The Inconvenient Alliance

Chapter 10

Grayson's POV:
I notice the three people standing near the entrance of the room, I'm not sure how long they have been following us here but I'm fairly sure they are from the empire due to markings on their armor, they seem like scouts. One of them runs across the room and tries to grab the diamond and something activates within it, I hear Drake shout at him but he's already next to it. It glows brightly and I hear two people scream, the one next to the diamond and the one closest to the entrance, the one by the entrance sounds like a girl. I scoot back from the diamond, unsure what it's doing, but when the light clears the person is gone and I see a pile of dust on the floor. I'm not entirely sure everything that magical items can do but I'm certain I don't want to go anywhere near "his" diamond now and I'm very glad I managed to pull Drake away from it. I'm not sure what would have happened if I didn't. I hear one of them shout to the other who already ran out of the room, the one near the entrance seemed jumpy, to begin with, I'm sure what happened probably frightened him off, and now there's only one left in the room. I glance over at Drake who is next to the wall, he doesn't look too good, I think he may be having another bad headache, I want to go help them but instead, that's when I catch a glimpse of a blade and turn just in time to dodge the swing and take out a regular sword instead of the fiery one, figuring I won't need it, but I underestimated this scout a bit. The last one in the room has finally decided to attack and we clash swords a few times, he keeps pushing me back towards the wall though, its harder to fight when you don't have much space to swing and he catches me with a low guard, going for a blow to my head, I raise my sword to block and brace for the impact and that's when drake makes perfect timing. He seems to shake off the headache and finally realize what's happening and he slams hard into the back of the one fighting me, catching him completely off guard, he slams into a nearby wall and falls flat on his back. I sigh in relief and put away my sword, running over to him quickly and grab his weapon from him and any others he may have on him, A sword, a dagger, and a small hand crossbow. His eyes flicker up at us, and his breathing is jagged, he seems to have been stunned from the impact drake managed to pull off and I use the extra time to bound the scout's hands behind his back and gag him so he wouldn't be able to yell out to the other that ran off if they are still around. We could use this opportunity to interrogate him and figure out what the empire is up to perhaps. I look over at Drake beside me who just saved my life from being turned into the empire, "Nice hit" I say to him then continue, feeling like he really helped out there, "you kind of saved me back there, he was putting up quite a good fight." "Do you know where they came from?" He asks me and I respond, looking down at the scout's armor as I do, "well, this one from his markings on his armor appears to be from the empire, I'm assuming all of them were from this, they still seem to be hunting after me." I tell him and then he seems a bit surprised, "they are still hunting you, or even us, after all these years?" I respond, "Yeah, it seems so, we should probably go before they bring in reinforcements seeing one of, what I'm assuming to be scouts, managed to get away." "What about this one?" He asks and motions a bit to the one we had defeated, and the one I had tied up, passed out at this point on the cold stone floor. "We should take him with us for now, find a spot we can hide and question him some about the empire." I say to him and he nods, "alright, and let's get out of this room, I don't feel comfortable being here anymore after witnessing what just happened with the diamond and one of those scouts" He would say and I completely agree "yeah, it's late, let's find another location in these caverns to hide out in for the rest of the night, we can question this scout later and then leave early in the morning." Drake seems a bit worried, "Aren't you worried they will send reinforcements before then and find us?" I respond to him after a quick moment of thought, I don't want to stay here now that they know we are here, but I'm guessing there's still a storm outside so in a sense we are trapped here until the storm lets up, and I won't force drake to run out in the downpour of rain unless we have no other option, "yeah, but we have some time, and this is a big cavern we can hide in. To be honest, I'm exhausted right now, but I think "he" will handle the rest of them that come around here, let's just try to find a place to set camp for the rest of the night." "Alright" He responds and heads out of the room quickly, I follow behind him, dragging our captive along with us to an alcove drake finds. He looks around a bit, finding a hidden area that curves around the entrance, not visible from the outside. "This seems good," He says to me, who has come in behind him, still bringing our captive along, and I lay him against the wall by drake. "Yeah, it does." Drake glances down at our captive, "should someone stay up to watch him?" I ask Drake to do it, I'm fairly exhausted from everything that's happened and feel too disturbed to talk about it right now, or at all really, "you can do the first watch, I'll stay up for the next one, just wake me in a few hours" I set down my lantern and lay out my sleeping bag, then lay down on it hearing drake respond to me, "Alright, good night." I shift on my sleeping bag, rolling over to face the wall, having a hard time falling asleep at first but due to my exhaustion I eventually doze off.

-Credits for the art go to its respective owner(s).