A Cautionary Tale

Part 5

Fifteen minutes later found the group slowly trudging along the path once more. Slowly because Darreth was still out of it and Cole had decided that dragging him along the ground was the best way to handle the situation. Kai had placed his burgonet on the archer's head so he wouldn't get a concussion (though that was up to debate since Cole kept dragging him over rocks. When Kai had carefully asked him if maybe he could be more careful, Cole had told him he hit too many trees to count because of "this idiot" and left it at that).

Their journey was mostly silent, until Cole groaned and started picking at some of his make-up. "First Spinjitzu Master this stuff is annoying," he mumbled.

"Cole!" Jay hissed incredulously. "Stay. In. Character!"

"Yeah," Lloyd spoke up, attempting to whisper but failing miserably, "Kai is right there!"

"You do know I can hear you guys?" Kai told them.

"Look what you've done, fairy!" Lloyd face palmed.

"I'm not a fairy..."

It was at that moment when Darreth woke up. His waking up process began with a series of loud and annoying moans that felt as though they were extremely exaggerated. It was after the ninth moan that Cole just dropped him and the group waited for him to wake up.

"Ohhhh my head," the archer whined from the ground, his eyes slowly beginning to open. "Ughhhhhhhhh."

"Oh no, does your head hurt?" Cole asked sarcastically. "It's not like you were forced to hit like twenty trees or anything."

"How could you?" Darreth wailed.

"Kai gave me my free punch!" protested Cole.

"Sorry Darreth, I did," Kai piped up before Darreth could complain to him. "But, now that you're awake again, let's keep going!"

Darreth made some annoyed noises before pushing himself to his feet and clutching his head.

"Do you need some advil?" Jay asked, opening his bag and pulling out a water bottle and a bottle of advil from his bag. He handed the items to Darreth and, without even looking, slapped Kai's hand away from his bag. "Nope. My bag. You don't get to see what's inside."

"Oh come on!" wailed Kai.

Jay just shrugged, then placed both the advil and the water back in his bag once Darreth was done with both. "Let's continue on our merry quest!"

As the group began walking, Darreth noticed something in one of the trees. Upon further inspection, he realized it was a person with something pointed at Kai's back. "Uhh, guys," he slowly began. No one listened to him. "Of course no one listens to me," he grumbled.

He was about to try and get their attention once more, when he saw the person pull the trigger on the weapon in their hand. "Oh no!" he cried. In a pure moment of panic and desperation, he threw himself at Kai and shoved him aside. Just as he did so, he felt the dart hit him (it was fake, so instead of the end being a point, it was a suction cup and it stuck to his chest).

"Darreth!" Jay cried out, falling to his knees and gasping at the sight before him.

"What happened?" Kai asked, also falling to his knees. He pulled the dart off of the archer and examined it.

"It's poisonous," Jay said softly. "He's dying."

"Up... there..." Darreth said it a horrible fake weak voice, pointing up in the trees. And then, he fell limp.

"Darreth?" Kai cried out, shaking his friend. "DARRETH?"

"Uhh, guys?" Lloyd said slowly. "Luh-Loyd thinks we have bigger problems." He pointed to the same area Darreth had been pointing at, and they gasped when they saw the assassin had returned and was pointing a small crossbow at Kai. The string was still quivering.

"I warned you all," she growled, jumping down from the tree. "Now, you shall perish, Sir Kai and company."

Kai growled and pulled out his sword. "You'll pay for killing Sir Darreth!" He yelled, brandishing his weapon.

The assassin just tilted her head to the side, looking more amused than anything else. "We shall see about that," she purred.

Suddenly, the assassin pulled two small knives out of nowhere and pounced. Kai gasped and dodged, slashing at his opponent. Said opponent glared and blocked the attack, taking a swipe at Kai's face, forcing the knight to back up or risk getting his eyebrow slashed (again).

The two adversaries exchanged blows, neither quite gaining an edge above the other. Finally, assassin tripped Kai, causing the knight to fall flat onto his back. Kai gasped as the air was knocked out of his lungs, his sword skittering out of reach.

The assassin planted a foot onto Kai's chest. "You have failed, Sir Kai," she whispered, her tone like poisoned honey. She placed the tip of her dagger against his throat. "Any last words? Because I'm going to enjoy listening to your dying breath!"

Kai gasped and felt around for a weapon. His fingers closed around something and he smirked. "Yeah, actually," he said. "This is for Darreth."

He stabbed the dart in his hand into the assassin's arm. The assassin shrieked and jumped off of him, falling onto her back. She writhed on the ground, hissing and wailing curses at the knight before going still, her eyes fluttering shut.

Kai pulled the dart off of her and chucked it to the ground, breathing heavily. "I... just... did... that..." he gasped.

Suddenly, the assassin shot upwards and Kai immediately groaned. "Are you kidding? I thought I killed y—"

"Don't mind me!" she whispered, casually walking towards Darreth and hauling him upwards. "Just two dead people casually walking away from the scene!" And with that, the archer and assassin bolted away.

"What just happened?" Kai asked, extremely confused.

"The dead people went to the departed realm, all dead people do it Kai," explained Jay as if it were the most obvious and normal thing in the world.

"Nah, they're actually zombies and went to eat the nearest village," Cole said seriously.

"Don't listen to him!" Jay replied loudly. "He doesn't know anything about anything!"

Cole just smirked.

There was a moments silence as the events that just took place finally sank in. "Okay, this prince has done too much damage to the forest. Let's go kick his butt guys!" Kai declared, standing up and picking up his sword. "Lead the way, Luh-Loyd."

So, the group of four continued down the path and into the woods.