I very hastily grab my travel's backpack after rushing into my bedroom. Then, I secure a sleeping bag and an empty canteen onto it and a hunting knife, a carving knife, two small pillows, and some basic hygienic essentials such as towels and deodorant. However, there are two items of which most people would bring with them that I am not packing: flint and a weapon for self-defensive purposes. The flint is an obvious one due to the fact that, since I am a fire elemental, creating and starting fires is not a problem for me. I do not need to bring a weapon for self-defense because, as long as I am able to use this knight armor shroud, I can simply create weapons by using my fire element.
My plan is to quickly head to the royal stables and acquire a horse (which is why I am also packing a sack full of carrots) and set off towards Arendelle through the Stella Trade Route (i.e. a trading route between Arendelle and Weselton) which is rarely used now since the firm establishment of a trading alliance between Weselton and Arendelle has been made by Elsa's deceased and my recently deceased parents. Why do I not mentally break down, cry, or even tremble at the horrendous memory that will forever be burned into my mind of my own parents' lives being taken before my eyes? Well, in truth, there are two reasons. The first is simple. I need to be strong so that my parents' deaths do not become meaningless as a simply another tragic chapter in the pages of history. The second is the one which trumps any possibilities of such emotions, of which purely express unforgiving sorrow and cordial pain of which scars my heart, to arise. I need to be strong for Elsa. In purest truth, I will never forgive myself in the next life if I am to leave Elsa in this world alone without another individual who can possibly understand and relate with her on a personal level.
I need to leave Weselton as soon as possible before any soldiers or assassins try to bar or blockade my efforts to escape the Duke's coup. Although they would not be a significant threat to me as long as they do not use any heavy weaponry such as ballistae, I prefer to not kill and causing any unneeded and avoidable fatalities. Grabbing my travelling necessities, I dash out of my bedroom and head eagerly and hastily through the castle to the royal stables. The thing that is slightly troubling my mind is the fact that the hallways are silent and unoccupied. The only occupant seems to be me and the only sound is the unique sound that a suit of plate armor makes when a person runs in it. "Where are the soldiers and servants?"
I immediately halt as I enter the entrance room of the castle and look down onto the marble flow. There, blockading the oak gates of the main entrance and several corridors, including the one that leads to the royal stable yard, are at least one hundred Weseltonite soldiers, in which every soldier present is armed with a loaded rifle and the standard militarily issued Scandinavian rapier. One of the soldiers takes a couple of steps forward while looking up at me. I can only assume that he is the head officer. "Prince Flamorin! You are not to leave the vicinity of this castle alive by the order of the Duke!"
"I do not want to fight any of you men! Now, step aside!" I exclaim in a tone filled with venom and warning.
"You no longer take orders from you, Flamorin! And, in case you haven't noticed, you are outnumbered by one hundred to one!"
Underneath my fire element helmet, I grin and grit my teeth slightly. "Well, then…if it is a fight you want…" I jump off the wooden railing onto the marble floor with a force that causes a slight tremor and creating a spider web of a crack upon the once untainted and undamaged flooring. The impact of jumping from such a height does not faze me due to the fact that the knight armor shroud absorbs the impact before it can cause serious physical damage to my body. The once bold soldiers are startled by this action and some even seem scared as they gaze upon me. I take my backpack off and lay it beside me on my right. Then, as if by second nature, the two Swiss longswords materialize in my hands radiating with the igneous power of which my armor is constructed. "…It is a fight you shall get!" I get into a fighting stance with the swords in which the one in my right hand is holding a fire-sword with the sword's flat part of the blade is parallel and facing my right cheek in while, in the other hand, a sword is pointed obliquely away from my body.
