AN: This Chapter gets a bit bloody
Onyx ran through the snow with his turquoise tunic and orange scarf blowing in the wind as he went to go get his sister back with Arthur stumbling behind him. The blonde was carrying the sword that was almost as big as him, which made him a bit slow.
"Alright Arthur," Onyx said to the boy behind him. "Merlin said not to use the sword until he gets there. Got it?" Arthur nodded, even though the teen wasn't looking at him. "You're sure this is gonna work?" he panted.
"No," Arthur said honestly. "But we still have to try. Your sister is lost without your help."
"She's already lost with my help," he muttered. "But a word of caution, conquering him won't be easy."
"Onyx, he's not really that powerful….is he?"
"You don't know Cameron like I do Arthur. I know all too well how appealing his temptations to submission can be. He will push anyone to any limit in order to get what he wants. Even if that means…well..…hurting someone, if you know what I mean."
"I do."
"Good."
They kept running and running through the skiff wilderness and it started to lightly snow once again. Onyx was pretty ahead of Arthur, to the point where he could barely see the Pictish boy. But he kept pressing on, while looking down at the snow the entire time, he was sort of drifting off. But he snapped back to reality when he ran into Onyx's back.
"Oof!" Arthur loudly exclaimed.
"Shhhh!" Onyx gently but sternly hissed. "Quiet, remember?"
"Oh yeah, sorry, you just—-." Arthur was cut off when the teenage boy gently pressed his hand over his mouth. They were standing on a tiny cliff that was just above Cameron's little terf where his fire burned. Onyx creeped over to the edge of the cliff and peered over it. There, he saw his half brother and three other men walking around the small sight productively. However it was only them. Stella and Guinevere were nowhere to be seen.
Onyx walked back to Arthur.
"Wait here," he whispered as he pointed to the snowy earth below them. Arthur nodded. "And do not let this sword out of your sight!" he said in undertone. Onyx took a deep breath before acrobatically sliding down the small cliff side. Cameron's and his followers' attention was drawn to the brown haired boy who had just approached them.
(SPEAKING IN GAELIC)
"Well, well, well," the Emperor sneered with his hands behind his back. "This is quite a family reunion. First Guinevere, then Astella and now you."
"My sister, Cameron. Where is she!?"
"Well, truth be told brother, I actually don't know."
"You are a liar!" Onyx quickly spit.
"Oh come now, let's not start with the name calling. And like I said I don't know where your little weasel of a sister is. She escaped before I could do any real damage. However, maybe I could invite you in on the fun."
"Save your breath Cameron! I will not cower before you again like how I did all those years ago. You know what power Pendragon is capable of."
"Maybe I do, but it can't hurt me because he himself doesn't even know what he is capable of," Even though he didn't know what they were saying, Arthur just had a feeling it was insulting and that it was about him. "So Onyx, throw your threats at me all you want because you are just asking for it. I have won."
"No! You haven't!"
"Why does everything have to be an argument with you?"
"Just give me my sister back!"
"Why? So you can just abandon her again? Brilliant idea brother."
"You do not call me that! You are not my brother!"
"I don't know how you can say something like that, Onnie. We are blood. Not entirely perhaps but still a family."
"Well you kissed this 'family' goodbye when you KILLED THEM!"
"You don't know what you're talking about Onyx. I was only going to put you all to peace and free you all from a burden you could never quite carry. As well as ushering my glorious new reign into the world."
"You want peace for us yet you also want to give us a slow and unspeakably painful death!" Cameron scoffed and shook his head.
"You will stop at nothing will you? Sometimes I just don't think mother dropped you hard enough. But no matter Onyx." Cameron said as he bent down to the fire. He grabbed a piece of wood from the flame and held it up. Arthur panicked when he saw the Emperor point the burning torch, inches away from his brother.
"Get that thing out of my face."
"You are starting to irritate me , Onyx. Astella is a little occupied at the moment so I will give the choice to you," Onyx squinted his eyes, staring deep into the dancing orange light on the wooden scrap with gritted teeth as Cameron held out the hand that was not holding the torch. "The key…or your life."
"How 'bout the sword? Arthur now!" Onyx shouted in a higher pitched voice. Cameron admittingly grew frightened for a split second when he felt something poking at his back. He smiled an evil grin as he slowly turned around to face the small blonde child who was pointing a sword at him with great determination.
"Well," he exhaled haughtily. "It is quite the party out here. Now do my eyes deceive me or do I see the great King Arthur before me?"
"Where is Guinevere?" Arthur asked sternly, although he was shaking and burning in fear on the inside.
"Now look at what you've done Onyx. You've rubbed off on the poor boy and influenced him into standing up to contain the whereabouts of a murderer."
"She isn't a murderer!" Arthur exclaimed, only to receive a conniving look from the man.
"Oh really?" Cameron quietly asked. "Look kid, we are in the middle of very important matters and I don't think you want to witness this. So step aside, the brothers need to speak."
"You don't wanna speak, you wanna hurt him."
"Oh dear boy I know your type all too well. My brother Timothy was just like you, and where is he now? Dead."
"Silen—."
"Nobody was talking to you Onyx. So hold your tongue before I rip it out myself!" he hissed at his brother. "But pressing on with you, dear boy, you might as well cower your way out of this and flee right now. You are pretty good at that."
