Six Rivers Kingdom - The Phoenix King

Twins

Two days passed excruciatingly slow for Aerabella. she was cold and stiff from hiding in one spot all this time. she had, had nightmares that she had been found and recaptured the last two nights and it was day 3. the others had not returned yet.

Suddenly she heard some rustling in the treeline and she backed further into the brush hoping to hide from whoever was there. Kyne shuffled through the woods with a girl on his back. She was the spitting image of him.

"Bell, it's me! We're back but we need to hurry." he set the girl down and handed her a dress which she slipped over her head. Aerabella emerged from the brush and he handed her a dress as well. She climbed into the dress and she and the girl that looked like Kyne helped to tie eachother up. as they did so Kyne introduced them.

"Bell this is Loril my twin sister." he said. "Loril this is Bell she will be traveling with us back to Haven."

"Wait, we're going back to Haven? that journey will take months on foot," Aerabella said, "and we're barefoot by the way." She said gesturing to both of their feet.

"We'll buy you both socks and shoes in the next town" Kyne laughed. "But we gotta get a move on." Loril climbed back onto Kyne's back and Aerabella felt a pair of strong hands grab her from behind. she had a flash back to one of her first days in the cells and immediately freaked out and started to fight. She had no control over her actions and was running on just pure fear. Lionel who was the one who grabbed her was not expecting such a small girl to pack such a hard punch. She thrust her elbow into his ribs, knocking the air out of him, grabbed his wrist and spun him around. his elbow was twisted backwards and before he knew it he was face down on the ground. Kyne watched in astonishment at her power. Freyah lunged forward and ripped Aerabella off Lionel. she held her pinned against a tree her arms up in a prone position. this triggered another flash back. she screamed and struggled and finally passed out.

"Give me Loril" Lionel said wiping off his dirty face, "you can carry the crazy one"

"What in the h3ll was that?" Loril asked.

"She needs help" Fix said.

"She's clearly been through a lot." Freyah said finally showing some sympathy in this situation. She had just noticed the scars that had been hidden by Aerabella's hair and wondered if they had anything to do with her little freak out.

Freyah carefully helped to lift Aerabella onto Kyne's back and they all left, heading west and hoping Aerabella didn't become too much of a burden on the way.

It was the second day of travel and Aerabella had been unconscious with a fever since they picked her back up. But finally around mid day she startled awake and pushed herself off Kyne's back.

"I think it's a good time to stop for a break." Kyne said as he gestured for Aerabella to calm down.

"How long was I out?" Aerabella asked.

"Long enough. How are you feeling?" Kyne asked then handed her his water flask.

Aerabella suddenly remembered her response to Lionel trying to grab her and looked to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to attack you, it's just.... I...."

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Freyah surprised them all by asking.

"My father taught me. I only know self defense." She lied. Her father had taught her well enough how to take down even the hardest of opponents. No one bested him, except her. Acording to him, being a good leader meant you had to be able to fight for your kingdom. If she was to keep her identity secret it was best not to reveal too much about herself.

"You're father was smart to teach you that." Lionel chuckled. " but can we please keep that to the bad guys. there are enough of them out there that you don't need to be beating us up."

"I'm sorry, I'll try but I..." She sighed and wanted to add 'but I have 30 years of physical abuse under my belt' but she knew that was too much info for any of them to comprehend.