Chapter Two - A Horrid Mistake

We started to head East, to a tiny old village I knew of, where a friend of mine stayed. Few people still lived there so it was the perfect place for us to hide out for a while. "Who is this friend of yours then?" Marie inquired. "He used to work in the castle, but one day when serving breakfast, he tripped and spilled water all over my father. He was quickly thrown out after that.." Marie sat in silence and said nothing. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Yes, and when they find us..what happens to me will be much much worse," she replied, worryingly. "Well, they won't find us," I said in confidence. "and even if they do. I will make sure nothing bad happens to you. I made you come with me, you didn't want to come. It's my doing, not yours." Marie looked down and muttered. "Thank you..and I hope you're as persuasive as you seem to think you are." I looked at her and smirked to lighten up the mood. "Well, you're here are you not?" She chuckled quietly to herself. There was little conversation the rest of the way. Just constant poking and prodding of each other with branches we had grabbed off the trees we passed.
 
By the time noon arrived we had reached the village. There were around 15 houses in total, but only several of them seemed to be occupied. "How come it's so empty here when our village back home is so over crowded?" Marie asked. "There's enough room here for at least 10 more families." Marie turned to me looking puzzled. "People moved away from here because they believed there was some kind of evil entity who'd come to the village in the night and torment the villagers. The people who are left are those who do not believe in such a thing." Marie's eye's widened with confusion and horror. "But why would some people experience things and others not?" she questioned. "Those who have supposedly seen the entity say it cannot harm those who don't believe in its existence. It can however trigger certain things. Say a chair falling over without a cause. Little things like that. If they didn't believe in it before, they would either continue ignoring those little things, or start to becoming scared and believe in it, therefore it would then be able to harm them." Marie looked across the village before looking back at me. "I'm guessing if we are here then you don't believe in it?" I'm smirked. "No. You know how loopy people can get when they have it in their head that some mythical being is real. I think they simply drove themselves to insanity out of freight." We continued up the village in silence until we reached a small house with the initials J.K carved into the wooden door. We jumped down from our mounts and I knocked on the door. There was a short moments wait before the door opened with a short, stubble faced man standing there. "Long time no see," he said to me with a smile on his face before stepping out and hugging me. "Nice to see you Johnny." I replied while laughing. As he let go he noticed Marie standing behind me. "The girl?" he whispered. I signaled for Marie to step forward. "Yeah. This is Marie. She's a friend. I know it wasn't the original plan to bring her along but I was hoping you'd have room for one more?" he smiled again, this time looking at Marie. "Of course. Of course. The more the merrier. Come in. Come in," he said while ushering us through the door.

We sat down at the long wooden table in the center of the room, Marie at one side and me at the other. Johnny then disappeared into the kitchen to fetch us food and drink. "How long are we staying here?" Marie asked. "Just the night. Tomorrow we head for next town over, we will be able to stock up with properly supplies there, but meanwhile, Johnny is lending us some camping equipment." Marie flinched at the thought of sleeping on the forest floor. "Oh great," she muttered. "you'd think after helping a prince to escape from home, and when he has a sack full of money with him that you'd be sleeping somewhere slightly more luxurious." I laughed as she chuckled along. "I told you Marie. Outlaws. There's no place for luxuries on this adventure," I said before sticking out my tongue. Just then, Johnny came back through with a tray of food and a jug of wine. "Help yourself," he said, placing it down on the table. "Thanks," we said at the same time. He sat down at the end of the table closest to us. "My drawers over flowing with the letters you sent me you know," He said looking at me. "Yeah. Sorry about that," I said smiling. "I tried to keep each one brief so you could take it in slowly and understand without thinking I'm completely mental." He looked at me before saying, "Well. I still think you're mad, but at the same time I don't blame you for wanting to leave. It's not a life I'd like to lead either. As lovely as it would be. I understand boy, that's all that matters." I said nothing but smiled again before reaching for the jug and pouring myself a glass of wine. "Remind me to get some of this in town tomorrow," I said to Marie. She rolled her eyes and smiled. "That girl doesn't need you drunk. You're trouble enough when you're sober," said Johnny, chuckling again.

