Chapter 123 Escaping The Arena
How bad was the action Tauriel had just taken? Very critical was the answer to that question. There were rules regarding a fight in the arena, one of those rules was never to interrupt the fight in order to help a party win the other and that was just what Tauriel had done.
The second reason why her action was a critical one was that she had helped the human by killing the beast.
Tauriel knew the type of trouble she had gotten into but she didn\'t stop there as she fired an arrow that had a rope attached to it.
The arrow stabbed into the wall just beside Jude and using the rope she swung herself into the arena landing directly in front of Jude.
"Is that elf stupid?"
"She\'s courting death."
The reaction from the elves was a very distasteful one.
"Put that on," Tauriel said, throwing a small necklace with a tiny green crystal in the middle at the young knight.
"What are you doing Tauriel?" Tuchel muttered while gritting his teeth as he watched from the edge of the stands.
Just when the shout for one more by the elf audience had begun she asked to borrow her brother\'s necklace which was a replica of the one she was putting on and just before the beast was released she walked to the edge and stood there.
Jude didn\'t really make anything out of her strange movement, if only he knew this was what she was planning to do he would have stopped her on time.
The king was still as calm as ever as his usual smirk was still evident on his face, this was what he had been waiting for.
"That\'s so cute Tauriel, it\'s so cute that you would give up your life because of a human." The king said but this time his voice wasn\'t amplified in the arena.
He struck his staff on the floor and a horrid look appeared on his face as nothing happened.
He turned to the arena to see that Jude was on his feet now and when his eyes darted towards his neck he bit his lips out of anger and frustration.
"That damned necklace, I thought I got rid of all of them!" He yelled but his voice wasn\'t heard by the audience.
"Are you going to tell me why you are doing this and why you gave me this necklace?" Jude asked as he followed her trying as much as possible to keep up.
"Don\'t you think this is a critical moment to ask and answer questions?" Tauriel said as she kept walking to the center of the arena, she was keen on getting there as she wouldn\'t even turn back to Jude or stop for a while, she even chose to walk there because Jude was struggling to keep up.
Just then the amplified voice of the king resounded in the arena.
"Attention! All elf soldiers please report to the arena and make sure the two there don\'t escape, bring them in, alive or DEAD!"
Tauriel didn\'t lose concentration for once as she kept walking to get there, she already knew that this would be the case so it was no surprise.
Heeding the command of their king, elf soldiers came trooping into the arena, consisting of swordsmen and spearmen.
"I think we are going to run now," Tauriel said as she increased her pace, Jude followed up to increase his but he was still lagging behind and now the gap was becoming more considerate.
The first five swordsmen to enter the arena came charging toward them but Tauriel not wanting them to get close pulled out five arrows from her back and fired it at them.
All the arrows were on target as all the swordsmen all dropped to the ground with the arrows stuck on their thighs.
"She\'s attacking her people because of a human!" The crowd was all in gasps and shocked by what they were seeing now.
Tauriel had not aimed to kill the soldiers, rather she had aimed to cripple them for this period and had succeeded in doing that.
More soldiers came trooping into the arena and Tauriel was trying her best to stop them from getting close as she aimed to incapacitate them while running to the center of the arena.
"Hurry!" She said as she stepped back without turning back and pulled Jude by his arm.
"Where are my archers!" The king\'s voice resounded through the arena.
The elf archers began to show up in the stands now and were already firing toward them.
"Almost there," Tauriel said as she did her best to avoid the arrows, Jude was also doing the same.
"Fire!!" A voice screamed from the stands.
Tauriel knew what that meant, this was a critical situation as all the archers had fired at the same time aiming for the both of them.
"Slide!" She screamed.
Jude didn\'t even have time to say how useless he thought that was going to be as he joined Tauriel to slide towards the center of the arena.
Tauriel slid to the center which now had a small hole through which her body entered.
Jude was only able to get his feet into the hole as two arrows were shot into the ground beside him with more coming at him but before they could get to him, Tauriel\'s hand appeared from the hole and quickly pulled him in.
Immediately he was pulled in, the hole began to close back with the sand surface slowly covering it.
With the arrows no longer coming the soldiers rushed to hold the door before it could close up, aware that they were going to arrive late, one of the soldiers threw his sword to stop the door from closing completely but his effort was met with a clang as the sword bounced off and the door finally closed up.
Jude found himself in a dark room where he couldn\'t see anything including the person that had fallen in here with him.
He soon found his body against hers as she immediately lit the fire torch she had in her hand almost burning his face.
"Sorry," Tauriel said after Jude had quickly pulled away from her.
"Do you…"
He wasn\'t allowed to finish what he wanted to say as Tauriel once again reminded him of the type of situation they were in.
"I know what you want to ask, but can\'t you wait till we are out of here?" Tauriel said.
"Ok, but how are we going to get out of this dark place?"
Tauriel smiled as she pointed her torch up to reveal another trap door but this one was away from the one they had come through.
Jude was the first to climb out of the door as he found himself in the woods.
\'When was the last time I saw the sun?\' He thought as he looked up at the sun.
"We have to move out of this area quickly, they are coming after us."
Jude turned to see Tauriel standing behind him.
"Yeah, and how do you plan on moving fast?" Jude said with the thought that her words didn\'t have the appropriate action to back them up.
Tauriel didn\'t reply as she walked to the bush in front of them and opening it up Jude could see a little building made out of wood.
"Unless this is going to be a hiding place, I don\'t see how this is going to help us move quickly."
"You\'ll see," Tauriel said as she approached the entrance.
Jude could hear slight neighs and Huff\'s as she unlocked the door.
"You could have just said you had a horse," Jude said.
"No, this isn\'t my horse," Tauriel said as she pushed the door open.
\'Then whose horse is it?\' Jude wanted to ask but that question never came out as he knew the answer to it now.
"Maximus?" He said in disbelief.
He thought his horse had been left to die that day but right here he could see that same horse but that wasn\'t all, the stallion looked as healthy and vibrant as ever.
*****
Happy Easter Everyone
Hope you are all enjoying your day?
Best wishes to you all.