Chapter 16

When Maximus woke it was still night, and everyone else was sleeping. He thought of the dream he just had. No way was it just a regular dream, it was too real and intact, and unlike most dreams he remembered all of it. Well Lord Ares was definitely not happy about losing Daedalus and it seemed they had also been added to the list of the people who freed him. Maximus was starting to realize that it might be impossible to return to the trenches or stay anywhere in the trenches for that matter. They could try talking to the army but he had a feeling that the end result might be similar to Lod's fate. They could try returning Daedalus, but he didn't fancy their chances against Achilles. Besides it felt wrong. Advisor to Athena or not, a brilliant scientist like Daedalus did not belong in the dungeons of Ares.

Maximus realized that the best option they had was to run. He had dreamt of leaving the trenches for a long time but now that he was being forced to do so he wasn't so sure anymore. After all, this was his home. Besides, even if they did run where would they go. But if Ares's champion was after them they really couldn't linger around. A champion was a post given to only one warrior in any kingdom. He or she was like a personal fighter for a god. They usually out- ranked most military officers as well, and only took orders from their patron gods. Needless to say, the champions were very powerful and feared warriors. And Ares's champion was a merciless killer. Another question arose in Max's mind. How was he going to explain everything he had just seen? Especially since the voice in the sword had specifically instructed him not to reveal its existence.

That's when Maximus heard a noise from outside. He went out to look and saw a figure walking around the bushes nearby. At first he thought it might be a soldier, but he knew that the army would never send just one person to do a search. He thought about his next move and he decided to confront the person, but not without backup. His first choice would have been Rex but he was still wounded from before, and he really did not want to wake Achilles. So he went with Hedger. That way he thought if things went bad, Hedger could fly back up and wake up the others. He slowly went to his friend who was hanging upside down with his tail wrapped around a stalactite fast asleep, and shook him to wake him up.

"Yes, I'll have another orange pastry," Hedger mumbled in his sleep. It took a couple more shakes to finally wake him up. He finally awoke and said "What happened now. Did some other famous celebrity walk into our cave?"

"Stop kidding around Hedge, there's someone in the bushes nearby and we need to check it out."

This woke him up. "You have a Minotaur soldier, and one of the greatest warriors in history right there and you call me for backup?" he said angrily. "Rex is still injured, and if you want to wake up Achilles with no good reason be my guest," Maximus said.

"But there might be a good reason, they could be soldiers," Hedger replied. Maximus shook his head in response "I don't think so. For one thing there's only one guy and he's moving around like he's a bit lost."

Hedger thought for a moment. "Alright, but you do the talking. At the first sight of trouble I'll fly back up and call in the cavalry." Maximus nodded and then both of them went down into the bushes.

They moved through the bushes as stealthy as they could and found their guy standing in a clearing taking a rest from his search. "You know with our luck I wouldn't be surprised if this was the great Heracles."

"I heard he goes by the name Hercules now, ever since he had a fight with Queen Hera," Maximus said, "anyway, let's focus on the work at hand and discuss world gossip at another time."

Hedger nodded and said, "Ok you go on ahead and I'll wait here. If things get ugly I'll bolt back to the cave and call the others." Maximus agreed and he stepped out into the clearing.

Maximus still couldn't see the person properly, since it was still really dark. "Stop whatever you are doing and turn around slowly, and don't try anything funny I'm already armed. "He said this with the most confident voice he could muster. He had his hand on his sword, ready to draw at the first sight of trouble. The person turned, he looked at Maximus, or in this case she did, because the person was none other than Kayla.

Kayla ran up to Maximus and hugged him. Maximus felt his knees shiver. He also felt as though his stomach was doing a somersault. Kayla had never hugged him before, and Maximus had sort of dreamed of this moment in his head a million times. But now that it was here he was nervous and sweating. "Kayla. What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Searching for you, everyone thinks you're dead. Rumours said that you guys were involved in the fight against the manticore and I feared the worse. Wait, where are Hedger and Rex?"

At that moment Hedger came flying out and said, "Right here my lady," with a grin on his face.

"Rex is fine too. He did get injured in the battle so he's resting in the cave" Maximus said glad and a bit disappointed that Kayla had let go of him. Kayla seemed relieved to hear that they were all okay. "I knew you guys would be at the stupid cave you always talked about. I knew it was somewhere around here, but I couldn't find the entrance."

"Yeah, it's a bit hard to spot if you don't know where it is. But you shouldn't be here, especially at night, the outskirts are dangerous."

Kayla gave him a look and said, "Oh please, don't be such a guy, like I'm a helpless little lamb or something. You know that I'm just as well trained as you."

Maximus knew this was true. He knew that her father gave her regular combat training almost every day. Being the daughter of a paranoid ex-soldier was like that, he guessed. Also, there was a kind of toughness you got from growing up in the trenches and Kayla had plenty of it.

"Besides," Kayla continued, "I bought one of my dad's toys along just in case." She pulled out a sub-machine gun from under her top, an Uzi, and showed it to them. "Remind me never to get on your bad side girl," Hedger said, and Kayla smiled at this. The smile lit a small flame in Max's heart, one that warmed him from the inside. Soon there was a grin on his face.

"I wouldn't be grinning like an idiot if I were you. Just look at this," Kayla said. She then handed him a piece of paper. He opened it to see that it was a wanted poster. One made for him, Rex and Hedger.

It was a standard military wanted poster. Maximus had seen many of them like this before. But he had never expected to see his face on one of them. It said 'WANTED ALIVE' followed by three boxes, two contained his and Rex's photos, the ones that were used in their files in the army. The third contained a drawing of a weird green bird thing. Maximus realized that it was supposed to be Hedger, but it looked nothing like him. Below these were their names and details of a reward to anyone who could help find them. Also details on how to contact the army were given at the bottom. It had the official seal of the army on it, the crimson and gold spear.

"Is that supposed to be me?" Hedger asked staring at the poster. "Has no one in the army even seen a sprite before in their lives?"

Maximus agreed, he felt that it was high time the army got anew sketch artist. "I wonder how much the rewards on our heads are though?" Maximus said. Kayla gave both of them a slight whack on the head. Then she said, "You guys are taking this way too lightly. Do you realize what this means. There's no way you can return to the trenches now."

Maximus had already feared this. He said, "Yeah I know."

The three of them stood silently for a while. Finally, Hedger spoke, "Maybe we can sneak in and get our stuff at least."

Kayla shook her head, "That's not possible. The soldiers already trashed your homes searching for you guys. I'm pretty sure they still have someone watching them."

Hedger stared at the ground and said, "So this is it then, we have to say goodbye to the trenches and everyone we know, just like that."

No one answered him. After a few seconds of silence Kayla finally asked "How did you guys get into so much trouble, anyway?"

Maximus was about to answer when she said "No on second thought, don't tell me. The less I know the better. They already know you guys hung out at the cannon and the army mages have ways of getting information out of people. I think it will be better if I know nothing." Maximus didn't like this but he knew that it was the smart thing to do.

"Well I guess this is it then, I guess you guys got to get out of here and lay low for a while. You can probably come back after things cool down a bit," Kayla said in a low voice.

"Don't worry I promise that we will come back," Maximus said, trying to give her an assuring smile. Then Kayla did something unexpected: she stepped forward and grabbed Max's shirt. Then she kissed him on the lips. When she finally pulled away, she said, "Just in case you ever feel like breaking that promise," and gave him a slight smile. Maximus just stood there dumbstruck at what had happened. He couldn't even utter a single word.

"I have to get back before Dad wakes up, and say goodbye to Rex for me too Hedger." Then with a smile she gave a final wave as she turned and left