"Adelphia!" Interlaced with excitement and triumph, Ozanne's voice thrummed from inside her tent. It was the next day; a pleasant morning greeted me. The two of us just finished breakfast, before Ozanne rushed back into her tent to continue on creating her potion. And now, about five minutes later...
I felt my heart beat faster and stronger with excitement. The morning mist wove through my body and cleared my mind with fresh air as I dashed towards Ozanne's tent, having finished cleaning up for breakfast.
After I'd whisked into the tent, I spotted Ozanne at the edge of her table. Her eyes were wide and shining with excitement; her hands held a crystal-clear solution. It was a sort of homey kind of blue, mixed with strands of lavender here and there, and small bubbles resurfaced at the top of the potion, before they collided with the oxygen in the air and popped themselves.
"Yes?" I queried, hoping with all my heart that she'd say the words I'd wanted her to.
And Ozanne did. "It's done," she declared, holding up the shining potion to my eyes.
I was supremely taken aback. "Already?" I gasped. I had expected it would've taken much longer. "If it was that easy, why didn't you make it before?"
Ozanne, instead of instantly turning sour, kept her happy mask. "I needed self-confidence, that's what," she smiled. "I thought we could just-poison your mother or something, but now I see what such a person she is. Horrible and merciless. If it's anyone who deserves to be put to sleep in a trap of their everlasting memories, then it's her." Ozanne beamed, and I couldn't help grinning back.
But suddenly, the morning excitement vanished.
Outside the tent, I heard a faint murmur and a rustle of the evergreen bushes.
My heartbeat sped up.
"Who do you think it is?" I whispered urgently to Ozanne. "It can't be a guard, right?"
Ozanne scoffed. "It's probably a squirrel," she explained. "I was sure that this place would be well hidden. There's no way the empress' dim-witted cantaloupe guards with no sense of humanity can get here."
I gave a nervous laugh.
Ozanne rolled her eyes. "Listen Adelphia, there's nothing to worry about. The potion is complete, we can overtake the queen now! In fact, I'm hungry. You should go slim that squirrel."
I gave a hasty laugh. "What happened to you, Ozanne?" I muttered wistfully under my breath so she couldn't overhear me.
To escape, I left the tent deftly and quietly; my heart was still twinged with curiosity of who the footsteps belonged to.
Ozanne was still in the middle of packing her potion into small bottles.
"Tomorrow," she called out after me. "We go raid the castle and pour the potions onto the empress. And Arius. Especially Arius."
I cracked a small smile, recognizing the old Ozanne back. Phew. "Okay," I smiled. Then I slipped out of the tent, the pale ivory drapes of the tent sliding across my shoulders, and was instantly plunged into the daytime.
The footsteps were still there-they'd gone from pitter-patters to full-out marching. I felt my breath suck inwards sharply-no squirrels' footsteps were that loud.
But.
It had to be a squirrel. Ozanne was making the most important potion of her life in the tent, and we were fugitives in two kingdoms, and...
But no. It wasn't a squirrel.
The ground rustled louder than ever, and the leaves reluctantly parted to give away the realization that there was more than one person. Seven, actually.
Six of them were covered in shining armor that gleamed evilly under the stealthy half moon above; they were bearing swords, spears, crossbows, wood-brown against silver.
And the seventh...
Arius.
Arius himself carried a sword in hand, a blade glittering a dark, wicked sort of gray. The hilt was a rich, polished gold, embedded with shimmering emeralds and rubies. In one swift stroke, he swung the blade straight up to my throat.
"You have one last chance," he snarled, a deep, guttural sound. I gagged when I overheard a squelching sound deep in his stomach...and then, shrrrr...
Bright red, scarlet blood spurted from his rib cage, stopped only by his shirt, dying his ivory-white tunic a vivid, rageful scarlet. "Get the potion. Give me the potion, and I might consider sparing your life."
While he was talking, however, my fingers were working. I snatched the crossbow from my back, smashing it towards Arius' sword. I was too quick for him-the sword held up to my throat was instantly thrown out of Arius' grip and clattered onto the shadow-drenched ground.
I reached towards my back, my fingers sliding into the quiver of arrows and plucking an arrow out. While the guards stared at Arius', whose face was a livid, beat red as he bent down to retrieve his sword that I'd knocked straight out of his hands, I nocked my bow and pointed the arrow straight at his shoulder.
