Altair searched and searched the streets of the city, looking into alleyways or through shop and bar windows to see who was inside but he did not see anyone who looked out of the ordinary. Then again, as he reminded himself several times over as he went that most of the people who he had gotten the information on the leaders he had been tasked to kill from, on his visits to the last few cities, including his home Masyaf, were just ordinary looking people. They were not of high standard or professional commanders or soldiers or anything like that. They were ordinary citizens you would see every day so there was no reason for it to not be the same here in Corona as well. However, he had made it this far and had done this task many times before so it should not be too hard. Then again, he did not even know why he was moaning about it, there were Crusaders here and Salad had told him that two of them had been talking to this lieutenant of Robert so them being here, probably despite the fact that they might know who he is, made his task a whole lot easier. He would just have to play along with it and hope he found or heard something useful.
As he passed another small courtyard, this one having a circular shaped, stone raised bit of ground with a flat top on it, he saw a large muscular man with a bald head and a small moustache and dressed in a kind of thick black jacket and shorts and boots playing a large piano, and very well too, despite the fact that he, which Altair was amazed at when he saw it as he walked by, that he had a large hook for one of his hands. A few people were gathered around him and were enjoying it through their smiles or one or two tapping their feet or clapping their hands in rhythm to the song the man was playing. Wow! This place was even stranger to him than he thought, but a lot more amazing as well for the type of characters here.
Snapping back into reality, he looked ahead, his eyes searching the people in the streets for anyone that might be of any use to him in his task. Within his eyes, his eagle vision kicked in and they began to search deeper than just on the outside of the people around him. They went into their eyes and read them, from women to men to guards to shops workers to the odd Crusader he would see in front of him. Each one would, to his eyes, become a kind of colour. The Crusaders were a kind of red colour when he looked at them with his eagle vision-like eyes, meaning they were enemies. The guards were a kind of mixture between blue and colourless, meaning they were either no neutral to him or possibly even friends, but there was no one who was a white/silver colour, which meant they were potential information targets and who he would need to follow or come within hearing range to gain any useful information.
It was useless. He came out of his eagle vision and went back to his normal vision and continued on down the path. He would have to try and find one of these two people the normal way by searching through the city and listening out carefully for any conversation that was of any use to him.
As he reached the entrance to another shop selling souvenirs, he saw one of the two windows, one either side of the entrance into the shop, was open slightly and next to it on the wall was a bench. Altair looked through the closed window, his eyes searching every inch of what was inside. There was nothing here either, just the counter with several shelves of pots, cutlery, wooden swords and shields and such and ordinary people browsing and managing the sho-
Wait! As his eyes reached the right side of the shop, he saw two Crusader soldiers standing near the open window, engaged in deep conversation. The noise of the outside as well as talking within the shop made it hard for him to hear them so he moved over to the other window and sat down on the bench, staying just out of sight of the window in case he drew any attention from anyone inside it, but kept his head raised slightly, his ears open and listening well like a wary antelope listening out for any predators.
"Well…when is he going to give it to ya?" one of the soldiers, a tall blonde haired and green eyes heavily built man, asked the other soldier.
"He said soon," the other, a shorter brown haired, blue eyed man, replied. "I told you, when I came here the other day with commander Geoffrey, we sent to see the lieutenant after the king and he said he'd get the incarnation to us soon. That's it,"
The blonde haired soldier sighed and rubbed his fore head with his hand. "Well…I hope It's worth it for what we've stopped here for,"
"It will be, and especially for you, just as long as you keep it quiet. We can't risk anyone knowing of the real reason why we're here,"
The blonde haired Crusader nodded. "Right. I best get back to camp,"
"Okay, I'm gonna have a little stroll around the city, get used to the sights so I know where to meet the lieutenant if he wants to meet me,"
"Right, I'll see ya back at the camp," and with that the blonde haired soldier walked out of the shop and down the path Altair had come.
