Chronicles of The King- Rise of Legends

Chapter 10.8

Chapter 10.8

Tension

‘*BOOM*’

A flash of lightning illuminated the cave, allowing Maria a get a good look at the figure, leading her to realize that he wasn’t Rick. After all, Rick didn’t have red hair and neither did he wear red sunglasses.

‘Who the bloody hell is Rick?’, King asked as he took out another cigarette from his cigarette packet.

‘Oh! King…It’s you’, Maria stammered feeling slightly disappointed that it wasn’t Rick and slightly embarrassed that she had confused King for Rick……again.

‘Yeah….It is. Nice to see that you finally woke up sleeping beauty. I was starting to worry that you were in a coma’, King said, with a hint of playfulness, causing Maria’s cheeks to go red from embarrassment.

‘W…well I haven’t….been out for that lo…’, Maria tried to protest, turning her head to hide her red face, completely unaware that she had been out for close to 7 hours.

‘…..It’s already night’, King replied with a straight face, cutting Maria of before she could finish.

‘WHAT!? I’ve been asleep for so long?!’, Maria exclaimed as she began getting up

‘Ouch!’, Maria cried softly when a sharp pain shot up her leg when she tried to stand, causing her to fall back heavily.

‘You ok?’

‘I think I sprained my ankle…’, Maria replied as she rubbed her slightly swollen ankle.

‘Great….’, King said sarcastically rolling his eyes as he did.

‘Hey! It’s not like I wanted to get hurt …..’, Maria pouted, slightly angry with King’s sarcastic remark.

‘Yeah….Well I guess you could be counted as lucky to escape with just that. That bastard really did a number on you, you know?’, King said, feeling slightly sympathetic now.

‘I guess he did….’, Maria replied as her mind wandered back to the fight between her and 23.

The scaled skin of the reptilian brute, the long knives like teeth and the inhuman growl were still all too clear in her memory. Maria’s body began shaking from fear as these memories from the fight began flooding her mind. It was taking everything Maria had to not break out into tears due to the fear.

Maria looked at King, who was now lighting a cigarette, hoping he would give some comforting words to vanquish her fear, as he had done the day before. She didn’t know why but since they had talked the night before, Maria had felt that King could be a person who could help her face her problems. This feeling was further reinforced when he had saved her from 23…..

‘Oh no!’, Maria thought as she remembered the last few moments of her fight with 23, before she had blacked out.

Maria recalled that King had told her to stay out of the fight till he could make her an opening to jump in. But she had let her pride and jealousy take over when she saw that the King was winning, resulting in her charging in blindly right into a trap laid out by 23.

‘Dammit! How could I have been so stupid?’, Maria cursed herself as guilt and self-hatred began taking their place in her heart.

‘Oi! What you crying for now?’, King asked when he heard Maria sniffling in her corner.

‘Wha…..’, Maria gasped, wiping away the tears which she had shed without even realizing.

‘I asked….’

‘I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME! AND I’M NOT CRYING…… just leave it ok!’, Maria screamed at King, interrupting him before he could finish, feeling too embarrassed and guilty to look him in the eye.

‘……’

King remained silent. After a moment, he leaned back against the cave wall and closed his eyes. Obliviously the girl didn’t want to talk about whatever was on her mind so he wouldn’t butt into it.

Also King was slightly pissed at Maria for yelling at him especially after all the problems she had caused him, so he was trying his best not to let the anger grow by shutting himself off for a few minutes.

‘Breathe in….Breath out….Breathe in…..Breathe out’, King did the breathing exercises Crown had taught him to keep calm, smiling softly as his temper began residing.

‘Can’t believe that it actually worked’, King thought as he let his senses wander while he took the moment to finally get some R&R.