Chapter 4: The Bow and The Sword


Morning came too soon for Ash and May as they were forced to wake up early to greet the Prince and King of Johto.

"May!"

May stirred in her sleep and once hearing her name being shouted, she groggily got up. "Yes mother?"

"You have to get up. The prince will be coming any minute now!"

May hurriedly got up and just as she was about to run…

"Hold it May! We must find you something nice to wear in front of the prince."

May had a look of disgust. "No way mother! I don't see what's not to like about casual wear."

"Maybelle…"

May groaned. She hated being called by her full name, but she had to throw on something nice. Instead of thinking about looking nice for the Johto prince…she thought of it as looking good for the Kanto Prince…

She got up and started to browse through her large wardrobe in search for something decent to wear. After messily tossing dresses left and right, she finally came across a long blue dress. "Is this fine?"

Caroline smiled. "Yes. I think that would look great on you. I'll be heading out, so I'll meet you outside of the castle."

"Yes mother…"


In the meantime, Ash had woke up himself. He stepped out of his bed and splashed some water on his face. After drying himself, he then dressed himself into his regular tunic, then leaving his room in search of the princess.

Right at this moment, he was standing by the princess' door. Once clearing his throat and fixing his tunic, he knocked several times on the door.

After a minute, the door suddenly began to turn open, revealing the princess. Ash took a moment to scan the girl that stood right in front of him, but as he did so…his mouth slammed to the ground. My! She looked so beautiful. She had her hair all the way down, slightly curled, the long blue dress that matched the tone of her eyes and the smile on her face made her look so dazzling.

"I-I…um…you…May…you look…handsome…I mean uh! Beautiful?" Ash stuttered, quickly blushing and turning his gaze from the princess.

May also couldn't help but blush too. She giggled quietly to herself of the boy's nervousness. "Thank you Ash. You look pretty good yourself."

"T-thank you. Let's go. Your parents are…um…waiting for us."

"Oh! Right. Let's go then…"

The two teens started to lightly jog out of the castle. Upon arrival, they were greeted with Max, Norman, and Caroline. They each turned their heads and saw the whole kingdom awaiting the arrival of the Prince. Although Ash and May were not too thrilled about seeing him, they were still curious of what he was like.

From a distance, they could suddenly see a chariot nearing the kingdom. Taking a closer look, there were 2 Rapidashes, each on harnesses that were lulling a huge tent looking dome. Each and everyone in the kingdom watched as the chariot neared and neared until it parked itself right in the middle of the Hoenn Kingdom.

Slowly, the doors on both sides of the tent-dome had opened. The man on the left was none other than King Alexander LaRousse, King of Johto. He had long dark blond hair, sea ocean eyes, and was very tall. He wore a traditional king attire that contained a long red cape, blue tunic, and a tall golden crown. The only weapon he carried along with him was a long sword strapped to his hip.

On the other side of the carriage, was Drew LaRousse. He had bushy green hair, green eyes, and his popular, arrogant smirk. He was wearing his prince tunic and had a sword; much shorter in length to his father's strapped to his hip and a bow and arrow over his shoulder like Ash Ketchum.

The two of them started walking past each of the civilians and occasionally waving and grinning. The civilians seemed rather thrilled upon their presence as they were clapping and cheering as they walked closer and closer to the Hoenn Castle. All in the while, the Maples ran to greet them.

"King Alexander! It's a pleasure to see you once again."

Alexander shook his hand to acknowledge his presence. "King Norman. This is my son. Drew LaRousse."

Norman looked behind Alexander and saw there was indeed a teen prince. "Drew. It's great to finally meet you."

The green haired prince flicked his hair. "Humph. It's nice to meet you too…Oh and who might this young lady be?" Drew asked, walking up to May.

May slightly backed away. "I'm May, princess of Hoenn." She reached out her hand for him to shake.

Instead of returning the handshake, Drew just took her hand and kissed it. This action made Ash slightly cringe.

