Reaching Darius, I immediately grabbed his hand and wove my fingers through his. Especially now that Brendon knew that we were in love with each other, I really could not care what others thought about us. Darius looked a little startled, but he got over it quickly. Smiling down at me, he asked how my day had been going so far. “It has been pretty good. I seem to have passed every test that Brendon threw at me, the breakfast this morning was super good, and I had some time away from my guards.” Realizing that Darius had no idea what tests I was talking about, I explained what they had been and what I had told Brendon about myself.
Understanding dawned on his face. "That is why you were comfortable enough to grab my hand. The leader here already knows we are in love.” I nodded with a small smile. It always made me happy to hear him say 'we'. “Did your guards already hear your conversation to see if anything you said compromised anyone's safety?”
"Yep. That is what we did right before I came over to you. They couldn't find anything so we are all good.” Darius nodded. It was what he had expected, but he had wanted to make sure just in case. As a royal you learned to be extremely cautious. Before we could continue our conversation a voice interrupted us.
Turning towards it, we both waved to Milo. “Hi Milo. What have you been up to today?” A little disappointed that I had not been the one to ask him, I waited for Milo's answer.
“Hi you two. I have been meeting with the head guards of this village with Jet. He was worried about our safety here so I had to reassure him that I was completely safe so that we could stay for a couple more days. Afterall how are we supposed to get to know anyone in only one day?”
As if summoned by magic, Brendon walked over to us and proclaimed, “I basically know everything I need to know about Ari, other than one thing that I will get out of her sooner or later,” at this he turned and stared at me. I just sent a beaming smile back at him. “So it is your turn to go through my tests Milo.” Milo looked at him stunned for a couple seconds. Brendon had just destroyed his reasoning for staying in this village with a few words. Coming back to himself, he rushed to catch up to Brendon since he had not waited for him. Just like he had done for me. Smothering my laughter, I wondered if he was going to be tested on the same things that I had been tested on. If so then I hoped he passed. Facing Darius again I realized that I had not asked what Darius had been doing all day.
Opening my mouth to remedy that, I was shocked when someone beat me to it once more. “What have you been doing all day Darius?” Sending a baleful glare at Casey I sighed. It seemed that I was going to have to ask what was on my mind a lot faster if I actually wanted to get the words out. Casey responded to my glare with a confused look. He didn't seem to know what I was mad at him for which made my anger dissolve into amusement. I decided not to tell him, kind of childish I know, since it was good to keep my guards on their toes.
“I haven't really done much today other than I took a tour of the village, played with some little kids, and helped with a couple of chores.”
“Can you take me on a tour of the village? I saw some of it, but didn't really understand all of what I saw.”
He shot me a grin. “Of course I will be your tour guide. Do you have anywhere you want to go first?” Following a brief moment of thinking, I shook my head.
“Take me wherever.” Nodding Darius began leading me back in the direction that I had come from. I glanced quickly behind me to make sure that our guards were following, they would kill me if I left them, and something about the way they followed us almost made me laugh out loud. After thinking about it, it registered in my mind that they reminded me of baby ducklings following after a momma duck. Though I may not have gotten out much, I had seen baby ducklings and a momma duck when they had wandered into our garden. When they got into our fountain and started swimming I stayed there for around an hour watching them. I thought it was one of the cutest things that I had ever seen. I enjoyed the tour so much that when we got to the end of it I was sad. It had distracted me from everything else and it was interesting to learn about new cultures and people. I didn't have long to be sad however because dinner was announced soon after we finished.
Heading over as fast as we could while still walking, as soon as dinner was announced we remembered that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and were starving, we got in the line for food and waited impatiently for our turn to get food. As we got closer to the front of the line my stomach started growling louder and louder. Darius had laughed at me when it first began, but when his stomach growled he stopped. The village people around us were trying hard to not laugh at us, but some of them were not doing very well. I didn't get offended though I just laughed along with them. It was really funny after all, why not make fun of it? Reaching the food now, I gratefully piled tons of food into my bowl and thanked the servers and chefs. Finding an empty spot to sit, I scooped food into my mouth and closed my eyes. For my first bite I had soft meat with a tangy sauce, mashed potatoes, and a green vegetable that I had never had before. Combined I believed that it was the best thing I had ever put in my mouth. While I may have believed that a lot lately, I felt that each food I put in my mouth kept getting better and better. Plus when you switched environments everything tasted differently and fascinating.
