Dance of the Damned

Lost Temper

I have never seen Roshi like that before. Heris thought, his body trembling as he tried to keep eye contact with the boy in front of him but it was just impossible.

His entire body wanted to turn away from him and go bury himself into the ground.

What is this feeling? The air suddenly changed just from a few sentences from Roshi. I can't even feel the heat of the fire I felt so closely before.

It's almost cold now. Incredible. Is he even human at this point?

He could not imagine what Clover must be feeling, aside from the guilt of killing someone, Roshi is looking at her like that.

"I-it wasn't her fault!" Heris shouted, though his body would allow him to look at Micah in the eyes. "The woman meant to kill her. It was only done out of self-defence!"

"I didn't ask that, did I?" Micah asked, voice completely devoid of emotion. "I just asked who she killed."

"I- I- I don't know- know her name." Clover finally managed to speak out.

"Hair colour?"

"Brown. She had it untied and curled and was in her nightgown." Clover said, trembling even more than Heris was. "That is all I know! I am sorry!"

"She always was someone that would not sit still no matter what," Micah said, as the air around them calmed down immediately. "Well, whatever."

Clover fell to her knees, still feeling the effects of the cold that surrounded them.

"Are you ok?" Micah walked to her and held his hand out, smiling. "I apologise. There is someone in that group that we do not want dead, not yet anyway."

"I am sorry." Clover sobbed, taking off her mask. "I didn't mean to i-"

Arms suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her close to a warm body, holding her tight.

"Please don't cry," Micah whispered as Clover suddenly stopped crying, a tear or two still rolling down her face. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

Clover couldn't even speak anymore as her breathing hitched, feeling Micah's arms around her even tighter.

He's- h- he's- he- arms- he- he- HE-!

She is not even listening to what he is saying anymore while Heris watched with seething jealousy.

"Will you forgive me?" Micah asked, voice blow a whisper as his eyes became downturned.

Heris sucked in a breath seeing his expression. I would do anything if he looked at me like that. He thought, clenching his teeth.

"O-o-of c-c-c-c-c-course," Clover said as he finally pulled away from her, his smile coming back.

"I am so glad! I will repay you for this. I promise." Micah declared, running to Carvill like nothing happened.

"H-Heris." Clover turned to the boy, an excited look on her face. "Heris."

"Don't call me otherwise I will kill you by mistake." The boy huffed, still seething with jealousy. "Why is everyone around me so lucky? Why do I always get the short end of the stick??"

"Don't be like that." She walked to him, putting her arms around his shoulder from behind.

"What are you-" He paused, getting a faint whiff of something sweet from her. "This smell-"

She grinned at the boy, eyes twinkling, "Doesn't he smell just like we predicted he would?"

Heris grabbed her shirt, they are both wearing peasant shirts, and brought it to his nose, a smile coming on his face, "You are right about that. I want to bottle this up."

"Me too." She chuckled, holding her shirt to her nose. "I am never washing this."

"I will have to borrow it from you from time to time."

"Sure, for a price."

"Of course. I wouldn't dare take it for free."

________________________

"Are you sure about keeping those two near you?" Carvill asked, looking at Heris and Clover standing in the corner with their backs faced to them with concern.

"What do you mean?" Micah asked, taking the paper from Carvill.

"I am just ... cautious of them for some reason."

"Don't worry about them," Micah smelled the paper, getting a whiff of blood from it. "They are people that say they do not mind dying for me while meaning it.”

"I am still cautious of them."

“I can see why.” Micah nodded, holding the paper up to his face, “So? Is this the correct one?”

“It is.” Carvill turned from the two and looked at Micah. “Authentic with even the king’s seal here.”

“That’s great then.” Micah beamed, holding the paper up.

“I suppose we won't be needing this anymore.” Carvill pulled out another paper from his pocket that looked identical to the one Micah is holding, even with the king’s seal too.

“No, we still need that,” Micah said, handing the paper back to Carvill. “Keep the two safe, the forged one and the real one.”

