THE PRINCE AND THE FEARFUL KNIGHT (1)
When I opened my eyes, I felt something wasn’t right, I knew something wasn’t right.
The fact that I was standing on a battlefield only surprised me the more. And then, a bloodthirsty spear surged past me. It brushed a portion of my right ear, and blood began to gush out. I was in great pain.
Holding my right ear with so much discomfort, I screamed. It was real; Indeed everything was real.
Still in a state of shock and discomfort, I tried to understand my surroundings; I noticed that I was among soldiers who wore armour. Red in color. They were also putting on golden helmets.
It was a familiar sight; I’d seen them somewhere before; yes! They looked familiar, so I paused to remember where I’d seen such uniforms and helmets.
Then it clicked; it was from a story I’d read a few days ago at home. It was one of my favorites; about the Prince and his knight who had tried to save the captured princess. She had been taken away by a neighbouring kingdom during the war. Strange, weird, what was happening?
And while I was still wallowing in thoughts coupled with the persistent pain in my right ear, a voice said to me.
“You must survive if you wish to go back to your real world.
Familiar wordings, yes! They were similar with the same story.
”Knight John are you insane!?, We’re losing our men, come fight with us and stop staring!” The prince turned and beckoned on me.
After widening my eyes in surprise and wondering when and how I become a knight; I ran to join him.
The funny part of it was that the Prince (in the story) had said those same words to his knight who stood at a spot looking so sad and had given up on fighting because he deemed the war, a lost cause.
I would have preferred to find myself in any story other than this. Because this one was full of bloodshed and one could be killed at any time.
“My prince, We will certainly lose this war!” I said to him and quickly ran behind one of the chariots which stood close by. I went to take cover. The same way the fearful knight did in the story.
From there I watched as more of the soldiers fell by the sword; the war was getting intense and we were losing.
I decided to find a way to drag the Prince out of the fierce battle and retreat. I would be okay if I only managed to save my life and his.
Anyway, I knew this wasn’t possible. He was a stubborn individual who had never lost any war, and never believed that he could lose one. While I still took cover behind the horse, the animal suddenly jolted to consciousness and ran away. I looked and discovered that all of our Army had fled.
In a few seconds, the prince came running towards my direction, shouting on top of his voice. “Retreat! Retreat!”
I turned and joined other soldiers as we ran back to our camp. Unfortunately, in no distant time, we were all surrounded by our enemies and captured.
They bound the Prince and me with the same chain and then took us all to their kingdom where the princess had been confined, for weeks. Her name was Zara.
“You’re a foolish warrior, you don’t deserve to be called my knight,” the Prince said to me.
We were both sitting on the floor in the cell when he made that statement. I bowed my head silently. If he could use the word foolish, then indeed I was.
I knew that whatever I was going to say to him would never make sense.
Anyway, even if it didn’t, I’d still speak.
“I might not be as brave as you are, but I’ll always do my best to ensure that you’re safe, my prince”.
“By hiding behind an animal?”
I was quiet for a few seconds and then he continued.
“Our hopes of saving the princess are all gone now because you were hiding behind an animal instead of fighting, and you call yourself my knight”.
I bowed my head in more shame. I could see a rollercoaster of emotions all over him. I recalled my previous activities; Running, hiding behind an animal, trying to be safe, instead of fighting. I knew I didn’t deserve to be called a knight at all.
The Princess; his wife-to-be, was young and feminine. A beauty to behold. And as expected, there were several offers from various princes outside the kingdom, all requesting her hand in marriage.
Well, she was never going to marry any of them. She turned down all offers; she only wanted to marry her prince, my prince.
So, a few weeks to the wedding ceremony, she was mysteriously abducted from the kingdom. When I meant MYSTERIOUSLY, I meant MYSTERIOUSLY.
From what I’d learnt earlier, that wedding was going to be the Largest ceremony that had ever been held in the kingdom.
It was after a few days of endless searching that we learnt about her whereabouts.
She had been taken to a kingdom quite far from ours. She had been abducted by a prince; one of those whom she had rejected.
My prince wouldn’t rest till he rescued his lover. So he planned an attack.
But despite the efforts to invade the enemies’ zone, we were ambushed even before the attack commenced. Our enemies were fully ready and lying in wait for us right from day one.
“My Prince, We must think of a way of escape,” I said.
He ignored me for several minutes; He was still grieving and was greatly in pains. I knew that, I saw it, I felt it.
If he were to be with a gun at that moment, he would have ended my life.
“Make me rebuild my trust in you” He replied.
Those words hit me hard. What kind of knight would run to hide behind a chariot, during a war on the battlefield?
None. It could only be me; Knight John, a big disgrace and disappointment to every other knight all over the world.
“I’ll make you happy one day, my prince”. I said, just like the knight had said in the story; after they had been captured.
I didn’t know how to go about this, but I made up my mind to earn his trust, by doing everything within my power to ensure we escaped and that we saved the princess. I didn’t know how possible that would be, but I had this belief that luck would shine on me, that luck would shine on us.
One of the guards opened the door to our cell and came in to check up on us. I recalled the scene from the story and set to work.
“Why are you lying on the floor coughing?” The guard asked me
“I’m suffocating, please help me…” I paused and pretended to gasp for breath as I pointed towards my belt.
“…loosen my tight belt which is around my waist” I pleaded in a manner which amused the prince.
The moment the guard bent to untie my belt, I kicked him on his loins and he fell to the floor groaning. I managed to roll on top of him and covered his mouth.
And as he struggled to break free, the prince hit him hard with the iron chain which bound us together. In a few seconds, he was unconscious.
We managed to pull out some keys from his pockets despite the heavy chains which bound our hands.
We tried and tried the keys until we found the right keys and unlocked the padlocks which bound the chains around us.
We broke free from the chains and celebrated in silence. While planning on the next action to take, we heard some footsteps approaching and pulled the unconscious guard out of sight.
We laid him behind the Iron door to the cell which was shut, but not locked.
We held our breath in silence as one of the guards walked past our cell; During that moment I couldn’t feel my body, it was a moment of sheer luck. If we were caught, we would have been shot instantly.
I began to shiver with great fright. I was so uncomfortable and was almost feeling numb. I turned to look at the prince, but before my eyes met his, he was already glaring at me. His confident expression explained to me all I needed to know about myself once more.
The Soldier paused and glanced into our cell. He could only see chains lying on the floor.
“I thought there were two persons here” he muttered to himself. After a few seconds, he continued.
“Maybe they’ve been moved to the inner cells” he said, and left.
The prince changed into the clothes of the unconscious guard. With the numerous ranks on it; one would easily conclude that he was the chief guard or someone very important.
Placing the helmet on his head, we set off quietly for the risky adventure. We crept carefully past a hall full of soldiers who wined and dined. They laughed and danced merrily, most of them were already drunk. We walked into another cell section which was darker than where we were coming from; we couldn’t see clearly.
“Who is there?!” A guard on duty asked; he shone his torchlight towards us, and quickly brought out his bow and arrow; pointing it in our direction. He was ready to release it.
“Run!” I said, just like the knight had said in the story. I managed to escape his bloodthirsty arrow and turned to see if the Prince was behind me. He wasn’t.
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