the enemy. The archers weren¡¯t prepared for that. The one with the bow quickly starting to fire off some arrows. Some of them hit, some missed but it didn¡¯t seem to matter much as they just kept coming. The ones with the swords focused onto the archers as the spear wielder focused on the spirits, using the distance the spear created to buy them some time and keeping his distance. This time the fighting took a bit longer with neither group getting an upper hand. Eventually, both sides had more offensive capabilities than their defense was worth with the spirits suiciding on the soldiers since they could come back anyway while the archers bit the dust together with the soldiers.


    Now was the moment that Jackson saw fit to summon his prized creature. With the archers dead and his power orbs build up to a very decent amount, he would summon a runestone. At first he only put three orbs into it, summoning a hawk, but once It was summoned, he poured in a combination of white orbs with any color that he could summon. With every pair he put in, the hawk grew bigger and bigger. ¡°Hahaa¡­¡± Jackson sounded happy for the first time since the battle started, pointing at Mortel. ¡°Go get him.¡±


    Mortel now saw that he had made a mistake. By attacking with his archers, he had given up his only air defense. He didn¡¯t know that Jackson had any flying beasts but this might be very bad for him. His next runestone did manage to cheer him up a bit. As he dropped it down, it summoned another ogre yet again, his other one already on his way to attack Jackson.


    Jackson knew that he needed some time to win and with the ogre on his way, he had to slow him down. He looked at the elf that had summoned his mana many times now and sighed. ¡°Slow him down will you?¡± She nodded at him, getting up and spreading her sharp nails to make a futile attempt against this ogre and his spirit companions. As she left Jacksons side, it was obvious that it was a sacrifice, a strategic move to buy him time until he was allowed to summon more creature to actually take down this ogre and possibly the next one as well.


    As he got the golden glow back and got to turn, he would add another green powerorb, grabbing his locket. He put four power orbs in it, gold and white as it crumbled into his hand, leaving behind two pebbles and growing into two different runestones. One of the stones was another banner although this one had a flame on it instead of a first. The second runestone was another campfire with goblins. Although this time there came three goblins through the portal before closing again.


    The hawk that he had send was now above Mortel. Mortel knew this, looking up as it flew down. He had no defense against it, bowing down as the claws and beak hit his back, forcing him to the ground before he too disappeared to go back to Jackson. His first counterattack and Mortel already looked pretty beaten up.


    Mortel started to get angry and more concerned right now. The next runestone he got was another orb generation. Angrily he summoned it, both his ogres on the attack.


    When the second ogre had caught up to the first ogre, they both started to go to Jackson. Jackson being ready for it and having a plan send his goblins to the ogres to distract them just like he had done the elf. One goblin for each of them, keeping the third one back. Just to stall time, that¡¯s all he needed, more time.


    Even though Mortel continue to get powerorbs, Jackson wasn¡¯t much better off. He too was getting any power orbs, throwing a green one in the air, making his total pure orbs to nine. Sadly he was running out of things to summon. Not by lack of runestone but by lack of creature between his runestones. He grabbed a couple, hesitating on what to do. Not wanting to lose his turn, he would quickly cast the first one, making another locket, immediately filling it with four orbs to break it into two runestones. One of those he used to summon what looked like little fairies. They weren¡¯t going to do a lot but it was something. For now his goblins continues to distract these ogres, quickly getting hammered but his hawk was catching up fast, swooping down for a second attack.


    The hawk screeched as it flew down, snapping at Mortel. He dove out of the way, getting ready to fight back. The hawk was faster though, landing, biting at Mortel before any of his creature could come and help. The big hawk bit off his entire arm before disappearing again, leaving Mortel to scream and yell in pain.


    Mortel might not be having air defense but he did have his ogres being threatening. He just hoped that he was able to kill Jackson before the hawk could take his life. His arm getting ripped off was hurting him, even though he lacked muscles. He looked at the newly summoned runestone that he had gotten from Pan and could almost cry. It was absolutely useless, throwing it away. ¡°Come on¡­ come on¡­ get that fucker¡­ kill him¡­¡±


    The ogres were now very close to Jackson, but Jackson seemed to smile, grinning as he had a plan. He looked a his bear and last goblin. He barely had any creatures anymore but these two would be his winning plan. ¡°Buy me time.¡± The goblin jumped onto the back of the bear, riding him as he started to run towards the ogres. It didn¡¯t take long but as soon when they got close, the goblin jumped off, running to the ogre. The ogre instantly hit him with his fist, breaking his neck. The bear now fought both the ogres, roaring and swinging with his claws to them. They themselves didn¡¯t have a weapon at first until Mortel snapped his fingers, giving him both the tooth and as the spirits were still around the ogre. Just as the bear wanted to attack, the spirits drove their swords in his side, distracting the bear long enough to be hit in the neck by the tooth, falling down dead. The path from the ogres to Jackson was now free.


    As his hawk and his fairies were on their way, the short but fierce fight happened underneath them. They flew at Mortel who saw what was happening and stood up laughing. He knew that these flying beasts weren¡¯t going to be enough to kill him, winning the battle. That was until Jackson grabbed two of his last three runes. The first one only needed a red orb to activate, giving his beasts a sudden fire breath. Not only that, his second rune was filled with three green orbs and two white, growing the beasts into giants. The hawk who already was big would fly down towards him together with the fairies, breathing fire at the skeleton, tearing off bones. The fairies screetching as they did the same, picking him apart.

 Chapter 17 - Finally some quiet

    Both of the fighters appeared back into the forest, both Jackson and Mortel on the ground. Mortel was more a bunch of spread out bones while Jackson had multiple parts on his body where blood was leaking out as he didn¡¯t seem to want to move anymore.


    Emma wanted to help and ran to him. As she wasn¡¯t used to being around centaurs, she would trip over his legs, falling onto the ground.


    While she was struggling with helping, the son of Mortel didn¡¯t wait a second and ran off. His men followed after him but slower. The great armor that they wore being strong but also removing their ability of being fast.


    In the meantime, the minotaur had come closer and knelt down, softly touching Jackson, feeling over both his horse chest and human chest. He looked up at the centaur that had been on guard with him before he changed. ¡°Get the healer. He has multiple broken ribs.¡±


    Even though a lot of royal fighting had been explained, she was still confused. ¡°I thought pan healed the victor?¡±


    The son of Tyron came forwards, looking at Jackson before looking up at Lilly. ¡°Not always. If Pan deems the win not worthy or of he just doesn¡¯t want to, he doesn¡¯t heal the victor. Anyway¡­ with dear ¡®ol dad gone, I¡¯m the king now.¡±


    That moment, the centaur got back with a satyr in pursuit. He knelt down next to Jackson, starting to feel for himself even though the minotaur started to tell him what was wrong.


    With Jackson being cared for and with the immediate danger being gone, the urgency of her original arrival came back as well. The idea of Lilly being dead made her start to cry again. ¡°My sister¡­ she was under attack from the skeletons.¡±


    The new king understood what she was trying to say. He tapped on the shoulder of the minotaur, getting his attention instantly. ¡°Go to the kings tree. Gather a group of centaurs and try to help her sister.¡±


    The minotaur nodded, getting up and grabbing Emma, putting her on his shoulder. At first it felt weird sitting on his shoulder, that¡¯s when she realized he was faster than a horse, speeding away so he can do what was told to do, save her sister.


    Lucas slowly opened his eyes. They continued to roll back as he tried to get his vison under control. It took a short while but eventually he could see, seeing an old roof above his head. It was made of wood and dried grass. As he said up, he saw that it was a rather small house with animal pelts hanging from the roof. In the middle of the room was a table with two chairs. To the left of the table was a closet which was filled with bottles. To the left of the closet was a window with underneath a barrel with who knows what, having a dresser next to it. To the right of the table was the front door. As he continued to look around, he found something to pay a bit more attention to. Whatever it was, it didn¡¯t fit, looking like a big red cylinder with a door in it, able to fit around three people when they tried.


    As he sat up and reached out to touch it, he though to have heard about this thing before but never seen it. A loud bark caused him to jump a but, closing his eyes and putting his hand on his chest. ¡°Damn¡­¡±


    The bark had come from outside right in front of the door, hearing someone standing there. Since he still didn¡¯t know what exactly had happened or where he was, he would swing his legs off the bed, ready to run or fight if needed.


    As the door opened, the big guy that had saved him walked in. He quickly saw that Zoi was awake and started to laugh. ¡°Zoi! You up!¡± He got in, closing the door and holding a broom. He still had his animal Jacket on and had his army boots on, rocking a big brown beard. How you!?¡±


    Zoi gave him a smile, slowly standing up and rubbing his throat. It still hurt from the choking but he was happy to be alive. ¡°Hey Gurgen. How are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Gurgen well, Gurgen save Zoi. Why girl choke Zoi?¡±


    Zoi looked down and rubbed his throat once more. ¡°Yeah well¡­ Her father got killed causing them to be a little upset. Also, these days I got by the name of Lucas, not Zoi.¡±


    ¡°Why Zoi Lucas? What problem with Zoi?¡±


    ¡°Zoi is an old name. One that can perhaps lead to me if he hasn¡¯t already found me. I don¡¯t know how all seeing my god is in this universe if he even can seen me. It¡¯s just a way to tell myself that I¡¯m free.¡±


    His explanation was stopped as another bark sounded through the area, being much closer then before. ¡°What?¡±


    Gurgen didn¡¯t really seem to mind it, also not being surprised that it came from right in front of him. He would walk to the door and put down the broom, taking off his jacket and hanging it over the broom. It was a very unstable construction but it was standing.


    Lucas sat down on the chair, looking up at him. ¡°What was that sound? Since when do you have a dog?¡±


    ¡°Dog? No dog? Why you think dog?¡±


    It was obvious that he wasn¡¯t going to get a straight answer out of Gurgen so he would shake off that. ¡°Okay then¡­ how about that red box over there. Is that the machine I was told about?¡±


    ¡°Red box yes. Got me here.¡± Gurgen sat down at the table as well, grabbing a bottle that was on his table. When he saw that it was empty, he would put it back down.


