Chapter Twelve

      As the man thought that those were already all of them, another troop blocked their way. That way was supposed to be heading towards their complete escape.

      Glimmering arrows were aimed at them, as sharp as the eyes of those who wielded it. He could only aim back his sword at the enemies—it doesn't matter if he appeared like a fool to them. A fool for still standing his ground while there was no chance for him to protect themselves anymore. One against them.

      As he heard the bows stretched wider, he suddenly thought of how much he feared death and how much of a big coward he was. But now, all of those had changed. And he's too stupid to only realize it today.

      He's ready to die right now. At least he would die bravely, which was quite an opposite from what he was before.

      He broke into a cold sweat. His throat bobbed as the lump created by fear tickled inside it. The flesh inside his knees quivered uncontrollably. It was as if the world had stopped turning.

      Cold breeze whispered in his ear like it  was either comforting him or presenting itself personally to send him to his death. It only added more horror to his soul.

    "Kill them!" a growling voice signaled from nowhere.

     His mind panicked when he heard it, heart beating rapidly. Watching them stretched the bows even wider than before made him wish he had die before seeing it.

      But as though a miracle had came, before the arrows left at the tip of their fingers, some of those at the front line were sent to the ground, lifeless. And before he could react, the enemies had been in chaos, afraid of the culprit behind the numerous deaths in front of them. They had backed off several steps after dragging out the dead ones.

      He released a relieved sigh and was more thankful even he's not sure that they're already safe.

      Looking back at the enemies, he was surprised to see that those who were standing at the weren't aiming their bows at them anymore—but to the wall behind them, on top of it, to be exact. But truly, they're still not safe for the remaining ones at the front—back on their positions. Fear started kicking inside him again.

      "Attack!" another sonorous scream plunge in the air.

      And this time, it was an unstoppable one. Hundreds of arrows rained towards them coming from both sides.

      But before it could reach him and Méah, someone blocked it for them. It jumped right above him coming from the top of the wall.

      A stranger.

     To his judgement, it appeared to be a man. He was wearing an all-black, flowy clothing that made him look marvelous as it danced with his motion. He moves like a war veteran. Aside from it, the stranger was wearing a black mask so he couldn't see his entire face, except his eyes that glittered from the light coming from the torches.

      And the real battle had begun.

      He just found himself fighting side by side with the stranger who just came out of the darkness. But the weird thing was that he didn't even hesitate about it. Though, he felt that both of them have the same goal—which was to protect Méah who was just standing behind them like a statue.

      The battle went on and he felt like his moves had became synchronized with the stranger's. He knew he's never good at this and it was difficult for them but their moves were like puzzle pieces. When the stranger dodged some attacks for him, he'd do the same in return. He felt like with him, his strength and agility were boosted to a higher level.

       Swords and arrows and spears criss- crossed in the air as blood sprayed everywhere like pouring rain. Clamorous. Traumatizing.

      Until the end has come...

     And not a single enemy was left with a faint pulse...

     The nauseating aroma of blood clung inside their nasals. Sweats glistened on their red-tainted forehead down to the flesh on their neck.

     Exhausted, he laid his back on the brick wall. Tiredness sacked him. His shoulders hanged down. And his hand loosened its grip from the sword.

     He's still digesting the fact that he's still alive until the battle ended, breathing fine and unscratched.

     Before his thoughts could drive him crazy, he saw the stranger walking towards him. However, he didn't sense danger about it. Instead, a strange feeling  poked his heart...

      "Keir..." the stranger spoke, removing the mask off his face, flashing a smile.

      He was dumbfounded at the sudden revelation. He wasn't ready for it but he's completely amazed.

     'What the...'

      "How...how on earth did this happen?" He stood straight along the wall behind him. "How come I didn't even recognize you?"

      Keir couldn't deny it but he was overjoyed of seeing his best friend.

     "Really? And what on earth had poisoned your mind into the combat training world, huh?" his highness answered, already teasing him on their first conversation after a month.

      The prince knew he had swore that he'd never step a foot in the combat world. He remembered when they were younger, he always get the prince out of his training to play with him, the reason why the king never liked his existence on his son's list of friends. And he felt sorry for it now.

      "I had to..." Keir told him the truth, eyes looking down. His smile faded.

       He had no choice back then. The prince had entrusted him with the girl and he had to do everything to protect her.  Now he realized the importance of being prepared for battles. He used to think it was just a waste of time and they could just hide themselves when a war would come. Too silly for him to get drowned on such childish thoughts. And not all the time there would be someone to rescue him in the midst of it.

       "Well...We'll just talk about it later. We have to get ourselves out now before an army would be sent to peel our skin off."" The prince felt the sudden drop of the atmosphere so he tried to divert the talk.