Every culture and place has its own flavors and food. Even if they have the same basic ingredients, they make something new from those ingredients that has its own textures, tastes, and smells. Hearing people sit next to me, I opened my eyes to see Darius, his guards, and my guards. I gave them a little wave as I continued eating my food. The only thing I got back was a little nod from Kane. The rest of them were too busy chowing down to pay any attention to me. Knowing exactly what they were thinking I began ignoring them and only concentrated on my food. Several minutes passed before any of us spoke, most of us had gone for seconds, and when we did speak it was only to compliment the chefs on making such delicious food. Only when Milo and his guards joined us did we actually begin a real conversation. “What kind of tests did he put you through and did you pass them?” A triumphant look appeared on my face. I was finally the one to ask the question that was on my mind.
Milo gave a shaky laugh and ran a hand through his hair. “He put me through the same three tests that he said that you did, but he went about them in different ways. For the first one he sent me over to a very talkative woman and had me listen to them ramble on about their kids for around ten minutes. Thankfully I was able to hold my ground and my patience. Thus, I passed the first test. Next he talked my ear off with things that I can do better in Raetis, and then had a kid run directly at me. Luckily I noticed the kid soon enough and was able to get out of his way, but it was a close thing. So I passed the second test. Lastly, I had to answer a bunch of questions about myself and he made me talk about when you got kidnapped from us. Sorry if you were trying to keep that a secret. My guards have already evaluated my answers and nothing I said could put anyone in danger.”
I nodded. “It kind of sounds like he did the opposite to you then what he did to me. I was in silence for the first two tests. And don't worry about telling him about my kidnapping by Malick. The only reason that I hadn't told him about that was because it annoyed him not to know.” Milo grinned in relief. Before he could say anything more, Brendon came back over to us.
“Alright. Since I still have time, I am going to do Darius's tests now.” As Darius stood up with his guards, Brendon held his hand up in the universal wait sign and everyone stopped moving. “Darius only. His guards can stay here and I will send him back to you later tonight.” Mumbling under their breaths, Darius's guards reluctantly sat back down and tensely watched Darius walk away alone with Brendon. My guards, understanding how they felt, engaged each of them in conversations to try to take their minds off of Darius alone with Brendon. They knew that it wouldn't work, but they were not able to think of anything else to try to help. Pondering hard, I tried to think of something that would completely distract them, but was drawing a blank as well. Several seconds later it came to me.
Stifling a small smile I stood up. With everyones’ eyes on me I asked, “Do you all want to do a perimeter sweep?” Choking back laughter, everyone knew what I was trying to do, they all agreed and stood up. Even Milo and his guards who had all now finished eating. Heading off in the direction of the closest edge of the village, I stopped when I reached the inside of the wall that encircled the entire village. Not really sure what I was doing, I looked to Alex for help. Understanding the question in my eyes, he stepped up and began giving duties to everyone including Milo and me. Assigned to the rear guard position with Casey and Anders I trembled a little with anticipation. It was exciting to finally be able to help with the security of myself and others. Much better than being the one always being protected. Scanning behind and to the sides of me I tried to be as observant as possible. Though I knew that we would probably not see anything out of the ordinary or anything that could be a danger to us, I wanted to do a good job on my first security job. Anders and Casey next to me had noticed how attentive I was and they decided to take the perimeter sweep seriously. They wanted to give me the real experience and show me what the real thing felt like.
It took us quite a while to sweep the whole perimeter of the village. Longer than I thought it would take, but during it everyone seemed to really focus on doing a good job. Mostly because I think they wanted to give Milo and me the real experience without any of the danger that occasionally occurs. Reaching where we started, I noticed that Darius's guards seemed to have relaxed quite a bit since they had seen that there was no danger in the village. Heading back over to where we had eaten dinner we saw that Darius was waiting for us with Brendon. From the way they were talking it seemed that Darius had passed the tests that had been thrown at him. Spotting us Darius waved. “Where have you all been? Don't worry, I haven't been here long, and I didn't get hurt at all.” Hurrying to his side, all the remaining tension flooded out of his guards. Kane then filled him in on what we had done since he had left. “You two really got to go and help conduct a perimeter security sweep?” His voice was both incredulous and jealous.
