Purple rose-Chapter 1

Chapter 1*

"My lord, may I remind you that you are speaking to an expert at hunting, tracking, and fighting?"
I roll my eyes and cast my gaze away from Richard's rather pissed off stare which attempts to threaten me. Poor attempt though. I'm more interested in a slug trailing its way across the path…
"Are you listening to me, my lord?"
"Yes, yes Richard….I'm listening to you. Also, I don't hear much respect in that boring voice of yours."
Richard sighs and shakes his head with an irritated smile. Yeah…Richard has never actually shown me a genuine smile…despite all of my awesome jokes. I know, he's so rude…
"You may be the prince of these lands, but I am your teacher and I can speak to you as I like. Now stop mucking around or you'll ruin the hunt!"
Yeah, yeah. You might be my teacher….but that doesn't make any difference.
With a quick glare, I kick my horse onwards after the rest of the hunting patrol.
Kya responds with a quick toss of her head, and breaks into her rather smooth gallop. I'm glad she's my horse. I couldn't handle any of the others.
"Richard, Richard! The targets tiring, shall we go ahead and finish it off?"
Richard turns his head to the old man speaking in that gravelly voice of his and shrugs his shoulders.
"Well what else would we do? Turn back now after all that tiring, hard work?"
He's right about it being tiring and hard work. He's been criticizing my every move for the past 5 hours.
'Oh no, princes don't drink like that!'
'My lord you're doing it all wrong!'
'What the fuck was that?!"
Blah blah blah, whatever Richard. I bet you've made lots of mistakes in your life. You're not suddenly a god who is good at everything and knows everything now are you?
"Yes, Richard sir."
The man talking to Richard nods and bows his head respectfully, before heading off after the deer.

"My lord…."
"Yeah?"
Here it comes, another complaint….
"My lord, you should stay here out of the way. You'll probably do something stupid."
I make a face behind his back as he canters off after the hunting party.
Kya stops obediently, and pulls on her bit, trying to get at the grass in front of her.
I sigh and sling my leg over the saddle and drop to the ground. Oww my legs feel stiff. Owwwwwww!
I'm not surprised if she's hungry. I am too, but Richard's eaten all of my food. He has no respect for me what so ever, and my father doesn't believe that Richard can be so mean. Apparently he's 'considerate and kind'. Pfft yeah right. Richards's about as kind as the most sadistic sadist of all the sadists there possibly are!

"Lord Adrian? You look nothing like a prince…What happened to your friends; did they leave you because they found out how much of a fool you and your father are? I know, why don't you two be the shitty twins. You would make a great act; you certainly entertain us with your stupidity."
Turn my head to look at my insulters. What a bunch of sheer idiots. Badmouthing a prince can lead to death don't they know.
"My father is a well-spoken, respected man and I am his son. Badmouthing me could result in death for you, so I suggest you shut those gaping holes in your crap faces and fuck off!"
"My you are so unlike your father, Addy-If I may call you that, and we do not belong anywhere near your little kingdom. We are your enemies Adrian. If your father hasn't told you, or if you've forgotten, because it seems your brain cannot hold much information, then we are from the kingdom north of here."
North?! I know very well of that Kingdom and the people there are blasphemous and cruel. I've heard that their prince was killed by his own father. Yes, the king. My father would never kill me…at least I think so.
"I am well educated on the ways of your kingdom, sir. What do you want of me; for it appears that I am who you wished to speak with?"
The man's lips rise in a neat smirk. You can't scare me. I'm sure a sleeping sloth in a tree would be scarier than you.
"Oh, my dear Addy….we do not want anything of you. We merely came to annihilate you."
Annihilate?
"You see, our king is rather keen to get his hands on your father's land aswell as his own. Your dear father has already been poisoned, we made sure of that…but now all that stands in our way is you. Would you allow us to make this quick, Addy?"
Stepping back slowly as they advance on me with idiotic smiles on their faces. Make this quick indeed!
One step, two steps…They draw their swords. Maybe I was wrong…oh shit help me!
"My lord, my lord!"
Richard, cantering back towards me with the rest of the party in tow.
Hooray! Took you long enough Richard.
"Obviously we realised you wouldn't be alone, dear Addy…Men!"
The bushes rustle nearby….10-20-30-40-50! 50 more men, we can't deal with this!
"My lord, begone. Get yourself out of here!"
Like hell I'm going to do that!
"No way Richard!"
"My lord, if you do not move your backside I will make you!"
Quick flashing picture of a sword bearing down on my back, pain in my side-oww agony!
"Ok, ok I'm going!"
"Well hop to it!"
Wow, Richard sounds really angry.
The North tribe's men continue to advance, so with a scowl, I turn and run off into the forest.

As soon as I start running, I hear swords clash against swords, shouting, screaming….the gurgles of the dying as they fall.
Keep running Adrian, Richard will never forgive you. Where does he expect me to go? Just go run off into a forest and get lost with no-one else to help me?
Pain in my shoulder. Pain…pain. An arrow digging into my soft flesh, I pull it out and keep running. The blood on my hands, I feel faint…keep running…keep running.
I hate the sight of blood. Blood….red…sticky….warm…..Don't think about it Adrian! I wipe it off on my jumper as I stumble over tree trunks, which threaten to make me fall.
The sky is dark, dark and cloudy. Seems it may rain….great.
Running, running, ho hum, ho hum…no one's following me at least I hope.

The sea down below, there's nowhere else to run. Our kingdom is small, a little island with nowhere else around it.
Wonder where I should go now...hang on….what's that smell?
Sweet, strong, seeing stars….what's-that….
Falling to my knees, falling I am…..blurred v-vision….nothing more…