I refused to show my panic and disbelief. They'd found us. After years of escape...
We've finally been found.
From the shadows, more and more guards melted into view: ten, twenty, thirty.
But my voice was smooth, pivoting the opposite direction of my shrieking emotions; I allowed a small smirk to enter my face. "Try me."
'''''
Arius let out a furious caterwaul and hurled himself towards me, sword in hand. I ducked from one single swipe of his blade and the sword passed harmlessly over my head. Crouching down, I straightened one leg outwards towards Arius' direction.
The prince didn't notice this, however; he simply charged straight towards my crouching shape. As he did so, though, my extended leg caught his foot. With another bloodcurdling cry, he tripped and tumbled towards the ground.
Seeing their prince fallen-not dead, but shocked-stirred up the other guards. All thirty (ish) of them charged towards me, weapons poised.
As Arius remained splayed on the ground, getting ready to arise again, I crouched down once more and snagged the sword out of his hand.
I'd done some sword fighting with Darwyn, after all. Mostly defensive moves, though. The blade in one hand, my crossbow in the other, I hurled myself into battle with all thirty of the guards.
A losing fight, of course.
I was too stubborn to realize this; after using the sword to knock some spears out of a guards' hands, I hurled the uncomfortable blade into the forest, as far away from Arius as possible.
Then I nocked my bow, shooting arrow after arrow. However, in my haste, most of those golden arrows missed their targets. After the arrows all caught whatever they hit-rarely a soldier, sometimes a tree or otherwise just jamming itself into the ground, I called them all back.
A throwing star zipped past my ear, only missing by a centimeter.
Kind of freaked out, I whipped around to see more throwing stars hurtling straight towards my throat.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then.
The gleaming weapons soared high and true through the air, blades glittering and gleaming.
They were too close. I couldn't turn away, now-I had no time.
This is the end.
The crossbow began to tremble softly in my quivering fingers, as each of the throwing stars crashed closer...closer...shining. Gleaming.
And...
Poof! I gasped, choking in alarm, as a large azure bubble closed around me. I glanced around at the misty barrier that had enclosed around my body, locking myself in...and the throwing stars out. Each of the small weapons hit the bubble's surface, and then bounced harmlessly off, not leaving a single scratch on the bubble's side.
"Ozanne!" I gasped, wrenching my gaze to somewhere beyond the battle. Ozanne had appeared out of her tent, coming to see where all the commotion came from; she was carefully controlling the bubble that enclosed around me, lifting it up into the air with a single flourish of her hands.
That's when I remembered.
The day I escaped from the prison...I fell from the balcony...I was going to die...but. Darwyn saved me using a bubble. A protective one. The same one. Ozanne was using the same magic as Darwyn...he must have taught her!
"Go away," she snarled to the guards, looking with everlasting hatred at Arius especially. "Before you get hurt."
The slamming stars fell with a cling!, out of the guards' hands and reflected off the transparent bubble. I gave a small gasp. Ozanne narrowed her eyes, her face flushing scarlet in her concentration, as she set me down gently, onto the ground. Upon landing, the bubble popped, and I rushed towards Ozanne.
The numbers still weren't even now, but the guards took a slow, cautious step back.
Unfortunately, that was when it happened.
Arius's eyes locked to the doorway of the tent, next to the lush trees and the emerald bushes. His vision found it to the little, jade-green bottle, with the ichor-colored liquid inside.
Ozanne's potion.
A scream, a roar, and a hand.
It all was a blur.
Arius raced past Ozanne and I, his legs barely visible as he brushed past the tent, snatching the potion in the process. He then rushed away and into the forest, unseen, leaving the only evidence he ever was there, the perplexed guards.
There was a moment, a minute, of long, breathtaking silence.
That's when I met my senses.
"RUN, OZANNE, WE NEED TO RUN!" I screamed, at the top of my lungs, as I started pacing backwards.
"What!?" she cried. "Adelphia, Arius took our potion! We-"
A bladed, silver star jagged through my arm, shredding a piece of skin to tatters. Oozing blood flowed out, moving like the voice of Klide.
It was too much.
I dragged Ozanne away, fleeing into the mist-relished forest. We left the threatening guards, our cozy tent, the forest. I didn't hear her angry protests. My eyes were blinded. Too much.
That was all. Two deaths, no accomplishments.
The Thinia empires' reign was still alive.