Cinder-knight (bxb) ||completed

19th rule| go

Puffs of air fluttered against the knight's face as the stringent rays of the morning sun perforated through the stained curtains, ravens' caws triumphing in his ear, all coming together to warn him that he should be up by now.

But the red head didn't dare to open his eyes, too engrossed in the peaceful moment of sleep he had got after god knows how long. But suddenly, a loud shriek of a squirrel made Eric's eyes snap open, and he quickly looked around, wincing once he felt a stinging throb against his neck because of the uncanny posture he had been sleeping in.

It seemed that Eric had dozed off while guarding his prince as his sword was still in his hand, and he was still in a sitting position. The only thing he remembered doing after unleashing Avianthan was coming back to the cave and sitting beside his prince, while the wizard's muffled screams rang in the air.

He wondered if Avianthan had killed Pase by now.

The empty cavern reeked of the smell of cinders, the nasty odor flaring up through his nose, but then he remembered, wasn't the prince in here last night?

Eric's whole body went stone as he got up and looked around, only seeing the jacket he had given his prince on the ground, "My prince?" he whispered, breathing in shakily.

"My prince, where are you?" he pushed the curtains apart and stepped out, gulping, and feeling his eyes fight to sweat, "My prince, please!"

The birds chirped in the sunrise, ants trotted in a line that veered from side to side from their anthill, the whole colony not budging a bit as Eric hastened down the miscellany of sand and pebbles, his fingers flicking into his hair in angry swift motions.

'Fuck fuck! Why can't you do anything right, Eric?' the knight cried in his head, wondering how he could be so careless enough to lose sight of his prince.

Now he was in a hodgepodge of sadness, anger and anxiety. His chest burned, eyes shed, lips wobbled, and he couldn't do anything about it as he descended towards the sounds of neighs and laughs he heard from down the forest, loud cries of 'My prince, where are you!?', falling from his mouth repeatedly.

What if something happened to his highness?

All because he was too careless?

He couldn't tell, and he signalled the still tethered snow white gelding to calm down when the said horse whinnied at him, startled. Avianthan was nowhere to be found, so Eric predicted that perhaps the sounds coming from afar belonged to her.

But.. Where was the prince?

Eric didn't know what would happen to him if the Prince was hurt, even worse, dead. Would he be able to keep on living, if that's the case? Of course not. Without his prince, there wouldn't be a reason for Eric to exist either.

"My prince!"

His own words greeted him back, huddling among the farrago of trees and echoing into his ears again. The sounds of laughing and neighs were getting louder, and Eric found himself being slicked of sweat while the goddess of the forest carried on burgeoning in the throne named her prowess, probably chuckling at Eric's misery, as the whole jungle waved from side to side.

But the sounds of laughs continued to get closer and closer. The knight kept his hands on a tree and panted, seeing a dam twice his height blocking his path in its loam-filled glory, but once he realised the sounds were coming from other side of it, he took a deep breath in and climbed with all his strength. His nails pierced through the fresh mud, and that's when he heard the laughs clearly.

"For real! What does he think he is? Snow White? Ironic how he goes around calling people ugly when he himself looks like a literal baboon!"

That had to be Pase, since the knight was sure it was the mage's voice. Subsequently, he heard someone else laugh, and that sweet sound was enough to make Eric's all problems fade into nothingness as his mouth opened wide, smiling in relief with his green eyes glistened with joy.

His prince.

"But to be honest, he's much better than the rest since they're only here for money. He might be annoying at times, and a slight bit of a pushover, but he's anything but a bad person." Prince Charming said, making Eric wonder who they might be talking about.

But that didn't matter at the moment. All that was important was the fact that his Prince was doing well, even if it's with the shady kid, and when he heard how Avianthan purred from the same place where the rest of the voices were coming from, Eric was confused to the core.

Hadn't the mare killed Pase?

And who was petting her?

Eric sighed, finally being able to climb to the top of the dam. He was enlightened to see a dazzling sight of water, that came in waves to brush over the lower part of the dam, the shining azure it gave off making the knight get reminded of the prince's blue eyes.

What a tremendously large lake it was.

And once Eric's eyes ran across the place, he saw the prince sitting on the sand of the shore (which made him wince, because his highness shouldn't be in contact with those things that could probably scratch his soft skin) and beside him was the wizard. (which also made him wince, since that bitch shouldn't even be alive by now)

But the thing that made Eric's jaw slack wide was the way Avianthan let out elated brays like a donkey, while snuggling in the green wizard's lap cozily. There was no word to describe how betrayed and bemused Eric had felt by then, seeing the gigantic mare getting comfortable with their enemy when she was supposed to be on his side. Plus, wasn't she sensitive to dark magic?

Did Pase somehow... Use a spell on her?

The same went for the prince, who didn't seem to mind the close proximity he had with the wizard, their shoulders even brushing against each other at times. No, it couldn't be. The prince was definitely under a spell, there was just no way he would get this comfortable with a fucking wizard while not even remembering his own knight's name.

Eric flamed in anger.

How dare that freak, use his magic on his prince and his mare!?

"My prince!" Eric called, charging their way with callous steps, "Get away from my prince, you witch!" he roared in utmost frustration, infuriated by the wizard's presence to the acme. Every time his heels collided with the muddy dam, a sound of raw squelching would flit out loud.

His intervention allayed whatever conversation the prince had with the wizard, and they both turned towards the running knight as Avianthan too perked her head up. Eric could clearly see the way the fuzziness in the air disappeared at his company, and just when he was about to jump on the mage, he slipped over the mud and fell right into the depression of water.

Goddamn it.

"I guess someone's eager to take a bath," the prince hummed, watching as his knight splashed around the water while yelling out occasional, 'Run my prince, I'll make the witch busy till you escape!' or 'Oh wait I forgot you're spelled!' that were muffled by the sounds of stirring water.

The mage nodded in response while the mare went back to sleeping, "But on the side note, do you think he'll need some help? It kinda looks like he's drowning."

The prince shrugged, "I'm pretty certain no. He'll come out himself, he's a knight after all."