The hooded assassin turned his head slightly so the corner of his eyes was just looking into the window of the shop. The brown haired Crusader was looking at a shelf of home-made pots. For a moment, Altair held his breath, thinking that the soldier was going to be a while. Then, to his relief, the soldier shook his head in disappointment, probably unimpressed by the make of the pots or that they were just not to his liking and walked out of the shop. Quickly, Altair turned his head back so it was looking down at the ground. The brown haired Crusader stepped out into the sunlight, grunting a little as the sudden bright light partially blinded him for a moment, like a vampire being exposed to sunlight, before his eyes grew used to the light. He took a deep breath and walked down the path away from the shop, heading further into the city towards the castle to do a bit of exploring.
Altair looked up and watched him go and, when he was about twenty feet away, stood up and tensed his fist so his hidden blade stuck out of the device. He was going to need it to for when he cornered this soldier. He followed him down the path, having to weave in and out of the citizens as they passed him, which was difficult because he must have entered another busy market as there were carts being pushed from place to place and people were carrying baskets of bread or fruit or were taking large crates from carts into shops. All of this made him struggle to keep pace with the Crusader. If he did not keep up, he would lose him.
As the path went into a little bend, the Crusader began to get further and further away from him, making Altair a little panicked and frustrated as he had been about to catch up to him when two men walked in front of him holding a large rectangular crate. One of them apologized as they passed, but Altair just growled in frustration and ran past him, almost knocking someone with a basket full of apples over to the ground.
"Come on, don't lose him!" he muttered to himself through gritted teeth as he almost began to sprint a little, the Crusader having almost gone out of reach of him being able to keep sight of him.
Luckily, he began to catch up to him as they entered a quiet part of the path. Only a few people were moving about here. Some were talking to friends, others sweeping the ground clear of any dust or leaves. A sense of hope began to fill Altair. He could finally corner the man and find out about this incarnation and about Robert's lieutenant! He could end this evil once and for a-
"Excuse me, kind sir!"
All of a sudden, Altair was stopped in his tracks by a woman holding a basket of fruit, or mouldy and bruised fruit to be precise. She was dressed in a kind of pink dress and had short brown hair and brown eyes. At once, the hope that had momentarily filled him left him like a wave retreating from the shore.
"Sir, could I interest you in some fruit?" she asked friendly.
"W-what! No, I'm sorry," Altair replied, trying to get past her, looking nervously past her at the Crusader, who had reached another bend in the path and was about to walk around it.
"Oh, please, sir! I haven't had a customer all day!"
I wonder why Altair thought. "Look, I cannot buy anything from you. Now will you please move!"
"Oh, but sir, please! J-just a grape or an apple. I-I'll let you have two for the price of one!"
"I said no! Now move!" he shoved past her and ran on down the path to the bend at the end of it, still praying that the man was there, or at least not out of sight.
Unfortunately, when Altair reached it, he found that the Crusader was gone. He was not in sight, but he could not have reached the end of this path for it was too long before anyone could reach the courtyard at the end of it where some guards were standing, talking to one another. Growling to himself, he clenched his fists tightly and shook them madly. That darn woman! She had made him lose his target! Oh, this was just perfect! Absolutely perfect!
"Now I shall have to scour the city for him!" he growled to himself, walking down the path, passing an alleyway. "If only that darn woman had not st-"
All of a sudden, he stopped where he was as if frozen and looked back at the alleyway. As he had passed, he had seen someone there, Could it be…? Gingerly, he walked back over to the alleyway and pushed his back against it and took meagre steps towards the turning into the alleyway. When he reached it, he poked his head around the corner to see that the alleyway was about twenty feet long and was between a large house on the left and probably a blacksmith or large storehouse on the right because there was a single wooden door on the right wall. At the end of the alleyway was a brick wall, but on the left wall was an empty doorway in the shape of an arch that led into a kind of courtyard. A grated window was on the wall next to the door, (the side nearest Altair).
