redamancy | enhypen

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

chapter three

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hayan's journey would last for a whole month and this time, she was planning on visiting the kingdom of Topazus.

the said kingdom lied to the east of her own kingdom. in terms of distance, it would take a day and a half to reach there on their carriage, that is if they don't stop for a rest.

riding in a carriage, along the way, the three friends chatted. now, if you think about it, they were an unusual group of friends, no?

it's not everyday you hear about a princess, a knight and a handmaiden being friends.

that now takes us to the part where we have to explain about their friendship.

riki is the only son of the loyal and trusted chief of knights, the personal knight of the king. as a child, he visited the palace often thanks to his father and became friends with hayan. since they were of similar age, their parents wanted them to foster a friendship.

as he grew up, riki followed his father's footsteps and trained to be a knight. his skills were unprecedented in the whole kingdom, second only to his father and the king, acknowledged his skills. naturally, it led to him being appointed as the princess' personal knight.

when it comes to mina, she was taken into the palace as a young child. she was from a fallen noble family and her mother was a dear friend to the queen but unfortunately passed away from a terminal illness. the queen took her in as if she were her own.

she was the princess' playmate and as they grew up the three of them formed a tight bond.

the carriage filled with soft laughter and chatting was now crossing the forest that lay on the border between sapphirus and topazus.

they were provided fake identities by the king and more than enough funds for their whole trip.

as their carriage was moving, they heard whistles.

bandits

"speed up the carriage", riki told the coachman already comprehending the situation.

the coachman did as told but to their dismay, the bandits appeared before their carriage and the horses, startled, screeched to a stop.

the coachman ran away in panic.

"well well, it must be our lucky day."

"seems we found a treasure box today."

the bandits in question guffawed.

"stay inside", riki told his friends and climbed down from the carriage.

"you'll fight us, little boy?", one of the bandits snickered.

riki paid no heed to their mockery and instead unsheathed his sword, getting ready to fight off the bandits. one thing that everyone in the vicinity noticed was that he was heavily outnumbered.

'that won't be a problem for me', thought the young knight.

there was a full on brawl now; swords clattering against swords, punches thrown here and there. all of the bandits' attacks were directed towards riki.

hayan saw this from the window of the carriage.

the difference in number was taking a toll on riki after a few minutes. being outnumbered meant that he had to increase the speed of his attacks. the bandits kept barging in towards him and he had to protect the carriage on top of that. he could never let them get near the princess. all this was taking a toll on his stamina.

having noticed riki's exhaustion that was slowly creeping up, hayan thought of a plan at the moment. the plan was shared with mina.

the plan was that she'd slowly get out of the carriage while making sure that no one, except riki, would notice. then she'd cut the reins of the horses and while the bandits were distracted by the horses, the three of them would run away.

mina was told to carry her own bag and the bag which included money as it was necessary while hayan carried riki's bag and her own sling bag. the other luggage weren't of importance with regards to the present situation.

she took out her dagger which she kept in a holster strapped to her thighs and slowly got out of the carriage.

riki noticed her movement but didn't glance her way as he didn't want the bandits to notice her.

holding her dagger close, she rushed to cut off the reins, which she succeeded in a minute. the horses neighed and started to run off, distracting the bandits.

"now mina! riki run!"

hearing this, mina got off the carriage, took hayan's hand and ran.

riki turned towards them hearing his name being called and followed the girls.

"go after them!"

"don't let them get away!"

"you better catch up to them, useless fools!"

the girls ran a little ahead and looked back to see riki following them.

they kept running for minutes, a few of the bandits followed them but riki immobilized them easily and knocked them out.

not many of the bandits caught up to them. and the few that did, riki took care of them. after a while, there was no sign of the bandits.

the trio slowed down to take a breather by the shade of a large tree.

the sun was beginning to set and soon it'd be dark. the forest was dark and thick, they knew they would be safe now, from the bandits that is.

"riki, are you hurt anywhere?" hayan asked, taking short breaths from running faster than she's ever done in her whole life.

riki, who was breathing the same way, replied, "i'm fine, not hurt anywhere. breathe slowly."

"that was one of the most terrible moments of my life", mina was gasping for air.

"we should rest here for the night and set off again early morning tomorrow", riki suggested.

"yeah let's do that, i'm tired from all the running", hayan stretched her limbs and lightly massaged her own sore shoulders.

"why'd we run off anyways? i could've taken care of them easily."

"you were heavily outnumbered, my dear friend, even if you fought them continuously, you would've grown exhausted soon", hayan deadpanned.

"hayan's right, they would've started to attack the carriage too, you can't possibly fight them and protect us at the same time. plus it's not like hayan and i are capable of fighting them head on", mina agreed.

"i guess you're right," riki scrunched his nose.

"now, let's find someplace to start a fire and rest", hayan yawned.

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written on 19th may 2023