***
Arielle's eyes slowly opened. She looked around in panic. When her hand touched something soft and warm, Arielle became more relieved. Now she was in a large room. The bed was actually much more comfortable than her bed in Nieverdell.
Wait a minute! She was in a bed that didn't belong to her? Arielle lifted the blanket to examine her body which was still in her nightgown. A large hand resting on her stomach made Arielle's heart almost stop beating.
Her eyes traced the owner of the hand, and as she did so, she realized a large man was asleep beside her.
"Whaaaaa!!!!"
Arielle shouted loud enough to make the jet-black-haired man knit his brows. The princess, who was scared, beat up the owner of the hand mercilessly, but the man never raised his hand.
Arielle panicked. She was afraid she got caught by the bandits. Tears dripped from her eyes when she learned of her far worse fate as a prisoner of bandits. If this was the case, Arielle would never be able to return to Nieverdell.
Then what about Tania? What happened to Tania?
Arielle sobbed, causing the man who was still sleeping beside her to slowly open his eyes.
The man got up, then took a black mask from the nightstand and put it back on.
"Are you awake, Princess?"
Arielle did not answer and continued to cry, hugging the blanket in her arms.
"What are you crying about?" the man asked.
"P-please... return me to… Nieverdell…." said Arielle, pleading.
The black-masked man still looked calm. He got up from his big bed and put on his night robe which lay on the marble floor. The man also poured a glass of water and then gave it to Arielle who was still crying.
"You can't, Princess, the agreement is for you to be our prisoner until Nieverdell can give us a newborn wolf baby in place of the wolf that Prince Alexis killed."
"Huh?"
Arielle stopped her crying and looked at the man in front of her in confusion. Wasn't the agreement only known to the two Royal families?
How could a bandit know about the secret agreement?
Or maybe…
Arielle looked around more carefully. No bandit in the world had a big bed with gold decorations. On either side of the fireplace, stood two golden statues of wolves wrapped in thorny vines. It was the emblem of the Blackthorn family.
The girl looked back at the man in front of her. Behind the black mask was a pair of sparkling red eyes.
"Welcome to Northendell, Princess Arielle."
After realizing something, Arielle immediately got off the bed then prostrated on the floor.
"My apologies, Your Majesty King Ronan D. Blackthorn. I thought we had been caught by the bandits."
Ronan D. Blackthorn was the king of the Northendell Kingdom. There were not many stories about the man in the black mask. Arielle had only heard rumors about him but when she tried to find out more, it never came to fruition. Even the innkeeper at that time seemed reluctant to tell her about the man in front of her.
What Arielle heard was that Northendell got attacked by a group of dragons that came from nowhere. King Ronan with all his soldiers chased the dragon group to Mount Birwick, the northern sacred mountain, that had never been touched by humans.
It was said that the mountain protected mystical creatures. When he arrived at Mount Birwick, King Ronan immediately confronted several dragons and managed to kill one of them.
Until now, no one knew how King Ronan beheaded the dragon, not even his closest guards. Rumour had it that King Ronan was helped by a pack of wolves that settled on Mount Birwick.
His battle with the dragons left a large wound on his face, making King Ronan start wearing a mask since then. But without analyzing it first, Arielle actually thought a famous king all over the land of Foresham's was the bandits who kidnapped her.
Arielle bit her lip nervously as she remembered how she hit the man with a pillow while he was asleep.
"Get up, it is not the attitude of a princess from a great kingdom to prostrate."
King Ronan pulled Arielle's arm to get up, then led her to the nearest sofa. He again handed a glass of warm water to Arielle. The girl took it carefully. There were still many questions in her head. Arielle also forced herself to dare to ask.
"Um… Your Majesty… how did I get here?"
"I found you under a pile of snow. The guards on duty to pick you up came just in time when the bandits were about to drag you away with them."
"A-are there any other women you guys found!?" asked Arielle, hoping they would also save Tania.
"We didn't find any other woman besides you. The rest are Nieverdell's guards who have fallen unconscious near your carriage."
Arielle's heart almost stopped beating. She remembered how Tania's last scream echoed in her head.
Without realizing it, her tears streamed down again. She regretted that she was safe while Tania did not. She had fought a lot for her. Tania was like a parent and sister figure that Arielle never got from her real family.
"Is she that precious to you?" asked King Ronan.
Arielle nodded weakly, then wiped her tears again.
"Alright, I'll deploy some soldiers to find the woman's whereabouts."
"Re-really?" asked Arielle excitedly. Her gloomy face turned bright.
"But I can't guarantee anything. Last night it snowed very heavily, and all traces of her may have been washed away by the snow."