Quietly like a cat creeping up on It's prey, Altair crept down the alleyway towards the window, being careful not to step too hard on the pebbled ground so as not to make a tapping sound and draw the attention of whoever it was he had seen in the alleyway just now. When he reached it, he slowly moved his head in front of the window and looked into the courtyard. It was large and square with a single door on the wall opposite the entrance to the courtyard. Several large circular stone bricks were placed on the wall at the right side of the courtyard and a window on the left. Above all three walled sides of the courtyard was another floor of windows, probably meaning this was some kind of courtyard to a rich person, or probably an inn.
However, standing in the middle of the courtyard was him. The brown haired Crusader was standing at the corner of the wall between the door and the wall with the circular stone brick attachments, his back to Altair. It was obvious to Altair he was urinating against it. This was a perfect chance to corner him and get him to tell Altair what he knew about Robert's lieutenant and what he planned to do with this healing incarnation.
Altair stepped through the arch doorway and into the courtyard, his hidden blade at the ready just as the man was doing up his trousers.
"Hold. Crusader!" he said in a commanding-like voice.
The Crusader froze for a moment as if suspecting he had been spotted urinating on private property by one of the guards of the city. Slowly, he turned but to his surprise, he saw it was a man in a white hood, which did ease him a little, but left him wary and made him trail his hand over the end of his sword.
"Who are you?" he demanded angrily.
"That does not matter," Altair replied intimidatingly, stepping towards him, raising his arm with the hidden blade slightly.
The Crusader stepped back a pace, a sense of fear overcoming him, but he was stopped by the wall. Nevertheless, he was determined not to be threatened by this man.
"W-what do ya want with me?" he asked Altair.
"I overheard you and your friend talking about a certain lieutenant," he replied.
"Y-you mean…Robert's lieutenant?"
"That is correct. What do you know of him?"
"Why should I tell ya?"
Altair responded to the man's question by suddenly launching himself forward in the blink of an eye and forcing himself against the wall of the building, placing his blade at his throat, stopping it literally on his skin. The man's eyes went as wide as dinner plates in fear that he would have his throat cut.
"No! Please! Don't kill me!" he begged hysterically in fear that he was about to be killed.
"Tell me what you know!" Altair demanded forcefully. "Tell me, or my blade shall be covered with your blood!"
The man gasped and breathed quickly, trying to calm himself. His blue eyes, filled with fear, stared into Altair's eagle-like eyes, seeing very clearly the killing instinct within them, which only made him more frightened. After a few seconds, though, he managed to calm himself to the point of being able to speak.
"A-alright!" he said. "T-the lieutenant is s-s-someone of high valour! Someone of high valour…" he gulped. "…In this city!"
"What is your business with him?" Altair asked threateningly, pushing him back even more against the wall of the building behind him.
"I…I!" the man stuttered. "I…he said that….that he' give us this…healing incarnation! H-he… p-promised us it if we didn't take any reprisal ag-gainst him or the city for our failure in the Holy Lands,"
Altair stared at the man, his mind taking in what he was being told. So this lieutenant was definitely someone of high valour in this city like Salad had told him, though not exactly who. Also, this man had said they had promised this healing incarnation to the Crusaders if they did not revenge against the city. What was it though?
"What is this healing incarnation you have been promised?" Altair asked.
"I…I...I dunno!" the man nervously stuttered. "He didn't tell us what it was exactly! He just said he'd give it to us when we meet him-"
"Oi, what's going on here?"
Altair looked his shoulder and went wide-eyed when he saw what he least expected and least wanted right now. Three guards were standing at the entrance to the courtyard, all staring uneasily at the scene before them. They had seen Altair enter the alleyway in a strange way from the courtyard and their curiousness had drawn them down here to see what he was up to. One of them reached for his sword, the other two following suite.
Suddenly, the Crusaders grabbed swung leg up at Altair's stomach, hitting him in the groin, the impact almost winding him and causing Altair to lower his arm in his body's reaction to the blow, and grabbed the neck of his hood and pulled his forward, raising his knee to hit him in the groin. However, Altair reacted quickly despite the pain and swung his fist at the Crusader, hitting him in the jaw and, almost simultaneously, thrust his arm with the device up at him.
