The Iron Grip

Chapter 5

Traveling with the caravan was a simple life, and it remained so untill one of the adults figured out Lillie's secret.

"She is over here! The Princess is here!", shouted the traitor. Word spread like wildfire throughout the village, and soon the Royal Guard outpost was setting up a perimeter.

Scared and worried, Lana and Kiawe stuck close to Lillie, hoping that she would help the get out alive.

After an hour of being trapped in a small, crowded town, some action began to emerge. A large Corviknight landed outside the ring of guards. On top of the large, saddled bird sat the Queen of the iron gauntlet, Lillie's mother; the Queen. The residents of the village were let out from the circle, exposing Lillie, Lana and Kiawe.

"Why must you run Lillie? Come back to the castle", Lusamine pleaded.

"No! I will never stop running", Lillie replied.

"What wrong did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing. You never wronged me, but you have punished these people. They fear you."

"Okay, I've learnt my lesson. I will relax punishment laws, just come back home."

"You don't get it. I didn't run away to teach you a lesson. I ran away to stay away. Forever."

"Come here you little shit!" Lusamine grabbed her heavy iron sword and charged at Lillie. In response, Lillie grabbed a large stick and parried Lusamime's first strike.

Although a stick was no match for a sword, Lillie was fast and agile, using her speed to dodge the sword's otherwise crusing blows.

After a few minutes of parrying and dodging, Lillie seized a chance to bring the stick crashing down onto Lusamine's gauntlet. The metal glove resonated with shock, causing Lusamine to drop her sword.

Lillie, Kiawe and Lana ran. They sprinted away, eventually reaching a large marsh. Surely nothing bad could happen in a damp, rotting marsh.

Meanwhile, Gladion's search for Lillie was progressing at an excellent rate. Silvally had caught her scent again and was bounding over a meadow in a south-west direction.

Unaware of the fight, Gladion was looking forward to getting his sister back. Or at least finding her.

Behind him, Hau slept lazily. Gladion bad once wanted to cross to the free lands himself, but he had dropped that dream when he realised that he would have to cross the impenetrable wall. Hopefully Lillie would realise this too before it was too late.

Why had Gladion wanted to be free? Well the answer is simple enough. If he remained in the Queendom, he would be married to a rich aristocrats daughter. If he left, he could finnaly be with Hau. One must not forget this is the middle ages.

As Silvally stepped into the marsh, Gladionvquestioned why Lillie had run away, and if he would ever see her again.

Silvally's ears pricked up. He barked at the dense fog in front of him. Sure enough, out of the fog emerged three figures.

"Lillie", Gladion growled. "Come back home immediately or will I have to fight you?"