Ethan chuckled. “We will take you on a perimeter security sweep later. Either in this village or the next one.” Darius nodded and seemed satisfied by that solution.
“I will hold you to that.”
Ethan then added a condition. “Unless we deem it too dangerous.”
Darius groaned. “No, don't say that. Now you are going to deem every situation as too dangerous and I will never get to do it.” Deciding not to answer that Ethan just shrugged innocently. Shaking his head, Darius turned to Milo and me for some help, but we shook our heads quickly. We were not going to start arguing with Darius against his guards because one, we always lost those arguments, two we didn't want to pick sides, and three we wanted to see what he did now. It wasn't very exciting though. Since he knew that he had no backup, and his guards had eight more people who would help them, he just sighed and let it go. While it was the smartest thing that he could have done, it was the least entertaining option for Milo and me. Letting out twin sighs of disappointment, we both smiled innocently when Darius turned around to look at us.
Brendon spoke up now. “Now that I have gotten to know all three of you and you all passed every test, you may freely talk to everyone in this village and do basically whatever you want. I will not force you to talk to me or anyone else, but I do want to talk to you all before you leave.” Nodding our agreement and thanks to him, we all headed back to our guest house to sleep. It was now getting pretty late and it had been a long day for all of us. Spotting Hazel and Sophia talking to a couple of girls nearby I waved goodnight to them and received smiles in return. Laying down on my cot I reflected over everything that had happened today and was slightly surprised that it had been only yesterday that Darius and my guards had seen the threatening notes and taken us out of Raetis. We had been in this village less then a day and already I had grown to know Brendon really well, knew that I loved the food here, and learned that the people here were pretty welcoming and kind. Wondering what I would do and learn tomorrow, I closed my eyes and gently floated off to sleep.
Whispering to both sides of me woke me up early the next morning. Not wanting to startle the others who were awake, I wondered if I would be able to go back to sleep. Vaguely listening to the whispers surrounding me, a small smile touched my lips when I realized that it was Liam, Sophia, Hazel, and Joshua. Each couple was talking to each other and talking about basically the same thing. It made sense to me since they had not seen each other for almost all of yesterday, and I resolved to get them together more often. It was not fair for me to keep them apart by giving Liam jobs to do and keeping Darius, and Joshua, with me. Thinking about how I could stay by Darius and keep them all together I started to make a plan. About an hour and a half later everyone else started to wake and get up so I got up with them. Blinkling in the early morning light I headed over to another delicious smelling breakfast and piled my bowl up high. Carefully transferring food into my mouth I waited to put my plan into action. Right now all of us were together so there was no need for my plan. As we all stood up to go about different things I began my plan.
“Tyler, would it not be good if we trained for at least part of today? After all we didn't get to train for very long back at Raetis and I would hate it if we lost all of the skills that we started to gain during that time.”
He nodded. “That is a really good idea. Especially when we are in unfamiliar territory with people we don't really know. We should be prepared for anything to happen at any time.” All the guards around me nodded their heads. There were a lot of them since Milo and Darius had now joined us when they saw us just standing there. Everyone seemed to like my plan and a small smile touched my lips. Now everyone would be together and it would shock me if Liam and Sophia or Joshua and Hazel did not pair up with each other. Heading over to where the natives seemed to have their training area, we each grabbed what we wanted to work with, for Darius and me we got wooden swords, Hazel and Joshua grabbed bows and arrows, Sophia and Liam just settled into ready stances to do hand to hand combat, Milo grabbed a wooden sword to fight Jet, and the rest of the guards settled back to watch us and make sure that no one tried to attack us while we were training. They would switch in to practice in a little while.
