Paul's POV
Once we reached the weaponry, all of us were pushed inside forcefully by Iris who pointed to one specific wall. On that wall hung all assortments of weapons, different shapes and sizes each that would do lethal damage. My eyes immediately drew to an extremely sharpened broadsword with a tiger carved into the hilt of it. Two rubies in place of eyes that glinted a blood-like colour with the handle made of pure gold. It looked terrifying. I held my hand out and aimed to hold the hilt of the blade, only to collide with another hand. I looked at the person with a cold glare as I instantly recognised who it was.
"Kenny, get your hands off the blade." I spoke through gritted teeth.
"Paul, why don't you move your hand away from the sword?" Kenny said in irritation.
"I saw it first." I shot back.
"No, I did!" He exclaimed and inched closer to me with a frown on his face.
"This is mine." I stated and held the hilt of the sword before Kenny could move, its cold surface chilling me to the bone.
"No, it's mine!" Kenny yelled back and attempted to reach for the blade only to fall face flat on the floor after I pulled back.
"It's mine." I repeated and held it tightly.
Before I could walk away and give it a swing, Kenny reached up and managed to grab the hilt which I was still grasping.
"Hands off!" I shouted in annoyance and attempted to wriggle the blade out of his grasp but to no avail. This boy was stubborn.
"Give it to me!" Kenny spat and clenched his fist tighter around the handle.
Before any of us could fully claim the blade, a hand reached past the both of us and stole the broadsword from our clutches.
"You two should stop meddling around. Especially since the Kings and Queen finally gave their permission to do a task for them. An important one as well." Amethyst butted in as she held the broadsword carefully in her hands. "And I'm having this sword thank you very much." She smirked and hurried away with the precious weapon.
We stared gaping at her as she moved to the training area and began swinging it around skilfully. As expected of one of the best swords women of our kingdom. I huffed and immediately turned away from Kenny who was glaring holes into my head. I searched the wall for a fitting weapon and finally my eyes landed on another broadsword but this time with the hilt carved into a wolf. Its eyes were delicate sapphires that glinted an ocean colour and the hilt was made of the same fine gold of the other sword Amethyst had taken. The blade itself was a work of art and had deep engravings and patterns carved neatly into the steel.
"Mine." I whispered in triumph as I picked the blade up without a fuss this time.
"Kenny what sword of sword is that?" Gary exclaimed followed by a burst of laughter.
"Shut up." He grumbled.
As Kenny was a swordsman, he had no skill with other weapons and he valued pricey and rich designs such as the one we had fought over earlier. That is why his only option left was this blade that he was currently holding.
He had a fine looking broadsword but the only difference was that the hilt was one of a chicken and was made of bronze. It's eyes were made of coal that barely sparkled in the light.
"Poor Kenny." I said sarcastically before purposefully brushing past him and showing off my very own blade with a smug look on my face.
I heard him grumble to himself and I felt myself smirk. Everyone had already gathered by the training area where they were testing their weapons. Drew had his two daggers that were finely crafted and had a bow and quiver filled with steel arrows swung over his back. Ash had his favourite katana which was a lethal weapon in combat. Gary had his own twin swords which he was quite skilled with using. I had grabbed a couple of daggers for backup and carried my prized broadsword with me. Amethyst had that broadsword she took from us and she also held a powerful whip on her waist.
Max had a bow and several arrows with him, similar to Drew. Brendan held onto a staff with a blade at the tip. I have to give that prince credit. He was lucky to inherit such a skill with the staff. It was complex training to learn the staff way back when we chose our specific skill. Brendan advanced in that area and became one of the best.
"We will not have time to properly train today with our weapons, but you are keeping these from now on so you'll have time to fight with them later. Now we move out before we run out of time." Iris called to everyone and held her very own mace. Another scary weapon.
"Wait, you're coming with us?" Ash asked her and she nodded.
"Since there will be no guards, King Cilan asked me to come along but I will not be helping anyone unless it's a major emergency." She informed us and we nodded in response.
"Let's go!" Amethyst exclaimed enthusiastically and punched the air with her fist.
"I don't know if you should be that excited about this." Max said and shook his head at his friend's childish ways.
Throughout this whole situation, one thought was constantly lingering on my mind. What would happen if 'those girls' were still in the town? Especially Dawn. If she was there, in this danger, I would hate to know what might happen to her.
As though sensing my urgency, Drew nudged everyone to hurry along as we followed Iris. Before we knew it, we had reached the front gates. The town which was usually lively and bustling with people, seemed to have no inhabitants whatsoever. It was almost painfully silent. Doors had been left open in some houses showing that many had rushed out of their houses in the evacuation.
"I don't see any signs of an attack." Brendan stated and Iris glanced around the sight in front of her.
"I doubt they've reached this side of town. All the townspeople ran this way to evacuate anyway." Iris explained as she examined the area. "They're likely in the centre of the town."
We nodded and followed her directly to the centre of the town. We held our weapons high and tightened them in our clutches in case an enemy soldier appeared from anywhere. As we walked quietly through the town, we could distinctly make our a few voices. Cautiously hiding behind a building wall, we spied on the source of those voices.
