The Poisoned Prince

Chapter 3

 "Yep, it's enchanted" Zee admitted.

"You sure?" And at the sarcastic remark, Zee ignored her. Zee was a very interesting person. Nyx was normally good at reading emotions, but his were so masked, that even she couldn't read. Of course, she didn't trust him at all, it just seemed rude to show it. They followed the reappearing signs for a while longer. The warm fur on her neck gave her the chills, not the bad kind, just the normal feeling you get when a warm scarf is wrapped around your shoulders, except the scarf was purring. Nyx looked up and realized she couldn't even see the sky: just the dark, nearly dead leaves and branches. The trees were formed strangely. They were extremely tall, and the branches were all angled upwards as if they were meant to create a dome-type structure. Nyx glanced at Zee and noticed he was looking up too, he must've realized how strange the trees looked. Suddenly he came to a stop.

"Wait a sec, where'd the sign go?" He needed clarification. Nyx hadn't even noticed the sign was gone until he'd mentioned that.

"Maybe, we took the wrong path?" She suggested.

"Possible, I'll climb the tree and see if I can see anything" Zee took off towards a tree behind her. Nyx was about to ask him how the heck he planned on getting up there, but when she turned, he was already almost halfway up, using small notches in the trunk to push himself upwards. How he got that far so fast, she would never know. Soon he was out of sight, covered by the deep branches of the trees. Nyx had a good conscience, and right now it was telling her to get out of there. She ignored it like an idiot. The strange feeling of being watched churned up her spine. She spun around, watching for any sign of life. Nyx's honest thoughts? She wanted Zee to come back, stranger or not, he was far more experienced than she was. The ferrepede stood on its two back legs and looked around warily, his ear twitched, and he jumped off her shoulders and darted off into some bushes. Great, now she was completely alone. She heard a sound behind her,

"Zee?" No answer. She slid her dagger out from its sheathe, which was connected to her side by a waist belt. The belt was hidden, by her purple, and white designed shawl. It was pretty convenient, considering people wouldn't even notice it. The dagger was given to Nyx by her father before he died. Its hilt had lilies carved into it, its blade glinted off the small light seeping through the leaves. Nyx flipped around, her eyes widened with surprise as she tried to process what she was looking at. The thing was about, thirteen feet tall. It had shaggy hair all over its body with huge horns sticking out of its head. Its paw, well paws plural, had six of them, all of which were huge. Its claws, Nyx didn't even know how to fully explain them. They were razor-sharp and were swiping directly at her. The six paws all came at her from different directions, Nyx had no idea how it'd managed to get so close to her, without a sound. She dogged the first two and dropped to the ground as the rest swiped over her head. She rolled onto her feet and held her dagger ready. She used to train with her father but became a little rusty after a while. Faster than Nyx could move, a sharp object came hurdling towards her at high speeds. It would've impaled her, but two swords sprouted from the ground in an 'X' formation, right in front of her, the sharp object ricocheted off the swords and shot back near the creature. Nyx stood there in shock. Soon she realized that the shaggy hair on the creature wasn't hair, it was some sort of spikes.

"Nyx!" Zees' voice came from above, he dropped down from the tree to retrieve his weapon. "Get yourself together!" He shouted when the creature overcame the surprise of its spike coming back at it. Zee yanked his swords out of the ground and quickly turned. Nyx quickly got over her surprise and got up.

"How do we kill this thing, and what are those spikes?" She asked. The creature let out a deafening roar as it thrashed its arms wildly.

"They're darts" he corrected "Don't get killed and we'll find out" he dropped to the ground, to avoid getting swatted by a huge arm. "Stay here and don't touch one of those darts"

"Well, duh!"

"I don't have time to argue right now, its darts are poisoned. One touch and your dead" Zee shot off towards the creature.

"Thanks for the comfort" Nyx grumbled to herself. The creature stood up on two of its paws making it twice as big. Two of its other paws came at them. Nyx dived on Zee as he nearly got body smacked. He helped her up and ran in the opposite direction yelling stupid insults at the creature, like, Hey bald dude, over here! And, your aim is horrible! The monster roared and started shooting multiple darts at him. Nyx realized he was making a diversion so she had time to think. Its darts were poisoned, and they couldn't get close enough with all of its legs, and even if they did, it was covered in poisoned darts. Personally, being dead didn't sound so great. If they could deflect the darts back towards the monster, maybe its darts would poison it. She wasn't sure, but it was worth a shot- quite literally.

"Zee!" She yelled. "Toss me your swords!" He was in the middle of climbing a tree, using the darts that had impaled the tree as steps.

"No way! I just met you!" He ducked to avoid some darts.

"Would you rather die? Pass me the swords!" Nyx yelled. He tossed the swords as they clattered to the ground beneath the tree. Nyx ran over, picking the swords up. She threw her dagger at the beast's face, attempting to get its attention. Sure enough, the dagger hit its face. As if it was a child throwing a paper airplane. It turned towards Nyx and roared with anger.

"Great, now you made it mad". Zee was still in the tree.

"You made it mad first!" Nyx sprinted over to the side to get a clear view. She turned to stand her ground. She was never really good with swords. Especially two of them. A metal dart glided towards her. She crossed the swords and deflected it easily. The dart flung off, missing the beast by a yard or two. Again, she thought. One more time Nyx could figure out the exact angle. The creature shot another dart. Nyx had noticed its weak spot, between its eyes, there were no darts. It was a really small red spot. This time she angled it perfectly. She crossed the swords. It hit the swords with so much impact it nearly knocked her over. The dart ricocheted off the swords and hit the creature directly in between its eyes, with the red diamond shape. The creature roared, and then with a loud thug, it hit the ground turning to dust. Nyx stood there stunned, thinking she would've missed it. She turned to the tree Zee was in. She ran over asking, "Are you ok?"

"That was amazing! How'd you know where it's.." His voice faltered, while he finished climbing down, he glanced at his swords in my hands. "If you don't mind, pass them." He held out his hand.

"Oh, c'mon where's the trust?" Nyx passed the swords back.

"Not with you" he sheathed his swords.

"Here's your dagger." He handed it back.

"How'd you-" Nyx kept her mouth from dropping as she took the dagger, now beyond confused. She was almost sure it had disappeared after she'd thrown it.

"Skill," Zee said smiling.

"Pfft" She scoffed. "What took you so long up there? And did you even see anything up there?" Nyx got ahead of herself, she relaxed her hands after realizing they'd been clenched.

"Hold on, I wasn't going to leave you. I'd just noticed the creature beforehand and wanted to catch it by surprise"

"So you were using me as a distraction?!" Nyx asked, trying to calm herself.

"Well, when you say it like that-"

"It could've killed me! Or even you!"

"But, it didn't. Yes, I saw the way out, and I saved your life!"

"And I saved yours" Nyx ended. Zee glared for a moment before saying,

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, the way out is over here." He apologized and started walking. Nyx was pretty impressed, she felt kind of bad for blowing up at him. She had to admit, he was pretty well at ending arguments. She followed him. Afterward, she apologized for it. Soon, she could see the sun between the thin branches of the trees. And they'd gotten out of the woods.