    ¡°What was the last thing that you remember before getting here? You never know with you, always appearing out of nowhere, not always having your memory straight so tell me.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Gurgen was in front of house, gate ripping out, saving group of children, then boy with machine appearing telling Gurgen he look for Gurgen. Gurgen go in machine and push button, then Gurgen appear here.¡±


    Lucas gave him a short nod, not having been a part of that. He was taken away from their world pretty soon and kinda missed it. This world here was a bit too violent for him.


    As he was lost in his thoughts, an egg would suddenly fall out of his beard onto the table. Before it could roll off, he would grab it, putting it on the opening of the bottle so it stayed in one place. It all happened so casual that Lucas was confused.


    ¡°What¡­ What just happened¡± He pointed at the egg, looking at Gurgen as if he was going insane.


    ¡°There problem?¡±


    ¡°The egg, where did the egg come from?¡±


    Gurgen smiled as he would put his hand in his beard, grabbing something and taking out a fully grown chicken. ¡°This Idi. Idi and Gurgen friend.¡± He put the chicken down onto the table, turning to look at Lucas as it suddenly barked. It turned around before jumping back into the beard. ¡°She like you.¡±


    The mystery of where the barking came from was solved, why she barked was still a question. Not a question for now though as he would look at the door and then back at Gurgen. ¡°We¡­ We need to go back to those girls. I know they tried to kill him but I need to help them.¡±


    That idea was quicky cut short as he would slam his hand on the table. ¡°No help.¡± He once more put two arrows on the table which Zoi immediately recognized. Gurgen got up and walked to a barrel that was next to his closet, grabbing a bottle that was standing on it. This bottle wasn¡¯t empty and he took a big swig, turning back to face Lucas. ¡°Why Zoi help anyway.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t really answer that question, scratching his head. ¡°Morals I guess.¡±


    As if it was planned, a scream sounded through the walls of the cabin, being not too loud as they were a fair bit away from the road. It sounded like Emma or Lilly screaming for their lives. ¡°That¡¯s them!¡± He ran to the door, throwing the door open before looking around, not knowing where to go.


    Gurgen grunted, getting up and following Lucas. On his way out, he grabbed the broom and Jacket, putting on the jacket as he saw Lucas not being able to figure out were to go. The tick bushes covering this land covered all sides, letting nothing be seen. Gurgen didn¡¯t hesitate though, going to the right and through the bushes. Lucas followed him, a bit scared of what he might find. It took them a bit as they got slowed down by the amount of bushes that they had to go through but they were fortunately close to the road.


    As they bursted through the bushes, it got obvious very quick about what was happening. On the road was a group of skeletons, surrounding a green bubble with in it a satyr, centaur and Lilly. Lilly screamed once more, yelling for someone to help them.


    Lucas didn¡¯t have any weapons on him anymore while Gurgen only had his broom. That didn¡¯t seem to satisfy him though, putting down the broom and grabbing two very big sticks, looking very heavy as they were as thick as his head and as long as the broom. ¡°Zoi take stick. We fight of bones.¡± He gave one of the stick to Zoi, keeping the bigger of the two for himself.


    As Lucas grabbed the stick, he would be pulled down with it to the ground, letting it go before his fingers would be crushed.


    ¡°Maybe Zoi take broom.¡±


    Opting for the broom as well, he picked it up before scanning over the battlefield. The vines summoned by Zoala were still there together with the ice although two skeletons seemed to be hacking into it, trying to get their friends out. Around eight others were still around the orb, waiting for it to go away.


    As Gurgen started to charge, Lucas would follow right behind him, using the big man as a shield. It didn¡¯t take long for the skeletons to notice them running up towards the road. As all the skeletons gathered and started to attack, one stayed behind in order to guard the bubble.


    Before Gurgen and Lucas could reach the group of skeletons, arrows would be fired off towards them. Three arrows one after the other hit Gurgen but didn¡¯t do much, the tick fur acting like armor just like before. As the two groups reached each other, Gurgen started to just swing away. His weapon of choice seemed to be very effective, hitting the skeletons hard each time. Due to the size of the stick, they couldn¡¯t jump back and the few ones having a shield couldn¡¯t withstand the force of which the stick was swung with.


    Three skeletons already bit the dust before they realized that maybe a head on attack was so smart, stopping their attack and trying to see with who or what they¡¯re dealing with. One skeleton would run around him to try and attack him from behind, only to be stopped by Lucas, swinging the broom at his head and decapitating him.


    ¡°Am The Armenian Beast, come to kill all!¡± It was quite intimidating seeing Gurgen swing around the stick like that, a big man standing at two and a half meters. He lifted the stick up in the air, about to replace someones head with his stick when he yelled in pain, dropping the stick behind him, almost crushing Lucas. An arrow had managed to pierce his coat, now sticking into his arm.


    The yelling in pain caused something else to happen. Idi jumped out of the beard, looking around at the attacking skeletons. As she started to cluck loudly, she jumped on to of one¡¯s head, starting to peck hard at his skull. It was completely unexpected and out of nowhere, causing everyone except Gurgen and the one being attacked to be stunned.


    Using this opportunity, Gurgen grabbed a skeleton with his bare hands, ripping off arms and legs as he screamed in pain before dying. The four remaining in front of him together with fifth with the bubble seemed to be getting nervous with how easy they were being taken care off, the one with the chicken on his head still yelling, running around asking for someone to get it off. One of his friends that was furthest away from Gurgen came forwards, swinging his sword down at his skull to kill the chicken. Unfortunately for him she saw it coming, jumping off and letting him hit his friend, killing him instantly.


    The rest of the skeletons didn¡¯t seem so eager to continue the fight, turning and starting to run. The chicken running after them, barking loudly as it seemed to be very threatening for some reason. The one that had been standing next to the bubble wouldn¡¯t be alive anymore as it appeared to be, the bubble having been taken down and killed by the centaur having shot an arrow at him while he was distracted.


    With everyone being gone now, they were very casually walking towards the group on the ground. Seeing Lilly, Lucas would rub his throat again, not being too comfortable being around her.


    ¡°So¡­ miss choke isn¡¯t here I see? Who are the new people? Gotten me replaced so fast hmm?¡± He would give her a toothy grin as he tried to be casual about it.


    Lilly didn¡¯t really pay much attention to him, looking at Gurgen who she had shot. She would hesitate, watching as he took the arrows out of his arm and coat. Seeing that they barely bothered him, she would seem a bit concerned with how Lucas knew him and with that she was in no way able to protect herself if he were to attack her.


    Gurgen saw her looking at him and he would drop the arrows. ¡°You choke friend. You shoot Gurgen. Gurgen angry.¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t want this to go bad so he got in between them. ¡°Okay then¡­ Gurgen, this is Lilly, Lilly this is Gurgen. Gurgen, it was her sister that choked me and I don¡¯t know who shot at you but¡­ easy¡­¡±


    As they talked, the chicken came back out of the bushes, holding a bone in her beak which she dropped in front of Gurgen before jumping back in his beard, letting out a loud bark. Gurgen reached inside his beard, petting his chicken as he smiled. ¡°Idi good girl.¡±


    Zoala was rather interested in the chicken, standing up as she still had the arrow in her shoulder and she wasn¡¯t going to pull it out. ¡°Why does she bark? That doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±


    Before she could get her answer, a new person came out of the forest, walking straight to them. Medi still able to shoot would grab his bow, aiming at the newcomer. He didn¡¯t seem to impressed though, holding up his hands to show that he wasn¡¯t a threat. As he came closer, it was shown to be an elf with blond hair, seemingly unarmed.


    Lucas who should¡¯ve recognized him stayed quiet, looking in the distance where the trees and bushes blocked his view, right where the skeletons had disappeared. He wasn¡¯t looking for them though but it was the first time he could take a proper look at the burned man that still only he could see.


    As the elf got closer now, he would look at Medi who was still holding the bow. ¡°Easy there Medi. My name is Lehtern, royal druid although not royal blood. I¡¯m a servant of the king and therefor a servant of your leader.¡±


    Medi nodded slowly, never having seen this man before but he had heard about him before. ¡°How come it that everyone just appears here? Is there like some kind of magical horse telling people that there¡¯s a party here?¡±


    Lehtern looked down at him, shaking his head slowly as he then gestured at the area. ¡°First of all, main road to the Forest Gruge kings hideout. Secondly, with all the yelling and screaming that happens here, it¡¯s not that special.¡±


    He would look at Lucas who was still focusing on the man. ¡°Hey Lucas, everything alright?¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t even look at him, nodding slowly as his eyes went over the burned flesh. The empty eyeholes focused on him as the clothes were melted into his skin.


    ¡°Anyway¡­¡± He was a bit confused about his behavior but quickly focused back on the three hurt people here. ¡°Gurgen, could you maybe deal with them? We don¡¯t want them to die do we?¡± After having said that, he would walk to Lucas, leaving the group of get acquainted with each other. ¡°Lucas?¡±


    As he came closer and talked to him, he would look up, a bit shocked at seeing Lehtern here. ¡°Oh hey! Lehtern!¡± He came closer, hugging him. ¡°Oh nice to see you¡­ I was looking for you and Gurgen. I¡­ things are bad.¡±


    Lehtern nodded slowly as he looked back at the hurt people and then the dead skeletons. ¡°Yeah¡­ bad seems to be an understatement. What are you doing here though? Why do you need me?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Oh¡­ euh¡­ I was helping Lilly and Emma get back to their gruge¡­¡± This is where it hit him. He looked over at where Emma and Lilly should¡¯ve been, only seeing Lilly. ¡°Lilly¡­ where¡¯s Emma?¡±


    Emma looked up at him, forgetting for a second that Lucas hadn¡¯t been there when Emma fled. ¡°Jackson fled with her to get help and stop the negotiations.¡±


    ¡°Jackson? Who is Jackson?¡±


    This is where Medi looked up, hearing them talk about his Jackson. ¡°Jackson is my friend. He took her sister to safety after we got attacked. I¡¯m Medi by the way, good job keeping the princesses alive until now.¡±


    Lucas would feel weird being complimented. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was but he gave him a warm smile. ¡°Thanks¡­ wasn¡¯t easy.¡±


    ¡°Hah, I bet it wasn¡¯t.¡± He tried to stand again but as he put on hoof underneath himself, he would notice his other legs not really working. ¡°Hah¡­ maybe later.¡± He lie back down, groaning at the pain.


