Flame

Chapter 7

Smoke was rising from near by, the atmosphere became stale with suspense. Alsi didn't know what just made the spine shaking sound but he could feel the ground vibrate to it's impending presence.  Luck turns his head to Alsi and Alsi looks back at him. Meanwhile, Tatiana and the rest of the group were waiting for Alsi and Luck to get back from the morning hunt. She sat at the back of the carriage, kicking her feet whilst resting her head on her hand. Enegus sat in the carriage with his arms folded. Archer was still fast asleep.

      "'Sigh' they're taking quite a while. I wonder what's keeping them." She said.

      "Hmm, maybe they are having too much fun." Replied Enegus.

      "Doesn't Luck know that we have a long way to go? He can be so irritating sometimes. " 

      "Well it's been a while since he's had someone he can show off to." 

      They both laughed…

      "William is a nice kid." Said Tatiana.

      "I very much agree…he reminds me alot of my younger brother. He even gives off the same feeling that he's always hiding something. My brother liked to be secretive."

      "Yeah, I'm sure he's still wondering whether he should trust us. Especially after all the stuff he went through."

      "It's actually good news that the king was killed along with his wife. Though I hear that they are still pursuing the last of the enemy."

      "You know I've always heard of the two princes, what are their names again…yes…Prince Alsi and his younger brother Prince Aod. I've never seen them though."

      "Me neither. Prince Alsi is said to have colourful hair though. And Prince Aod is orange headed. Which reminds me of William's hair."

      "I've heard stories that the princes are just as diabolical as their parents. Especially the first prince Alsi."

      "Well I'm sure they're all dead by now. I don't think I can tolerate anyone as heartless as that bastard king-"

      "GUUUUYS!!!" 

      Tatiana and Enegus heard a voice in the distance shouting out to them.

      "That sounds like Luck…" Said Tatiana.

      "There's something wrong." Enegus said as he stepped out of the carriage. The driver looked in the direction of the sound. He peered into the forest nervously…

      "I have a really bad feeling about this." He said. Suddenly they could all feel the ground vibrate and the vibrations became more vigorous with every minute.

      "Oh no… let's get in the carriage!" Said Tatiana as she hurried inside and told the driver to get ready.

      "Archer! Wake up!" Said Tatiana. 

      "Hm? Huh? Wh-What's happening?" He said as he woke up confused. 

      "There's something coming and Luck and William haven't come back yet!"

      At that, Archer readied his bow and arrow and stood at the back opening, waiting…

      "GET MOVING!!!!"

      They heard the voice once more. 

      "You heard him! Let's go!" Said Enegus. 

      "HYAA!" The driver shouted as the horses started pulling the carriage. The vehicle started to pick up pace bit by bit. Archer, Tatiana and Enegus are still watching from the back. Suddenly they saw Luck brake from his left, digging his feet into the ground. Alsi was on his back and they both carried a facial expression that entailed…'Oh crap!'. The air became more vigorous as something joined the scene. It was black and furry with a ring of white fur around its neck. It had large thirsty fangs that seemed like they could tear off the surrounding trees from their roots. Its size was humongous and everyone could see the red glow from its eyes as it opened its bloodthirsty mouth and released a huge roar .

      "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A KING BEAR!!!" Archer yells. At this point even the horses knew they didn't need a command from their driver in order to pick up the pace. Their movements became more energetic as they nervously galloped through the forests. The king bear pursued with rage, destroying anything in its path.

      "Luck hurry!" Tatiana yelled from the back of the carriage. Luck pushed with all his might, trying desperately to catch up to the speeding carriage, however, the carriage was going too fast. Alsi's thoughts at the time…

      'GET YOUR STUPID BUTT MOVING YOU FREAKING IDIOT ! STOP MOVING LIKE YOUR MOTHER SLEPT WITH A SLUG AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL WITH YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE!!!'

      As Luck and Alsi struggled to catch up, Archer quickly tied some rope to one of his arrows. He placed it on the string of his bow and drew it back. One eye closed, he focused with his right eye.

      " Luck! , heads up!" Shouted Enegus. Luck spotted Archer aiming the arrow in his direction. 

      "Hold on tight William!" He alerted Alsi who held onto Luck for his dear life, his only life support. Archer aimed the arrow at a forty five degree angle and with a deep breath, he fired. The arrow went flying towards Luck and Alsi, Luck timed its approach, ready to catch it. But to his dismay, the king bear lifted its front legs and recoiled with its back legs. 

      They could see the beast above them and it was not a pretty picture. They were about to have the full force of this ravenous creature come down on them. Luck refused to accept such a fate and so with the next step he took, he put his normal energy and kine  into his right foot. He then used it to spring himself off of the ground, dodging the bear's claws by a hair strand. He grabbed onto the rope and held it tight. In the carriage, Enegus,Tatiana and Archer already held on to the rope, ready to pull hard. When they saw that Luck had finally managed to get a hold of the rope, they pulled with all their strength. Enegus used his kine energy to enhance his strength and this caused Luck and Alsi to come diving into the carriage.  Everyone immediately rushed to the sides in order to make way for their touchdown.

      *CRASH!!*

      Alsi was on the floor and Luck was against the wall upside down.

      "Are you okay?!'' said Enegus. Alsi was in no mood whatsoever to answer that question. He simply gave Enegus an irritated look and his scarlet eyes were enough of an answer.

      "Alright, William and Luck are good! But we still need to lose the bear!" Said Archer. Tatiana then stepped forward and stretched her staff out towards the bear. The bear seemed to be catching up to them. She breathed in before she proceeded. And then suddenly blue specks of light started appearing around her staff and the little green gem that was attached to it started to glow. The specks then started materialising into a ball of water that kept increasing in size. It must have gone on until it was almost the size of the carriage. As this was happening she went on and yelled…

      " KINE CONTROL!! BRIM!!" 

