Chapter 12
Wow, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was a challenge to write. There's not really much to say on it, so read on and review me what you think and discover. Hehehe...
"Steve?"
The white eyes made her nervous and they were staring her in the eye. The stallion was pacing, making nervous neighs and throwing his head around with his ears fully laid back, occasionally stopping to paw the ground in a show to intimidate. This told Solana that it wasn't Steve. She looked at the picture again, now seeing that the man standing on the roof was more muscular and his shoulders were broader. His hair was a little darker and longer. He seemed to be a little taller than Steve, but then again, Solana hadn't seen Steve since he disappeared from the Kingdom.
The man huffed, taking his diamond sword from the strap on his back and fully stood in the roof. He actually was, a little more than taller than Steve, and he started coming in her general direction. He jumped off the roof, landing gracefully on the pathway in front of the door. He raised his sword, only a little, as it was enough for her to know he meant violence. However, before she , or him for that matter, could do anything, the caramel stallion jumped between them, ears laid as flat as they could go. He lifted his two front hooves off the ground and neighed loudly before he dropped them on the ground, making the ground vibrate like a mild earthquake. He snorted, continuing to paw the ground to intimidate as he snorted loudly.
"What is this?" The white eyed man hissed as the stallion created another shake, seeming to make the very core of the earth vibrate. His eyes flicked from the stallion to Solana's sword. She shivered inwardly, not only at the deep voice, but also from the sudden fear she felt towards both the stallion and the man. He wanted to intimidate the man into retreating by creating powerful earthquakes that were rare to the citizens of the kingdoms. Both the man's voice and the stallions show of power were unexpected and, she had to admit, terrifying. "Did my brother summon you?" The horse stopped pawing the ground and looked at the man in curiosity, ears raising slightly. The stallion threw his head back again and stomped one last time, making the man nod, seeming unsurprised. The man then snorted, sheathing his sword and disappearing in a puff of white particles. The horse then snorted, mimicking the man before turning his head around to look at her, ears raised as high as they could go.
Solana sighed inwardly. Her instinct had told her to run for her life, from both the stallion and the man. Both had shown power, and both had tried to make the other back down. Her hand had found the hilt of her sword when the man had eyed it and she was prepared to draw it against anything if she had to. She was even prepared to draw it against the man, despite the powerful commanding air that surrounded him. The kind of air that told her I-can-kill-you-faster-than-you-can-blink. Which she found terrifying.
She heard a playful neigh and turned around to see the horse prancing around, throwing his head lightly as he looked at her with his charming clear ocean blue eyes. It almost looked like he was trying to smile at her.
"What?" Solana asked, smiling at his obviously failing attempt for a smile, feeling that the horse wanted her to do something. Then her question was answered as the horse started moving towards the house, stopping beside the door and turned around to look at her again. "Oh, you want me to go inside. I see." She moved closer to the door and for some reason, she decided to turn around. What she saw, half-hidden behind the tree-line, was a green eyed Endermen. He blinked, then disappeared. She was stunned for a little second. Suddenly, without warning, the green-eyed Endermen appeared in front of her and she yelped, instinctively drawing Gideon, her iron-obsidian sword, brandishing it against the unknown foe. The horse waved his head, flicking his lovely black tail a few times before looking curiously at the Endermen, who narrowed his eyes and slightly bared his teeth as he saw the jewel in her hand, disappearing soon after in a puff of green particles.
After checking the area rather carefully, she determined that the Endermen was gone and headed into the house, the horse stayed outside and grazed as she went around the house, searching for anything useful. She didn't find much and returned outside, taking a look at the paths. The one on the far left of the house led to the Standing Stone, the one in the middle led to the village, and the last one... she wasn't sure. Solana smiled to herself, the path on the right was where she was headed. It was unknown territory, a new adventure. It was her destination. In one fluid motion, she put the jeweled necklace around her neck, looking at the picture one last time before heading towards the untraveled path.
An low rumbling ran through the castle, like a deep voice trying unsuccessfully to say something while making the walls vibrate and the paintings shake. The king sat on his high throne, looking miserable as the two assassins he had recently sent out were back. With nothing.
"I told you to come back once you had his HEAD!" The king bellowed, clenching his fist around the armrest of his golden throne, making his knuckles turn white. The two assassins flinched, not daring to look up at the enraged king.
"Sir, with all due respect, we have a good explanation." One of them tried, slightly raising his head to catch a glimpse at the kings face, only to find that the king was glowering down at them, and quickly lowered it again. The assassin already knew what his Majesty was going to say, but decided to elaborate anyways.