    Zoi noticed that Gurgen hadn¡¯t really done anything. He would turn to him to ask why he didn¡¯t help them but that was when Lehtern stopped him.


    ¡°Lucas can we¡­¡±


    Zoala stopped them from talking, holding her shoulder as she started to inspect Lehtern. ¡°Hey¡­ wait a second. Weren¡¯t you that elf that was investigating the bunny¡¯s?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ that¡¯s me. I found out¡­¡±


    Now it was Lucas his turn. ¡°Wait you people knew about the bunny¡¯s?¡±


    Lehtern grabbed both their shoulders to shut them up, making sure to not grab the wounded once from Zoala. ¡°Yes we know about the bunny¡¯s. The bunny¡¯s are an after effect of the Artifact Gurge being destroyed. Before anyone asks, the Artifact Gruge was attacked a while ago in secret. They have been the ones keeping the bunny¡¯s at bay with their artifacts. There¡¯s a lot to explain. Now Lucas, before you ask, the Artifact Gruge is a Gruge where there are creatures that are half human and half metal. Now the artifacters had made some powerful items keeping the bunnies back. Listen I¡¯ll explain later. Now we need...¡±


    He stopped talking, turning his head to look at where Jackson and Emma had gone, hearing many hooves coming from there. ¡°What now¡­¡± He let go of them as he took a dagger out of his belt underneath his clothes, ready to fight more skeletons if needed.

 Chapter 18 - Some good news

    As he got ready, Lucas would grab his broom a bit more tight, ready to fight as well while Gurgen had his stick once more.  Medi grabbed his bow as Zoala went back to her bag, opening it up. Luckily no fight was needed when from around the corner came the new minotaur with Emma. Lilly and Lucas didn¡¯t know it though, Lucas getting in front of Lilly. ¡°That¡¯s the one that hunted us!¡±


    The minotaur, not knowing that they were ready to kill him stormed towards them with multiple centaurs behind him. When they got closer, everyone held back on trying to kill seeing as Emma was casually riding him on his shoulders.


    Gurgen saw Emma and came forwards, angry at her. ¡°You choke Zoi!¡±


    When the minotaur fully stopped, Emma was let down. She stayed behind him though as Gurgen looked like he was going to beat her up with that stick. The minotaur would held out his hand to top Gurgen.


    ¡°Hold on there, cool down a bit will ya?¡±


    Gurgen wasn¡¯t one to ¡®cool down¡¯ and he would poke the minotaur with it. ¡°Cow move or cow hurt.¡±


    The minotaur didn¡¯t seem very amused, grabbing the stick and pulling it out of his hands with easy, throwing it to the side. Then before Gurgen could react, he would swing his fist towards Gurgen. As he was a big creature, he would be a bit bigger than Gurgen, having the height advantage.


    Lucas saw this would smile and sit down on the ground, watching what was going to happen. ¡°Oh this will be fun.¡±


    Gurgen came back forwards, grabbing his head and jumping up and a bit back. He let himself fall, pulling the minotaur with him so both fell down. He forced the head of the minotaur down onto the ground face first. Since Gurgen was the one coordinating the fall, he wasn¡¯t as hurt by it. He quickly got back up, grabbing him by his back and lifting him up and holding him upside down.


    By now the centaurs that had accompanied him had grabbed their bows and got ready to shoot Gurgen, causing Lucas to quickly jump up and run to them, hands in the air. ¡°Hold on! Hold on! Don¡¯t fire, just wait!¡±


    Luckily for him, seeing as Lucas didn¡¯t seem threatening and because they had heard about a mystery person helping them, they would not shoot but stayed vigilant.


    By now Gurgen jumped up in the air, falling down once again but this time since he held the bull upside down, he would drive his head on the ground first, the horns getting forced into the dirt.


    He let go of him, standing up and watching him collapse onto the ground. He let out a grunt, dusting himself off. ¡°Cow boring.¡±


    Seeing their general lying near unconscious on the ground, they would raise their bows again, aiming back at his face. That didn¡¯t seem to scare Gurgen who would get ready to be shot by them.


    Zoala suddenly came out of nowhere, still having the arrow in her shoulder. ¡°Hold on, stop it! That man helped us!¡±


    Gurgen wasn¡¯t done though. He pointed at Emma, still angry at her actions. ¡°You choke Zoi!¡±


    Emma nodded, trying to plead her case with him. ¡°I know and I¡¯m sorry that I did. I was blinded by emotions! I¡¯m sorry!¡±


    That seemed to satisfy Gurgen but not a lot, grunting and he walked away from her. ¡°Next time, Armenian Beast piledrive everyone.¡±


    The centaur that had helped Jackson kill the original centaur now came forwards, looking at the rather big group now. ¡°Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?¡±


    Zoala nodded slowly, gesturing to Emma and Lilly. ¡°Me and my group saw the two girls plus that guy here travel together. The king of the Human Gurge was traveling down the road when they got attacked which they saw. After the king was killed, that one¡­¡± She pointed at Emma. ¡°¡­attacked him.¡± She said pointing at Zoi. ¡°After which the big guy came and saved him. Later when we were getting ready to come back to you with the princesses, we too god attacked. Jackson and she managed to get away after which Gurgen and Lucas came back and helped us. Then came that elf over there but he didn¡¯t really do much.¡± She added that last part quickly to her story since Lehtern hadn¡¯t really done a lot.


    She then would point at where they had disappeared into the forest. ¡°A group of skeletons that ran away went to there. Go around using the roads with a group of fifteen centaurs and let the satyr hunters go after them through the forest. Catch them alive if you can, we need to be able to interrogate them, find out what their government is planning. Now get this arrow out of me, it hurts like hell.¡±


    Medi would try to grab his attention, waving at him in order to try and ask something. ¡°Hey! Where¡¯s Jackson!¡±


    The centaur came forwards, looking down at his own problem, motioning for someone else to come and help. ¡°Jackson is alive. In order to stop King Mortel from killing that princes, he sacrificed himself in an official dual. We didn¡¯t know what happened as he didn¡¯t let anyone in to watch.¡±


    Medi nodded as he would feel a bit uncomfortable about that fact. It sounded like Jackson was close to death and he didn¡¯t like that one bit. That was about the last feeling he would have as he then passed out.


    As the group started to be swarmed by centaurs in order to check them out, a smaller group ran back in order to get back-up to do what Zoala had said. Seeing that Medi had passed out, a centaur would quickly get down next to him, feeling for his heartrate and starting to investigate what was going on. With Medi falling to the side, it revealed a big pool of blood underneath him.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Gurgen who hadn¡¯t been looked at by anyone for wounds saw Medi lying on the ground with the blood. Letting out a grunt, he would turn around and walk away into the woods, leaving everyone behind.


    The minotaur slowly came back to his senses, grunting as he rolled over so he looked up at the sky. It took for a bit for him to realize what was going on, lifting up his hand to his face to look at it, seeing that he was in fact a minotaur and that he hadn¡¯t dreamt it. Grunting again as he sat up, shaking his head as dirt fell down. He then got up, looking around for Gurgen but not seeing him. Instead he would walk to Emma and Lilly. Lilly still couldn¡¯t stand with her ankle but seemed alright thanks to the magic rune she had gotten from Zoala while Emma was explaining everything to her.


    As everything seemed to be going well, the centaur that had been with Medi came closer to them and the minotaur. ¡°Bad news¡­ He has lost a lot of blood. If we try to remove the arrow then it will probably kill him. We can try to get Jackson here to see him while he¡¯s alive but¡­ We have to act now.¡±


    Lehtern had heard them talking and came closer. This indeed seemed to be a bad thing but he had a smile still. ¡°I think I can help.¡± He looked around, trying to see if he could find Gurgen, seeing that he was gone. ¡°Where is Gurgen?¡±


    Nobody really seemed to know the answer as nobody had been paying much attention to him or Lucas to that extent. Lucas was therefor the one that spoke up. ¡°He went home. Probably had enough of everyone here. He already didn¡¯t want to come here in the first place.¡±


    As he finished speaking, Lehtern would tap him on his shoulder, pointing to tree line where Gurgen came out holding a big barrel. ¡°I think he is going to save Medi.¡±


    Zoala who had come closer now, having the arrow removed an a bandage around her shoulder would be very interested. The longer this conversation went on, the more people started to listen. ¡°How will he do that then?¡±


    Lehtern couldn¡¯t hold back a smile that only seemed to grow bigger. ¡°That chicken of his doesn¡¯t only bark. I gave him that chicken when we first met. Imagine my surprise when a week later he came to me with something rather interesting. He called it vodka.¡±


    That reveal shocked Lucas. He didn¡¯t know a lot but he did know what vodka was. He looked at Gurgen who put down the barrel and opened it up. In the barrel it looked like water, showing that what Lehtern was saying wasn¡¯t a joke. ¡°Wait no¡­ stop. Gurgen what are you doing?¡±


    As Lucas walked forwards, Lehtern would grab him and hold him back. ¡°No no, let him do.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? Vodka is alcohol and a strong one at that.¡±


    This reveal made everyone a bit uncomfortable. Watching how he would grab his bottle as he murmured to himself, filling it and then bringing it to Medi¡¯s mouth.


