Constant rolling noises of the wooden wheels treading and milling on gravels and grasses served as a meditating tools on my way out of the lunatic lair. Shaph had become terrified of me and crammed himself in one corner in a white mound, while Ben was placed opposite in a black heap.
It was two whole hours and a quarter of agitating silence. At the end of it, I slid down onto the carriage floor, panting and sniffing for sanity, retching that already digested mermaid meat, salesman mode totally shut off.
"P—princess—?" Shaph started, wondering if his Princess had returned.
I looked up shedding waters in my eyes. "Is Ben alright?"
"Princess!" Shaph shrieked and joined me on the floor. We enveloped in each other relief. With trembling hands, as a result of detaining fear, I cried my sorry, Shaph wept his thank you.
After we had enough reunion, we went back to Ben who was still blackout like dead. He looked awful and his body was full of nasty bruises. Shaph took out his first-aid and we tended to Ben who moaned lightly when I spread Shaph's special ointments on his nastier cuts. We let him rest and got some food early next morning in a small town far away from Amitye. None of us could eat much. Ben came to himself at midday. We gave him lots of foods and water in which he could only take little too.
"Take some more rest Ben." I said while Shaph fed him water. "It'll be four more days before we reach Coronale."
Ben went on his knees, "Princess Kara!" he croaked piteously. "Please help King Fayn!"
Eck! Did I just help another pressurer?
"Yes Princess!" Shaph joined him, seemed to forget that I was not his real Princess. "Please help King Fayn! Please help us, help Beastskin."
"I—I want to. B—but I don't know where he is?!" I stammered for an excuse.
"I know where he is!" Ben said.
Oh darn it!
"You know?" Shaph said to Ben, his long ears rose up. And when Ben brought down his round brown head, both Beastskin slipped into strategist mode, planning in detail how to get to the Ancient Forest where Fayn and his supporters took refuge. They dug out many clothes from the wooden chest, flattened their ears with maid headdresses. They were so excited and looked so silly.
"You should dress as a man Princess." Shaph told—ordered me, rather.
I had no voice in this plan. So I let them do whatever they want as they picked out a boyish cloth for me and a grey newsboy hat to hide my hair which started to grow some black roots. Shaph told the coachman to go to some town and we journeyed on the carriage for another day and night.
It was a cloudless and straight blue sky with bird chirping livelily kind of morning that we got off and walked into the early-hours traffic where housewives were making purchases on their supplies and husbands rushing to work. This was the noisiest and most energetic town I had ever felt since crossing into Azmera border. I was relief too because the more people, the less chance of us being found.
We stopped for breakfast at a small Chinese bread stand, or maybe it was not, because despite a Chinese bread shape, the ingredients were various kinds of grains. It was quite tasty though. Later, after directed the coachman to find an inn for himself for a few days, we walked to the Ancient Forest without any obstruction.
Before we gave up ourselves into the mouth of the giant trees wood, Ben checked round one last time to make sure that no one was looking or following.
"Let's go." Ben said and be the first to step in.
It felt like walking through a thick warm pudding barrier, and I came into an utterly different dimension all over again. It was magical in here. The ozone-riched, moss-green, and classical old smells fascinated me, and albeit the absolute muteness, I could feel the forest alive with life. Probably from the magic embedded in each ten-people-rounded gigantic trees and all shades and sizes of green leaves.
Our boots sank into the soft soils as we trod onward between huge rough trunks into the mystery of the old forest. The vast vista of serenity and the tree maze raised in me a doubt of an exit so I looked back just to make sure, when I saw a silhouette just beyond the forest edge running away.
"Someone saw us!" I told my two acquaintances. We were all alarmed and put speed and length into our strides. We moved deeper into the forest forgetting about the way out. As we ran with our full capacity for our lives, hail of arrows thrashed on us and I was reminded of the war field at Cimon's border. Having spent all my years in peace, my first reaction was to crouch down, scrunch my neck, and pray.
There was a wrench and I was wedged into an arm-lock. A threatening ruff voice rang beside my ears. "Got them!"
