The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

12. Sudden Ambushed

The Crown Prince' face lifted, but then looked down again. He still didn't know what to say. 

Seeing his brother's attitude, the youngest prince took the initiative. "Father, let me come as representative of the kingdom of Diamantia to save the princess and the whole kingdom of Paralia." 

The Crown Prince immediately turned his head. In fact, he was a little relieved that his younger brother took over the responsibility. But still he felt bad. Therefore, when this family meeting was over, The Crown Prince immediately met his younger brother in his room. 

"Thank you for helping me earlier." He said. 

The younger brother shook his head slowly, “It's not a problem. Besides, I know that you really love this kingdom and it will be difficult to leave it. So, let me save the princess. After all, I'm better at swordsmanship than you. Even though Father adopted me, but I'm no prince. That's why I became a knight. So this kind of task suits me very well.” He smiled. 

The Crown Prince touched his adoption brother's shoulder, then hugged him, “Be careful. If what I hear is right, Valborga and her troops are very dangerous." 

“Don't worry, I won't go alone. I will go with the most powerful bodyguard in this kingdom. Misha.”

***

"Knight!" Troya raised her voice a little bit because Kay had been silent while sitting on his white horse. 

The knight was a little surprised, he immediately turned his head, "Yes?" 

"We've arrived at a T-junction, where do we have to turn?" asked Troya, who sat holding the horse reins, accompanied by Liam on his left and Mayang who was in the cart with all their supplies. 

Whereas the bear Misha walked behind all of them. Among the three of them it was only Troya who had learned to ride a horse even though that was about five years ago.

 "Oh, let's take it to the left," replied the prince. 

The three teenagers looked to the left and immediately agreed to the Prince's words. On the left side of the road looked safer with less tree branches so that the sun shines more freely on the path than the right side which looked more gloomy, dark and quiet. 

But when the five of them were about to turn toward the left side of the road, suddenly Troya felt a warm wind hit her face. Troya also turned to the direction of the wind's origin, the path to the right. For a moment she was silent, did not run the cart.

 Seeing this, the knight was confused, as were Liam and Mayang. Whereas the Bear Misha only let out a light grunt.

"What's the matter, Troy?" asked Liam and Mayang together. 

"Earlier I felt a warm wind coming from this road." Troya replied, her eyes stared at the road of the right path. For some reason, her heart was so interested and preferred to pass that way than the one on the left. 

"Warm wind?" Liam asked in amazement because the weather this morning even though the sun was shining bright, it could be said that it was quite cold, like the cold when we were in the mountain area. 

"Maybe it's just your feelings," said the Prince whose position was already several meters in front of them. 

"Yes, Troy, just your feelings," agreed Mayang tighter her jacket. 

Troya kept silent. Her eyes still couldn't escape from staring at the path. Something was off, she was sure of it. But she couldn't know what was strange. She could only obey the majority of votes to take the left path. 

Although Liam and Mayang only thought that Troya's behavior was a little strange, Knight Kay did not. Hearing what this girl from a foreign country said, he automatically thought. In this world, as far as he knew, warm winds could only be felt by a magicians when they wanted to get directions when lost, or when doing other magic. 

The first tens of meters their journey was passed very smoothly and well. Even the surroundings were very pleasant with birds chirping and squirrels chasing each other from tree branch to branch. Until finally they passed a wooden crossroad and suddenly the atmosphere changed one hundred and eighty degrees. 

The trees were densely growing, with thick leaves blocking the sun. Bush lined the road neatly. Even though the path still looked neat without any holes or mounds, walking along this road brought a more tense atmosphere. 

There was silence around them, no more chirping birds or squirrels chasing each other. Knight Kay felt something, so he began to take out the sword from its sheath which was tied around his right waist. Watching out for whatever was coming their way. 

Seeing the Prince's attitude, the three teenagers were on alert too. Each of them achieved anything that could be used as a weapon. Mayang took a spear, while Liam grabbed a wooden axe and draped an arrow on his body. He was good at playing the Dart Board game. So maybe in principle he would have no trouble using this one too. Meanwhile, Troya strengthened her grip on the reins and was alert to the speed of the cart, if anything happened, stayed under control. Likewise with the Bear Misha who gave a low growl as a sign that he was ready for whatever would appear later.

Mayang felt a colder air around them, like ice, so they rubbed their hands together to feel warm. Their noses were red and their skin turned pale, as did the Knight. But not with Troya who still felt normal. She did feel a chill, but somehow she didn't feel the chill that Liam and Mayang did. 

This group continued to enter the forest, which was getting darker and darker. They knew the danger was approaching, because that what was happening.

 A pack of wild beasts was stalking them. These animals were the size of wolves but with shorter fur and their faces were like bats. In addition, these animals had broad wings with thin membranes like those of bats, as their front arms. But they were neither flying nor sleeping during the day. Not in this dark forest. Their eyes were bright red. Their canines were long pointed, very sharp, so they could tear flesh with just one stroke. They scouted on their hind legs, so light and quiet they were almost silent. And when finally their prey was in the area that was the point of battle, they rushed out.

***

The two horses neighed in surprise, their front legs held high. Prince Kay almost fell if he didn't hold the reins as hard as he could, or Troya's hand was not strong enough to control the bridle of his horse. Their number of attackers was quite large, about four times the size of this group. 

One of these beasts jumped high to attack the Prince, so he immediately fell and rolled off his horse. Bear Misha roared loudly and immediately ran to attack some of the beasts. 

Meanwhile, the cart containing the three teenagers was still in a tense atmosphere. These beasts were still flying around the cart to scout. Then at one point, one of them lunged straight at Troya. Of course Mayang immediately took over by swinging her spear. The animal fell. 

It was then that all of the beasts circling the cart immediately attacked. Mayang was very manly like a female knight fighting the beasts from the top of a wagon. Liam swung his axe with all his might, slashed the beast's neck, knocked it back, while still protecting Troya, who was in charge of keeping the horse under control. 

Prince Kay fought these three beasts at once. His swordsmanship was proven. Because in a second, he already defeated one of these beasts. While the bear Misha had managed to beat three of them.

The Knight's horse had already fled first. Hence, he immediately climbed onto Misha's back and fought from above his back. 

Troya decided to start the wagon again when she saw that the road ahead was empty. She whipped the rope on the horse so that the horse immediately ran back fast. But the animals didn't just let them go. 

They kept running after, even this time they flew off using their membrane wings. Chased after their target and attacked from the air. Finally Liam used his arrows and fired one of them. Initially missed his target, so he had to lower his head to avoid the beast's attack. But as a result, the animal's claw hit Troya's shoulder and injured her. 

"Troya, are you okay?" cried Liam worriedly. 

"Yes, I'm fine!" replied Troya, because in fact, the animal's hooves were poisonous so that she felt her body began to go limp. 

But somehow, she started to take deep breaths and focused her mind on fighting the pain by channeling the warm air in her stomach towards the injured body. And miraculously, she felt no pain. So she could control the pace of the horse back. 

Liam was in position to shoot his arrows back at his attacker who was still flying left and right at an impossible speed. Liam didn't know when to shoot his arrows if the animal kept moving. He tried to sharpen his eyesight and calmed himself by taking a deep breath. In his brain he was calculating the right moment to release the arrow. Until finally his eyes could catch the animal's movements like in slow motion, he could see it very clearly when the animal started attacking him. 

In that instant, Liam fired the arrow, hit the animal then fell over the path. Liam screamed with joy as he hit his mark. This time, after he had done it once, it would have been easier to do it next time.[]