    Lucas didn¡¯t see how this would save Medi, trying to get loose from Lehterns grip. ¡°When you told me that he had a healing brew I didn¡¯t think you meant alcohol!¡±


    With this information in the air, the minotaur would walk forwards, not wanting Medi to be forced to drink alcohol. Before he could stop Gurgen, he already had giving Medi the drink who unfortunately swallowed the brew. A little bit wouldn¡¯t mind but it still wasn¡¯t smart.


    Everyone stayed quiet, watching to see what would happen now. With the information that Lucas had given, nobody really expected a lot. Mark everyone surprised when Medi opened his eyes ad as he stopped bleeding. Gurgen suddenly pulled out the arrow, making Medi scream in pain.


    ¡°Aaaaah! Fuck! What was that for!?¡± Medi seemed angry at the sudden removal, cursing a bit as he put his hand over the wound.


    Gurgen handed him the bottle, not being that apologetic since he was ¡®helping him¡¯. ¡°Half food drink vodka. Vodka help.¡±


    As Medi slowly took the bottle, Emma looked at Lehtern who seemed to be rather knowledgeable about Gurgen. ¡°Half food?¡±


    ¡°Half food is because of horse meat. Gurgen ate it once and now sees centaur as half food. Don¡¯t worry, he hasn¡¯t eaten anyone yet, he isn¡¯t a monster.¡±


    Medi started to drink from the bottle, gagging with the strong taste but continuing. After just a bit, Gurgen already took the bottle back. ¡°Leave some. Gurgen not share all.¡±


    He stood up and started to drink from the bottle itself, drinking quite a lot. Weird display or not, when looking back at Medi, it seemed to close the wound.


    Both Zoala and the minotaur came closer, being very interested int his event. Obviously they weren¡¯t the only ones interested but at least they were the one calling the shots. ¡°That¡¯s incredible.¡± Said Zoala, seeing not even a scar. She then stood up, seeing that Gurgen had finished the bottle. ¡°Hey, can I get some?¡±


    She pointed to her shoulder with the bandage on, wanting to see what would happen.


    Gurgen wasn¡¯t so happy with that though, hugging his barrel. ¡°Gurgen already save half meat. You not dying.¡±


    To be sure that nobody would get hurt, Lehtern came in between everyone, putting a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Easy there. If you give them it I¡¯ll make sure that you get more later.


    This proposition made Gurgen hesitate, looking at his barrel and then Zoala. After just a bit, he would put down the barrel, grumbling and giving Lehtern the bottle before walking off to sit at the edge of the road, grabbing out Idi to pet her, letting her bark.


    Zoala was the first to drink from the bottle, making a face after tasting it. When taking off the bandage, she managed to move her arm again, the wound being fully closed. Emma snatched the bottle out of her hand, going to Lilly and kneeling down. She gave her the bottle, making her drink it as well. It didn¡¯t take long for her too to feel the pain disappear in her leg, looking at it as the infection slowly disappeared. ¡°Wow.¡±


    The minotaur got up from inspecting Medi who stood up as well, finally able to stand again. Both looking at each other as Medi then looked at Emma and Lilly. ¡°You¡­ You¡¯re not the same minotaur that hunted them right.¡±


    He laughed, shaking his head, slapping him on his shoulder. ¡°No¡­ that baster is eating dust in hell.¡± After saying that, he would go to Gurgen.


    Gurgen seeing him approach would put Idi away into his beard, standing up and getting ready for round two. The minotaur held out his hand instead, wanting to shake his hand to show respect. Gurgen on the other hand would just look at it as if he didn¡¯t understand. Eventually he would just stick out his finger, looking up at the minotaur who was lost for words.


    He just took the finger, shaking it before starting to laugh, shaking his head before going to the barrel. ¡°This is some magical stuff right here. We need to bring this back to the king. The things we could do with this.¡±


    Zoala was happy that everything seemed to be well. She didn¡¯t see the reinforcements yet and knew they wouldn¡¯t be here for a while. They themselves were underneath the bubble shield for a while before anyone had come to save them, hence Medi was so close to dying. ¡°Okay, I want every centaur here except Medi and around¡­ four more centaurs to go after the skeletons. The other four need to help transport everyone to the king.


    Lucas and Lehtern had been talking while everyone was being healed. Both about the vodka and his problem. So when Zoala said this, Lehtern came forwards and stopped her. ¡°Me and Lucas are going somewhere else, no need to weaken the group for us.¡±


    Zoala gave him a short nod. ¡°Scrap that, only two others need to stay behind!¡±


    With that having said, almost every centaur expect the one from before and someone else stayed behind, both having their bows drawn just in case. Zoala turned to look at Lehtern as tried to be quiet about her next words. ¡°You seem to know that Gurgen guy. Who is he? I never seen him before.¡±


    Lehtern gave her a smile, looking at Gurgen who was looking upset at the barrel being taken away. ¡°He¡­ is The Armenian Beast.¡±

 Chapter 19 - The curse of the burned man

    As Lehtern and Lucas went on their way, Zoala decided to join them, wanting to see what everything was all about. Lucas didn¡¯t really have much to hide so he didn¡¯t mind that she was coming along. It was slowly turning dark now as well seeing that everything that had happened so far was over many hours. They had been walking for quite a while now, hills starting to form into the forest. While Lucas and Lehtern were slowly making their way, being quiet and panting, Zoala was just skipping along them, doing it at a slower pace than normal seeing that Lehtern and Lucas weren¡¯t so fast.


    A bigger hill formed as they continued to go forwards, starting to eventually turn into a mountain, having a rocky side next to them. Even though there was a wall of stone, the sky wasn¡¯t visible still, the treetops being big and wide, covering everything up.


    Lehtern eventually stopped, looking around and held up his hand to stop the others. ¡°Okay, here we are.¡± He walked to the wall and looked up, pointing at a barely visible ridge that seemed to be going into the mountain. Zoala didn¡¯t wait for Lehtern to go first, grabbing two pieces of stone that were sticking out and started to climb up fast, able to use her hooves to make it up faster.


    This made Lehtern chuckle as he would follow her as well. He wasn¡¯t as fast as her but he was still fast, leaving Lucas behind on the ground. Lucas didn¡¯t really have experience climbing and it showed, going very slow. As he was climbing, he also realized something else, a lack of love for heights.


    Finally when he made it onto the ledge, he would quickly go away from the edge, panting as he looked up. Lehtern was looking at him, making a mental note of his problem with heights while Zoala was standing to the side with a bird on her wrist, seemingly talking to it.


    When Lucas stood up, Lehtern started to talk to both him and her, gesturing to a cave behind him. The entrance was rather small which made it difficult to be found but this also meant that Lucas might have to start crawling in the dark which he also hated. ¡°I warn you both right now, you might see some weird things, don¡¯t be afraid, nothing in her can hurt you if you listen to me.¡±


    Zoala let the bird go away as she seemed a bit unsure all of the sudden. As Lehtern went in first, she and Lucas would look at each other a bit scared of what terrors might be hiding in the dark. Due to Zoala being smaller than both Lehtern and Lucas, she didn¡¯t need to crawl on the ground, her hooves clacking onto the rocks beneath them, the noise echoing in between the rocks.


    While they walked, Zoala came next to Lehtern who had grabbed a torch that had been hanging on the wall. ¡°So what did you discover concerning the bunnies?¡±


    Lehtern had grabbed some flintstone and a tinderbox, trying to get a fire going to light the torch. ¡°Well¡­ It has to do with why they disappeared at first and why they returned as murderers.¡±


    When he had his fire and put the torch on fire, he got up as Zoala didn¡¯t seem so thrilled with his answer. ¡°If you know what it is, why are we here wasting our time. Shouldn¡¯t we be going back to warn the king?¡±


    Even though she was right, Lehtern wouldn¡¯t answer that question, continuing to walk. Zoala wanted to continue asking him for what information he had but she stopped when they went around the corner and into a longer tunnel. ¡°Okay then, how about you answer this then, where exactly are we going?¡±


    That question he seemed willing to answer even though he didn¡¯t slow down while talking. ¡°Lucas told me about a problem concerning a man that only he could see. He also said that he could teleport and all so I want him to show it. Not only that, there¡¯s also information about Gurgen.¡±


    After Lehtern was done talking, Lucas would slow his pace as he looked into the darkness, barely being able to see the man in front of them. ¡°You mean the man that we¡¯re walking to right now?¡±


    Both of them stopped walking, looking ahead in the darkness. They didn¡¯t see anything off course, leaving Lucas hesitant to walk. Right now he¡¯s more firm as before when we were busy with the injured people, he was much more gaseous.¡±


    Since that information didn¡¯t really tell anything that would help them uncover what it was, they would continue to walk forwards with Lucas cowering behind them. When they got close enough to it, it disappeared once more only to appear far behind them.


    As they rounded the next corner, they would end up in a big round room. In the middle of the room were big round platforms that circled inwards going higher and higher until ending up on one big round plateau. In the middle of that platform was a rather big suite of armor without a helmet. His hands were resting on a sword that was pointed down, resting on the platform. When they came in, he would seem to become active, grabbing the handle of the sword with both hands and lifting it up, turning it upside down and holding it in front of him. Just as it seemed like it had finished doing things, it started to talk, his voice being loud and echoing between the walls.


    ¡°Zoala Interley, satyr, commander of runestones and speaker of animals, Lehtern Downwish, elf, spy and nature specialist, Zoi Thanotos, halfgod, god fugitive. This room is protected against evil.¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t think that this would be a problem but he was proven wrong when Zoala looked at him a bit confused. ¡°Halfgod?¡±


    While Zoala was focused on his physiology, Lehtern focused on something perhaps more interesting. What does he mean with god fugitive? Why is Pan looking for you.¡±


    Zoala was also very interested into that aspect, not only that, also on why he was the way that he was. ¡°You told me that your name was Lucas, not Zoi Thanotos. Why did you lie about that?¡±


    It quickly got clear to him that whatever this was, he was being put in danger now. ¡°Easy there, I don¡¯t mean any harm to either of you. I¡¯m not even a fugitive of Pan. I come from another world.¡±


    ¡°Lies!¡± The armor¡¯s voice once more echoed through the cave when Lucas was finished talking. This cause Lucas to get white, not knowing what he had said was wrong.