“Is it really forged if the king was the one that forged it with all the legal documents?” Carvill asked, helping Micah on the horse once again.

“It just helps to distinguish between the two.” Micah shrugged turning to the two. “Are you both ready?”

“Always!” Heris shouted, putting on his mask as Clover put hers on as well.

“What about the others?” Carvill asked, the heat coming from the kingdom growing as screams filled the air even more.

“They already are on their way.” Heris shrugged. “We made sure to tell them before we came here.”

“Such a shame Thunder couldn’t be with us,” Clover said, tugging her horse forward.

“He placed Madam Lottie in charge of the people under him, I am sure she will do fine.” Heris smiled through his mask. “By the way, I have not seen anyone from the Division Three until now.”

“That is because there is no one under Division Three besides Madam Lottie and Juliet,” Micah explained, putting his blindfold over his eyes once again. “Speaking of which, I will have to help her get some people under her. Remind me of that, Carvill.”

“I will, let’s concentrate on this first.”

The three stared at the blazing fire in front of them that looked like it could touch the skies if it got any higher, the heat was scorching but not deadly, not yet anyway.

“You all know what to do,” Micah said, grinning. “Don’t get too injured, ok?”

“Ok!” The three shouted in unison as Micah and Carvill took off in the direction of the burning kingdom.

Heris and Clover watched with bated breath, each offering a pray to whoever it is they wanted to ask protection from.

___________________

Micah tried not to focus on the screams or the heat on his face and parts of his exposed skin.

“Micah!” A desperate cry filled his ears, making him grab onto the horse’s mane in an attempt to ignore the cry.

The darkness around him helped to focus on certain sounds instead of seeing a panicked array of colours that will only overwhelm and confuse him.

It doesn’t make hearing the screams of fear any easier to hear though.

Hopefully, no one is late today, if they are late even by two minutes … a disaster can happen. A really, really bad disaster.

“Are you ok?” Carvill asked, his voice like clear water in the midst of all the screaming. “You tensed up just now.”

“I am fine,” Micah said, not even believing himself but if he wasn’t fine, what would he be? “Are we about to enter the kingdom?”

“Yes!” Carvill shouted, slowing down. “People are running out of the gate in hordes. They are tripping over one another. I see three trampled.”

“Teri is inside the walls,” Micah said as they stopped, people running past them in a panic. “Along with some of her men. Though there seem to be more people in the kingdom than I anticipated.”

“Some are coming out of other exits,” Carvill said with a smile. “More damage would have happened if Teri and her men weren’t there.”

“Yes,” Micah said, furrowing his brows. “But we need to make sure some people are here to organize the people running out before more people get trampled.”

“We will not be able to enter inside without doing that, right?” Carvill looked behind him with a chuckle. “Well, it doesn’t seem we have to worry, they are a little early!”

Pushing away the other sounds, Micah grabbed onto the horse, feeling every bump on the road as its hooves hit the pavement. It was only then that he noticed the other hooves coming from behind him.

“I must say, I am impressed.” Micah chuckled, Heris and Clover appeared behind them. “Hello again.”

“Hi!” Heris shouted happily. “We are here!”

“We will help the people coming out from behind the wall,” Clover said, appearing beside Heris. “There is a lot.”

The two took off with some of the other people in hoods and masks, getting off their horses as they rushed to the people.

The gate is a little small for the number of people running out so they had to divide themselves.

Half stood in the front, pulling the people to the side of the road and the other half rushed to the front to try and use themselves as partitions so that the people would not run around in panic, tripping over one another and getting trampled.

Other groups tried to rescue as many people who have fallen as possible.

“I don’t think you will be able to enter in with the horse thought.” Madam Lottie said, appearing beside Micah and Carvill.

“No problem,” Micah said, jumping off the horse. “That was never really an option I considered.”

“Roshi, come back-!“

Micah took off into the crowd of people leaving Carvill and Madam Lottie to try and run after him but the crowd only grew, blocking their way.

“Roshi!”

11: 45 P.M., 13 June