/\Areiya & The -Invasion- Of Zanathis/\

/\Chapter 7-- Sir Erick's Queen/\

When the scream pierced our ears, Phethus and I shared a look before putting more energy into our run. We had to hurry before we lost her. We were just turning a corner when we pulled to a complete stop at what was in front of us. Sir Erick grinned at me as he held Zari in his arms. I narrowed my eyes at him, shooting daggers. He just let out a soft chuckle before speaking.

“Well Areiya, you’ve seemed to have caused quite the ruckus with these prisoners here.” He motioned around the cavern as he said this. I scoffed at him and then looked to see if Zari had been injured in anyway. To my utter astonishment, there didn’t seem to be a scratch on her. I shot my eyes back towards Sir Erick’s.

“Well, it would have happened either way. You shouldn’t even be holding us against our will in the first place.” I spat this, letting venom leak into my voice. He frowned a little at my words, seeming to think for a moment before speaking once more.

“Hmm… I guess that’s true, but I needed experiments and who better than aliens from different planets? I have kept you guys here for a specific reason actually; other than experiments of course. See, you guys are the warriors of your planets and I would really like to see exactly what you can do. Every power from a warrior is different, as I had experienced in the past. I had started out wanting to experiment on you guys the most, but that changed because I would rather have you as guards.” We all shared a look and then scoffed in unison. I then turned to look around the cavern to see if Zeth was anywhere to be seen.

It confused me when I saw no sign of him, but before Erick could catch my look of confusion, Phethus spoke up, just as Kai arrived.

“Look, we’re not going to be kept here and forced to be guards. Nothing you could do could possibly make us do that. We would die before serving you!” I held back a smile at Phethus’ words and held my head up confidently to show that I stood by his words. Sir Erick looked at me, noticing my movements and then he had the audacity to laugh.

“Oh, well I was planning on the others to be guards… but I had different plans for you Areiya.” I tried not to allow fear to grip me at the sound of his words. Gulping to stay calm, I cleared my face of all emotions and just stared at him blankly, deciding not to answer. He seemed to notice this and pouted as if he were a mere child. “Aww, you don’t want to know what I have in store for you Areiya?” I rolled my eyes at him, while searching around once more to see if there was a chance for us to escape. I looked at Zari in his arms and then decided to form a strategy.

Catching Zari’s eye, I motioned for her to break free from Sir Erick’s arms when I gave the motion to. She understood and gave a curt nod, trying to seem as if she were fidgeting when Erick looked towards her in confusion. I then allowed my blank gaze to shift towards Sir Erick’s once more, deciding that I would allow him to tell me what he had ‘in mind for me’.

“So, enlighten me then Sir Erick.” I sneered, making him look a little taken aback by my words and expression. Clearing his throat, he pulled himself together and allowed a smile to curve upon his lips.

“Ah, well… what I had planned for you is much more important. Since I am basically a King on this planet, I have to have a Queen obviously.” He looked at me as if he were giving me a clue. I just stared at him clueless, not knowing where he was going with this. But by the looks coming from Kai and Phethus, they seemed to know where this was going. I motioned for Erick to continue, and he seemed to sigh when I didn’t get where he was coming from. This was when I noticed that he was distracted, trying to figure out a way to tell me his ‘plan’ for me. I motioned for Zari to break free in that moment.

When she broke free, she dashed over to me and the guys. I smiled triumphantly when I saw a look of bewilderment cross Sir Erick’s face. He pulled himself together too quickly for my liking though, and let out a chuckle at my scheme.

“Cute Areiya; distract me so that your friend could escape.” He rolled his eyes before continuing. “Well, I guess I’ll just go ahead and tell you what I had in mind for you then, since you seem so impatient.” Sighing dramatically, his gaze locked on mine. “Well, since you didn’t get the hint before, I’ll just come out with it. You are to be my Queen, Areiya.” Everything fell silent in that moment as confusion took hold of me. What the hell is he talking about?! Why me of all people?! My voice seemed to become a mute when I tried to voice my questions.

“You disgust me.” Kai said this, stepping in front of me in a protective stance. I was still confused, so I didn’t try to act all high and mighty by him trying to protect me. I had to pull myself together though, and fast; or we might not be able to escape. Before Kai could continue, I put my hand on his shoulder, as did Zari. At the touch of Zari, he seemed to calm a little and turned his gaze towards us.

“It’s okay Kai.” I said this nonchalantly, finally pulling myself together. I was surprised by how calm I sounded as I spoke. I turned my attention back towards Sir Erick. “I guess it’s too bad that you won’t be having a queen then. I’d rather die than rule by your side.” I said this as if it were a smack in the face to him. His eye darkened when I said this and he seemed to become infuriated for the first time since I met him.

Just as he was about to do whatever he was going to do though, a hand landed on his shoulder. Looking up to see who it was, it was Zeth. I cursed in my mind, not knowing how we would escape now that we had a pissed off ‘king’, and his bodyguard that was pretty darn strong. Breathing in and out to calm my mind, I tried thinking of a solution to this problem. I looked to Phethus for advice, but he seemed to be deep in though. I hoped that his thoughts were focused on our escape. I slipped my gaze back towards the enraged Erick to see that he and Zeth were in a heated argument.

I looked at the others, seeming to think that this was the time for us to escape. They seemed to agree. Phethus grabbed my arm and Kai grabbed Zari’s arm and we all made a run for it towards the closest path. I was grateful that we had all been put through training for us to remain silent and stealthy, because now that was what we needed. Hopefully they hadn’t noticed that we had run off yet. I was proved wrong when I heard the pounding of footsteps coming after us. Though, we had a head start, so we should be fine. I still couldn’t stop thinking about Sir Erick’s words. Why would he want someone as disobedient as I to be his Queen? I rolled my eyes at the thought and was pulled sharply towards another pathway. The darkness clouded my vision, so I wasn’t sure if this was where it turned alone, or if there was another split. Hopefully it was a split, because that would at least by us some time.

I quickened my pace with Phethus as we heard the pounding steps of Erick and Zeth on our trail. I was almost relieved when I saw light coming up ahead and that was when we broke into another room. Looking back towards where we came, there seemed to be a boulder there as well. With the help of Kai and Phethus, the three of us pushed the boulder in front of the exit. That would definitely by us time. We then turned around and were annoyed to see that there were several passageways to go through in this room. We couldn’t handle splitting up again just in case we had no time to meet back up. We decided to go into the path that was second farthest from us.

Taking deep breaths, we headed down that way just as we heard the sound of the boulder moving. When we finally made it to the end of the tunnel, we noticed that this was where all the machinery was kept. Relief rushed through us as we saw spaceships lined up. We slowly made our way towards them, watching to see if anyone was here to guard them. To our puzzlement, no one seemed to be guarding these ships. Our minds were on high alert then, because maybe these ships were rigged with traps.

As we made our way cautiously towards the ships, an alarm went off. Shit, we were caught. We all froze for a split moment before rushing towards the ships at high speed. This couldn’t be happening! We just made it! We had come too close for it all to end now!

We had just made it into the closest ship to us when we heard feet hitting the ground and coming towards the ships. I tried to control my body from going into panic mode and then hurried to the navigation system since it seemed that I was the only one who knew how to fly a spaceship. They hadn’t learned it before they were captured. Just as I was walking towards the navigation room though, something tackled me.