    As they got closer to him, both drew their weapons, getting ready to attack and possibly even kill him. He held his hands in the air, showing that he wasn¡¯t a threat.


    As this was happening, someone came out of a side tunnel, not being announced due to already having been in the cave. ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    Lehtern broke off from threatening Lucas, turning to talk to what looked like an old man in his eighties. ¡°This person here is called Lucas but his real name is Zoi Thanotos.¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Zoi you say?¡± The man came closer until his face was being revealed by the torch. He looked old and feeble but he had a big smile, coming closer to Lucas who seemed to recognize the man.


    It took him a bit to recognize the person due to him having aged but after a couple of seconds, he started to laugh, going towards him and giving him a hug. ¡°Demmie! Oh I¡¯m glad to see you again!¡±


    Demmie chuckled as he pat his back softly, looking at both Zoala and Lehtern. ¡°It¡¯s alright, down you two. Lucas isn¡¯t looking for trouble.¡± He then, focused back on Lucas, wanting to know what happened. ¡°Where did you come from. You disappeared at the end of the fight against David.¡±


    While they were talking, Zoala put her weapons away, listening as she wanted to learn as much as possible about everyone here.


    Lucas nodded at the question, trying to remember what happened. After the fight, they all had gone to the forest camp where they ate hotdogs. ¡°In the camp after we had won and I went to go to the toilet, time seemed to slow down while my god asked me if I would go back to take care of his candles of life and death but I refused. This angered him so much that he banished me to here, wherever here is seeing as the statue seems to think that I¡¯m lying. What about you? How did you end up here and how do you know Lehtern?¡±


    Instead of Demmie talking, Lehtern would explain that. ¡°I don¡¯t know where he came from nor can he tell you it. I found him when he was a baby right after discovering the cave. Every day he grew older until he was able to talk again.  After around four years he was able to talk fully, explaining that he was a very old being with some kind of curse. He also says that he doesn¡¯t know how he got here which is true since the armor didn¡¯t say that he had lied about that.


    As this was being told, Zoala continued to not be able to follow what was being said. ¡°What is Demmie capable of?¡±


    Demmie nodded as he understood her confusion. ¡°I am very old, so old that I don¡¯t even remember my original name, birth date and stuff like that. Demmie is a name choice to say dementia. Every day I grow a year older and ever death I lose one, getting younger for a year. Believe me when I say that I¡¯ve seen almost every possible death to happen to a person.


    ¡°Oh¡­ But that¡¯s horrible. I¡¯m not surprised that you eventually forgot your name and birthday. It must be horrible to lead a life like that, filled with daily pain.¡± Said Zoala who had a hard time thinking any of this was real but the armor hadn¡¯t called them out on a lie yet. ¡°But let¡¯s focus on the fact that Lucas is a fugitive of Pan. Even when he denied it, the armor called him out.¡±


    Demmie held up a hand to slow her down. ¡°No no¡­ that¡¯s not it. Lucas did lie but not on purpose. I heard you guys talking for a bit and heard him say that he was from another world. That¡¯s a lie as he¡¯s not from another world and the armor can back me up on this. He is actually from this world but he had been send back in time.¡±


    That answer was the truth but that didn¡¯t make Lucas stop questioning reality. ¡°Wait a second. If this is the same world then how doesn¡¯t anyone in the future know this. How is there no evidence of these creatures having existed?¡±


    On that question, Demmie too wasn¡¯t sure but he wanted to try and give the answer, having the armor to tell him if it was true or not. I think it is because Pan is going to reset the creation of life in the future somewhere. There¡¯s a prophecy talking about it somewhere in the cave. There are many prophecies and I haven¡¯t read them all but I remember that one. If Pan resets creation then who knows to what scale and precision?¡±


    Lehtern started to understand more about the entire situation, looking at Lucas. ¡°From which god are you running?¡±


    ¡°Gog with the big G since that¡¯s his name. Just¡­ God.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ you have a god called God in the future?¡±


    This question made Lucas grit his teeth and make a weird mix between shaking and nodding his head, almost dancing as he tried to answer it. ¡°It¡¯s more difficult than that. I was born in a world where I was normal but me and a couple of other kids got a dream and in that dream we had powers. When we woke up we had those powers as well and therefor I got powers given by a god. I was created by one actually, making me a half god. Anyway, my god asked me if I would go work on the death candles once more. I don¡¯t know if he was going to take me away or if he made new ones for the new world but I refused regardless. I then got punished and send here. So I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s actually in the future or not.¡±


    Lehtern would hold out his hand, wanting to shake Lucas his hand. ¡°I apologize for not trusting you but in these times, you can¡¯t be too careful.¡±


    Lucas grabbed the hand, shaking it. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I wasn¡¯t scared or anything.¡±


    Even though it was meant as a joke, the armor yelled that he was lying, causing Lehtern to give him a grin. ¡°I see.¡±


    ¡°Now, where is that prophecy that you told me about? Then we can get out of here because I¡¯m starting to miss the fresh outside air.¡±


    ¡°Yes, prophecy¡­¡± He looked around at the walls of the cave and multiple side tunnels. Eventually he went to one to their right. ¡°Here.¡± He went in as the others followed him. He still had the torch and it was the only one.


    Zoala quickly gave herself a light as well, grabbing a runestone and mumbling something. It started to float above her head, casting out a respectable light, bigger than the torch light.


    As they reached the end, they ended up in another round room but not as big, only being a couple of meters high but around thirty meters in diameter. The walls and roof were littered in words. The prophecies had a light blue glow to them, making them visible in the dark.


    As Lehtern gestured to the wall to their left, he would walk to it. ¡°It was somewhere on this side but I¡¯m not sure where. Give me a hand looking will you?¡±


    Seeing as nobody else knew where it was, they all just started to read the texts on the wall. It was silent as they did so, once in a while someone mumbling some words while the only rhythmic sound was the burning of the torch.


    Demmie was the first one to break the silence, putting his finger on a string of words to not lose sight of it between the other prophecies. ¡°Hey Zoi. If we ever get back to the other world, remind me to warn everyone of a zombie apocalypse that is going to happen. Perhaps we should check up on the person in the tree. It would be bad if he broke out.¡±


    Lucas heard him but wasn¡¯t that interested, giving him a grunt as answer as he was a bit focused on reading.


    The next one to break the silence was Zoala who was very concentrated. ¡°I think I have it. ¡°Burned to the bone he shall rise. Given life which cannot be killed. For a demon he finds prey. Hunting only shown with his eyes. Only seen by those who¡¯s fear has been instilled. Body only found by game to play. Does this sound familiar to you Lucas?¡± She looked up at him, the light of her runestone shining in his eyes.


    He looked up away from her as he wasn¡¯t sure about it. ¡°Not¡­ Not really. He Is burned to the bone sure¡­ And only I seem to see him.¡± His words came out slow and unsure, turning to look at the man who was standing at the other side of the room. ¡°Right now he¡¯s looking as if he¡¯s a walking corpse while before in the day he was a ghost which your poem doesn¡¯t mention. In terms of eyes, he has non which if your poem is the one connected to him, then he¡¯s not hunting me yet, just stalking his prey.¡± This realization gave him shivers in his spine, swallowing as he started to tap the ground with his foot. ¡°Is there any information on how to get rid of him?¡±


    ¡°No sorry¡­ that¡¯s all there is. But at least now you know that you¡¯re time is limited on this plain of existence. ¡°


    ¡°Oh now that¡¯s a relief. I only just started to live an actual life and I¡¯m already being targeted by some kind of demon pet. Lehtern, is there a demon in this world?¡±


    That was a good question but sadly enough, Lehtern would shake his head. ¡°No¡­ Demons were believed to have existed at one point but after a while, Pan told us demons never existed and were a creation of man.¡±


    Demmie thought about it as well as he had seen more in his life but he quickly shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve only seen one demon which we killed in the future so I¡¯m empty as well.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t difficult for Lucas to know who he was talking about, nodding slowly. ¡°Yeah¡­ David is dead. Layla said that his presence wasn¡¯t being felt anymore and his corruption having been erased. What a waste of time.¡±


    Lehtern who really liked gathering information was itching to ask questions, unable to keep himself back. ¡°Who is David and Layla?¡±


    Lucas wasn¡¯t really in the mood to explain it, looking back at the man before going to the exit. ¡°I swear that the day I get left alone and can live in peace is the day that I¡¯ll never forget.¡±


    ¡°I think we need to go back now.¡± Said Zoala who had moved to the entrance of the tunnel. She had a bird on her wrist which flew up and out of the tunnel. ¡°The war has officially begun.¡±

 Chapter 20 - Dinner with the king

    As they were running, everyone was quiet. Mostly because Medi wanted to get back to his brother and nobody wanted to talk as it would be insensitive for now to just talk about non important stuff. While Emma and Lilly were both on centaurs, one of which was Medi, Gurgen didn¡¯t get one. He was a bit big and heavy so he had to run with the Minotaur. The minotaur was carrying the barrel with Wodka while Gurgen was running next to him. Gurgen wasn¡¯t as fast as the minotaur nor was he as strong. Still, as they ran he seemed to be able to keep up quiet well although he also seemed to be getting rather tired, breathing heavily.


    They had already passed the reinforcements who were being send by the king to go after the skeletons when they reached the clearing. Medi went inside immediately, not being stopped by the new centaurs standing guard. Once inside, he looked around, seeing that Jackson had been moved to a small tent where there was a satyr taking care of him.


    As Medi went to his brother, Lilly would be looking around the area as this was the first time she had been here. It seemed like a rebellion more than a spot where the king would reside. There were multiple tents now together with multiple tables. People running around while intensive training seemed to be done.


    There was an archer shooting at a target, his arrows never seeming to run out as he hit the bullseye without problem every single time. This must be the general. She made a mental note before focusing back on her sister who had gone with Medi to look at Jackson.


