Chapter Eight

And here we are! Warning: Super cliff-hanger ending….there will be a clarification post soon!

Nia held her hands tightly together. “We haven’t seen any sign of them. And we are tired, Papa. Can we take a rest?”

      But Podo seemed strangely distant. He was staring towards a certain spot.

       “What is it, Papa?” Nia asked, standing beside him.

       “If I’m not wrong, that would be a castle there, right?”

       Nia looked a little shocked and looked in the direction Podo was, and slightly gasped. “You’re right! There’s a castle not too far from here. But it’s so dark. Not like the old Castle Rysen.”

       A scream tore through the air, and Nia spun around. Leeli came racing towards them, Sara not far behind. Oskar’s belly jiggled as he ran behind the girls.

      “What’s wrong?!” Podo barked.

      “We saw another person, a man and a woman,” Sara started, “and the man had a sword. And they saw us, and started following us! So we ran.”

       Nia gasped and pulled the girls close to her, while Podo armed himself with a sword and stood in front of them. Oskar stood beside them. “My friend, in the words of Trillibus the Bruised, ‘Don’t be too rash. Perhaps we misunderstand!’”

       “I don’t misunderstand anything,” Podo whispered.

He pulled out his sword and let the blade shine in the sun, and he braced for anything.

To his left, the bushes rattled, and a middle-aged man, carrying a big sword, came out, followed by a woman with curly red hair. Before the man could even react to the people in the woods, Podo came down with his sword, and the man could not help but fight back.

Leeli screamed as the clash and clang of the swords rang out. The woman with him turned white, scared for what may happen next. Nia squeezed Sara and Leeli closer to herself, and Podo would not relent, even though the man was clearly on the defense, and Podo on the offense.

In a break in the fight, the man looked at the woman, and she nodded quickly. To that, he dropped his sword and raised his hands.

“Sir, we mean no harm to you and yours. We were simply,” his voice trailed off and his eyes became fixated on Leeli.

“Impossible,” he whispered, and he lowered his arms and went to get closer to Leeli, but Podo brought the sword up as a barrier.

“State your name and business, or I’ve a mind to skewer ye like a-“

“Dralden Fanshawe, and this is my wife Emerald Wingfeather.”

Nia gasped, and slowly stood, holding Leeli close, a hand on Sara’s shoulder. “Emerald, is it really you? Artham said-said you were,”

“Dead. Yes, well, that was…a misunderstanding. There’s a lot I have to explain.”

“I should say so. Wh-why would you…be here?”

“It’s my fault,” the man spoke up. “I’m a Fanshawe, and we are all a bad lot in general and-“

But Emerald burst into tears. And the story poured forth.

And the story….will be coming soon 😉