In a shower of sparks, something soft thumped against the metal of Ludwig's shield. He risked a look to see that the arrows have turned into burnt pastries. While the scent wasn't too appealing, they landed harmlessly around them. Nearby he heard the red faerie laugh, "Scones will always work for good!" Ludwig rolled his eyes and leapt onto the still saddled horse, racing out of the courtyard of the castle.
As they reached the portal that lead to the bridge a stream of boiling oil was poured on top of their heads. This time the green faerie reacted, changing it at last minute into a rainbow. Ludwig could still feel the heat of the liquid as they ran onto the drawbridge. As Samson reached it, it began to rise. He reached the end of it and leapt off before it clattered shut.
It was the closing of the drawbridge that woke the Italian. He stormed out of his chambers, "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU BASTARDS THINK YOU'RE DOING! I get a good night sleep for the first time in 16 years and you choose now to wake me!" Seeing the bird out of his peripheral vision he turned to it, "Tell those idiots…" He stared at the stone before whipping his head around in time to see the prince and his horse race down the path in a flurry of haphazard arrows. He saw red. "If they want to play, I'm in."
He ran to the top of his tallest tower and raised his staff, swirling some dark clouds into a frenzy, "A forest of thorns shall be his tome, flown through the air on a fog of doom. Now go with a curse and serve me well, round the idiot's castle, cast my spell!" With that the purple clouds surrounded the white palace. It settled into the ground and where it laid sprouted thorns. Thousands, millions of bushes of thorns pierced through the earth and into a jagged existence. Soon the castle was surrounded by thorns 100 feet deep and eight feet tall.
And it was only when Ludwig and Samson slipped down a steep hill did they notice.
Being pierced from all sides, Samson panicked. He reared and tramped, but unable to move without much discomfort. Turning his sword into the world's deadliest hedge trimmer, Ludwig began to lop off branches around him. When he cleared enough space Samson settled and waited for a few more to be cleared before moving tenderly forward.
Lovino watched their progress from his vantage point on his tower. He fumed and began his next spell that would set the lot of it on fire when a voice spoke from behind him, "Lovi, can't you just let them go?"
He turned to Antonio, "What?" His voice was venomous.
The Spaniard didn't seem to notice, if he did he covered his fear well. He smiled, "You should let them go. He makes your brother happy so you should let them be."
"It doesn't work like that," he turned from him, "No only is he far beneath Feliciano but he's my fratello. He should have been the closest thing to me, I even gave him that option, but he shot me down. The little twit got everything but I can't even get the one thing I've wanted my whole life."
"So you're lonely." Lovino shot daggers at the smiling man, "You can change that you know Lovi. You can leave all this behind, make a new life for yourself."
"It doesn't work—"
"Of course it does! No one's telling you how to act any more Lovi."
"Except for you."
Antonio shook his head, "I'm just presenting your options." Lovino looked wistfully out at the castle. "Lovi—"
"Don't call me that. They wouldn't accept me back."
"You don't know that. I don't think you realise how forgiving Feliciano is." Brown eyes swung to meet kind green, "You don't need to be completely accepted back by society, but Feli would forgive you."
"That's just one person."
Antonio moved closer to the other, "Yes, but who cares about everyone? And besides," he sighed, "I don't think you understand yet that no matter what you'll do I will be there to help you." He smiled brightly, "What do you say Lovi? We can leave this miserable place and get a nice little house at the edge of the kingdom and grow our own tomatoes! Doesn't that sound like fun Lovi!"
Lovino flushed and didn't say anything. Antonio leaned calmly against the wall beside him, waiting.
Making a decision, he swept his staff around himself and into a mass swirl of particles and flung himself to the other castle. He landed on the path in front of the Germanian prince who had just emerged from the last of the thorns. As Lovino retook his dark form, the horse reared. The red, green, and blue faeries hovered by the prince, tensing, ready to defend. The sorcerer glared dark brown snapping eyes, "I don't like you."
"…"
"But, my brother does, and I want my brother to be happy, whether that means he's with me or not. However", he snapped, a green fire vaguely began to materialize around his slight form, "I don't know if you will make him happy. Prove yourself, bastard!"
"Wha…?"
Raising his arms into a high 'V', the green fire solidified and engulfed the sorcerer. The fire grew in brightness and heat, making the prince and his entourage skirt backwards. A black figure, huge and looming, larger than the column of fire, sprouted from the top of the enchanted flames. A great, snapping maw opened and inhaled the flames, plunging them into darkness. Samson kept moving backwards, hooves making a sharp click on the stone beneath him. Ludwig felt himself begin to tremble and the hand gripping the sword became sweaty.
Fiery green, pupil-less eyes opened up hundreds of feet above him. They glowed with their own light out of the black hide. The moving of black on black was all Ludwig saw before a jet of flames erupted from the dragon's mouth with a roar.
He ducked behind his shield where it hit him square. He was pushed backwards, forcing both him and Samson back into the sharp thorns. There was another gasping inhale before the creature ignited the thorns themselves. As fire raced along the plants, Ludwig wheeled Samson around and sped back through the path he'd just painstakingly forged. At the end of the path was the steep rock wall they'd tumbled down earlier. Ludwig panicked, wide blue eyes feverishly searching for a way out of the burning brush as the dragon advanced on him. He stared at it for a moment before catching sight of the stone tower just beyond. He saw the smiling face with mischievous gold caramel eyes.
He remembered their dance.
Feliciano.
He gritted his teeth and swung at the dragon's rushing snout.
Here's the deadly writer's block chapter.