Stolen Truth

9

Viper had, of course, called an early meeting in light of what had happened with blanks seeing me as a dragon. So, after she felt that she had yelled at me enough, she hauled us to the council tent and demanded Bear fetch everyone else.

"We need to leave now!" Viper said once most of us were in the tent. "The blanks are already looking for the prince, the fact that they were even in the hills just proves it, and now, they're looking for a dragon as well..." she said, giving me a pointed look, "It's only a matter of time before they find the prince, and then us."

Most people muttered in agreement after she had finished her tirade, although some people still seemed to be on the fence.

"We can't just leave now," Shark protested, and for once I had to agree with him, "A week was barely enough time in the first place, and now you want to cut it short? If we leave now we'll all die."

"And if we don't leave now, everyone here and the prince will die!" Viper countered, raising her voice.

"He has a point," Bear said reluctantly, "You can't send all of us to our deaths. If you're worried about them finding the camp then you should work on training us as normal, so we can defend it."

"But what about the prince?" Viper asked, looking at Bear pleadingly, "You always wanted to find him."

"But not at the cost of everyone else at the camp. I care about these people here, all of us are family. A real prince would've tried to find us, we don't need him."

This argument went on for a while longer, everyone was yelling and trying to get their point across. Things were getting more heated and it looked as if Viper would explode, we were all saved by Raven, who had been missing for most of the night. Raven walked in and whispered something in Viper's ear, something that made Viper's lips curl into a smile.

Now, normally I would assume that someone walking in late, especially in the middle of an argument, would set Viper off, but whatever Raven had said to her was obviously important.

"We have new information!" Viper announced once Raven had taken her seat.

"Well, are you going to tell us?" Owl asked, after a dramatic pause.

"She doesn't have to tell you," Spider pointed out, "You can just see for yourself."

"But that's a violation of her thoughts! I can't just pick and choose what I see all the time, I could see everything if I tried now, I would never do that without her permission," Owl argued before turning back to face Viper, "What is it?"

"The prince is already a prisoner," Viper said, grinning at all of us.

"How is that good?" I asked tentatively, I hadn't really spoken since everyone started arguing.

"The blanks don't know which prisoner he is. According to some gossip Raven heard, some of the children that the blanks kidnapped after the attacks have been trained as blank soldiers for war. The prince was taken as one of those kids but that was eleven years ago, no one knows who he is anymore."

"So, we're trusting gossip now?" I questioned, still struggling to see what was good about all of this.

"No, but if you think about it, it does make sense," Viper said, emphasising the you.

"I suppose," I said, catching on to what she was saying, after all, I was a soldier not long ago and now I'm here. Maybe I was just one of those captured kids.

"Exactly," Viper smiled.

"So, the prince could still be a prisoner at one of the war camps or training camps?" I asked.

"Yes."

"And the blanks have no idea which one?"

"Yep."

"What if he was one of the soldiers you killed?" I asked.

"He couldn't have been," Fox interjected nervously, "The prince wouldn't just die, plus we would know if it were him anyway."

"Okay," I surrendered, I felt I should point out that I 'didn't just die' either, but I suspected there was already enough tension without everyone knowing that I used to be a blank soldier. I suppose if this prince really was powerful they probably would've known anyway, Wolf probably could've seen it.

"So, shall we leave tomorrow?" Viper asked, clasping her hands together.

"I think we should leave on the day we agreed," Raven said, of course, she didn't know of the argument that had occurred earlier, "I only heard a couple generals talking and I think they want to keep this whole prince thing under wraps, at least for now. Plus, they'll be busy looking for a dragon now as well, if anything, that stunt that Rat pulled in training bought us more time."

"But if they're looking for a dragon everyone here could be in danger," Viper pointed out, "We must leave now."

I was kind of torn between the two. I didn't think I was anywhere near ready to fight the blanks, but I didn't want to put anyone else in danger either.

"L-let's have a vote," I offered nervously.

"Okay," Viper agreed, "Stand if you want to leave tomorrow." Only Owl, and much to my surprise, Dove stood in response to Viper's command. The rest of us stayed seated, awkwardly looking around the room and avoiding eye-contact with Viper. "Looks like we leave in four days," Viper muttered in disappointment."

We all left and went to our tents, but Owl pulled me aside just as I was about to enter ours, "It's okay, you know?" he said, "Whatever you're hiding, you can tell us when you're ready."