Page 21 of Seven Princes: A Very Dirty Fairtytale

As I kept looking at the sky, I opened up my ears and could hear the birds chirping and thought it might be my last money of beauty before the horror of what I thought would come. As I heard those birds though, my ears also picked up another noise from the crowd. At first I thought it may have been more of the castle being destroyed, but it kept grumbling. It felt like an earthquake, but we didn’t have them in this region. It got louder and louder, and I started to feel the vibrations under my feat. “Princess, look!” shouted the beast, pointing me in the direction of a nearby window.

I looked across and was astonished by what I saw, the sound that was getting louder and louder, and the vibrations that were getting heavier and heavier were the footsteps of what looked like thousands of horses charging towards the castle. They were coming from the north which could have only have meant one thing, and as they got nearer it was confirmed to me as I saw their uniform. It was the Oxerod soldiers coming to charge down the hill. They had by far the largest army of the surrounding kingdoms, but George’s father was a peaceful man so they were only ever there to protect, not attack. It seemed clear that the king was protecting the only thing he held dearest of all, his son.

I presumed that they were here to fight the Sanyek’s and that was confirmed with a flurry of arrows that hit the remaining soldiers who were outside of the castle. Neither us nor the Sanyek’s were a match for the huge Oxerod army, but time was running out. The castle soon became swarmed with fighting, now with three sides involved. The Sanyek’s who were winning the battle were all of a sudden in huge amount of trouble, Goliath had become David.

The Oxerod soldiers headed for the entrance to try and get into the castle. Some of their soldiers headed for the castle walls and seized of the Sanyek ladders that had been used to climb into the castle. Instead of fighting off the soldiers trying to get over the walls, our army were now helping the Oxerod into the castle. I wondered briefly amount their intentions, but it was immediately clear that they were here to battle the enemy that was trying to kill their prince, and not us.

The masses of Oxerod soldiers that had galloped to the castle entrance forced the hand of Josh and Ralph who now entered the castle. I could see it before my eyes how the battle was changing. The doom and gloom had been replaced with optimism. The domination by the Sanyek soldiers had become a 50/50 battle, and there were still Oxerod soldiers pouring into the castle. The two brothers who must have been so smug outside now had faces full of panic.

Josh was a ferocious soldier. The shyness of the bedroom was replaced with a confidence and swagger on the battlefield. It felt as though this was his natural place to be. It reminded me of the joust and how he so nonchalantly destroyed his opponent. This time though the lance was replaced with a sword, but he was still destroying his opponents, just this time the consequences were a lot more dire. I was watching him from the 1st floor, as he scythed through the men around him. That was until he looked up and locked eyes with me, he immediately made his way to the nearest staircase.

Bella – The beautiful beast

He made his way up to the balcony where I was, with a sword in hand and a look of evil in his eye. I couldn’t see the beast and there were no soldiers around for me call on for help. There was nowhere for me to run and I could only make my way back up the watchtower, desperately trying to buy myself more time. I called out for help, but the only ones that heard me were a few soldiers and they were quickly dismissed by the huge man. Swatted away like flies.

“Come here Bella” came the cry from below the watchtower steps. Josh made his way up as we were now completely away from the fighting. I made it up to the top of the watchtower which was open with views across the castle and the land below. I looked across at the fighting below in the castle and the fighting outside. There was no escape and Josh had almost made his way to the top of the stairs.

From the staircase emerged this huge man that I was moments away from marrying. I thought I was just going to be killed right there and then, but Josh wanted to ask me something first. “Your life will be spared if you agree to still marry me!” he said with desperation. I couldn’t believe his delusion, as if I would agree to that after what was happening in the castle. I pondered for a moment whether I should lie and go along with it in order to keep me safe, but I had to be true to myself. “I’m never going to marry you, it was a mistake” I said to him. As soon as I said it, the look in his eye changed. He pulled his sword from out of the sheath and started walking towards me.