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Blocking out all of my distractions now, I focused completely on the battle that was about to occur. Acting almost simultaneously we both began to circle the other. Making sure that I stayed balanced and was ready to react to anything that he might do, I stepped one leg across the other and kept my eyes on him. Praying that there was nothing on the ground that could trip me up, I contemplated what to do next. If I acted first then he could do a quick counter and get past it, however if he acted first then he could catch me off guard. Wondering what was going through his mind right now, I watched him closely to see when he would strike. Thinking that I would let him make the first move I waited patiently. Continuing to circle him I watched both his eyes and his body. Everyone had a tell. The trick was to figure out what it was. Sometimes their eyes would twitch, their arms would flex, or they would lean forward slightly more than before right before they attacked. Biting the inside of my cheek slightly to make sure that I stayed alert and ready, I narrowed my eyes. It seemed like he was waiting for me to attack just like I was. Knowing that I needed to do something to change the situation and give myself the advantage, I decided to do something risky.
Feinting towards him like I was about to take a strike at him, I watched in satisfaction as he automatically raised his sword to block my fake strike. Whipping my sword to the side I attempted to hit him, but he was too skilled for that. Even with falling for my trick he still managed to block my sword and almost managed to land his own hit on me. Jumping back a little I evaded his swipe and settled into a crouch. Blocking his next two strikes we began to fight in earnest. Nothing existed outside of our little bubble. The only things that mattered now was blocking his sword and hitting his body with my own sword. Our moves and combos flowed easily from one to another. Moving my body as smoothly as possible to become as fast as I could, I hoped that I would be able to beat him this time. If I did, then it would be the first time that I had ever beaten him. Determined to win, I concentrated on making my combos more and more complicated to try and catch him off guard. I was even making up some new moves. Some worked and some didn’t. Once I finished a move though, if it hadn’t worked, then I luckily had enough time to block his counter before it could hit me.
All of a sudden his sword hit mine so hard that it knocked it out of my hands and then his sword point was touching my throat. Sighing in defeat, I raised my hands in surrender. “How did you do that? I didn’t even see that move coming! I really thought I was going to beat you this time too.”
Darius laughed. “It was a new move that I have been working on for a while now. It is good to see that it works.” Resigned to the fact that Darius was a better fighter than I was, at least for the moment, I asked him if he wanted to fight me in hand to hand combat. His agreement was immediate. Knowing that he was going to beat me, I just hoped that I could learn something new from him. The fight was short and after I got beat I switched out one of the watching guards. Now Leander was fighting Darius and I was watching the perimeter. Jealous when I saw that Leander and Darius were pretty even, I turned away from them. It may have been a childish move, but it made me feel slightly better. I wanted to become a better fighter so bad, that it really annoyed me when someone beat me. You would think that I would be used to it by now since I rarely ever won a fight, but I wasn't sure that I would ever get over it. I was trying to change my look on losing. To think of it as a learning experience instead of a bad thing, but it wasn’t working so far.
Spying Hazel and Joshua having a shooting competition I was pleasantly surprised to see that Hazel was now hitting the target every time. She wasn’t getting that close to the bulls eyes, but it was definitely progress. Switching my attention to Sophia I noticed that while Liam was not fighting all out, he was still going kind of hard. One day she would get good enough that they could fight in earnest, but for right now it was more of a learning session. Sophia was learning all the different stances, punches, kicks, and feints. Liam was winning every battle, however once the battle was over he would teach her what he did and how to block it. Then she would try it a few times before they went back to fighting. A couple of minutes later Hazel and Joshua switched to hand to hand combat and Sophia and Liam switched out two of the watching guards to go fight and they kept watch with me. Scanning the village surrounding us we watched for anything suspicious, but there was nothing. Some villagers would observe us fighting for a little while, but we could tell that they were just curious. They would get their fill of it pretty quickly and then they would move on.
After everyone went through and fought at least three different opponents we left the training area and headed to the river that was just outside of the village. Half dove in while the other half kept watch. All of our clothes were soaking wet by the time we were done, but now we were clean. Laying out on a patch of grass inside the village walls we relaxed and tried to get dry. A few minutes into this, Brendon came over and blocked some of my sunlight. Peering up at him I waited to see if he was going to tell me what he wanted. From the way he was looking at me it was clear that he had something to tell me, but the look on his face made me wonder if he was unsure if he actually could. Reaching a hand down to me he helped me to my feet and began leading me away from my group. Spotting my guards beginning to follow me, I raised my hand to keep them where they were. It appeared that Brendon wanted to talk to me alone and he looked serious. I didn’t want to do anything that would keep him from telling me what he came over to tell me.
