Gewen, Elmer, and the five archers rode their horses quickly. The light provided by Elmer's hand was enough for them to see directions. After half an hour, they could finally see the way out of the forest.
"It's over there!" Gewen shouted as he saw the abundance of light in front of them. He hated the dark and was happy to see sunlight again. Agilely, he sped up his horse to get out of the haunted forest.
He was relieved to see that they were safe. Now, just need to climb up the hill to get to the top of the cliff and reach the witch's mansion.
CROAK CROAK
Gewen instantly took out his bow and two arrows when he heard the eagle's croaking again. Apparently they had been following the group from the forest and were now ready to attack.
SHOOT!
He shot at two of them expertly. Gewen was the second-best archer in the kingdom and he was used to shooting moving targets, so the eagles were not a really difficult target for him to shoot, especially now they were in the open and he could see clearly.
SHOOT!
Two eagles cried in ear-piercing shrieks when the arrows shot through their neck and back. One died instantly and fell to the ground, while the other one lost balance and tried to flap its wings helplessly, before it also followed the first eagle and fell hard to the ground.
"Good job," Elmer praised Gewen.
The handsome man grinned and lifted his nose proudly. "Yeah… that's what I'm here for. Go to the mansion quickly and save Ellena's heart."
"I will go now," Elmer replied. He raised his face and looked toward the top of the cliff. He saw the grey mansion, with walls filled with poison ivies. The mansion looked bleak and haunted even in the day time, so he could imagine how it must have looked at nighttime.
"Do you know how to find it?" Gewen asked Elmer to make sure. He looked around and motioned the five archers to be careful as they tried to shoot down the other eagles.
"Yes, I will use magic to relocate Lady Ellena's heart. I believe the witch must have kept it in a special box. I can find it once I'm inside the mansion," Elmer explained. "I think I can take it from here. You better go back and help the prince."
Gewen nodded in agreement. "That's my plan too."
Elmer pointed at the dead eagles and advised Gewen to take them. "I have never met a hydra myself, but I heard rumors that its head can grow back. So, Prince Mars might need your help to handle the growing heads. I advise you to, just in case, bring the eagles and use the blood since it's acidic to stop the hydra from regrowing."
"What??" Gewen's eyes bulged when he heard Elmer's words. "Growing back its heads???"
"It's only rumored. Nobody I know has ever met a hydra in person, so you'll never know if the rumor spread is the truth," said Elmer.
"Got it!"
"Then, I will go now. I will wait for you all in the mansion and we can meet the witch together." Having said that, Elmer patted his horse's neck and it immediately dashed forward and climbed the hill to go to the grey mansion.
Meanwhile, Gewen watched as his men were fighting the remaining six eagles. Two took out their swords and protected the three others who were shooting arrows at the eagles. Gewen raised his bow and helped them shoot one eagle.
Another one down.
He shot again. The second one down. Now that there were only four remained, he felt it was okay to leave his men here to take care of the rest and went back to help Mars. He got off his horse and went to get an eagle's corpse on the ground.
When he reached the dead red eagle, he took out his sword and poked on it to make sure it was really dead. It didn't move.
"Good," he sighed. Gewen didn't dare to touch the corpse on where it was wounded. He was worried that the eagle's blood would melt his skin like what happened to the knight that was attacked earlier.
He looked around and found a long branch on the ground. He took a rope from the bag on his horse' back and tied the eagle's corpse with it to the long branch. Now, he was ready to go back.
"One of you light a torch so we can go back inside the forest," he said to one of the archers.
One burly man raised his hand to sign that he would do the job. The man got off his horse and used flint to light a fire on the torch he took from his horse's back.
"There are only four eagles now. Can you all handle them?" Gewen shouted to his men. Two were busy fighting the four eagles who dashed toward them and tried to attack, while the other two archers concentrated on shooting them down.
"We can handle this, My lord!" one of the archers replied.
"Good! After you are done, go up to the mansion and wait for us there!"
After he shouted his orders, Gewen dashed his horse to go back inside the haunted forest. The fifth archer who held the torch rode in front of him to show the way.
Gewen looked up and absorbed the beauty of the clear sky, and sighed before he entered the haunted forest.
He carried the dead eagle on the stick and followed his archer to find Mars.
***
Meanwhile, Mars had been fighting the hydra for one hour and he was starting to feel desperate. He didn't know that hydra could grow its head again after it was cut. Had he known that, he would not go for the head in the first place.
Now, the hydra didn't have five, but seven heads! The other two extras grew after Mars accidentally cut another head when he was trying to stab the hydra on the heart.
"Shit!" He could only growl in frustration.
