30 Chapter thirty: [Interlude] Losing everything.
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~~~Viewpoint: Third person, sixth moon, 276 AC~~~
"Princess, if your father finds out that I let you come with us, he will murder me." A middle-aged man, with light armor on his body and a long katana around his waist, spoke to the woman standing a few meters away from him.
The tall, well-built woman rode a white steed, which, coupled with her long black hair and bright green eyes, made her look like an angel.
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The woman only turned to look at the man who had spoken to her, and with a mocking smile, she replied, "Why would he kill you? You're my guardian, so you won't be killed if you do your job well".
The woman then looked straight ahead again, leaving behind a man with a conflicted look on his face.
The man, named Enrique, was the chosen guardian of Isabella's father, as the beautiful woman was called, and although he was only thirty years old, the obvious wrinkles on his face and his tired look made him look older.
Henry had been Isabella's guardian since she was only six years old, and even now, with Isabella sixteen, he remained by her side, though it brought him more trouble than good.
Protecting and caring for the daughter of one of the most dangerous people in Carcosa was no easy task, adding to the fact that Isabella's personality didn't make it easy.
Every day she was looking for a new adventure, always adventuring, always running away to see whatever was outside the walls of the fortress, all in the desire to learn, to document, and to document.
And while that was good, on the other hand, it wasn't, especially when Isabella got hurt from anything, since that would mean Henry didn't do his job right.
When that happened, Isabella's father, Menrico, punished him, giving him a large scar on his back as a souvenir.
That's why he couldn't help but speak his thoughts aloud, only for Isabella to dismiss them, as she had the last few times.
Apart from the two of them, they were accompanied by a whole squad of the best fighters from the Great Black Keep, bringing the group to thirty-two.
At first, the squad would travel alone near the borders of the city of Carcosa, where accounts had been given of the wild beast with nine tails.
A quadrupedal animal, some six meters long and about three meters high, has nine long tails the same size as its body, along with several long, strong horns on its head.
Not only that, but the nine-tailed beast had the body of a lion, the skin of a fish, and eight eyes on its forehead, making it a difficult animal to defeat.
Rarely did the creature venture out of the forest near the hidden sea, but when it did, it would desolate entire villages before being stopped or chased away, which is why a whole squadron would go in search of the animal.
And Isabella, loving the adventure and ignoring the danger it offered, made use of her position as princess of Carcosa, and joined the squadron in secret from her father.
They had been riding for some time until they stopped when one of the scouts returned at a brisk pace.
Isabella, without letting the poor man recover, immediately asked him the position of the animal.
"It was near the shore of the hidden sea; I don't know how long it will be there," replied the man after he could breathe well.
Isabella frowned, but said nothing; instead, several men of the squadron got off their horses and followed on foot, while readying their bows and arrows while at the same time walking in the direction of the hidden sea.
They did not have to wait long, however, when out of the trees came running the great beast.
The animal, very much like a Quilin, came rushing out of the undergrowth, snapping trees with its strong horns and letting out snorts and growls of rage.
The men of the squadron did not lose their cool and began to fire their arrows, only for a few of them to clip into the gaps between the animal's scales.
With that, the beast only became even more enraged, beginning to wag its long tails like whips and start knocking the men down.
Some it rolled up with its tails and threw them several meters away; others it rammed with its great antlers.
But just as the beast was killing the brave members of the squadron left and right, it was just as quickly being wounded, earning itself greater and greater wounds.
Isabella, for her part, did not stand still, and with the aid of a bow, she too was firing arrows in succession.
The beast, seeing that it was at a disadvantage in an environment of little movement, thanks to the strong trees of the forest, decided to run to get out of it and reach the meadow.
Unfortunately, the path the beast had chosen was the same as the one Isabella was on her horse.
However, the beast didn't care, and gaining speed, it lunged at Isabella with a full onslaught.
Isabella tried to control her horse to get out of the way, but it only pranced around on its two legs and refused to move, perhaps because of the stress it was feeling.
At the last moment, Isabella had to throw herself off her horse's back, just in time to see the beast charge her horse and trample it in its stride.
"Shit!" exclaimed Isabella angrily, as she jumped back on another horse belonging to someone already dead, and began to chase after the beast.
By the time she reached the meadow, the beast was being surrounded by the remnants of the squadron, though they were doing little to stop it.
It was at that point that the beast gained an opening, which it took advantage of to break out of its siege, only to run back in Isabella's direction.
