"You aren't gonna leave me are you?" she said putting her hands on her hips. The deer just stared so she took that as a yes then as she was about to start walking to look for a way to survive, maybe getting some wood and looking for any fruits or berries that would work and find a good place to make home and harvest herself.
The deer then said "Well I guess not." Now the duchess was sure that her sister-in-law put something in her breakfast again.She felt sick and confused about what had just happened, she couldn't believe it.
She had just heard the deer talk.
Now what was she going to do, one ignored like nothing happened and carried on with her life ,two responded with a smile, three had a full conversation with the deer. One would be boring and well the rest of her life would be the same, two would be more lunatic and creepy ,and three may be fun so she began talking.
" I guess, I'm not living with anyone and I guess it would be nice to have some company but you need to corporate with whatever work I'm doing and well we need to get to know each other. So what's your name?" She said as she turned around to begin looking for stuff, and still had her kitchen knife at hand.
"My name is Fabian-"
A magical like sound was heard, then the deer steps were gone and some human steps got slowly closer to her, she couldn't move.
"Fabian The Feared to be exact."
She turned around as fast as possible and found the deer gone and was replaced by a cute male. His hair was brown and beautiful like the deer's hair, he had smaller horns than before but they were still there, his face had freckles like the night had stars, his eyes were dark green and he had long beautiful lashes any women would desire to have, he also had a good body it looked very fit but not so much, and his robe were leaves and branches all around that covered his body.
"What are you doing here? What do you want?" She moved trying to stab him but he stopped her by holding the knife.
"The palace really needs new kitchen ware, didn't even cut my hand"
"What are you doing here!? What do you want!?"
"Wow there we don't need to shout, you don't want to get caught?"
He was right, they surely heard her now what would she do? She then suddenly heard armed men from the palace come closer.
"Duchess we know that you are here! Please surrender or face the consequences" said the one of the armed men from the palace.
"But you know I can help you but it's a bit risky if I do so say myself" said Fabian while he whispered in her ear.
"Just do it!" screamed the desperate duchess.
She suddenly saw the dark and quickly woke up, when she opened her eyes Mr.Feared was infront of her and she had a strange environment around her. It was a checkerboard pattern all around her seeming to never end, and she was sitting in a floating chair with a floating table that was very tilted to the left . She was holding a cup of tea but gravity did not seem to exist because the tea remained in the cup, Mr.Feared was sipping his tea. The table had millions and millions of desserts.
"Took you long enough to wake up," said Mr.Feared.
"Where is this place?" said while she trembling, the room was quite cold but Mr.Feared looked like he was okay with it.
"Whatever you want it to be, right now I want it to be a tea room. Quite relaxing don't you think?"
"I guess Mr.-"
"Oh no darling, call me Fabian"
"Well Fabian, are you really Fabian the Feared because the last time I checked you were supposed to be a old man with a black cloak instead of a cute shapeshifting deer."
"Aw thank you, i haven't heard someone call me cute since thousands of years ago! But I'm not an old man because that's not how it works, I didn't die of old age I died in my twenties, so when I became a monster I took the form of when I was alive and the thing I loved most which was nature and animals."
"I see…" said the Duchess as she looked down on the dessert.
Fabian chuckled "Those things are edible, go on get some"
"I don't understand why I'm so hungry" she said while she still hesitated on whether she should take a dessert or not.
"You have been asleep for 4 weeks now, I started to think that you might have been dead." He said, taking another sip of his tea.
They stayed quiet for a long time, then she said "Tell me why should I trust you…"
"What else can you do?"
He was right, if she left from his care then she would eventually be caught by her brother or a nation nearby but if she stayed with him there was hope, she was going to die anyways. She then confidently grabbed a special dessert she had been keeping an eye on, the colorful and delicious carrot cake. It looked quite traditional with the white icing and the little carrot drawing on top.
"Is your favorite dessert Carrot Cake?"
"Yes, ever since I was child my grandmother would make these delicious and scrumptious carrot cakes!"
"My grandmother was like that too! But instead of carrot cakes she made awesome chocolate cakes! With a bit of magic I got to recreate the cake, once you finish that slice would you like a slice of chocolate cake?"
"That would be splendid! Grandmas are always the best, they are always so sweet and their cooking is so so delicious! I wish I could recreate my grandmother's carrot cake, I miss her flavors and her seasoning"
"Why, didn't you like that carrot cake?"
"Heh i mean it's okay but it's not as good as grandmas"
"Well I took personally"
"Wow there, I see your quite emotional"
"Huh, well not enough, get too close and I'll bite"
"Are you challenging me?"
"What are you going to do about it? You were about to attack with a kitchen knife? Is that the best you can do?"
"No, I can use a sword, bow, or anything, even a kitchen knife and I can surely defeat you!"
She knew she was lying. She hadn't grabbed a weapon in years but she couldn't let her guard down. Now they were standing up and looked like they were ready to fight there and then.
"Alright, then let's have a duel using swords only! If I win I can wish for anything using my magical box but if you win you get to wish anything. Do we have to deal with Lady…."
"Alondra, lady Alondra."