Ash's POV (it's been a while...I think)
The sky overhead didn't have its usual bright colours. The blue that stained the skies was a dull colour and the clouds had darkened. The brilliant glow of the sun didn't cast its light down below. It only spread shadows. Smoke spread through the air like a plague and buildings were destroyed as if they had gone through a major earthquake.
Tonnes of blood had been shed. The stench of death flooded the place in the once peaceful town of the Kingdom of Stars. Soldiers lay gasping for their final breaths and the townspeople never made it through the forest in time. They had been slaughtered in place with no chance of escape or defence. The horrifying sight of the Kings and Queen lay implanted in my mind.
My mother lying motionless on the ground, her lifeless eyes gazing at the sky without their usual glint of brightness. An empty shell that lay dead on the battlefield while I was still standing tall with the blood of my enemies fresh on my mind.
Twelve of us stood side by side with unfamiliar bodies lying beneath our feet in a mess of blood. Our eyes glistening in the sunlight. But not of happiness or rejoice. We shared no victory. Our eyes were shining with tears that sparkled in the dull daylight. Our great losses weighing heavily on our shoulders. There were no smiles, no cheers. If this was a victory, I'd hate to see defeat.
All I knew was that the victory never really lasted long either as the next round was to begin. It was obvious that we were no where near the end. The fight had only begun...
As I trudged forward through masses of bodies with an unfamiliar feeling deep within me, I was suddenly startled by a shrill scream.
Sweat dripped down my forehead profusely as I sat up with wide eyes gasping for air out of panic. I looked around the room rapidly for any evidence of what had just happened. There was no more blood anywhere or thousands of bodies lying lifelessly across the place in all directions. I released a strained breath of relief as I realised everything had just been part of my strange dream.
My bed was drenched with sweat and the sour stench filled my nose immediately as I crawled out from underneath my sheets. I sat in deep thought as I felt unusual. It was unlike me to get such odd dreams like that. The images of my dream were left engraved deep in my mind as I wiped my forehead clear of sweat with a towel.
It had felt so vivid, so real...
Before I could do anything else, a scream interrupted my movements causing me to freeze in place. The scream was the same one that woke me up from my dream earlier. I gasped before quickly hurrying to get dressed then rushing out of my room to the dining hall where I could talk to someone about this situation.
I barged through the doors and flinched slightly as they banged into the walls violently before I darted my gaze around the room frantically to find only Gary standing there with an empty plate in his hands. He stared at me in confusion and looked as though he had frozen in place as soon as I had come in the room. I sighed out a breath of relief before speaking.
"Gary! Thank Arceus you're here already. I have something that I have to talk about with-" But he cut me off by dragging me roughly by the collar and onto my usual seat where there was delicious spaghetti waiting for me which distracted me from the situation entirely.
If anything were to stop me, that would be food.
"Quit the shouting. I don't want you to wake up everyone in the castle." Gary groaned before digging into his own food. "Imagine the Kings and Queen if you woke them up at this time of the morning."
We ate in silence aside from the loud sound of my chewing. After a while of stuffing my face, I grabbed my fifth serving of pasta before stopping halfway through my chewing as I realised why I wanted to talk to someone.
"Gory, I haff somfing to talkff to youff abouf." I announced between mouthfuls which muffled my speech.
"What is it?" He questioned as soon as I gulped down the pasta so I could explain to him. Ignoring the fact that he had understood my announcement, I pushed away all my previous thoughts of my dream to the back of my hollow head as I focused on the one question I really wanted to ask.
"So, this morning, I was woken up with this really high pitched scream and it scared me senseless! Did you hear it too? I was sure that it came from the town..." I explained rapidly and began stuffing my face with spaghetti once more.
"Don't be delusional! There's probably some sort of celebration happening in the town." Gary reassured me and slapped my back so that I choked on my spaghetti. "Although I'm not sure why they didn't invite me..." He murmured quietly to himself even though I heard it through my coughing fits as I struggled to swallow my pasta.
"Pr-o-bab-ly..." I attempted to say as I continued coughing violently on my pasta.
"What celebration?" Another voice pitched in and I turned my head around to see green hair in my vision.
My eyes were blurry when I tried to look through my tears as I continued struggling to gulp down my food. As soon as I felt like I was going to suffocate, a hard slap knocked me forward and caused me to throw the food from my throat and onto the dining table while I face-planted in my spaghetti.
"I would say the throwing up part was gross, but the face plant was gold!" Another voice piped up and I shot my head up instantly, a bunch of red sauce dripping from my face.
A bunch of laughter erupted from the dining hall and I felt myself go red with embarrassment.
"Who was the one that slapped me?" I demanded in attempt to cover up my embarrassment as I licked the spaghetti off my face.
I turned around in my seat to face everyone in hopes of finding the culprit and I shrunk back as soon Paul raised his hand calmly. He had a cold expression on his face as usual but looked smug. I shouldn't threaten Paul, only if I wanted a death wish.
"Never mind." I mumbled and I watched Paul's expression change to one of triumph.
"I need to tell Max about what happened to you!" Amethyst spoke up and threw a tissue at my face which stuck there like glue since the sauce was quite sticky. "Have fun cleaning that off." She yelled behind her as she ran out of the hall to find Max.
"I was going to eat the sauce off my face but I can't when there's tissue stuck to it." I muttered and wiped the sauce with the tissue.
