The Prince and The Pauper

Chapter 27

They walked along the dark halls for what seemed like hours without talking. On the bright side, they heard sounds of battle, which meant that they were getting closer. The humans didn't seem fazed at all.

"Aren't you scared?" Black Mist asked them in a whisper. "I know how vulnerable humans can be. I should know." He said that last phrase with a hint of guilt.

"No, we're not," a well-built man said. "We're actually part of the military. We can handle wars."

"Oh, if only you knew what was in store for you," the prince mumbled in his own language.

~.Royal POV (Astral).~

Chimera and prince skidded to a halt at the end of the dirt hall. They were near the battle now. Thankfully, they didn't have to go through much after passing the hall of mirrors. They were glad that they didn't have to go through all that shit. They both agreed that it was just a big waste of time.

"Hear that?" Wattchimera asked, settling to a trot. "We're getting closer."

"Yes," Astral mumbled. "What will we find, I wonder."

"Who knows?"

They kept going. Astral was now comfortable with the continuous movements of the mighty beast's shoulders as he trotted. It didn't bother him as much as before. Not even the harmless static frightened him. The tail was the only thing that made him jumpy. It was always swinging around and hissing at all the shadows that moved. He supposed it was on patrol, but still.

Wattchimera seemed to sense this and chuckled. "Does it make you nervous?"

Astral made a pouting face. "Well, it did take a large bite at me and almost killed me!"

The chimera nodded, acknowledging this. "True, true. Fair enough, but I was the one who commanded it." He smirked. "Not to fear, though. We have a common enemy. Best to settle it later."

"How about never?" Astral suggested, shivering at the memory of being unable to even touch him. "I have other things to do."

"Like what? Kissing your new boyfriend?" The chimera chuckled.

Astral blushed intensely. "Wh-what?" he stammered. "What do you mean? What boyfriend?"

"I have heard about the boy from the creatures lurking around here. They can read minds, and they have told me about his thoughts." He chuckled. "They tell me that he has a 'thing' for you."

The prince's face reddened more. "I have no idea what you-"

"Oh, stop it! I can tell you love him like that."

Astral waved him off. "Drop it."

"Fine, then. Be in denial."

"I am not in denial!" He crossed his arms. "I just don't like talking about it."

"Fine."

Still, Astral knew that he would keep at it until they arrived at the battle scene.

~.Human POV.~

Yuma and Akari arrived at the scene in time to see Black Mist with three people. Two were men and one was a woman.

"Hey!" Yuma called.

Black Mist looked over and flew to them. The people followed. "Yeah?"

"You're here!" Akari exclaimed, surprised. "How?"

"The ground exploded beneath us," one of the men explained. "We have no idea after, but this guy was protecting us from the rubble that fell."

"We need to get the innocent ones out of here," the woman said. "Where do you think they are?"

The siblings shrugged. They had no idea where the others were.

"Should we look?" Yuma asked.

The woman nodded. She looked at her male comrades. "I'm going. You guys help with the battle."

Yuma and Akari looked at each other with a skeptical look. Would they be able to survive the battle?

"Are you sure?" Akari asked.

"Yeah," Black Mist agreed. "It's going to be dangerous. You could die."

"That's always a risk when we do our job," the taller of the men said as his female partner walked off. "We're used to it."

"Fine, but don't blame me when you get killed," Black Mist grumbled in his own language with his hands on his hip.

Akari laughed at this remark, but Yuma didn't understand a word since he didn't learn the language. He gave Akari a confused look.

The humans shrugged. They all followed Black Mist's sensitive ears to the battle grounds.

~.Royal POV (Astral).~

They finally arrived at the battle grounds. Astral jumped down from the chimera's back and surveyed the chaos. He couldn't see anyone he recognized in the huge mass of bodies besides some figures that were away from them. One of them was his brother, another was Yuma, the other was his sister, and then there were two humans with weapons with them.

"Are they friends of yours?" Wattchimera asked, watching them with a sharp eye.

"All except the two who are dressed alike," he answered, referring to the two humans who he didn't recognize. "I wonder who they are."

"Shall we check? I know a way around this."

"Yes."

He once again mounted the Chimera and allowed him to take him through tunnels to get him to his allies. It wasn't a terribly long trip, just a few seconds, which came as a relief. He didn't want to spend an eternity in the tunnels just going to them! That would be redonculous!

When they found themselves behind them, Astral slid off again.

"Black Mist," he stated. "Yuma."

Both of them looked behind them to see Astral. A huge grin appeared on Yuma's face, but Black Mist's expression darkened.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he hissed at his brother in his own language. "Do you want to actually die!?"

"I fell through a hole and ended up here," Astral explained. "Now, what are you doing here? You know that your body cannot handle the pressure of battle as well as I can."

"Because!"

"Guys," Yuma interrupted, "we need to find a way to stop this!"

"Yeah," Akari added. "By the looks of things, it doesn't look like this place will hol for very long under these circumstances."

Astral looked around, the wheels in his brain spinning at incredible speeds. "We will not be able to simply go in and stop them. We need force, and a lot of it." He began pacing, gathering his thoughts. "Explosives, flashes, anything like that to get their attention. We just need to figure out the right method. Since there are too many to get the attention from a flash, something else will have to do."

Black Mist started adding on. One could say that his brother's intellect rubbed off on him. "There's also the matter that THEY will not listen to anything we say. They'll continue to go on their merry way..."

Astral stopped pacing. "We will have to take drastic measures..."