Breath deeply, her father's voice echoed calmly, You can't hunt if you're more scared than the deer."
Pidge tried, just as her father had taught her. In and out. Slowly. She wondered if maybe she was doing it wrong, though, because it didn't seem to slow her rapidly beating heart. Her breath came shaky and ragged, white puffs of air escaping her mouth. No matter what, though, she held her crossbow ready, never letting her target out of her sight.
There, just past the trees, lounging next to the river in the gray gloom of the late fall sky was her target: the prince. He was laying flat above a pile of leaves, wrapped in thick navy coat lined with gold embroidery. Pidge felt a stab of bitter jealousy at the finely-clothed prince's blissful expression, as if he didn't have a care in the world. It wasn't fair, she thought bitterly. He should have the weight of the kingdom on his privileged shoulders. Why should it fall on her, a titleless commoner, to have the fate of the entire kingdom in her hands? Perhaps the ones who'd sent her were right, she thought as she observed him, perhaps his ascension really would be their downfall. She shook her head against the unhelpful train of thought.
She had a job to do. If she wanted her brother to live, she wouldn't fail. She needed to stop waiting pointlessly and do what she came here for. Taking one last, unsteady breath, she narrowed her eyes and steeled her pounding heart. She would do it. Swiftly and irrevocably. Before her, Prince Lance's chest rose. His last breath.
A life for a life, they'd told her, and what choice did she have but to agree?
She closed her eyes and let the arrow fly.
There was a harsh hiss of air and a fleshy thunk from the prince's direction, and Pridge felt her stomach heave even as she felt relief that the job was done. The relief was short lived, however, because the sound of the arrow hitting home was followed by a loud outburst from the prince. The very much alive and not dead prince, it seemed. Those being two mutually exclusive things.
Dear gods, she'd missed.
"Holy mother-!" the prince let out in a choked cry, pain lacing his voice as he let out a stream of curses. Pidge's eyes flung open and she felt her eyes widen as the prince let out a particularly colorful invective. She'd heard the like before, but never would've expected it from the refined mouth of royalty.
The elf prince was crawling gracelessly from the river's shore, one leg dragging limply behind him. He must've been going for the pack she'd seen him leave behind the tree line. Pidge's stomach flipped at the vicious sight of an arrow protruding from his thigh. The arrow she had put there. Blood dripped from the wound, leaving a stark red trail in the snow behind him.
It was one thing to kill in defense of her own life, but this...
Pidge's whole body trembled, numb fingers reaching for her quiver and missing the taut bowstring twice before she finally had the arrow at the ready. Bile rose in her throat as she set off toward the prince on weak legs. Why did she have to miss? The killing was bad enough. But this was worse. Much worse.
Pidge came upon the prince just as he pulled a glowing stone from his pack. He froze at the sight of her, eyes wide with fear and pain, and Pidge felt her own body go stiff. She felt bespelled, though she'd experienced the real thing enough to know she wasn't. Crouched there, bleeding in the snow, the elf prince looked nothing like what she'd observed at a distance. His striking blue eyes set against dark but now bloodless skin made Pidge's chest uncomfortably tight. It was stupid, she knew. His sharply pointed ears and angular features were a dead giveaway that he was nothing like her own people, but she'd never expected him to look so...human.
Shoot him! She urged herself, Do you want your brother to die!?
But her hands wouldn't comply.
In her moment of indecision, the prince took action. "Shiro!" He shouted, and the already glowing stone pulsed with energy that made Pidge's bones vibrate. Her eyes widened at the sheer magnitude of the prince's power even before she realized what he was doing. Either he was trying to frighten her with his magical strength, or he was just that awful at control. "Ugh, fine! Captain Shiro!" The prince shouted again. This time, along with the pulse of power was an answering glow from the stone. A summoning stone, Pidge realized, heart like lead in her stomach.
She was momentarily blinded by the bright flash of elf magic, then, as she blinked spots away from her eyes, she saw a man standing where the stone had been. He was shorter than the prince but still tall and broad-shouldered. There was a shock of white in his dark hair. He was also dressed in the regalia of the King's Guard. His eyes widened at the sight of his prince. "Prince Lance!"
Pidge's grip tightened on her bow and she pulled the bowstring back. The man turned abruptly at the sound and his eyes narrowed. Before Pidge could utter a sound, the man flung his arm at her. She was momentarily confused until a hand shaped-block of stone separated from his arm, connected by a glowing trail of elf magic, and struck her square in the chest.
