Short stories

Castle

"Run!" Yelled Silas, the sorcerer, his feet crunching over the leaves and sticks in his path, his robes flowing out behind him.

"I'm right beside you," said Jasper, the thief, calmly in his british accent, somehow not making so much as a noise as he effortlessly ran beside Silas. 

"They're close," Emery, the swordsman said, running behind them. A bunch of horseback riders were following them, since Jasper had almost succeeded in stealing the king's crown. It was going to succeed, until somehow Emery had made a slight mistake, which alerted the watchmen, and they sent a hord of knights after them, and now here they were. They took off towards the scarce forest beside the castle, well, if you could call it a forest. There were only a few trees, thin and tall, some bushes and tall grass. A few thicker trees, but placed far from one another. Definitely not a dense forest.

Only a handful of knights actually followed them into it, but they were on the run. 

"If you guys could just be quieter, we could lose them," Jasper suggested, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, not all of us have your expertise," Emery shouted back with sarcasm.

"Fine then," Jasper sighed. "Just follow me then." He lept over a rock, then unexpectedly darted behind a large tree in the blink of an eye. Silas thrust a hand behind them, creating a large explosion on the ground in front of the horsemen to avert their followers until they reached Jasper. They both ran behind the tree, but stopped dead when they saw Jasper wasn't there. 

"Jasper!" Emery hissed, looking wildly around. 

"Shh," Jasper said, surprisingly from above them. Looking up, they saw his face in the tree, the rest of him concealed by the bunches of leaves. "Get up here," he said urgently, hearing the hooves of the knights horses pounding on the ground, getting closer. Emery scrambled clumsily up, but Silas just couldn't. 

"Come on!" Jasper whispered, hearing voices dangerously near. He scrambled down to the low branches, crouching while balancing, and grabbed Silas's wrists, half dragging him in the tree. Just as they got concealed, they heard loud voices. 

"Where did they go?" 

"I don't know- wait, do you think these scoundrels might be in this tree?" One knight asked in a thick accent.  

"They might, it's the only big one we've come across so far," came another accented voice. 

"Shoot it," came a third.

"That's a fine idea," the first voice said. Silence, then Jasper heard the twang of a bowstring as a bolt from a crossbow whizzed dangerously through the tree to his right. A cold prickling sensation crawled up Jasper's arms as he willed himself not to move. No one else dared to move as silence followed. 

"They might not have been in that spot," the second voice simply said, as Jasper silently cursed him. He heard the click as the bowstring was pulled back into place, and the small thud of the bolt being placed in the crossbow. Another twang, and this time the bolt skimmed past his arm. Clenching his teeth, he dared not move even though it stung furiously, and he could feel blood oozing down the side of his arm.

"Ok, that's enough," came the third voice. "You're just wasting bolts. They're probably getting away into the woods at this moment. Let's go." They mounted their horses, and they heard the pounding of hooves as they rode away. 

"That was to close," Emery said, letting out a huge breath. 

"Ow." Jasper muttered. He allowed himself to breath hard, now bringing his hand up to the slash in his arm. It wasn't to deep, but it stung, now settling on a dull throbbing, and was bleeding steadily.