Sorry for the really really long wait. I didn't think that my school life would be this harsh. This chapter is a bit boring, but I hope you like it!

One drop. Two drops.

Percy watched in horror as his guard was standing in front of him, drenched in blood from where the dagger had pierced deep into his skin. There was a moment of silence and the world seemed to have all their eyes on that one lone guard. Then, the pained wince of the guard had snapped everyone back to reality.

Experienced castle guards and soldiers ran straight for the young man, disarmed him, and brought him down. Everyone gasped as they watched in terror when the black haired gentleman screamed and laughed maniacally. A few people screamed along, too afraid to do anything else.

Percy watched as Ethan screamed and gazed at him with crazy eyes in which seemed to be filled with hatred.

"You'll never get away," he called out to the prince, one last time before he was brought out of the ballroom. "Never." The door shut and all was silent.

People began to murmur at once and many took in a sharp breath as the young guard that was stabbed began to slump down onto the floor, in front of Prince Percy. He gasped and bent down, holding the weak body against his own.

"Hey! Hey, Chase! Stay with me! Don't you dare black out on me!" Percy wasn't sure if the guard was unconscious or dead because the helmet was latched onto place. He shook him a few times and was relieved to hear some deep breaths. However, the guard was still in an enormous amount of pain.

Blood wouldn't stop dripping out of the wound, but the guard did the best he could to stand up, ignoring the yells from Percy to tell him to lay back down until the castle doctors came. But then, a the glass windows on all sides of the ballroom imploded.

At least fifty bandits ran in, wreaking havoc among the royalty. People screamed and pushed one another, hoping to get out of the way and run out, but the bandits had already occupied most of the exits.

They were armed with daggers and swords and wore layers of clothing that had protected their face from identification. Immediately, Percy knew that they were working with Ethan.

Frantic people scrambled on top of one another while the bandits had stripped some of them of their treasures and valuables. Another had stabbed into the arm of one gentleman. Percy's guard had began to fight some of the bandits that had aimed for the young prince. He slashed through them with grace, even though he had been greatly wounded.

Not wanting to just stand there any longer, Percy grabbed his sword from the side of his throne and wielded it up, but someone had grabbed onto his hand and stopped him from lifting it. He turned to his side and saw that his father was there, shaking his head.

"Perseus," he said in the most serious tone he could, "I want you to leave this castle at once."

Percy's eyes widened at his father's request. It took him a little while to register the words that he had heard. His face then twisted into anger.

"Why!?" he screamed. "Why do I always have to be the coward and run? Don't you see that people are getting hurt? Why won't you just let me fight!? That's what a prince does!"

His father hushed him, but it was too loud anyways with all the fighting going on with the rogue bandits and castle guards.

"You don't understand Percy. They are here because they are after you. Today was your eighteenth birthday and it's your turn to become king. If they kill the king, there will be no heir to this kingdom and no one is sure what is going to happen next." Percy had still locked the anger onto his face, but the emotion in his heart started to fade. His father continued. "I need you to run away as far as you can, as fast as you can, with your guard. I need you to stay safe."

"What about you?" Percy asked frantically. His father tried to smile.

"I'll be fine." It disappeared. "You have to go. Now. Go find Chase." Percy nodded and looked around for his guard. When he spotted him, he ran to him, trying to avoid all of the chaos. He had to fight his way through, knocking out at least four bandits before he was able to reach his guard. Percy looked and still saw an immense amount of blood seeping through the open wound from where the knife had pierced the young knight.

"Chase, my father wants me to run and wants you to come with me. WIll you accept my offer?" The knight slashed another bandit, turned towards the young prince, looked at the approving face of the king, and nodded.

"Alright then," Percy said. There should be an exit around the back of the ballroom." The two of them walked back to back and defended one another till they made it to the exit. Chase opened the door and ran out, waiting for the prince. Percy took one last look in the bloody scene, locked eyes with his father one last time, and ran out, helpless.

Once they were outside, they didn't stop running until they reached the far corner of the garden, where they stopped for a few seconds, looked behind them to see if anyone was following them in the dark night, and began to run once again.

After about five minutes of non stop running, the two of them began to slow down immediately, worn out from the fight and moving. They both took painful and sharp breaths of the cold night air into their lungs. Percy grabbed onto a tree branch and breathed heavily. However, he looked over to Chase and saw that he was making wheezing noises, which eventually turned into loud gagging sounds. The knight collapsed onto the ground with a metal clang.