The Crusader held his position for a moment, his back in a kind of half hunch, his body tensed and his eyes wide and mouth slightly open. A strangled breath came out of it as if it too were shocked by the sudden wound. Looking down slowly, he saw that Altair had thrust his arm with the wrist into his chest. Although it was hard to see, a small patch of dark red was beginning to form where his hand was. He looked back up at Altair into his eagle-like eyes and gave a light shallow breath before his body fell back to the ground with thud and did not rise again.
The guards stared at what had just happened, their mouths slightly open with shock. They…they had just seen someone get killed! This man…h-he was an assassin!
Then, as Altair looked over his shoulder, remembering they were there, the leading guard out of the three swopped out his sword, the other two doing the same.
"STOP HIM!" he yelled. "HE'S A KILLER!"
They charged towards Altair, but his instincts kicked in, not to kill, but to run. Like a lizard, he ran over to the wall with the door and ran up the side of it, quickly grabbing the bottom window ledge and pulling himself up, grabbing the top window ledge as he went. The guards skidded to a halt and, whilst one checked the pulse of the Crusader to see if he was still alive, though he was not, the other two began looking for a stone or something to throw up at Altair, who had grabbed hold of the roof and pulled himself up onto it and quickly got to his feet. All around him was a sea of wooden and tiled roofs of the city's buildings. Far off ahead of him, he could about see it, was the wooden roof of the stables. That was where his horse would be, so that was where he needed to get to.
He began to run along the rooftops, moving slightly nearer to the edge so he would be ready to jump onto the next line of roofs when the one he was on came to an end when it hit the courtyard.
"Stop him!" a voice shouted from below and, looking down, Altair saw the three guards running alongside him on the street below. A few citizens on the street, as well as in the buildings, looked out to see what all the commotion was saw the chase in front of them. Altair raced on, but as he looked ahead he saw that the rooftop ended and he had passed the area where he could jump because he had looked down at the guards. There was only one thing he could do now.
He was going to have to jump to the next row of rooftops ahead of the one he was on. It was going to be suicide, but it was either that or he could run back and possibly end up running into guards. The rooftop end came closer with every foot he ran. More citizens were watching from the streets now and another two guards who had been patrolling in a side street had joined their comrades in chasing after this hooded man.
Breathing in as he reached the end of the rooftop, his lungs swelling as far as they would go and his heart almost stopping from It's hectic beating, he jumped. For a moment, he was moving through the air with nothing around him to land on that would cushion his fall or nothing to grab onto to stop himself. He looked at the rooftop and saw inch closer and closer. He mentally began to pray. Just a little further!
Yes! His feet successfully landed on it and he ran on. His heart resumed It's mad beating as he ran down the row of houses, rising up when a roof came a to a kind of point and then sliding down the side of it. He jumped over a small alleyway onto the next house and ran on. The guards shouted for him to stop where he was, but Altair did not and ran on and on, nearing the courtyard where the man with the hook was playing on the piano.
It was then, as he neared the upcoming courtyard that he realised something terrible. There were no more houses attached to this row that led on towards the stables and the next one that did on was too far for him to jump and if he tried, he would probably end up breaking his leg. Damn! He was stuck and looking behind him, the guards were catching up. He was going to have to improvise, and quick.
Then, he saw his chance. A cart full of boxes of fruit had just come to a halt below. The two men pulling it began to unload it with another man coming out from the building Altair was standing on, probably a fruit shop. The cart was within range, even though it was near the crowd of people gathered around the man playing the piano, but they were distracted from helping the guards as long as he was.
Altair stepped back a few paces, quickly calculating the distance in his mind and breathing in, readying himself. Then, he ran forward as if he were running a marathon and jumped and fell through the air.
