Read please.XD

She was working for Maleficent for 7 years and yet she wishes for freedom outside these dark walls. How will she ever be free?

the perfect Inu - Kag story

Kagome gets injured by demon... and guess who goes home with her?

CHAPTER 1


‘PLEASE, take her! It’s not safe for her to stay here!’ the woman pleaded.
She was standing in the shadows of a dark alley, carrying her last hope in her arms. She only got the reply
‘But what am I to do with a baby? Surely you don’t mean for me to take her?!’ she waved her arms-‘No! Please don’t make me take her. I’ll have to give up so much...’ her words faded as she saw the fear, grief, and hope in the mother’s eyes. It then turned to anger.
The first woman turned her head in anger and frustration. She turned back around, reluctantly thrusting her beautiful baby in the other woman’s arms. She tried to convince herself that she’d left the only hope for survival of their world in the right hands.
She ran. Tears were streaming, streaming down her face. She turned the corner then looked both ways in confusion. ‘This world is strange, how is one supposed to know which way to go? No matter,’ the woman turned right and continued running. She stopped abruptly, noticing something foul in the air.
‘He’s here.’ she whispered. Only a minute after did he come, walking, like it was a casual evening, not the end of the world. As foggy as it was, she could see the face of malice appear softly in the mist.
‘My dear, dear Elizabeth- come to me.’ he whispered. ‘You can’t hide her from me, not forever anyway. You know that.’ he chuckled. Elizabeth stood still. ‘Elizabeth, I said COME!’ he screamed. Elizabeth willed her hardest to stay in her place, for running was no longer an option. A pain shot through her body from her neck, violently throwing her to her knees. She wept. ‘I may die, I know that. But my baby’s in good hands.’ she thought.
‘That’s what you think, Elizabeth. If you won’t come to me, and join me, you will die.’ he said smirking. There was an evil grin in his maliciously cold black eyes.
‘Damn you, you MONSTER!!’ she screamed. The smile slid immediately from his face. There was a flash of light. Elizabeth fell to the cold dirt ground and died.

* * * *

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Isabelle jumped up in bed. She slammed her alarm clock that was shining in bright green, 7:00. Her face was covered in sweat. She groaned, remembering her dream.
‘Ugh! For how long?! It’s been what- a month? And it’s always the same old dream with the same old people, with same old stupid lady who dies.’
She slipped out of bed and ran straight into the shower to wash off the clammy feeling of death off her skin. As she washed and brushed she began to more coherently interpret her dream, once again. Only this time, Isabelle, while putting on her clothes and brushing her silky black hair, fell into more intense thoughts concerning her dream. She even carried out this mood as she padded quietly down the stairs for breakfast.
She greeted her mother with an absentminded ‘morning’ and sat down to start eating. She got back the reply she no less expected.
“Hurry UP, girl! You’re late, AGAIN! Not that it’s any different from every other day-“ she stopped and turned to look at Belle with an annoyingly questionable expression on her face. ‘The girl had not yet made one snappy comeback all morning.’
“What’s wrong with you, girl? Not feeling like being a complete PRAT today? Well,” she sighed happily “all the better for me, right?” Belle’s mother turned back to the stove to cook eggs and bacon- not for Belle, of course.
Isabelle only responded by looking up from her untouched cereal to give her mother a cold, icy stare. She backed up her chair, still staring at her and picked up her knapsack and left. She had lost her appetite. ‘Can’t she not be a bitch for ONE DAY?!!! God, I would be happy.’ Belle thought.
Her mother stared after her in confusion...and yet satisfaction. ‘I am going to win all the battles, and the war, Belle.’ she thought. She continued staring at the door before dishing herself some eggs. She was going to watch Belle. She was up to something.
CHAPTER 2


Belle angrily slammed the door behind her. She looked up only to see her bus- the back of her bus really. It hadn’t even stopped by her house, and now it was riding away past her stop again without a care in the world.
Belle had had this happen to her so many times it no longer bothered her. She had stopped running after buses around October. Now it was June 2nd, and the last day of school. Just then realizing this, Belle jumped up in pure happiness, a great joy swelled inside her. No more stories and whispers behind her back. No more taunting and rumors. She took a deep breath and shrugged. She began walking. Her cargo pants rustled noisily as she walked, but that wasn’t the only thing she heard. There was a sound of muffled footsteps somewhere nearby. It continued for about three minutes.