Stopping out of listening distance, but staying in sight, Brendon sighed. “I was unsure if I was going to tell you this, however I think you deserve to know. There are several strangers outside of our village. They showed up directly after you came back into the village after swimming in the river. They stared at the gate for a minute or two and then began to walk around the village. At first it looked random, now we are wondering if they are going in a pattern.”
My eyes narrowed as I thought this over. Making a decision I asked, “Can my group and I go up to the top of the wall and see these strangers for ourselves?” A nod from him was all I needed. Waving to my group to join us, we started towards the stairs up to the top of the wall. Once they had rushed over to us, we explained what was going on and curiosity and concern appeared on all of their faces. Getting to the stairs we walked up it in a single file line so that people coming down could pass us easily. Filing onto the top, we gazed out into the trees and tried to see the strangers. A flash of color drew my attention to my left. Studying that area, it wasn’t long before I saw one of the strangers. Pointing them out to everyone else we watched attentively as the stranger continued walking around. The odd thing was he seemed to be walking in a giant circle. Confused, I wondered if all of the strangers were walking in giant circles. Searching around for another one, Milo soon drew all of our attention to a second stranger that he had found. Seeing that they were also walking in a circle, we exchanged bewildered glances. “Are the strangers only on this side of the wall, or are they all around?”
Brendon shrugged. “The only ones that we have seen are on this side of the wall, but it is very possible that we just missed them. With the dense trees on the other sides of the walls it would be hard to see them if they are out there.” Nodding my understanding I debated whether I should go to another side of the wall to see if I could spot any strangers. If there were more out there walking in circles then it could possibly help us figure out why they were doing it. Maybe they were making a specific shape?
“Can we go over to another side of the wall to see if we can spot anymore? I was thinking that maybe they are drawing a specific shape and so it would be helpful if we knew how many of them there were and where all of them are.” My group all nodded. It seemed that they thought my reasoning was sound. Glad that I didn’t sound crazy, I followed after Brendon as he led the way along the wall to another section. Stopping after several minutes of walking we began peering out into the trees searching for anything that looked off or didn’t belong. I strained my eyes so hard looking for anything out of the ordinary, that after a while of this my eyes began to get blurry and watery. Closing my eyes to rest them for a second, I wiped away the one tear that had slipped past my eyelids. Since I was resting my eyes I figured it couldn’t hurt to try and listen for anything off. Listening as hard as I could to the world around me I could only hear the normal forest sounds like the birds and the wind whistling in the trees for the longest time. Right as I was about to open my eyes to begin searching once again, a noise I heard made me stop and wait. The bird sounds had gotten quieter. All of them at once had stopped chirping for a second. There was a flutter of wings and then they started up again.
Opening my eyes I asked Darius where all the birds had flown away from. Gazing at me with an odd look on his face, he pointed to a spot just off to his left. Staring closely at that spot I hoped that I had found one of them. What I saw though was not one stranger. No, instead it was several strangers. They were wearing different shades of green that gave them an irregular pattern that helped them blend in. Some of them seemed to be carrying bows while others had the glint of metal on their side. Grabbing Darius’s shoulder I pointed at them. “Does that look like a friendly group to you?” Spying the group that I had seen, Darius started and went to Brendon. Once Brendon had seen them he ran to the nearest group of guards and the alarm was sounded. There was a flurry of motion as guards ran around trying to get to their defensive positions as quickly as possible. Meanwhile I continued watching the strangers. However the more I watched the more confused I got. Why was such a small group coming towards us like they were planning on attacking us? Why not stop once their cover was blown and the alarm was sounded? How did they plan on even getting into the village to do any damage? These questions ran through my mind on endless repeat.
Taking my eyes off of the strangers I finally looked around me. What I saw caused the slightest bit of panic to build inside of me. Every single person was looking at the strangers. Running up to Brendon I asked if there was anyone watching the other parts of the forest. He nodded. “I have two guards on the other sides of the wall watching the rest of the forest.” While it was said to help calm me down, all it did was cause the panic inside me to grow bigger. Sprinting to another section of the wall I scanned the forest as quickly, but as thoroughly as I could. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary other than the few strangers on this side, I went to the next section of the wall. Again, there were just a few strangers there. Still walking in circles and seeming oblivious to the world. Going to the last section left I had barely started looking when I spotted something. Several medium sized groups of strangers were stealthily making their way towards the wall. All of them seemed armed and in total there were around a hundred of them. The two guards on this portion of the wall had not seen them because they were too busy talking about how they wished they were on the portion of the wall that actually had action.
