Chapter 67

67 Another adventure another danger

The scream was coming from Andy; he was trapped between the carriage frame and a huge shadow that could be the entity that attacked the carriage. Xavier was groaning. Seems like he was unconscious for a short time. Anne felt so relieved to see him awake.

“What happened?” Asked Xavier while his head looked around the carriage.

“A monster attacked us, Andy got thrown out, and we need to save him,” justice explained the situation with Anne beside him, assessing his injured.

“I’ll go outside,” Xavier spoke to Anne directly. “Make sure he was alright before he goes outside.”

“I will be careful, Xavier.” Smiling at Xavier, she tried to boost his morale before he goes outside, not that he needed more, but it was also for reassurance on her behalf. Anne was scared, but she tried to hide it by concentrating on Justice. “We need to check on the driver and the horses.” Anne tried to talk to the crown prince, while her hand rubbed an ointment at Justice’s wound.

Thankfully, there’s only a cut wound near his eyebrow. It will be healed in no time, and for Anne, it would be a beautiful battle scar for Justice.

“I know, I’ll go to help Xavier and you go to look at our driver, just be careful,” He gave instruction to our heroine, and for a moment, he hold Anne’s right hand and took something from the deep pocket of his coat, a ring with a platinum band and a red jewel adorned the ring. “I want you to wear this.” With the pleaded words, he then put the ring on Anne’s finger.

The ring fits perfectly into Anne. Even Justice was in awe when he saw the red ruby shimmering in Anne’s hand.

“Justice, what is this?” Anne feels something coming from inside the ring and coursing through her body. “Why did you give me this?”

.....

Smiling at Anne, Justice approached the door and said to her, “Keep it. The ring will protect you!”

Left alone, there was nothing she could do. She let out a sigh and climb the window to go to the other side of the carriage. She crouched around, trying to locate the driver of the carriage. The horse whimpered in the grass behind a large tree. She run as fast as she could to the horse. There was a big gash of a wound on its lower abdomen. Anne looked around the area and spotted the nettleroot plant. She took her sickles and harvest the plants; she ground the nettleroot and put it on the wound.

She then reached into her basket, and pour a warm meylatee tea from her wood tumbler directly into the horse’s mouth.

“Here you go, that will calm you down a bit.” Said Anne with her hand brushing to the horse’s mane, Anne put the tumbler back into the basket, and softly whispered to the horse, “Get some rest sweetheart, I’ll go search for the driver now.”

The horse seems calmer, and Anne feels confident about leaving it by now. She once again looks around the area to find the driver and the other horse, hoping that they’re still safe and sound. A roar came from the other side. Anne bet it was the monster fighting Xavier and Justice. Anne can’t be distracted right now. She had to do her duty as promised to Justice before.

“Help... help me!”

A scream came right from the forest, she need to inspect the source of the scream. Anne ran as fast as she could and saw the driver holding onto his limping arm. She approached the driver while Chikara jump from her shoulder, hissing at the shadows from the lush forest on the side of them.

“Chikara, what is it?! Come here, boy!” She tried to call for her familiar while treating the driver’s broken arm.

Once again, she gave the driver the meylatee tea and created a simple tourniquet for the broken arm. Chikara never stopped hissing. He was determined to fight something in the shadow, and the only thing that Anne could do was to calm him down while her two hands treated the poor driver.

Chikara ignored her, even after more pleading. He would never stop hissing, and after she finished treating the driver, she look around to find her familiar. Chikara was nowhere to be found. Desperate, she carefully let the driver rest in one of the tree bark, and ran as fast as she could towards the dark side of the forest.

“Chikara! Where are you?!” desperate, Anne screamed to find her familiar, her heart beating faster, hoping that she could see Chikara’s alive and well.

“Meow...”

She stopped for a moment, trying to pay attention to the source of the sound. “Chikara?”

“Meow...”

The sound comes from the left side of the forest. With no hesitation, she goes to her left and screams Chikara’s name.

She gasped after something appeared in front of her, a large brown sludge creature with a very wide mouth and with no eyes, it walks slowly towards Anne, with a protruding tongue, a long and slimy tongue. Anne took glanced at a small figure behind the monster. It was Chikara, jumping directly at the sludge monster, trying to attack with his small body of his.