For the rest of the day we assisted Johnny with some tasks around the village. He was planning on starting a small farm there, using the neglected fields and clearing out some of the empty houses to use as barns and sheds. "It'll be good when it's finished," he claimed. "I hope you'll come back when it is and see it for yourself." I stood up and brushed myself off after having been sat on the floor. "Sure we will," I said. By now it was getting late so we headed back to the house and retired for the night in order to get an early start the next morning.

The next morning we gathered our things, got our equipment from Johnny and fetched the horses from the field in which we had put them. We put the most important things into backpacks and the rest was attached to the horses. After we mounted our horses and said our goodbyes, I looked at Johnny and said, "Oh and keep an eye out for that entity," he winked at me before stepping inside and closing the door behind him.

As we were leaving the village Marie had a puzzled look on her face. "I'm confused. What was that all about..?" she asked. "Ahh. Well, the entity was a rumor made up by Johnny. He pulled little stunts to scare people in order for them to believe what he said was real, and long story short, he wanted to get rid of enough people to be able to build his farm. A tad cruel perhaps but he had tried to build it long before anybody had even arrived in the village but was told that for as long as people continued to move there he was not aloud. Now of course, nobody does want to live there so he is free to achieve his dream." Marie looked at me in shock. "Are you kidding me!" she shouted. "I spent half the night paranoid I was going to be attacked by some invisible demon!" I laughed and as she carried on in a rage about being fooled the laughing continued and tears began to roll down my face. As I began to run out of breath I started to calm down. "Marie, relax!" I said. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I never realised you were such a superstitious person." She frowned at me. "Hmph. I hate you sometimes." I patted her on the shoulder. "N'aww. Cute," I said, starting to laugh again. Just then she pulled on the reigns of her horse "I will slap you round the head so hard!" I smirked before replying, "Go for it!" I then tugged on the reigns of my own horse and went into a gallop through the forest, running away from Marie while she shouted, "Idiot!" "You annoying, man child! You're not funny!" "Get back here now!"

By that evening we had made great progress on our way and Marie had finally calmed down, too worn out to shout any more. As darkness started to fall we decided it would be best to stop for the night. "So do you believe in any supernatural things at all?" Marie asked as we collected resources to build a fire. "Sure. I mean, if nobody can give evidence that ghouls or mythical creatures don't exist then there's always that small chance it's real, even if we haven't witnessed it for ourselves." I responded. Marie remained quiet for the rest of the search.

When we returned to the clearing where we had decided to stay for the night we built up the fire and lit it before setting up the small tents we had acquired from Johnny. Afterwards we sat round the fire and made ourselves some soup as it was all we had until we reached the next town, Falcon Haven. "As much as you have annoyed me so far, I am glad I came with you. Even though I still think we're bound to be caught sooner or later. This has been a lot more fun than slaving away all day long," Marie explained as we ate. "I told you," I said while slurping up my soup. "I wouldn't have asked you to come if I thought you'd have been better off staying at the castle." She looked at me and smiled before saying, "Thank you." After that she said nothing else but disappeared into her tent and went to bed. Not long after I put out the fire and also went to bed.

Later that night I woke up to hear someone or something rumbling through our things. Lucky we had brought most of the important things inside with us. I lay trying to decide if it would be better to leave them to it or to get up and get rid of them. I decided to get rid of them in case they tried to take our horses. Slowly I unzipped the tent and as I peered out I noticed someone wrapped in a cloak searching the area as if they had lost something. I clenched a dagger in my hand but kept it by my side as I did not feel they were out to hurt us. As I stepped out the tent I stood on a small branch which snapped, causing the cloaked figure to freeze facing the other way with their back towards me. "What are you searching for?" I asked with a hint of harshness. They said nothing and I asked again, "What are you doing? It's unusual for anybody to step into someone elses camp when they are likely to be armed." No more than a few seconds later the figure turned to face me and I raised my dagger out in front of me. I still could not see their face for the darkness and hood made it nothing more than a shadow. "I only want to help," I explained. "I'm not going to harm you unless you give me a reason to." Just then, they raised both hands from beneath their cloak to above their head. Just then a blinding white light appeared between them and sparks began to dash from the light into all the trees around. This lit up all the trees as if they were covered in fairy lights and enabled me to fully see the mysterious being.