“You I can’t marry you, then no-one will” he said as he got closer. I had my own sword and drew it out, but it felt completely useless. A petite woman with no sword fighting experience against a huge man with countless kills to his name. I heard a scratching from down below. It wasn’t from the staircase, but outside the walls of the watchtower. I desperately wanted to look, but couldn’t take my eyes away from Josh. The scratching got louder and louder until I heard a familiar grunt. A grunt that was confirmed as a sound familiar to me when I heard a roar. The beast jumped over the watchtower walls and immediately put himself in between me and Josh. This magnificent beast had scaled up the walls to rescue me once again.

Josh came forward and thrust his sword into the beast, as he let out a roar of pain. He walked forward to attack Josh, wounded from the blow he had just taken. Josh once more thrust his sword forward, but this time the beast clawed at his hand as the sword flew out of his hand. Josh ran after it knowing it was his only hope. He grabbed the sword and climbed on to the small wall of the watchtower in order to attack the beast from above. He went to make a jump for the beast, but his foot slipped. He slipped down from the castle walls, grabbing on to the side with a 100 foot drop below him. He couldn’t hold on though and me and the beast watched as he fell below, outside the castle wall below and into a group of Oxerod soldiers. If the fall hadn’t killed him, he soldiers would finish the job.

“C’mon” I said to the beast, “There’s no time to waste” I knew we had to get back to the fighting and couldn’t dwell on what just happened. We made our way down the castle stairs and back down to the first floor balcony that we’d just came from. I looked across and the battle was still swinging in our favour, but the war hadn’t been won just yet. I looked down to the courtyard below and was frozen in fear, there was Ralph now off his horse, covered in blood looking like he’d just been dragged through hell. He had his bow and arrow drawn with it aimed between my eyes. He released his fingers as the arrow flew through the air. There was no time to react and it was too late for me to do anything about it. The beast however, had already reacted. The magnificent creature jumped in front of me and took the arrow straight through his heart.

He fell to the ground instantly, and I fell with him, comforting him as he lay down on the ground. The arrows continued to fly from Ralph as he tried to kill me. Most of them were taken in the beast’s back as his body continued to protect me. This was the third time that we had saved my life, but it was going to be the last time as the life left his body. I gave him as kiss. “I love you for all you’ve done, my hero” I said to him as the arrows continued to fly. I knew I couldn’t lift my head.

That was, until the arrows stopped. I wondered if it was just Ralph waiting for me to lift my head above the beast’s body to fire another shot, but I had to move eventually. I moved slightly before tentatively lifting my head up and looking down at the castle. I saw Ralph immediately. This time, however, he didn’t have his bow drawn ready to kill me. He was lay down on the floor, as dead as the beast before me. Over his body stood my other hero, George, the man that I loved. He was still alive, still able to save me. He looked completely spent of energy, covered in blood, but none of it was his own. He looked up at me and smiled, I smiled back.

The fighting was almost over, their king had been killed by the Oxerod soldiers and now all of the brothers were dead too. I saw a man shouting instructions at the remaining Sanyek soldiers, “Surrender now and your lives will be spared” said the voice. It was Max, he was walking around with a confidence and strut that I’d never seen before. In the absence of John, he’d been one of the men to step up and made sure the orders kept flowing. The Sanyek soldiers looked tentative at his instruction as they were surrounded. There was still many of them, but they had no orders and no king to go back to. They had lost, and they knew it. They dropped their swords and surrendered themselves to Max’s instructions. The war was over.

Bella – Our saviour

The remaining enemy soldiers were all disarmed and had to take off all their battle clothes. With nowhere to go, it’d be pretty easy to have them join our ranks as our soldiers. For now though they’d have to be detained until things had blown over. There was a vacant castle that now needed to be occupied, and the Sanyek kingdom was soon to be no more. Everyone had gathered together and our castle was thanking the Oxerod men for saving us from a certain defeat. I got to speak to George’s father, King Richard.

“Thank you so much for coming to our aid” I said to him, with my mind wondering about whether he’d want a similar compensation to what the Sanyek’s had asked for. “I couldn’t leave my son to die, could I?” he said in a commanding voice. I had never spoken with him before on account of his terrible relationship with my father, apart from a few greetings. “I hope you are worth it?” he said to me, knowing I was the reason that his son had just risked his life. “I hope I am too” I said back, knowing the sacrifices that had just happened around me.