In response, May just put on a fake smile and gestured for Drew to come into the castle. The two walked inside, leaving Ash standing there with the rest of the Maples and King Alexander.

Once King Alexander had shook hands with each of May's relatives, he turned to Ash with an unimpressed look on his face.

"And who might you be?"

"I'm Ash Ketchum. The prince of Kanto."

"Ah… The King has told me a lot about you. You're Miss May's guardian."

"That's right."

"Just stay away from her. You know my boy will be marrying her instead of you."

"No need to worry. Everything is understood," He nodded.

"Good. Well…it was pleasant to see you all again, but I must be going now," Alexander stated.

After everyone had exchanged a short goodbye with the King, he walked away to get back in the carriage. But before he departed, he turned to look back at Ash and slightly frowned. The carriage started to slowly disappear into the distance as everyone watches intently as the King left. Once he was completely out of site, everyone went along with their own business. This was when Caroline, Max, Norman, and Ash had decided to head back into the castle.


"Ok…so this right here will be your room," said May.

Drew flicked his hair and looked around the guest room. "A bit under decorated, don't you think?"

"No…our servants worked on this room the whole day, so wouldn't you be grateful for that?"

Drew just ignored her. "Maybe if you were to share that bed right over there with me…it wouldn't be so bad."

May was getting rather offended by his previous comment. "Excuse me?"

"Don't you know? We'll be getting married anyway…so?"

He couldn't finish as he was slapped hard in the face. "How dare you say something as inappropriate as that! You bloody pervert!"

May walked away, leaving Drew standing there with a smirk and one hand over his cheek.

"She wants me."


Right now, Ash had been wandering all over the castle, disappointed about one thing in particular.

"Stupid Drew LaRousse. He and May are probably having the best time of their lives right now."

He stopped right there as he could hear very remote cries. Ash just shrugged it off thinking it was just in his head…

There it goes again! Ash was beginning to become concerned, so he ran in the direction he heard the cries. He ran and ran and eventually found himself standing in front of the princess' room. He opened the door and behind it he found May sobbing miserably on her bed.

"May?"

May looked up and saw it was Ash. "…Ash."

"May. What's wrong?"

"Drew. He is the most ungrateful, arrogant, pervert I have ever met!"

Ash clenched his fist so hard his knuckles were popping out from his hand. He took a deep breath and sat down on the bed next to May.

What surprised May was what Ash did next. He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed May close to him. May sobbed quietly into Ash's chest, letting all of her tears cascade down her face and soak into Ash's dark tunic.

After a few minutes, she had calmed down and sniffled a few times. "Thanks Ash."

Ash smiled to her. "Anything for you May. But tell me what Drew did."

"A little while ago…he had said the guest room was too "unpleasant" for his taste and then he made a very inappropriate comment."

Ash understood well enough, and decided not to push the topic any further. "I'm sorry that happened to you May."

"It's ok Ash…it's not your fault."

"I know, but I feel very worried for you. You're very important to me, you know." He said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

May looked up at him with innocent eyes. "I'm important to you?"

"Yes May. Very important…"

"Um…Guys?"

The two looked up and saw Max standing outside the room.

"What is it Max?"

"If you two are done, dad has called me to bring you guys to the dining room. We're having brunch."

Ash turned to May and grinned. "Come on. Let's go."

May returned a smile and nodded. "Okay."


Once the trio had reached the dining room, they had seen a huge feast beautifully layed out on the table. Norman sat at the front, while the other family members and Drew sat in their respective places.

Once Ash had sat down, May reached for a seat next to him, but was stopped by her father. "May? Why don't you sit next to Drew?"

May turn to her mother. "Mom! Do I really have to?"

"Maybelle! Please be polite to the guest!"

May cast a look at Drew and glumly pulled out a seat next to him. The sight of Drew just being near May made Ash incredibly jealous.

"Hehe. Maybelle," Drew whispered.

"Shut up," May muttered, crossing her arms.

