My King - UsUk

Finding the Healer Final Part

"Alfred, I think we're in the Royal garden!" Arthur happily said.

"Yes, and what are you doing trespassing?" A voice said.

They turned to their left, and saw a man who looked to be the Jack of Diamonds. He had long, straight, blonde hair and a serious face. He also held a bow and arrow ready to strike at them.

~•~•~

Alfred audibly gulped at the sight of the deadly arrow ready to kill either of them should the man behind it choose to. He would have to be very careful, and think with caution, or the Jack might go and release his thumb and forefinger holding the end of the arrow in place.

"'We mean no harm, and are not dangerous. We have come to speak urgent matters to King Francis." Alfred spoke carefully, holding his hands up in surrender. He tried to show full honesty in his gaze, and hoped the man in front of him had some kind of patience to listen.

"Yet you come from a secret passage directly leading to the Royal garden, tell me, where did you come from?" The blonde man asked, narrowing his eyes at the two strangers in front of him.

"We come from The Spades K--"

Alfred immediately tensed up and his eyes widened in surprise at how stupid he was to say he was from the Kingdom that they were at war with. Arthur looked at him with the same shock, although he probably was thinking something along the lines of You-bloody-idiot,-not-even-a-minute-here-and-your-already-going-to-get-us-killed.

In Alfred's defense, it was an unconscious action, and he never had a reason before now to pretend he wasn't from Spades Kingdom.

"Spades!?" The Jack clenched his teeth hatefully, "Your awfully far from home." He released the arrow, creating a 'woosh' sound that came straight for Alfred.

Now Alfred was fast, but not fast enough to dodge an arrow at close range. So he did the next best option, and turned so that the arrow could hit him where it won't kill him. He grit his teeth painfully as the arrow dug itself inside his left arm. Nope, this guy definitely had no patience.

He thought that both him and Arthur would have enough time to run and find cover, or to at least lose the Jack, but was utterly surprised to see said man materialize another arrow already positioned in the bow. He quickly shot it, but Alfred was able to dodge that one. The Jack materialized yet another arrow and shot at Arthur, but he was already expecting an attack and was able to dodge too, but not without a scratch on his cheek. The man began shooting his arrows just as fast as he made them, and was very accurate even on moving targets. They might have dodged a few, but five arrows were already imbedded in Alfred and three were in Arthur before any if them could think. Quickly, Alfred realized that something was wrong (Other than having five arrows pierced inside of him), he was starting to slow down and his movements were getting too sluggish. Arthur was faring no better.

"I'm surprised you two aren't down yet, these arrows are laced with enough poison to have you dead in five minutes." The Jack said, as though he was idly talking about the weather. At the mention of poison, Alfred doubled over in pain, already feeling the effects coursing through his bloodstream. He cursed under his breath. 'Is this how it ends? Did we survive the demon in the tunnel just to end up dead by the hands of the Jack in front of them?'

"Arghh!" Arthur painfully grunted beside him, falling on his knees as another arrow embedded itself inside his right shoulder. There was now four arrows inside of Arthur, Alfred couldn't help but think. Counting the one on his right shoulder, there was an arrow in Arthur's left forearm, and two on his left thigh. He could see that Arthur was beginning to pale, and was breathing heavily, practically gasping for oxygen to enter his lungs. The litter of scratches from the missed arrows cut through his clothes, and there wasn't any part of his body that wasn't bleeding. Alfred knew that he looked no better than him, in fact, he probably looked worse.