As it turned out, this being was a female. A rather radiant one at that. As she pulled her hood down I lowered my dagger, walked closer and stopped about 2 feet in front of her. She was stunning. She had one brown and one green eye, both enhanced by sharp black make up and very long deep purple hair some of which trailed down her back, the rest fell down over her shoulders and down her front. She was also extremely pail, not the sickly kind of pail but the piercing and attractive kind. Overall she was incredibly alluring and I couldn't help but stare. She smirked before speaking, "Hello, I am Paige Nightpride. I am the Queen of Crimson Scar," she announced. I continued starring wide eyed. "C-Crimson Scar? What the heck is that?" I asked. "Crimson Scar is the kingdom of all mythical and magical beings, it can only be found by those who posses powers of their own." I paused for a while in confusion. "Well.. I have no powers..no tricks. So whoever or..whatever you're searching for.. It's not here. Please leave, I'm trying to lay low." She took a step closer to me. "Yes. You do. You have great power, you just have not realised it yet. I know who you are.." She paused for a second. "Luke. Son of king Delsin. Heir to the Pethenian empire. The to be husband of Lady Ellena. But you disappeared. Ran away from it all. Yes. They're all talking about you. Searching for you. Thinking you've been kidnapped or killed," she said slowly. "I didn't want to cause all that but I had no choice! There was no way of leaving without creating problems and there was no way I was willing to stay there either!" I exclaimed. "Shhhh," she hissed. "You need to be quiet. I have no objection to your actions Luke. In fact, they work in my favour. I wish to take you with me to Crimson Scar. Teach you how to enable your powers. You'd be a great asset to us. You'd also be hidden from those who are looking for you. What do you say?" I remained quiet for quite a while, confused about what was happening but overjoyed at the thought that I could go somewhere I'd never be found.

Meanwhile Marie had been woken by my shouting and had crept up behind some trees near by. Assuming Paige was a threat to us she leaped out from behind them running at her with a blade. Before I could say a word Paige had pushed me to the ground and as quick as the eye can blink she killed Marie with what appeared to be a lightning bolt strike. As I heard her screams I shouted at the top of my lungs "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SHE WAS WITH ME! SHE WAS MY FRIEND!" Alarmed by my screeching and the fact that she had made a terrible mistake Paige fumbled backwards to the ground. She froze looking at me startled. "I'm so sorry Luke! I thought it was somebody looking for you and she was about to kill me too! I had no idea! It was an instinct reaction!" I couldn't find the words to respond. Instead I slammed my fist against the floor in anger. "I am really so so sorry," she said again. "I didn't have the chance to respond in a sensible way! I've spent a lot of time fighting for my life in your land. If anybody comes at me like that it's an automatic response to get rid of them before they get rid of me!" I looked at her with resentment. "Go.. away.. now.." I said slowly trying to stop myself from shouting again. "I don't care who you are.. I don't care what you want.. Just leave.." She rose to her feet. "Luke.. You'll be so much better off in Crimson Scar.. I hate myself for what I have done but I never did it deliberately.. You of all people should know the lengths you have to go to for something you want more than anything and I want you to join us because I know what you are capable of and it is unlike anything I've ever known." I looked across to see Marie's body then looked back towards Paige. "Why.. the hell.. Would I willing come with you, and help you after you murdered the one friend I had. The one person who was there for me and helped me when I needed it most." She walked over and crouched in front of me. "Because you know that even if I hadn't killed her, she would have killed me. Either way one of us wasn't going to survive and it just so happened that it was the girl you just met and not your friend. If she had just made herself known instead of trying to attack me things would have ended better. Also, you know you can't keep running forever. One day they're going to find you and take you home and that is the last thing you want or need. We can take her body with us..and we can give her the send off that I am so sure she deserves as soon as we arrive..you know it's the best choice Luke." I remained silent for a little while then stood up slowly. "I will come with you, but only so once you've taught me how to use my powers I can use them to take you down too." She raised back up to her feet and smirked at me. "Well, I do like a good challenge."