The family and guest ate in silence…well except for Drew who was constantly trying to flirt with May by making poor compliments about her looks and trying to get her attention.

After the dreadful dinner had ended for poor May, she got up. "Mom. Dad."

This caught the two parent's attention. "Yes May?"

"Ash and I are going to go walk through the kingdom."

"That's fine May, but bring Drew along with you," said Norman.

May protested. "But dad!"

"No buts!"

May stomped her foot into the ground stubbornly. "Fine…"

Ash took a look at Drew and noticed a hidden smirk on his arrogant face. There was just something about him that made the boy absolutely disgusted by him.

"Come on Ash," May said, tugging at his hand.

Ash looked back and saw Drew frown a bit, while following closely behind.


Once reaching the outside of the castle…

Drew was very unpleasant to be around during this point. Just being with him made Ash completely understand why May didn't take a liking to him.

"Hmm…there's not a lot to do here. What could you two possibly do for fun?"

Ash growled. "Well…if you didn't happen to know, there are actually a lot of pleasant things to do here, right May?"

May spat at Drew. "Yeah, that's right! If you don't have anything good to say, then just keep it to yourself."

"Well if you insist there are fun things to do here, then why don't you show me around, huh?" Drew said to May, in a failed, yet flirty tone.

May was absolutely disgusted by his form of flirting.

"Cut it out Drew," said Ash.

Drew smirked. "Or what?"

"Or I'll beat you in a little competition. See those targets over there? A bow and arrow contest."

"Pfft. I don't face peasants like you."

"If you didn't happen to know, I'm actually the Prince of Kanto. Thank you very much."

"Humph. Fine. I accept your little "challenge," but remember you're making a big mistake doing this."

"I'm willing to take that risk."

The group walked over to the circular foam targets set up by the castle. As they lined up, many of the civilians wandering the kingdom had noticed the two princes and princess, so they decided to see what was going on.

Drew turned around a took a bow to the audience that had formed around them. "Greetings to all of you. I am Prince Drew LaRousse of Johto and I have accepted an archery challenge to this so called confident man over here." He said, gesturing to Ash.

Ash snarled and removed the bow from his shoulder, while Drew copied his actions. "Round One."

Drew pushed Ash aside. "Allow me."

Ash, May, and the audience had watched intently as Drew pulled an arrow into his bow. A few seconds of him aiming and he had finally let go of the string connected vertically from his weapon. After a low whoosh sound coming from the bow, and the arrow flying at great speed at the foam targets, the audience watched. A majority of them, mostly the men were betting on who would win. The Prince of Kanto or the one from Johto. Most had been betting on Ash after seeing how well he fought with a sword the other day, so they suspected he must've been talented with the bow as well.

After what seemed an eternity, the arrow finally lodged itself into the target. He got a Bulls eye. Drew turned around with the biggest grin on his face. "I'd like to see you beat that."

Ash smirked as he stepped in front of Drew and pulled an arrow back, releasing it a lot faster than the speed LaRousse had. Once his arrow had made its way into the target, the audience looked to see where he had hit.

...

Sure enough…he had gotten a Bulls eye too. "How was that Drew?"

Drew growled. "Pure luck."

"Here, how about we go for a second round. This time with a blindfold."

The audience cheered. They had longed to see an archery challenge, but with their line of vision blacked out? That was very entertaining! In the back, May had the biggest smile evident on her face. She liked to see Ash wipe the floor with Drew.

"Where are we going to get a blindfold?" Drew asked, in a desperate attempt to escape the situation.

Even though Drew had an arrogant shell, he was quite nervous about shooting an arrow with his eyes closed. Something Ash took note of.

"This," Ash said, removing a dark bandana from his pocket.

Drew squinted his face. "Are you joking? I'm not going to touch something that's belonged to you!"

"What are you afraid of? Catching my germs?" Ash scoffed.

Drew pouted. "Fine."

