ᴀ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ꜱᴏ ɢᴏʟᴅᴇɴ, ᴀ ꜱᴜɴ ꜱᴏ ʙʀɪɢʜᴛ

ix. there is blood on my hands

cw // explicit descriptions of murder and blood, implied rape

┌─── ∘°❉°∘ ───┐

They came during midday, when the sun was at its highest point. Its heat only seemed to nurture their flames.

The soldiers broke down the doors and dragged the inhabitants out, and she was helpless to stop it. Helpless to stop the soldiers taking the women on the dirty ground, helpless to stop them from killing anyone trying to keep them from it.

Houses collapsed, sending shockwaves through the town. Screams rang through the air, echoing in her mind. Elle stumbled over fallen debris, hands and arms scraping over the ground, the dirt sticking to her bloody fingers.

Blood. Why was there blood on her hands?

More screams. More shouts. More laughter.

She pressed herself against a wall. The tug around her heart became tighter and tighter, pulling her into every direction, leaving her dizzy and disoriented. She had to leave, had to get out, had to run as far away as-

But she couldn't. Not anymore. She was a knight now, she had a duty to these people, she couldn't abandon them.

The thundering of hooves sounded across the village. Horses raced past her hiding spot. She slowly creeped forward, to the edge of the wall, clutching her necklace to her body.

A dozen soldiers had arrived, their green and silver armour glinting golden in the light of the flames.

One man jumped off his horse. He was the only one of his group not to wear a helmet, revealing his partly tied-back black hair. The rest of his armour was exactly the same, however. He walked forward, and towards a man almost twice as tall as him, dressed in gold and red.

Elle skipped a breath.

How could she have missed him?

The Mountain was responsible for the attack. She had heard about his cruelty, about his pillages and raids, but she had never expected to face him someday. Had hoped she never would.

Two soldiers brought a man forward. She recognised him as Jurek, one of the village's custodians, and whom she had stayed with for the past few days. He was thrown to the ground before the man in green.

They were too far away for her to understand what they were talking about. The man had pulled his sword at one point, holding it between them, turning it this way and that. And then, without pause or hesitation, he slashed the sword through the air, and disconnected Jurek's head from his body.

Elle almost screamed out. She slapped her hands over her mouth and fell back behind her wall.

The blood spurting from the stump, the head falling to the ground, the body following it...

Her breath started quickening, and she could not control it. She tried to get herself to calm down, to stand up, to do something, anything. But she was frozen to the spot.

"Spread out!" a voice called.

Her body started moving on its own accord, rising from her hiding place, running down the narrow paths between the houses, past the bodies littering the ground.

She rounded a corner and almost ran right into the arms of the Mountain.

Hurriedly, she jumped back behind the hut.

One breath. Then another.

He didn't seem to have noticed her, and when she peaked out of her hiding spot and saw the sobbing woman he threw on the ground, she realised why.

Her lower lip trembled. She needed to stop this, to do something against him. But what? She was only a girl with a dagger, she couldn't take on the Mountain.

A knight could.

With shaking hands she picked up one of the rocks littering her path. A scream. She took aim, and threw.

The Mountain's nose cracked as the stone hit his face. He let out a yelp as his head shot upwards, gaze focusing in on her. He was about to charge forward, the woman below him completely forgotten, as a voice sounded from the other direction of the road.

"Wait!"

She risked a glance towards its origin.

The man from before stood between two of the soldiers, armour splattered with blood. His eyes raked across her body before finally meeting her eyes. A dark grin spread across his face.

"She's mine."

He started running towards her, yet there was only so much head start he gained before she disappeared between the houses.

What did he want from her? The way he had looked at her she assumed he recognised her from somewhere, but where? She had certainly never seen him before.

The ground was still softened by the recent rainfall, leading to her boots sinking into the dirt at several points and slowing her escape. But she knew that the men with their armour would have an even bigger disadvantage.

The treeline came into sight, and she let out a sigh of relief. In the woods she would be safe. In the woods they would never get to her.

A shout sounded from behind her.

The bushes pulled on her cloak, the roots almost making her stumble. Farther and farther inwards she ran, away from her pursuers.

A tree rose in front of her - tall, easy to climb, with low-hanging foliage. She did not even think twice before starting to climb up hand over hand, quickly disappearing towards the treetop.

Clutching onto the branches she forced herself to calm her breathing. She would wait here until the men had passed, then return to the town and help rebuild. Like she had done so often before.

Another shout. Then the sound of metal hitting wood.

Carefully, without disrupting the leaves, she moved on her branch, trying to get a look to the ground.

The men stood not far from her tree. One of them paced up and down, sword in hand. He, unlike his companions, wore no helmet, revealing his black hair.

"I was close, this close!" His voice carried all the way up to her.

"She can't run from you forever," one of the other men said. "Sooner or later you'll catch her."

"I'd rather it be sooner than later. Her mockery has gone too far for too long. Now that bitch is calling herself a knight-"

"Benjiamin." The third man laid a hand on the man's shoulder. "It will be alright. We didn't catch her in this town, but we will in the next."

"He's right," the second man chimed in. "If the songs are true, she will not sit idly by while we destroy her lands. She will answer someday."

"But that was supposed to be the whole point of this attack."

They started pulling the man away.

"See it this way - at least you pacified the Mountain for a few weeks."

Laughter rang through the forest.

Elle sat frozen to her spot, her fingers holding the branches so tightly she feared they might snap.

Benjiamin.

Green and silver armour.

Mockery.

The man was Benjiamin Vypren, Lord of High Anura.

The man she had embarrassed right in front of his entire castle. Whose soldiers she had evaded for the past few moons. Who had started her entire journey as the Golden Paladin.

He was here, because of her. He had attacked this town, because of her. He had set the Mountain on these people, because of her.

These people were dead, because of her.

└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘

a/n: the plot is here and it is here to stay

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