The Royal Revenge

Elys was terribly petrified. The boy she had tried to save from the vampires had actually already been injured after all. But how could a vampire bite cause such pain for a child?

Could those vampires that chased her be some other kind who were more dangerous, untamed, and uncivilized than the ones she had come to know of?

"What kind of vampire could do this?" she gasped as she pored over the bite marks.

The child sucked in a huge amount of air, to which surprised Elys and made her break. His eyes rolled back into his head, and his body shook like an epileptic attack before he finally returned to normal.

Elys watched in horror as the little boy looked at her with bloodshot eyes full of pain. His half-opened mouth moved, and Elys strained to hear the words he said.

She leaned over to listen more, the screeches of the birds above them making it a whole lot difficult for her to understand the boy. Once her ear was close enough, she was finally able to recognize every single word he said. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Sister... why do you keep your powers hidden when you could use it however you want? Save whoever you want..." the child suddenly asked.

The question he asked her caused the hairs on her skin to stand on its ends.

How did he even come to the conclusion she had powers?

The princess definitely hadn’t given him reason to think she had one. Sure, she might have thought of using it, but she had sworn off from it since the day her kingdom fell to the vampires.

For the first time since Elys had met the child, the boy scared her.

The princess had suddenly found herself in a situation she couldn’t completely grasp in her head.

"I don’t have powers," Elys tried to deny his allegation. "You are asking me for something I can’t give. I am merely a warrior who lost her home through destruction, just as how your town had been."

"No... your powers would have been able to save me," the little boy said. "The birds are flying all around us, sister. They will soon dive and peck at what remains of me, ravenous like they have never fed for days on end."

Elys couldn’t begin to explain the strangeness of his words. She felt like she was going crazy, and that everything happening around her seemed to turn more bizarre and unnerving with each moment that passed by.

The boy started to spasm yet again, and with it the birds that circled above them began to turn erratic.

Just as what the child said, Elys heard the birds screech and communicate with each other above them. They were everywhere, and with each screech, the tone of their cries seemed to turn a notch higher, a crescendo of havoc that has yet to come.

A song of pain and desolation that echoed the suffering of the boy in the princess’ arms.

It was only a matter of time for them to start attacking.

One by one, the birds that once had been invisible to the eye had started to swoop down on them. Elys tried as hard as she could to protect herself and the boy, but there were only so much her arms could do against a barrage of sharp beaks.

The sleeves of her dress began to tear, exposing her already scarred skin from countless battles. The birds didn’t stop until they could get a piece of the boy, nipping, tearing bits and pieces until the princess felt her dress get soaked in blood.

"Please..." the boy begged, "please save me..."

Elys’ heart ached.

Both of them were trapped in the dark with carnivorous birds materializing from thin air. Each puncture the bird’s beaks gave them pushed the princess further into the corner – should she use her powers now?

What if she lost control yet again?

Not only would she die, but the child wouldn’t be able to survive as well!

They were imprisoned inside a place where there was no visible exit. She worried on end that her magic could potentially create a great vacuum effect, there was no doubt about it.

"I am going crazy..." she muttered under her breath, "All of this isn’t real, is it? Tell me this isn’t real!"

"This is as real as it gets, sister," the child said, his eyes sinking into his skull. "You have failed me... failed all of your loved ones as well."

Pressure started to build inside of Elys.

She felt as if she was being held accountable for something she didn’t do. Well, technically she really could be held accountable – she didn’t save the boy when he practically begged her to.

Straw after straw were stacked behind the resilient camel’s back.

Elys had thought she was just doing the right thing to rescue a child being chased by strangers. But in the end, her choice had turned into doubt over her ability to save people’s lives.

If she was this powerless to save one person, how could she bring herself to avenge her kingdom? How was she going to free her people taken as slaves?

The princess has no definite answer.

Doubt creeped under the princess’ skin. She feared the justice she had promised to her father was too far out of reach with how weak she was right now.

Why was she so useless when she wasn’t using her magic? Could using it be the only way for her to be strong? To use such ability entailed in her a possibility of destruction and havoc.

"No! No, no, no, no, I... I couldn’t... please understand! Please!" she held on to the child, rocking both of their bodies as the birds continued to strike.

Screams of avian fury echoed like a collective of cries.

One after the other, birds swooped down and perched over Elys’ back. Even as she tried to shake them off, the birds were stubborn and returned to their previous positions – if there was no other bird already perched there.

"You let me die... you killed me," the boy whispered.

It was then and there that, after years of staying strong, Elys finally broke down.