Game of Hearts (Original Version)

Chapter 5

The wolf howled sharply, as if to remind him of something.

"What, ≈≈≈≈≈≈? You help someone one time and suddenly you fancy yourself a hero?"

Fang sat tall and proud, and bowed his head regally.

"I don't think they let guys like us be heroes....especially not for girls like her."

The wolf snapped at him and he sighed, "She's a princess, she wouldn't want me. She's a girl trapped in a tower waiting for a handsome prince to climb up and rescue her from her prison and whisk her off her feet and they'll go home where they get married..." He sighed, and Fang dropped his head onto Zack's knee, and Zack gave him a few scratches behind the ears, "She learns who we are, and the next time she sees us coming she'll go running the other way."

Fang whimpered and Zack stood up. "You'd best forget any dreams you have of a hero's life...They won't help you out here. You need to have honor, and duty to be a hero...and our duty takes us down a dark path in the other direction...come on. We should get on it." He said, giving the wolf the twig to sniff again. Fang did, and then he scanned the area to see if he could trace the scent. He found the direction it went almost instantly and began to dash off, leaving Zack to trail behind him with his heart stealing weapon drawn.

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"Come on, you have to keep running." Riku said, stopping to look back as his older sister panted and rested against a tree.

"I don't think I can go any farther." She gasped, holding a hand over her racing heart and stinging lungs. Her shoes had broken, the ankle clasp on the right shoe and the heel came off the left one, making her stride rather awkward and uncomfortable. That, and she wasn't used to running or the harsh environment.

"Please, you have to try." He pleaded with her, but she collapsed down onto a rock and held her hands in her head.

"I knew it...I knew I'd be no match for him. The huntsman will catch me and there's nothing I can do about it."

"You can run."

"I'm not like you, Riku, I can't keep this up. If that man doesn't get me, than this boggy forest surely will."

"I will carry you out if I have to, but you can't sit there and give up." He tried to keep his anger at bay, but he was doing this for her and she was already trying to tap out. He suspected that she just didn't understand that this man would absolutely tear her to shreds, or that maybe she would be able to convince him not to kill her. She was a sweet girl, naïve and happy for her peaceful life. She gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, and truly believed there was good in everyone. How she could still think that after living with his mother, he had no idea, but he knew what spoke of her true, gentle character. She couldn't survive out here, and he knew it. He needed to get her out of the swamps and into a town and hide away with her.   

"I'll go with you, just give me a moment..." She exhaled, and wiped her forehead.

"Fine...but just a moment." He sighed, knowing that exhausting her wouldn't accomplish much either.

He sat beside her and she rested against him heavily and closed her eyes. "Don't fall asleep." He warned.  

"Those are just old stories...the only danger we're in is from the huntsman."

"Don't tell me you believe that to be true. There's a reason ours is the most fortified castle in all the kingdoms. It has nothing to do with our armies, it's the woodlands surrounding us. The woods are more deadly than the oceans surrounding the Land of Beast's, its force is more devastating than entirety of the Enchanted Dominion's armed forces, the terrain harder for an army to travel than the lake covered fronts of the Land of Dreams, and the creatures as twisted and dark as those in the Dark Forest. There are witches, ogres, pixies, trolls, hydras, heartless creatures of the night, living trees, beings of rock, man eating waters and sands, swamps that change their paths to trap and deceive you, and that's all on top of the regular threats....if you think the huntsman is the only being you need to fear out in these wilds, then you are sorely mistaken."