“Wake up!” came a loud voice from beside Rex, and as he jolted awake, it took a few moments for his vision and brain to adjust from being asleep to awake so quickly. “What is it!?” he called out instinctively, reaching out to the table for the sword that was there beside his bed. “That won’t be needed” replied a soft voice, reaching out and grabbing a hold of his hand. As he became fully aware of his surroundings, he saw Marcia was sitting on the edge of his bed with a smile from ear to ear, also holding onto his hand, preventing him from grabbing his sword. “Marcia! What’s wrong? Is Ulna ok?” he stammered, sitting up, a little unsettled when he saw how Marcia was smiling, he had never seen it before, not even last night when agreed to help her. “Ulna will be in top fighting shape by tomorrow, I had the best beastmasters in the land fly in last night to check her over after what you and Fafnir did, after seeing her close to death not a day earlier, they are flabbergasted by her re
“Of course you bloody did” Lacey said, shaking her head with a smile, “In style too, you ok?” “Yeah I’m ok, was weird though” Rex replied, shaking his head to try to get rid of the dizzy feeling he had. “OK, so give us a quick rundown, what did you do to it and what happened?” Lizz said, pulling a chair out for Rex to sit on, all three girls now listening intently. “Well first I..” Rex began to say. “Congratulations my prince!” a voice interjected loudly, cutting him off mid-sentence. All four heads snapped to who had stopped Rex talking. “Uh Markus? Can I help you?” Rex asked, curious as to why he was prevented from speaking. “Nope, but I can help you, please come with me, you have received the clue and must now separate from everyone or be disqualified” Markus said, his voice serious and deep. “What!?” Lacey protested. “Rules my dear” Markus said, raising his hand to silence her, waving his other hand to motion Rex to stand and once he did, “Please say no more, it would be a
Once Rex’s vision cleared up, he was standing in an empty circular room, much like the one from his vision, just without the doors, and standing in the center was the old woman, leaning on her staff, wearing a wicked-looking grin. “How do you know who I am?” Rex asked, a little confused and worried at the same time. “I know many things young prince, that is what I do” the woman said, glaring at Rex eerily, he noticed she did not blink, her bright green eyes staying open and focused on him. “So I guess I should ask who you are” Rex asked, trying his best to ease the building tension. “I am called Figulamian, but you may call me Fig for short, your tongues go so many silly ways when you attempt to pronounce it and I find the sounds you make irritating when trying” the woman called Fig said, scowling slightly. “Ok, Figulamian, or Fig” Rex winked, he was rolling the name over and over in his head a few times practicing mimicking how she said it before trying, “I am wondering why I am
His mind was racing staring at both of the visions playing before the doors, on one hand, he could save the women he held dear, but he would lose two thousand troops who may have the fix for his curse, all he had to do was save them and be rid of his curse, but he would lose the women. “Has anyone ever told you this place is f**ked, and so are your decisions?” Rex exclaimed, rubbing his temples in frustration. “Yes, many have said that” Fig replied, smiling wickedly, “I must admit I find you a curious one, leaders save the masses and yet you seem hell-bent on trying to save everyone, I will add a minute onto your decision time to let some wise words sink in.” “Yeah, what’re your wise words?” “You will NEVER be able to save everyone, no matter how much you try” Fig replied, her facial tone softening a little while speaking. Taking a deep breath in and exhaling, Rex admitted her words did seem right, but he was never one to accept defeat, he wanted both boons from both fights, stari
As the soldiers began to funnel back into the camp as Rex instructed, for some reason, the Fae soldiers did not continue their charge as he had previously predicted they would. “What the..?” Rex questioned out loud, not seeing them charge into the trap he had set. “It seems they are regrouping for an assault my lord, orders?” the commander said once he had finished receiving his report. “How did they..hang on a minute” Rex stuttered, looking up and scowling. With a heavy sigh, it dawned on him what had happened, it seemed Fig had not taken kindly to his way to turning the game to his favour. Once all of the troops were inside, Rex walked over to the balcony to see what state his troops were in, he was a little worried seeing how beaten and worn out they were, the main force of foot soldiers that had been holding the line, it seemed only half were in good enough condition to really hold their own, the other half were barely standing, most did not even have their weapons anymore. “
“So you’re telling me, I have to choose between Ean killing my father or myself?” Rex repeated, astonished by the choices. “That is correct, same rules apply as before, I will give you three minutes to decide, you know the consequence for no choice” Fig said, her tone going cold and devoid of emotion, which gave Rex the chills. “I would like to ask a question first” Rex said quickly, “Before my time begins.” With a short sigh, Fig rolled her eyes, “Very well, one question then your time begins upon the answer.” “Ok, what is the point of choosing between these? The other choices are normal for a leader to make, but this isn’t, at what point in my life would this actually apply to?” Smiling with her pointed teeth grin once more, “Why indeed? What makes you think it would never happen? Lands are invaded and royalty captured constantly.” “Well…f**k sake, ok” Rex replied, his chest deflating at her answer, he had not thought of that, even though being reminded about Ean’s blood war al
“Ten more minutes.” “It seems my rub down did its job” Kealy giggled, pulling the blanket off Rex, smiling as he moved into the fetal position when she did so. “I was happily asleep, not sore, was weird though” Rex said, yawning and stretching out, sitting up once he finished. “What was weird?” Kealy asked, nodding with her head towards a bath that had been brought in and filled. “I didn’t dream at all, well not that I can remember” Rex remarked, turning to face Kealy, “Unless you intend on watching me wash, I suggest you leave.” “Oh yeah, sorry” Kealy replied, her cheeks turning a little red, with a bow of her head, she threw the clothes she had prepared onto Rex’s bed, turned and walked out, closing the door behind her. While Rex cleaned himself, he mulled over the events that had happened with his time with Fig, his father dropping the news that she was in fact his grandmother, which made him curious, ‘Is Fig from my mother or father’s side? Why does she look much older than I
“So prince, what are you going to do in the meantime? You know, while waiting for tomorrow’s match?” Ley asked. “I’m going to check up on Nessa, might go and see Charr and see if Lizz is back yet, seems like I have a lot of people to check up on, might come and see how Ulna is doing, if that is ok with you?” Rex said, finishing his sentence looking at Marcia, who shrugged. “You are the prince, I couldn’t stop you from going anywhere.” “But..” “Shut up Markus! You’re always the one to remind me, this time I didn’t need it, and I don’t need your comments, he IS the prince, and if he wants to come and check on Ulna, I cannot stop him even if I wanted to” Marcia snapped, cutting Markus off. Raising his eyebrow in response to Marcia’s quickened temper, he simply smiled, “Of course, you are right, none of us could stop him.” How quickly Markus backed down even took Marcia by surprise, she opened and closed her mouth a few times signalling she was going to say something, instead she sto