    Medi lay down next to his brother, grabbing his hand as he looked at the wounds. He had rags all over as they all seemed to be soaked in blood. The satyr looked at Medi as he was focused on his brother, scraping his throat.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to tell you this your highness but he isn¡¯t going to make it.¡±


    This being said, Medi stood up, walking to the minotaur. ¡°Oh he will. After he drinks this he will be better in no time.¡±


    The satyr didn¡¯t like the sound of that, jumping up as he shook his head. ¡°No¡­ No liquids or he¡¯ll die even sooner.¡±


    He didn¡¯t know about the healing liquid and only wanted the best for the dying brother. This meant that when the barrel was brought towards Jackson, he would grab his bag to take out the protection rune Zoala had used as well, throwing it down on the ground. A bubble appeared around him and Jackson, keeping him away from the others.


    ¡°No!¡± Medi ran to the bubble, putting his hands on it as it was solid. ¡°Let me in! We can save him!¡±


    Gurgen grunted as he moved forwards, pushing Medi to the side. ¡°Move horsie.¡± He pulled back his hand, ready to strike it. The punch was hard and fast, hitting the shield with a breaking sound. For just a second, it stayed silent before Gurgen started to yell in pain.


    He held up his hand in the air, his fingers pointing in different directions as one even showed bone. ¡°Ah! Fingers not right!¡± He cursed and continued to hold his own wrist. After a bit more yelling and cursing, a loud bark could be heard as Idi jumped out of his beard onto the bubble, starting to peck at it.


    ¡°What is happening here?¡± The king had heard the commotion and was looking at the group of mostly strangers.


    Everyone bow down to him, everyone but Medi and Gurgen. ¡°King Berk, my brother is dying and we have a way to heal him. This man here refuses to let me help my brother.¡±


    Still having a bottle underneath his animal hide, Gurgen would grab it and quickly drinking some of his brew. The king now could see what they were talking about as his fingers started to straighten and heal.


    ¡°Interesting¡­¡± The king looked at the chicken still pecking at the shield as it also barked once in a while. Gurgen quickly took her away, putting her back underneath his beard where she seemed to calm down.


    Berk nodded at the satyr inside the bubble who begrudgingly took the shield down. The minotaur came closer, holding the barrel in his arms and holding it above Jackson. He then took the cork out of the barrel as it then started to fly out of the barrel.


    Medi caught some in his hands, going down to his brother and slowly trying to make him drink it. Jackson was slightly aware of what was happening, starting to drink the liquid.


    Just as before, the liquid started to work almost immediately, the pain quickly disappearing as the wounds started to close. It didn¡¯t give the lost blood back but it made sure that he wouldn¡¯t lose any more.


    It also didn¡¯t take long for Jackson to open his eyes, lifting his hand to go over the bandages, not feeling any wounds anymore. ¡°What¡­?¡±


    While Jackson was still processing what happened, Medi would hug him tightly, grabbing his head and lifting him up a bit, hugging the head against his chest. ¡°Jack!¡±


    Jackson tried to push him away, not having the strength to do it. ¡°Easy easy. Let me go. You¡¯re overreacting.¡±


    Seeing that the ¡®horsie¡¯ didn¡¯t die, Gurgen would grunt and turn around again. ¡°Gurgen done here.¡±


    Before he could walk away though, he was stopped by Berk, putting a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Hey, Gurgen. You¡¯re a strange man. Would you like to fight for us in the war? I could use someone with your strength.¡±


    Berk hadn¡¯t seen a lot of Gurgen but he was already impressed. The man towered above him and seemed to be rather strong. And honestly, they didn¡¯t have the strength right now to win an all out war against the skeletons.


    Gurgen seemed to think about it for a second, rubbing the bottom of his beard before continuing on his path. ¡°If Zoi fight, Gurgen Fight.¡±


    Seeing as Lucas wasn¡¯t with the group, Berk didn¡¯t know who Zoi was. He motioned for an elf to come closer, pointing at Gurgen. ¡°Go, follow him. Find out where he lives as we might need to find him sooner than later.¡±


    With that being said, the elf would nod before going after Gurgen, making sure to stay out of sight. Berk then looked back the group gathered around Jackson. ¡°I believe that we have a lot to talk about. How about you all join me for dinner?¡±


    He gave them all a big smile before looking at Emma and Lilly specifically. ¡°If you will be so kind to do so your majesty.¡± He had a big grin on his face saying this. Unlike the princesses, he was trained to learn about the children of the kings and queens of the nearby Gruges. He knew that they didn¡¯t know who he was although seeing as they followed the minotaur¡¯s example and bow to him, it was quite obvious.


    The same minotaur now came forwards, holding a bird in his hand. ¡°Your majesty, Zoala wants to know what is going on with the skeletons now.¡±


    ¡°Tell her that it is officially war.¡± He now didn¡¯t smile anymore. The feeling of dread came over him when he said that. ¡°What a way to start my time as king.¡±


    That evening, everything in the open area had been moved around. In the middle of the area was now a long table made up of smaller tables put next to each other. Berk was at the head of the table with the second in command being closest to him. Zoala had come back from her expedition with Demmie, Lucas and Lehtern so they too were sitting at the table.


    Lehtern sat next to the second in command due to the king¡¯s request. Next to them were Emma and Lilly due to their status while next to them were other lower ranking commanders and high ranking officers. Some other royal families joined as well but only those that were situated nearby.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Every single centaur were moved to the entire back due to their physiology. Big pillows were put onto the ground where they could lie on with their horse body. This caused them to get above the table around as high as other would do sitting down.


    Emma and Lilly both had gotten lessons in table manners but when the food arrived, they couldn¡¯t hold themselves back. Unlike a dinner in the Human Gurge, the food here was just put on the table and everyone could take whatever they wanted. Lilly and Emma both grabbed different things fast, starting to eat whatever they could.


    Their behavior was weird to Berk, looking at them being confused and a bit concerned. Lehtern saw him looking at followed his gaze, seeing what was happening. He couldn¡¯t hold back a chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for their behavior. I have been told that they haven¡¯t eaten a lot during their travel and the food that they ate was¡­ less then desirable.¡±


    He would just nod, starting to eat himself as he looked over the table and his new friends. Only Gurgen didn¡¯t get invited. He wasn¡¯t even aware that they were having a dinner. The elf that he had send out to follow Gurgen hadn¡¯t returned so he didn¡¯t know where he lived.


    ¡°So, Lehtern. Why don¡¯t you tell us what is going on with the Bunnies? Why are they suddenly a problem? Why have they all disappeared from the forest?¡±


    Lehtern just had been swallowing something when this was asked. He started to couch, hitting himself on the chest as he used his other hand to cover his mouth. It took a bit before he was able to talk again. ¡°Sorry.¡± He took a couple of sips from his water as he then straightened his back. ¡°Where to begin.¡±


    ¡°A long time ago and then I¡¯m talking about multiple thousands of years the skeletons weren¡¯t under control by some evil king. Back then the Bunnies were their own Gurge, living basically everywhere. They were a menace and didn¡¯t want to make any deals with other creatures. They were mostly carnivores, eating humans, elves, anything flesh that they could find. The skeletons were the perfect counter to that, being hired to take care of them.¡±


    ¡°So the skeletons would kill them, the Bunnies grow fewer, we¡¯d stop hiring the skeletons seeing as the Bunnies weren¡¯t such a big problem anymore and they would grow in numbers once more and repeat. At one point, the long rule of the skeleton king was ended after a rebellion. The new king had some bad blood between him and the living so he refused to send out mercenaries.¡±


    ¡°Seeing as we lost the most effective way to get rid of them, we had to think of a new way to deal with them. That¡¯s how we got to the Artifact Gruge. With their help and the help of Pan, they managed to make some powerful artifacts changing the biology of the Bunnies. Lowering their intelligence, turning them into herbivores, making them basically turning them into animals.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, nobody realized it when the skeletons attacked the Artifact Gruge homeland. A lot of their artifacts have been destroyed and a lot of their people as well. The destruction of these artifacts caused the Bunnies to get released from their magical imprisonment.¡±


    ¡°Because the skeletons freed the Bunnies, the Bunnies started to work for the skeletons. Now the skeletons are on a warpath to kill everyone. Both because they want more land because they are becoming overpopulated and because they¡¯re being influenced by the Bunnies.¡±


    ¡°Their king is telling the skeleton king that if they attack the living, they will help them to stop any rebellion after they won.¡±


    After Lehtern was done talking, nobody seemed to make a sound. Even the people serving up the food had gathered to listen.


    Berk sighed as he leaned back in his chair. ¡°That is very concerning. I thought the dwarves or humans kept in contact with the Artifact Gruge. How come that we have no information that they have been wiped out?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because they¡¯re not all dead. The Skeleton Gruge is forcing them to keep contact with anyone trying to contact them, monitoring their every move. For as far as we were supposed to know, their gruge isn¡¯t taken over.¡± Lehtern knew that this was bad news but he was hungry. He continued to eat once more, letting them stew with this information.


    The more Lehtern talked, the more dire the situation got. Berk wasn¡¯t sure what to do now. ¡°One less gruge to count on to help us.¡± He looked at his generals as they too weren¡¯t sure what to think about this.


