Freedom

Chapter 7

Scarlett's POV

" Wha-what?" I gasp. That's not true, we would not kill innocent people. What's going on? While deep in my thoughts, Asher walks away, leaving me behind.

"Just go home," he says making my heartbreak into a million prices.

"No" I breathe. My eyes start to sting and tears starts to fall out. I tried to run after him but I tripped over a rock, causing a sharp pain to shoot up my ankle. He looked back to look at me but didn't bothered and continued his way up the mountain.

"Wait! What happened?" I shout. He doesn't stop walking. "What happened" I repeat. He goes further and further away. "What happened to your father" I finally say and he was gone.

I wipe my tears away and got myself up on my feet. "No, I messed up," I say. "Ouch" I stop myself and looked at my bruised ankle. "Great I sprained it" I sigh. I refuse to accept this argument. There must be a misunderstanding. I pull myself together and limp my way up the path to find him.

"Ash?" I call out. No answer. "Asher!?" I call out again. Feeling weak on my knees, I fall to the ground causing my knees to bleed as they rub against the rough ground. I winced as I dust small rocks off both my knees and step on my feet again.

I kept limping my way up the hill until I saw a shadow of a person in the distance. Is that Asher? I walk closer to the person. "Ash?" I ask. The person looks at me in response and raises both his eyebrows. Oh no that's not Asher, that's-.

"Princess?" The person says. My heart quickens as I notice he has a crest pined on his clothes.

"No" I breathe.

"We have been looking for you" he frowns and grabs my arm. I forcefully shove his hand away and step back.

"Don't grab me" I frown.

"You have been missing. Your father wants you back home this instant" he says sternly.

"No, please. Let me stay outside of the castle for a while more" I beg.

"I'm a sorry princess but you need to go back to the castle" He frowns and grabs my arm hard making me use my sprained ankle to hold myself back. I winced at the pain and tried to pull myself back but to no avail. I refuse to take this defeat and bite into his hand. He yelps in pain and lets go of my arm and I used this opportunity to run past him.

"Hey!" He shouts and runs after me. I ignore the pain in my ankle and ran as fast as I could. The pain starts to get intense and I fall to the ground. I turn around to see him still running after me. "No," I say. I quickly got up on my feet but I fall back down. I lift my dress to see my ankle is all red and the bruise is starting to get clearer.

I look up to see how close he was. This is it. This is where my journey ends. Why can't I just have the freedom to roam outside the castle? Tears roll down my face as I know he was about to grab me. I expected a force touch on my arm but instead, he was punched in the chest and he flies to the side.

I look to my right and saw a familiar face. "Asher?" I say in relief. He puts his hands under my arms and lifts me up. He doesn't say anything and puts his hand on my waist helping me walk. We manage to walk to a nearby tree and stopped.

I look in the distance as if the man had woken up and surprisingly he has not. I'm amazed. He only hit him once! I could feel my heart calming down more as Asher stands near me. Without a thought, I gave him a hug and I guess he taken it by surprise because he was not hugging back.

"You came back," I say softly and let go of the hug. He turns his face trying to hide it. " you're hurt" he says sadly. He bends down and took out a bandage from his bag and wrapped it around my ankle. I have never felt this comfortable with someone before, it's like you know you are safe with this person.

"Thanks for coming back" I smile he looks up to see my face and looks back down at my ankle.

"I didn't come back for you" he tightens the bandage around my ankle making me wince and he stood up. "I came back because I only know I needed the crest to get that treasure and you have it," he says in a monotone voice.

"Huh..." I raise an eyebrow. "Of course I knew you were using me in the beginning" I shake my head in disbelief.

"Glad you know" he shrugs and walks ahead of me. That actually hurt...

"What are we going to do with him?" I ask referring to the man he just punched. He stops walking and turns around to face me. He looks behind and said "we can just leave him there"

"He's not dead right?" I ask worriedly. He's not even moving at all.

"He's not. He's just unconscious. Let's go before he wakes up" he says and continues to walk.

"Wait" I limp my way to him and put my hand on his shoulder supporting myself.

"I can't walk fast"

He sighs. "We'll walk at your pace"

"thank you" I smile sheepishly and we walk slowly.