\7/
Raven Verses Rose
Rose sprinted out of the maze after Beatrice to find the blue path had returned. Beatrice danced in a little circle before returning to Rose and perching on his shoulder upon his marred tunic. Rose frowned as he looked ahead. Far away at the base of the forest was a dark castle. It seemed to be carved out of darkness. He wondered what it was made of.
"Is that where we are going?" He glanced at his shoulder and saw Beatrice shrug her wings. "I suppose there's only way to find out. We follow the blue trail. You're with me?" Beatrice nodded.
Rose wandered the blue path uneasily. He constantly summoned his fear and let his finger glow pink to remind him he was out of the maze and was hardly defenseless anymore.
During one of is assurances, movement caught Rose's eye and ducked just as an owl clawed towards the shoulder Beatrice was on. Rose stood up straight and watched as the owl reeled back around with its talons out headed directly for Rose again. Rose's glowing pink finger formed a barrier and watched the owl sprawl across the invisible wall. Feathers floated to the ground as the dazed bird fell backwards through them.
Rose immediately felt bad for the animal. It's possible it wasn't bad, just hungry. Rose started for the owl when Beatrice started screeching. He looked down at her and she just shook her head.
As a precaution, he asked the trees around him to wrap their roots around the bird's feet. Rose hurried back down the path.
It wasn't long until a rustle in the bushes urged Rose to go faster and his finger to glow. Mistakenly, he looked back and froze. It was Raven. At least it looked like Raven. But it couldn't be Raven. First of all, Rose knew Raven was being held captive at the castle, the blue path continued onward. Secondly, this Raven had an air of arrogance he had never seen Raven have.
Rose turned to run only to find Lily. Er, Lily of the Valley. But not Lily of the Valley. She was dressed in blood red clothes and her eyes burned with a hatred Lily could never have. Even if you crushed one of her origami flowers her grandmother always sent her.
Beatrice hid beneath Rose's collar as his finger glowed pink. He pointed at the ground in front of the intruders in turn and ran, diverting from the path, as two rose bushes erupted from the ground and reached for the imposters. Rose ducked into the trees and asked them to conceal him as he ran through the forest parallel to the blue path.
He ran and after a while, when he thought he lost them, he peaked at the blue path to see if it was clear. It seemed it was. Cautiously, Rose came out of hiding and continued down the path. Just to find it blocked again by the two imposters.
Frustrated, he couldn't help himself, "What do you want?"
Raven gave a cocky smile, "Nothing much. We're just here to talk. Don't ya want to talk?"
Rose scowled, "No."
Lily smiled, "Too bad." Her finger glowed and the ground quacked beneath him. Rose fell to his knees from the unstable earth. Then to Rose's horror the soil around him cracked and separated from him leaving him on an island of land with a chasm of emptiness around him.
"That won't stop me." Rose's finger glowed and the roots of the trees stretched across from beneath the ground and weaved together to form a bridge. Rose started to run across before Faux-Raven pointed his fingers at the roots and blasted them to ash. Rose began to fall down into the chasm.
"You, idiot!" Corrin shrieked, "Go get him!"
"I'm not going to save him! We win whether we do it Hawthorn's way or not as long as he dies," Eustis pouted.
"She said no one dies. She might kill you if he dies. You know how much she has her black heart set on this plan. Go. Get. Him."
"No," He folded his arms and turned his now-princely back to her. Corrin grabbed at his neck with her delicate princess fingers and started to strangle him. She only stopped when the wind started to pick up.
Now it wasn't the wind that bothered her, it was that the wind seemed to be getting sucked into the chasm. Her grip on Eustis was released and her mouth dropped open as an impossibly large, impossibly pink butterfly emerged from the chasm carrying the well-worn boy with his ripped clothes billowing beneath the butterfly's enormous wings.
Corrin gawked at the insect for a moment before letting her finger glow and screamed at Eustis, "Shoot it down!" as a fireball was launched from her finger through the butterfly's wing.
As Corrin and Eustis launched fireballs at the butterfly it gave out a deafening screech that temporarily got the offenders to cease fire as they covered their ears. A long tongue was then unraveled towards Eustis ramming him into a tree behind him rendering her unconscious. The tongue curled back up and then attacked Corrin as it wrapped around her and dropped her onto the little piece of land she had left Rose on.
Beatrice flew Rose all the way along the blue path to the obsidian castle and landed in front of the intimidating building. She put Rose down gently onto the ground and then shrank down to a regular butterfly size. "Thank-you, Beatrice." She let out a little squeak and danced around in the air before landing on rock exhausted.
Rose looked around at the massive castle. Raven had to be in there. Somewhere. He turned to Beatrice, "I'm going in. Wait out here for Lily and Cedric. Er, the Lily of the Valley and the Cerulean sorcerer."
Rose didn't see Beatrice protesting as he went in.
