Tauriel could feel her heart pounding as King Ashburn rubbed the tiny green crystal on the necklace she was putting on. She didn't have it out like that and always hid it under her cloth but Ashburn had walked to her and pulled it out.
"The stone of Avalon, resistant to magic." The elf king said. "I thought I banned this from my kingdom and yet you have one for yourself and a spare to give the human you have blindly fallen in love with."
"Leave her alone, you have me now right?"
The king let out a chuckle louder than a normal chuckle before turning his gaze to Jude.
"That's not the way things work here." He said. "You commit an offense, you go in for it."
"And what offense did she commit?" Jude asked.
"Interrupting a fight in the arena."
"Interrupting a fight in the arena." Jude chuckled. "Or do you mean saving a human's life which happened to be my own life, I think that's the real offense here."
Tauriel was amazed by how Jude was still able to talk to the king with courage despite the situation he was in now, even the elf soldiers found it disrespectful and would have attacked him by now if their king had given them the order to act.
"Well done, you figured it out." King Ashburn said with a sarcastic tone. "But you forgot to tell me the part where that changes anything."
"It's the dungeon for you Taurie until I decide your punishment," Ashburn said, pulling the necklace away from her neck.
"The dungeon." Tauriel gasped.
King Ashburn struck his staff on the ground expecting Tauriel to disappear but that never happened and it didn't take him long to realize his mistake.
The crystal worked on whoever was wearing the necklace but the effects could also be shared with another person by simply touching the person, that was why Tauriel had held onto Jude's back immediately the king pulled away her necklace.
"I hate that stone!" The king yelled and stretched his hands towards Jude's neck to grab the necklace but the young knight wasn't going to let him.
With great precision he targeted the king's wrist and delivered a heavy kick there, kicking his staff as far away from him as possible, and then with the poisoned dagger Tauriel had given him he stabbed the king's hand.
"Arghhhh!" Ashburn screamed in pain as he pulled his hand back.
Now that there were no more portals Jude had an opening for escaping and he used it to the best of his advantage as he avoided all the spear thrusts and even trampled on an axeman blocking his way.
"No, no, no!" Ashburn screamed.
He stretched his hand and the staff flew up from where it was and flew into his hand.
"After them!!!"
"But my lord we don't have any horses." One of the swordsmen replied with a shaky voice.
"You don't need horse fools!" He said, tapping the tip of his staff.
Tiny blue balls escaped from the staff and flew into both of their legs, all of them.
"My leg feels as light as a feather." One of the soldiers commented.
"Now after them! And make sure you don't lose them or I will be losing you."
The soldiers all knew what that meant and immediately ran off. None of them could believe the speed at which they were running now, they were all very fast, even faster than an average horse.
"This is my opportunity and I won't let it slip." King Ashburn said as he watched his soldiers run.
Another portal opened in front of him and a horse walked out of it, a horse with golden fur, it was one of a kind and that was because it wasn't an ordinary horse.
He climbed on top of the horse and after that, a pair of golden wings sprouted out from the horse's side, the king's horse was a Pegasus, a special type of horse that could fly with the help of their special wings.
Immediately the wings sprouted out, the Pegasus took to the skies heading in the same direction as the soldiers had run off to in pursuit of Jude and Tauriel.
'How powerful is that king's magic?' Jude thought as he tried to make his horse run faster.
"What type of spell did he even use on them?!"
Tauriel turned back to look at the soldiers who were beginning to catch up to them now.
"A very strong one," Jude said.
Tauriel changed her position to face the soldiers while sitting on the horse, what she wanted to do now was try and shake the soldiers off.
She fitted three arrows on her bow and fired them off immediately, the arrows went towards the soldiers taking out three of them but that didn't slow them down as those who had fallen were trampled upon and ignored.
Tauriel kept firing arrow after arrow, most of them were successful while some missed, she kept doing this until she was one down to one arrow but before she could fire that one at the soldiers she was stopped by Jude who had spotted something ahead.
"Turn and shoot Tauriel," Jude said.
"What?"
"Just do what I said."
Tauriel quickly turned back to the front and that was when she caught the glimpse of what Jude wanted him to shoot at.
Carl was lying on the floor amid the dead body of the soldiers who had come along with him and also that of the goblins they had killed, they were all dead and now it was his turn to die as the last goblin standing was about to thrust his spear into the knight's body but before he could bring the spear down and arrow shot into his head and he fell backward.
"What was that?" Carl groaned.
He turned towards the direction where the arrow had come from to see a horse approaching him at full speed.
"Hey, get up on your feet!!" Jude screamed as he approached him.
Carl tried to get up but he couldn't as his legs felt incredibly weak.
Jude rode closer and had come up with another plan to get the person he just saved on the horse but before he could get to him he caught the glimpse of a golden land beside him and the impact from that fall knocked him and Tauriel off the horse.
"Arghhhh." Tauriel and Luis groaned as they struggled and got back on their feet.
Now that they were on the ground Jude could see clearly the person they had saved.
"Carl." He was shocked as he rushed to his battered friend.
"Jude," Carl said with fading breath. "I'm glad you're okay bro."
"But you're not."
Their conversation was interrupted by clapping coming from Ashburn, Jude didn't even bother to look at him because of the condition he had seen Jude in but now when he did he was shocked by what he was seeing.
"Is that a Pegasus?" He asked.
"Not just any Pegasus, a golden Pegasus," Tauriel said, she couldn't even take her eyes off the thing.
"I thought it was all a myth." Carl groaned.
"What a nice reunion." The king said with the last clap.
"A nice reunion indeed." A voice said from the side.
Ashburn quickly turned his gaze there but he couldn't see anything.
"Show yourself." He said.
"As you wish."
Coming into view as if removing an invisibility cloak was a goblin who didn't exactly look like any ordinary goblin. His face looked smoother than that of the ordinary goblin and the green in his skin was so dark you wouldn't notice it and lastly, he looked way better than any goblin they had seen before.
"Saganus." Ashburn had a horrid look on his face as he said this.
"Yes it's me, Ashburn, I've come to take what's mine."
*****
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