Royal Grudge

Prologue

"Hurry Celine!" She clearly wasn't able to keep this up for very much longer. Her dress was torn, her face full of mud and she lost her shoes - which were not made for running - on the way. I didn't look much better myself though. My sweat drunk shirt stuck to me like a second skin and I had a nasty wound on the side of my arm which coloured my sleeves in a deep red, so that even all the dirt couldn't cover it up. She looked up at me, her blue eyes filled with fear, her breathing no longer being a breathing but a painful panting. "I promise, we'll make it out of this. But right now, we must run!" I offered her my hand and she took it, stood up and we started running through the forest again. We used to play here when we were kids, hiding behind trees and making our father count till ten and then go and look for us. Our father. My heart ached at the memory of our father. This here however, is reality. I needed to get my sister out of here safely. Another arrow missed us just by an inch. "I can already hear the river! Celine!" She fell over a root and now with her foot all tangled up, wasn't able to free herself anymore. I could hear the knights, screaming our names in anger, ready to brutally kill both of us without a second thought. Ready to die for my sister, I drew my sword and stood protectively in front of her, trying to give her as much time as I possibly could.
"Henry, Henry, Henry... I must say I am disappointed." There he was. William, the "soon to be king". "You managed to break out of the royal dungeons, killed two knights and fled all the way till Kolan's kingdom and all of this at the age of 16. But now a tree stops you? How hilarious. I am afraid your most adventurous journey is about to end here." He drew his sword. His entourage stands in a half-circle behind him ready to interfere should their master have any difficulty. Which of course he wouldn't. How was I going to defeat him? A grown man in armour, with a shield and a stunning sword. I still had to try though. For Celine. After watching me for a few more seconds, probably waiting for me to fall on my knees and beg for merci William attacked. I managed to ward off his first few blows but my arm kept hurting the entire time and with every block I had to commit it got worse. Another blow. And another one. "This is it!", I thought, "I failed. I failed my sister... my father..." A tear ran down my cheeks as I desperately tried to keep myself alive. After a few more blows William managed to sweep me off my feet. "This is it" He raised his sword and placed himself over me with his goddamn ugly smile, ready to struck the final blow. I would love to say that I was brave till the end but that would be a lie. I laid there, in the mud, right to my sister's feet, trying to shield me with my bruised arms. As I laid there I took one last look at Celine, whom herself was nothing more than a desperate mess lying on the floor. Just like me. Well, people always said that we were much alike. "I want you to know that I will have a great feast after I publicly dishonour you and your pathetic family", he managed to stumble whilst he was heavily panting due to our fight earlier. William lunged for me and right when I lost all hope I had left within me, a green, big and frightening creature suddenly appeared in the treetop, screaming to make itself noticed by everyone. As it jumped down, everyone took a step back, except for Celine, William and me, in fear of what was going on. As for William, it had happened too often that his pride and personal tick for extravagance were the reason why I had made it so far so he quickly tried to kill me for the second time now but when I heard the sound of metal crashing together I opened my closed eyes. Another sword blocked the hit, to my and clearly also William's surprise. "Let go of this child" The creature was no creature but a man. He wore a long dark green coat, nearly completely covering his leather boots. A hood hid his face. "Leave them alone". His voice so deep that only William, my sister and me could hear it. It took a second for everyone to work out what the guy wanted. I mean he said it pretty clearly but who would expect someone to show up as your knight in shining armour, the moment before you're supposed to die. "Who are you to tell me what to do?", William asked, his head red of anger and embarrassment, since his dramatic moment of playing hero has been interrupted once again. All eyes were on the mystery man in green, waiting for an answer. None ever came. Instead he... grinned? A very small grin appeared on his face, not visible for anyone but me, thanks to my rather unpleasant position on the forest ground. After what seemed like an eternity, one of William's men attacked, the others immediately following after. Even though they were stupid as hell, they knew their way around with sword and shield. Screaming, they raised their weapons and lunged for the green man. "Run!", I yelled but he didn't seem to hear me, or if he did he just didn't care. He just stood there. Calm, like the eye of a tornado. "Please, don't... please", nothing more than sobs came out of my mouth but he just stood there. I laid on the ground and watched as the first knight stabbed towards the mysterious stranger when this one suddenly brought his hand out of his cloak just to reveal a dagger. With incredible preciseness, he blocked the attacker's sword just to counter with a second dagger in his other hand. Within a few seconds, he managed to struck down a fully trained knight of the biggest kingdom that has ever existed. Something about this murder made me instantly feel cold and considering how William made an ugly grimace I was not the only one. Maybe it was the easiness, maybe the unconcernedness but it was enough for the knights to hold in. It was just like time had stopped. The man in green pulled out his, now redly glistening weapon and dropped the corpse onto the ground. One last grunt escaped the mouth of the fallen until everything turned silent again. I was in something like a trance. I had never experienced one myself before but of what people had told me I for sure was having one. I was not able to move, not able to shut my eyes to hide from all this goriness. It felt like I couldn't breathe. I don't know how long everyone was just standing still, unable to move just like me but then the mystery man turned to face the frozen knights of William. His voice so low, so cold, so deadly, I felt shivers running up and down my spine. "Who is next?"
