Kingdom of Fantasy: The Prince From the Dark

Chapter 21 - A Task to Follow

On the bottom of the hills was a half-barren, half-green valley with scarcely any trees or any foliage, except for the withered stalks of leafless black poles of wood with branches that reached out like the tendrils of a charred, dried octopus. The Green Guardian continued her trek across the deserted wasteland, continuing to take a glimpse of her khaki face using the mirror she held every few moments and using her other hand to comb at her hair, blaming the surrounding wind for not keeping her hair straight. She was too focused on her lustrous face and her emerald-green glossy fern-like hair. Excessively focused, in a way that she was completely unaware of her surroundings. Since the clouds made the sky grey and sunless, she could not rely on the shadows of any object that was in the air. Her button-like nose then picked up a scent. A scent of smoke and fire filled the atmosphere around her. As she had to inhale the foul air, she moved her mirror away from her face and looked upwards, with her face pointed towards the sky. Behind her, there was a black flying creature with expanded wings, which she assumed was a raven. But as it got closer in a short span of time, She was able to notice crooked horns on the animal's face and a long serpentine tail. Its two front paws carried a trio of armored black hounds, and there seemed to be a figure mounted on the winged beast's back. The Green Guardian stood in place, unsure of what will happen next, but she did anticipate trouble to be near. The dark animal circled the sky like a predatory bird, and landed in a distant patch of sand in front of her. There was nowhere to retreat to safety, so she had no other choice, but to be confined to the spot she stood in the open space around her. She then heard angry tumultuous barking from behind her. The sound swelled, indicating that something was approaching her. It was too late to fight back, and there were three black hounds with gold and red armour, forcefully pulling the woman to the ground by clamping their jaws and yanking at her long dress. Because of her dress, she tripped, which made her tip over and collapsed into the floor; the slightly jagged stone jabbed the left side of her forehead. Her hands dropped the mirror that was not properly secured in the box it came from, leaving a large lightning-bolt shaped crack across the silver shiny glass of the mirror. Her falling caused her to pass out, seeing a bright white flash for a quick moment, before everything around her quickly changed to blackness. High-pitched ringing also began to drone in her mind. She is now unconsciously paralyzed on the floor, with her left side touching the dirt. The side of her forehead that was hit by the stone formed an ugly patch of scraped flesh, while fresh rust-colored fluid gushed out of the wound, staining the dirt around the injury. The dogs surrounded her and patrolled the area until their master on his dragon arrived at the scene. As the dragon came close, the rider slid down the beast's shoulder and inspected the fainting Green Guardian.

"Wonderful. What an impeccable specimen", the Fallen Prince commented, with his usual insentient tone. He walked towards her face, then used one of his feet to turn over her head, exposing the open bleeding streak on her head, close to her hairline. More blood trickled down the cut, making some of her green hair look deep brown. "I will bring her back for an inquisition."

He then used as much of his effort to exert his bodily strength to pull the Guardian by her legs, and ordered his dragon, FrightFlare, to grab her with a paw and carry her on his back. Then the Wizard mounted back up his dragon. Now with the trio of hounds wrapped behind the FrightFlare's front legs, the winged beast was given another command to fly back to the hole in the hill they emerged from. As he reached his destination, FrightFlare released the dogs by setting them on the ground in the little cave first, then crawled into it on all fours. Avalon descended from his dragon's back, which caused the animal to shake a little, making the crippled Guardian plop onto the ground, with her side landing first. A dog in armour began to inspect the ragged tree-like figure.

"Well," Fester began, "Will she get up yet?"

Another dog followed, and it was Smolder. "No, you doofus!" he snapped, "She was physically knocked to the damn ground! Now our Majesty will have to wait until she gets up to start askin' his questions!"