Part 39 – Off a Cliff

"Look out!" Simon yelled as he jumped at Nell to cover him from the bearded Knight's attack.

The two of them fell prone on Nell's seat.

Simon kept his eyes closed, thinking that the knight could easily stab through the both of them, but the strike never came.

He cautiously opened an eye to peek at the situation and was pushed aside by Nell instead.

The bearded knight wasn't aiming at them, after all.

He had his right arm outstretched, his left foot, inside the carriage, and the tip of his long sword, buried deep inside the skull of the knight from the right carriage door.

"Ahhh!" Simon screamed, as memories of his fallen brothers at arms filled his mind.

He watched as the stabbed knight fell out of the stalled carriage and another take his place.

This knight also had his sword drawn, and he parried the blade of the bearded knight, causing the latter to step out of the carriage once more.

The new knight entered the carriage then, looked down at Simon, and pulled his sword back to aim at him.

Simon gave another scream, but the sword never found its target for he was suddenly tumbling out the carriage as Nell pulled at him. Both fell on the dusty ground with a thud.

The knight's blade went through the carriage seat and got stuck. He tried to pull it out, but the bearded knight was suddenly at him, slashing him at the chest. He was about to deliver the finishing blow then the wounded knight finally pulled his bloodied sword out and parried him.

There were three more coming up from behind them.

"W-we... we need to get out of here!" Simon finally got to say as he helped Nell up from beneath him.

He looked ahead of the procession, towards his brother, Prince Juno's carriage, dreading the worst, and hoping against hope that his older brother was fine.

It was then that he saw his brother's personal knights rushing to their aid.

"Those are brother Juno's knights!" he told Nell when he recognized them. "We should ask for their help!"

Simon ran towards the two, but Nell pulled him back – just in time as a blade narrowly missed his neck.

"Get back inside the carriage, boys!" the bearded knight called to them.

Simon looked back and saw several fallen knights around him.

"Hurry up and get in, damn it!" the knight yelled at him.

Nell pulled at Simon once more as the knight leapt past them to intercept the two knights on horseback. They hurried back inside the carriage as the bearded knight instructed, and pulled the doors closed.

The two huddled on the floor, listening to the sound of fighting outside. Later, it fell quiet, and

they were suddenly jostled inside as the carriage started to move, the horses neighing wildly.

Nell knelt on the front seat to peep through the window and saw the bearded knight up front.

"W-wait! We can't leave yet, my brother Juno is still there!" exclaimed Simon as he peered outside the back window. They had just passed his brother's carriage and had barged their way through the stalled cart.

"We need to help brother Juno escape, too!"

Simon, half mad with worry, opened the carriage door and tried to jump out of it.

It was a good thing that Nell pulled him back by the scruff of his neck! The carriage was going faster, and trying to jump off would mean his death!

"Please! I can't just leave my brother behind!" Simon insisted.

Nell raised his hand and slapped him across the face.

"You idiot!" he yelled with a slight accent.

That seemed to have brought Simon back to his senses.

Nell pulled him up the back seat, made him kneel on the cushion, and swiveled his face outside the back window once again.

"Look outside and tell me what you see?!" he snapped at him.

Simon did as he was told.

His eyes widened as he saw the man leading the knights chasing them on horseback.

He held a bow and arrow and was aiming at them.

"B-brother Juno..." he whispered in disbelief.

"Look out, you idiot!" Nell pulled Simon down once more as the arrow broke the window and whizzed past over their heads.

Simon fell off the seat and gasped when his hands touched blood on the floor.

It was probably from the knight that the bearded knight had killed earlier.

But the knights outside...

"Why are my brother's knights trying to kill us?" he mumbled to himself.

"Isn't it obvious, you dolt?!" Nell yelled at him yet again. "Did you really not see that bastard brother of yours aim an arrow at you?!?"

"But... but why would my brother want to kill – "

Simon's words were cut short when the carriage encountered a big bump.

The two passengers rose on their seats and heard the horses' cry, then felt a moment of weightlessness, before they started falling.

The bearded knight had just driven the carriage off a steep cliff!

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Go to Part 45

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