She only smiled sarcastically as she stood up and placed a foot on the back of the horse she was on, watching as the furious animal approached her.
"Not this time, you bloody beast," said Isabella, and as the animal reached her horse, she took a push off the foot she had resting on the horse's back.
In a surprising move, Isabella leaped off her horse, and with the momentum she was carrying, she managed to move forward and land on the neck of the great beast, which had once again injured the second horse where Isabella was standing.
The beast, upon feeling Isabella on top of him, began to aggressively wiggle its body, struggling to get her off him, all the while Henry was sweating profusely thinking about the fate that awaited him if Isabella died.
Isabella, on the other hand, had no thoughts of letting herself be killed, and, taking a firm grip with her right hand on the long hairs of the animal's neck, she managed to pull out a long dagger with her left hand.
The beast, perhaps sensing the danger, reared up even more, but Isabella, drawing strength from an unknown place, crawled with the aid of her right arm clutched in the animal's hair, while burying her long dagger directly in its forehead.
"Roar!"
With that scream, the ferocious beast lost all its strength, as it fell and slumped to the ground, dying on the spot.
As for Isabella, she got off the animal's back, as she wiped the blue blood of the beast that was on her face while smiling.
"That was for my horse," Isabella said to the corpse of the animal, as she went on to cut off a piece of its longhorn.
"Yeah!"
Shouted the surviving men of the squadron, when they saw Isabella raise her horn, filling her with cheers and acceptance.
After several minutes, when the situation had calmed down more, they had had enough time to recover and rest.
Isabella asked - or rather, ordered - to return to Carcosa, as she was now ready to present her prize to her father.
The remaining men, nine in all, plus Henry, began to follow her in the direction of Carcosa.
How could they disobey her? Isabella was the only daughter of the Witch King, the sixty-ninth yellow emperor of Carcosa.
Menrico's presence over all his subjects created a crater in their minds that made it impossible for them not to obey Isabella's orders.
As for Isabella herself, she was admiring the beast's severed horn, which seemed to be made of metal, as it had a surface that glowed with reflection.
She caught sight of a silhouette above her, and without wasting any time, she drew her katana and turned to face the presence.
The being that was after Isabella saw that he had been spotted, but the fact that he was already on her, along with the momentum he was carrying, gave him no room to stop or change direction.
"Bang!"
A loud bang was heard as Isabella fell from her horse next to the flying being, falling to the ground and being surrounded by the ten men in her group, all of whom sought to protect her.
On the ground, Isabella removed the body of the being that had been impaled by her katana when it fell on her, giving her room to see her attacker.
The person was a man, but that was as far as the similarities went.
Large black feathered wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, along with having almost all of his body was made of feathers except for his face and hands, as well as having the claws of a bird instead of feet.
"A winged man," Henry said, frowning and looking at the body of the strange being.
Isabella just looked up at the sky, watching as tiny black dots in the sky were seen flying, all in the direction of Carcosa.
Knowing what that meant, Isabella became a little upset, then hardened her face and told her company to ride quickly towards Carcosa, as it was under attack by the winged men.
While in Westeros and the western Bone Mountains, the winged men were believed to be myths, east of the Bone Mountains they were not.
Carcosa and the city of the Winged Men had had several wars millennia ago, which ended when Menrico, the exiled Witch-king, almost succeeded in destroying his city in the southern dawn mountains.
With that, the long war between the two cities had ended and had been so for seventy long years, only for the winged men to reignite the conflict.
"Carcosa!" exclaimed Henry with a dead stare, watching from the hills as the great city went up in flames, while thousands of winged men dropped things from the sky, which exploded as they hit the ground.
"We must go!" shouted Isabella, upset at seeing her home burning. "My father will know what to do."
"Princess, no," Henry told her, for the first time refusing her request, "we cannot go to the city; he will die."
Isabella glared at Henry, then exploded in anger. "Then I will die along with my people; I will not leave them to their fate to die alone!"
"Princess, your father is strong and powerful; he will sort this out, but right now, my job is to keep you safe, and I won't do that if we head to Carcosa." Henry implored, looking at Isabella with as much affection as if she were his family.
Isabella went into a trance, and until then she let out a sigh: "We will go to Asshai; my father has friends there; we will wait until he contacts us."
Henry relaxed his shoulders, as he nodded and spurred his horse in the direction of the morning mountain pass, towards Yi Ti and then Asshai, and hopefully Carcosa would see better days.
