Misunderstanding

Ashur scanned around the quiet forest vigilantly as his muscles tensed for any unexpected attack from the forested surroundings.

Rushing out of the dense foliage, a figure suddenly appeared and slashed at Ashur.

Ashur quickly deflecting the slash, Ashur noticed that this attacker's slash was not as heavy as the slave traders he fought. But what the attacker lacked compared to the slave traders from before, made it up with skill, as Ashur could tell that this attacker is a few times more skilled than the slave traders from before.

Ashur could tell when they clashed, that they had about the same strength, but Ashur was much more skilled and deflected the attacker's strike.

As the figure attacked him, Ashur got a good look at him.

he had long pointy ears, short brown hair, and he was currently in a set of shiny metal armor that had intricate and beautiful designs on it.

Ashur did not know why this person who looked to be a knight suddenly attacked him, but he did not hold back, as he was afraid if he held back, with him protecting Riveria, he did not want to leave a chance for him to call for allies or suddenly attack Riveria.

The knight was not discouraged that his surprise attack failed, and quickly followed up with a slash to Ashur's side.

Ashur did not dodge, as Riveria was just behind him, so he blocked the knight's strike to his side, and countered with a kick to his chest, which knocked the knight down on his back.

Ashur held his sword to the knight's neck, but suddenly, a few more armored figures rushed out and suddenly stopped in place when they saw Ashur was currently holding a sword to their comrade's neck.

But when they spotted Riveria behind Ashur, they suddenly pulled their swords and were about to rush at Ashur.

Suddenly as they were about to move into action, they heard a loud "Stop!" from Riveria in the back.

They hesitated and before they could make a decision, Riveria shouted, "Stop, he's my savior!"

Hearing this, they seemed to calm down and lowered their swords, but not sheathing them.

Ashur looked at them lowering their swords, but he did not do the same, as he was still a little vengeful from the fact that if he never dodged, he would have already have been a body on the floor.

"Ashur, this is a misunderstanding, please lower your sword" pleaded Riveria, as she saw that he had no intention of lowering his weapon.

Ashur let out a "Tch" before he suddenly sheathed his sword, and backed off the knight he was stepping on.

The knights were less tense seeing this and decided to also sheathe their weapons as a sign of goodwill.

The knight that was under Ashur's foot got up begrudgingly, and ran over to the group of knights and joined them.

Soon, the one who seemed to be the leader stepped forward and said "Princess, we have been looking for you everywhere."

"What Princess?" Ashur confusingly asked the knights.

This question ticked off the knight that Ashur had just beaten, and he shouted "You are in the presence of Princess Riveria, and you dare to claim to not know who she is?!"

It took Ashur and Ene a few seconds to process what they heard before they both screamed "Princess!?"

As the knights saw Ashur's shocked expression, one of them asked "Hun? Is there someone else here? Where did that voice come from?"

"Now that you mention it, I thought I had also heard a voice alongside his," said another.

Ashur knew that they must have been talking about Ene, and because he did not want to tell them about Ene right now, he decided to change the subject.

"Riveria is a Princess?" asked Ashur towards the knights.

The leader replied to his questions and said "Yes, and we are tasked with finding the missing Princess Riveria."

"Our leader was tracking a carriage that we suspected of abducting the princess, and when we caught up to them, we discovered that they were slave traders. So we promptly got rid of those bastards, but not without politely asking where the princess was, which they said she escaped alongside another elven child. so we started searching the area they had said, after hours of no luck, we spotted a fire in the distance." explained the leader.

Ashur what heard the leader said, and everything made sense, except one thing.

"If that is true, why did he attack me?" asked Ashur while pointing at the knight that he had beaten.

The leader looked troubled, and turned to the knight Ashur was pointing at and, asked "Sir Calen, could you explain yourself? I thought we only sent you to scout, so why did you attack?"

The knight in question Calen snorted with clear dissatisfaction and replied "I didn't see his ears and thought he was a Pallum, so I thought he might be a slave trader, so I took no chances."

There was indeed some truth to the knight's claim, as Ashur's long ears were indeed concealed behind his long hair, and unless they were up close, it would be indeed hard to spot. But he was still unsatisfied, as he had nearly been killed, and still had a bit of a grudge.

'Hold on, why did he speak like being a Pullum was a crime?' thought Ashur in confusion.

"You should have waited for backup and assessed the situation before you attacked! He is clearly a High elf!" said the leader before he continued "When we get back, your punishment will be settled."

Hearing that he will be punished, Calen sneered at this, but he quickly went back to normal because of the stare he was getting from the leader.

'Again, why does my race matter?' thought Ashur.

"I apologize for my subordinate's actions," said the leader, as he continued "Since we have found the princess, we shall escort the both of you back to the palace, please cooperate," said the leader.

"I'm guessing this is not optional?" asked Ashur, noticing that they were prepared to fight given his answer.

"Unfortunately, we are under strict orders to bring princess Riveria back to the palace under any circumstances, please understand." said the leader before continuing "We just hope you do not interfere with us bringing the princess back, and you are welcome to accompany us, as you would be heavily rewarded for saving her."

Instead of answering them, Ashur turned to look at Riveria and asked "Do you want to return? Because I wouldn't mind fighting them if you don't."

The knights grew incredibly tense when they heard what Ashur said and a few of them already had their hands on their swords.

Riveria was shocked when she heard he would even fight her father's knights and risked being hunted by the whole kingdom just for her.

"Alright, I'll go" said Riveria,

It was a lot more sensible for her to agree to go with them, instead of them being hunted, all she wanted was to explore a bit and did not want to pull Ashur into her mess.

Seeing that Riveria wanted to return with them, Ashur said "Fine then, so when do we depart?"

Seeing Ashur not putting up any resistance, the knights sighed in relief and the leader said "We will depart immediately" and he continued "We will ride on horseback for about halfway, then you two will be picked up by a carriage and then brought back."

After the knight leader was finished, he turned to a few of his knights and said "Go bring over the horses"

"Yes sir!" said the knights, before they started running in the direction they came from.

Soon, after waiting about five minutes, the knights returned with each one of them guiding two horses by their reins towards the group.

After they brought over the horses, the leader noticed the number of horses and could only embarrassingly say "I'm sorry to say this, but It seems like you are going to have to ride with one of us sir Ashur, as we only brought a spare horse for princess Riveria, I hope you can understand."

"No matter" Riveria suddenly said to the leader, "He will ride with me".

One of the knights hesitated and said "But Princess.."

"No buts! I have already decided!" said Riveria firmly.

They all knew how much elves don't like other than those who they are close to, to touch them, and they were ready to begrudgingly allow Ashur to ride with one of them, but seeing Riveria so firm, they could only drop the matter.

"Alright, Let's get going!" said the leader, before all the knights started to get on their horses.

Ashur then walked up to his and Riveria's horse and pulled himself up and then extended his hand towards Riveria, and she grabbed it.

Ashur quickly pulled her up and settled her in front of him.

"Let's go then," said the leader, seeing that everyone was ready, and everyone's horses soon started going walking.