‘Someone’s following me. I know it. I can hear him. I can feel him. It’s weird, and it’s disturbing. This has never happened to me before. Maybe I can surprise him. No, I’ll check my shadow. If there’s a second shadow...’ she glanced sideways at her shadow but it was normal. There was no second shadow. ‘Why am I so positive that it’s a ‘he’? And how is this person following me....and why?’ Belle looked at her watch. 7:55. ‘OH crap. I have 5 minutes to get to a place that’s 15 minutes away. I’m going to have to screw this person, and run.’
Belle ran. She ran as fast as she could. Although, as she ran, she couldn’t help but ask herself why the hell she cared about getting to school on time on the last day of school. As her mind dwelled on this, she realized how close she was to school. She had past the grocery store and the police station. ‘There goes the grocery store… and there the police station?’. She was at school. Belle cursed colorfully in shock as she glanced at her watch again. It was 7:59. ‘I got to get this stupid shit fixed.’ Belle’s spectacular eyes gave the watch one last glance before entering the dreaded school building.
She walked in the building, ignoring the cruel sideways glances that were thrown at her. She walked to a hallway clock to reset her watch. It was the same time her watch. ‘Whatever. I’ll fix it later. She wondered why so many people were still in the halls. ‘Most them should have been in class 10 minutes ago.’ ‘But’, she grinned, ‘it’s the last day of school.’ Belle skillfully swerved her combination, and opened her locker to hear the cheerful squeaks of her mouse, Olive.
“Hello, Olive! Don’t worry, I have your food right here.’ Belle reached into her knapsack. “You know what today is? That’s right. Today is the day we go home! We can’t- “ Belle paused. She stopped feeding her mouse corn flakes and looked up to see Blair King walking leisurely, but confidently down the hallway and talking to her friends. Blair was the school’s most popular bitch. Even the seniors adored her. She was co-captain of the cheerleading squad, and president of so many clubs Belle had lost count. Ugh, she hated her. Blair only looked at her like she was diseased with leprosy. As if no one had bothered to make sure no one would catch it.
She looked back at Blair with equal disgust. ‘Slut.’ she thought. And she truly was one. Blair’s outfits and boy friend reputation put strippers to shame. And yet, she always manages to remain under the dress code and never gets into trouble. She’s probably slept with 50% of the school’s male population. Belle said bye to her mouse, and slammed her locker. She gathered her books and began walking. Someone “accidentally” elbowed Belle hard in her side, and she dropped her pencil case and everything fell out.
“Crap.”
On top of that, people kept on kicking them everywhere. There were so many of them Belle couldn’t possibly give them all evil looks. The hallway cleared out slowly as the bell rang for first period. Now the hallway was empty except for a few people. ‘One of them including James’ Belle thought. He was talking to what Belle had guessed were his friends and didn’t even cast a glance towards her. Not to mention helping her. Belle walked in about seven minutes late, glancing at her watch, then at the classroom clock. She ignored everyone’s stares- she was used to it. She glanced at the clock again and frowned, ‘Today started out pretty weird, but now, things are getting plain creepy... Whatever.’

