Rise Up, Stand Together (KingdomCraft Story)

Chapter Eight- The Next Explosion

-------------- The Desert Kingdom --------------

Joel snuck back into the kingdom around 5am, noticing that the hole he had blown up was in the process of being filled up. The sun was going to come up onto the horizon in half an hour, so he had to do it now or he would be caught. They weren't doing anything right now so he knew that this was the right time to strike. He took the TNT from his bag and moved over to the hole, before throwing the larger piece of TNT down beside it and lighting it, backing up quickly and getting behind the same tree that he did last night.

Covering his ears again, he heard the explosion go off, and this time, he didn't stick around, as he noticed there were 4 guards nearby, so he booked it back to the side of the kingdom gates where he could sneak through without anybody seeing him.

The guards rushed up after the explosion went off and saw the now longer and deeper hole.

The explosion was a lot louder tonight, so almost all of the villages on the East side of the Desert had their lights turned on, wondering about the explosion. Even Shadow heard it from inside the castle, even though the castle is closer to the centre of the kingdom.

The black dog jumped off of the bed and went to the window. She jumped up with two legs on the windowsill and looked around before jumping back onto the bed to wake up Shelby. Lightly nudging the Queen with her front left paw, it got Shelby to wake up.

Shelby rubbed her eyes tiredly and then looked at her dog. "W-What happened Shadow?" she asks in an extremely tired tone as she sits up.

Shadow jumps back off the bed and starts making motions with her body for Shelby to follow her. Shelby was confused as she wasn't sure why Shadow was asking her to follow. Shelby knew that Shadow's instincts were usually correct, so she slid off the bed and put on a pair of sandals, not bothering that she was still in her night time clothes and followed Shadow out of her bedroom and down the hallway. Of course, she grabbed her bow and arrow on the way out, just in case she would be running into danger.

She immediately became confused when Shadow began leading her across the Desert towards Vera, but then it became clear as to why, did another explosion go off?

That thought sent her into panic, so she began running into the night, Shadow next to her. She really should have gone to the stables to get Fayren so she could go quicker, but she wasn't thinking straight.

Each stride the Desert Queen took was a step closer to finding out if her worries were correct.

Shelby soon began to see Vera in the distance after about 30 minutes. She never was a quick runner, plus it didn't help that she was wearing a nightgown. She slowed down to a jog since she was needing to properly breathe. The stars were burning out at this point and the moon was disappearing behind the horizon.

Shelby and Shadow arrived at the hole where they saw at least 20 guards looking into the hole. Shelby immediately noticed the convenient size difference of the hole. It was deeper and longer this time. She feared that her observation was correct, and that King Joel did come back and make the hole bigger.

Shelby walked up right behind the guards and spoke, "What happened!?" she asks.

The guards turn to their Queen in surprise. "Queen Shelby! What are you doing up do early?" one guard asks, going up to her.

"Shadow woke me up, I think she heard another explosion go off here" she says, Shadow on the ground beside her, "Did you catch who did it?" she asks, even though she knows that it was probably King Joel.

The guards all shook their head, "Unfortunately no. A few of the guards arrived right after the explosion went off, but we guess that the culprit ran off before the explosion went off" another guard speaks.