The Knights of the Winter Kingdom (One Direction AU)

Chapter Three

The three rode the day away, not stopping until the dead of night.  Harry set them deep into the forest, far out of reach of any of the bandits nearby, but he was still uneasy.  None of them talked on the way, unless to point something out or ask about stopping soon, but Louis and Niall were abundantly curious about just how Harry had ascended to the top of the Army of Paudith before he was twenty- five, a feat that before seemed impossible to accomplish.  Harry was not going to discuss it; not at this time, not in a while, not anytime.  He never intended to talk about that part of his life again.  Before today, he had never brought it back up and it never came to mind for anyone to even think of mentioning it.  He didn’t even associate with anyone from his past- he was not able to.  He had cut the majority of them off and none of the people in the kingdom ever inquired about it.  And if they did, Harry wrote it off and never attempted an answer.  Eventually, the people got the message and when a question begged to be asked, they simply had to look at Harry’s defiant green eyes and know that they were not going to be getting an answer anytime soon. 

They had all retired when they stopped and all woke up early the next morning.  Niall and Louis agreed to go canvas the town for food and supplies and left the now impressively skilled Harry to watch camp.  And Harry did so, packing up portions of it so they could leave sooner.  He only stopped to dig around in his bag for his flask- or any flask, really- when his hands started to shake.  They had been doing so for a while, but he was trying to hold off on drinking until he could do so without the prince seeing and more than likely going back to his uncle when they arrived home to tell him that Harry stayed drunk the entire journey.  But when he found his flask, it was empty.  He cursed aloud and dug around in Louis’ saddle bag for a flask, knowing that Niall was too innocent to ever have had any alcohol.  But he didn’t find one in any of Louis’ possessions. 

“Dammit!”  Harry yelled as he threw his flask to the ground, plopping down next to it. Harry glanced around the camp, in awe of how silent the clearing was. 

And then he heard it; the unsheathing of a sword behind him.  Harry saw, again, that he had several options.  The first, die.  The second, try to run.  The third, stay and fight and more than likely win.  And as appealing as death sounded to him, he knew he could take whoever was behind him.  So, in a swift move, Harry grabbed a branch next to him and swung it around, falling onto his back.  He hit the man in the legs, the column of black falling on his side next to Harry.  Harry hit him over the head with the branch, easily knocking him out.  Harry grabbed the sword from his hand as his companion charged him.  Harry was able to grab him by the throat.  The one he held was about his height, sturdy and strong.  He had brown eyes and tan skin accompanied by his brown hair.  Harry threw him back and tossed him the sword from the first one.  The thief caught it and looked at Harry quizzically, to which Harry simply opened his arms.  “By all means,” he said slowly, “open fire.”  The thief charged at Harry, who was able to slip under his arms and kick his back.  The thief fell forward and Harry took the pleasure of knocking him out as well by kicking him in the face as he tried to stand again.  Harry sighed as he picked up the two swords.  “Well…I’ll be damned if I’ve never met two thieves as fragile as those two. 

In five minutes, Harry was standing in front of the two robbers tied to the tree.  The two of them had been limp, but the second woke up, discovered their predicament and the woke the first one up.  The two looked up at Harry, and the young lad grinned at them. “ ‘Ello!”  Harry chirped, holding onto the hilt of one of the words, the blade digging into the ground as he leaned on it like a cane.  “One of you, tell me what your names are.”