"Well, this is convenient!" Exclaimed Mirio cheerily, oblivious to the tension that had enveloped the scene.
Two groups faced off under the cascading rays of sunlight that lit up the clearing like stage lights. The elf, the woodcutter and the nymph stood in the sidelines like an eager audience.
The first line of dialogue from the tense scene was delivered by the leading lady.
"I won't let you take me." Calliope asserted, drawing herself up and staring the knights down.
"Calliope, please. Let's just talk." Sir Midoriya began, holding out a gentle hand and forcing a smile.
The action only made the princess' stare harden and her hands ball into tight fists at her sides.
"Sam. It's good to see you, brother." Sir Russel broke in, stepping forwards with a smile. But his face soon fell as he saw how his approach made the princess immediately bristle. Usually, the Princess would run to him with open arms. Seeing her so closed off and defensive made his heart sink. He and Midoriya had been the ones to teach her how to ride a horse. Now she could tame the beasts even better than they could.
Behind her, his older sibling sighed. "Hello, Russ."
The jester crossed the clearing, passing the princess and greeting his brother with an offered hand. "You caught up fast. You're way too good at your job." He joked lightly, casting his sibling a weak smile as he shook his hand. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to break your winning streak and let this mission go."
Bakugo grunted. Russel sighed. "You know I can't do that, Sam."
Angry footsteps sounded behind them. Samuel turned just as two, outstretched palms collided heavily against Russel's chest plate. The princess' hands continued to shove him over and over again. The first attempt had made him stumble in surprise, the rest merely made him watch her with sad, startled eyes as she began to growl.
"You were like my family! My brothers!" She spat, ceasing her attack only to cast her wet eyes upwards at his silent regard. "Yet you hunt me like wolves to take me back and feed me to that vile man!"
Her words cut through Sir Russel like a sharp, icy wind. His eyes met his brother's momentarily and he found no sympathy there. Samuel simply watched with an impassive expression as Calliope let her angry tears fall.
Sir Kirishima almost whimpered as he made towards her with hands held in front of him.
"No! Princess! It's not like that-"
The red-haired knight had been the one to teach her how to swim. She beat him to the island in the middle of the lake one summer.
Calliope spun, eyes blazing. "Oh? Do explain how it is anything but like I described!"
Sir Kirishima looked devastated as he accepted her fiery expression.
Beside him, Sir Kaminari spoke softly. "Callie, please." He was the only knight that ever addressed her by her nickname. In fact, he may have been the one to give it to her. "Your father is worried about you. The kingdom needs you."
She scoffed and hid her face in her hands. Though she could take her anger out on all the other knights, there had always been something about Sir Kaminari that stopped her from ever shouting at him. Instead, she groaned her frustration quietly into her palms before replying in a low and steady voice.
"How are you all so willing to not only hand me over to the Shigaraki's, but the kingdom itself?" When she brought her hands back down, it was Bakugo who gave her her reply;
"Your highness, the Shigaraki's will take the kingdom with or without you as it's queen. But the longer you make us chase you, the longer the kingdom remains unprotected."
The way he spoke so calmly had taken everyone by surprise, the Princess in particular. She turned to him with her lips slightly parted and her eyes still glistening.
"Bakugo..." she uttered, her arms going around herself. "You made a vow to my father to keep me safe. So how can you justify taking me to that man?"
Sir Bakugo exhaled heavily, his eyes closing. "Your highness..."
"Just go back home, Bakugo. If you're so certain the Shigaraki's intend to overthrow me and my father, then we all know what will become of us both once I become his wife." She sniffed and wiped her face clean with the back of her hand. "King Toshinori will meet his end and I will be locked away until I give him an heir. After that, I will most likely join my father and the Shigaraki's will take away everything the Toshinori's worked so hard to achieve."
Silence washed over them. A still, tense silence. At some point, Samuel had taken Callie's hand.
"Stop making this so hard, Princess." Sir Bakugo eventually spoke. And when he did, Calliope's eyes glistened with fresh tears once more.
It broke Sir Russel's heart.
"Well, you know..." a significantly more chipper voice broke in, "there's no point in arguing about whether or not the princess is going back, anyway!" Mirio shrugged his large shoulders. "I told you already, you can't leave."
The change is subject roused the other knights from their grave silences.
"You said there was a way!" Piped Sir Kaminari, brows furrowed above his wide eyes.
Tamaki glanced the nymph at his side. "Nejire?"
The young woman pouted childishly. "But the forest likes you all so much!"
Above them, the lush canopy swayed in the light breeze. The forest seemed to whisper it's agreement.
"Nejire, please," Calliope spoke, turning to the Nymph and taking her by the hands. "I fled the kingdom so as to not feel like a captive. I can't go from one prison to another."
In all the tension and drama, Sir Russel had forgotten all about the third person to be travelling with the Princess and his brother.
Touya's voice called to the forest dwellers, making them turn to face him. "How about you let us free and keep the knights as compensation?" The merchant suggested casually, leaning against a tree and idly toying with a gold coin from his pocket. "The princess can be free and not have these pests chasing her." He waved a hand in the Knights' direction and was greeted with a snarl from Bakugo.
Sam shot his friend a look and Russel was thankful to see that, despite everything, his older sibling at least didn't want him to remain trapped in a forest forever.
Nejire hummed in thought, twirling a lock of her hair around a finger. After a pout of her lips and a scrunch of her nose she finally spoke. "Fine. You can go."
