Chapter 10: Start of Menace

As we passed through the gates of the castle, we finally made it out alive. I panted, trying to breathe for more air, while Farin did the same.

After a short stop, someone marched to us using a familiar horse, with a wagon clipping behind them. I couldn't be able to see their face under the darkness, but when I saw their glowing dots in their eyes, I finally recognized her.

"Dalary!" I exclaimed as she was riding on top of Dino. I didn't expect her to join us. I know that she's been helping me escape since she gave me my bag through mice, but I never thought that she will reveal herself.

"Hey, people!" She said as she beamed. Soon, her smile disappeared and turned into a solemn one. "Now hop on before they'll come over here!"

I didn't have time to ask. We both climbed to her wagon and at the same time, the knights stood up, started chasing us.

"Go, Dino!" She shouted, causing the horse to neigh and scuttled away from the gates, further into the capital.

We reached the empty streets of the kingdom as the moon above us gave way for us towards the escape, away from the knights, away from the menace chasing us.

In a faraway distance, we can finally see the west gate of the kingdom, the nearest gate in our direction. I smiled as I saw the closed gate that will lead us to freedom. But then, it instantly disappeared in our sight, covered by the tall hill on our course.

"We'll be heading to the gate!" Farin yelled.

"How do we get into it? It's closed!" I asked since there's no way that Dino could bump through that huge chunk of metal. He's a great horse, but sometimes, he has weaknesses.

"I don't know!" He answered, which made my eye shuddered.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "You planned all of this!"

"The knights are getting closer!" Dalary said as she went back to the wagon and away from the back of Dino, trying to balance herself to keep her from falling.

We both turned around to see the knights on their horses, charging towards us with their lances and swords, wearing protective armor that would mainly use for war.

Dalary tried to stand up, but failed to do so and forced to hold on the support of the wooden vehicle. She stared at the group of knights for a long time, while we just continued to watch what she was about to do. Among us, she's the only one who has the ability to fight.

After a long wait, we can see the result. The knights' horses started to disobey their masters' orders and ran in the opposite direction, away from our wagon. Others stopped in their tracks, causing the riders to be thrown into the streets. The soldiers were confused. I couldn't believe that Dalary can do something like that, it was amazing.

But that didn't stop them from trying to catch us, as some of them came back, now with more advanced vehicles that didn't require any animals or creatures to keep it running. I've seen those kinds of engines in books before. They're called cars, a product from Macropolis, a city of advanced technology, and a trading partner of the Deravon Kingdom.

And not just all, the knights riding on top of them readied their bows as they grabbed arrows from their quivers behind their back. When they grabbed one, they started firing us with the deadly projectiles.

They almost hit me on my arms but thankfully, they just stuck on the extension of my sleeve. Next, they started to throw arrows with red magic orbs, causing the place around us to explode every time. Dino managed to dodge some of them despite the wagon, but some of the vehicle's back was gone.

"They're shooting arrows at us!" Dalary shouted. She was limited in the animals and nature, and those that are chasing us are no nature.

"I don't have any hostile orb either!" Farin mentioned as he watched on both sides of the roads, trying to find a way to get out of the situation.

As none of us have no other ideas, I started to lose hope and just accept the fate that we're in. I knew it. This is really a bad idea. We're gonna die in this kind of state.

"Wait, Meria, you have magic, right?" My tree friend asked, filled with hope. I raised my eyebrow as I nodded, tried to identify what she was trying to say. " Then, do your magic!"

"What?! I don't know how!" I complained since it was the truth. I really can't control it. It's just showing up every time and out of my favor. Last time, I'm just trying to run away with my brother, and it just exploded inside of me.

"JUST… think of something!" She said as she started panicking. We finally made it to the high incline that is covering our way earlier, which made our pace even slower and closer to the enemies. But at the same time, they also lost focus and balance, making their aims less accurate and easy for our house to dodge.

Without any choice, I closed my eyes. As long as I can feel that pain that I've been struggling with before, I knew that I'm activating my magic. There's no such thing as a tutorial book on the library about controlling magic, so I'm not ready to do this.

I tried to feel it for a long time, while the wagon was moving, interrupting my concentration. After many tries to feel the pain, I have no lead, just a disappointment.

"Ughh… I can't do it!" I yelled out of frustration. Why does it have to be now? All I wanted was for those people to stop shooting arrows and chasing us. I just wanted to escape and leave peacefully.

Then, all of a sudden, the pain showed up. Before it will be out of my body, I raised my hand with an open palm forward towards the knights. I waited for the pain to be over as I prepared my hand to do its thing. I don't even know if this will work since I always doing this when I was still a kid during role-plays. It might be childish, but I guess I'll have to try.

Again, the pain didn't last long, and that's where I knew that the force will be let on the loose anytime soon. I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to imagine the pressure all over my body, to be transferred on my palm.

I can feel the force, and not on my other parts of my body anymore. After a while, the magic was released, pushing the knights in front of us with great force and fell down into the tall slope, making their chase to be much harder.

At the same time, the force also pushed us with incredible magic, sending us flying in the air, giving us a boost on the high slopes. Everything went in slow motion. I peeked roof of the houses from my vision, then finally, we dropped with a bumpy landing, but not too dangerous thanks to Dino.

I stared at my hand as I couldn't believe that my childhood technique worked along with my magic. I couldn't help but to release a smile.

"Woah! That was so cool!" Dalary yelled as she stared at me with bright blue eyes, even bigger than before.

"I-I controlled it!" I said as I too was amazed.

We can finally see a clear view of the gate we were heading, and we're actually getting closer to it. As we reached towards the closed gate, suddenly, knights stopped us from going further using their weapons. I gulped.

"There are more people in front of us!" Farin informed us we couldn't help but to also looked behind. The knights that I pushed came back but they wouldn't catch up if we keep running and not stopping. So the guards of the gate are the ones that are pretty hard to deal with.

I closed my eyes and tried to use my magic once more."Come on, come on…"

"There's no time!" My brother said as we were getting closer to the gate. "Bump on them! I'll open it!"

"Wait! What about you?" I exclaimed, filled with worry for him. Is he trying to do something so stupid and stubborn again?

"I'll catch up… I think." He said, unsure. These made me more concerned and anxious for him. He's been with me the whole childhood, so I couldn't leave him alone. I promised, after all.

Without giving me any time to react and say anything, he grabbed a green orb from his pockets and whispered the activation phrase to it, causing him to disappear inside the wagon, and further away to the gate. He went inside the shack sneakily as the knights are busy dealing with us.

Dino didn't hesitate to run towards them, causing them to be confused and started running away. At the same time, I can finally see the metal gate started to open in front of us.

"The gates are open!" Dalary said as we passed through the gates, away from the knights, away from the castle, away from the kingdom. We were finally running on the dusty ground below us.

I turned around to see my brother dashing, trying to catch up on our fast pace. The knights are getting closer to him, and he knows this too. I couldn't help but try approaching him, as close as possible.

"Farin!" I yelled as I lent my hand to him, trying desperately to take his.

He also tried the same thing. I don't want to leave him alone. I wanted to take him with us.

But unfortunately, he didn't make it and was grabbed by one of the knights, pushing him down into the ground. My eyes widened.

"Farin!!" Dalary yelled as she couldn't be able to do anything for him.

"Noo!" I also cried and continued to stare at him struggling from the grasp. Tears pouring from my eyes.

"No matter what happened, don't look back!" He shouted, didn't know that those are the last words I could hear from him.

My friend hugged her knees and buried her face to it, trying to hide her cries. I just lowered my head, clenching my hands.

I promised to not leave him alone… but I broke it.