The Royal Knight Academy

Chapter 16: The First Guardian

As the three of us walked through the deep and dark woods, the fairies guided me down the twisted paths, helping me try to find the magical rose because that's where I thought Blake might be heading. We went east, west, north, south, and everything in between. The fairies even took me to a secret pathway hidden behind a tall wall of vines. It was long and winding with stone walls on both sides. We made our way down the path until we reached the end. I pushed the tangled vines out of the way with my hands ever so slightly to make sure it was safe.

I lifted my visor up to see that on the other side, there was a large clearing of trees. It was a circular shaped field with the moonlight shining atop the greenest of grass. The moonlight seemed particularly bright in the center of the grassy area and there in that light was a singular red rose growing from the ground. It wasn't like any rose I had ever seen before. The petals were the most bold red hue with thorns crawling up its stem, trying to protect itself from anyone attempting to get it.

The rose wasn't the only surprising sight in the clearing. I couldn't believe my eyes, but Blake and our horses were there too, standing a few yards away from me. It seemed like he had not noticed me yet as he appeared to be deep in thought.

"Hey," I whispered to the fairies. "I need you to be really quiet, okay?"

They nodded their heads.

"Great, the last thing I need is for you two to blow my cover."

I put down the visor on my helmet as I entered the field and started to walk towards him.

"Hey Blake! I finally found you! And I guess you found the rose too."

"I'm so glad you're back. You falling off of your horse scared me so much! I thought after that moment, I was never going to see you again."

"I was worried too but then I realized I couldn't give up, just like we talked about," I explained. "Anyways, I'm so glad you found the Blood Red Rose. How did you ever find it? After all, these woods are enormous."

"Well, it kind of was an accident. After the horses took off running, they kept on until we came to this odd wall of vines. You see, vines don't grow in these woods. I read about that in one of my books. So finding the vines in the middle of nowhere seemed a bit suspicious. I decided to see what was beyond them and found the hidden path that led me to this clearing in the woods. At the end of the path, I saw the rose and here we are now."

"Wow, I never thought that an accident would be your preferred way of finding things," I said jokingly to him.

He scowled.

"I'm just kidding. Friends?" I asked as I held my hand out.

"Friends," he answered as he took my hand and shook it.

"Now," I said, letting go. "All we have to do is to get the-"

"AWOOO!" went a noise not too far in the distance.

The two of us froze in terror at the strange sound.

"Was that what we heard earlier?" I asked in a whisper.

"I think so," Blake answered in a panicked voice. "We need to hide. Now!"

He grabbed my arm and urged me to follow him as I was quickly but quietly pulled to a nearby bush to hide behind. As we ran, the two horses ran off as well in the other direction into the woods. "No!" I thought, holding out my free hand, looking at the horses as they ran out of sight. We hid behind the bush and all became quiet again, as if no one were there.

"Now the horses are gone!" I whispered. "We might not see them ever again!"

"Well they are better off anywhere else than here. They might have a good chance at fleeing these woods due to their incredible speed."