"What IS IT?!"
"Sir, we witnessed your daughter, the Princess Solana, riding out of town on an unsaddled caramel stallion. What caught our attention was that she was heading out into the forest and refused to collaborate with us."
The air got dense and started to fill with suspense as the kings rage meter slowly filled to the brim. Finally he sighed, taking his glass staff and rubbing his eyes.
"Why did you not follow her, then?" The assassins were surprised, as the kings voice was not filled with rage, but more with worry when the conversation turned to his daughter. He eyed them critically, looking for a weak spot to explode upon and get rid of them.
"Well, sir, we thought it would be best if we were to report this to you right away. Or else, if she found that assassins were following her..." The assassins voice faded off as he lowered the hood further down onto his head, wanting nothing more than to avoid the kings rage. His sentence however, was finished by the last person he expected to see in the kings throne room.
"...she might think that you were sent to kill her, correct?"
A small man with a note pad and pencil came from behind the throne, eying the assassins, who were staring at him with mild surprised. He gave them a warm smile before turning to the king, who looked like he might explode at any minute. However, the king fell forward as the castle shook again, this time more violently, making numerous paintings fall loosely to the floor. The chandelier shook, threatening to fall down upon them all any second, but then the tremors stopped. The kings rage was temporarily forgotten, as his castle was shaking again, this time a little less violently, but just enough to worry.
"What is wrong? What keeps causing all these earthquakes? Al, can you deduct anything?" The king turned towards his assistant while trying to fix up his dusty clothes. Al only looked at him with a disapproving look.
"Not really. And you have read my name tag wrong, sir. It is not A-L, as you say it, but rather these are my initials, A. I." The small man with the note pad said. His king was looking at him just as he was the assassins a little while ago, his eyes full of anger and madness, but also worry for his daughter.
"Then what do I call you, if your name's not Al?"
"A. I. would do just fine, sir, thank you." The small man blushed only a little, holding his notepad close to his face as to hide his small smile. He then dropped his notepad down to his side and rubbed the back of his bald head, trying to contain a bigger smile and an even bigger blush.
"Fine." The King turned back to the assassins, eyeing them sternly. "Go get my Hunters and tell them to find my daughter and bring her back unharmed. If she is harmed in the slightest, their punishment will be death! Now get GOING!" The assassins rushed out of the room, leaving not a single trace that they were ever there.
The small man with the note pad smiled and disappeared in a puff of golden particles, his brown eyes never leaving the throne on which the king, consumed with worry and sadness, sat upon.
She started sprinting, the stallion trotting behind her to catch up and eventually he was trotting happily at a mild pace beside her. She smiled and hopped onto his golden caramel back, successfully, and laughed as he started galloping, making the wind hit her face and whip her hair around. Soon, he started slowing down as the grass darkened suddenly, going from a clear, natural green to a dark unhealthy black. The stallion stopped as they came in sight of what looked like a campsite. A very destroyed campsite. Bodies littered the area, but something was odd about the bodies. Everyone of them had their clothes on, but they looked rather thin. As she got off her companion, she bent down, keeping balance by putting her hands on the floor. She was hesitant to touch the hood and unsheathed her sword, lowering it to lift the hood of the nearest body, an assassin. What was underneath, however, made her gasp and drop the hood back down, pulling away from the body and looking at the campsite in horror.
Underneath all the clothes were skeletons.
These people, most of which she didn't know, worked for her father. The enigma on most of their clothing was enough to tell her that much. She kept looking around, trying to find at least one thing that could help her identify what killed these men. She picked up a dagger, but as she held it up, the gleaming iron turned black and crumbled to dust. The stallion came up behind her, nuzzling her back. When she turned around, she saw that his ears were laid back against his head as he sniffed the air. He snorted a few times and started walking off. Solana sheathed her sword and clenched her hands. Who or what would do this? Her golden hair almost shone like a torch in the dark, blurry environment, lighting most of the ground, which was beginning to look like a dark red.
However, as she started following the stallion, her hands felt funny, as if there was something kind of gooey on them. She lifted her hands up to her face and had to resist the urge to scream and run away from the scene, running desperately from the campsite she now never wanted to see again. She could almost hear the bones rattling, the terrified screams of terror as the unknown enemy killed them mercilessly... A neigh drew her from her thoughts. She looked at the beautiful eyes of the stallion, only noticing them now, and gaped at their beauty. They looked like the sky, endless clear blue with no limit. It made her smile and forget her dreadful thoughts.