CRASH! Everyone in the courtyard suddenly turned round upon hearing the noise. Even the man playing the piano stopped half-way through the next key note and looked over at the cart, which lay broken on the ground. Several boxes of fruit were smashed, one having the oranges inside it roll out onto the ground. The three men unloading it, who had been in the shop when they had heard the crash, rushed over along with most of the crowd to see if who, or what had just done this.
"Don't let him get away!" the leading guard shouted to the crowd as they approached, who were puzzled by what he meant.
Suddenly, Altair burst out of the boxes of fruit within the cart, sending apples, grapes, oranges, peaches and such flying through the air, and jumped from it to the ground, almost knocking a woman over, and ran. Confusion reigned for a few seconds as the crowd tried to process what happened before the guards ran past them, almost falling over by stepping or sliding on the fruit, and they realised what had happened. Some of the men ran after the guards to help them in capturing this man, the hook handed man joining them. Behind them, a large crowd began to follow, eager to see what was to happen.
Meanwhile, at the courtyard ahead
"Okay, Frederickson, are you sure you're gonna be okay?"
"Yeah-(hiccup)…I-I'll be f-f-fi-i-in-n-n-e, Eugene!"
Eugene gave a slight chuckle as Attila, a tall heavily built man dressed mostly in knight armour and shorts with a large helmet on his head, and was one of the thugs who had been at the large inn on the mainland, lifted up the old man and placed him on his shoulder.
"Thanks, Attila," Eugene said.
"Don't mention it, Eugene!" he replied, turning to take Frederickson back to his house to let him rest so he could sleep off the enormous hangover he would have soon, but just as he turned, he stopped. "What the…?" he said, quickly trailing off, pointing down the path.
Eugene, and just about everyone else in the courtyard, looked to see a large crowd of people chasing after a man in a white hood. At first, he thought somebody was hurt, but when he saw the guards behind the man in the hood, along with them shouting "Stop! Somebody catch him!" he realised they were chasing after him.
The man ran into the courtyard, looking over his shoulder to see the growing crowd chasing after him. Panic began to fill him. He was going to have to lose them soon of he would never get out of here alive.
"Hey stop!"
He looked ahead of him to see a large armoured man with the drunken old man he had seen earlier over his shoulder stop in his path, tensing his muscular arms and ready to stop him. Altair's mind, however, was like a lightning bolt and he quickly jumped forward towards the man, turning sideways and thrusting out his arm and shoulder towards him. They struck the armoured man in the face and sent him flying backwards, Eugene ducking down, towards the door, sending him right through it into the pub. A scream and a few shouts erupted from inside, followed by several loud crashes. Eugene, who looked up to see the man rush off down the path that entered the courtyard from the one with the fountain, rushed over to the door of the pub.
"Attila, are you okay?" he shouted.
A grunt came in reply, followed by several others as a few other men and women sat up from the floor, having been knocked over when Attila came flying through the door. Several tables had been overturned, along with the chairs that had been under them. As everyone picked themselves up, the old drunken man groaned from under a turned over table. A drop of something hit him on the head and he looked up with his half-closed eyes and saw it was a drink.
"Don't mind if I do," he muttered drunkenly as he opened his mouth and let it drop into him.
Eugene was shocked beyond words at this. That guy could have killed someone! Well, he was going to have to stop him before he hurt someone else.
He ran from the doorway and joined the crowd, quickly over taking many of them as they chased after the man, who had just neared the next and last courtyard.
Altair ran on into the next courtyard. By this point, the crowd that had been chasing him had grown to a considerable large size and was getting bigger. The noise was almost deafening, causing about half of the people in the courtyard to look down the path where it was coming from. Even many people were looking out of their house windows or coming out of the buildings that surrounded the courtyard to see what was going on.
