Fantasy Kind Of Story

Chapter 32: The Ebony Knight

The Ebony Knight stepped forwards slowly, Lara staggered backwards, still staring at the menacing eyes behind the black helmet. He cocked his head a bit mockingly as he reached behind him and closed the door.

"That was a wonderful story Klaus, truly marvelous!", Travis said patronizingly.

"Get away from her", Klaus growled, stepping infront of Lara and unsheathing his blade, but as soon as he pulled it out Travis smacked it out of his hand, sending it falling onto the floor with a loud *clang*.

"-But you didn't make it to my favorite part, go on, finish the story, I'm sure Lara is just dying to hear how it ends", Travis taunted, pulling up a chair and setting it directly infront of the door, sitting down in it so no one could escape.

"Dont make me do this!", Klaus pleaded.

"Finish the story", Travis demanded, his tone abruptly shifting to an intimidating and commanding one.

Klaus let out a long sigh and turned to look away from his niece, he continued his story.

"After we overthrew the monarchy, everything was going smoothly for years, your mother recovered, and you even came out unscathed, Milo and Elsa claimed it was Jorn's protection, I gave the credit to your mother being tough as nails", Klaus said, trying to lighten the mood, more for himself than the others in the room.

"We rebuilt a better kingdom and nation for the people, I was proud, we all were. Finally I had a place to call home, no longer a petty thief, but a hero", Klaus continued.

"But my past caught up to me, one day on one of our missions we had retrieved a very expensive artifact, we made camp and after chatting for a few hours, we went to bed. woke up the next morning to find the artifact gone and my brother dead with a knife in his back...my knife", Klaus said, tears running down his face, he took his knife and stabbed it into the table, leaving it there imbedded into the wood.

"Next thing I knew I was getting blamed for it. My friends accusing me of murdering my owm flesh and blood for some worthless artifact!", Klaus shouted, desperately trying to hold himself together.

"So I fled, right back to the shadows, cept this time I was armed with leadership skills and military level combat training, and I didnt want to be alone anymore, so I put those skills to use and made a new family, those thugs and thieves out there are my new family, and they aren't going to throw me out for something I didn't do!", Klaus declared, flinging the knife into the wall, the knife sticking out the side of it.

How inspiring, now then, shall we be going?", Travis asked condescendingly, standing up out of his chair and extending out his hand to Lara.

"If you want the key, you'll have to get through me!", Lara exclaimed, shifting into a fighting stance.

Before any fight could ensue, Klaus swiftly took the key from Lara and gave it to Travis.

"What the hell!?", Lara shouted, turning to look at her uncle.

"Im not letting you get hurt kid, you're the only biological family who didn't throw me away", Klaus answered sternly, the skin beneath his eyes red from crying.

"Well I never asked for you and I dont need you protecting me!", Lara hollered, pushing him back.

"As much as I would love to watch you two bicker, we are on a deadline here, time to go!", Travis demanded.

"I dont care about your schedule, I need that key!", Lara yelled as she tried to tackle the Ebony Knight, but he easily overpowered her and pinned Lara against the wall.

"Just give me the key and nobody gets hurt!", Lara threatened, trying to sound menacing even though she was the one pinned.

"If you insist", Travis said, holding the key in his fist and breaking it, dropping the pieces into Lara's palm.

Lara was in shock, she came all this way and now the one thing she was supposed to get was now broken into pieces in her hands, she stood there motionless, staring at them in disbelief.

"Yeah, if that were real I wouldn't have been able to break it, you came all this way for a fake, not that I didn't already know that", Travis stated, looking back at Klaus with a grin.

"So you're telling me we did ALL of this for a fake and you KNEW!?", Klaus exclaimed, he was absolutely furious.

"It was never about the key really, just about the person who was after it", Travis explained as he swiftly grabbed Lara by the arms and pulled her towards him.

This caught Klaus off guard, he quickly became offensive, grabbing his daggers and pointing them at Travis.

"This wasn't part of the plan, let her go!", Klaus demanded.

"Oh but it was part of the plan, you just weren't informed", Travis said as he bound Lara's arms together, Lara struggled and tried to fight back, which made Travis irritated.

Travis grabbed the back of Lara's head and pressed it against the wall.

"My friends are gonna kick your ass!", Lara threated.

"You mean the friends who are currently tied up as well? They were greatly outnumbered, this isn't some bed time story kid, you aren't going to win", Klaus said mockingly, hearing this Lara threw her head back, attempting to hit him with her head, but instead she slammed her head into his helmet.

"You aren't the brightest are you? I'll make you a deal, if you play nice, I'll let your friends go afterwards", Klaus tried to bargain.

"Go to hell!", Lara snapped back.

"Wrong answer", Travis replied, pulling her head back and slamming it into the wall, instantly knocking her unconscious.

"You motherfu-!", Klaus roared, lunging at Travis, Travis retaliated with a swift kick to Klaus' gut, sending him back into his chair.

"You are going to stay here and quit being a nuisance, unless you want to go backsies on our deal?", Travis said, this caused Klaus to back down, his eyes full of terror.

"Good boy, now I best be on my merry way", Travis said triumphantly, hoisting Lara over his shoulder and walking out the door.

"What shall I do with the prisoners?", Klaus asked obediently.

"Lara didn't play nice, young ladies like her should be punished when they dont follow orders...you know what to do", Travis answered, leaving Klaus to sit there with his thoughts.

Back in the main area Kiburi, Marya, Silvio, and Jiro were on there knees tied up, trying to free themselves.

Travis walked by and they all stopped struggling to watch as the Ebony Knight carried away an beaten and unconscious Lara over his shoulder.

Kiburi watched in awe, he stood there for a moment, frozen in place until a fury began to erupt from within him. He pulled himself up and lunged and Travis, fueled by an anger he had never experienced in his entire life. This attack was short lived as Travis easily overpowered him with a kick to the head, knocking Kiburi back down to the cobblestone floor.

"Stay down beast", Travis said condescendingly, continuing back on his path.

"Y-you cant d-do tha-" Silvio stuttered, but was interrupted by Travis.

"I-I-I cant, I cant WHAT?! Huh? I can do whatever the hell I please and neither you nor your worthless friends can do a damn thing to stop me, you're all a bunch of nobodies!", Travis began, raising his voice and getting in Silvio's face, who began to cower in fear. Once Travis saw this he stood back up and lifted his head triumphantly.

"You aren't the heroes of this story", Travis said.

"Change of plans, all hands on deck!", The Ebony Knight announced, everyone readied their weapons and rallied behind him.

"Except you five, watch over the prisoners till Klaus arrives to give you orders", Travis said, pointing to the five who had their masks taken earlier.

Travis and his army of thieves and bandits marched out the door towards the ruins, the  steps shaking the earth as they went.