Cinder-knight (bxb) ||completed

15th rule| I was

Cold nails dragged across soft pilant flesh, the vibrations of air that flitted against a naked shoulder leaving feeble twinges on the captive's nerves. As the pale white wedding gown swathed in folds over the callous marble floor, a sob ripped out, melding into the large dark mist.

In front of the scene, stood a mirror. It reflected back two women. One was as beautiful as the starry sky while the other was as ugly as a rotten carcass, with pointy scales and hideously parred green skin.

"Just few more days dear," a snarky voice mused, "And all this beauty... It'll all be mine." with that, a bony hand combed through the thick mop of silky blonde curls belonging to the sobbing victim, lovingly.

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The two horses galloped down alleyways, their mane flaring against gusts of wind that seared past them in a cluster of black and white. As the prince and the knight bestrode their respective gelding and mare, their grossly clammy bodies jounced up and down, to and fro.

"Where are we going exactly!?" Charming's voice retorted, while the occasional bumps of the road were making him struggle.

"The forest at East! I'm sure we might be able to find a league!"

"That kinda rhymed, Eren."

Eric puffed up his cheeks in annoyance, not liking how the prince continued to get his name wrong. In all honesty, the red head couldn't fathom why Charming would forget a name as short as 'Eric' but clearly remember an absurdly long one like, 'Mary Beth Ella Gertrude'.

In the end, he sighed. While feigning gratitude using a smile as wide as the Cheshire cat's from Alice in Wonderland, he looked at the prince's lithe back. "Thank you, my prince."

Henry's shoulders quivered all of a sudden, showing that he was laughing, though, his face wasn't visible to the knight. "You're welcome!"

That was the last conversation Eric remembered having with his prince for the past few minutes. The rest of the ride was quiet with only the sounds of occasional tumbling pebbles and footsteps of the horses, that dictated the air surrounding Eric's ears.

The sky continued to shine in a dark hue, pouring down soft droplets of water onto the two males who were now travelling East. The jacket Eric had put over the prince's head remained there, flapping egoistically at the robust thrusts of the wind.

Truly, Eric couldn't help but feel giddy at the sight where his beautiful prince mounted a fiery white horse in front of him with his jacket, which fluttered proudly on top of his head like a cape, appearing as the epitome of his dominant prowess.

The knight smiled, feeling contented that his royal highness was humble enough to wear a jacket that came from the likes of him. The said piece of cloth had been rubbing against his skin for years, whether it was during the times he had been sweaty and gross in the battling ground, or the times where he had wrapped it tightly around himself to be safe from the cold, while patrolling around the castle within periods of snowfall.

Shortly said, that jacket was what a noble would call 'rubbish that belongs to the poor', yet there Charming was, still keeping the stained cloth near himself even though he was a member of the imperial family.

Eric looked down at Avianthan's neck before hugging it close, as the dark mane made him feel comfortable. He was blushing like a flustered highschool girl, and Avianthan who was running behind the prince's horse, made a movement with her mouth that was similar to an amused smirk.

Shit, now even the horse knew how gay Eric was.

So on, their journey continued through shady meadows, light rain and few collapsed twigs on the ground, which almost caused Eric's mare to fall down.

-------

The smell of fresh pine nagged at Eric's nose as he walked in first, his left hand handling Avianthan's harness while the other was swaying his sword in front of himself vigorously, trying to destroy all the branches and twigs that could possibly bother his prince.

Charming on the other hand was quiet, staring at the knight's back as they proceeded to unravel the deep forest.

"What if there's really no witch here and we end up embarrassing ourselves for the second time?" he popped the question once seeing Avianthan struggle all of a sudden. Weak rays of sunlight peeked through the holes in leaves, or the spaces among leaves, making the cavern of shady trees and creepers look more ghostly than it actually was.

"It won't hurt to try, your majesty." Eric replied after a while, slicing another branch in two as he made way for the royal to walk through. The force Avianthan put to break away increased little by little as they ventured further down the forest, the once normal-looking trees starting to appear more and more twisted in an ludicrous angle.

But the Knight still held on, thinking it was just another silly act of rebellion from Avianthan, since the mare had always been a pain in the ass. By then, a sound of dry leaves rustling and small mewls were ringing against Eric's ear, eerily.

"I think someone's coming..." Prince Charming said while slowly unshething his sword, the chime that rang next making million tingles shoot through Eric's body, as he looked around, perplexed.

"Stay back, my Prince."

"I'm not a toddler, Enrique."

Before the knight could say anything, Avianthan ran into the steep slope of shivering trees and snagging branches, the sudden move making Eric loose the hold he had on the mare's harness.

"Avianthan!" he screamed and ran behind the horse. The footsteps he heard behind him made it obvious that the prince and his gelding were also following him.

Eric watched in utter horror as Avianthan break-danced in the middle of the forest, jumping and diving into the muddy ground, seemingly trying to catch something. He strode up to the mare and tried to grab her harness, but when a whole pit of mud sprayed all over the knight's face, he ended up wondering why in the hell he had been dumb enough to pick Avianthan for this quest, out of every horse in the shed.

He heard the faint sound of Prince Charming laughing behind him, but he ignored it, and reached for the pure black horse, "You have to stop! Manner yourself!"

But the mare seized something with her hooves, pressing her upper legs together to confine it there as she looked up to snicker at Eric's mud covered face. The knight grimnanced and jumped into the mud, "What did you catch!?"

He saw something glow in the mud, and he felt his eyebrows knitting together, glowering once a small frog squeezed out through the cracks of the mare's hooves.

"This is what you caught? A frog?"

"Come on, let her have her moment Enrique." prince Charming added out of nowhere, his voice dripping with obvious sarcasm. But the knight didn't look back at him and focused his gaze on Avianthan, who proceeded to jump into the mud before snatching the escaping frog to herself again.

What was she trying to do?

The frog writhed, fighting hard to get away from the attacks of the mare. Eric ended up thinking Avianthan must be hungry, but he soon realised he was wrong, as the frog started glowing out of nowhere.

Dark magic.

That's what it was.