Altair ran over to the fountain and jumped onto the side of it, then onto the top and then off it, launching himself over the heads of the girls who had stopped playing their game of hopscotch to see who was being chased. He landed with a thud and took off as soon as his feet had hit the ground, running as fast as he could down the path. The stables were just under a hundred feet from him and just a little over a hundred feet from him was the bridge. If he could get in there, grab his horse and then go he could easily escape from this mob and-
"Hey you, stop!" a voice shouted from behind.
Altair looked over his shoulder to see a tall man of about his age with short brown hair and a small beard and dressed in a dark cream coloured trousers and a white top with brown boots was chasing after him. He recognized him instantly. It was the thief Flynn Rider! Looks like he had changed after all and what amazed Altair was that he had overtaken the rest of the crowd and was getting beginning to catch up. Some of the men in the crowd were cheering him on and the former thief had a look of concentration and determination on his face as if he was about dive forward and pin him to the ground.
Luckily, though, Altair had an idea up his sleeve. Let's see if you can do this he thought with ease.
Eugene quickened his pace as he neared the hooded man, slowly and gradually managing to catch up to him. He had looked over his shoulder directly at him just now and had probably seen the look in his Eugene's eyes to let him know that he was going to have to think of something fast if he was get out of this. A sense of victory began to fill Eugene. He was going to capture this man for hurting his friends and threatening other people here and for…well, whatever it was the guards were chasing him for.
All of a sudden, the man turned left and ran towards the building near him. At first, Eugene thought, and hoped that he was going trying tom escape through a building and would end up getting trapped. But when he saw him run to a wall and then upit as if he was scaling a rock completely shocked him to his core, and it only happened again as he screeched to a halt, along with the rest of the crowd, and watched him climb onto the roof and disappear from sight.
"Damn!" Eugene growled, sighing in frustration and running his hands hard through his hair.
"Alright, split up!" one of the guards shouted. He pointed at one of his guards. "You, take a group and go around the side to the back of the buildings," the guard nodded and took away a few people to look for the man. The lead guard pointed to his other remaining guard soldier. "You, take a group and go through the buildings. Tell anyone inside It's an order to let you through. Head right through them to the back," this guard nodded and took a group and entered a shop where those inside had been watching the scene unfold. The lead guard and the rest of the crowd, among them the hook handed thug, ran over to Eugene. "We'll go around the other end and try and cut him off," he said to Eugene, who nodded.
"Yeah, boats are on the other side," he replied and they led the group off to the end of the path to go around the side of the row of houses to capture this man.
When they did, they saw in front of them several small rows of fences and a small wooden dry dock leading off from the island and stopping about thirty feet from it with several smaller wooden plank paths coming off the sides of it, each one ending after about ten feet. Several small boats were parked next to these wooden plank paths. Within the small pasture they were in before the fences was a small cart of hay and in gardens afterwards were several toys or small piles of boxes piled up before the back doors of the houses or shops. Several back doors opened and the second group began to emerge out of the buildings. The group sent off first also appeared at the other end of the row of houses just over a hundred feet away.
"Right, let's start searching," Eugene said and they all moved into the gardens and into the dry dock boats and began searching them.
Unknown to them, however, the hay in the cart began to rustle and a hooded man poked his head up from it. It was Altair. He had jumped down into the hay from the roof and waited for the tactic to work as it had done many times before. Looking out from the back of the pile of hay, he saw that the huge group looking for him was scattered about and had It's back to him. Now was his chance!
Quietly and quickly as he could, he climbed out of the cart of hay and ran over to the corner wall opf the last building and hid behind it. He quickly poked his head out to check and see if he was in the clear. He was. Good. Keeping low, he out onto the main path and down it to the front stable entrance towards the main wooden door. He grabbed the handle and pulled back as hard as he could to open it before placing his other hand on it. Suddenly, he gasped in pain and withdrew his hand from the front of the door and looked down at it to reveal a small cut. A small trail of blood came out of it and the wound began to sting. Altair, however, realising that he was in a dangerous place, ran into the stable and shut the door quietly behind him, looking at the front of the door to see a small nail sticking out of it, the front of it now slightly dark red from where it had pierced Altair's skin and given him the cut.