I heard Drew snicker and I growled through the tissue in annoyance.
"Come on, let's finish up and get ready for the day before Iris barges in here." Gary said and nudged me roughly as I was wiping my face.
"Too late. I can hear her storming down here right now." Drew commented as we heard thunderous footsteps from the hallway which signalled Iris was coming.
As if on queue, Iris barged right in, her long purple hair flowing in all directions as though she hadn't been bothered to fix it. Her eyes were wide and wild as if panicked. She didn't look her usual self. If anything else, she looked like a completely different person from the Iris we have come to know. Her hair was seemingly extremely tangled and she wasn't wearing her usual clothes she'd use everyday when she was bossing us around.
"Good morning Iris!" I greeted cheerfully as I hid the tissue with all the sauce on it after I'd finished cleaning my face.
"I haven't got time for this. I need you boys to follow me, right now!" She demanded and I huffed as I stared at my unfinished spaghetti.
"What can be more important than my spaghetti?" I questioned and Iris looked at me with fury.
Her eyes were flaring dangerously as she glared into my eyes sternly. It felt like she was burning holes in my head. If looks could kill, I'd be way dead by now. I shrunk back in my seat slightly but held my posture as I put down my fork which made a clang as it fell on my plate.
"Just come with me now!" She yelled and we didn't give her a chance to tell us again as we immediately followed.
"I wonder what's happening." Gary whispered in my ear and I nodded as I stared questioningly at the panicked Iris.
We were all severely out of breath by the time we reached the throne room while Iris didn't look worn out at all as she flung open the huge doors and walked in. Her eyes were blazing with urgency and she instantly approached our parents who were all standing around in a circle glancing frantically between each other. Iris joined their little circle and began hurriedly speaking to them while the four of us boys stood in a line with our hands clasped together and held in front of us politely.
Iris dipped her head quickly to the royals who were still huddled together in deep discussion. She sprinted out of the throne room and out the opposite doorway of which we had come from. We all stared after her momentarily before facing back towards the Kings and Queen.
"Princes, come forward immediately." King Cilan demanded sternly and gestured his hand towards us in a way that signaled us to come closer.
"As you wish father." Drew replied and bowed down for a moment before walking towards the royals with us following his actions.
"We have discussed some important matters at hand. Since this is an urgent situation, we need you all here before we begin our discussion." King Blue explained and Gary raised an eyebrow.
It was only ever in emergencies when King Blue would ever become serious. I glanced at my own mother who was frowning and she looked deep in thought. The others all looked troubled as we waited in a silence, the tension in the air getting thicker every second that passed.
"They're here!" Iris' voice rang out through the throne room as she entered once again on her own accord.
This time, Kenny, Brendan, Amethyst and Max were following her. Each looked extremely worn out as we had been when we first entered.
"Come forward." King Cilan repeated and they immediately did as he asked without question.
I glanced at Paul who was shooting death glares at Kenny when the Kings and Queen were not looking while Kenny returned them.
"Early this morning, we received news from several guards. Each reporting similar findings." King Cilan began.
"There's been a panic in the town causing an uproar amongst the citizens. We are not sure of the cause but reports around the castle say that there's going to be an attack." King Reggie finished for him.
"An attack?" We exclaimed coincidentally all at once, creating a chorus of shouts.
"Please lower your voices. We don't want to cause even more of a panic than there already is." My mother spoke up and hushed us.
"Sorry." We all apologised at the same time once again.
Without questioning us, King Cilan stepped forward and looked down on us with that intimidating stare of his. After a couple of moments, his face softened and turned into one of worry to our surprise.
"I never thought that I'd be saying this, but I need to send all eight of you down to town." King Cilan informed us reluctantly. "Unfortunately, these four here insisted that we put your training to work. Since you are all royals I disagreed with the thought of it. But they were very persistent and I came to the conclusion that I pretty much didn't have a choice in this decision."
King Reggie, Blue, my mother and Iris all nodded in agreement as they stared approvingly at King Cilan who looked upset.
"What will we be doing in the town?" Amethyst spoke up.
"For now, we only want you to scout around the place to see if there are any signs of attack. If you can, get some people out if there are some remaining although majority of them should've evacuated by now. I suggest to have some guards by your sides." King Cilan explained.
"I think we can do without guards." Gary said confidently.
"That's a good idea!" King Blue piped in and nodded his head. "If they have guards, they may not do any work and won't gain any experience. But if they do this by themselves, they would be more prepared."
"Excuse me?" King Cilan glanced back at Gary's brother who just shrugged but gave him a serious stare.
"I agree." My mother butted in. "I believe in these children. Plus they need to be more independent."
"Fine." King Cilan huffed in irritation before turning back to us. "You'll be going to town without guards. It has been decided. Now Iris, take them to the weaponry."
"Of course, your highness." Iris bowed down before ushering the eight of us out of the room quickly.
"I don't feel so good about this." I whispered quietly to Drew who nodded in response.
—-
I finally finished writing this chapter after so long!!!!! Uhh and it's not very good either. It barely has anything interesting but this was the best I could do right now. I just finished like five tests for last week and now I have to do a debate.
I hate debating.
But anyway, thanks for reading!!! I'll make sure to update more often though.
Okay byeeeee!
- April
4th June, 2018