“Chikara!! Don’t!”

Anne run into the monster and swiftly grab her familiar away from the sludge monster she got away unscathed. But the monster now chased her endlessly, while Chikara was being fussy and wild in her arms.

“Stay still, Chikara, you couldn’t fight it right now! Let’s go back to...”

Before she could finish her sentence, she slipped from the slippery ground below her, screaming. Anne and her familiar crouched away from the sludge brown monster. The slippery ground turned out to be the slimy saliva that coming from the sludge monster’s tongue.

She feels her hand throb again. Anne needs to drink her medicine. Trying to make a brave face, she forces herself to stand up and run, but to no avail. Chikara whined in her arms, smiling at her familiar, Anne then said.

“It’s alright, I’m right here with you.”

The monster elongated its tongue and tried to grab our heroine. She braced herself for any painful impact, or worse, being eaten alive. She closed her eyes, but nothing happened. Anne open her eyes and see something incredible in front of her.

A transparent and luminescent shield protecting Anne’s body from the sludge monster, the shield is huge and grandeur and an obvious insignia embedded on the shield gave her an obvious answer about the owner. The insignia of the Hargreaves, royalty of the Valorian kingdom.

“Justice?” Anne was muttering in her mouth, with awe looks on her face.

“Yes, right here.” Said a man from behind.

She turns around to see Justice and Xavier carrying their weapon and smirking at the monster. They run toward the sludge monster and attack it endlessly. They even have some time to have a conversation.

“Good gods Justice, you gave her your ring?!” Xavier complained to the crown prince when he was hacking the monster’s tongue with his great axe.

“Yeah! And you should be thankful for that, you *ss!” Said Justice back, while his fire sword slice the monster into pieces.

The sludge monster was defeated in less than a minute. Anne run into the two of them and smiled.

“Oh wow, that was amazing.” Her heads turn left and right, searching for something or someone. “Wait, where’s Andy?”

Xavier grinned at her, “Oh, he’s fine, just fainted, we already put him in a safe place.”

“What about the driver?” Asked Justice.

“He is also fine. He got a broken arm, so I treated him already,” Anne answered his question while pointing at the area where she hid the driver.

Justice was staring at the ruby ring on her finger. He was so proud that she also wears something that belong to him, although he never revealed to her that the ruby ring was actually one of the most treasured heirlooms in his family.

“Let’s go back. Ageha already calls the guards from the nearest town. They should be here any moment.” Said Xavier, he look aghast after his golden eyes staring at Anne’s body, “Oh Gods! The Slobbered slimes are all over your body. What happened?”

“Oh great, I almost got eaten by a monster named Slobbered,” Anne grumbled, her hand trying to clean some of the slimed off her purple hair.

Little that she knows, Anne’s pink shirt was drenched, making her body now visible to see by the two males in front of her. Chikara hissed at Justice and Xavier, kind of like gave them the warning to look away from his master.

“Wait, Chikara, why are you hissing at the two of them? Calm down, they’re not the monster here.” Anne was gullible about her shirt malfunction.

“Actually, I could become an animal anytime right now,” Whispered Xavier to Justice. “Gods! I am sinning. Let us go now. I’ll carry the driver. You and her go back to Andy and the carriage, and for the love of Gods, gave her your coat!”

Justice felt the same. She shook his head and put her coat on Anne.

“Wait, why are you giving me your coat?”

“You know, as a healthy man, we like what we saw, but us here going to be the gentleman... Your shirt was drenched and make your waistline and uhm... bust area visible.” Said Justice with a red blushing face.

Anne squeak and punched Justice’s shoulder, “Oh my God! You should have told me earlier!”

“Well, I tell you about it now! And also gave you my coat!” Justice gasped at her punch, they walk to the road together, and before they arrived, he turn to Anne once more, “Oh, and make sure you punched Xavier as well!”

“Fine! I will! Ugh, I really need to take a bath, well, Chikara and I.” She sniffed at her body and also at Chikara.

“Don’t worry, the good news, we almost arrive at our inn.”

She froze and gaze at Justice. “So, did you mean that...”

“Yes, we are closer to the Beyor cemetery now.”