"Hello, ladies." He did a small curtesy causing his long ashy blonde hair to fall over his shoulder.
The three of us were too stunned to even figure out what just happened.
The warrior meant to guard us now faced first on the forest floor, yet the waterfall still trickled, and the wind was blowing as if nothing had happened at all.
This is what I meant about wishing to be a part of nature, then I wouldn't have to even acknowledge the murderer standing in front of me.
Jade grabbed something from under her dress and I quickly realized it was a knife. While I had been here standing dumb found she had been preparing herself for battle.
Clementine was like me and was too stunned to do much other than gap at the man.
"That needle won't help you, princess." This wasn't a jump-the-gun attack. He knew who we were, and he knew exactly where to find us.
He took a step towards us, and we all shifted backward. We wouldn't be able to outrun him, not in these gowns that I was starting to detest more and more.
His focus shifted to me. Our eyes locked and something akin to tenderness flashed in his gaze, "You even glow as she once did."
"Who are you?" It comes out full of confusion and worry. Glowed as who did?
The tenderness is gone, and it is replaced with a smug smirk, one that I know he is using to cover up the slip in his facade.
"Well seeing as how a knife is pointed at me, I take it you three won't come easy." He pursed his pink-shaded lips before snapping his fingers.
Instantly, purple electricity zaps three other men, even bulkier than he is, behind him with bows drawn at us. "Drop the knife, princess."
She sneered at him before slinging the knife, it lands right at his feet, digging into the dirt.
The archers tense but don't let the arrows fly.
He walks towards us with no fear in his gaze. He stops in front of Jade who was wearing the meanest scowl I had ever seen grace her porcelain skin. Her red eyes almost seemed to glow with the thought of ripping into this murderer and his men.
I'm not sure how the blonde man managed it, but he didn't even look afraid, the look coming from Jade could have slayed a lesser man.
"We have the princess of Ouizwell."
He took a few steps to the right and came eye to eye with a shivering Clementine. It made me think back to the time we met when a man had been trying to force himself on her. Was she reliving her experience? Was she petrified?
Without much thought, I stepped in front of her and pushed her a step back. "We have the daughter of the richest man in Ouizwell."
His eyes left Clementine's and moved to mine. Once again, his facade falters. He steps closer but I don't flinch away, there was little that scared me anymore, he wasn't one of them.
His pointer and thumb fingers come out to grasp a strand of my jet-black hair. "We have The Mortal Teller."
He lets my hair go and I can breathe once again. He eyes all three of us carefully. "Check Mate."
-.-.-.-.-
My feet and legs are aching from all of the walking. Clementine slowed down a fraction of a second and the ropes tied to her wrist pulled her along at the pace of the horse. "I c-cant keep going." Her voice was weak, if I had been a man or at least just more muscular I would have toted her, but I would never be able to get her on my back in the state I was in.
"Non-sense. Push the pain to the back of your mind." Jade said as she panted through her exhaustion. She was faring better than both of us, it made me intrigued by what kind of learning she had to go through as being a part of the royal family.
"I'm not like you two. I don't have horror stories. I've never been outside of Ouizell, I've never been to prison. I've been pampered and spoiled; it takes a lot to admit, but it's the truth." A sob was lodged in the back of her throat, I saw the tears whelming up in her eyes and a new set of loathing coursed through me.
She was my friend, and they were making her feel worthless, weak, and scared.
I planted my feet on the ground, and I knew it would do very little good but if she couldn't go on, they wouldn't drag her alone.
The horse kept going, my heels digging into the soft dirt as it dragged me. I kept myself at an angle so that I didn't go headfirst into the mud.
Clementine and Jade followed my lead and dug their heels into the mud, it still wasn't enough to stop the massive beast, but it was enough to grab the attention of our capture.
"Stop." He ordered his men and they all obediently obeyed without so much as a second guess.
He dismounts his horse to come to look at us. A sight for sore eyes, we were, sarcasm intended. We looked like we had been tied to the back of a horse and drug for at least seven miles, which was exactly what has just happened.
"We can't go on." He lifted his top lip into a sneer-like expression before snapping his fingers again. Slowly a shimmering film began emerging from the ground. It looked like a mix of water and oil. It created a perfect circle around us as it grew up and up until it met atop us encasing us in this fortified shelter for the night.
"Touch it and it stops your heart." He says narrowing his eyes at us.
He then unties us and the first thing I do is rub my wrist. The skin is blistered from being rubbed constantly for hours.
I wonder if this shelter hid our presence from all of the other life forms in the forest. If Haldis and his men were to find our trail, would they even be able to see us under this veil?
I've never seen so much magic used before. I've heard stories and seen small spells, but he conjured all of this up with a snap of his fingers, it was worrisome, to say the least.
What type of power could he control if he put in the effort?
He could level battlefields.
I've never seen Haldis use any magic, except for when he was younger in my vision, and if controlling his horses counted.
Maybe it was best they didn't find us, what kind of chance would they have against magic like that?
It was unnerving thinking that Haldis could be on the receiving end of this man's magic.
So instead of praying that this veil didn't hide us, I was praying that it did.