The Threat of the Zodiac

Chapter 7

Maeve gets a "friendly" reminder that she should have been there to help her monarch to be. Something fishy is going to happen in the contest and rules will be broken.

Archer stealthily was taking ground through the trees, while Regan was moving forward in open space to attract the opposing teams. She knew she may take them all if she uses all her force. She is one of the most gifted princesses that ever was and she will prove it. Her thoughts were interrupted by Archer who stood upside down on a branch.
"I've seen a flag. It's close."
"How many people are protecting it?"
"None. "
"It's an obvious trap. Be careful!"
He went ahead with no other word, almost like he ignored her.
Regan continued on her path, directly at the flag. She felt she was close. The flag was colored in a plain light orange. This was totally Aarush's flag. Not seeing anyone she sprinted to the object that will make her closer to the win. When close, she touched the flag ready to run with it, but it burned her hands. She cried in pain. Before she could recover her concentration back, a ball of fire was going in her direction. She barely moved out of the way.
"Surprise! Missed me?" asked Aarush ironically.
"You will be the one that will miss the time when you weren't in my way!" she yelled ready to use water jets to take him down, but her burned hands made that difficult.
"Well, that's unexpected! I thought you will put more of a fight."
'Where is Archer?!' was the only thing on her mind.

   ***

Maeve brought some snacks and asked nicely for a pair of binoculars. She was having fun. Her boss may be in imminent danger, but now it wasn't her job to protect her. It was strictly forbidden for an outsider to get in the contest.
"It's really fun when they are not trying to kill each other!" Maeve exclaimed without talking to someone in particular.
Pratibal, the second master of the game, said:
"Look there! Princess Regan and Lords Aarush and Anvindr are brutally fighting. Lord Anvindr tries to take her breath away and I mean it literally! She's almost out of breath! I just hope they remember that in the first stage of the competition you can't kill. It will be most unfortunate, right? "he said laughing and the audience joined.
" Now Lord Aarush wants to take the final blow! Lord Anvindr lets her fall to the ground. He prepares the fire, ready to cook her alive!"
Maeve, without a sound, stands up and runs, pushing others out of her way. When she finally is out of the tribune, she sprints to the gate that blocks the audience from the terrain of the game. There stand some guards. A muscular man comes up to her: it was her boss. He was approximately 6 feet tall maybe even bigger. He looked menacingly at her. She saluted him with a submissive tone, the one she took care of always showing it at work, then she climbed on his back and jumped on the gate. She ran as quickly as she could, leaving behind her inoffensive earthquakes.

                           * **

Before Regan could have her face burned, a little earthquake made Aarush and Anvindr fall on the ground. Regan gasped and took big breaths to come to her senses. Her face wasn't burned, just her lips were liver. Now she had an opportunity. She took some droplets of water from plants all around her and froze them, the boys already up from the ground, making them sharp and dangerous. There were enough droplets to hurt them. The anger was as clear as day in her eyes, her mouth shaking. The frozen droplets quickly slashed their skin, thin lines of blood flowing from their wounds. She couldn't let them have another chance of hurting her, so she threw with all her force as many attacks that she could, without a strategy, just pure rage controlling every last bit of her. She forgot about the flag, about the win, she just wanted revenge. They fall at last.
    "You wanted to kill me, didn't you? You weak pathetic peasants! You forgot who you are up against. Even if I was the weakest member of my family, I would still be more powerful to destroy both of you." she said with a maniacal grin.
Her teammates appeared. Acantha looked like she didn't make any physical effort, but Coral, on the other hand, looked like she ran all day without pause.
" Don't look at me like that. I'm not in shape."
"That was obvious," remarks Acantha.
Coral just gave her an angry child-like look.
"What do we do with them?"
"I feel cruel so we will take them with us to see their loss up close and personal."
Both guys were fed up with this round so they didn't protest. They were hurt really bad, but Regan didn't care. Acantha guarded them both after she tied them with thick roots.
After what felt like hours, they finally arrived at their base. The flag was up there, on the hill.
"Where are your teammates?"
"I-I don't know. They sure ran away. Trust me." said Anvindr with a trusting voice.
Regan felt something is wrong, but her mind couldn't figure it out.
"I go and take the flag. You stay here."
"You lead up all day and me and Coral just stood there doing nothing!" protests Acantha.
They started arguing. Coral stood between them trying to stop them from doing something they would regret.
"Are you both stupid?! They sure went to take the flag, you idiots that's why they aren't here!I will go take the flag and you both hug it out!"
Coral made the sign "I'm watching you" and went up the hill to take it.
"What are we? Children? Whatever. Next time I won't make the mistake of working with others. I will do it alone!"
Regan had basic strategy training, and even if she was very mad, she still had to keep the farm girl near her, at least in this round.
" You could do that or... you could handle all the dirty work: beating the hell out of those guys. "
"Why didn't you let me from the start?!
" Doesn't matter anymore, does it? We will continue with this arrangement and that should be it."
Raegan then looked at Acantha with a glance of gratitude.
" Thanks for the earthquake. I could've lost my life back there."
"What earthquake?"
Before she could elaborate two strangers appeared in front of them. One of them held their flag.
"Well, our bosses were right. You were easy to beat." said the one with the flag.
" Where is Coral?! "asked Acantha annoyed, but a bit worried.
" Tied by our flag. We win. "said the other stranger taking Raegan's flag and putting it near theirs.
The grave sound of drums could be heard now in all the forest Aarush with little effort broke the roots in half and Anvindr in just a second made the roots disappear.
On the path, Maeve appeared behind them. She was dressed in her shirt with cuffs and frill neck and some black jeans. Her armor wasn't on her, meaning that she didn't change from yesterday for the job today. All the soldiers wearing armor all the time. So she wasn't really an official escort. Regan couldn't resist thinking about her wild black hair everywhere, which made her attractive.
Before she had the chance to talk, Anvindr approached her and gently kissed her hand, his eyes lingering on her for too long, then said:
"Well if it isn't my favorite little earth sign. I had a blast today! But... I'm pretty hurt. Could you possibly be the one to heal me?
She calmly took his chin between two fingers closing the distance.
" I will heal you next time when you and your partner will play fair. Until then, we have some good servants at the palace that will be more than happy to heal you." she broke the contact, smiling, between them and looked at each one of the contestants
She breaks the eye contact, looking at  Regan the last. All of them were quiet.