Batya stirred awake when she felt something soft caress her uncovered cheek softly, she frowned and opened one of her eyes, 'who was touching her?',
"Batya, wake up dear" …she heard her mother's voice gently saying, 'Mother? In Thule? How?' was the question that came into her sub-conscious mind as she laid still, not moving cause her lids felt so heavy, she found it hard to open her other eye and the one she had opened she had closed; she was so drowned in sleep she felt drugged. She knew someone was touching but who?
"Wake up" … the voice came out stronger now, this time it didn't sound like her mother, it sounded different a voice, a deeper voice, an alien voice, her nose twitched, the smell was different, she didn't know she could identify her environment just by using her sense of smell, it seemed to have heightened, was it the curse's magic causing such changes in her body? She knew she wasn't where she had fallen asleep, she was not in Sarah's hut, no, maybe still in Thule but not in Sarah's hideout. That place had a very pleasant scent, very natural, you could smell the nature, the wildflowers, the soil, and even the atmosphere had a different scent, not forgetting the herbs, her hut always had a strong herbal scent, and the moment you enter you will know you have stepped into a herbalist territory, but this place smelled completely different and the air was stiffening and hot, too hot for a normal person and then…. a demon's scent! Her eyes flew open when that knowledge came to mind, she was sure there was a demon nearby.
Her new environment was dark, pitch black, and hot, indeed only a demon could be living here. She tried to move only to hear rustling, she frowned, she was bound in chains. By who? She didn't panic like she would have, with the situations she had experienced during the past few days when her life took a drastic turn, she had learned to remain calm in whatever situation she found herself in, she closed her eyes and focused her attention in her surroundings, she allowed the curse's power to take over, she felt scourging heat travel through her veins like rushing stream blood, she knew that was the dark power filling her up, just like hell.
She opened her eyes and saw through the dark place, it was a cave, a huge cave, she concluded someone or something might have made a home in the mountain rock, the interior looked spin and span. Burning torches were placed at the four corners of the cave, and a small shelf where a stack of books was kept took its place at the left side of the cave, quite shocking; the books looked old and their leaves barely held in but it was still intact. There was a bed, a huge bed that looked welcoming and comfortable, a small table at the left side of the bed with an antique brown lamp stand that blazed with quenching fire, at the center of the bed was another table, this one was bigger with a chair. A basket of fresh fruit sat leisurely on, a comfortable chair, and even a furnace burned despite the lighted torches in the cave, the fires alone heated this place, it was hot, very hot. Chained, she was chained to the rock itself, to its foundation. The chains were huge and were very cruel on the side of her captor, considering her size and the heavy metals he or she had trapped her with.
From what she had gathered, she seemed to be a bit diplomatic with his or her neatness it was unlikely her abductor was some filthy creature, and apart from the strong stench of demon blood there was nothing fishy about the place it looked rather welcoming.
Hagar? Yes, she was with Hagar, that was the last thing she remembered, her friend had been injured by something with fiery red eyes, something that voice had referred to as the feeder. But where was he? Was he the one who had abducted her? And where was Hagar, how were her injuries? Something didn't feel right, if the owner of those red eyes was the feeder, then, he had kidnapped her? But it didn't make sense, she pictured the feeder to be a humungous filthy demon that looked worse than those damned people in Sarah's Dark Forest, and if she had been taken by that demon then, this cave should belong to him, this place doesn't look like a cave that belongs to the demon as scary as the Feeder. Demons wouldn't live in a place like this…
If the Feeder had kidnapped her, why? She wasn't who he was after, so why take her and where is Hagar, did he live her back at the hut? And more importantly was she still in Thule? The stone gate rolled away while she was still in deep thoughts…
"I see you are awake, want some apple?" her agape mouth wasn't enough to express her shock, at what stood before her, she couldn't help but ask…' the Feeder is human?'
***
Sarah remained calm even when saw the damage done by the Feeder when he had visited 'them', if she had interfered it would have affected Caden deeply, his life would have been in danger and the only reason the Feeder left him untouched was that he was in the circle of fire and venturing in the pentagram is a suicide, even a demon like valued his life, he took Batya because the princess was too weak to fight, he knew how important she was to the knight, his 'feed', he will use her to lure him. What the Feeder didn't know was that a power far greater than Caden's was protecting her, a power that exceeded both hers and his combined was already guiding her and if she uses the curse's power against him, he stands no chance, but if he was aware of this revelation and still went on ahead to take her then either he's stupid or he had a back-up plan.
Either way, she hopes he was prepared for what is to come...…