"OPEN FIRE!" The military officer in commands orders gesturing his hand in an authoritative forward fashion. All the soldiers in the room point their rifles at me and fire their weapons upon me. However, I remain unfazed and remain fixated like a statue refusing to me because I instinctually know that their bullets cannot penetrate through my armor. In truth, if I had closed my eyes, I would have barely noticed anything hitting the elemental armor shroud. When they run out of ammunition, they all gaze upon me with horror and fear. Why? None of their bullets did any noticeable damage to the armor or me. There is not even a minor dent in it.
"Are you done yet? I have no intention in fighting anyone here! I just want to leave! You are not making this easier for me or you, so just stand aside!" I yell venomously at every individual within my presence. Unfortunately, my pleas, although innocent, undemanding, and simplistic, are once again ignored as if they were never uttered.
The leading military officer's left eye seems to slightly twitch in either annoyance or shock. It is difficult for me to tell which of the two it is due to how far away the man is from me. "M-Men! Draw your swords!" Every soldier present pulled his rapier out of its sheath and holding it tightly while fixated in a defensive stance. "KILL HIM!" From every direction a mob of soldiers begin charging toward me with their rapiers in a position to initiate a blow upon me.
I amass a very large quantity of my igneous element and hold and control it until they are within a radius of fifteen feet away from me. Then, I release it and manipulate it to make a wall of blazing fire that reaches to the ceiling around me in a perfect circle. Almost all the men stop in time before they touch the blaze; however, eleven soldiers are not very fortunate because they are caught within the blaze and are instantaneously turned into ash.
Taking the opportunity by the soldiers being temporarily blinded by the spontaneously appearing ring of inferno that I have created, I run inside of the blaze wielding my swords ready to strike. I very quickly absorb the energy in the inferno and channel it into my blades to the point where the blades of the swords are now radiating with the same heat and intensity as a smelting furnace. Pointing and positioning the blades out of the ring of inferno, I run around within the ring holding the swords steadily in this position striking down twenty-three men cleanly and quickly. I notice out of the corner of my eyes that, as soon as the blades struck and cut one of the soldiers, he would instantaneously become a human torch. Then, less than a second afterwards, the soldier would shatter into ashes, giving the illusion of physically disappearing from existence. After completing one lap, I literately jump back into the center of the ring of blazing fire and hold and position my weapons in their initial orientations and release my manipulation upon the wall of fire forcing it to rapidly to dissipate out of existence.
The remaining seventy-six soldiers very quickly lose their morale and courage as they gaze upon their recently fallen comrades. Filled with terror and horror, sixty-three throw down their swords and run out of the castle. Some soldiers are even swearing and running for their lives as they flee the castle. The remaining thirteen soldiers are all standing before me fixated where they are with their rapiers being held in a significantly defensive orientation yet not in an orientation that is ideal in combat. The adrenaline that has been driving me throughout this suddenly ends forcing me to break my fighting stance and bend my legs and hunch with my face parallel to the marble flooring breathing heavily with exhaustion that transpires like revelation. I look at the armor upon my hands to discover that fractures are beginning to form and the heat being radiated by the armor seems significantly cooler than it was initially. The armor is starting to dissipate and fade away slowly.
"I am using too much energy. I do not think that I will last more than fifteen minutes with this knight armor shroud. I luckily do not need to forfeit any element to maintain the existence of these swords. On the other hand, if I dissipate the knight armor shroud, I will become extremely more vulnerable…. I guess I will need to end make this a quick fight since they are not likely to listen to any reasoning." I force myself to stand back up, even though my body is begging and yearning for a moment of relaxation. However, this is neither the time nor place to be satisfying or submitting to the primeval desires of the physical body.
Three impatient soldiers rush at me with their rapiers raised above their heads. I cross my arms to form an "X" waiting for the moment they are within striking distance. When they are all in front of me (i.e. one to my front right, one directly before me, and one to my front left), I break the "X" and strike outward before they could deliver the hammering strike upon me. Fortunately, my aim is perfect because I successfully cut into a vital artery found in the neck of all three soldiers causing them to literately drop dead on the spot. "Ten left."
