I chose music for this chapter also. At the end, it may seem like it has ended, but give it 5 seconds and it continues. 😜 Hope Y'all are linking this book so far!

   The teens stayed outside for a few moments longer still trying to catch their breath. Mike yanked his sword out from the bear's chest and wiped the blood off on his pants before sticking it in his scabbard.

   "Saphira," he began clenching his aching arm. "We've got to talk about a few things."

   Saphira chuckled uneasily and fell to the ground in the dirt on her knees. "What is there to talk about?"

   Mike pointed with his good arm towards the hovel. "For one, there is someone laying in a cot in there and I'm pretty sure you came here to help him out."

   Saphira nodded her head slowly. "I did," she whispered. "I couldn't-- can't-- let him die."

   Mike lowered his head and sighed. "Do you even know who he is?" Saphira shook her head sadly. Mike rolled up his tunics sleeve to get a better look at his wound. Three large gashes dug into his bicep up to his shoulder. They were gushing blood and beginning to turn a darker color. "Oh, man!" Mike complained. "This is just great! First my other arm and now this one."

   Mike glanced around the forest. "That bear could smell your blood." He looked down at her wounded ankle. "My guess is from that." He glanced around once more. "Something had to have drawn him here though. Is that guy drawing blood in there?"

   Saphira thought for a moment before slapping herself in the head. "On his forehead, yes. I should never have left him alone!"

   Mike gestured with his head towards the now destroyed door. "Come on then. If he's hurt bad, we're going to have to patch him up." He pointed towards her ankle. "And ourselves for that matter."

   Saphira smiled weakly before climbing to her feet. She couldn't help but notice that the shooting pain from her back that had started when part of the roof caved in was still there. She reached behind her back to feel a warm liquid damped her shirt. She followed the feeling all the way up to something that felt wooden, and it was sticking out of her side in the back with a sharp point. Saphira grasped ahold of it and yanked it out, wincing as whatever it was that had left her skin.

   A splinter about twelve inches long rested in her hand. It was covered in blood and broken in various places represented that there could still be wood chips lodged in her back.

   Saphira glanced frantically from the piece of wood to Mike who was picking up the satchel that had been dropped during the attack. She tossed it aside and limped towards the door. What Mike didn't know couldn't hurt.

   As they stepped inside, they froze. Whoever this boy was, he was gone! He no longer laid unconscious in the cot. Now, he was gone. Probably escaped off into the realm that he knew nothing about. His life could become threatened worse without treatment.

   "Micah, we have to find him!" Saphira stressed. "This is terrible! He's hurt! He could be out there somewhere dying on the forest ground and we would never know."

   Mike shook his head. "No. Like you said. He's hurt. He couldn't have gotten far. We just need to find the correct path he took and we should be able to find him?"

   "In your condition?" a voice from behind them said. "I'd be very surprised if either of you could catch me."

   Saphira and Mike both slowly turned around. The boy stood in the threshold holding a dagger pointed at the two of them and the both of them raised their hands in surrender.

   Mike dropped his hands for a brief second. "You didn't check him for weapons?" he questioned Saphira in an agitated tone.

   "Well, I'm sorry if I was busier trying to save his life then worrying about him trying to take mine!" she snapped back in a whisper.

   The boy motioned with his dagger over to a set of chairs that sat beside a table. "Sit!" he demanded them.

   "Yeah, right," Mike argued. "Have you seen the rest of this house? There is no way in all the realms you could get me to sit in that death trap."

   The boy swiftly grabbed ahold of Saphira and held the dagger to her throat. She yelped in pain at the sudden jerk in her back. "Even if I killed your little friend here because you wouldn't listen to me?"

   Mike narrowed his eyes and slowly took a seat praying that this thing would hold him. When it did, he calmed down a bit.

   The boy then threw Saphira into the other seat making her cringe as pain rippled throughout her body. "Who are you?" Saphira managed to say.

   The boy stood up tall and lifted his chin proudly. "I am Snyder Daracon! Prince of the Dark Kingdom!" He looked at them skeptically. "Now, who are you?"

   Mike gritted his teeth and clenched his fists until the knuckles turned white. Saphira knew that Mike was getting ready to punch this guy in the face. Not only for what he was doing to them now, but also for who he was.

   Saphira placed a gentle hand on his. "We were trying to help you," she told him with compassion. "You're injured. You need treatment."

   Snyder snorted. "And I'm supposed to trust you two? You won't even give me your names."

   "My name is Saphira Hunter," she introduced, pointing at herself. "And this is my friend Micah Waldo."

   "It's Mike," Mike corrected. "And if you ever call me Micah it will be the last thing you ever do!" he threatened the Prince.

   Snyder rolled his eyes. "Last I checked, I'm the one holding the weapon. Not you."

   Mike gritted his teeth harder.

   "Let's all just take a deep breath," Saphira said trying to calm everyone down. "No need for anyone to lose their heads. We all need wounds healed. Why don't we help each other out?"

   "Keep that monster away from me!" Mike said with pure hatred. "I'll slice off any finger that touches me."

   Snyder grinned. "I feel a challenge coming on. How about I'll give you my dagger and we'll see who loses a finger first?" He tossed the blade up into the air and caught it by its blade with the hilt extended towards Mike. "What do you say?"

   "No!" Saphira stood up swiftly and pushed Snyder away from Mike before he could grab his dagger. "I'm not going to let you kill each other!" She sighed and calmed down. "You are both injured and I plan on fixing both of you up." She narrowed her eyes and said with such force, "Got that?!"

   Both the boy's eyes became wide. Who knew an innocent looking girl could be so bold?