Since it was the last day of school, every class was free-for-all. Everyone flirted, talked, and gossiped in groups, but in each class, Belle took her favorite seat in the back of the class room to draw. Belle took every spare moment of her free time to draw. Drawing was Belle’s passion, her dream, and most definitely an outlet. ‘Without my journal, I don’t think I would have ever survived all the hell I’ve been through in my life.’ She knew drawing would be a large part in her future, but did not want to be a professional- selling what she created. She knew it’d be much more than a hobby, but not quite a career.
It was fifth period and she was now drawing a woman. She was incredibly beautiful, at least compared to her usual drawings. Belle didn’t like to draw women too beautiful, or men too handsome. She always got carried away and it made her long for things she knew she couldn’t have, things she would treasure most. Things like a real mother, a real friend, things like that.
Belle sighed and continued drawing. The woman she was drawing had very long black hair and a deep gray color of eyes. Her face was sculpted almost perfectly. Belle didn’t make her perfect because habit had kicked in. Belle’s bangs fell into her eyes. With her head tilted a little bit sideways, and her tongue sticking out a bit, Belle began to shade her, and her body in all the right places. ‘Hmm... I think,’
“Psss!”
Belle looked up and immediately blushed. Who had seen her? She looked around but it looked like no one was calling her. ‘Who would anyway?’ she went back to drawing her mysteriously beautiful lady. ‘She looks so familiar... where have I seen her before? Wait- what am I talking about? I’ve never seen anyone like this! I swear, first someone is supposedly following me just because I can feel it. Then I get to school, which is supposed to take me 15 minutes, in 2 minutes, then I start hearing voices, now’
“Psss! Over here!!!”
‘Ok, I am not going crazy.’ she looked up around the room to see James Matlock- he was passing her a note. Belle looked at him quizzically. ‘What the hell is James doing, passing a note to me? Wait what am I doing just staring at him’
James Matlock had never dared to talk anyone like Belle. She knew he was handsome but hated the way girls fawned over him; like he was a damn Zeus. He was not that cute. She took the note, and curiously undid its folds. It said:
Meet me outside by the bleachers after
school. Don’t tell anyone, and don’t stand
me up.
James Matlock



Belle scoffed, and looked up only to see him flirting once again with Blair King. They were known to Belle as the moron club captains. James was captain, and Blair was co-captain, at his side whenever the hell she wanted to be. They flirted and dated on and off, not that she cared. It was true, because they were morons, and Blair was always cheating on James. That was why Belle had called her a slut.

Belle realized she was staring and blushed. ‘God! I guess I’m staying after school. But he better not pull any shit on me.’ Belle was not small. She could fight. She had always wondered where this special gift had come from. Although this blessing was also a curse. Along with other strange features, Belle’s fighting skills caused her to have no friends. Many called her a freak, but she had had time to adjust to it, for no one ever defended her. That’s how Belle became so independent, she never relied on anyone for anything. She never trusted anyone, wouldn’t let anyone in. Belle had made walls of steel. She had an ice fortress.
The class bell rang. Belle went to her next class, and her next, and her next. Now it was 2:50, and she was more than ready to bounce out of this hell-hole normal freaks called school. Belle was drawing again. ‘One more minute-‘ the bell rang ‘ yes!! No more school! I’m going home with Olive as soon-‘ she remembered James’ note. ‘oh yeah, James. He is such a butt crack. Why does he even expect me to show up? He has witnessed and taken part of so much of the suffering I had to go through my high school years. I really don’t have to go, but you know what- I think I’m just going to go for the hell of it... just for the kicks...’
So at the end of school, Belle carried Olive’s cage and her knapsack, as she went to meet the moron club captain.
‘This might actually be fun....’












CHAPTER 3



Belle walked up to the bleachers. There was no one there. ‘I guess this was their idea of an “end of the year laugh- a joke”’. How could I have played myself the way I did?’ she continued to curse herself as she turned to start walking home.
“Wait!” someone called. To Belle’s shock, James crawled out from underneath the bleachers. Belle backed away, definitely ready to jump this dump that they called a joke because it was not funny.
“Please! Wait, you don’t understand!”
“Shut the hell up! I totally understand. This is just another one of the stupid jokes you pull on people you think are below you. You think you are better than everyone, and it’s really sickening.” Belle was yelling now, and Olive’s cage was rattling back and forth.
He dusted himself off as he walked quickly to her. “Please, don’t go. You really don’t understand. You have to come with me. Quickly!” he laid his hand on her arm. Belle flinched.
“Don’t touch me. I don’t know what kind of shit your trying to pull on me, but it isn’t going to work.”

