Ageless

Chapter 4: The Prince

The fog still hung in the early morning air like a dense white smog when I saw it coming.

A cloud of dust rising above the haze, coming from the west and blowing down the road towards the camp like a sandstorm. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, or perhaps the road behind us simply had a dusty look from afar. But as I fixed my gaze on it, I could see the cloud growing in size, and with it came the sound of thunder.

I could not tell where the noise was coming from, but had no desire to wait and find out. My body began moving without the consent of my mind, my arm reaching over and rousing Ko'sa from her sleep. She looked at me with red bleary eyes, momentarily disoriented. "What's going on Miss?"

I pointed at the cloud approaching us. "Ko'sa, what is that?"

Ko'sa's eyes followed my hand down the road to face the dust cloud. She studied it for a minute, the noise now loud enough that other travelers were also waking up, poking concerned faces out of the flaps of their tents. She looked back at me, and for the first time since meeting the small girl, I saw something new in her eyes.

Fear.

"Run," she said. I was fully awake now, panic fueling me like caffeine. My heart was in my throat and my hands were clumsy as I scrambled to pick up my pack. We tore across the camp, east towards King's Valley, now in a race with the approaching cloud. My borrowed sandals flapped painfully against the raw skin of my feet and throttled my speed.

Even though Ko'sa's legs were but half the length of mine, they pumped effortlessly like well-oiled pistons, and after a minute the girl had flown past me and out into the open plains beyond.

"Come on Jill!" she yelled back at me, the noise so loud that it drowned out everything and I could only read her lips. She turned around and her face fell when she realized how far behind her I was. I saw the anguish in her face as her eyes darted back between me and the imminent danger that would soon be upon us. She turned back to the Valley for a second and I saw her hips twitch towards it, as her instincts told her to abandon me. At that moment my insides turned to ice- I needed that girl more than I had ever needed anyone before.

"Ko'sa," I pleaded. "*Please.*"

That did it. I saw her shoulders sag and the fight leave her eyes, and a second later she was sprinting back to me. "Quick, behind the rocks," she breathed, pointing at the boulders lining the road.

I could now hear the sound clearly and realized it was familiar. I recognized it from the time I had gone to bet at the racetrack for a day with my family. It was the sound of hooves- hundreds of them, pulverizing the ground into particles and kicking them up into the atmosphere. I felt the rush of wind as the stampede passed us, and before we could make it to the rocks, one of the beasts rushed around and cut off our path, gnashing its teeth against reigns held by an armored rider. It was muscled and dark like a demon, with the wild unfocused gaze of something that has gone mad with blood-lust.

They began to circle the camp, about thirty to forty horses in total, each one larger and more terrifying than any I had ever seen before on Earth. A rider sat atop each horse, some holding banners that were so tattered and faded that I could only see dark shadows that may have once been an insignia. The rags billowed and flopped on their posts like fish out of water.

I felt Ko'sa grip my arm tightly. "Those are the flags of the Broken Prince," she whispered. "He is an outlaw, but we are not his enemy. Keep your head down and be silent, and he may let us leave in peace."

I did not have to be told twice. The riders looked battered and weary, wearing armor that was dented and rusty, but they were also armed to the teeth with swords and maces. The circling horses began to slow, and one by one, the riders pulled on their reigns and had them stop, marking a perimeter around the entire camp. Everyone was awake now, standing still as statues and watching the beast closest to them with looks of terror.