Chapter 3 By the Sun

The years had gone by, and now I'm 18. I've gone to the same spot we met every night for those three years. The strange royal, Vence. I remember his curls, his bright red tips.

Why did I continue to do this? The years of waiting I did. Every night. I walked across the foliage, brush, and leaves crushing under my feet. I felt the wind caress my cheek, carrying on through the forest behind me. I pushed aside the thick branches covering the same clearing we fought in.

I shake off the leaves that were lingering in my wings. I cover my head with my hood, sitting down. I leaned against a tree trunk that was on the edge of the clearing. I look at the sky, sighing. The moon was a half-moon, barely lighting the clearing enough so that I could see across it.

I close my eyes, my breath spreading out evenly. Before I knew it, I was asleep. After a bit of sleep, I groggily open my eyes. My eyes go into slits, my heartbeat fastens and my breaths become shallow. I try to grab my dagger but my hand is quickly grabbed and slipped behind my back.

I stagger on my knees and then extended my left leg, swiping it behind me, knocking the person off. I grabbed their shirt as they let go of my hands to balance themselves. I pull it in front of me, flipping the person onto their back. I step on their chest with my boot. Its been a girl I fought.

Suddenly I got ambushed. 10 men and women, surrounding my clearing. The girl I was stepping on wriggled out of my grasp, returning to the crowd, injured from my defense. I look at the group chestplates and realize that they are royal guards.

My eyes slit and I notice 7 more people in the trees. I put my wings up defensively. I grabbed my dagger. I got in a fighting stance. I was taught to fight when I was just a little fledgling. Suddenly two men storm at me, falcons. I jump up, flapping my wings. They sharply turn around and fly up after me. I juke them, grabbing one of the men on the wing and dislocating a joint. It wasnt fatal but it would be just enough to get him off my tail.

The man fell out of the air, the other man diving to catch him. Next a quad flew up behind me. I charge at them and slash a womans leg with my dagger, then diving down into the clearing once again, then glisding over the clearing, the people monitoring me, getting ready for another attack. I get attacked from above, getting pushed to the ground.

A command was shouted "Get him!" Suddenly I was being pounced on by every man and woman there. My face was brought up harshly by the person on top of me. The commander kneeled in front of me, and smirked. "Not as tough as we thought" I struggled and sneered at him, my anger rising and my fuse is this close to blowing.

"Have at him, he's all yours" I feel a searing pain all up my right side. I let out a scream. It was agonizing. The guards were kicking me from all sides and pulling on my right wing. I covered my head and tried to pull my wing away from their hands, but it was no use, I was restrained and pinned to the ground by the heavy boots kicking me. I retched up blood, blood spilling from my mouth onto the grass.

I start to get weak after a while of struggling and I decide to give up after my vision starts to get blurry. My ears ring. I become limp, laying there and thr grass being my only comfort. I retch again, more blood, more agonizing pain. Then everyone gets startled, everyone suddenly stopped kicking me and tearing at my wings. I sighed and closed my eyes close to passing out, and just before I pass out, I hear a familiar voice yelling at the soldiers, furious. And then I fell asleep.

I woke up to the sound of quiet and the feeling of silk and bandages on my skin, my wings gently placed in braces and the sound of light breathing along with the turning of a page. My head hurts and I sit up, groaning softly before looking around.

"Wait, you shouldn't sit up just yet, rest" a pair of dark hands usher me back onto my back. I look at him as he stands next to the bedside. Then my eyes go wide and I gasp. "Vence?" I say, my voice raspy and crackly. He nods and gives me a nervous smile, then looked sideways guilty.

I felt warm but then I felt angry. Why did I hold onto someone like him? He never came to the clearing. I burst out. "What the hell was I thinking! I waited in that clearing every night for three years to see you again, and now I have to see you acting like you didnt just ghost me?" I almost shouted but I kept it down.

He seemed very obviously sorry and then he sat in the chair next to the bed. "Lanci..." he gulped down his anxiousness. "I'm...sorry, I didn't mean to leave. I was sent off to prince's camp a month after we met and... I didn't have time to say goodbye. I figured after a year of not seeing me that you would forget about me." I scoffed and adverted my eyes, crossing my arms.

He got up and grabbed his book, leaving me alone to have some space to think. I ended up falling asleep after a while of reflecting on all the time I missed, all the hours I took to see him.