The Heart of Shadow and Gold

Chapter 9

Callie, Linda, and Chen were opposite of me chatting away while Leyla was sitting next to me, or should i say sleeping, on my shoulder.

I look at her. Her bangs were swept in a way that covered one of her eyes, i cleaned up the drool on my shoulder and i turned my head toward Linda, Callie, and Chen, careful not to wake her up.

Callie looked at me and then shifted her gaze to Leyla. She turned her gaze towards me again with a knowing smirk.

I roll my eyes and Linda laughs. The vehicle stops and the driver rolls down his window separating us and him. "We are here per your request." The driver says, Chen gives him a handful of cash to which the drivers eyes light up.

"Pleasure doing business as always Jonathan." Chen says before exiting the limo.

I turn to Leyla and gently shake her awake, her brilliant blue eyes flutter open and she yawns, sitting up and off of my shoulder. "Come on Ley-Ley, we're here." I say as i too, step out of the limo.

We walk through the area till we reach one of the many entrances of Etheria, the walls are taller then any of the buildings here with an upside down "U" shaped opening in it with staircase like structures facing us on either side of the entrance.

We grab our equipment and set up our temporary camp, we got informed by our kingdoms spy's that they were going to be attacking this side sometime today, and looking at the state of the area, they haven't struck yet.

We may have hung out around the little camp that we have for about an hour before the silence ensued.

I got little shivers down my back, all of the candles or electric lights in the area went out as a Chilly wind blew past us. I unsheathed my sword and looked around.

Everyone followed suit and took out their own weapons, i turned in a full circle looking for enemies.

Then, a figure dropped from the walls, which made me wonder how they didnt break any bones as they landed perfectly on the ground and approached us.

The figure had almost a ruby red aura surrounding them and then more movement came.

Figure after figure jumped the wall and we attacked.

They had masks covering their mouths and pointy ears spiking through their dirty white hair. My sword clanged against daggers and gun shots sounded from behind me.

I heard Callie's spear clanging and swinging.

I hear Linda's bow stretching as she fired arrow after arrow

I heard a frustrated cry from Leyla and i sneak a peak behind me, risking a glance while there was a break in the fight.

I was seeing Leyla fire a shot at an elf and then the elf mysteriously vanishing in the shadows and reappearing behind her.

The figure i was fighting took the advantage and kicked me in the chest and i flew into a wall beside leyla fight.

I looked around, there were 4, maybe 5 elves fighting.  But what i saw was that they were all kinda of bunched up together, never too far from the middle one. It kind of reminded me of elephants,  protecting the youngest. Protecting the promised one...or protecting their prince.

I saw something on the middle figure, it was a wild guess but if i learned anything in the past years was to always trust your instincts.

I lept onto my feet and charged straight towards the centre.

I ducked and dodged fights and weaved through the tight clump as i swung my sword at the middles head, they caught it with their daggers at incredible speed and used their weight to slowly lower my sword until we were having a contest of strength.

We were battling for dominance and for a second i lost my footing and gave them the advantage.

He  lunged out and i rolled under him in a backwards summersault, using his momentum to spring up on my hands and donkey kick him in the back. He fell to the ground and as i stood, i met my sword to his throat. "Surrender or die." I warn.

"Hmm i choose the option where i go free unharmed." And with that the smacked my sword about 5 feet away. 

I looked at the sword on the ground and back at them who had their daggers pointed at my throat.

"Surrender or die." They copied me with a mischievous glint in their eyes that made my rage and anger intensify.

"I choose revenge." I say as i lift my right knee up and take out two small daggers hidden in my boot i lunge out and we start again.

We were pretty equally matched, with the same fury in their eyes as is mine. For Della. I keep telling myself, duck, swing, push, dodge, stab, duck, it went on for hours and i could tell they were getting tired, they were getting lazy with their dodges and they forget to cover his left flank, i swung my sword and the hilt of my weapon connected with their head and they fell unconscious.

I look at his finger and see a ruby red ring, i was correct in my assumption. This is the prince.

I wipe a bead of sweat dripping down my forehead as i bend down, supporting myself on my knees. After regaining my breath i turn to the rest of the group, i was horrified of what i saw.

Two elves were running away blood dripping from various wounds and the remaining two elves lay on the pavement, their eyes unfocused.

They were dead. The elves were dead,

but they were our enemies, so why did i feel disgusted and shocked, they did it to Della so why cant we do it to them?

Besides we were trained to kill elves, so it must be the right thing to do,

right?

A/N 1005 words