The Hidden Orphan (The Chronicles of Mistar - Book 2)

Nine · · · Dest (.3)

He started walking again, the grating sound still making Dest cringe. If she had her wits and wasn't overcome with dreading fear, Dest knew that she would attack his feet along with Mell who probably had gone for his head.

"They're not my guard dogs," Mell mumbled. Her voice had turned ragged and hard as if metal on metal.

"Shut up," Dest heard Kast snap.

The sound of more struggles sounded throughout the desert until a moan erupted from someone's mouth from the hard slap of skin on skin.

Kast's distinctive voice let out a groan of pain, but Dest assumed that no matter what pain he was in, he still kept Mell close or the devilish man would already have been attacked by the princess. Kast was strong. Dest knew that there was no denying it.

"Stop it, Mell!" Ryn ordered sounding like the general he was supposed to become.

The man chuckled, distant and hollow and full of the fear he liked to spread. "The son of the general," he said, sounding almost interested. "You can't control a princess, boy. If anything, she controls you. Anyway, you're not a general yet. That job is still for your father. Never for you."

Dest heard Ryn hiss. "She's not my princess. She does not control me. I control myself and don't talk about my father that way."

"You might," the man interjected, "but there is one person that can control you and it is a princess if I can say so."

Ryn hissed again. She could feel his anger starting to bubble. Soon, it would overflow and he would explode. Dest knew that wouldn't be good. Somehow, she had to stop him and Mell from taring the man apart. By the sound of his voice and his demeanor, she knew that her friends wouldn't be able to take him.

"You cannot say so!" Ryn screamed.

"Not you too," Kast moaned. At least he had some smarts.

As she laid there, Dest could sense feeling returning to her fingers and her toes. Soon, it had spread to her legs, arms, and neck. She turned her head in the sand, getting a bunch of sand in her nose as she closed her eyes so she wouldn't get any more sand in her eyes. Dest stifled a scream when she saw the man in front of her. His boots were tall and as scary as his face, a full face of hair and bright, glowing yellow eyes that seemed to bore into her soul. When she saw him, all of Dest's worst fears came to pass. Dark, black birds with shining yellow eyes and silver constant metal beaks followed by a swarm of charmies flew from behind the man, coming straight towards her. Dest brought an arm to her face, but when no claws attacked her arm, she slowly moved it away to see that the birds and charmies were gone. She looked up to see them swarming over the man's head, glaring at her but not attacking.

That's when Dest realized she hated the sound the man's shoes made against the sand. It was the sound of birds cawing like the ones above his head. Dest wanted to throw something at them, almost forgetting the man was even there. She grabbed the thing closest to her, a piece of her broken sand board and threw it to the sky. On accident, it hit the man in the head.

Smiling he turned around and said, "Look who's awake. Or, at least, more than before."

"Make them go away," Dest mumbled, referring to the birds he liked to keep as pets.

"These?" he asked, pointing to the sky, pointing the birds and the charmies. "No. I cannot will them away. That's your job, and they're not mine if that's what you're thinking. It's a figment of your imagination, my dear."

The man then bent down in front of her, smiling like a crazy person. Dest could feel her heart racing even faster as if it was going to explode. She wanted to cry, so she did. She could feel her tears falling down her cheek over the sand that coated her face. The birds were dangerously close now. It took every ounce of energy in her body not to scream in terror as the man got even closer to her, less than an ip away from her face. She felt her mouth sputtering, wanting to scream, but all that came out were spit bubbles, drooling down her face. The man looked at her as if she was a joke.