76. A Little Long Game

Màu nền
Font chữ
Font size
Chiều cao dòng


Keith looked down at the map in his hands that showed multiple kingdoms on it.

'Emberlands is a good place to hide but it is harder to survive in it..Gardenia is harmless but it is more advanced. There's also an area between both kingdoms that is a place for waste.' He thought and after a moment of consideration, he put a finger on Emberlands.

'It's dangerous and a place for retired criminals and crime doers.' He thought as he walked outside his tent to announce to the men, 'Perfect for kidnappers to hide.'

The men were huddled up, grinning stupidly together and Keith smiled.

'They deserve a break. I'll tell them later tonight.' He thought as one of the men called him. 

"Prince Keith! We're playing a little game, why don't you join us?"

He almost refused as a Prince but his ego gave in.

'A little break won't hurt right?' He thought as he walked over to the men.

They hustled him to the huddle and a man started giving the instructions of the game.

"Two people will be chosen as the targets. The rest will have to chase and capture them. If one is caught, we have to guard him and chase the other target at the same time. If we don't guard the target we caught, the other target can bring that target back to their safe spot and we would have to start all over again." He said and took a breath.

"In order for the chasers to win they have to catch both targets." He said and then took out a list that had a bunch of words on it.

"For the targets to win they have to obtain everything on this list without being caught and bring it into their safe spot. Got it?" The man finally finished and they all nodded, including Keith.

"Alright let's pick our targets now." 

They all stared mischievously at each other except for Keith. It looked like they were having a silent conversation through their eyes. Finally they looked at Keith.

"What-" He started but was interrupted.

"You're our first target." A man with curly hair said with a cheeky smile and Keith rubbed his forehead.

'I knew this would be a bad idea.' He thought closing his eyes and then opening them again.

"I'm your Prince so choose a different target." He tried but they shook their heads smiling and some even smirked.

"You can't do this to me." Keith said and groaned but Mark replied with a grin.

"Looks like we just did Sir."

Keith responded in silence as they handed him the list of things to get so they looked for their second target. While they were searching Katie came out of the cooks' tent with a bread puff in her hand and some in her mouth.

"What are you guys doing?" She asked but regretted asking when they gave her evil looks.

The next thing she knew, she was pulled over by Keith's side and the half eaten bread was on the ground. After another repeat of the instructions she looked up at Keith hopelessly.

"So we're the targets?"She asked and when he nodded, she looked down at her fallen bread. "But my bread.."

"Just think of this as training." Theo said by her side, smiling. "Oh and I'll treat you to something later."

"Sweet!" She said back smiling and took a look at the list in Keith's hands.

"Kenneth's shaver?..Drew's teddy bear?" She read them out loud and looked at the said men who were now embarrassed.

"Really?" She asked and Mark smiled, teeth showing.

"We put all 13 of our personal things including yours and Keith's so it would be more difficult to get."

"Great." Keith said and sighed, "C'mon let's just get this over with."

Keith and Katie ran to find the first two items as the men turned around and gave them a head start. 

First was the shaver so Katie ran into Kenneth's tent and when she spotted it, she grabbed it quickly.

"Ready or not, here we come!" Mark announced as Katie ran out of the tent and into the Forest by their tents to meet Keith who had the teddy bear.

"So 11 items left.." Keith said checking them off the list and put the items in a hollow of a tree.

"Staying spilt up will help us." Katie said and he nodded and they both ran out in different directions.

"Hair rollers...hair rollers.." She mumbled to herself trying to find it in the man's tent.

"There!" She exclaimed quietly to herself and grabbed the hair rollers.

"That's why his hair is so curly.." She said out loud but when she walked out of the tent she was surprised by 3 men.

"Got you now." They said gaining in closer to her but Katie used her flexibility and went through the space between their legs.

They were surprised for a while but they chased her.

"Don't let him go to their safe spot!" One man said but it was too late.

Katie ran into the forest and put the hair rollers in the hollow and sat down for a short break, panting.

"Great, we got 5 now." Keith said wiping sweat after putting the two items he got into the hollow and sat down beside her.

They both looked at the list again and chose the items to get next.

"I'll get my golden badge and William's bird whistle." Keith said and Katie nodded.

"I'll get Mark's bow and Theo's spear." She said and sighed. 

'Of course the twins had the coolest personal items beside Keith's.' She thought as she ran out wiping sweat on the way and into Mark's tent.

As she grabbed his bow, she heard footsteps behind her.

"Hi Pidge." Mark said devilishly smiling, his dimple showing.

"Hi?" She peeped out before he ran for her and she dodged him. He reached out to grab her with his long arms but she ducked and ran out of the tent before he could touch her. 

He chased her but since she was already tired from running, she slowed down a bit. Mark overestimated the speed she was going and accidentally ran ahead of her. When he realized she was behind him, Katie was already running in the direction of the forest. As she got in she laughed at him and he chuckled with her.

"Alright alright you got me there." He said and walked away to find Keith. 

Katie put the bow in the hollow and saw Keith's golden badge already in there.

"He's so fast." She said out loud and ran out the forest to go in Theo's tent.

When she got there he was just sitting down.

"Oh hi Pidge." He said randomly and she looked down at him, confused.

"My spear's over there." He said nodding his head to the left, smiling and Katie stared at him with mouth wide open.

"You're helping me?" She said and he grinned.

"I mean you're working so hard so why not?" He said shrugging while smiling and Katie tsked at him.

"Don't go easy on me, I can beat and outrun you." She said putting her hands together and he looked up at her smirking.