"At least it was not deep," he muttered to himself as he closed the door quietly, though it still made a slight thud, one that attracted the attention of someone at the other end of the stables in one of the pens with a window on it.
From behind the wooden wall of the pen, Rapunzel, with Pascal on her shoulder, looked through a gap in the boards down the stables to see the strange hooded man enter and walk over to another pen where a black horse was standing. She recognized him instantly. He was the man who she had given directions yesterday to Salad's carpentry. Questions began to fill her mind. Who was he? Why was here? More importantly: why was he in here?
A snort from behind her drew her attention to see a large white horse with a tuft of hair going across the back of his head and strong powerful looking legs behind her. A saddle was already placed on him. His name was Maximus. He was the captain's horse and was pretty much the head of security in the kingdom, after the captain of course. He had cleaned up crime in the city almost overnight and had also helped Eugene and Rapunzel in getting back to the kingdom and saving Rapunzel from Gothel. Next to Pascal, he was their best animal friend.
Maximus nodded his head towards the window and Rapunzel, keeping as quiet as she could so as not to attract the attention of this man, moved over to it and looked out. From where she was, she could see the large groups of people searching the back gardens and the wooden dry dock.
"Why are they doing this?" she whispered to herself.
Pascal poked her on the cheek with his tail, making her look at him, and he pointed at the groups with his tail and then at his eyes and then over at the man. Rapunzel grasped what he was telling her, having been with him for a number of years, she knew how he spoke to her and what he meant, and gasped quietly, looking over at him through a small hole in the end of the boards to see him open the pen door and step into it. They were looking for him! She had to get them over here!
She stood up and cupped her hands around her mouth and breathed in deeply and shouted: "Euge-" but that was as far as she got when, all of a sudden, a wooden board flew through the air and hit her in the side of the head, sending her into Maximus and causing them to fall to the ground, Pascal flying off her shoulder with a loud squeak. Thankfully, though, he landed on the end of her dress. As he and Maximus looked up, another wooden board struck Maximus, hitting him in the head and knocking him out. Pascal retreated back to the corner between the wall and the boards and watched as the man rushed over and grabbed Rapunzel, who was now knocked out as well when the board hit her, and dragged her away towards the pen. Panic filled the chameleon. He was taking his friend away! He had to get the others!
He climbed up the wall to the window. Thankfully, though, to his relief, he saw the group rushing over to them, having heard Rapunzel shout at them. Seeing that part of his job was done, he jumped over to Maximus' head and began hitting it with his tail to try and wake him up. He had no luck though, reminding him of when he had tried to do the same to Eugene when Rapunzel and him had caught him in the tower on the mainland, but that thought made another idea spring to his mind. He crawled over to Maximus' ear and stuck his tongue out into it. Just as he expected, again like when he had used it on Eugene, Maximus woke with a gasp and rubbed his ear on the top of his leg, snorting un-amusingly at what his chameleon friend had just done.
"Guys!" Eugene explained as he jumped through the window into the stables. "Where's Rapunzel?"
Pascal pointed over to the pen. Eugene looked, as did Pascal and Maximus and those at the windows, to see Altair on his horse and Rapunzel sitting behind him, though she had rope tied around her and a gag in her mouth and she was still knocked. He shot them a wide-eyed look as if scared and kicked his heels. His horse shot forward and burst through the door of the stable and out into the street, quickly turning left. Panic quickly gripped Eugene. He had Rapunzel and he was heading for the bridge!
He grabbed Pascal and set him on his shoulder and climbed onto Maximus. "C'mon, Maximus!" he said.
Maximus nodded and shot off down the stable and out into the street and chased after Altair. The guards rushed to get on their horses and help with the hook handed thug leading a group of people onto the bridge on foot.
