King's Arrow

Chapter 3

 

I feared that my life has already ended, without even achieving my life-long dream of being a part of the king’s elite archers led by the kingdom’s best, Celeste, she is the most talented archer in the kingdom and is no doubt the fairest in the whole of Ediam with her unrivalled beauty, slender body, elegance, and grace. Despite her angelic beauty, she is feared even by men because of her unmatched shooting skills. And like all fair maidens, she has more than her fair share of suitors in her doorsteps, coming to see her every day, at any given hour, but unlike most, she has never accepted even one of them, she just politely rejected them, one by one.

Well anyway, I have always dreamed of being part of her team, but it seems today that my dreams together with my life are going to be crushed, literally. I braced myself for the impact but there was none; even the loud sound of the boulder crushing the tower was gone. As I opened my eyes, I saw the giant boulder stopping at its track, I was confused by what I saw, so I looked around and said to myself, “ heaven must have had a boulder floating around in these parts” , but it was still the same place as where I ducked, so I stood up and ran to the exit away from the building. A second later as I exit the tower, the giant boulder started to crack, and exploded into a million shards of what seemed to be black glass. Remembering about the girl, I turned around to see her next move but instead of her standing, I saw her lying in the ground motionless, with her head rolling a few feet away from her body, and behind her stood Juna “ That’s something you can’t do every day, you should learn from this rookie, always hit the target” he said. As I responded “ But my second arrow hit her ne…” “hush, you should have aimed for the head, by the way, where’s Oripe?”. I pointed at Oripe’s arm lying in the ground holding his sword. “poor Oripe” said Juna. He went to where Oripe’s hand lay, but as he passed the lying body of the girl, the girl’s hand sprang to life and caught Juna’s foot, the girls head a few feet away from where the body lay started to shake, its eyes and mouth opened and from the inside emitted purple rays of light. 

Juna tried to kick the hand off but still cannot escape from the firm grip of the girl. The girl’s head floated in its place and looked at me, moving its lips in what I read as “help Me”. I looked at the girl in the eye and in her eyes, I saw a valley. I was sucked into her eyes, I left reality and was floating in the valley. Beside me floating was the girl, her head intact and she had no signs of dehydration, hunger or fatigue with her. She had a nice voice which said “follow me”, and then I followed. We flew in the air, she showed me the way to a forest, And from the aerial view, the place was not familiar in any maps. In the forest was a cottage, we landed from the air and walked to the cottage, inside the cottage was a man. I was amazed by what I saw, It was the mage of Aroman Himself, the one I read in stories and heard in legends. He was responsible for single-handedly stopping the war in favour of Ediam, he was the hero of our Kingdom. But before I can get close to him, I was pulled off from the journey and went back to reality. I looked at the girl’s head and a stream of black fluid flowed from her eyes, she seemed sad but then suddenly grinned. 

Still confused from what I saw, I tried to help Juna, but before I got to him, the girl’s free hand reached for the sword in Juna’s hand and in one quick slash, sliced his body in half. A second later, the head stopped floating, dropped to the ground and then followed complete silence. I stood there for 5 minutes trying to believe everything that had happened today, desperately hoping that it was all just a nightmare. I looked around, and saw the tower destroyed, then I looked back and saw Oripe’s Hand, Juna’s sliced body, and the mysterious girl’s headless body. After a few more minutes of standing still, I regained my composure and took my horse and left to the nearest outpost where I reported everything that transpired an hour before. 

Two soldiers followed me back to our outpost and was shocked from what they saw. One of the soldiers returned to the main forces to report everything that he saw while the other soldier and I stayed back to investigate more of the scene. “what the heck happened here?” asked the guard. “As I told you, a girl just suddenly came out of the forest and attacked us without reason, Juna banished except for his arm and sword, and Oripe was cut in half by the headless body” I responded with a trembling voice, “you sure you didn’t do this?” he said, “ How can I even attack my fellow soldiers?, and how could I destroy a tower as tall as that?” I answered. “ Well how do you explain the tower then?” he asked with an investigative voice, “So you’re starting to suspect me now? As I told you earlier, the girl summoned a giant boulder above the tower, because I shot her neck” I answered hastily. “ One shot cut her head off?” he asked raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms. “ Arrrggh. You weren’t listening aren’t you!? Oripe, the soldier in half, cut her head off, but the headless body caught Oripe in the leg and stole his sword to cut him in half.” I answered in an annoyed manner. “ So you’re telling me that the headless body moved?” he asked again, still with his eyebrow raised and arms crossed. “ You really aren’t going to believe me are you? Well, let me add this, the detached head even floated and emitted a purple light, and said “Help Me”” I answered in a tone fit for telling horror stories. “Yeah Right” he answered in a sarcastic manner, “I now totally and truthfully believe you kid” he added. But I knew he didn’t believe me, it’s just so hard to take in.

 I moved to the tower and sat on its base, I leaned my back to the wall and tried all I could to take it in, considering that this was all real. The “detective” guard still kept looking around the scene. A few moments later, the guard who left for the main forces came back together with two more soldiers. 

One of them is Captain Louis, he is one of the Captains under Miss Celeste’s leadership, white hairs can be seen from the head of the captain, signs of his age, but his age did not define him, and he is a good hunter and goes well with the art of the sword. “so what you say is true” he said to the Guard that called them, “ Bring me this boy that you spoke of” he added, referring to me. I stood up from the base of the tower and walked toward the Captain. “What is your name boy?” he asked me. “My name is Zeren sir, I am a trainee appointed to train in this outpost, together with me are Oripe and Juna.” I answered, keeping my head down. “Do not be scared child. Now tell me, where are Oripe and Juna”