𝐁𝐄𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 // 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘤

𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔢

"Nizhoni!" Andrea shrieked as she crawled her way out of the dark forest.

Nizhoni shot up to her feet. "Andrea?! What's going on? Where's Bai?"

Andrea's feat staggered underneath her, tripping her way into the camp. "There's no time to explain," she coughed through panted breaths. "We must wake everyone before they get here!"

"Who?!"

Not even a split second passed before an arrow lodged itself into the tree next to Nizhoni, only inches away from her head. Andrea drew an arrow and faced the direction from where the arrow came.

"Hunters."

"Everyone get up!" Nizhoni shouted as she hurried through the camp to shake them all awake.

All in a daze, the rest of the group pushed themselves up to their feet, still having no idea what was going. Each grabbed a weapon and stood in a semicircle with Nizhoni and Andrea.

Corrine grabbed her sword from the ground. "What the hell is it?"

"Andrea where's Bai?" Kai demanded to know.

"The-The hunters...they took him," Andrea stuttered. "I heard them but they were so quiet and quick, even my ears and eyes couldn't locate them. Before I knew it, we were ambushed. One of them took a jab at me and knocked me off Bai. Then they were chasing me and I couldn't find him, but they followed me back here."

The royals stood in silence with their blades and bows firm in hand, waiting for the next attack. Andrea's ears perked up, hearing the quiet sound of leaves crunching.

"Aurelia, you have one on your right."

Aurelia squared her shoulders to where Andrea was pointing. "Here?" she assured quietly.

Andrea nodded.

Aurelia flexed her fingers that pointed to the ground and slowly curled them upwards. A vine followed the motion of her fingers until whipped her arm out in front of her, shooting the vine out of the ground and colliding with something in the dark. A groan followed, but so did the rest of the hunters as they all took off after the seven in a synchronized attack. A little more than a dozen horsemen burst out the darkness with long blades that glistened in the firelight. Their dark cloaks lapped in the wind as they circled the teenagers and then all at once, they attacked.

Corrine caught a blade with hers, fighting against the hunter's force that crashed down on her. Corrine dove out of the way and spun her way around to retaliate, sinking her blade into the side of the horsemen. Eros and Axel took on the next two, both taking the horsemen down successfully with their swords. Nizhoni quickly turned to each of the horsemen, arm extended out, and stripped all of their weapons from the rest. Aurelia reached to the ground and pulled up enough vines up to wrap around every solider, trapping them in its twisted grasp. The horsemen struggled for breath and tried desperately to squirm their way out from their fate, but the vines were too strong.