The Evil Hour

08: The Evil Hour

.:.  Asher’s POV .:.

I groaned in pain as another punch was thrown in my face. The idiots had me tied up. Cowards. If they thought they would win against me I wouldn’t be tired to a tree right now by chains and rope. Oh, look another punch. Goodie. I managed to move my head in time, and the man’s - who I had come to know as Spider - weird name, I know fist collided with the tree.

He yelped back in pain and I couldn’t help but smirk and say, “You really think you could beat me if I wasn’t tied to this tree? You think your so tough? Judging from the look on your face, obviously not.” You could practically see steam coming out of his ears. I was having a hard time to contain my laughter.

He sneered in my face. “I’d watch your mouth if I were you pretty boy. Because I could easily cut out your tongue and then you wouldn’t be able to say anything. Or I could do something to that pretty little friend of yours.” Oh how I wanted to punch him in the face and then dunk it in boiling acid. I suppose that was what was getting me through this torture, my happy thoughts.

My remarkable come-back was, “You think my face is pretty? No offense, but I don’t roll that way ...” Okay, this time I couldn’t hold in my laughter. The look on his face, priceless. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had laughed this hard. Oh, wait, yes I can. It was a few days ago, with Katanya. Oh how things can change so drastically in a few hours. From us happily laughing, to me ending up here with these knuckle heads.

(A few Hours Ago ...)

I smiled down at Katanya’s sleeping frame. She was such a beauty. So rare, so precious. Well to me anyway. It is hard to believe that a week ago, she didn’t know I existed and I didn’t know who she really was. Life went on as normal, yet now that I’ve met her. I couldn’t bare to live without her.

But of course now would be the perfect time for her to wake up with me grinning goofily down on her looking like some creep. Her eyes fluttered open and I quickly adverted my eyes, looking everywhere but at her. And where did that get me? Lying the ground groaning. I just so happened to have tripped and fallen on a abnormally large rock.

I heard laughter coming from my right, and looked over to see Katanya laughing her head off. Her laughter was one of the prettiest sounds I had ever heard. So that makes me sound like a girl, but it is true. After a few minutes she settled down and flashed me a grin.

Getting up she spoke. “You’re really clumsy aren’t you?” She questioned me.

Scratching the back of my head I mumbled, “Yeah,” Then quickly changing the topic I said, “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes thank you.” We stood there awkwardly for a few minutes in silence before she broke it saying, “I think we should get going, don’t you? We still have a few hours of daylight left.” Nodding I looked at the compass and we then continued on our little adventure. Yeah thats what I’m calling it. Little Adventure.

We walked in silence and I got lost in my thoughts thinking about our conversation before she fell asleep. It was hard to believe that a fairy tale that my Dad told me as a child turned out to be a life changing prophecy, and that I was supposedly a brave knight ....

I was so lost in thought, and by the look of surprise on her face, so was she that we didn’t hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching at a rapid pace. By the time we realised it was too late.

It was obvious from the moment that they revealed themselves we were outnumbered. By a lot. There was 10, no 20 men surrounding us all holding cross bows. And to top it off, there was about 50 or so men behind them all with swords or knives. Oh Asher, what have you gotten yourself into.