A Royal on Skull Island Ch. 07
Raven hugs Apple. "We found you! I knew we would!" the Snow White pushes her fairy tale villain away.
"Run now, hug later!" Apple shouts and starts heading away from them. "Come on! Hurry!"
At the sight of the downed creatures stirring, the scouting party did not hesitate to follow the Royal.
"This way!" Apple shouts as they run through the trees and leads them through a crevice. They thought they were safe, until…
"A dead end!?" Briar shouts as she looks up, able to see sunlight still beaming from above, hoping that they might be able to climb up.
Hissing draws their attention back to the opening. Turning, they find that the creatures have cornered them with the Alpha taking steps towards the group. Apple jumps ahead of the group, spear pointing at it.
"Apple?" Daring raises a brow at her but receives no response.
Apple starts hissing and growling at the Alpha as the two circle one another.
Briar stares wide eyed at the scene. "What is she doing?"
Rosabella answers her cousin, "I think she's challenging the Alpha."
Everyone turns to the spectacled Beauty and Cerise explains. "Sometimes when two predators are hunting in the same territory, they will challenge one another to claim the hunting ground."
Daring rubs the back of his head. "Apple? A predator?" he flinches from glare of his girlfriend.
Just as the Alpha's back was to the group, Darling raises her blade. But quickly stops as her eyes meets Apple's who shakes her head. The Alpha turns to glare at the Charming with her raised sword. Darling then looks beyond them and sees the pack readying themselves to pounce. That's when the platinum-haired girl understood. If she interrupts the challenge, then the other creatures will intervene as well.
Darling sheathes her weapon, and the pack relaxes.
The Alpha turns back to Apple just in time to dodge a jab from her spear. It snaps at the princess, but she was quick to use the flat part of her weapon to smack its head away. The Snow White then runs to a nearby wall with the creature chasing after her. Apple runs up the wall and with a kick, pushes herself off to let the Alpha run into the wall as the princess lands behind it. The Alpha shakes out of its daze and faces his prey, only to feel a sharp stab through its chest. Apple holds the spear in place while the Alpha struggles. She did not release until it stopped twitching and is certain that the creature is dead.
Apple's friends stare in disbelief and were about to cheer before finding the princess facing the rest of the pack, spear ready, and still hissing and growling. The pack are wary of the princess now as she slowly moves herself around them. The Snow White then motions for her friends to move behind her. A couple of the creatures tried snapping at her or her friends, only to be smacked away by the spear.
Once Apple and her friends' backs were to the entrance, they started backing away from the pack with the creatures still attempting to follow. Just as the group of teens and three of these creatures were out of the entrance, the princess lets out a shrill whistle and suddenly rocks blocked the entrance. Shouting comes from above as more people dressing in similar manner as Apple reveal themselves from the top of the crevice and starts shouting as spears and arrows were released down below. Several shrieks come from the trapped pack before silencing. The three spared creatures looked at one another before scurrying off into the forest.
Apple relaxes as she lets out a sigh and finally turns to her friends. "Now we can hug," the Snow White finds herself tackled by one of her fellow princesses.
"We found you!" Briar cries out. "We actually found you!"
The Snow White laughs as she returns to hug. "It's so good to see you all," Apple breaks away to look at all her friends and the smile she was wearing fades, "But you really shouldn't have come here."
"But, Apple," Raven steps up to them. "We came all this way to rescue you."
Apple hugs her fairy tale villain. "And I thank you for that, Raven. However! I don't need any rescuing."
The witchling turns back to the blocked entrance. "I can see that," then she faces her lost friend. "Should we be worried about the ones that escaped?"
"The Packhunters? No need to worry about them. We always keep a couple alive so that there'll be more later. One male and one female. Seems like we left two females this time. That's one lucky guy."
Daring raises a brow at the princess as if she was crazy. "Why on Ever After would you do that?"
"Packhunters tend to multiply fast making them a great source of meat here on the island. Especially when in need of a lot in a short amount of time," Apple tells them before one of the people who helped trapped the Packhunters walk up to her and bows. The two started conversing with words none of them understand.
"What are they saying?" Daring leans towards Darling whom only shrugs.
Apple faces them, "Headhunter Bakku is asking if you're staying for the Moonlight Feast."
The teens eye the bodies of the predators that are being gathered next to them.
"Don't worry," the pale girl waves off. "There are other things to eat besides Packhunters. Various fruits scavenged from the forests and vegetables that we've grown ourselves."
Briar shrugs. "I guess that's a relief. At least Ashlynn and Hunter will have something."
Hearing their names, Apple looks among her friends. "Ashlynn and Hunter are here? Where?"
Daring answers, "We left them at the beach along with the others. Where it's safe."
The Snow White's eyes widen. "What beach?"
"Uh, the one not far from where you found us."
Apple grabs and shakes the prince by the shoulders. "You left them on Fatal Beach!?"
The eldest Charming's crown falls off. "That doesn't sound safe."
"It's far from safe," the worried princess goes over and shouts orders to several of the hunters and they follow her through the trees with the other teens follow suit.
Cerise gets up to Apple. "I know I'm going to regret this, but why is it called Fatal Beach?"
"Because that's Doom Crab's domain!"
End