"No. I'm not afraid this time."
"Key word my boy: This time. You can feed your little act to the world all you want, but always keep in mind that there are some out there who can see through it. But if you are serious," He paused to throw the torch back into the fire and then looked back at the boy. "Go on. You've got the sword, so use it. Conquer me King Arthur and take back your land. Are you not Uther nor Igraine's son? It is the least they could have done."
"But…but I'm not them." he stuttered.
"Truer words were never spoken. You know who you are deep down inside," Arthur grew stiff and dropped the sword. "You're just a worthless, mistake making little nuisance who constantly shields himself from the real world and only knows what an embarrassing disappointment he is."
"No...y-you're lying….."
"Oh no no no no no I'm not lying. And even if I was you're too stupid to realize it."
"I..." Arthur squeaked as he dropped to his knees, completely oblivious as Cameron slowly approached him with one hand behind his back, as if he were trying to hide something behind his body.
"Leave him alone Cameron!" Onyx warned.
"Be quiet Onyx. I'm only telling him the truth. And I have plenty of truth for you if you'd just wait. Now where was I? Oh yes, one more word of wisdom boy, just for fiuture reference," Arthur gasped as he saw Cameron pull out a sword from behind him. "You will never be a King," he whispered before striking at the boy with his blade. Arthur made an attempt to get out of the way, but it unfortunately wasn't perfect. Cameron's blade had left a mess. There were large red cuts all the way up the side of the tweens torso. On his leg, waist and arm. They weren't serious or fatal, but they hurt.
"OH!" he screamed in high pitched pain.
"Arthur, run!" Onyx screamed as he ran over to help. He stood the boy up and pushed him away. "Run!" he hissed. Onyx bent down and picked up the sword from the stone and began to fight his brother.
Arthur ran as fast as he could to get away from that horrible scenery. He bit his lip to try and ease the stinging and burning pain in his forearm. The nearest city was a mile away, and there was now way,
"Arthur!" a faint voice called. It wasn't exactly feminine but it definitely wasn't a male. Arthur turned around to see who was running out of the forest. It was Hazel. One of her sleeves was torn off and so was her skirt. She was only in shorts and a ripped shirt, but not a scratch on her. Hazel quickly bent down to the boy who was sitting in the snow, bleeding. "He did this, didn't he?" she uttered. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I've been better." he moaned.
"Hold still," she said as she ripped off a strip of her shirt that was falling apart. She took the arm that was hurt and gently wrapped it over the cuts. "I'm not a nurse but that should do it."
"Thanks." Hazel sighed deeply.
"I'm sorry." she in the most guilty voice.
"Sorry for what?"
"For what? Look at your face, look at what he did! He lured you here so he could do this to you! You came here because of me…."
"It's not your fault Hazel. Things happen. And you weren't just his bait, he was going to hurt you."
"Yeah. I know. Mim gave me a whole explanation on that," Hazel widened her eyes and clasped her hands over her mouth. "That is…uh…"
"I know Hazel. I've known for a while now."
"Go ahead and get mad. Everybody else has."
"I won't. Everybody makes mistakes. But of all people, what were you doing with her?"
"I already told you. She took me in when nobody else would."
"Huh?"
"Arthur, just look at me. Look what I am. I'm an immigrant. I abandoned my family moments before their death. I'm not beautiful. I can't even read."
"What do you mean? You can read. I saw you."
"What you saw was an illusion. I never learned English and I never learned how to talk properly. She just magiced the literacy into me. Everything I say and everything I am is a lie."
"Haze—."
"Don't try to deny it cause you know I'm right. I'm sorry."
"There you are!" the pitched voice of Astella exclaimed as she ran into the scene, trying not to trip on her dress in the process. "I've been looking all over for you!" She was astonished when she saw the cuts on the boy's face. "My word! Gwenny what happened to him!?"
"Cameron happened." Hazel sneered, disgust filling her mind at the very thought of the name. Astella noticed the large necklace around her niece's frail neck.
"The Stone!" she exclaimed. "Where did you get it!?"
"I'll explain later," Hazel said. 'If I make it that far.' "But stay here. I have to go." she said as she started away from the woman, only to have her grab the back of her shirt.
"I know you certainly don't mean to confront him, Guinevere." Stella said with her hands on her hips.
"What if I do?"
"Hazel, you can't fight him!" Arthur let out in a cracky puberty voice.
"I can fight him… I just probably won't survive." she muttered.
"That doesn't make it any better. You can't go."
"He killed my brothers, Arthur. And look what he did to you."
"Yeah, and he'll do the same to you if you go back."
"I've done too many wrong things in my life, this is the only good one. My family was killed, and if I ever had a chance to square their deaths, I'd do whatever it took! And now I have that chance...I've been hiding for too long. I can't run from who I am…or atleast who I used to be. Not anymore."
"Hazel you can't possibly try to pull this," Arthur pleaded. That was all he could do. He wasn't ready to make any fast moves yet. Hazel bent down and hugged him as a tear slid from her eye. She knew he was right: She might not make it out of this. She quickly shook it off and pulled away to give him a smile. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"No. But I don't have a better one." she said as she got up.
"Be careful."
"I'm always careful." she said before turning around and running into the forest.
To Be Continued...
AN: Hope you liked it and please review it if you are able to. Byee :)
.