Yanking them to face the forest I pointed out the strangers and said, “You should never let your guard down. Just because one group of enemies has been found doesn’t mean they all have been found.” Properly ashamed, they flew into action and soon half the guards had been moved from the first side to this side. The other guards on the empty two sides were digilant in their duty after hearing what had happened. Everything was going smoothly and we were protected on every side. So why did I still feel panicked? Was it because we were in danger again? Or was something else wrong? Trying to figure out why I was feeling the way that I was, I went back to watching the smaller group on the first side. Now that I knew why they had kept coming, I waited to see if they would just turn back when they reached the wall. We weren’t going to fire down on them because it wasn’t honorable. Who fires on an enemy who can’t even reach you? While their bows might be able to reach us once they were almost right up against the wall it would be very difficult for them to aim well enough for us to even start to worry.
Studying their movements, my brow furrowed when I realized that they were not stopping. They weren’t even slowing down. In fact, if anything, they seemed to be speeding up. The guards around me were all paying close attention to the strangers as well. No one seemed to know what they were doing or why they were doing it. What would running into the wall accomplish? My curiosity grew along with my panic. At this moment those two feelings seemed to be linked. When one grew, the other grew and vice versa. The strangers were almost to the wall now and they were at a full sprint. Not able to watch them crash into the wall I went over to the other side with strangers to see what they were doing. As such, I missed the impossible. The strangers had run halfway up the wall and were now climbing up the smooth wall without any help. There were no ropes and none of the strangers had violet eyes. Unless they had dyed their eyes to trick us, these were just normal people. Hearing all the shouts and chaos behind me I turned around in confusion. I had expected to hear groans or cries of victory, not confusion and fear. I turned at the exact moment that the first stranger got to the top of the wall. To me it seemed like he appeared out of thin air. My mind couldn’t process what was happening. Darius ran up to me and grabbed my hand.
That contact brought me back into the present and I got out of my shock. “What is happening Darius? How did they do that?” By now more strangers had reached the top of the wall and were attacking the guards. They seemed to be trying to not kill anyone. There were tons of unconscious guards lying on the ground behind their line that was rapidly forming. Soon all ten of the strangers were at the top and were fighting. I pulled my sword out and joined the small group of guards who were organizing. We were late in coming together though and the second group of strangers hit the top of the wall. We were surrounded and were now outnumbered. Too many had already been taken out of the fight and too many had now joined the fight. Those of us who were remaining, at least that I was by, got in a circle and fought as hard as we could. Darius, who was on my left, shouted in my ear to ask me a question. “Should I use my presence?” I shook my head. There were too many people around us who were on our side. He could hit one of our allies. He let out a frustrated growl that I totally understood. I wanted to use my gift as well, but in this situation it would not be much help. It was more for escaping than fighting. The strangers fought in strange ways that kept throwing off my group. They lunged into the fight for a furious few seconds and would then leave. That pattern just kept repeating and it was a very disorienting tactic.
Soon holes began to appear in our circle as men began to be hit and dragged away. I fought as hard as I could, but I could tell that we were going to lose. It was only a matter of time. There was no surrendering in this situation because if you stopped fighting then you would be skewered. All of a sudden all of our enemies jumped back and pointed their swords right at us. Glancing to the sides of me I was stunned to see that I was alone with only one other guard by my side. Understanding this as a request for our surrender, I decided to give them what they wanted. Sheathing my sword back at my side I raised my hands in the air. The guard followed my example and we waited for them to make their move. The swords around us were lifted up into the air and we were each grabbed and dragged into their ranks in different directions. The guard panicked and struggled to escape. I didn’t. I knew there was no point. We had lost, and now the strangers could do what they wanted with us. We were their prisoners. Lowering my head in defeat I wished that I would stop getting into positions like this. Playing the role of the captive was starting to get old.