The Quest: The long road (Failed series)

Here is the second story of the quest I wrote before stopping

The Quest: The long road

The path less taken

“Shouldn’t we be getting horses or something?” Luke asked out of breath as the pair passed the stables. 

“No, they would only slow us down.” Thomas said slowing down so Luke could match his pace. 

When they were a few hundred feet from the kingdom Thomas took a sharp left into the forest down an overgrown path. 

“Where are we going?” Luke asked. The path was narrow and Thomas could feel Luke’s body heat and he stayed close to Thomas. 

“Shortcut, think of it as the path less taken.” Thomas said looking around “Plus I have some stuff stashed in here that may be useful.” He continued to walk down the overgrown path before finally stopping at a tree with a large hole in the base. He began to dig through the tree. 

“Here take this.” Thomas said throwing a dagger towards Luke. 

“OW!” Luke screeched. Thomas turned to see Luke’s hand bleeding. 

“You tried to catch it didn't you?” Thomas asked shaking his head. “Here take this.” Thomas removed his shirt wrapping it around Luke’s hand. “That should stop the bleeding.”

Luke stared at Thomas’ chest, he had never seen such a well developed body.

“Thanks.” Luke managed to get out unable to look away from Thomas’ abs. 

“Well I’ve got my bow, and as long as you can be safe with it you have a dagger so at least we have protection.” Thomas said oblivious to Luke’s staring. He strapped the bow onto his knapsack and started to hike again. “Come on.” 

Several hours went by as the two hiked in the woods, Luke’s bleeding had stopped, Thomas had put another shirt on.

“Erm...I need to pee.” Luke said. 

“There’s trees go do it.” Thomas said stopping. 

“How do I do that?” Luke asked. Thomas pivoted looking at Luke, he realized that he was being serious. 

“Have you not gone since the change?” Thomas asked. 

“No I haven’t needed to, but now I really need to!” Luke’s voice begged for sympathy. 

“Ok..well I have never had to explain this.” Thomas said. “I guess just point and shoot.” He shrugged unsure how to explain this.  

“Ok I’ll try.” Luke said walking to a tree just out of view. Thomas waited on the path for several minutes, finally Luke ran back to Thomas.

“Better?” Thomas asked,Luke nodded. “We need to get going only a few hours until night and we still have several miles until we are out of these woods. “

Thomas started down the path again before Luke could respond. Luke followed after looking up at the sky, it was already filled with an unnaturally early reddish hue. 

Camp

“It shouldn’t be getting dark this early.” Thomas thought. It had only been an hour since they had started hiking again, yet the forest was growing already growing dark. They walked up to a large clearing in the woods. 

“Hey we are going to camp here tonight.” Thomas said looking up at the sky. “It's getting dark much faster than I thought it would.” 

“Ok.” Luke was relieved he had watched the woods get darker and more ominous. He was scared, but he felt a feeling he had never felt before one that made him not tell Thomas how terrified he was. 

Luke sat on a log watching as Thomas set up a small tent, and started a fire. He felt useless and he didn’t like this feeling. 

“How did you learn all this?” Luke asked watching as Thomas finished setting up the tent. 

“They teach this stuff to all squires, and most boys in the kingdom know how to start a simple fire.” Thomas said wiping his hands on his pants. “Tent is all set up.”

Luke looked at the tent, it was very small, looking like it could barely fit one person let alone two. He refused to protest though, Thomas made him feel safe and he didn’t want to piss him off. 

The two sat by the campfire snacking on some bread. The sky had grown pitch black, and the only source of light was from the fire. 

“So what’s it like?” Thomas asked before taking a bite of his bread. “You know being a guy now?”

“It's….” Luke stopped, he hadn’t thought about it much. “It's confusing and weird, but I don’t see anything bad about it.” Luke shrugged. 

“Then why do you want to go back?” Thomas was intrigued.

“I mean, I do want to be myself again.” Luke started. “But it’s my mom who is hell bent on returning me to how I was before.”

“Do you know why it happened?” Thomas asked.

No, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. “Luke’s voice lost it's soothing touch and became shaky. “I’ve met you before haven’t I?” He asked.

“Yes, I have guarded you before along with other squires.” Thomas said. 