"I think that was the last of them." A feminine voice spoke up and another one pitched in.
"I doubt it. Why would there be so little of them?" The other questioned, followed by silence.
"Could they be talking about the townspeople?" Kenny whispered and Iris shrugged.
"It's possible. We have to be careful so we will ambush them. This is risky because we don't know how many there are. Drew and Max, head up to the rooftop and hold out you bows. Aim at them but do not shoot. We are going to threaten them only. Brendan, go through the back of this alley with Kenny and take your position between the buildings next door. Gary and Ash you go to the other side of this road, carefully so you are not spotted. Paul and Amethyst, you're with me." Iris instructed and everyone instantly listened.
Amethyst, Iris and I crept to the edge of the alley, out of sight. We peered past the wall to see the enemy. It was hard to see as there was smoke erupting from a building and dust flew everywhere.
"Paul, you go directly approach them. If we can intimidate them first, our threat will be more effective." Iris commanded and I nodded before silently padding up to the centre of the pathway and drew my sword from its sheathe.
I stood quietly as I waited for them to come forward. Soon I could finally distinguish four figures.
"Only four. Be careful, there might be more." Iris whispered and I nodded as I angled my sword in the direction of the enemy.
I noticed that when I looked back up, there was only one figure heading our way. I stared at it in confusion. Something's not right. The other three figures didn't seem to be moving any closer. Then the one person began running towards me at rapid speed. My eyes widened as I recognised who it was immediately as soon as they came into view. I heard someone drawing their bow and I mentally freaked out.
"Hold your fire!" I yelled out and everyone paused in their positions. I could feel the confusion radiating off their bodies as I held my arms out to stop them.
"Paul!" The person yelled and I sighed a breath of relief as I identified the voice and looked towards my supposed enemy. I drew back my sword into its sheathe and gazed ahead at the person approaching me.
"Da-" Before I could continue, I was interrupted by two other voices.
"Oh my gosh, Dawn!!!" They yelled out simultaneously and I watched as Amethyst and Kenny immediately ran right in front of me and tackled the poor girl in a hug.
"Okay." I said and stepped back.
"It's you!" Drew exclaimed from the roof and looked down at Dawn in relief as he lowered his bow and gestured for Max to do the same.
"What are you doing here?" Amethyst questioned her and Dawn raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing here?" Dawn questioned back as she looked at each one of us.
Everyone had moved away from their positions and had walked up to where we were now to speak to Dawn.
"Who are you?" Iris asked suspiciously as she barged right past each of us to speak directly to Dawn.
"I'm Dawn." She answered and Iris raised an eyebrow.
Before Iris could say another word, she was interrupted by another different voice.
"Hey Dawn, did you take care of the en-" The other person spoke up but was soon cut off as they came into view and stared at all of us in shock. "There's so many of you..."
"Leafy!!" Gary exclaimed excitedly and pushed past the group to see her.
"Who are you calling Leafy? We've only met about twice in our whole lifetime." She glared at him with her hands on her hips.
Gary clearly ignored her as he moved closer to her and attempted to tackle her in a bear hug.
"Oh gosh no." Leaf said with wide eyes and immediately stepped back so that Gary would fall on the ground.
"What do you think you're doing? You're a prince, so act like one." Iris scolded him and picked him up by the collar so that he was on his own two feet again.
Leaf stepped away to observe the situation from afar and joined Dawn who was standing amongst our group.
I looked at Leaf who gazed sympathetically at Gary who was continuously being told off by Iris as the rest of us just stood side by side in an awkward silence as we watched the whole situation in front of us. I raised an eyebrow at Dawn who shrugged in return. I glanced at Amethyst who was beside Dawn and then at Kenny who was too close to Dawn. Way too close for comfort. I shot him an icy glare and he returned it as soon as he felt my eyes focused on him.
"Hey what's taking so long...." Another voice piped up only to trail off when they emerged from the dust clouds.
"Oh no it's tree branch girl." Drew said with irritation and instantly hid behind the rest of the group as she glared at him.
"When will you drop that? It was just one time." May grumbled as she looked to observe the whole group who had now turned to focus their attention on her.
I watched carefully as Max looked over to May and May looked over to Max.
They both locked eyes.
—-
SO I JUST CAME BACK TO WATTPAD, AND I LOOK AT MY BOOK AND SEE 3K READS!??!!! I was wondering if my eyes were tricking me or if I actually was seeing 3K.... BUT ANYWAY THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! I never even imagined that my book would reach 3K, or even 1k at one point. I'm so happy!!!!! Yay thank you all so much again. If it wasn't for you all reading my book, I wouldn't be so happy right now! I'm pretty sure I've said this before but I never thought that anyone would ever read my work. When I first saw I had 100 reads way back, I was extremely happy like I am now!! Again, thank you all so much! I promise I'll update more often...I hope so at least.
Yay I left the chapter on some sort of cliffhanger.
I know a few people say they like my writing, but I feel like it's too rushed and not detailed enough. For some reason, I just can't seem to like my own writing.
Anyway, I update for a second time in one week! Yay! I'm making more progress than I have in awhile.
Okay thanks for reading!!
- April
5th June, 2018