Kings and Queens: Total Drama

Here Comes the General!: Chapter 9

((Synopsis: Jo and Cameron leave to join the fray, Gwen has a panic attack, and Duncan witnesses the result of Brick's feud with Lightning.))

"Jo? Jo!?" Cameron inquired anxiously, trudging behind his sovereign. The pair made haste toward the stables, bursting into the horse's' quarters. The barn doors hit the neighboring walls with a thud, beige clouds of dust and stray strands of hay merging with the stale air of the stables.

Jo unlocked the sliding handle to the nearest pen to her, containing a young chestnut mare. She approaches the horse's side, petting its cheek. "Pencil-Neck, toss me that saddle," she ordered finally, lazily shaking her index finger to a strewn out pile of horse armor.

The scrawny framed boy nodded blankly, digging into the pile and grabbing a leather saddle. He tossed it her way, Jo catching it against her chest. Securing it over the mare's back, she turned her gaze over to Cameron, who was just standing in one spot, not really doing anything but watching her and shaking like a blender.

"Well?" she said impatiently, cocking her head at him. He met her gaze, a wave of confusion flowing into his mellow dark-brown eyes. "What?" he asked back, watching Jo's face scrunch up. "Aren't you coming with me?"

Her question took a few minutes to sink in and his voice shrunk as he replied doubtfully, "You actually want me to come?" Jo looked shockingly baffled at his remark, raised an eyebrow in his direction, and nodded towards another stable pen.

Cameron glanced in that direction, coming face to face with a soft burgundy stallion, who huffed in surprise from the attention. He came up to the horse, and it nuzzled his cheek with its nose. "That answer your question, Brainiac?" Jo commented, overlooking the glee rising back into his face.

"Besides, why wouldn't I want my right-hand man by my side when I ride into battle?" While Cameron fastened his satchel to the saddle, he grinned to himself, "Isn't that Lord Brick's role, my lady?" The Queen chuckled, gripping the reins as she led her horse outside.

Once her adviser joined her at the gate, she swung her leg over and postured herself straight. She stared down at him, a casual smirk curving from her lips. "He may be my...uh..." her face flushed a bit as she tried to find the right word, "...consort? Yeah, consort, that was it! Anyway, he may be my consort, but you've really grown on me, kiddo."

The small boy was gleaming, as he beamed in gratitude. "Well, if that's the case, we have a battle awaiting, don't we?" he said, and Jo snickered, "You're right, you're right. Let's get on with it then!" She took her horse by the reins, snapping them so her mount would march forward, followed by Cameron at her heels.

Meanwhile, back underneath the battlefield, Lady Zoey and Lady Gwen were tending to around a dozen soldiers who actually made it to the cellar. Zoey's face fell grim, the fresh blood from the wound she was stitching staining her gloved fingers, the horrid stench remaining trapped with no chance of airing out anytime soon.

Gwen brushed her hand against the linen cloth bandages she was wrapping around a soldier's shoulder. Her mind had gone numb to the screams after being underground...then it hit her. She suddenly became aware of where she was, all of her previous ignorance flowing out of her body, and she froze.

Courtney spied her turmoil from across the room, rushing from her spot conversing with a bachelorette to her comrade's side. "Gwen, GWEN?! Can you hear me?" she called nervously, waving her hand in front of her face, watching her chest move up and down as her breathing spun quickly out of control.

Zoey noticed as well, and after trimming the final stitch off of her needle and handing the man a few painkillers, she knelt beside Gwen. Courtney handed her a paper bag to breathe into, grabbing hold of her shoulders, "Gwen, please stay calm!" "I forgot she was afraid of closed spaces...we should've known!"

Courtney rubbed Gwen's shoulder in an effort to be comforting, "I know, but it's better than leaving her in a tower above ground where she could've been captured. We can only hope the fighting dies out soon, so she can breathe." "Agreed," Lady Zoey complied knowingly, managing to keep calm herself.

The ringing of metal on metal colliding soared across the sky, filling the ears of every combatant on the battlefield above. Panicked horses were running amok, men were chasing after either them or each other, pandemonium had truly risen.

That, however, didn't matter to him as of now. He glared down at the cynical sack of confidence, formerly known as Lord Lightning, leaning against the wall before him, unconscious and bleeding out.

Lord Brick loosely gripped his sword at his side, droplets of blood tumbling to the ground as a crimson rain, puddling at his feet. In his subconscious, he did the right thing. He regained his pride and took out a common enemy shared upon the majority of his fellow lords. He won., or so he thought.

His empty solitude was soon pierced by the timely arrival of Lord Duncan, shaking off a band of common foot soldiers hot on his trail. As he held his hands to his knees, he gave out an exhausted sigh. "Dude, you have no idea how long I've been running. This is so overkill, I mean, their army had like a half more than ours and..."

The Lord suddenly trailed off, his attention falling on the knocked out body of the enemy leader, right in front of him. He looked up, expecting to see an air of shock upon his comrade's face. His expectations were shattered, however, as he noted the rock hard expression, and the uneasy glaze of his just, dulled grey eyes.

"Speaking of overkill, was this your doing, McArthur?" Duncan asked, rather curious after his deduction. Much to his surprise again, he didn't receive a response right away. They stood for a while, not a word uttered among the two men, until finally, Brick gave a small nod. "Affirmative, it was my doing. But this," he said, referring to the body before him,

"This is only the beginning."

*Words: 1033*

((rrreeeeeEEEEEE! Wow, that was unprofessional . . . lmao, I don't care. I wrote this whole thing in one go, mainly to relieve stress but hey, whatever works! ☆~Kay))