When James realized she was reluctant, he tightened his grip on her arm, and said “Just come with me. I know you’ve been going through some hard times, but I can help you. Just... come...with ...me!!” James was straining his hardest to pull her, but realized the strength of the girl.
‘It’s incredible. Her strength has developed immensely since the last time- but if I can’t get her now, when will I? She’ll go home now, but I will,’ James thought as a sharp pain swept through his left arm.
“Aaahhh! My arm!” James cried. Belle had had enough! No one was going to force her to do anything. Least of all that dickhead, James. She had in one swift movement of fury, twisted James’ left arm behind his back in a painful stance.
She stepped back, breathing heavily. Only, she wasn’t finished. “If you EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN JAMES MATLOCK, I SWEAR TO YOUR VERY OWN DAMN GRAVE, THAT YOU WILL REGRET IT!” and with that, Belle picked up her knapsack, and Olive and ran home.
* * * * *
Belle slammed her door with her back to it. She was breathing heavily. ‘Oh my god... At least Olive’s okay. What hell was his deal?’ A million unanswered questions were racing through her mind. ‘At least I won’t see him again for another 3 months. He is way creepier than I thought. And he’s totally left the position as moron Captain, to moron club Sergeant.’
Belle was beat. She ran upstairs to her room with Olive, and her knapsack. She locked her door, dropped Olive’s cage down gently on her dresser then collapsed straight onto her twin bed. She fell asleep immediately. Her last thought was, ‘if I ever see that bastard again....’ before she drifted into a now, quite familiar dream.

* * * *
Belle tossed and turned in her sleep. She had her same dream once again. This disturbed Belle. ‘Even when I take stupid cat naps.’ Belle thought as she was awakened by her mother pounding on her door. She had been trying to get into her room.
“Wake- (pound, pound) wake up you stupid little rat! Yes, finally. Get up. Someone’s here to see you.” she then muttered aloud, “But I don’t know how the hell someone as cute as him knows someone as hideous as you.” now she had Belle’s attention. ‘Someone cute? Oh god, I’m so shallow. But I mean I never talk to, well anyone-‘ she gasped. ‘Someone cute- James Matlock, someone here to see me- James Matlock. Oh God...’
Belle had decided to put on a little show for James. She wasn’t angry as much with him anymore. Although she wasn’t going to let him get away with trying to manhandle her.

Belle was washed and clean before she went down to meet the Captain. She saw him on the sofa. He was sleeping. This left Belle in a state of puzzlement. Then she realized how long it had been since her mother announced his arrival. She immediately forgot her evil scheme to humiliate him, and walked over to gently wake him up. Belle walked a bit shyly for some odd reason, but stopped midway to touching him because she had noticed something ‘He really is cute when he’s resting. He has this sort of calm over him, it’s probably the only time he looks like this though.’
Belle’s fingertips brushed his cheek gently. She didn’t want to wake him up. She wanted to watch him sleep. She felt like she could do it forever and never get tired of it. ‘What’s wrong with me. I should NOT feel this way.’ she gave him a small smile and said softly “Look at what your doing to me. If you think you going to shatter my walls of armor, think,” -Belle didn’t finish her sentence.
James popped open one eye sleepily, then the other. Belle gasped. ‘He had been awake when she was talking, and touching him. She blushed furiously. This made the freckles on her cheeks more evident than ever. She hated this, it was so embarrassing.
She bounced off the couch immediately to gather her composure and said “Well? What are you still doing in my house? You’d think you’d know when to end a stupid prank, James. And, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not having a slumber party now, or anytime soon, so I’ll show you the door.” or she would’ve said that if James hadn’t - before she could fully stand up- pulled her back onto the sofa.
“Please. I am not the bad guy here. If you would just listen to me for a minute, without interruptions, you would see that quite clearly.” he said wearily. James had to get her out this place before she got in real danger. Belle, shocked at what James had just done, ‘and the fact that his arm is still around my waist’ she thought, and just goggled at him.
“Uh, um, just go ahead. But first,” she peeled his arm away from her waist. ‘I mean come on now, this is a dude who has never before today made any- as in way shape or form- contact with me. Not even a sideways glance if she had bumped into him.’ “Okay, continue. I am all ears.” she put her hands in her lap in a listening position. Belle actually wanted to hear what the Captain was going to say.
“Okay, er, first you’re going to have to come with me. Wait, please. I know I promised you an explanation, but it’ll be easier to believe if we go now. But I can tell you one thing now. You are in danger. You must believe me. Please don’t look so skeptical. Arhhhgg!! This isn’t working. Ok, if you want to play it like that Belle, wait here one moment.” James dashed upstairs and turned left into Belle’s room.

