A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
Annabeth was still showing Percy around in the village when Oscar the village youth appeared abruptly again.
"You have to get out of here!" He shouted, his eyes frantic.
"What?" Annabeth asked, startled.
Percy stepped in front of her, putting his body between Oscar and her.
"No, you don't understand! A bunch of knights came around asking for you!" Oscar glanced behind him. He looked as though he had been in a rush. "You have to run away and hide, now!"
"Knights? But what for?"
Panic was beginning to set in. Annabeth was sure that no one knew where she was or who she truly was. There was no way those knights were after her because of that incident, was she? And how had they found her?
"They said they were looking for Chirana." Oscar continued.
"What? But I'm not Chirana," protested Annabeth.
For all of the years that Annabeth had known her mentor, Chirana had never given any indication that she had been in any trouble with the mages, just that she preferred to stay isolated by herself.
"How many are there?" Percy demanded.
"I counted about eighteen," Oscar answered.
But before Annabeth could do anything else, the said knights appeared.
"Witch Chirana! There you are. Kill her!" The lead man roared.
He appeared to be the leader, with his armor much fancier than his comrades.
A flood of arrows suddenly flew through the air. Screams pierced the air from nearby villagers as they dashed for cover, but luckily, none of the arrows harmed anyone. With a quick wave of his hand, Percy had summoned a large wave of water from a nearby rain barrel and froze the arrows in mid air.
"Percy?" The man in the lead asked. His eyes narrowed. "So you are still alive. Men, whoever kills the Beast of Galvador will have a sack of gold coins as his bonus. Two sacks if you bring me the witch's head!"
Not bothering to hear any more, Annabeth grabbed Percy and fled down the village path, but not before telling Oscar to run as well. Though he had come to warn her, it was a pity that the warning had come a little too late.
"You know those men? And what are they calling you, a beast or something?"
Annabeth ducked as a spear flew overhead and continued running. The village's air had no mana since it was located outside of the Forest. The only supply of mana was Percy himself, and he was already poisoned.
"Long story. Which I'm sure your story is as well as to why they're looking for your mentor. I thought you said she was dead!"
Percy cursed as another spear was cast, almost hitting the merchant who had sold them the hairpins earlier.
"I'm pretty sure she is! I had to bury her myself!"
Annabeth scowled as she heard the racket behind her. The men pursuing them didn't seem to care that they were knocking down innocent people. The village had become her home in the past ten years. She would not stand by idly and watch them destroy the people who had at least let her live in peace.
"I'm sorry, Percy, but I have to borrow a little bit of your mana."
Without waiting for Percy's surprise to show up, Annabeth probed her mana into Percy's network through their still intertwined fingers and pulled out some mana, avoiding the dark inner energy. The mana was quickly used to cast a spell over her shoulder.
Suddenly the ground behind them crackled as plants began twisting their way up. Their pursuers had spilled sacks of corn on the ground in their carelessness, and now each kernel of corn became full grown corn plants getting in the way of the pursuers. In addition to the corn, vines grew from the grapes being sold from a hawker, trying to wrap their tendrils around the legs of the startled hooves.
But it wasn't enough as the knights merely used their swords or magic to blast through the interfering plants. One of them summoned a blast of wind, only for Percy to make an ice wall that cracked into ice shards as the wind smashed against it.
They were now in the midst of a town square where many people and shops were around. Both of them couldn't use their powers to their full capacity without endangering the lives of others. Unfortunately, their attackers did not have the same concern, sending fireballs flying that ignited a nearby bakery.
Percy's water magic extinguished the fire, but it cost them a few precious seconds. Just in time, Annabeth summoned an empty wooden crate that blocked a few arrows aiming for Percy's back.
"Let's try to lose them through the Forest!" Annabeth decided.
"Sounds good!"
Percy cast another spell that froze the ground in a layer of slippery ice. Horses neighed as their hooves no longer met solid ground and slipped, throwing a few of the riders onto the ground. The rest tried to hold onto their horses.
The leader of the attackers roared in frustration, but already the fire mages were defrosting the ice. Annabeth scowled. Who were these people, and how did they know Percy? The attackers seemed to be strong and influential, since the group seemed to contain at least one of every elemental mage.
Still taking a hold of Percy's hand, Annabeth sprinted towards the forest. The illusions should be able to slow down the mage knights. Of course, if they were good mages, they might still be able to dispatch the magical illusions easily. But for now, Annabeth didn't want any more innocent people to be hurt.
As soon as they entered the Forest, Annabeth could use the natural mana floating in the air, summoning poison oak trees and poison ivy to deter their assailants. The sudden appearance of trees in front of them or vines creeping up their legs deterred the assailants somewhat.
"Burn the forest down!"
They heard the command.
"Are they crazy?" Annabeth shouted.
What kind of insane people would burn down a whole forest just to catch two people? It looked like they were going to set fire to the woods just to flush them out like prey. Already the air was beginning to fill with smoke as fireballs were sent in every direction.
"Clearly!"
Annabeth cursed. Percy was doing his best in slowing down the fire, but his mana stores were nowhere replenished. Not to mention, she had used a significant amount of his mana earlier.
As they burst into the meadow where her cottage was, Mrs. O' Leary the cat came running out and meowed urgently. No doubt, their pursuers would be able to find the cottage soon.
"Pack what you need and let's get out of here," Percy said. "If you can get us to the largest river in the Forest, then we can escape."
Annabeth nodded and dashed into the cottage. The ring left behind by Chirana was a storage ring, and Annabeth quickly threw in whatever she could grab: books, medicine, some random pieces of clothing, food. All that she deemed necessary quickly flew into her ring with a wave of her hands.
