The Royal Brigade

Chapter 25: The Mysterious Archer

Solaire's POV

Rage was the only thing that kept me placing one foot in front of the other right now. My heart hammered at a fast pace against my chest as I tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to escape from my eyes.

Taking a deep breath, I scanned my surroundings through tear-filled eyes and I saw that I was in the middle of a forest with no one else in sight. It suddenly dawned on me that I had walked further away from the training grounds and that I didn't have the slightest idea on how to get back there.

I found a huge tree trunk lying on the ground and I sat there for a moment finally letting the tears stream from my eyes. A sob escaped from my lips as I recalled the argument that Haiden and I had. Until now I still couldn't believed that he chose Evanity over me. Over his own twin sister. I didn't even understand why he liked her in the first place. She was just a commoner for goodness sake! She didn't even belong with us and I don't really get it why she was travelling with us either.

Sighing heavily, I covered my face with both hands and continued to sob pathetically releasing all of the pent-up anger and frustrations that I've been feeling in the past few days.

The afternoon breeze ruffled my golden blonde hair breaking the deafening silence of the forest. Orange and brown leaves scattered windblown over the ground and a shadow fell upon it making me look up in surprise at the unexpected intruder.

He was taller than me by a couple of inches and he was wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and dark pants. His amber eyes stared at me piercingly as though wondering who I was. He had tousled dirty blond hair and he was gripping a bow on his hand while a quiver full of arrows was slung over his shoulder.

I rose to my feet clearly annoyed about his sudden appearance. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

He tilted his head back and inspected me from head to foot and I frowned at him and crossed my arms over my chest. "I should be asking you the same thing."

"Well, I'm Solaire the Davian of the kingdom of Batidalle," I informed him holding up my head high. "And you are?"

"You looked really upset," he stated ignoring my question. "What's wrong?"

"It's none of your business," I said curtly averting my gaze from him. I sat down on the fallen tree trunk once again and to my utmost surprise he sat down next to me.

"Maybe it's not but I couldn't just let you be alone here all by yourself," he replied. "There might be wolves or snakes lurking nearby or there might be something much worst..." He trailed off into silence.

"What is it?" I asked trying to hide the panic from my voice.

"Cabrians," he answered darkly in a low voice that I barely caught it.

I shivered in fear and apprehension. I already had enough experience dealing with the Cabrians in the past few days and I didn't want to encounter them again. I stole a glance at him and realized that he was really serious about what he just said, "You may stay here to keep me company."

His golden yellow eyes crinkled in the corners as he smiled at me. Dimples formed on his cheeks and I couldn't help but noticed how handsome he looked like when he smiled at me. "I thought so."

A thought suddenly occurred in my head. "Were you just playing with me?" I turned to face him and glared at him angrily.

"No of course not!" He quickly denied shaking his head. "You never know if there might be some of them lurking in the deep parts of the forest just waiting to strangle you to death."