It was one of those sacrifices that I wanted to see to next. I lay down by the side of John’s body, knowing what he gave for me and the castle and remembering all the good times that I had with him. I instructed some of the servants to clean his body and prepare him for burial. The same had to be done with all the soldiers who had passed, it was a harrowing sight and the aftermath was to be cleared up soon enough. The funerals had to be held and the castle repaired.

By this point it was late in the day, and the sun was soon to set. Adam’s body, still in the form of the beast was taken to the morgue as well. I thought it a shame what he would be buried in this form, and not the body that was true to him. I visited his body and gave him one last kiss before I left him. At that point the moonlight shone through where his body had been laid to rest, it made me think that this was the time in the day where his body would usually turn from man into beast.

I was just about to leave the room, when I saw a flash of light from behind me. I looked back in astonishment as there was a luminous glow all around the body. I walked over and shots of light were coming from him, sparkling and shining in the moonlight. I watched open mouthed as the claws started to disappear, so did the hair and fangs. The beast was turning back into a man, the man who saved me three times from certain death. After a while the transformation was complete, and was happy that his body had returned to normal. If I was happy with that, I was astonished when his eyes opened and that gorgeous smile was left on his face.

“Where am I?” he said, confused. “We thought you were dead!” I exclaimed, “The battle is over, we won” he smiled even though he was clearly still processing what had happened to him. “How are you alive?” I said, wondering whether he knew the answer. “I could only break the curse with an act of true love” he said, “I must have done it” knowing the act of flying himself in front of the arrow was the act, but he couldn’t have known that at the time. I knew he loved me, and I loved him too, just not in the same way.

“Listen Bella” he started, “I know George is the man for you, but I’ll always be here to protect you. You saw me for who I really was, gave me something to live for, something to die for, and you saved me” he finished with a big smile on his face. He gave me a warm embrace and told me that everything was going to be okay. He didn’t have to live with his curse anymore. We walked out the room and Adam was embraced by all the men after they saw he was alive. He was a huge part of the reason we were able to hold off the Sanyek’s before the Oxerod arrived, and saved my life.

I went to find George and he was clothed immaculately and clean, looking like he had just gone for an evening stroll around the gardens. It was about time I’d done the same, and there was nowhere in the world I wanted to be than in bed with him. I washed and bathed and said goodbye and thank you to everyone who had survived the day. The majority of the Oxerod soldiers headed back to their kingdom, but a lot stayed to protect the castle and help the clear up operation.

Bella – Not the last battle

I got word that George’s father wanted to speak to me and him, and I invited him into the grand room so that we could talk. It was something I dreaded, I just wanted to go up to get and was worried about the demands that he was going to place on the compensation from the battle and the security required.

“The war is not over” he said, depressingly. I knew he was right. We still had the problem of the Gattzam and we had precious few soldiers left to fight. “My whole army is going to march on the Gattzam tomorrow, together with the rest of your troops and also the remaining Sanyek men to test their loyalty. I know you’re tired, but we may as well get it done as soon as possible.” Me and George both nodded in agreement, but I was still waiting for the demands.

“The victory will not be in question, we outnumber them about 10 to 1, let’s just hope it’s quick.” He was a clear thinker; we wanted as few losses as possible. “Tomorrow there will be no castle of Sanyek, and no castle of Gattzam. There will be a unified four kingdoms, ruled by the two of you. That will bring peace to the area, with the largest army in the whole of the land.” I couldn’t believe what he said, not only did I get to keep my castle, I was going to have joint ownership of three others.

George’s father continued to say that he had no interest in ruling anymore on account of his age and the fact that George was now ready for it. I went up to bed with George. Happy that I had the man I loved by my side, happy that we had won the battle and happy that we had a peaceful future in sight. George briefed the army about what was to happen the next day, before meeting me in my room.

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