One of the soldiers, of whom I recognize now as the commanding military officer who threatened me earlier, steal a rapier out of a soldier's hand standing on his left and delivers a hard blow to his head making him unconscious. He charges at me with a rapier in each hand. I barely have enough time to guard against his attacks in which he delivers a downward slash with his left hand, of which I block with my right hand's sword, and a wide slash to my right side, of which I block with my left hand's sword. The sound of metal hitting metal with great force echoes throughout the entire room. "Stand aside men! I can take the prince alone!" the man orders in a vexingly elitist tone of which makes me grit my teeth angrily. Kicking the man with great momentum in the stomach with my left foot and having the wind knocked out of him, the commanding officer drops his swords and flies and hits the hard, marble floor about ten feet away from me. He loses consciousness after the hard impact with the floor.
The remaining nine men throw their weapons down and run out of the castle. They probably lost any remaining morale that they had seen me knocking out the military superior with a single blow to the stomach. After they are no longer in sight, I dissipate the knight armor shroud and the fire-swords, put my backpack on me, and hastily run towards the royal stable yard.
When I run into the stable yard panting with tiredness and physical pain and exhaustion, I suddenly hear the rustling of grass behind me. I look to my horror and find a greatsword being wielded by Sir Longfield swinging the massive blade to decapitate me. "To live by the blade is to die by the blade!" I close my eyes and cross my arms protectively over my face in a futile attempt to protect myself and wait for the killing blow. I open my eyes to find wooden stake-like projection from the ground that apparently stabbed throw Sir Longfield's heart resulting in instant death.
"Wow! That was close. Wasn't it, Flamorin?" I look to see who the voice belongs to. To my utter surprise, it is Father Bart. He is dressed in traditional monk-like robes as usually.
"Y-You did that?" Even though the answer seems blatantly obvious, I cannot satisfy my mind's doubt without asking the question.
"Yep! But there is no time to explain why I never told you I was a wood elemental. You need to go to Princess Elsa and warn her of this. Since she is an ice elemental the Duke will surely try to kill her if he finds out." He attempts to push lead me toward the stables by grabbing my hand but I furiously slap it away from me.
"For eight years, you have kept the fact that you are a wood elemental yet you have never once told either Elsa or me anything! Now you tell me that you are a wood elemental, after having used the wood element to stop Sir Longfield from murdering me, and say like it is nothing of importance?! Why?! JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH!" Despite my tiredness and lack of spirit to initiate any combatant skirmish, I feel angry and betrayed at Father Bart. What did he think that he would gain by keeping his ability a secret knowing that Elsa and I possess abilities of similar nature but not of dominion?
Before Father Bart can give me his reason verbally, loud footsteps are heard coming towards our direction. Father Bart looks at me as if I was the apprentice that he failed to teach correctly and fairly as a master. "Flamorin, I am deeply sorry. The world still does not seem ready to accept elementals as fellow brethren of the human race of which we are seen as humans and not demons or angels possessing supernatural and other worldly powers. I would tell you the reason but time is not of the essence. GO! I will cover your escape if such a service be required." As he says this, I swear his right eye sheds a lone tear of sorrow out of dissatifaction.
Instead of inquiring a question or making any remark of protest, I merely nod in acknowledgement and hasten towards the stables. Fortunately, there is still one I situate myself on the horse and then I come speeding out of the royal stables on the horse towards the Stella Trade Route. Since I have successfully scared away the soldiers earlier, I do not encounter any hindrances as I finally reach the barely used trade route.
My mind is racing for the concern and safety of Elsa. However, my mind would sometimes shift to a new puzzling question concerning Father Bart. I now feel as if what I knew about the man before today was merely a masquerade.
"He is a wood elemental?! Why did he never tell me? And why did he never tell Elsa? Or did he?" Countless questions concerning the events that have transpired today as I ride my horse towards Arendelle.