‘Hey! That’s my room he’s going into- wait- how the’ She ran off after him. Up the stairs, and into her room she saw James, he had a bag- ‘where’d that come from?’ -on his right arm, and was putting random stuff in it slowly with his left. His left arm moved a little slow because of the bruise that stretched all across it. She smiled a tiny smile of an apology. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!!! IS THAT MY UNDERWEAR??? HEY! DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!” Belle began yelling at the top of her lungs until her mother told her quite loudly also to shut up. But James just ignored Belle, and continued packing. Belle was fed up. She walked over to James and tried her mightiest to hit him and punch him, but he was relentless. Twenty minutes later, with her knuckles sore, Belle only followed James down the steps, through the kitchen, and out the door, as angry and puzzled than ever.
“What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly. ‘Why is he doing this to me? I never did anything to him. I never talked to him, or looked at him, or anything.’ she whined. “You know, a prank isn’t really funny without someone to enjoy it with. Where are all of your buddies? Don’t they want a laugh too? It would be a great-” she didn’t finish because James cut her off.
“Could you please be quiet? This is not a joke. There are no buddies to share the not-joke with, and yes, as a matter of fact you have looked at me and said stuff to me- or about me rather, and God knows you’ve thought some evil thoughts about me. I know I have a lot to explain but... you’re going to have to wait a bit.” Belle looked at him in angry be-puzzlement. ‘I never said anything aloud about that stuff!’
They began to walk, and walk. Soon, two hours had passed and Belle thought they were in the middle of nowhere. Belle’s fuse was dangerously low. Although she wondered why she never noticed how close to a forest she had lived near to for almost a quarter of her life. But she didn’t complain because she had been through situations worse than this. ‘Although I don’t think I ever recall having first some dope trying to manhandle me. Then having him stalk me, and follow me to my house. Then barging into my room, stealing- like- all of my stuff~’
“Hey! I did not steal all of your stuff. And for your damn information, I’m bloody well saving your life! Here I am trying to help you and your just...just...” he stopped and sighed, realizing what he said. “Mistake.”
Belle had halted in shock when the words had tumbled from his mouth. ‘What the hell have I gotten myself into?’ she thought. ‘I’m walking with a stranger away from home, when I could be doing normal stuff. I don’t know where I am, where I’m going, or why I’m going to where ever the hell I’m going! Have I finally lost it? I’m following Captain-‘
“Will you stop calling me Captain?! I am NOT a moron, nor an idiot. I told you I would explain everything when we get where we’re going...” his words weakened as Belle turned around with a hand to her forehead, murmuring to herself. She was trying to go home. Things were getting too out of hand. He shouted as he tried desperately to catch up. “Please! Stop! Ok! I’ll explain.” this did nothing for Belle kept on walking. “I said PLEASE Belle! I’ll EXPLAIN EVERYTHING!!” she slowed to a stop and turned around.
“Everything?”
“Everything.” James sighed in relief. It was dark now, so it made sense to rest. They would have to camp. Thirty minutes later Belle walked over to him, and also sighed. ‘I guess I’m not going home any time soon.’