However, that didn't stop Solana from wiping her hands on her pants, as they were stained with blood and ash.
He felt warm liquid run down the side of his cheek and tightening his grip on his sword, he clicked his tongue. He had found out that during a fight, tapping your foot could be the last move you made, you could end up tripping or being distracted. Instead, he found a way to make it easier for him to track down the Endermen. One, listen, and two, if that doesn't work, be patient. He waited for the echo to come back and when it did, it revealed nothing but stone. Great. The Endermen up and left him. How wonderful. It could be a hoax, but he doubted it.
He moved forward, still clicking his tongue, and felt a small pain in his back that sent him tumbling forward. Instinctively, he raised his sword, somehow hearing the enemies blade cutting through the air and coming straight towards him. The opponents sword smacked against his own and he fought to stay in place, holding back the sword. Eventually, he lost his foothold and was sent flying into a stone wall. He tried to move, but felt a small pressure being pushed onto his neck and he stopped, dropping his sword. Slowly the pressure was removed.
'Not bad. You improved, somewhat. You decided to use your tongue instead of your feet, which makes a much more acute sound and also allows you to have more mobility, to distinguish your surroundings with more...precision. Very clever. However, you still lack a little sense of direction in coordinating your attacks. Although, this is your first try, so I will not be as harsh in my judgement.'
Steve felt a little wave of emotion move through him. Greenscale rarely praised him. If he ever did, it was to give him advice on how to do better. Now he stood, barely, huffing and puffing at the effort he put into the training, while Greenscale just stood calmly like he's been using a sword all his life. Honestly, he liked being around the Endermen, it felt... natural for some odd reason. It almost reminded him of his friendship with Casroth, but it wasn't close. It felt nice to have a friend again, even if he was a mob. It hasn't been that long since they were practicing his sword fighting, maybe a few hours, a day, he couldn't be sure. The caves were tricky that way, but he didn't let time bother him, nor the pain. It wasn't worth complaining about the pain.
As he was looking through the darkness for those familiar green eyes, listening for the slightest sound of shuffling feet or even the odd sound of the Endermen's teleportation, he couldn't help but think of his new friend. He was growing rather fond of the Endermen, and he guessed that Greenscale thought likewise. Sure, during practice he would hit Steve, but his hits were half-hearted, not meant to hurt as much as they were supposed to.
Steve chuckled lightly, now noticing that Greenscale was getting a little serious as he felt another sharp blow to his gut. He ignored the burning feeling he had within his gut and simply laughed for a few short moments, making the Endermen wonder what was funny.
'Pardon me, but I fail to understand why you are laughing. I hit you a little harder than usual, so you should not be laughing so much...' His green eyes were narrowed in confusion as Steve only laughed harder. A small tremble, however, was enough to stop him.
"What was that?" He whispered, panic slowly creeping up into his voice as it echoed off the walls for a few moments, with no results other than countless echoes that bounced back. Suddenly, another tremble, this time bigger than the previous one, shook the cave to the point that it caused a tremendous crack that echoed terribly loud throughout the whole cave system. Everything was shaking, stones were falling out of place.
The thunderous sound echoed horribly through the cave, as if a new ravine was being created which made Steve cry out in pain and tumble to the ground, dropping his sword. Various pieces of stone shook loose as the ground vibrated with enormous force. The sound was unbearable to Steve, who was in a rather soundless cave for a while and that the sudden return of a very loud sound was almost enough for him to scream out in pain and cover his ears. He felt small claws dig into his side and try to lift him off the ground, but just as he was standing, everything stopped.
Everything just...stopped. The trembling, the horrible cracks, everything. It was almost heaven to Steve when it all stopped. But what in the world was that? Both he and Greenscale were confused and wondered what may have caused this series of terrible tremors.
'Are you alright?' Greenscale finally broke the silence, worry ringing loud and clear in his voice. Steve could only nod, as his ears were ringing terribly from the sudden loud sounds. He was glad. His life here underground was...interesting, to say the least.
"I'm...I am fine..." He said, hesitant to actually say anything over the shock from the tremors. However, he soon got out of it when Greenscale came in front of him and looked him right in the eye, his clawed hands resting on both of Steve's shoulders as he drew him in, narrowing his eyes to indicated seriousness.
'Do you wish to investigate these phenomena? If so, it would require going back to the surface.'
So? What do you think? Review me what you think. We actually got more info on Al, interesting. R&R please! The reviews are motivation for me to write chapter at least once a week! They make me so happy. Toodles!
-NilakantaDragonQueen619.
