To the Sky (The Pack ff)

Chapter 4: 'Cardended was the only safe haven elementals had'

Lachlan was terrified. He was all alone, Rob was nowhere to be seen and he had no idea what he was going to do other than run and run until he couldn't anymore.

He hadn't even realised where he was running until he reached the clearing with jar after jar still strung in the trees after seven years. They were long abandoned, like empty homes after an apocalypse.

Many of them were filled with old mouldy leaves or dust and others were broken, he hadn't been here for four years. Ever since he started working in the castle as a man servant at age eleven he hadn't had any time for himself.

A rustling broke the tense silence around him and he quickly spins, staring at a bush that had two piercing blue eyes staring in his direction. His first thought was that it was an animal, maybe a large cat, or a chupacabra.

A Chupacabra was an animal that Lachlan had read a lot about, they were the size of a small bear and could shape shift into any animal they wanted but their natural appearance was scaly and alien like. Of course, these animals were the rarest and hadn't been seen for centuries but he hoped because his father had known of one and if he found one maybe they knew his dad or could teach him how to control his power. Hope was all he had left now.

The blue eyes quickly disappeared and Lachlan didn't feel scared anymore, he felt curious over anything.

He took a few steps closer when he heard the rustling moving round. He followed it until it stopped and a figure rose from a nearby bush.

It was a man, or a boy, with pitch black hair and tanned skin that contrasted his bright, sky blue eyes. He had a piece of black cloth pulled over his nose and it dangled over his chin so only his eyes were visible.

The boy comes forward, taking large, confident strides with determination and hostility in his astonishing gaze.

Lachlan stumbles back until his back hits a tree and his fear returns, bright and fierce.

He doesn't know what to do, this boy is stronger, there is no way he can fight him off.

The boy reaches and pins him to the tree by his neck and he growls, "Why are you here?"

Lachlan struggles to speak but he is yet to figure out whether it is because of his fear or the tightening grip this thug has on his neck.

"I, uh, I don't know." He closes his eyes and awaits his inevitable demise.

He tries to focus everything on his breathing and so he does not even feel the grip on his neck loosen. Yet, he dare not open his eyes.

He hears shuffling and shouting of unfamiliar voices before he even takes a peek through his lids.

His vision is slightly blurry but he can make out a face and two people holding another person down behind it.

When his sight focuses he recognises the face as Rob's and he is surprised, more than surprised. He's gob smacked.

Rob was captured, he was taken away. He couldn't be here.

"How?" He stumbles, tripping over his own words.

"You wanna go?!" A shout sounds, not giving Rob the chance to answer.

When Lachlan sees that the voice is Prince Mitchell, he is sure that his jaw is going to hit the floor soon.

The Prince is facing off with the nomad that had attacked Lachlan and he didn't know what was going to happen. He hoped that the boy would back down and the Prince wouldn't get hurt because only God knows what would happen if Lachlan let him get hurt. Then he remembers that he had practically been banished and that he couldn't return to the kingdom. What about his mother? His little brother, Arthur?

"You think you can take me, imp?" The boy retorts, pulling his mask down and spitting in the Prince's direction. Underneath the mask, the nomad's skin is marred and slashed. Long, pale lines curving round the boys jaw and mouth in a sickening pattern. Lachlan recognised it.

"I have been trained in the Castle of Cadiralla by the finest knight in all of Patriae!"

"Wait!" Lachlan shouts though it comes out more feeble and timid than anything. He takes a few steps towards the unknown boy.

"You're from Cardended, aren't you?" He questions, stepping cautiously closer.

"What's it to you?" The boy bites back with copious amounts of hostility. Lachlan jerks a little but doesn't back down.

"My dad, he wrote about scars like that. They're the marks from elemental cullings." He turns to address Rob, to tell him this information in hope that it would help, "They would mark all elementals like that. They would put them to work and would kill them in large groups when they couldn't work anymore. They were concentration camps. The last kingdom to do it was Cardended, ten years ago. Cardended was the only safe haven elementals had after the country wide cullings, until they were forced into it."

Everyone looks shocked except for the boy though the blank look on his face doesn't mean he doesn't feel shocked because Rob seems to find it impossible to not be and he had known that Lachlan had read his fathers book and works but he didn't know it went this far and deep.

"How do you know all of that?" The Prince asks.

Lachlan turns to him, a glint of sad pride in his eyes.

"My dad wrote all there could be written about elementals and their history. I've read it all, many times, your highness."

Mitch is about to reply but is interrupted by a bark of laughter from Jerome, who gains a glare from his royal friend. Lachlan feels insecure and he doesn't like it, he's uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry." He chokes out, bending over with a hand on his knee and waving a dismissive hand in the air, "Just, I've always wanted to laugh when someone calls Mitch 'your highness'."

The confession causes Mitch to smirk and tackle Jerome to the ground, both of them rolling around and playfully wrestling as they slowly come to the realisation that they are free and they don't have to watch what they say or do.

Rob is getting impatient, he wants to get to the bottom of this mysterious boy in fro-

Wait.

"Guys, he's gone." Rob declares, staring, hands on hips, at the other boys.

Lachlan spins around in multiple circles as if each turn he makes the world is different and he can see better whereas the other two boys ignore Rob completely and continue to play fight.

This is going to be a long, frustrating time for Rob, he can feel it.

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Hi people of the world wide webular....

I just wanna say that I have nothing to say...

5 votes for an update teehee

:p also, if you read SIL and want that updating tonight, comment in the next forty minutes or so and I will update :-)

Chapter 5 sneak pack: (I decided to do song lyrics for these because I'm not ahead on chapters like I normally am but the lyric will be a hint as to the contents of next chapter)

'If I could go back in time
I know that I'd get it right
If I could just press rewind' - Back in Time by McBestBandEver (McBusted)

Baiiiii