Royal Secret

More Than Expected

Out of breath and exhausted, the bandits ran and then Asher tripped and fell. "Shit, come on!"

Scoth turned around and stopped he breathed in heavily.
"I think we are safe now"

"Oh my gosh! What the heck happened with Ezra! That demon monster whatever it was!?" Asher yelled angrily.

"I don't really know, but my guess would have to be with something to do with Zephron" Scoth said sitting on a stump wiping sweat from his head.

"Can we trust Ezra? I mean he did almost kill Zephron and probably blackouts and doesn't know or remember what he is doing" Asher asked.

"I don't know"

Walking slowly Raven pushes back some leaves and makes a pathway for Crystal to walk.
"Let's go look for the others"

"Yea" Crystal said with a worried look on her face. I really hope they are okay. What if something happened!? My crystal was stolen and we know it carries power. What if-

Snapping out of her thoughts she quiets down and listens, she hears voices in the distance and quickly grabs Raven by the hand and rushes towards the voices.

"It's them! It has to be!" She exclaimed.

Looking up Asher sees Crystal and Raven, quickly he jumps up and pulls Crystal and Raven into a hug.
"You guys are okay! We were so worried!"

"Haha yea" Raven said punching Asher lightly in the arm.

"Wait" Crystal says scanning the area. "Where's Ezra?"

"He.. Uhh.. Had an issue.. And well he's dealing with it.. And umm.." Asher tried to explain.

"He blacked out and transformed into this monster and we found out that he was with the Dark Circle and is going through the price of leaving with curses and payments" Scoth cut in looking straight at Crystal as her facial expressions change.

"Wait! What!?" Raven exclaimed in disbelief running his fingers through is raven black hair.

After everything was explained and everyone told their side of what has happened, Scoth says "For now we need to be careful, those people are after something or someone" He says glancing at Crystal.

"Do you have the scrolls?" Asher asked remembering that Scoth had given it to them.

"Yes it's all here" Raven said patting a bag over his shoulder.

Scoth takes it and takes out a few papers, he sits down on a stump and goes through some of the old papers. He picks up a newspaper about a royal family The Gem Stone Kingdom a heading read.

"I think I'm going to get a rest" Asher says sitting up with his back against a tree.

Nodding and going through all the papers, Scoth skims the paper. No it can't be... She can't be.. But what if she is? Wait.. Brother? What?! Scoth thinks to himself as he reads the paper.

A New Princess
A new princess is born into this world. Who will one day rule the kingdom. The Queen Ruby and King Sage announced that Princess Astrid will be receiving the sacred crystal necklace. Born with the tattoo mark,she deserves the precious stone.

This isn't making sense.. That crystal.. Scoth thinks rummaging through the bag he pulls out another story.

Runaway Prince
Young prince Alexander ran away from his home. The king is desperately trying to find his son,but with the new princess he is preoccupied. Can he find his son? Will the young prince return?

"What is happening! This isn't making sense!" Scoth yelled waking up everyone.

"What?" Asher said sleepily.

Passing the papers to Asher, Scoth indicates to read the stories. Raven looks over Asher's shoulder he gasps and whispers something to Scoth. Nodding Scoth glanced up at Crystal who was still sound asleep on the ground.

"Don't tell her anything, yet. We need more answers if this is true then we need to find a way to talk to him." Scoth said.

"Before we do anything though we need to find Ezra."Raven said stretching his arms.

Turning around Crystal wakes up and sits up rubbing her blue eyes.

"Everything all right?" She asked watching the guys.

"Yea, we were just discussing.. Uhh.. About Ezra about looking for him" Asher said quickly putting the papers back into the bag.

"Uhm okay" Crystal said.

Later that evening as the sun was setting and they had been walking for a while Crystal heard rustling in the bushes.

Walking cautiously towards the bushes she listens for more noise. Suddenly a figure jumped out of the bushes and pinned her to the ground. Looking into the blood red eyes of the figure she froze.

"Ezra!" Asher yelled.
Looking up at Asher, Ezra still in his monster form, got off Crystal.

"Look, you don't have to be like that." Asher said walking cautiously towards Ezra.

"Get away! I'm a monster. Can't you see? Come closer and I could kill you" Ezra said backing up with a look of pain in his eyes.

"No, because I know you would never kill me" Asher said full of courage.

Coming up from behind Ezra, Crystal quickly put her arms around Ezra. As her head was on his back she could feel his heavy breathing and feel the wings he had.

"Please, you don't have to be like this. This isn't you or who you are!" Crystal said holding him tighter.

Releasing her grip on himself Ezra turned around and looked into Crystal's eyes. A flashback of a dark brown haired girl with emerald green eyes, looking at him the same way. Falling on his knees his hands on his face, Ezra cried out in pain.

Giving Ezra a tight hug, Crystal's eyes filled with light tears and as they fell, Ezra started to become more and more normal.

Putting his head on her shoulder he cried. "What have I done! Why!!"

Bending down on his knees Asher reached out to Ezra as he turned back into his normal form.

"Everything's going to be all right" He said reassuringly.

Hugging Asher, Ezra gave a long final breath before he fell to the floor. Quickly catching Ezra before he fell, Asher held Ezra up but then gave up and sat him down.

"He needs his rest, like I said he blacked out, he will remember he transformed, but he won't remember the damage he has done" Scoth said looking at Ezra's limp body.

"It's okay, I'm here for you buddy, don't quit on me now, I need you, you need me." Asher said holding onto Ezra. "I'm here for you and I always will be" he promised.