   Saphira smiled at the quietness in both the boys. "Now, isn't that better?" She reached into her satchel and pulled out the bowl-- that thankfully did not get cracked-- bandages, and cloths. "Mike, if you don't mind, Snyder has been injured longer and I believe his wounds need to be attended to first."

   Mike sat back in the chair with his left arm clenched. "By all means, go right ahead."

   Saphira stepped closer to Snyder. "Put the knife down. I'm not going to hurt you." She said that sentence almost like she was his Mother and demanding him to do everything.

   Snyder, surprisingly, obeyed. He slipped the dagger into his boot and sat down in the chair across the table from Mike.

   Saphira took the bowl and went outside to a well she knew that was nearby to contain some water. Neither boy said anything to the other while she was gone.

   When she came back, she sat the bowl down on the table between the guys and dipped a cloth in the cool water. She placed it on Snyder's head and began to wipe away the dried blood and sand that had stuck to the blood. "Ah!" he winced. "That's cold."

   Saphira grinned. "Sorry. It hasn't exactly been our warmest days outside."

   She handed the cloth to Snyder so he could continue to wipe the blood away while she got some bandages ready. Once the blood was mostly gone, she took Snyder's dagger and cut the bandages in the correct size to fit his head-- the whole time Snyder keeping a close watch on his dagger in the girl's hand.

   As she continued to wrap his head, Snyder said, "I'm going to look utterly stupid." He kept a straight face the whole time while speaking.

   Mike chuckled. "Not more stupid than you already look," he told the Prince, who did not take to kindly to the insult.

   "Knock it off, you two," Saphira said putting one last knot in place to keep the bandage from slipping off.

   "I think that's enough," Snyder input. "I can feel the pulse in my head from how tight this thing is on."

   Saphira nodded. "That's a good thing. That means there will be pressure to stop the bleeding."

   Snyder just rolled his eyes.

   "Okay, Mike. Your turn." She began to clean Mike's arm wound the same as she had Snyder's head injury. It stung just as bad, but being trained as a squire, he didn't show the pain it caused. They were trained since day one to hold back as much pain as possible. When the injury occurred, that pain was difficult to hold in, but this pain was much easier to bare.

   Saphira finished wrapping him up by tying a piece of Mike's ripped shirt around his arm to behind his head. "That should hold you for a while," she said thrusting her hands on her hips forgetting that her right side was injured pretty badly.

   "Alright, now it's your turn, my lady," Mike said standing up so Saphira could take his seat. Saphira rolled her eyes and smiled. She kindly excepted his seat as this time Mike began to clean her wound.

   Mike gently lifted her wounded ankle and began to clean the blood as it poured into her boot. "How did your boot not protect you from this type of injury?" he questioned her.

   "I'm not sure," she replied, clenching the edges of the chair. As he wiped more blood away from her wound, she flinched. "Ouch!"

   "Told you it was cold!" Snyder bragged.

   "Shut it!" Mike commanded.

   Snyder finally caught on to something Mike had said a minute ago. "Did-Did you call her my lady?"

   Saphira and Mike both looked up at him at once. "Well, yeah. She is the Princess of my kingdom after all," Mike informed him.

   "And that kingdom is?" Snyder continued.

   Saphira and Mike exchanged glances. "The Light Kingdom," Saphira said for Mike. "You are on my land, in my kingdom."

   Snyder's eyes opened wide as if he had just been stomped on by a stampede of buffalo. "What?" he could barely whisper. He smacked his forehead-- which he immediately regretted doing. "I am such a fool."

   "There are so many things I could say about that right now," Mike joked.

   Saphira smacked him playfully. "Micah, cut it out!"

   Snyder ran his hands down his face and grunted. When he took his hands away, he noticed a slight color change in Saphira's tunic at the back. "Hey, my lady," he mocked. "I think you should get your back checked out."

   Saphira sat up straight, or as straight as she could until the pain made her crouch back over. "It's nothing. I can assure you."

   Snyder tilted his head to get a clearer look. "I don't know. It looks pretty bad to me."

   Mike stood to his feet once he finished wrapping her ankle to see what the Dark Prince had meant. Saphira leaned forward just enough for Mike to see the dark red beginning to seep in through her light blue tunic.

   Mike gently placed a hand under her arm and helped her rise from her seat. "We've got to get you back into the village. This could be serious."

   Snyder stood to his feet. "Why don't you help her now? She may not survive the trip to your village, look how pale she is becoming!"

   Mike turned his head down to meet Saphira's eyes. He was right, she was getting paler and Saphira's eyes seemed distant. "The village isn't far. She'll be fine until we get there. Then I'll have Dusk help her. She's the only servant girl I know who also studies in medicine."

   "You're wasting your time," Snyder smirked. "You should just do it here."

   Mike turned to face Snyder, anger in his eyes with how annoyed he was with the Prince. "I'm not qualified to help in this way, nor would I please my Creator by helping a girl out in this situation."

   Snyder rolled his eyes. "Great! You're just like Priella. "Creator" believing people."

   Mike tried his best not to flip out. "I don't have time to deal with this right now. Stay here, and stay out of sight. We will be back to get you."

   Snyder crossed his arms. "Who's to say I'll stay?"

   Just before Mike walked out the door, he said, "Only we can get you home." Then he disappeared.

   Snyder lowered his hands and kicked some debris away from him. Mike was right, whether he'd admit it or not.

   Mike helped his Princess saddle up on her horse before saddling his own; he tried keeping her from falling off. He took Philly's reigns in his own hands and lead Saphira's horse home.