"Hey!" Percy shouted. He ran over to the knight and shook him like he did back in the palace, after he collapsed the first time. He could hear the knight's breath echo in the armor. He mentally cursed at himself. The armor that the knight wore was mostly ceremonial which meant that most of it was for show and not for combat. The dagger wouldn't have pierced as deep if he had been wearing the appropriate clothes.

"Hey, are you okay?" Percy whispered softly to the knight, still trying to keep him from falling unconscious. He shook him a few times and hurt a soft grunt. The knight kept his hand on the wound, pushing on it and applying pressure to try to stop the bleeding. Percy tore off part of his clothes, which his tailor would never approve of, and wrapped it around the waist of the knight as best he could. He then hurriedly tried to tie the ends together so that he can help his guard breath better.

After he left the knight's body from laying on the ground, he seemed to softly cradle him in his arms, almost like a baby. He looked back at the castle, a small light in the distance. The screams were no where to be heard, but he was pretty sure that they were still there. If some had escaped, that means they know that he was not in there. Percy had to look out for where they might be, scared that they would harm him and his friend.

The night was eerily quiet with the exception of the heavy breathing from both of them. They had been sitting on the floor for what seemed like thirty minutes, hoping to regain their strengths. Percy's legs were tired and his sword was almost too heavy to lift up. Their breathing slowly got softer and slower, but Percy checked once in a while to make sure that his knight was still alive. It was harder to do with the helmet latched onto his face.

He could feel the cold air start to get to him. He shivered and hoped that there would be some place to stay. He turned to the right and left to make sure no one was there. It was empty.

He kept caring for the young knight that was left unmoving in his arms. He shook him a few times, scared from losing his friend, but relieved to know that he was still breathing and alive.

Percy needed a different way to help him. He carefully got up, setting the head of the knight on a rock, and picked up a few sticks to create a fire. He gathered as many as he could find without anything but the moon's luminous glow to help him find sticks on the ground. Many times he would almost trip over a tree root or large twig. When he was done collecting, he retraced his steps towards the knight.

Percy set the sticks in an open area and used a few rocks to try to start the fire. Someone had taught him when he was younger that you could start a fire with a few rocks, twigs, grass, and really strong hands.

After a few tries of rubbing much of the rocks together, he was able to start a small spark and made sure that the fire did not get too big in case any bandits were to see it. He blew on it so that only embers were jumping out and no smoke rose to the night sky.

He then turned to the knight, who lay motionless on the rock. He picked him up carefully and propped him down on his lap like before, but closer to the fire. Percy was surprised to find that his friend was a lot lighter than what he had imagined. He was definitely strong, the knight. Maybe he was just losing lots of energy from the fighting.

The wound kept seeping with blood. Percy bit his lip in worry and hoped that his friend would make it through the night. He stared at the fire and thought about what might be happening at the castle.

Percy was crazy afraid. He was afraid that someone would find them. He was afraid that his friend was going to pass. He was afraid of everyone in that castle, especially his father and Gretta. The immense grief was starting to make his heart sink. Questions arose in his head and he tried to stop them, but everything was hurting.

"This is not what I bargained for when I said I didn't want a life inside the castle," he whispered to himself, a few small tears trickling down his face. He had never wanted to look weak in front of anyone, but he was just so vulnerable there. Everything was falling apart. Someone wanted to kill him and attacked some of the closest people to them. He swore to himself that if there were any deaths, he would stop at nothing to find the culprits and throw them into his dungeon, never to see another ray of sunlight.

The grieving led to Percy taking his face and burying them into his hands. A prince was suppose to be brave and courageous, but he ran away like a coward. Even if his father ordered him to, he couldn't help but feel like he could have saved everyone somehow. The guilt was eating at him.

The fire crackled in front of him and he his heart jumped with a little bit of joy and hope when he saw that his knight friend was waking up from the death slumber. He groaned and winced in pain. Percy shushed him and tried to soothe him and avoid him from getting up or moving too much. The knight seemed to start panicking. Percy had never seen him like that. Maybe he wasn't the only one that was vulnerable.

The knight let out a weak croak. "Where are we?" Percy shrugged.

"I don't know. But you must rest." He got his knight to stop worrying a little. After a few seconds, Percy bent down and lay his head on top of his knight's helmet, where his head would have been. And with a soft whisper, he said, "Thank you," to the young knight.

Thanks for reading!