As the Kanto Prince was about to step up and take his turn first….

"Stop. I'll go. After all, better looks always go first."

Ash frowned at his last statement.

Drew took the piece of cloth from Ash's hands and picked up another arrow from his quiver. After tying the bandana around his head, he drew another arrow back into the string of his bow. Releasing the arrow, the Johto Prince hoped for the best. But before he got the chance to remove the bandana, he heard a fit of laughter and giggles coming from all around him. Eagerly ripping off the bandana, he had seen that he hit a piece of meat from the butcher's shop.

"Hey! You're gonna pay for that!"

"Ah bloody hell," Drew muttered.

Ash just chuckled along with May. "I guess it's my turn now."

"Oh be quiet. It's not like you could possibly do any better," Drew said throwing him the bandana.

Ash caught it skillfully and winked to May, before turning back to Drew. "We'll see about that."

Ash quickly tied the cloth around his head and then set up his bow and arrow for firing. He released the string rather quicker than the audience had expected and heard the impact of the arrow. Instead of hearing hard laughter and giggles like Drew had experienced, he had heard nothing but gasps and "wows."

Taking off the bandana slowly, he had seen that he hit the target square in the middle. Another Bulls Eye.

With large cheers and applauses from the crowds, Ash felt proud. He took a short bow before being tackled to the ground by a brown blur.

Opening his eyes, he saw none other than May cuddling into him on the ground. "Oh Ash! That was amazing!"

Ash immediately blushed in the position they were in. That was…until Drew coughed. "Excuse me, but we're not done yet."

Ash gently pushed May off of him making May slightly blush. "Whatcha mean?"

"I mean I challenge you to a sword wielding duel. Clearly you are more skillful at the bow than I am, but I'd like to see you beat me with a sword."

He smirked. "Alright. I accept your challenge."

Drew gave off his own smirk. "A challenge it is then."

The audience started to go into another round of excited cheers once seeing the two princes taking out their swords from their sheaths and stepping opposite from one another.

Each of the princes looked up and into each other's eyes before both nodding to each other. With one swift movement, Drew charged up at Ash striking down at him. Ash looked up and immediately brought his sword up to block the attack. After colliding swords, Drew went for a low sword attack, which Ash blocked again with the blade of his sword.

The two fought and fought, desperately trying to gain the advantage. Once LaRousse tried to sweep Ash off of his feet with his sword, Ash jumped avoiding the hit. While aerial, Ash did an oblique slash at Drew's chest cutting off some of his tunic's fabric.

The Johto Prince became furious. Surely he was angry for not being able to land more than a couple hits on Ash, but him ruining his clothing was enough. He began to viciously swing at Ash, which each blow was dodged by jumps or ducks. The second Ash found an opening; he kicked Drew in the chest knocking him to the ground. He put one foot on his chest and pointed the point of the sword at the boy's neck.

"Do you accept defeat?"

"No! I will not lose!" Drew shouted, kicking the blade away.

Ash gripped his sword with both hands and kept his distance from the enraged Prince.

"AH!"

After the umpteenth time, Drew charged like a wild dog at Ash.

Ash instead of charging remained calm, which surprised everyone in the crowd.

May began to grow worried "Ash! Move!"

And right at the last moment, Ash did a back turning kick right into his abdomen. The second Ash's foot came in contact with Drew's gut; he was knocked back onto the ground several feet back, with the wind knocked out of him.

"That was a cheap shot," Drew said, gasping for air.

Ash smirked and withdrew his sword. Whether LaRousse liked it or not, he had lost.

After catching his breath, Drew stood up. "You may beat me in the war of battles. But you come nowhere close to me in the war of love."

He walked over to May and held her hand.

May swiped her hand from Drew's grip and walked away with Ash. "Humph."

Drew smirked and began to follow the other two. "She wants me. I just know she does."


That was the end of Chapter 4. Please drop in a review and follow/favorite. It really helps me out and encourages me to get the chapters out sooner :)