Chapter Seventeen

After some time I hear a knock on my door. I open it to find the knock belonged to Alex.

" Are you here to pick on me some more?" I ask slightly annoyed with crossed arms, did she seriously come all this way just to pick a fight with me?

" No, umm, can we talk," She asked, her words caught me by surprise, somethings up.

" Yeah, come in,"

She slowly walks into the room, " Please sit," I say. She hesitantly sits down on the edge of the bed, I walk over from the door and sit next to her she immediately jumps up and lingers a couple of feet away. " I wanted to tell you something," She started. " Wha-," I began to say but she stopped me. " I wanted to tell you since we might die in battle I wanted to tell you I'm sorry about how I always treated you and how I acted. She paused " You better survive this," She states. " Okay, I'll be leaving now,"

" Wait!" was all I could say as I jumped up reaching for her arm.

" Yes?" She asked her voice shaky. She's crying, I realize.

" Look at me, please," I say. She slowly turns around tears running down her face.

" You're not supposed to stop me from leaving," Alex stated.

" Well, you didn't give me a chance to say anything, what else am I supposed to do?" I laugh lightly.

" You're such a jerk!" She yells as she starts hitting my chest with her fists. I wrap my arms around her and pull her into a hug. We stood there until I lost track of time like this.

" I'll come find you when it's all over to prove I survived but you have to promise me that you'll survive too, promise me," I said breaking the silence. She gives me a nod as she grips my shirt tightly.

" How close do you think they are from us?" Alex asks a couple of minutes later.

" I don't know, "

" Well, I hope it's very far away," Her grip on my shirt tightened.

Alex was about to say something else when a knock interrupted her.

" Yes?" I called not letting Alex go.

" Your highness, the king requests an audience with you in his royal study,"

" You better go," Alex whispered as she released me from her gip with a sad look. I gave her a small smile.

" Thank you, I'll be right out," I answered. " You can leave a couple of minutes after me if you want," I spoke to her.

I left and rushed to the royal study. I ran through the empty halls slowing to a walk when I wasn't the only one until I arrived at my destination my breathing harsh. I managed to calm it a bit before I made myself known.

" Come in, " Said the king. When he saw who it was his face lit up.

" Issac, glad you came so quickly," He spoke. " I have something for you follow me,"

He led me down the many rows of bookshelves until we got close to the end and stopped. " This bookshelf is special unlike all the others in my library, this holds the history of our land. This isn't what I wanted to show you though," He kept walking until at the very end there was a huge picture you had to look up to see even at a distance, I don't know how I missed it before.

" This painting is very dear to me you see," Pride said, I stared at it taking in every detail, there were three people in the picture, a younger version of Pride and two other people I did not recognize. " Who are these people in the picture with you?" I asked.

With a sad smile, he answered. " The people were the king and queen of the Crescents, I had this painting done a month after the war, "

" That means..,"

" Yes Issac, they are your parents, "

I stare with disbelief at the painting of the people I now know the names of.

" I told you, you look just like your father, " The king said. " There's still one more thing I need to show you,"

" What is it?" I asked.

" Follow me, "

He led me out of the study and to the right of his thrown where a statue of a dragon sat bearing its fangs ready to kill. Pride pushed back its fangs which opened a door behind the thrown.

" Quickly before the door closes, " He said as he hurried over to it. I heard it close with a rumble as the king led me down a long flight of stairs lit by torches.

" We're almost there," The king affirmed. Soon after he stopped at a plain wooden door.

" Now, where did I put that key?" He asked himself as he rummaged around his pockets. " Ahh, here it is!" Pride said triumphantly holding it up in the air. It was a small and dark gray the bow different from the rest in the middle was carefully carved out was a wolf's paw print. He inserted the key and turned until there was a click, he withdrew it and placed it back into his hidden pocket. He grabbed the curved handle and pulled the door open and soon disappeared inside, I soon followed.