The age of Bangna

Even

The first thing that greets Mix's eyes as they open is a green ceiling, he's sure the ceiling in his room is made up of yellow straw and not green fabric, he rubs his eyes as he rises up to a sitting position trying to orient himself. His back hurts from sleeping awkwardly slumped on the floor, he must have been so exhausted that he didn't even make it to his cot. What finally wakes Mix back to reality is another figure present in the room, his back is to Mix who rises to his feet in surprise. It finally hits Mix what happened last night, the prince's dreams and Mix knocking himself out of fatigue trying to reach and calm his mind. He stands awkwardly thinking that maybe he still has time to escape, does sleeping in the prince's tent count as treason Mix wondered trying to sneakily back away and hopefully go out undetected.

"You can stop trying to escape," the prince said suddenly turning back to look at Mix catching him red-handed with Mix's left leg lifted in the air comically. Mix closes his eyes in defeat, putting his hands behind his back trying to act casual, maybe he could just tell Earth that he entered because he heard him screaming.

"You don't need to explain yourself; I know what you did, I saw you "The prince concludes.

"You saw me?" Mix asked confused.

"In my dream, I was being strangled, held down and my neck being squeezed I could feel my throat burning and my lungs almost bursting from the build-up of air, I screamed at first but then the hands around my neck were so tight that I could only scream with no sound coming out, that's when I saw you, I saw your face there's no mistaking it, you came up in front of me and tried to get those hands loose and away from my neck, you were struggling for a while but then you succeeded, those hands disappeared and I could breathe again. I coughed up blood and looked up to look at you again, but you just disappeared. I woke up then to find you collapsed on the floor beside me in the morning"

"I did hear you scream "Mix confessed, "I ran into your tent to see you struggling, you were clearly having a really horrible nightmare, I merely did my duty as your physician"
"But how did you even appear in my dreams, what did you do? Nammon he gives me medicine and they never work and yet you managed immediately to break me out from them, How?" The prince questioned frantically, he moved closer to Mix putting his hands on his shoulders almost shaking him with the force, Mix had to think quick as this was getting out of hand.
"I merely soothed you with a wet cloth, and gave you some liquid medicine, I came from a small village, we have different medicines to what you use here, maybe your body just got used to the previous formulae that's why they don't work anymore," Mix says trying to act more confident than he was feeling. He could tell that the Prince almost doesn't believe him as he searches his face "But how did you manage to enter my dream Mix?" He questions again. "Maybe your mind made me up as I was the one next to you, it can happen, "Mix said finally hoping it's enough for now. The prince let go of his shoulders then, his back facing Mix again, he could lie all he wanted but Mix could see the slight tremor in The prince's hand as he moved further back "You may leave, prepare with the others so we can start our journey back". Mix bowed and left; he knew this wasn't the end of it.

The journey back was quiet as they made their way through the thick forest even the guards weren't joking and teasing anymore as they saw that the prince didn't want to talk that morning. The prince didn't even look once at Mix after their confrontation in the tent, keeping to himself and uncaring if Mix was falling behind the others. Mix shouldn't care, he really shouldn't be affected this much by the prince not talking to him, all he did was tease and make fun of him at the start of their journey so why does he hate how quiet he is now. Maybe this will be a good thing, he'll go to his father perhaps and request for Mix to step down, he should feel happier at this thought but all he felt was empty, the journey back seeming even longer and more tiring. It must have been an hour of endless walking without stopping before the prince stopped abruptly halting everyone in his tracks, He raised a palm up urging the others to stay alert and keep quiet as he listened for something that must have bothered him. It happened too quickly then, shouts of men across the forest floor and clinking of armour and chainmail. The crunching of leaves due to heavy boots and the tell-tale sign of swords being taken out of their hilts. They had company and by the looks of it very bad company. The prince yelled ordering his men to assemble and attack, he looked frantically at Mix then ran towards him and directed him to hide under one of the bushes, Mix followed in shock he didn't expect this to happen. Under the cover of the leaves, he watched as the prince and the guards fought on, swords clinking together as they made contact. The attackers were dressed in full armour providing them more protection however it made them much slower compared to the prince. Mix looked on at him as he almost seemed to dance with how light his steps were as he manoeuvred around their attackers driving his sword at the vulnerable joints which were exposed. Two had already fallen at his hand and he was currently fighting off a third man, their swords mere inches from each other. Mix saw him then, another man coming up behind the prince seeing that he was distracted, ready to stab him in the back, Mix's eyes frantically looked for anything that he could use until his eyes landed on a sharp rock, not far from the combat happening. His eyes turned golden causing the stone to lift up in the air and land with a heavy blow on the back of the man's neck knocking him out. The prince having defeated his attacker turned around to see the unconscious man on the ground, he couldn't think too much about it as he was jumped by another two people relentless in their attack on him, Mix saw it then, the perfect opportunity practically handed to him on a silver plate. The prince was driving the two assailants back towards a stone wall, Mix could see that the rocks making it up were unstable basically asking to fall at any moment, his eyes showed golden again causing the ground to shake and become unsteady, and the prince himself also almost lost his balance but quickly recovered, he saw the rocks tumbling down the wall ready to collapse and so backed away hurriedly as the two men were caught under the avalanche of rocks, their cries abruptly muffled as the whole thing came down. Mix couldn't help but smile, truly it was a stroke of genius, he came out of his hiding spot coming up to where the prince lay bewildered about what just happened. Mix tried to hide his smug expression when the prince looked at him still in a look of shock, he walked towards him already prepared to tease the prince about how lucky they were that an actual earthquake happened to aid them, what a coincidence right. He had almost made it before seeing the prince's expression change from confusion to fear, he heard his name being shouted and then the prince aggressively pushed him to the side causing Mix to fall. He looked up shocked as he saw that they had missed one of the men, coming up behind them to ambush them. The prince was wrong-footed when he pushed Mix landing awkwardly on his non-dominant leg making him unable to protect himself. It happened too quickly as the swinging of a spiked mace collided heavily with the prince's chest knocking him flat on the hard ground, he lay still unable to move. The man took another step to finish the job, Mix's scream was defiant in the middle of the forest they were in, shaking the very ground they were standing on with its force, the man hitting his head against a sharp rock as he was violently thrown from the power of Mix's scream. He ran quickly to the prince's side who was lying on his back, turning him around with absolute dread in his heart, his chest was still moving but heavily laboured and his eyes were coming in and out of focus, Mix shouted at him frantically to wake up and not sleep, patting at his cheek to ground him, it didn't work, as his neck practically rolled back, and his eyes closed unable to will them to stay open anymore.