      But he's right. They have to get out of there as fast as they could.

      "Right," Keir replied shortly, gaze still fixed down.

       After that, no one had spoken a word.  To shrug the awkwardness off, he simply shifted his eyes on the abandoned weapons scattered in front of them, picking random ones out of his mind. Though, his hands managed to choose the light ones—a dagger and a knife.

     "Let's go." Prince Zaeius broke the silence as he grabbed Méah's wrist.

      But he was taken aback when she remained 'nailed' on the ground. Her eyes staring into nothingness, motionless as her body.

      "What is it?" He asked her, wondering.

     "She had turned like that not long after I found her. I mean responsive." Keir explained behind him.

      The prince seemed even more confused about what he said. He could tell it by how his brows furrowed slightly. And somehow he managed to guess what he's thinking. "I don't know why."

      "Found her? Did you mean—" Prince Zaeius asked about a different thing instead.

      Keir was caught off guard.

      "We really have to leave now." Keir tried to dodge the question by walking past before his friend. "Come on."

       Prince Zaeius knew that something was off with Keir. He wanted to ask him about it but he chose not to. But whatever was it, he's sure that he'd tell him soon.

      Again, he held Méah's wrist so that they could bring her with them. Still, she won't even move a muscle.

      "A little help here, Keir," he told Keir who was now a few feet ahead of them.

      Keir looked back and walked towards them. "Why? She can walk though."

      The prince shook his head hopelessly.  "I'm afraid not."

     Prince Zaeius tried to show him pulling her wrist lightly. Her feet didn't show any motion.

     "How come? She can walk before, though. I saw it." Keir retorted, grabbing her other wrist.

      To their astoundment, Méah's feet automatically followed Keir's lead.

       "I swear I didn't know this." Keir urged the prince to believe him.

      He's telling the truth.

      Prince Zaeius just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I guess she's a picky one."

      He didn't know if he'd laugh or feel disappointed. It wasn't her fault though. Now he's certain that she's really suffering a sort of mental unstableness.

     "I guess so, too." Keir was forced to agree.

      Admittedly, he still held a disapprovement for this stranger. Blame. No matter how he explained to himself that she hadn't done anything unpleasant, well, except for that time where she tried to kill her, his mind would always end up shouting that she should be blamed.

      "Lead the way then."

      The three of them started walking. But they're not even a few steps away, something grabbed Keir's ankle, stopping his pace. It was a pair of hands and a white cloth soaked with blood was wrapped on one of its wrist.

      "Bek..." a woman's muffled voice followed after.

       When he looked down, her other hand was already pointing at a certain direction. He followed it and then he suddenly felt like he had just woken up from a nightmare.

       'Bek? Right! I had forgotten about them!'

       He mentally punched himself after a sudden realization. Well, he can't blame him for being too preoccupied about dying and such. His mind had completely lost its will to think about the others. After all, what just happened before the prince arrived was a do or die situation.

       "Who is she?" Prince Zaeius interrupted, drawing nearer to them.

      But before the prince could reach where they are, Keir had ran off to that direction after releasing Méah's wrist. He had no choice but to help the woman sat up.

     "Bek!" Keir screamed in fright.

     Prince Zaeius immediately shifted his attention to his friend. Keir was checking over a lying body in front of him. Its skin was pallid as though its blood had been frozen.

      He left the woman who was now sitting down, leaning against the brick wall with her lower limbs stretched straight. Méah was just there a foot away from her standing with quiescence.

     "Do you know him?" Prince Zaeius asked as soon as he arrived where Keir was at.

     Keir nodded with sorrow written all over his face. "I was supposed to led us out of here. The four of us."

     The prince felt what he's feeling. He'd been there...that time when he lost his cherished one aside from his mother...and he had seen Keir like this when his parents died.

    "So what do we do now?" He had no idea on how to comfort him.

     His eyes scanned the body. It was an old man. There was a line of dried blood on one side of his mouth. As he completely had enough view of his face,  a strange feeling of familiarity crept inside him. It was as if he had seen his face before or maybe not. He couldn't really tell it but he could sense it. He just don't know why.

     "Can you help me get him out of here? I want to fulfill his wish," Keir's voice trailed off, "I want to bury him properly. Somewhere decent outside these walls."

     "Okay. If that's what you want," the prince suggested and heaved a sigh. "Let me carry him for you."

     He may never know how important this person to him but he's certain that he must be a friend of him. Or else, Keir wouldn't act such way.

       Keir didn't speak anymore and rose up tiredly. But he knew he had agreed on his suggestion.

      As he held the old man's arm to lift him up, their bones almost leaped out of them.