“No, before that.” Luke said. “I was young, playing in the palace gardens.” 

Thomas remembered instantly the moment Luke was talking about. He had been eight around the time, his dad in a meeting with the queen. He was walking around the gardens when he bumped in a young girl covered in dirt. 

“You were the girl in the dirt.” Thomas spoke as he realized. “Wow, I am surprised you remember that…” 

“Yea that was me.” Luke blushed a bit, there were reasons he remembered that day so vividly. 

“I don’t remember much of that day, I just know I spent the day with you playing around the kingdom, and then…” Thomas lost himself in thought for a second. “Then my dad left for the Evergleen the next morning. “

The pair grew silent the only noises were the crackle of the fire. For the first time they realized the multitude of the task before them. Not only was the entrance of the evergleen still a week away at the least, but the deep push into it would be extremely deadly. 

“I think it's time we got to sleep…” Thomas said absent mindedly. 

“I agree.” Luke said. 

Both boys got up from the fire walking towards the tent. Just as Luke predicted it was a tight fit, even on his side he could feel Thomas’ body pressed against his. He didn’t complain though, for some reason he couldn’t place Thomas made him feel safe, and the feeling of him being there even while he slept was comforting. 

Run!

Thomas woke up to see Luke’s face in his. Thomas realized he must have rolled over at some point in the night. He craned his head to look outside of the tent. Sunrise was just starting. 

“Hey time to wake up.” Thomas said gently shaking Luke. Luke groaned opening his eyes. “Come on time to get up we need to get a move on. 

Thomas took down the tent as Luke sat on a log rubbing his eyes. Thomas packed the tent into the knapsack. He stood looking to Luke who was staring wide eyed into the forest. Thomas looked towards where Luke was looking. 

There stood a gruesome looking elf covered in scars carrying a large scythe. He was watching the boys.

“Redcap.” Thomas whispered to himself. The redcap took a step towards the camp, and the boys. “RUN!” Thomas shouted pulling Luke to his feet and pushing him down the path. The pair ran down the the path away from the camp with the Redcap chasing them. Thomas grabbed an arrow and shot it from his bow at the creature, he missed. It gained on them only ten feet from them. Thomas passed Luke grabbing him and trying to pull him along. Luke caught off guard stumbled falling to the ground. The redcap leaned over Luke holding it's scythe in the air preparing to strike. Luke closed his eyes preparing for the end. 

Thomas drew his father’s sword for the hilt he carried it in. The world moved in slow motion for him as he drew in a deep breath charging towards the monster. 

Luke waited for death to come, praying that it was painless, but instead he heard a deafening screech.  He opened his eyes to see a sword dug into the chest of the monster that was moments away from killing him. Thomas standing inches away from luke looking more of a warrior than a teenage boy, he pulled the sword out and the creature exploded into dust. 

“Holy shit.” Luke said aloud. Thomas had just saved his life when he was sure it was the end. Thomas reached down to help him up, he seemed godlike to Luke. 

“Are you ok?” Thomas asked brushing dust out of Luke’s hair.

“Yes.” Luke said a breath of happiness in his voice, He hugged Thomas tightly. 

“Your welcome.” Thomas smiled returning the hug. 

“Was that normal?” Luke asked releasing Thomas. Thomas didn’t need him to specify, he knew he was talking about the explosion into dust. 

“Oh yea, happens all the time.” Thomas lied. He knew only summoned monsters exploded, and whoever had summoned that was very powerful. “Come on, let's get going before more come.  Luke nodded in agreement. 

“I think I know where we are.” Thomas said looking around. He began to walk down the path disappearing behind some bushes for a second. “Luke over here!” Luke ran towards Thomas worried. 

“What is it?” Luke asked worried. 

“Look.” Thoma pointed and Luke’s gaze followed, only a few miles away stood the massive kingdom of Aven.  

“How much longer?” Luke asked. Thomas looked at the path ahead of them. They were out of the woods, but still had a few miles of uncertain trails ahead of them. 

“I think we can make there by nightfall.” He said optimistically. 

“Well let's not waste anytime.” Luke said, he was still shaken up and wanted to rest in a place where monsters would not attack him. 

The two set off down the path towards the large city looming just a few miles ahead.