Rulers of Westover (Book 1 in the RoW Series)

Chapter Thirty-Three

A/N: I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, DON'T KILL ME PLEASE! I had chapter 33 almost finished yesterday afternoon and then chrome decided to randomly close down and I hadn't saved my work from that day and I spent the rest of the night rewriting half the chapter o.o Tis not an excuse, tis a reason, I swear >.< There's a subtle difference. Now, go, read! 

4:7:13 Light 

As Titan fell under him, Arthur lost his balance and collided with the hard ground. He had pushed the small horse too hard in his effort to get away from those things that had left one of his arms ripped to shreds and the simple shirt over his leather armour ragged strings tinted red with his blood. If it weren't for the armour he had insisted on wearing since he'd found it in Colton's room, he would be dead right now. 

There'd been so many of them - thin bony human like creatures with terrible claws for fingers and ghastly faces. They had shrieked in high-pitched voices and run and jumped about with amazing agility. Arthur had kicked Titan into life as the first ran at him from behind and just in time too. It had leaped high into the air and landed where Arthur had been seconds before. 

At one point or another, Titan had slowed and one of the smallest of the monsters had caught up and had raked their long claws down Arthur's back. The leather had merely made it not fatal rather than less painful. Arthur had screamed in agony and tried to bat the monster away with his right arm. It hadn't worked. Instead the monster unhooked itself from his back and clasped onto his arm, trying to pull him off Titan with a grip that cut deep into his flesh. 

But the beast hadn't counted on Arthur having learnt to ride a cow without holding onto reigns. He let go with his left hand, only holding on with his thighs, and he reached for his cousin's rusty sword awkwardly while the monster shrieked and climbed a little further up his arm and pulled him a little more off his horse. And then the sword was free of its sheath and Arthur swung it viciously at the monster, catching it in the face, the arms, anywhere he could get at. It let go with a deafening shriek and then Arthur was free it seemed and the town of monsters with all its dead soldiers started to disappear behind him. 

And now.... Now Arthur had no idea where he was. He sat against his wheezing horse. Titan had come out unscathed, but had continued to weaken as Arthur had allowed him barely any rest. But now the twelve year old did because suddenly the adrenalin from three days ago drained from him and he was tired too and the pain came back - sharp in places, throbbing in others, but everywhere all the same. He cried. He cried for his mother lost at sea for some three years now, his older sisters, his younger sisters, his father in the east. He cried for somebody he knew to appear and help him and comfort him and just... be there.

"Stupid, stupid!" he hissed. "How could I have been so stupid?!"

"It does look like you've been quite stupid." 

Arthur jumped at the amused voice and turned to see a young man, younger than Maxwell but older than Colton watching him. He was a soldier. He was wearing armour. And if you wore armour you had to be a soldier or a knight. But he wasn't a knight... his armour wasn't shiny enough. He wore simple leather armour, dyed a dark green, mud purposely covering bright orange pauldrons and couters. Arthur didn't recognise those colours... but they weren't Ravenot colours and that was all that really mattered. So with a small amount of relief washing over him, his brain decided to turn off and everything went black. 

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7:7:13 Light 

"A letter, my king, from the scouts to the west." 

Maxwell looked up from the fire, as did Irving. Everybody else was practically asleep.