Of course the second the shock wears off, Theo is pushing Tristan behind him and jumping forwards with fists tight, ready to fight if he needed too causing the man to laugh loudly at him.

“You don’t have a sword this time, boy,” he bellows, taking a step forwards while throwing his fist towards the smaller boy, though Theodore is a lot faster than the bigger, ox like man and dodges low enough to send his fist up into the man’s abdomen, bringing on enough air magic to make the punch a lot harder than it normally would’ve been. There’s a crunch as his fists connects with the man’s ribs and a groan as he topples to his knees, a hand to his side. He growls out a threat that Theo ignores as he grabs their stuff and pulls Tristan with him out the door and downstairs, seeing Micah, Alissia, Julia and Justin behind the bar with ten soldiers holding swords to them. Theo meets all of their eyes before landing his gaze on Julia, giving her a nod before shoving Tristan ahead of him as he gets closer to the bar. He shoves his tall friend towards Alissia at the same time as Julia brings her fire to life in her hands, making little fireballs in both hands. Justin takes the hint and brings his ice magic to his hand before he jumps over the bar and slams his palms down against the ground, effectively pushing his magic over the expanse of the floor and making the floor underfoot slippery; Julia acts next, flinging the fireballs at the men holding swords towards them. The large man from before has recovered and is storming down the stairs, slipping onto his ass as soon as his feet come into contact with the ice causing a few curses to exit his mouth.

“So you’ve got some magic wielders with you?” his voice is gruff and his smirk completely evil as the man’s hands light up with dark purple flames, bringing a startled expression to Theodore’s normally expressionless face. They all watch in shock as the man places his hand on the ice underneath him, instantly making the ice around his behind melt with the heat of the fire in his palm. Slowly, still observant of the teens, the man stands and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Why do you want Tristan? He has done nothing wrong!” Theodore shouts which causes the man to laugh.

“I’m not divulging my plan to you, now hand him over and I might let you all live,” his tone holds no room for argument but Theodore feels the anger rushing up from his stomach and into his throat.

“I will never let you have him.” Theodore hisses angrily, ignoring the dark smoke that exits as he speaks. “Julia and Justin, first chance you have get him out of here.”

“Theo…” Tristan starts but Theo gives him a hard look.

“I will see you again once I’m done here, wherever you go I will find you.” Theo murmurs to him, watching the prince’s face soften at his words.

“Okay.” Tristan is still hesitant but steps closer to fire wielding girl as she edges closer to the doors, Alissia and Micah following their lead. Justin stands from his crouch and once his hand leaves to cement floor, the ice melts away. The soldiers immediately move to attack but are shoved back by a large gust of wind that appears from nowhere.

“How many magic wielders do you have?” The man asks with a smirk, he now knows there are three elementalists; what he doesn’t realise is one of them is actually Theodore himself.

“Just three.” Theodore answers, gripping the benchtop hard before launching himself at the closest soldier, slamming his fist into the guys jaw hard with the help of his wind magic and hearing a crack from the force. The man instantly groans and drops, holding a hand to his jaw as the other men attack.

“Theodore!” Tristan shouts, Theo just turning in time to see him throw a one handed sword at him that was hidden under the bar. He catches it and uses it to slice the men up as they attack, finally reaching the bigger man who had been watching the people behind the bar in case they tried to escape.

“It’s just you and me now.” Theodore growls, swinging his sword around in a circle before bring it in front of his body vertically. The older man laughs at Theodore as he stands confidently in front of him.

“You won’t be able to beat me with that tiny sword!” He shouts through his laugh, pulling his own weapon from over his shoulders. Theo looks in awe of the beautiful blade the man is carrying but snaps out of it when he swings the large sword at him, just jumping back in time to miss the brunt of the attack though it still nicks him. Blood seeps slowly down his side but he barely notices as he continues to dodge attacks from the large man, moving so the man’s back is towards the others. Julia just manages to see the slight nod that Theodore gives them before she starts moving to the doors and once there she lets everyone out though Tristan lingers to give Theodore one last pleading look. Theo meets his eyes and in the one look, there’s the promise that they will see each other again. Woefully, Tristan lets Julia drag him out the doors and towards the horses, where they get them ready and instantly ride away as fast as they possibly can.

Back at the dining room of the inn, the man is showing no signs of fatigue or slowing down as he continues to attacks Theodore, swinging the large sword continuously at the smaller blond who was just managing to dodge. Though some attacks had hit slightly and his shirt was fast becoming wet and sticky with blood.

“Why are you so adamant about protecting that man? He will not do anything for you but get you killed,” the big man says and Theo glares at him, finally launching an attack of his own that the man deflects and sends the younger boy back a couple steps.

“I will always protect the prince, I would lay my life on the line for him.” Theodore growls out, wincing at the pain of a new cut from the blade in the other mans hands.

“What a stupid outlook on your life. Why fight for him when you could fight with someone powerful like me? There is an obvious strength in you that can rival my own which is very surprising for a pipsqueak,” the man laughs, making Theodore’s face to flush with anger at being called a pipsqueak.

“I’m not that short and I am powerful.” Theo states sending a large gust of wind into the man to knock him back a few feet, the man’s face contorts with surprise.

“So you have air magic,” he states, standing with a hand on his hip.