More figures stepped out behind the trees, almost half a hundred of them, each carrying a kind of animal ears on their heads and animal tails at their rears, I was about to be relieved when another sudden call snatched my reverie away.
"Ben! It's Ben!"
The Beastskin who got me threw me onto the¾thank god!¾moss covering floor. Shaph suffered the same fate and we crawled for each other doubting if following Ben here was a good idea. Every of our attacker swarmed Ben who peeled of the silly maid headdress, once again revealing his brown round ears, and gave him a warm friendly welcome. Some cried and hugged him ignoring the silly maid dress that was still on. I was forced to think¾Hey! What about us?!
There were so many voices, interlacing each other, fighting to be heard by the long lost friend. It sounded so noisy in this quiet place and I could not make out a word of it, only when Ben voiced out high and clear, "King Fayn!"
Both Shaph and I saw Ben staggering out of the family-gathering and went on one knee at Fayn who appeared hurriedly behind one of the trees. He was in dour patched woodman cloth but otherwise fine. Shaph whispered his name, full of relief. I was relief too. Fayn caught his former steward before he got on the ground and pulled him into his embrace, saying, "I'm glad you can make it!"
"King Fayn!" Ben's eyes were swimming with tears.
"That sadistic woman did not do anything to you, did she?" Fayn said sounding really happy and checked all over Ben's wounds. He brayed his wolf-sharp teeth. "I'm gonna kill that harpy! How did you get out anyway?"
Only then that all the eyes turned their directions to us. To me, it was more of a blaming stares rather than admiring. Fayn recognized Shaph immediately saying his name aloud in surprise, but took longer to pick me out. It must be a very good disguise, I thought.
"...Kara!"
"Princess Kara helped me—" Ben was unable to finish his story to Fayn as he rushed over to us. His eyes were fixed at me, and a little embarrassingly, I said with heart-pounding. "Hello."
He seemed about to pull me into his arm, and I prepared a counter for that, but he relented and replaced it with a smile and said. "Thank you for helping Ben."
"My pleasure." I said.
"Oh my! the one I caught was Princess Carla?" A commotion started among the crowd and I saw the man who had just locked me in his muscular arm panicked. He was half bear too at a closer look. Ben told him to apologize me.
"It's fine as long as you don't see me as your enemy again." I said jokingly and turned to Fayn. "What about now? What's your plan Fayn?"
"We are going to Aeca," Fayn said, "through the Ancient Forest. I'm going to ask King Leonard for help."
That is a good plan, as a Beastskin Kingdom, Aeca's prone to be upset by Queen Ruth(less)heart's return, I thought, "Then, I'll return—"
"We can't Princess." Shaph said. "Remember somebody saw us coming in here? Queen Roseheart must be sending her army very soon."
"You'll have to come with us then." Fayn said and grabbed on my wrist. "Be quick. If what you said is true Shaph, we don't have much time. We have to reach Aeca within a few days."
How did it come to this again?
As Fayn went on spraying orders to all his men, we plummeted deeper into the depth of the forest with mounting speed. In the beginning, my legs were almost torn, but it soon had become an inhuman level that I could no longer match such pace and both my feet floated from the ground. When Fayn noticed it, he stopped and hitched me up on his back, and carried on his running. I had just got a good look here and witnessed the super-human running. The background was in a blur of brown and green and the tree coming from the front was so fast. Fayn always steered away from it in the last second that I had to duck my head all the time. My ride was not the fastest. Some half-horse, half-tiger, or half-zebra Beastskin went far beyond us. Shaph was pretty fast too, being a hare after all.
"Hold tight." Fayn said and I realized that was not his full speed. We topped everyone in a few seconds. Oh god, now that was terrifying.
"Too tight." Fayn said again and I quickly loosened my arms guiltily. We came to a sort of camp as he set me down on my feet, chuckling. "You plan to strangle me to death?"
"S—sorry."
He patted my head with his large firm hand smiling and turned to the late arrivals, "Welcome to our camp."