THE PRINCE AND THE FEARFUL KNIGHT (2)
“My Prince” I called out, but there was silence. The only sound I heard, was that of someone groaning. Fearfully, I ran back to the spot where we had started running from; he was lying unconscious on the floor. The prince had dealt with him. I bowed my head in shame; I had proven my folly once again.
“I’m so sorry my Prince”
He was silent and didn’t seem interested in what I was saying. “No time to waste, they should be in one of the cells close by” he said, and we moved on, carrying with us the torchlight of the guard on duty whom he had just strangled.
When we walked past another cell section, the inmates who noticed our presence began to shout. “Hey guards, get us water, get us food, we’re so thirsty, we’re so hungry!!”
They weren’t our soldiers, so we ignored them and kept moving.
Soon, we came across the area where our soldiers were kept; they were still in their red armour and golden helmets and were bound in chains.
“Knight John!” One of them said excitedly as he noticed our presence; the others looked up and began to jubilate, but they became silent the moment they noticed that there was a guard who stood close to me. For a moment they thought I was to be locked in with them.
“It’s the prince,” I said to them. “It's our prince”
And the prince immediately pulled off his helmet.
We cut short their silent jubilation and set to business.
“We shall celebrate later,” the prince said as he attempted to open the door to their cell. He pulled out the bunch of keys which were stuck to the armour he wore. We tried all the keys we could lay hands on and finally found the key.
We had just opened the door to the cell when we were sighted.
“Over there!” A soldier shouted, pointing towards our direction. They all ran towards us. Hardly had I turned to run when a bloodthirsty arrow landed on my right hand. I fell to the floor groaning in pain. The prince managed to pull me up;
“Go in and unchain our soldiers, I’ll try to hold these soldiers off,” he said.
“No you can’t; they’re too many, my prince; you will be killed”
“Do as I said” he replied.
I pulled the sharp arrow out of my hands in pain and pushed the iron door open. I made towards our bound soldiers and managed to free one of them. I soon started feeling dizzy; the pain from the arrow was so intense.
I lay helplessly on the floor groaning in pain; I knew I wasn’t worthy to be a knight because I was a weakling. The soldier managed to free the rest of them and assisted me, as we all made it out of the cell.
The prince shouted from where he stood fighting;
“More of them are coming!!”
“We must save the princess and leave!” Another of our soldiers said, and we divided ourselves into four groups to look for the princess. We planned to assemble outside the castle.
After wishing ourselves luck, the search commenced. I was in the same group with the Prince and two other guards. The moment we moved into a dark tunnel by the right, we knew that it was only by luck that we would make it out alive. We saw many soldiers coming in our direction; I tried pulling the Prince back so that we would run, but he dived forward to fight. I watched in shock as he managed to outwit them.
“Follow me!” He beckoned on me as we moved forward. Soon we got to a dark place inside the tunnel. It was so dark that we couldn’t see each other. We tiptoed until we began hearing silent sobs.
We moved closer to where the voice was coming from because it sounded like that of a lady. The prince searched through his armour for any torchlight or something which would aid our visibility.
He didn’t find a torchlight. Instead, he found a lighter. We suspected the owner of the armour to be a heavy smoker. And that is what we used to see through the tunnel.
We continued tracing the voice until we got to where the princess was bound. I remembered this scene from the story.
I’d read it to myself happily, several times. But at the moment it was real. I couldn’t wait for the moment when he would free her and then kiss her passionately.
“My princess!” He exclaimed. He handed me the lighter and surged forward to unlock the door to her cell. In a few minutes, she was loosened from the chain which bound her by her legs. I watched as they celebrated and kissed passionately; just like in the story. She had emaciated and was looking lean.
I waited for the prince to say WE MUST LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Just like in the story.
She tried to tell the prince how she had been manhandled and abused by the other prince who had taken her captive, but my prince didn’t seem interested in anything at the moment other then her escape and survival, our escape and survival.
“We must leave immediately!” The Prince said, bringing me back to consciousness, and then the three of us made off in the direction where we had come from.
It was at that moment that I began to feel so sad; I became so terrified and paranoid. This was the part of the story which I never wanted to arrive at.
One of us had to die.
In the story, the knight didn’t make it to the Gate of the city as they all tried to escape.
I stopped running and watched as the prince and the princess disappeared out of sight; out of the tunnel, and into the brightness.
“You must survive if you wish to go back to your real world,” A voice said to me; it was the same voice which had spoken to me on the battlefield.
“Knight John, hurry! We have no time!” It was the Prince; he had come back to look for me. As we moved out of the tunnel, I made up my mind that I wasn’t passing through the narrow route which led to the Back gate of the city.
In the story, it was the exact spot from which an archer had sighted the princess and released a bloodthirsty arrow. They didn’t want her to leave the city alive. They didn’t want anyone to leave the city alive.
However, in the story, the princess was lucky while the knight wasn’t. The arrow hit the knight instead of the Princess. It went straight through his back and into his heart. He fell and died. So that meant I was about to die.
“We can’t go that way, my Prince!”
“Why?! It’s our only way of escape!” The princess said impatiently, while the prince dragged me along amidst my reluctance.
“Don’t let me lose my trust in you, you promised to make me happy, please complete my happiness by ensuring that we all arrive home safely” he said to me, looking me straight in the eyes.
At that moment I sighted the archer from a distant height where he stood; I watched as he raised his bow and fixed its direction towards the queen. He was about sending the bloodthirsty arrow our way.
“Watch out!” I said and dived forward to protect her.
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After the arrow hit me, I knew nothing afterwards. I was unconscious and all I could perceive was quietness, all I could see was black or nothing.
I thought that I would drift from unconsciousness to death, according to the story, so I accepted my fate and got ready to embrace the cold hands of death.
I was jerked to consciousness by the prince.
“Knight John?! Knight John?!” He shouted, shoving me repeatedly, as if I was just lying down due to sheer laziness.
I could feel him as he lifted me on his shoulders and tried to move; holding the princess with his other hand.
I didn’t know I was so lucky because I’d used my hand to shield the princess, so the arrow pierced through my hand and not through my back, to my heart just as the story had directed.
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Someone tapped me; I thought it was the prince. I must have fallen asleep on his shoulders while he carried me back to the kingdom.
“How about our soldiers?” I asked.
“Which soldiers” a voice replied. It was not the prince speaking, it was the voice of a woman; an elderly woman.
“Did our soldiers make it out alive?” I asked
“Which soldiers? My friend go and wash those plates which you left in the kitchen since yesterday night”
It was a familiar voice, it was my mum speaking. She had been tapping me for several minutes.
I smiled towards her; she didn’t know why I did so
“Are you okay?” She asked. I nodded and stood up from my bed.
The moment she left, I went to my bookshelf and picked up the book. On it was boldly written; THE PRINCE AND THE FEARFUL KNIGHT.
I only wondered what had just happened.
“Thank goodness I survived,” I said to myself, trying not to imagine what would have happened if it had gone otherwise.
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