Chapter 3 Hunted

The clash of the metal swords hitting each other startled Yuri enough to turn around quickly. His eyes landed, straight away, on what he had dreaded would be there. A necklace. But this necklace wasn't ordinary in the least. The necklace had two black sets of small wings, and one bright blue pair that slowly seemed to be withering on it. Yuri couldn't help but be frozen in place between Otabek and the fairy hunter. An overwhelming sense of fear overcoming his whole being. This had been the first time he had ever seen a fairy hunter, let alone been almost attacked by one.

Yuri had once again been so lost in his thoughts that he didn't register Otabek pushing him to the side and shouting at him. He stood there with a look of confusion on his face before

Otabek had repeated his words.

"Run and fly away Yuri! You do not need to be hurt too!" Otabek yelled at him.

Yuri was tempted to run and fly away to save himself and leave the stranger but he didn't. Instead, Yuri ran behind Otabek and used his magic to change back into his original fairy form. It was much easier to use his magic in this form and right now he needed to be able to use it properly. He flew around above the two while they dueled and then landed on the want to be knight's armored left shoulder before pointing at the hunter and speaking.

"How dare you try and take the wings of a fairy! You filthy pigs disgust me," he yelled which surprisingly boomed from his tiny body. A bright light emanated from his finger before it blasted right at the hunter's eyes.

The man stumbled and dropped his sword the spell momentarily blinding him. Yuri flew down into the man's face and began kicking at his nose out of the anger that was welling up inside him. He couldn't even look at this filth of a human being.

"You killed innocent fairies! You killed a fairy who helped a hero save people! How dare you do that to them! We help and protect you people and this is how you return the favor!" Yuri was kicking the nose harder now, and he was sure that he was getting some actual damage in. However, as soon as he made progress he was being swatted at and the hunter was picking up his sword again.

Yuri flew up and away from the hunter quickly before Otabek matched swords with him again. He built up the blinding spell again trying to aim for the shifty man. They were moving around too much as they continued to match blows or try and stab the other, sometimes Otabek would graze the man enough to draw blood. Humans could be such animals. Yuri groaned in frustration and stopped the spell before he could accidentally shoot it at Otabek. He felt so useless right now! Yes, he could control his magic better in this form but that didn't mean he could aim better. He didn't want to risk hurting his one chance at getting his wings and making his father proud. This fight had gone on long enough in Yuri's opinion; he was getting too tired of not being able to do anything. Yuri was quick and quiet as he flew behind the hunter and transformed back into the human form. His long legs were always an asset of his in the fairy world, so of course they would be here as well. Yuri took a breath and swung his leg at the man who had not been facing him and connected with his head, just by his ear, hard enough to send him flying face first into the brick wall.

Yuri looked from the seemingly unmoving hunter and over at Otabek who was just staring in disbelief at the man whose face was still on the wall. Yuri smirked and walked over to Otabek just as the man started to move again. Yuri turned around to go back and kick the man in the face again but Otabek was already striding in front of him. He grabbed the man's hair and forced the man him to look at him. Yuri moved to the side to see what was happening and felt like he had lost his breath. Otabek was looking at the hunter with a dark and threatening look on his face that was completely different from the one he had given Yuri earlier. Otabek's free hand ripped the string necklace off the man's neck holding it close to the hunter's face before he spoke.

"A fairy once helped my father save my mother. They should be cherished and kept safe. They shouldn't be treated like this, by monsters like you. When I am king I am going to put a stop to all of this," Otabek said proudly before punching the man hard in the nose and dropping him.

Yuri knew Otabek was speaking about his mother and he couldn't help but let a small smile come to his lips when he spoke about fairies needing to be cherished. This human was definitely different from the others. And so in that moment he had made a decision. He stood in front of the stranger with a hand on his hip while he bent forward pointing at Otabek,

"you're going to be my hero," he declared.

Otabek had been cleaning his sword and nearly dropped it at the fairy's proclamation, "Who said I wanted a fairy tag along?" He spat out, obviously annoyed with him for some reason, "Father said fairies are sweet. You have a bad attitude."

Yuri shook off the last statement about his attitude with a roll of his eyes.

"You are going to be my hero, and I'm going to help you save your stupid little town, and get my wings. It will be a win for both of us," Yuri explained matter-of-factly with a wave of his hand.

"I don't need you and you'll only get yourself killed if you come with me. My cousin is not someone you can take lightly," Otabek explained as he started walking away from Yuri.

Yuri growled in frustration when Otabek turned away and shifted back into his fairy form, flying to catch up to him. It didn't take long and as soon as he caught up Yuri attached himself to the hero's hair.

"What did you mean by that? I'm a fairy and have magic. I can take down one silly human," Yuri assured with a cocky tone in his voice.

"My cousin isn't a normal human, Yuri," Otabek stopped and sighed, "He's a sorcerer. He's taken over the town and is using his magic to basically kidnap all the woman because he's just a sick perverted-," Otabek growled in anger cutting himself off.

"Did he use his magic to take away your fiancé or something?" Yuri asked, needing to know this kind of information about whoever his hero was suppose to defeat.

"She's not my fiancé or," Otabek made another frustrated noise, "At least I don't want her to be. My parents set me up in an arranged marriage with this woman and then my cousin kidnapped her. I don't want to marry the girl, but that doesn't mean she deserves this… Why am I even telling you all of this?," Otabek finished with a sigh as he started walking the back streets of the town to head towards a road to the next town.

"Okay I get it you don't want to marry her. Who the hell is this cousin of yours anyway? We haven't heard anything about any sorcerers coming into power," Yuri grimaced as he tried to remember if his father had complained about anything like that recently.

"His name is Jean Jacques Leroy," Otabek sighed in annoyance and Yuri bent over the front of his head to see the Prince's face and saw the look of embarrassment as well as he finished speaking, "He calls himself King JJ."

"He sounds stupid to me," Yuri said as he moved to sit back up on the man's head, "He shouldn't be that hard to take down. Beside with your swordsmanship and my royal magic we will be unstoppable."

Otabek seemed to chuckle at that and Yuri was compelled to fly off his head and in front of the man wanting to see the change of that stoic face. He looked so child like when he laughed it was almost… cute. Yuri felt heat well up in his cheeks, and quickly shook any thoughts of this human being cute out of his head.

"Alright then. If you are so confident that we will defeat my cousin then I will accept you as my fairy," Otabek said as they continued to walk on the road towards the next town and their quest.