𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 | 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐏

Chapter 4

"You positive we're going the right way, Glimmer?" Bow asked. We always have the bad luck of getting lost in the Whispering Woods, I wanted to ask why on hell we always make the same mistakes but I didn't want to call them stupid. "I'm not sure this is the right way, guys..." I muttered.

"I know what I'm doing, (Y/N). Can you please just trust me for once?" Glimmer stopped and looked at us for a moment before staring at the trackpad again. "You know we trust you, Glimmer. But I'm starting to get scared..." I muttered, grabbing Bow's arm to get reasurement. We've never passed this area of the forest.

"I pretty much grew up in these woods and I've never even seen this part of them. I've heard stories about weird stuff out here." Bow said and I averted my eyes in fear. "Please no. Don't start with ghost stories, Bow."

"It's fine, okay? Just let me figure this out." The princess teleported away, leaving us to wander until she gets the right direction. "Okay! Touchy." Bow mutters and we set our attention on the Horde Spy, so much excitement for nothing. "Sorry about her. Usually she's really nice..." She didn't say anything, leaving us with a rather uncomfortable silence. "Not much for talking, huh?" Bow asked the Horde soldier.

"I prefer not to swap pleasantries with my captors." The archer helped the blonde girl to pass a rather big root. "Fair. Suit yourself."

I looked forward, catching Glimmer teleporting around us. "You know they are princesses, right? How can you follow them? Princesses are a dangerous threat to everyone on Etheria." I heard the soldier mutter to Bow, making me turn to them.

"Is that what Hordak told you?" I asked her, getting her attention. "Well, I thought it was just common knowledge. You're violent instigators who don't even know how to control your powers." I heard Glimmer shouting in frustration from behind me, giving a small point of fairness to the blonde girl.

"You've never actually met a princess, have you?" Bow asked, making her huff and look away. "Well, maybe not in person, but--"

A whimpering noise came through the plants and trees, making us run to the sound until we saw Glimmer. I gasped in sadness. Another village was destroyed by The Horde, I made my way to a saddened Glimmer as she grabbed a piece of a broken mural, where a child with her mom was painted. "What happened to this place...?"

"Don't play dumb with me. I bet you were part of the raiding party that did this." The blonde seemed offended by Glimmer's words. "What are you talking about? The Horde didn't do this." Glimmer grabbed the chained soldier and made her walk to one of the Horde's robots, pointing to the symbol on it. "Oh yeah? You're a heartless destroyer, just like all the rest of your people."

"I'm not a destroyer. Hordak says we're doing what's best for Etheria! We're trying to make things better. More orderly." Glimmer was angry now.

"THIS is what's best for Etheria?" The princess extended her arm for the girl to look around and I stared down, grabbing a half-burned child's plushie. My lips quivered and soon tears were running down. "Ever since The Horde got here, they've been poisoning our land! Burning our cities! Destroying everything in their path! And you're a part of it! How's that for orderly? I bet you are the reason (Y/N) can't go back home..."

I raised my head to look at Glimmer, but instead, I saw the soldier looking at me with widened eyes. I almost forgot my tears weren't normal anymore, so I quickly wiped my cheeks and turned around. "This doesn't make any sense... The Horde would never do something like this." Bow walked closer to us. "Did you not know anything? I mean, your army is called 'The Evil Horde'."

"Who calls us that?" Bow and I gazed at each other and then we looked back at the soldier. "Everybody!" He shouted.

"The Horde rescued me when I was a baby and gave me a home. They're my family. You-- You don't know them like I do." She looked down. Maybe she didn't know what the Horde is doing to Etheria, the destroyed villages had made me grow a direct hate for them, but she seems... Innocent in all of this.

"Maybe you don't know them like you think you do..." I half muttered, her attention back to me, at least until we heard Glimmer shouting and running towards us. "There's something out there! Something big!"

"How big?" Asked Bow as she took his bow. Does that really matter?

All of sudden, the ground started rumbling and shaking, and a giant insect machine showed itself to us. Bow let out a small yell as we looked up. "So, pretty big then!" The insect ran to us and prepared to strike Glimmer. "Glimmer look out!" I shouted.

The princess teleported to a tree and jumped to its face, trying to blind it, but it was a failure and we all fell apart. I saw the blonde's leg getting trapped and I ran to help her get free as Bow and Glimmer tried to neutralize it. The princess was quickly out of battle and Bow's rope only helped to corner them. I extended my arms and shot a blast of energy at one of its legs, destroying it.

The insect, badly, turned around, clearly mad and wounded at my unexpected comeback. I stepped backward as the bug got ready to charge at me. "Hey, bug brain!"

I turned to look at the soldier with the sword in hand, pointing it at the insect. "Come on, Magic Sword! Oh, where's a blinding flash of light when you need one?" The soldier screamed when noticed the insect running towards her and she protected herself with the weapon, again blinding us with the same light.

I heard voices and echoes in the light, and I looked at the blonde. Widening my eyes as she screamed out. "FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!!!"

The light diminished, and there was no more yelling or screeching, there was only a warm aura around that made the insect drop to the ground. Bow, Glimmer and I gazed at each other, and then at the blondie again.

The warm aura was coming from her, she was so much different than before, without even realizing it, I was flushing just by looking at her.

She looked... Beautiful.