"Is that so?" He asked and when she nodded brightly, he sighed.

"I know I'm just gonna lose to you so I'm letting you take it." He said again smiling and she side glared at him as she took the spear.

"Fine I'll take it now because Keith is probably waiting but next time you better give me some action too." She said grinning as she walked out. 

She saw the bird whistle already in and put the spear in the hollow wondering how it fit and realized it was too loud all the sudden. She climbed the tree and looked down at the men who were now in a circle with Keith in the middle.

She thought she would be captured first but she had not expected that.

'Looks like I'm gonna have to save him now.' She thought smiling to herself but looked at the list first.

'Someone's key and someone else's teal jacket is next.' She thought, 'Then I'll save Keith.'

She ran out but hid out of sight when she saw a couple of men patrolling around the area. She ran to the tent once they passed and found the key in the second drawer. She ran back trying to stay out of sight and dropped the key into the hole.

After a while of running she grabbed the teal colored jacket from a man's tent and rushed to put it in the hollow with the other 10 items. She wiped her sweat and sat down for another break and then tried to come up with a plan to save Keith without getting caught herself.

"I just have to outsmart them somehow..." Katie said out loud, "But how?"

After a moment of hard concentrated thinking, Katie grabbed a bunch of small rocks and walked quietly out of the safe spot and hid herself in big bushes nearby. From there, she threw the rocks into different directions where it would make a lot of noise and waited for most of the men to go away from Keith. 

Finally her plan worked and now there was only 3 men waiting by him. When they looked away she ran quickly and quietly towards Keith but when she was about to reach him, she stepped on a twig. It made enough noise for the men to notice and they reached to grab her too but she grabbed onto Keith's hand and ran.

"I thought you wouldn't come for me." Keith said and Katie sighed.

"I need all the help I can get, I'm getting slower." She said and he blinked at her.

"May I?" He asked his hand reached out to her but Katie didn't get to answer because there was now a bunch of men after them.

"Sorry, I don't want to lose now!" Keith said and grabbed Katie's smaller body into his arms, carrying her almost bridal style and ran as fast as he could towards the forest.

Katie only stared up at him wide eyed and blushed madly, hiding her face into his shirt. It was a new thing for her but she liked it.

When they got to the forest, Keith let a flustered Katie down from his arms and smiled.

"Sorry..I hope you didn't mind." Keith said and she shook her head.

"Yeah I just wasn't carried that way in my whole life until today." She admitted and he chucked.

"You were pretty light for a man." He added and she smiled awkwardly.

"Yeaah..I've been on a diet." She said making up an excuse and changed the subject.

"We only have two items left." She said bringing out the list and Keith brought something out of his pants.

"One actually, I got this before I was ambushed. They didn't notice so I got lucky." He said and brought out the 12th item which was a baseball and put it into the hollow.

"So what's our last item?" Katie said and looked down at the list and saw her personal item as the last item on it.

"Your bandages?" Keith asked looking down and then at her and she froze. How did someone know her bandages were her personal item? She didn't remember writing it on the list or telling anyone about the bandages she bought.

"What do you use your bandages for?" Keith asked and looked at her surprised, "Do you have any injuries you're not telling us about?"

"Ah, it's nothing really." She said smiling at him convincingly.

'Please don't ask further!' She thought and thankfully he just left the conversation to that.

They both walked out of the forest carefully and into Katie's tent. Keith found the bandages first surprisingly and they both headed out for the forest again but as they were about to reach it, all the men were suddenly blocking their way.

"No escape this time Pidge." Mark said with the same smirk and they both backed up away from the men.

"What do we do?" Katie asked Keith and he looked at her seriously.

"Distract them for me." He whispered for only her to hear putting the box of bandages in his pocket.

"Gotcha." She said grinning and walked in front of Keith.

"You guys are so slow, you won't be able to catch me and we'll win." She said provoking most of them and ran around the tents as most of the men chased her. 

Only a few men stayed behind to block Keith but he outsmarted them. He ran one direction when they chased him but then swooped the other direction making them confused and he jumped on their backs and ran into the forest. He put the bandages in the hollow and yelled out loud.

"WE WON!" He exclaimed walking out of the forest and found Katie pinned to the ground by a few men.

"Yes I knew we could do it!" She said as he helped her get back up and dusted herself.

"Okay guys so the targets won." Mark said smiling, not looking as bothered by losing than the other men who grumbled and complained.

"That was fun, we should do it again." Mark suggested but everyone else groaned.

"No!"


"Alright men, our next Kingdom is Emberlands." Keith announced as the cooks passed their food around.

"Get a lot of sleep tonight, we'll be riding all day tomorrow." He said and got salutes and they all started on their food.

He saw Katie on a log by herself so he sat down beside her. They ate their food quietly as they watched the sunset.

"Although I never want to play that again, I think we made a good team." Keith said glancing at Katie and she smiled nodding.

"I agree." She said and they high fived each other.

Katie was happy about the current moment but a question was stuck in her mind.

'Who put bandages as my personal item on the list?'

———————————————————————

A/N

I had fun writing this chapter honestly and plus we got some kidge scenes here (hehe)

What do you guys think of the last thought of Katie? Who do you think did it?

Btw I think this is the longest chapter I wrote... (2298 words)

I've gone back to school but it's only for two days a week and the rest of it is remote. It's really boring and I can't wait for it to end lol

Anyway feel free to leave questions here or tell me your school schedule too, I'm interested about how it is in different countries.

Thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you have a good time when you're reading this. ☺️☺️

-Silver





Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen2U.Pro