“Yes, you big oaf and I will destroy you with it.” Theodore threatens, feeling his blood boil with rage as he attacks the man with his sword, using the wind he creates to add more force. Finally catching the man by surprise with the strength behind his attack as the blade gets embedded into his shoulder. The man lets out a howl of pain and drops to his knees, and as Theodore stands over him he almost decides to end him there and then but something stops him. A tugging to the middle of his chest makes him pause and look down at the man with raised eyebrows and as his sight clouds black around the edges in his mind he can suddenly see the man fighting beside Theodore, not against him. He takes a step back and frowns when he can sense he shouldn’t kill this man.

“Why aren’t you killing me?!” The bigger man shouts as Theodore backs away towards the doors.

“Because there is more purpose to you than what you think.” Theo answers, giving the man one last look before he runs out of the inn and just finding the strength to get a horse and jump onto it. Pushing it towards the gates of the city, trying to think of where they would have gone, holding his sides when a pulsing pain goes through the many cuts over his body. He decides to head to the clearing he had been practicing at, hoping that his wounds would hold out until he reached it. Unbeknownst to him, that’s exactly where the others had headed.

They had just jumped down from the horses when Tristan started worrying harder if Theodore was okay, his chest was slightly hurting and he could sense something was wrong, he knew it was something to do with Theodore but didn’t want to think of the worst. So he set to pacing, quickly wearing down the grass under his feet.

“Tristan would you please stop your pacing? Theodore will be fine, he is a strong boy and he will make it through that fight.” Alissia says as she brushes her hand down her horses side, showing him she was happy with how hard he pushed himself to bring her here.

“But what if somethings wrong? My chest feels tight.” Tristan says, bringing a hand to his chest as the tightening gets worse. He lowers himself to sit in the grass and tries to slow his breathing.

“He will be fine, your grace. We will wait until the sun is set before we think about moving, hopefully he will be here by then.” Justin states with a sad smile, bringing some comfort to the young prince as he can clearly see the boy struggling.

Tristan nods while staying where he is as the others organise a fire and food, the tugging in his chest only getting stronger the longer time passes.

The sun has just set and they were getting ready to set off; mounting the horses and starting the trot away from the clearing when the horses start bucking. Obviously frightened by something. The five of them stay on their horses in case they need to make a run for it, knowing the horses would be faster when a mount less horse trots into the clearing though as it gets closer, they can see the horse does have a mount but he is quite clearly passed out and he slumps against the horses neck. Tristan immediately jumps from his horse and rushes to the stranger horse, instantly recognising the white hair of his friend, he pulls the smaller male from the horse and lays him on the ground carefully. The others come straight away, digging through their bags for supplies to help when Tristan notices the blood on his clothes; he rips Theodore’s shirt open to see the damage done by the mans sword. He feels his heart stop at the amount of blood on Theodore’s chest and the tears spring to his eyes, falling silently as he looks over the slices.

“Tristan?” Theo’s voice is small and quiet, breaking Tristan’s heart even more as he places his hands on either side of the younger boys face, watching his golden eyes open slightly. Theo’s face breaks into a small smile that falls away as his eyes close and he goes limp.

“Theo? Theodore?!” Tristan shouts, shaking the blonde slightly as he panics though he freezes when a hand lands on his shoulder.

“It’s okay Tristan, he’s obviously lost a lot of blood. Bring him to the stream and we will fix him up.” Micah says softly, watching the prince nod before he picks his bloody friend up and brings him to the stream, entering it while still holding the blond and lowering to wash the blood from his chest. The tears never stop falling, as he watches the blood flow away. He will get revenge for this.

Meanwhile, the large man who had attacked them was still kneeling on the ground of the inn; feeling the pain from the sword in his shoulder every time he moved, he couldn’t even lay his right hand on the ground without pain flaring through the right side of his body. That’s when the double doors open and a tall, slim woman walks in; her thinly sculpted eyebrows set into a deep frown as she spots the man with a sword sticking from his shoulder.

“What is the meaning of this, Ares? Where is the boy?!” She screeches, moving to stand in front of the man with her hands on her hips and a fire in her hazel eyes.

“They got away Mara, the prince’s guard overpowered me somehow.” Ares looks up to meet her eyes, letting his blue eyes run over her. Her brunette hair was flowing freely down her back, stopping just below her shoulder blades as she looks down on him.

“Yet he spared your life for me to decide what to do with, how kind of him,” she bellows, grabbing the sword with both hands and ripping it out harshly, the man drops forward with a pain filled groan, blood dripping from the wound in his shoulder. Though in minutes he knew the wound would be healed and he would be sent to fight again. “You have failed in bringing me the boy once again, do you really think I will be sending you to collect him again?!”

He realises his error in thinking about being sent to fight again, Mara had the ability to read the thoughts of other’s that she has a bond with. He flinches when he feels the swords blade land beside his neck, readying himself for the final blow that she would surely deal but it never comes, instead he feels a ripping sensation in his stomach. Some people had told him about the pain that occurred when a bond was severed and the descriptions were nothing like what was happening to him. It burnt from his stomach and throughout his entire body, a scream erupting from his throat as he leans his forehead on the ground.

“You are now no longer a part of our organisation, Ares. I will spare your life, though do not make me regret it,” she threatens, bringing a knee crashing into the wounded man’s head when he lifts it again; effectively knocking him unconscious. She looks around the room for a moment before turning and strutting out, thinking about her next move.