      "Shit!" Keir cursed the shock out of him.

     Prince Zaeius almost did the same thing but quickly suppressed it under his tongue. But he wasn't quick enough to think before releasing his grasp over him.

     The old man just took a deep breath of air as if his throat had been freed from being strangled for too long.

     "Bek?!" Keir went right next to the old man's, his shock had slowly subsided. "I thought you're dead!"

     Bek answered a weak blink, too exhausted to speak a word as a way of response to him. His face had gained a tint of color.

      "Let's go now, Keir..." Prince Zaeius had finally recovered of what had just happened. "before a reinforcement would come and he needs an immediate care."

       With that, he quickly carried the old man across his shoulders and started walking, leaving Keir behind.

      "Yeah, right." Keir bolted, running past him.

       "Can you walk?" he asked the wounded woman once he arrived where she sat.

      Although tired and weak, the woman nodded lightly, rising from her seat with her hands sought on the brick wall behind her.

      "I can manage..." she answered faintly.

      "Alright," Keir grabbed Méah's wrist again. "Just tell me if you can't anymore."

       He assured her.

       "I'm sure I can. My feet are alright. Just a little...dizzy," she told him.

        And the five of them headed straight towards the Eastern Wall. There was a hole on it that could fit two persons at a time. It was still covered by thick bricks but each piece had been loosened and dislocated, hardly noticeble. Without touching the certain part, it looked like it's still sturdy and intact.

       Keir had worked on it since the day he knew that Beggar's Town wasn't really what it seemed as its name. In fact, it was just a scheme, a trick.

       At last they had survived the journey to the Eastern Wall without being noticed.

       Keir released Méah's wrist and started searching for the part where he carved a passage behind the thick leaves of the flowering plants.

      "Here it is," he said to the prince almost in a whisper. "Stay back."

      Within a second, he landed a strong kick on the part. The wall blasted open. Thick dust splashed in the air and an enticing aroma of the forest's night breeze slipped inside their throats. A sloshing rhythm of water harmonized the blow of the cold wind lingering above the tall trees behind the wall.

      Without delay, they effortlessly passed through the passage. 

      Once they had passed the thick forest outside the Beggar's Town, their journey to the River of the Dead began.

      The river was difficult to pass. Its water had always been in rage so they had to be extra careful when they crossed. They took turns from escorting the wounded and the disabled one. In fact, they barely made it to the other side. It was a matter of life and death.

      Then, they had to take a rest under shadows of the trees along the river bank before continuing their journey to the Valley of Kings.

      Gathering around a bonfire, they slept on the bare ground. After quenching their thirst, tiredness took them to sleep except Keir and Prince Zaeius. Though, if Keir hadn't told Méah to go to sleep, she surely would stay awake the whole night since she would only obey him.

      They thought it would be a peaceful rest for them but they're wrong. They had to escape from the attack of a giant crab who inhabited under the depths of the river.

     After that, they proceeded to the Valley Of Kings. The journey there was quite rough. Keir had to do his best to apply his medicine skills to avoid their wounds getting infected. He had to pick herbs on the way. And both he and the prince had to look for something to eat after the food from the prince's pack ran out.

      "We have to hurry. We have to pass across the road to Beggar's Town before mid-afternoon or else the bandits will send us back there." Keir's strides stretched longer after folding back the map.

       Prince Zaeius was just listening at the back without a word. He's bathed with sweat. Who wouldn't be if you're carrying someone as heavy as you?

       From here, they can see a huge, barren hill and behind that, was the road back to Beggar's Town.

       Now they have to climb there as soon as possible. They're almost at the top of it when Ferlah collapsed and rolled back down the hill's foot.

      "Ferlah!" Keir exclaimed.

      The hill was dry and there were small cracks formed on its soil but there were also jotting fist-sized rocks buried halfway on it. And Ferlah wasn't fortunate enough to escape it. Hitting her head made her vision dizzy but not enough to knock off her consciousness. She just lost balance and was too tired and exhausted to keep herself from falling.

       Keir slid down the hill to help her get back up there leaving Méah, Bek and Prince Zaeius behind.

      "Are you okay?" he asked her, offering a hand.

       Ferlah moved up weakly and reached for his hand. Her knees went numb, strength was barely keeping her up and she's now relying half of her weight from Keir's.

      "Thank...you," she said between her breath.

       Soon, they started their way up.

       But due to Ferlah's pace, it consumed hours before they climbed at the top. It was already mid-afternoon. The sun went even hotter so they had to wait for it to take off so that it wouldn't be hard for them to travel. And Keir was right. They watched a dozen groups of bandits roamed to and fro from up the hill. Good thing that they're far enough to the road down the valley so they're safe to observe at them.