    The minotaur snorted as he looked at Berk. ¡°We need either the skeletons or the artificers to kill the Bunnies. Seeing as neither are an option. Perhaps we should consider fleeing to the human cities? Perhaps the castles can house us until we find a better solution.¡±


    Lilly immediately shook her head. ¡°Nono. Mister minotaur¡­¡±


    She got cut off by him as he lifted his hand up to stop her. ¡°Just call me Barta.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Barta¡­ the castles can¡¯t even house the entire human population let alone an entire other gruge. Not only that, the war with the skeletons is also coming closer. If we all hide in the castles, we¡¯re sitting ducks. I¡¯d say the best bet we have is to invade the Artifact Gruge ourselves and free those who remain and pray to Pan to help them once more.¡±


    ¡°That too isn¡¯t an option.¡± Lehtern leaned back in his chair, sipping from his drink. ¡°The skeletons only kept a small percentage of their entire population alive to keep up the act and to not alarm anyone else. Once they know that we know, they have no use for them anymore and kill them all. In skeleton form they can¡¯t make artifacts. We need to give the skeletons a reason to keep them alive so we can secretly contact them and try to free them. ¡°


    Berk motioned them all to be quiet. More and more people started to gather and Lehterns just said that they had to keep it quiet that they know. ¡°The more people that know, the bigger the chance that this secret gets out. We¡¯ll continue this conversations later in private.¡± He then turned to the servers and warriors that had gathered. ¡°The first person to talk about this will be executed!¡±


    It might be a hard punishment but it immediately made something clear. Berk might be knew to ruling this gruge but he wasn¡¯t scared to go hard on them. It seemed like they had understood and started to spread out, not a word being said.


    After that, the dinner seemed to be going more smooth. The conversation shifted to Emma and Lilly and their time with Lucas. From there on the Freedom Fighters were brought up together with Gurgen.


    Berk seemed to not really like the Freedom Fighters, sighing when he heard that they were still a thing. ¡°I don¡¯t believe in that crap. They try to do good but don¡¯t always know how to do it. I think we¡¯d be better off with them disbanded.¡±


    Lucas who didn¡¯t have the most experience with them but was one with the most at this table was a bit confused with that statement. ¡°Why is that? Sure they might be cruel if they¡¯re betrayed but don¡¯t they fight for others?¡±


    ¡°Yes but they¡¯re unhinged, dangerous even. You three didn¡¯t get killed because you were lucky to have saved their previous leader. They also don¡¯t follow any rules but their own. They¡¯re like a cult and who knows how long their cults interest stay aligned with ours.¡±


    After a bit more story telling on Emma¡¯s and Lilly¡¯s side, the mood started to shift in a more fun tone. People had some alcohol to drink and some a bit more than others. General stories started to be exchanged as multiple smaller conversations were started. Emma would eventually get enough of the talks between Lilly and Berk about royal differences and would walk to Jackson. ¡°Hey Jackson, can we talk for a second?¡±


    Jackson who had been celebrating his survival and Medi¡¯s survival would look up at her. ¡°Yeah sure.¡± He then put his mug down, looking at his brother. ¡°Give me a bit okay?¡± Without waiting for an answer, he got up, stretching his legs before looking at her. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±


    Emma started to walk away from the tables, going into the forest. Jackson followed her, yawning as he had a bit too much to drink at that point. Emma didn¡¯t have a specific place that she was walking to, just slowly walking before starting to talk to him.¡±


    ¡°I never thanked you.¡±


    That was something he didn¡¯t see coming. Jackson continued to walk for a bit as he thought about it. ¡°What for though?¡±


    ¡°You saved me twice. When you forced me to not stay behind with my sister and when you took my place in the fight with Mortel.¡±


    ¡°Well, you staying behind was most likely going to get you and me killed. And unlike you, I¡¯ve gotten theoretical lessons on the way it works.¡±


    ¡°That might be so but you didn¡¯t know that I didn¡¯t get lessons about it.¡±


    That was indeed something that he didn¡¯t know back then. He would look at her as she said that, not so sure why he had done it.


    Emma and he got to a small open area with a rock in the middle. She climbed on a flat part of it and looked at him as she sat down. ¡°So why did you do it?¡±


    Jackson closed his eyes for a second, trying to focus as the booze he had was making his mind a bit fuzzy. ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure. I think that after I saw Mortel having killed our previous king and then went to you, I didn¡¯t think I could see you dead as well.¡±


    He gave her a smile after saying that, yawning before looking up at the sky. There was an almost full moon in the sky, giving them some decent light. ¡°And I don¡¯t regret it for a second. I managed to take revenge on him.¡±


    Hearing that made Emma smile as well, lying back against the rock. ¡°Well¡­ Thank you for saving me. I doubt that I would¡¯ve made it. If you want then tomorrow you can tell me all about it.¡±


    Hearing this, Jackson would look down at her as he had a grin. ¡°Sounds lovely. Just the two of us or¡­?¡±


    Emma sat back up, looking at him as she thought about it. ¡°Hmmm¡­ if you want, Lilly can come as well? Although Lilly seems to be busy with other things so perhaps just two of us will be better?¡±


    Jackson came closer to Emma, holding out his hand for her to shake. ¡°Sounds like a deal.¡±


    She grabbed his hand as she gave him a warm smile. ¡°Good, now shut up and enjoy the stars with me will you?¡±


    ¡°Yes miss.¡± He chuckled and lie down next to the rock, looking up at the sky while Emma lie down on her rock once more, her hands underneath her head so her head wasn¡¯t on the hard rock.

 Chapter 21 - Preparations

    The next morning, some people were still awake, drinking awake while others were asleep on the ground or at the table. Lilly had chosen to go to bed which Berk had shown her a tent that she could sleep in. Her sister hadn¡¯t joined her that night to which she was concerned. When asking around though, she was told that she was seen leaving with Jackson into the forest and that they were alright.


    Hearing that, Lilly would smirk to herself before going towards Berk who was up early. He too had gone to bed more early than most, having to bear the responsibility of running this war. She would greet him with a quick bow to keep things formal. ¡°Can I ask you something your Majesty?¡±


    Berk nodded slowly, his face seemingly sad. ¡°Yeah, go ahead, also call me Berk please. I¡¯m not used to that title yet as usually my dad was the one doing all the talking.


    ¡°Well¡­ Berk. Why when there¡¯s a war that has just started do you guys celebrate? This wasn¡¯t officially a party but it felt like one.¡±


    To that Berk would chuckle. ¡°Well, look at it from a different perspective. A war is coming to consume us all. Not everyone will survive so who knows if this will be your last happy moments? We enjoy the time that we have left since we don¡¯t know when it¡¯s over.¡±


    Lilly nodded as she understood, looking back around the camp as she still didn¡¯t see her sister. ¡°I request some horses if you have those to get back home. We could explain everything to our mother and get her ready for the war as well. We can spread the word back home of what happened here. Maybe even convince our mother to take revenge on them and join the war.¡±


    Berk gave her a short nod as his eyes wandered off. ¡°That sounds like a good idea but we don¡¯t have horses here. What we can do is give you is a cart pulled by centaurs. To ensure your safety I can give you protection by letting my general Barta the minotaur come with you together with my archer general, Wout.¡±


    Seeing the danger that has been looming around lately, that seemed like a good idea. She would nod and smile softly. ¡°That sounds like a good idea. I¡¯ll be getting my sister then. I want to leave as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Give me an hour. I need to gather my men and make sure everything is in order.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s alright, thank you Barta.¡± She turned around to go to where he sister was supposed to be, seeing Lucas standing there.


    He had been standing near them, a bit unsure of what to do while he was waiting as there were many people here looking confused at why he was here. Once she turned to face him, he would take a step back, a bit careful with her.


    ¡°I heard you talking. I¡¯m sorry about your father. A funeral without his body isn¡¯t fun to do.¡±


    While to him it was something normal to say, to Lilly it was very weird. ¡°What do you mean? We almost never get a body unless their brains are crushed and their skulls completely destroyed.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ My apologies. I¡¯m still not used to the way death works in this world.¡± He looked down as he started to get a bit uncomfortable around her. ¡°Anyway¡­ I wish you the best of luck on your journey.¡±


    While Lucas wanted to cut the conversation short and talk to Berk, Lilly would stop him, grabbing his arm as he tried to slip past her. ¡°Hold on. I wanted to thank you for helping us survive out there. We probably wouldn¡¯t have made it without you.¡±


    Lucas tried to get her hand of his arm as he looked at her. He then stopped trying and rubbed his throat, able to still feel Emma¡¯s hands closing around his throat. He finally had enough of trying to stay civil. ¡°The next time we meet shall be too soon.¡±


    With that, he yanked his arm loose as he then looked at Berk who had witnessed it all. He knew that this wasn¡¯t the best way to be officially introduced to the king but he couldn¡¯t keep in the frustration and anger he had felt the past days.


    Lilly understood why he said that but still was a bit hurt. Without saying anything else, she left to go and find Emma.


    Berk wasn¡¯t so sure how to talk to Lucas as he seemed like a bit of a wild card. From what he heard, he was an ally but from what he saw now, he was more a lone wolf. ¡°You¡¯re not a part of those freedom fighters are you?¡±


    That question was quickly met with him shaking his head. ¡°No, my apologies. We had¡­ let¡¯s say a rough first encounter with each other.¡±


    ¡°So I heard. Now I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯re here on business?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡± Lucas would look down at the ground, feeling a bit ashamed of what he was going to say next. ¡°Look¡­ I¡¯m not a fighter. I don¡¯t know how to handle a bow let alone fight well with a sword. I just came to say that I¡¯m going back home. I don¡¯t want to take part in this war.¡±


    This information wasn¡¯t too weird. Not everyone was born to fight and Lucas didn¡¯t seem like the fighter. ¡°That¡¯s alright. Problem is that¡­ I would like your friend Gurgen to help us. He said that if you fight, he will fight. And not only that. What do you think will happen when the skeletons win the war?¡±


    That question came a bit out of the blue for Lucas. He hadn¡¯t really thought about that. ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±


    ¡°If the skeletons win, every other gruge will be destroyed. They can¡¯t reproduce so¡­ my guess is that we will be treated as cattle. Forced to reproduce and killed at an early age to keep us weak. Think about that while you go back home. You might not be able to fight but with the help of Gurgen and his healing brew. I was told that he even managed to overpower Barta.¡±


    Lucas looked down as he started to realize how bad things might become if they actually lose. He didn¡¯t think that two more people could change the outcome of the war but who knows what might happened.