Pidge's small frame was flung backward until she struck a large tree behind her, the impact rattling her skull and driving the breath from her lungs. Her bow and arrow clattered uselessly to the forest floor several feet below. The quiver and its arrows were crushed behind her, digging painfully into her back. The stone hand pinned her against the tree, immobile and terrified. She struggled for air, her abused chest protesting painfully. Breath deeply. She tried to remind herself, but it was as if she were being smothered by a pillow, her vision darkening at the edges.
She couldn't breath. She was going to suffocate.
"You're killing her!" Came a now familiar voice, and even in her panicked state, Pidge wondered why it sounded as though the prince were against that outcome, given the circumstances.
""I'm not," came a calmer, deeper voice, "She just-"
"Put her down!"
Pidge felt herself being lowered to the ground by the large stone hand just as she was able to suck in a half breath of air. It was a stubborn pull and she fought for every moment, but finally, finally, she tasted sweet life in her lungs. She was eventually settled at the base of the tree, still restrained, but infinitely more comfortable.
"Like I was saying, she just needed to get her breath back. Either way, you need to let me look at that," the calmer voice said in a tone that brooked no argument. Pidge looked up blearily and saw that it was the person the prince had summoned, Captain Shiro. She was so relieved at being able to breath again, that it took her a moment to process his words, then she clenched her jaw.
Pidge took his moment of distraction to attempt her escape. She struggled against her bonds, but the the grip was like, well, stone. Her whole upper body was pinned, her legs scrabbling uselessly in the rain-soaked mud. The captain didn't even seem phased by her attempts, and Pidge wanted to sob in frustration. Now that she'd failed miserably, her brother was in more danger than ever. Outwardly, she just glared.
The captain bent down next to the prince, who'd turned to stare at the ground at this side, patently ignoring his injured leg. "I'm sure it's not too bad." He said. Pidge raised her eyebrows at that. This response was a remarkable about face from the dramatic cursing she'd witnessed before the captain had shown up. The captain helped the prince move over to lie on a log and out of the mud, and Pidge saw he was shivering despite his fine coat.
With a guilty, almost masochistic fascination, Pidge's gaze was drawn to the prince's wound. Her throat burned with bile again at the sight. No matter what the prince said, 'not too bad' was not an apt description. From the way his mouth tightened and his brows furrowed, the captain didn't think it was a good assessment either. He quickly tore a strip of cloth from his tunic and began wrapping it around the prince's wound, leaving the arrow inside.
Pidge watched as the prince's whole body went rigid and his breaths became quick and pained.
"We need to get back to the castle," Captain Shiro said. And although the prince's eyes stayed fixed on the forest floor below, Pidge could see his face had become set in a deep grimace. The prince's eyes slid sideways, and Pidge's eyes momentarily met his. Pidge quickly looked back toward the captain.
The captain took in their surroundings, never loosening his grip on Pidge. "Do you have your return stone with you?"
"I, um…" the prince's voice was strained, "Well, you see I was, ah. What I mean is...no."
The captain didn't appear surprised by his prince's lapse in judgement, although Pidge knew return stones to be worth a king's ransom. The dark haired man only grew more grim. "Well it's a good thing you called me," he said, "We'll have to use just mine."
The prince's eyes grew wide at that, "Shiro, that's not-" A look from this captain silenced the prince, who suddenly shivered more violently than before.
"Prince Lance!" The captain bent back down to grip the prince's hand. A sudden, horrible thought occurred to Pidge, and it felt like the breath had been stolen from her all over again. Had she doomed the prince to a slow painful death rather than the swift one she'd intended? After a moment, the prince's shivering abated, though he looked weakened by the onslaught of chills.
"Just cold…" the prince murmured, "Can we-" he let out a hiss of pain, "-can we go now?" He was definitely losing strength, Pidge realized. She was supposed to be on her way back to her brother right now. How had things turned out so horribly so quickly?
"Yes," the captain said, "And you're coming with us." The last was directed at Pidge, who felt herself pulled over to the captain and the prince. The prince lifted a shaking hand to grip the captain's wrist.
"We can't - ngh - we can't let on that we know." the prince said.
Both the captain and Pidge looked down at him in confusion.
The prince grew impatient. "Take us...to my private quarters. This is...secret. Say…hunting accident…something..."
The captain glanced at Pidge, a troubled expression on his face, "What about her?"
"Shiro, please." the prince sounded tired and at his limit, and the captain's face darkened, but he leaned forward.
"I'll do has you say, Your Highness," the captain said, and his face showed he didn't think it was a good idea, but wasn't about to tax the prince any further by arguing the point. "Rest easy." The prince seemed to relax at that, though only slightly, lines of his face still hard with pain.
The captain pulled out what must've been the return stone from an inner pocket, gripped Pidge and the prince tightly, then spoke the words of returning.