Hunted Queen

Chapter Fifty Five • Within Reach

Hello friends! This is a short one! But fear not! There will be a second chapter this week!

-Mikhael-

The sun was scorching hot, his forehead dripping wet from his body's excessive sweating. It was, by his memory, the hottest day of the whole summer so far and he was spending it in the middle of the road with no shade or any other type of protection from the sun's intense beams coming down on him.

Mikhael let out a strained sigh that turned into a low groan, gathering strength and patience out of thin air before pulling both of his hands through his hair. Wiping the sweat from his skin into his hair, simultaneously forcing himself forward as he walked down the road.

He glanced up at the sky for half a second. There were little to no clouds above, nothing that would bless him with just a moment of shade. His eyes dove to his left, desperately yearning for the soft grass calling for him. It looked wonderful, resting in all that shade provided by the trees that clung to the side of the road. The very edges of the woods that made up a very big part of this realm. 

Keep going. He told himself sternly, fixing his eyes on the road once more. No matter how enticing it would be to rest in that little patch of grass, there was no time to rest. Not even a minute.

New beads of sweat emerged from his skin as he powered on. They trickled down his sun burnt forehead, stung his eyes whenever they reached the corners of his eyes. He kept his head low, shielding it best he could from the sun and walked on. His patience was running low, but time was what he was truly running out of.

They had spotted him, the queen and her odd group of companions. Forcing him to fall back in order to remain overlooked and ignored. Hanging back was what always got him closest to his target, and that was exactly what he was going to do this time as well... When he stayed far away, his prey felt safe... sooner or later. Eventually everyone let their guard down and stopped looking for him or anyone else they suspected could be after them. The closer people came to home, the less alert they became.

So will this one. He told himself. Everyone does.

It was when people did not pay him any mind, thinking of him as everything but a threat, that he made his move. Mostly, his task was to come close enough to simply listen in on whatever information he had been sent to gather. However, sometimes he would run into others like him, who were trying to listen in on his employer, and that never went unpunished or unnoticed. At least not whenever he was on duty. His well thought out strategy worked for listening, and for killing.

After having caught the peasant queen's attention a couple of hours earlier, he had decided to play it safe. He had grown a little too eager to see her with his own eyes when he had spotted her in the town in which he had been waiting for her. However, now that he knew exactly what she looked like and where she was heading... he had nothing but time to lose. He had found her. Now he just had to find a way to catch up with her before she made it to safety. After that he needed to find a way to bring her back to his king. 

Mikhael had decided to blend into the background for as long as possible, becoming invisible and harmless to the false queen. First when he had succeeded in this would he approach the source of his king's troubles. So he had let the cart, and everyone else passing him, think he was nothing but another wanderer. Calmly watched as they disappeared in the distance while he trudged on after them. His body had wanted to bolt after them, but his mind had drowned out this impulse. Knowing better than to act on a whim. That seldom brought anything other than chaos.