Pocketville Lost Diamonds: VOLUME 2

Chapter 28: the countryside

Ava stepped on the soft and wet grass, in the middle of the green lawn painted in summer.

Sky was slowly declining its color into dark blue, broken by the color of little clouds colored with pink by the sun, which had already begun running down to the horizon.

A fresh wind was tossing her clean fur, but the princess couldn’t think about it now: a deep fire had turned inside her soul, where the most wild feline instinct was whispering into her mind that something was wrong.
Danger was close, too close to her, somewhere in that clearing.
It felt like a billion eyes were staring at her from everywhere: from the sky, from the wood, from the grass and from the air itself.

Maybe it was true: many animals could get curious by the presence of the Monarch and her unusual security detail in that isolated place.
Princess Ava wasn’t scared of her subjects right now: her only problem was the creature that wasn’t supposed to exist between them, the alien arrived from another dimension for her.

She was terrified at the idea of noticing him from afar, of recognizing his boney body running toward her, too fast to give her enough time for running away… just like what happened in the dozens of nightmares she kept having every night, since she got free from her prison.

William was walking on her side, carrying a bag on his back and carefully observing the meadow with the same shiny eyes of a wolf.
His champagne fur was shaken by air, his eyes mixed with the shade of the sky above, which made him even more beautiful than usual, but his look was a predator’s one.
At every step he moved with determination and caution, noticing every movement in the world all around and keeping himself ready to attack in case of need.

Ava was walking a few steps behind, protected. Titan and Kayl were covering her sides, as dangerous as always. They often glanced at each other above the princess’ head, like two puppies do  before making trouble of theirs.

Behind, Steel Wool was closing the group with his huge size of ram.
His attitude was similar to William, which looked quite weird on a sheep: a dark shadow obscured his emerald eyes, as indecipherable as his powerful but tired gait.
After all, what else could the trainer of the Royal Guards do, if not being a strong warrior as well?
They all were beasts born in nature and determined to stay alive, to fight anything could stop them.
Despite this, Ava could feel that something was wrong inside him, just like he was tormented by some thoughts.
In a normal situation, she’d ask him if everything was okay, even though she could already imagine the reserved and cold ram’s answer, but this time she didn’t.

She was in trouble with her own mind too, where ghosts never left her alone, and she wasn’t in the right mood of sharing or opening them to the others.

But she needed to free one of them, because its presence was even more strong than the others’ one, fed by the presence of the Golden Retriever in front of her.

She tried to keep it inside for a while, keeping that serious silence up for more than one hour of travel from the Castle, but then she decided: she walked faster, getting close to the dog.

He speeded up as well, thinking that action had ended itself and keeping the protection line.
But the princess decided  to not give up on it:
- William!

- Yes, Your Majesty?

- What the heck happened during my sister’s interrogation?

The Guard almost stumbled in the grass and Ava crushed against his hind legs. Maybe only thanks to this he turned to her and she looked straight into his eyes, where she read nothing else but… panic.

- W-what? - asked the Golden Retriever, lowering his ears.

- I asked you what happened during the interrogation.