They immediately regained their consciousness, running, swinging their swords and spiked maces and yelling. Once again, I flinched, thinking that that would be the end of the poor man who stood up to William and protected us for no reason. But once again he blocked and killed and blocked and killed. His clean and light movements made it seem like he was dancing. Moving with the melody of death. Or rather being it. As much as it pains me to say this, I was amazed. It was beautiful. I don't know for how long I just sat there and watched but I was brought back when someone was shaking me roughly, this person being Celine. "Let's get out of here! Hurry!", her blue eyes observing the scenery cautiously. I nodded absently and got up onto my feet with her help. My body was aching and with every step my vision got a little more blurred. My dear sister had to practically drag me to the river. "We can't leave him here.... Celine please", my voice cracked pathetically. "Don't talk nonsense, we need to save ourselves! There is nothing we can do to help him. Now come, I can't get you through the river on my own!" I looked her deep in the eyes and when I saw that she wasn't going to change her mind I sank my head and started moving. The water was like ice. It felt like a hundred needles were constantly piercing my feet up but at least it distracted me from my other wounds. We managed to get to the other side safely and dropped ourselves down, tired and aching. "Majesty, look the prisoners!", a knight called from the other side, resulting in William looking around furiously, searching for us. When his gaze met mine, I knew he wanted us dead so badly, it was frightening. But we made it. We made it. With all the armour and equipment, they had they wouldn't be able to cross the river, since they didn't bring horses. "Please, let's go into the forest, we should really make it to the next city. Your wounds are... severe." For the first time since the battle with William I looked at my arm, only to see that it was still bleeding. Dang, I was losing a lot of blood... this is not good. I was struggling to keep myself on my feet. "Hey look at me", she took my head between her hands and lifted it gently. "It is going to be fine! We made it so far, we are not going to give up now! Remember what you promised me?" She looked at me with those stunning blue eyes. They reminded me of our parents. I couldn't give up, even though I was so tired. I had to try at least. So, I reached out for her hand and once again started moving. Slowly and not steadily, but we were slowly reaching the enormous trees in front of us. It was a great relief when I put my hand on the first tree to have a little rest. We could still see the river and the knights trying to cross it but they simply weren't able to do so. Just as I wanted to look at my sister and continue our way I felt a sharp pain in my chest causing me to stop breathing. I leaned against the tree and slid down on it. I had difficulty no to simply fall over, it was pressing all of the air in my lungs out. I slowly looked down, afraid to see what happened. An arrow. Through my chest. I got shot. Very distantly, I was able to recognize William's laugh. There was this metallic taste in my mouth... Blood. The pain was so much I crouched up on the ground. I wanted to scream but nothing would come out of my mouth. My vision started to blur even more. The last bit of tension and resistance in my body faded away. The last thing I saw were those beautiful eyes of my sister. This deep blue every member of my family has. Used to have. Now it is only her. "I am sorry for letting you down, Celine... I failed." I heard her scream my name before everything went black.