Chirana had taught her to always be prepared to move in cases of emergencies. Annabeth hadn't believed that she would one day have to implement what Chirana had taught her, believing that she would always live her life out in the Forest of Illusions. Now once again, she was being chased out of her home. Perhaps in a way, Chirana had known that people were going to come after her.
When she came out of the cottage, what was her neat and tidy garden had been transformed as a battlefield before her eyes.
In the village, Percy had to restrain his powers in order not to hurt the innocent bystanders. Now that they were in a meadow, he didn't feel like he had to be so reserved.
"Meowrrr." Mrs. O' Leary came up beside him, her tail twitching in agitation.
The smoke plumes from the forest burning were coming nearer, indicating that Octavian's men were slowly albeit steadily making their approach towards Annabeth's cottage.
"Go back inside, Mrs. O' Leary. This is not a place for a cat."
The cat did not listen, merely shaking her head and turning her amber eyes to Percy. Well, what did one expect from a cat who didn't understand the language of humans? But as Mrs. O' Leary was a witch's cat, Percy had thought that in the past few days, Mrs. O' Leary seemed to understand what Annabeth and he were saying.
Now, it seemed that Mrs. O' Leary was determined to stay by his side, despite the obvious danger.
Through the trees burst the first of Octavian's men. Percy didn't even give them a chance to adjust to the surroundings when water drenched the men and quickly froze them in place. The next group of men were water mages who managed to defend themselves against the consequent water attacks, at least for a few seconds before Percy was charging them with his sword.
Clang! Percy swung his sword and neatly blocked off the mage while using the backswing to take care of another. He had fought among these men in battles before, had even saved their lives. But now it seemed they had forgotten all little bit of camaraderie between them. Not that Percy had expected it, being someone who was so feared.
A flash of black fur appeared on his right. Just as another knight was about to attack, a small dark form suddenly transformed to a powerful, black panther. Roaring, the sleek panther pounced upon the hapless knight and used its powerful jaws to snap up the knight and fling him into another knight.
Percy's blue eyes met amber eyes.
"Mrs. O' Leary?" He wondered.
"Rowrrrr," Mrs. O' Leary growled, before launching another attack. Her paws knocked one man over as she jumped on another who screamed in terror.
But Percy couldn't be surprised for long as he focused back on the attackers. Years on the battlefield had thrown too much for him to be surprised. He figured that a witch's cat would not be a normal cat.
Percy gritted his teeth and knocked back another knight. As soon as he twisted the knight's arm behind his back, frost quickly enveloped the knight and transformed him into an icy statue.
By now, the remaining knights were much warier and had resorted to trying to attack from a longer distance. Percy concentrated on diffusing attacks that had the potential to head towards the cottage where Annabeth was.
"Retreat!" The head knight roared.
Percy noticed that Octavian himself had not come out to fight. Coward, Percy spat. Even without mana, there were plenty of knights who were great fighters without the use of magic. But Octavian's low self-esteem and inferiority complex made the prince hide behind his men while arrogantly stealing the credit.
Not letting the knights retreat, Percy made quick work of the rest of the knights. Bodies were frozen in place or bloodied from Mrs. O' Leary's claws and jaws. Trees were scorched or smoking, while the ground was dirtied with mud from the mixture of earth and water magic attacks.
This was the scene that Annabeth had come out to see from the cottage after she had gathered supplies.
Percy felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. Somehow, he did not want her to see him in this state, with the clothes she had bought for him dirtied and bloodied. He had not cared when others viewed him as a barbaric monster, but for this witch who had taken him as he was, he somehow did.
He waited for her to run away, to scream and look at him with fear and disgust in their eyes as so many others had done throughout his life.
"Come on, we have to go now before they bring back more people! You're still injured, so stop using your mana!"
Instead, Annabeth tugged at Percy's hand. Already, reinforcements from Octavian's men were coming. Mrs. O' Leary transformed back into cat form and jumped onto Annabeth's shoulder and meowed urgently. Percy, who had never ran away from a battle without hundreds of enemies dead, let himself be dragged away by the hand. Together, the three had slipped far into the Forest by the time Octavian and his backup men arrived at the cottage.
The Galvadorian prince narrowed his eyes as he turned towards the cottage. He commanded his men to raid the cottage, but it seemed everything valuable was already taken. Bookcases were empty, leaving some scattered papers on the floor. Men gathered whatever they could, but the papers looked to be inconsequential on the surface.
"Your Highness, please look at this."
His second-in-command led him outside the cottage to a corner of the garden.
Octavian frowned as he inspected a grey stone. In neat letters read "Chirana" and a year that he noted was two years ago. Had the witch his father ordered to find already died?
He was sure that the Galvadorian king believed that his curse would end once this witch, Chirana, would be killed. Yet, if Chirana had already died but his father was still cursed, how would they break the curse?
The witch he had seen with that bastard seemed far decades younger than Chirana was purported to be. But perhaps this unknown witch could have information on how to break the curse.
"Send the news to my father. For now, search every corner of the forest!" Octavian demanded. "Burn the woods down if you need to."
Octavian narrowed his eyes. "Kill the Beast on sight, but keep the witch alive."
The corner of his lips lifted up in a sneer. Perhaps he could play with the witch before he sent her off to his father for questioning. As the hopeful crown prince, it wasn't fair that the Galvadorian king got to keep all the toys, no?
A/N: Damn it, Octavian. *Shudders
As I write this, I can't believe it's Sunday night again. I cry. Monday is too soon. Why work? Why Monday? Why my brain not function well? Why I decide to sleep at 2 am last night and not get a full night's asleep? LOL
Anyways, yes, we thank the comments for the poor cabbage merchant. Here's a "F" for the poor cabbages.
Hope this chapter is good, and see you all next time?