      With those words she sent out the ball of water at an incredible speed and it hit the bear right in the face with incredible force. The bear seemed to lose its sense of direction and it toppled to the side, allowing the carriage to make its escape. 

As they got more and more distance, everyone sat down and took a breath of relief.

      "Whew! That was close! Who knew there'd be a B ranked monster moving around those areas. Someone should take care of that thi-"

      Luck was cut short when Tatiana knocked him on the head with her staff. 

      "This is ALL YOUR FAULT!" She yelled.

      "What the heck!" He replied.

      "Don't 'what the heck' me! You were supposed to make sure William didn't get into any kind of trouble!"

      "Hey! William is the one who knocked down a tree with a fireball and upset the bear. The tree must have fallen on the poor thing!" Luck defended himself whilst pointing at Alsi.

      "'Gasp!' How dare you!" Alsi was already putting on an act.

      "What!" Luck was shocked.

      " I was just trying to learn how to use kine energy. As far as I'm concerned I was under LUCK'S supervision. To think he'd pin the blame on an innocent child…tsk,tsk. Shameless dog!"

      "Oh you want a dog?! I'll show you on-" Tatiana used her staff to try and hold Luck into submission.

      "Don't you dare touch that child!" Says Tatiana.

      They kept struggling with each other while Enegus and Archer started to laugh. Though there was something strange that Alsi discovered. He found himself laughing along with them. He stopped himself and began to wonder…

      'Wait, why am I laughing along with these peasants? Have I really fallen that low?' 

      He observed the whole lot of them. Tatiana and Luck were still locked into a wrestling match, Archer was laughing along with Enegus. Despite all the joy around him. He felt that he was in no position to get comfortable.

      'A bunch of idiots like these won't get me where I want to be. It was degrading of me to even think of befriending these peasants. They only exist to be used by superior individuals such as myself.' 

      But even when he thought these things he felt like he was contradicting himself. All his life he never cared one bit about anyone but himself. It was his world and everyone else was just lucky enough to be living in it. But now here he was, in a world that belonged to absolutely no one. Here he was, playing adventure time with a bunch of people he wouldn't hesitate to call hobos in his past life. But now this was his life. 

      'No…I refuse to yield to this world and its ways. I'm gonna gain back my status whether the gods of this world like it or not!'

      'If this world belongs to noone, then that just means it is mine for the taking!" Alsi ended up finishing his thoughts out loud. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

      ".....what?" He said. Everyone burst into laughter. 

      "You are the weirdest kid I've ever met!" Said Luck. Alsi just kept looking out the window. A whole day had passed since they started off on their journey, and now they reached a town close to the borders of Avon. It was almost night time when they arrived. As they made their entry through the main gate, Alsi noticed the slight change in the infrastructure. The buildings were medieval but had a little bit of modern touch mixed in with it. For some reason it seemed quite strange to him. This town was way bigger than Flora was. There seemed to be more commercial activity going on here and one could tell just by clothing that the people around here were of a high class. Actually there existed some kind of balance in this town. It's either they were rich, or straight down poor. Alsi looked down on the people he saw seated on the floor begging for change.

      "Hm…pathetic." He said to himself. The driver dropped them off and told them he would be waiting for them the next morning. Tatiana and the group waved him bye as he rode off. 

      "Okay, Archer how much do we have from our last quest?" Asked Tatiana.

      "Hmmm, About eight thousand gees." Said Archer as he looked into a book he carried with him.

      "Really! That much!?" Luck was surprised.

      "Oh…sorry I forgot the dot. About 800 gees." Said Archer. Everyone murmured in disappointment. 

     "Broke ass hobos" Alsi murmured to himself. When Alsi turned to his left, he saw a fancy looking inn. The type of people there reminded him of the people in his past life he'd usually be found with at one of his father's parties. He looked at Tatiana and the others and they seemed to be be deep in budgeting. So he decided to sneak away. He slowly stepped back and used a passerby as cover. He walked over to the fancy inn and observed the people there once more…

      "Yep, my kind of people. " he says to himself as he walked in through the main door. As he made his way to the receptionist he noticed how people were looking at him all of a sudden.

      'Ofcourse they'd stare. As gorgeous as I am, I shouldn't be surprised.'

      The interior walls were decorated with wavy patterns and there was a beautiful sculpture here and there. He noticed that the place was water themed but at the same time it reminded him of the palace. The receptionist noticed the child in dirty nobleman's clothes walking towards her station.

      "Hello there, where are your parents?" She asked. Alsi looked up at her and said…

      "I'm here alone. And I want your best suite, hurry up I don't got all day!" 

      "I'm sorry, but you have to leave." She motioned to one of the guards whilst she said this. 

      "Best watch your mouth. You have no idea who you're talking to now do you?" The guard was coming closer as Alsi said this.

      "I'm the son of the King of Amaris, Prince Alsi" he said. The receptionist burst into laughter when she heard this. Alsi became irritated…

     'You worthless piece of trash!' He thought.  But it was right here that he realised he made a grave mistake. He noticed the guard paying closer attention to him. He wasn't in the uniforms of the royal guards that protected the Ari but it was obvious that he was an official. He pulled a poster out of his back pocket and quietly showed it to the receptionist. When she looked at the poster, she looked back at Alsi and then back at the poster again. The guard already called a second guard, signaling him to block the entrance. Alsi looked back at the receptionist and she had a weird smile upon her face…

      "So you're the First Prince…."