Adrenaline pumped through Altair's body as he rode down the bridge towards the mainland, which seemed to numb the stinging pain in his bloodied hand. He could see it getting closer and closer with every gallop his horse took. However, he now had a new problem. What was he going to do with this girl? He could not let her go in case she escaped or told them where he had gone but taking her, though, was just as bad because if she was princess then the kingdom would stop at nothing to get her back.
Just then, as he looked on ahead at the mainland, he heard the sounds of more hooves galloping on the pavement and he looked over his shoulder to see another horse chasing after him. It was him again. Flynn Rider! His horse was catching up to him quickly. Altair had to think of something fast or he was dead.
Just then, as he looked back ahead, he saw the guard who had greeted him when he arrived in the city yesterday standing up next to where he had been sitting, talking to a man with a cart full of more fruit. As he saw this, an idea began to form in Altair's head and he reached for his sword. Behind him, Eugene saw this and went wide-eyed, as did Maximus and Pascal, who was hanging onto to Eugene's shoulder as hard as he could so as not to fall off as Maximus galloped. Fear gripped the three of them, expecting this man to attack someone.
The guard and the man up ahead, meanwhile, were oblivious to the threat approaching them.
"So was it okay getting here?" the guard asked the man, who just shrugged.
"I suppose," he replied. "Weather wasn't as good yesterday as it is today. Almost got bogged down on the side of the road…and…" he was cut off when the sound of galloping hooves filled his and the guards' ears. The two looked up the bridge and saw two men on horses riding towards them. The second man on the horse appeared to be chasing after the first and the two went wide-eyed when their eyes rested on him. The first man, who was hooded, was carrying a sword and he had it out and looked like he was ready to strike!
"Oh God, watch out!" the guard shouted as Altair rode towards them, raising his sword, ready to strike.
The man yelped and jumped backwards in an attempt to get out of the way of this man, only for them to collide with the guard and cause the two to fall over the side of the bridge. Both men yelled loudly as they fell towards the water, only for it to stop abruptly with a loud splash, indicating they had hit the water.
Up above on the bridge, Altair swung his sword in an attacking way, but he had not been aiming for the innocent men, as that would be breaking one of the three creeds of the assassins and he knew all too well what would happen if he did that. Instead, his blade cut through the wooden wheels on the side of the cart, cutting them off from the main part of the vehicle. The sudden shift in eight caused some of the boxes to break through the thin wooden barrier on the side of the cart and fall to the ground and break. Very quickly, a tide of wood fell out from the cart and was smashed to pieces, the fruits, this time mostly watermelons and grapes, to spill out onto the bridge.
"WHOA, STOP MAXIMUS!" Eugene yelled, pulling back hard on the reins of his horse, who also tried to skid to a halt upon seeing the danger. Pascal squeaked in fear and dived into Eugene's neck part of his clothes, covering his head.
Not even a second later, Maximus' hooves landed on a watermelon, crashing right through it and sending the juice inside over the stone floor of the bridge. His other legs hit several of the other fruits scattered about on the bridge. Quickly, he lost his balance and, with a scream, fell forward to the ground, skidding across it into the cart. Eugene was sent off him and landed amongst the remaining boxes that remained in the cart, breaking through most of them and quickly getting covered in the juices of the fruit inside them. He groaned as he pulled himself up out of the mess. At least the fruit had cushioned his fall.
Pascal crawled out from his neck collar. "You okay, Pascal?" Eugene asked him and he nodded.
"Eugene!" a voice called. He looked behind him to see the hook handed thug reach him with the rest of the group reach them. "You alright?" the hook handed thug asked him.
Eugene nodded lightly and looked back up the bridge and looked on hopelessly with Pascal and everyone else as they watched the hooded man's horse jump the last few feet of the bridge and run off into the trees, quickly disappearing into the green depths of the forest. Eugene felt terrible. He wanted to cry, but managed to stop himself from doing so and slammed his fist onto a box in front of him. Pascal looked sadly down at the ground, as did Maximus, the feeling of defeat sweeping through all of them like water on rock.
This man had Rapunzel. Only God knows what would happen to her now.