18 Special Chapter: Lark POV (part 2)

I turned to go back when I heard something, I froze and carefully checked through the entire area surrounding me. That's when I spotted them, trudging through the forest, weapons in hand. It seemed like they were searching for us, from the way they were dressed I'd guess they were bandits. We need to get back now, before they found us. Silently and carefully, I made my way back to Sirius, I made sure not to leave any traces or tracks for the to follow.

"Five people, they seem to be bandits." I said as I reached to where I left Sirius, "They're close but not close enough." Sirius hummed to show he heard me, he seemed to think to it for a moment, "We should fight."

I was going to disagree when a thought came to me, what if by now they were already close or had found us, I removed all traces but they were always chances that I could have missed a few so I nodded in agreement so he continued, "They are probably searching for us right now, do you know the locations of all of them?"

I nodded again as I answered, "They only have one archer, the seem to be swordmen. We should take them out quickly before more of them arrive, if there are more." Sirius agreed along, "Lead the way then, I got your back." I nodded and lead him along, at times I doubted if this was our best plan. At least we wouldn't be having a surprise attack to worry about for the most part. As we walked on, I assumed the positions of the bandits. I looked around trying to figure out exactly how far they were and the approximate distance they should be in, based on the speed they were moving they should be here by now…

Then we saw them, two men silently but carefully searching the forest, searching for us. "Ready?" I whispered to Sirius who nodded in confirmation. When thy were close enough we both lunged towards them, swinging our swords, killing them as fast as possible with the least amount of noise that we could do. We continued searching for the others, wanting to get this over with as fast as possible. I didn't see him until I heard him out, "Found them!" I turned out searching for the source of the shout and saw a man running towards us with a cleaver-like weapon in hand. He aimed at me, swinging his weapon all over, I was glad I was closer to him than Sirius. It was easy to tell that he didn't really know how to fight nor use his weapon most effectively so it was easy to dodge and attack him. Surprisingly he managed to jump away; he probably had very good reflexes or just got lucky; I don't know. But I could fight him and I knew it.

Suddenly I heard the rough rustling of leaves and saw a shadow leap out at the corner of my eyes. The man went straight for Sirius who easily countered the attack. Sirius could handle the bandit in front of him so I focused on the one in front of me. I nearly had the man; this swing would finish him. I poised to attack and swung. Just as I felt the blade pierce him I the sound of metal against metal, too close for comfort. I pulled out my sword for the corpse and quickly turn just to find Sirius right behind me, sword against sword with another bandit. I nearly missed the archer on the tree directly opposite the both of us, I saw him smirk as he shot another arrow at us. Immediately I move in front of Sirius to defend him, hitting the arrow. When I turn back, I see Sirius pulling out his sword from the body of the now dead bandit. Simultaneously we both turn to look at the archer. The man jumps down the tree and tries to get away, seeing that my hand instinctively reaches for the crossbow on my belt, I aim and shoot before he can go too far, unfortunately that shot wasn't enough o finish him off. He stumbled and fell but got up again and tried to keep running. I aimed before I lowered my weapon and choose to follow him and get a better shot. Sirius running behind me. He clearly knew his way around the forest seeing as he twisted around at sudden and random moments and was quick to lose us.

I huffed and stamped my foot in annoyance, I can't believe I let him get away! He might warn the others and get back up, I noticed Sirius take a step back and turned to him, confused and worried thar he might be hurt more than I thought. "What's wrong Si-"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that; it was a stupid mistake. All I want to ask is that you don't tell anyone, Ares would take you in anytime. You're a great butler, and he really won't mind. Plus, you can fulfill what that voice wanted you too, I know she was precious to you. And I totally understand why you would leave-"

"ALEC! SIRIUS!! Whatever your name is," I cut him off his rambling, "What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere and I most certainly won't tell anyone!"

"Uh- but-but I-…... You won-won't?"

"Yes, my god. Seriously Siri- uh Alec you can be so stupid sometimes" I shook my head as I spoke. Seriously, I wonder what's going through his mind now…

"First of all, just call me like usual. And you aren't angry or anything at me?"

"I am, of course I am but, probably for a different reason you are thinking of." Considering his expressions and thought process of what I've seen, I'm quite sure we are both thinking fairly different things, he didn't reply at the start, I figured he was waiting for me to continue so I did, "I'm angry that you wouldn't tell me something as important as this earlier and pray tell, why are you so keen on pushing me on Ares every single time? Am I that annoying???" I am honestly starting to think that Sirius is just tolerating me because he has too and not that he considers me as his friend or servant.

"No! No!" He quickly exclaimed, "You said it yourself, the voice wants you to help him. If everything went along the original storyline Ares would be the one to save you, not me. So it is him you need to help and be with not me."

I stared at him blankly for a bit before releasing a long sigh declaring, "Sirius, she was talking about you! I'm certain of it. She disappeared after you- no, right the very second you spoke to me. She spoke about you. If it was Ares why would she have left when you came along and not when I met Ares for the first time?"

"Well that's because- that's because she knew you would meet Ares through me!" he stumbled on his words. He himself didn't believe his own words.

"Why can you not just agree that it was you and not Ares!?"

"That's the story! It's how it's supposed to be!!"

"BUT YOU ARE TRYING TO CHANGE IT!!" the moment the words left my mouth Sirius kept quiet, lips pressed together. I don't understand why he wants to keep somethings as they are and change others… Does he fear the change might cause a different future to form? A bad one? But how can he be sure it'll be good or bad even with small and slight changes?? "Sirius-" but before I could say anything, he gave a pained cry cutting off what I was about to say. I rushed closer to him only to find another arrow just below the first- well what is left of it, I guess he broke it a while back. This means there was another archer hidden somewhere, hastily I scanned the forest trying to find the enemy.

When I saw the group rushing towards us, I froze. They were probably part of the same group and all the noise may have alerted them of our location. This was a bit- no who am I kidding, it's a lot more worrying. We don't know how many they are or if there are more still at the back. I glanced at Sirius, with him injured like that I'm not so sure how well he'll be able to fight especially with a sword in just one hand. I was about to tell him to step back, try to get away and I'll follow as soon as possible when I saw him put away his sword and hold his hand out to him as he glanced at the crossbow. I understood immediately and handed it to him along with little number of quivers I had. I stood in front of him while he would back me up. I heard Sirius whistle, that was good with the horses here we have a quick getaway.

"GET THEM!! BEFORE THEIR HORSES GET HERE"

One of the bandits shouted as we heard the horses galloping. They rushed at us even faster, I saw quite a few archers and the leader standing back, while the others came closer to us. They knew and we knew, they were at a better position. We stood close to each other, making sure to keep our eyes on them

on all sides possible. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw one man jump at Sirius, I tried to turn and counter him but then another tried to slash at me, I barely managed to defend against him. He jumped backwards putting some distance between us that gave me a chance to check on Sirius.