Relief washed over the entire group. But the nymph hadn't finished;
"But you must all leave something behind. Something important to you." She held up a finger and cast them all a closed-eye smile.
The gesture didn't sit well with Sir Bakugo, who's mood had steadily been decreasing since the moment they left the castle. Two days into their trip and Sir Russel was surprised he hadn't exploded yet.
"Urgh! Enough of these games!" The blond knight barked, red eyes ablaze.
"If you want to leave, then that's what you must do!" Nejire added, unfazed by his outburst. She looped an arm through the elf's at her side and patted his shoulder.
"Tamaki and I will lead you to the very edge of the forest. It will give you enough time to consider what you will offer in return for your freedom."
The elf pulled his lips into a tight line, looking utterly abashed by his need to participate further.
"Well, That settles it!" Mirio declared, hands on his hips.
But Sir Russel couldn't help but feel as though nothing had been settled at all.
*
The group trudged through the forest behind the light-footed nymph and the hunching elf. For the most part, no one spoke. The knights trailed behind the forest-dwellers, leading their horses and muttering quietly amongst themselves. Calliope walked quietly behind them next to Touya, her eyes downcast and her cloak wrapped tight. At some point, the merchant had reached around her and pulled her into a one-armed hug. Perhaps she had begun to cry again. Sir Russel wished it were he who was comforting her.
As they continued their trip to the edge of the forest, the conflicted knight turned to his sibling.
"Sam, why are you doing this?" He asked, turning to study what expression would take hold of his brother's face when he responded.
It was one of utter seriousness.
"Because I care for Calliope." He answered. His light eyes held his. "The question is, why are you? Don't you care for her too?"
Sir Russel sighed, closing his eyes so as to not have to face his sibling's searching stare.
"Sam, please. It's not that simple." He muttered.
"Remember how unhappy mum was being married to our dad?" Sam continued, the swift change of subject allowing Russel to reopen his eyes.
He nodded his head quietly and allowed his brother to go on.
"You and I both suspected it's what killed her in the end."
Though Samuel didn't speak it directly, Russel knew what he was implying.
"Calliope is a Princess, not a farm hand." The younger sibling responded.
It elicited the exact reaction he had been anticipating the moment his words left his lips; A roll of the eyes and an angry scoff.
"When did you start to see things so black and white, brother?" Sam queried, his voice low and his head shaking.
Russel sighed once more. "Just come back with us. We can talk to the King. We can figure it out together. Just come back."
Sam continued to shake his head, eyes now fixed on the sway of the Princess' long plait as she walked ahead of them.
"It's not me you have to convince. It's Callie." He said with a nod of his head in her direction. "And if she chooses to run, I'm running with her. I've already made my mind up."
He opened up his hand as he said this. Inside it lay a silver locket which he held out to his brother. Russel recognised it immediately. It was their mother's. She'd given it to Sam, her eldest child, on her deathbed.
"It's what I'm leaving behind." He said simply.
He opened it to reveal the faded photo inside. Their mother's face stared back at them. On the other side of the locket was the space where their father's photo should have been. But their mother had removed it the moment his body was six feet below ground. How she'd hated that man.
"And it also happens to be what Calliope wants to leave behind too."
And Russel understood what he meant. He was not referring to the locket, but the pain of an unhappy marriage to a nasty, belligerent man.
The knight felt a pain in his chest. It made his lips purse sadly. "Sam...I-"
"We're here!"
They turned their eyes to their surroundings. They didn't look particularly exceptional. In fact, they looked like the rest of the forest- all green leaves and bluebells.
"This is your way out," Tamaki informed them, while Nejire presented it with an outstretched hand and a wide smile.
The elf and the nymph stood beside twin silver beeches whose branches arched into one another's. Nothing particularly extraordinary. However, a squint of the eyes and a tilt of the head revealed that the space between them shimmered like the surface of a moonlit lake.
"When you're ready, leave your offerings and step through." Nejire said brightly.
The group was hesitant. So the nymph encouraged them with a cheery; "Ladies first!"
But her suggestion had Sir Bakugo growing once again.
"I don't think so!" He barked, stepping towards the Princess who stared back with a testing frown. "You're not running off again!"
Sir Kirishima spoke next. "But Bakugo! We don't even have anything to offer!" And he was right. The knights aways traveled lightly. None of them possessed anything particularly sentimental on their person. What could they possibly sacrifice for their passage through the barrier?
Sir Bakugo gritted his teeth. "Well you best think of something quick!" He snapped, watching as Calliope approached the archway.
"Well you have to too!" Sir Kaminari called back.
As the knights began to bicker, the Princess stepped forwards, drawing her dagger from her cloak as she did so.
With her mother's pendant already gone, there was only one other thing left that she could think of that reminded her of the mother she'd never met.
Other than her olive skin, her long, green hair was the only other thing she had inherited from her.
Holding the long plait Nejire had done for her out with one hand, she held the sharp blade against it with the other. Shutting her eyes, she began to cut until it fell loosely into her closed fist like a slain serpent.
Her eyes met Sam and Touya's and she managed a weak smile as she cast her long hair onto the forest floor. As soon as it touched the earth, it immediately turned to dust, leaving a single bluebell plant behind in its place.
Swallowing hard, she passed through the barrier.
Author's note: Out of curiosity, who are you more inclined to side with? Calliope or the knights?
Personally, I'm backing Calliope whereas my Sis is more for the knights.
Also, I'm sorry if the last few chapters have seemed a bit flat. We'll be back to the romance, laughter and adventure soon enough. ;)