The Archer's Legacy

★彡02|25 - "Asher, wait, no, please."彡★

Running steps came to the scene and Y/n's opponent was flung against the wall with such force that he passed out... or worse, Y/n couldn't tell. The princess could vaguely feel the whip loosening around her wrists and her being turned to be on her back a moment later.

Somebody was, quite aggressively, shaking her. "Wake up!" a male voice demanded. "Wake up!"

Y/n coughed, her hand coming to her neck. Both were covered in slowly drying blood. Slowly, she managed to open her eyes. Instead of seeing one of her friends that she came to the Isle with, she was met with the face of Asher, who didn't look the slightest bit pleased.

Seeing that the girl was awake, he hoisted her up, leaning her over his shoulder as he spoke. "Great. Let's get you home now."

"Ash..." Y/n trailed. "What are you doing here?"

Asher huffed. "What am I— What are you doing here, Y/n? Have you any idea of how dangerous this is? You could've been killed!"

"I'm here with the others—"

"Oh, the others, now, huh?" Asher questioned, taking a step away from Y/n to face her but still supporting her with one hand. "First of all — if you go out of territory, you're supposed to be with me so I can protect you from stuff like this! Second of all — what ever happened to us, princess? You're supposed to trust me with this kind of stuff!"

Y/n shook her head dazedly, still feeling a bit weird. "It's not about you, Ash, it's just that the others—"

"The others?" Asher cut her off again. "Perhaps you mean Carlos?" He sighed, angrily dragging his hand through his hair. "Oh I bet it was his idea anyway."

Y/n frowned, her adrenaline slowly wearing off and making her come back to her senses bit by bit. "No, actually, he—"

"Y/n?" a worried voice called out.

A second later, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Ben appeared from behind the corner. The girl was the one to speak. "Oh, I was so worried, I thought you were following me and then all of a sudden you weren't there—" Evie stopped when she spotted Asher, who'd moved back to your side.

Carlos, his heart aching at the way you looked, was the one to step forward. "What happened?"

"You tell me what happened," Asher snapped, stepping forward protectively. "I should never have trusted you."

"But—"

"I have given you guys so many chances," Y/n's childhood friend went on, not bothering to listen to Carlos. "And now it's enough. We're going home." Not waiting for an answer, he started dragging Y/n away.

"Asher, wait, no, please," the girl tried.

"I've been lying to your mother for long enough, Y/n," Asher said warningly.

Y/n looked back at her friends desperately. "But it was my idea!"

That made Asher stop. "What?" He had thought the girl to be more reasonable than that.

"I wanted to come along to find Mal," the girl went on. "Carlos — or any of the others, in fact — are not to blame. Actually, they even tried to stop me."

Asher looked back at the group for a moment. They nodded silently, waiting for Y/n to handle the situation.

"So, please, Ash," Y/n pleaded. "I won't ever lie to you again, okay? Just let me be with them until we get Mal and then, when we're back to Auradon, and you still think we should leave, I—" She cut herself off to swallow the lump in her throat. "I won't argue with you, okay?"

Asher bit the inside of his cheek. The last time he'd seen Y/n beg someone like that was when she desperately wanted to come to Auradon. He knew she was serious. Still pondering, he looked back to Ben, Jay, Carlos and Evie. They had seemed worried for her, thus they couldn't have meant for what happened to happen. With a heavy heart, he sighed. "Fine. But I won't let you out of my sight, princess."

Y/n broke out into a smile and started dragging Asher back to the group, who gave them beaming smiles.

"I know a place we can patch you up," Evie murmured, seemingly regretful that something had ever happened to her close friend.

Y/n smiled. If these were the last hours she'd have with her friends, she wouldn't spend them whining about how her neck or hands ached. Instead, she ignored the pain and looked directly at the others with a determined expression. "Let's get Mal first."