    ¡°What if I do change my mind, where will I be able to find you? I don¡¯t think that you¡¯ll stay here.¡±


    ¡°No indeed I won¡¯t. We have an actual village nearby.¡± He motioned for Lucas to follow him as he walked to a table nearby where some people were working. He grabbed a map of the nearby area, pointing out a spot not too far from where they were. ¡°Only a day of traveling needed. You won¡¯t find me there but during conflict, it is used as a command base.¡±


    ¡°Can I¡­?¡± Lucas pointed at the map as he wanted to take it.


    ¡°Go ahead, we have more so you can keep it.¡± He gave the map as he turned around. ¡°Listen, I have a lot to do. Think about it.¡±


    With that being said, Lucas was left behind as Berk started to make preparations for the girls to go home. He looked up at the sky, starting to get angry once more. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you send me to a peaceful world? You had to put me in this shithole didn¡¯t you.¡±


    He didn¡¯t expect his god to answer so when nothing happened, he would sigh and roll up the map. He then grabbed his bag and went on his way, the words of Berk echoing in his ears.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Emma woke up from her uncomfortable position. She had fallen asleep on the rock with her hands underneath her head. When she woke up, she felt stiff and had an ache in her back. ¡°Note to self¡­ don¡¯t sleep on a rock¡­¡±


    As she looked around, she saw that Jackson hadn¡¯t left her and passed out on the ground next to her. She never saw a centaur sleep so it was interesting to see that he slept lying down. Before she got up, she decided to lie down for a bit more. The stone wasn¡¯t getting any better so she would just get up, debating on waking him up or not.


    Luckily she didn¡¯t need to make that choice. While she got up and was standing there, Medi stormed into the open area. He recently had almost lost his brother and he was a bit concerned about him. He had seen them go here last night so at least he knew where to go.


    The sudden entrance of Medi both spooked Emma and woke up Jackson. Jackson groaned, rubbing his head before rolling over and sitting up. ¡°Hmm¡­ hey Medi. What has you going like that?¡±


    Seeing both Emma and Jackson here, he wouldn¡¯t know what to think of this. ¡°Did I disturb you two?¡±


    Emma shook her head, yawning as she walked past Medi. ¡°No, just woke up. I suggest you give your brother some water.¡±


    Medi walked to Jackson, offering him his hand so he could help him get up. ¡°Next time I demand that you sleep in a tent. You aren¡¯t fully recovered yet from yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah I know.¡± He grabbed the hand and got up, groaning as he then shook his head. ¡°At least I got some good sleep.¡±


    ¡°Berk wanted us to go and travel with the princesses but seeing you, I think it¡¯s better that you stay here.¡±


    ¡°Hey wow¡­ I can walk therefor I can travel.¡±


    ¡°Really? Okay then, how about we do a small race then? A good race to wake up.¡±


    Hearing that, Jackson would give Medi a dirty look. ¡°Fine¡­ I¡¯ll stay here.¡± He groaned a bit and shook his head. ¡°You better not die.¡±


    Medi chuckled, shaking his head. ¡°Me dying? I wouldn¡¯t dare.¡±


    ¡°Oh shut it, you didn¡¯t do much better than me.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, listen. I¡¯m going to the human capitol. That will take a while. Therefor when I come back, it¡¯ll be at the battle. According to Lehtern if we go now, our army meets the skeletons at the Free Valley. This means that I won¡¯t see you anymore until the battle start.¡±


    Jackson nodded slowly, not liking the sound of that. ¡°Hmm¡­ I doubt that you can stay?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t stay. Berk thinks it¡¯s best we go seeing how we already had our moments with the princesses. Seeing that you won¡¯t be able to go, I doubt he¡¯ll like it if we both not go.¡±


    Even though Medi was right, Jackson didn¡¯t like it. He hugged him tightly, leaning a bit onto him as well. ¡°If you get killed during the travel¡­ I¡­ I don¡¯t think I can handle it. Not after mother¡­¡±


    ¡°I know I know. We both almost died yesterday. I¡¯m not planning on making that something regular.¡±


    ¡°If you have to make a choice. If things get bad and you have to run. Save Emma okay?¡±


    That request was a bit weird but Medi wasn¡¯t going to pry. ¡°Yeah¡­ If it gets to it, I¡¯ll make sure to get Emma to safety.¡±


    Jackson hugged him once more. ¡°Thank you brother.¡±


    ¡°I have one more hour before I have to go. Wanna play some cards before I leave?¡±


    ¡°Hah! You¡¯ll lose!¡±


    ¡°Try me horse for brains.¡±


    They both laughed as they left the open area to go back to the camp, acting as if nothing was wrong.


    As Lucas was walking, he¡¯d take a look to his map ever so often. The one he got was much bigger and much more detailed than the one he had made himself. As he walked, things went through his head. Emma choking him, Gurgen saving him, Berk talking about what would happen when the skeletons won.


    That¡¯s when his mind got back to Gurgen and his machine. Something about it was bothering him. Not only that, back at the cave the armor had yelled lies when they were interrogating him. Something about him not being a fugitive from Pan and not coming from this world. That¡¯s when he also remembered Demmie¡¯s words.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t a different world, just a different time. Logically speaking¡­ my god doesn¡¯t exist yet. But then how did he know about this place? My god did come from another world and was brought into this once. That means that someone told him about this place. So Pan must still be alive somewhere in the other world.¡±


    He had now two options. He could go to Gurgen and take his time machine trapping Gurgen in this time or perhaps if he could convince Gurgen, he could come with or he could try and fight in the war. ¡°Or¡­ I gather all my friends and try to get them out of here with me.¡±


    He took the map once more and started to circle around some areas. Demmie was still at the camp so he had to find him later. Gurgen wasn¡¯t really a friend but he couldn¡¯t leave them here and lastly there was Ninke.


    ¡°Now¡­ where will I go? I can¡¯t go to my own time because my god will be there.¡±


    That made him stop in his tracks, thinking about it. Then there was also the problem of taking Ninke away from the land she knows and grew to love. The more that he thought of it, the worse his conscious became. He couldn¡¯t just leave everyone here could he?¡±


    ¡°Uch fine!¡± He stuffed his map back into his bag as he started to head towards Ninke. ¡°Might as well tell her what is happening. Knowing her, she will want to fight as well.¡±


    As everyone had their thing going on, Demmie just sat there. After waking up, he felt older once more. He was an old man now, standing there in the middle of the area as everyone just walked past him. He didn¡¯t really fit here and he had seen a lot in his lifetime. Perhaps he could use some of his experiences in war to help Berk in his war. Finally having something to do, he would walk up to Berk.


    Berk had started to order the camp to be packed up. He had send multiple messages using birds to quickly message other gruges to try and get their aid in this upcoming war and to fill everyone else in what was happening. So when the old man Demmie came to the king, he was a bit confused.


    ¡°Can I help you sir? I saw you entering the camp with Lehtern and such but we haven¡¯t really spoken yet. As you know, my name is Berk and I was told that you are Demmie.¡±


    Demmie nodded as he wasn¡¯t sure how to approach this subject without looking insane. ¡°Well.. It¡¯s not about how you can help me. It¡¯s about how I can help you. You see¡­ I have lived many lives in the past. Believe it or not but I come from the same world as Lucas does. I don¡¯t exactly know when I was born but I have vague flashes sometimes of wars that I¡¯ve witnessed. I want the opportunity to be heard by you and your generals, perhaps make up a strategy.¡±


    While this was something interesting to accept, he also didn¡¯t have time right now to talk strategy. ¡°Well sir, I will be glad with any and every experience that I can get but for now, it might be better if I send you ahead with the scouts. Mostly because of your physical age. You can ride in the utility cart if that¡¯s fine with you.¡±


    ¡°I do think I can keep up with your elven convoy that you have right here. Believe me, I can walk.¡±


    ¡°Look sir, I understand that you want to help but I really suggest that you go ahead.¡±


    Demmie understood that with his current body condition, wasn¡¯t really in shape to run or walk for long distances. ¡°Understood your majesty.¡± He bow his head as he went to a group that was about to leave, climbing into the cart.


    As he sat in the cart, Zoala would join him, carrying a rather heavy bag with empty stones. Once she got in, she grabbed one, starting to make some kind of incantation, carving something into the stone. This stone seemed like it had been worked on before, already having an almost complete carving into it.


    Having nothing else to do for now, Demmie would watch her work on the stone. At first he didn¡¯t want to disturb her seeing as she was busy, but as the group got ready and started to move, pulling the cart with them, he would finally open his mouth.


    ¡°Zoala right?¡± He held out his hand.


    Zoala continued her incantation for a bit longer before stopping and accepting the hand. ¡°Zoala, and you¡¯re Demmie. I never got to ask what you were doing in that cave.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ well¡­ where do I start? I¡¯ve been here for around three years now. That is a total of three years times 365 days. Minus how old my body is right now which is seventy. I¡¯ve died over a thousand times since I arrived in this place. Every day I fear that I feel too bad to continue and decide to start a new cleansing process. In that cave, I somehow felt more relaxed. I was able to sleep properly again, not having nightmares of the different deaths I experienced.¡±


    He didn¡¯t realize it yet but the long he talked, the sicker Zoala was getting. She couldn¡¯t imagine how a life like that would be.


    ¡°Not only that. It might be my imagination but for some reason, dying in that cave didn¡¯t feel as bad as in any other place. Off course Lehtern found it not too long ago so I wasn¡¯t able to make my home there but I was relaxed. That¡¯s why I was there.¡±


    She would nod as he finished talking, putting away her stone as she looked up at his old wrinkles. She felt a lot of empathy for this old person, not sure on how she would be able to help him perhaps stop feeling pain.


    ¡°Can I ask you something Zoala? I¡¯m not sure who else to ask and seeing as Lehtern is gone on another mission, I only know you around here.¡±


    ¡°Yeah sure, ask me anything.¡± She wanted to help this man, wanting to show him that he could come to her for anything.


    ¡°I want you to kill me. I want you to kill me around fifty times.¡±