Master of Bones | The Royal Legacies Series

| 𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖗𝖊𝖌𝖆𝖗𝖉 |

𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖗𝖊𝖌𝖆𝖗𝖉 |𝖛| 𝖕𝖆𝖞 𝖓𝖔 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖙𝖔; 𝖎𝖌𝖓𝖔𝖗𝖊

"Come on! Come on! Come on!"

His running only speeds up as he runs through the field. The woman behind him laughs aloud just before jumping up to chase after him.

"Watch out!"

The other woman's voice doesn't reach them, but they already know to watch where they step. Kortos looks to his wife and laughs, "Oh, to be young again."

Kabatia smiles, "Not sure how Rhish keeps up with him."

"Spite?" Ovag throws out, making the others laugh. Peskol rolls onto his back and smiles, "Make sure they don't kill themselves."

He was looking at Gozaydg. The leader groans but gets up to follow the two. Kortos smiles to the others, "I'm trying to figure out who has who wrapped around their finger."

"What do you mean, my love?" Kabatia asks.

Ovag laughs, "He means does he do it for Marcello or Rhish?"

The counselor laughs from the floor, "Probably both."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Marcello!"

The little boy giggled back to her as he jumped over the large log before him. Rhish follows in his footsteps but only has to walk over it. She carefully dodges the trees, following the color of his tunic because his hair blended in with everything around him.

After a moment she loses sight of him, "Marcello?"

He doesn't answer. Rhish stops moving and lets herself breathe. It was silent. Too silent. A small noise, sounding like a voice echoes in front of her. She chases after it.

It gets louder but sounds less human as she goes. For some reason, she can't seem to make her feet stop moving her forward. A small opening comes into view and she runs towards it. When she gets to the opening her eyes look around frantically.

Then she saw it. It was one of the kinahs. It stood tall and lanky before her. She didn't have her sword with her. Then she saw the source of the noise. It was standing above Marcello. Panic settled in. He was moving, breathing. And he was awake. She could see the fear in his eyes but he kept quiet.

"Hey!" The kinah looked at her and stepped away from Marcello a few steps. Silently, the boy moved backward away from the animal. It looked Rhish up and down. Then suddenly Marcello steps on a stick. It turns back to him and growls, ready to pounce on him.

Adrenaline ran through her body. She rushed the creature and used all of her weight to knock it over. As it rammed into a tree she looked to the smaller boy, "Run!"

He stands there, "Marcello!"

He doesn't want to leave her but he starts to bolt away, scared for his life. His feet, although sore, carried him the entire way.

Just as Gozaydg reaches the edge of the forest, Marcello comes running out to meet him, "There you are..."

"Rhish is in trouble!"

His eyes widen, "Trouble?"

"Yes! Kinah attacked and she..."

He can't finish his thought before his uncle is running past him. That in itself was enough to get him running into the forest.

- - - - - - - - - -

Her eyes stared right into the eyes of the animal before her. It was a male. At first, she thought it was a hungry female but on further inspection, a male was staring at her. It started to circle around her and she kept up with the pace. It didn't seem angry at first then it realized she was more meat to eat than Marcello was.