“You got that right.” James said. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Umm, ok. My name is Ramel, and”
“What?!?! Your name is Ramel? Nooo, your name is James. What the HELL HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO? I don’t think I can handle this. Please take me home then leave me alone, James. Maybe all of this will turn out to be a dream if I’m lucky.”
“-You are going to have to listen without interruptions.” he continued. He pulled her down when she stood up again. He finally got her to sit next to him near a small fire he had made from dry leaves and sticks. ‘This is unbelievable. I’m out camping with a dude who can read people’s thoughts, steal people’s underwear-‘
“I did not STEAL YOUR UNDERWEAR!!!” Ramel yelled. “If you would please just listen? I’m not taking you home, and you need to hear the explanation I’m about to tell you.” she had tried to stand up again, but Ramel only pulled her down. She landed into his lap. Belle gasped, then blushed deeply. ‘What the hell is the matter with me?’ she thought. “There’s nothing the matter with you,” he started, but Belle realizing that he did that creepy, and invasive thing again, struggled to stand up. “I swear to God I will wring your neck if you do that again. And... and.” her words faltered as she saw an unexplainably tired look in Ramel’s deep blue eyes. “Don’t you pull that one on me. I know all about you. You are a shallow idiot who just wants girls, and popularity. No! Don’t even say anything. I’m not like you. I don’t why you’ve taken such sudden and creepy interest in me.” she said.
“Please. Let me EXPLAIN! I’ve been trying to, but you wouldn’t let me. Now I won’t have time to explain everything. I can only answer a few of your questions now. Besides, you’re not going anywhere today so you might as well just sit down and LISTEN.”
Belle sat down. “Fine.” she said grudgingly. Ramel smiled thankfully and began.
“Okay, er, you are probably wondering why I’m all of a sudden paying attention to you, but”
“Oh, why don’t you just protrude my mind again, huh? That would solve your problem, don’t you think? I mean” she scoffed “you never cared about my privacy before.” she said, thinking about her underwear. Ramel sighed in frustration. ‘Why must she be so difficult!!?’ he thought.

“Oh please, Belle! Everything I’ve done lately was for a reason.” she snorted in disbelief. “It’s TRUE! You know what? Just be quiet so I can explain this to you. God! Okay, the reason I had to ignore you was because if I had made contact with you in any way... bad things would have happened. I can’t tell you now- you wouldn’t believe me. I am not, however, a shallow idiot, but your guardian. I know, I know, but don’t look at me like that.” He took a deep breath. “And also, you know that you are adopted?” he knew this was a deep plunge and soon regretted his question, but for only a minute though. From the look on her face he could tell she hadn’t. But suddenly a fresh wave of relief swept through Belle. Ramel smiled to himself sympathetically.
“Well, now that you know that, things should be easier to explain. I chose the name James Matlock as a cover.” he smiled then looked deep into Belle’s eyes very seriously. “You do have enemies Belle.” Ramel looked to the sky, the moon was shining brightly, and the moonlight had lit up Belle’s face- making it glow in absolute radiance. Ramel cleared his throat and said,
“We should get some sleep, we’re going to need it for tomorrow.” he was going to continue, but Belle said “Wait! Um, how... why... h-how do you read”
“People’s minds?” he finished. ‘Well I suppose I owe her that much.’ he thought. “Er... well, it was a gift. You have it too, but it won’t acknowledge you in your present state. We really should get some sleep. We wake before dawn.” Ramel stood, motioned her to stay seated, and went a little deeper into the woods. He came back about a minute later, and then motioned for her to follow and to bring her belongings.
Belle regretfully followed him wondering where he had gone. She had to push and hold branches so they wouldn’t hit or scratch her. When she finally got through the bushes she saw one small tent, a lamp inside with two sleeping bags.
“HEY!! You didn’t bring this stuff! Where’d you get them from? Hey Jam- I mean Ramel, don’t you walk away from me. Tell me where you got this stuff!” Ramel got to the tent, crouched down to crawl into it. But Belle wasn’t finished.
“Where’s MY tent? That is so selfish, I knew IT! All you think about is yourself! God. I am stranded with a selfish, psychic, meanie, and I have NO food.” she muttered to herself. James’ head popped out from the tent with a tired expression on his face. He shook his head wearily and said, “This tent was for the BOTH OF US! WILL YOU PLEASE STOP YOUR COMPLAINING FOR one SECOND? I SWEAR, I’D BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL!” he breathed deeply, trying to calm himself before talking again “There is enough room in here for the both of us. You obviously don’t know what waking up before dawn means. Come and sleep. For YOUR sake, if not for mine.” and with that, his head once more disappeared into the tent. Five minutes later, Belle heard snoring.

Belle had shuddered purposely when Ramel had mentioned that they would be sleeping in the same tent. ‘That tent had better be bigger than it looks.’ she thought. Belle ducked her head under the tent’s flap and what she saw made her pop her head right back out and gasp. ‘It’s a damn Taj Mahal in there.’ Ramel was about five feet away from her sleeping bag. She goggled at the space in there. She heard his snoring loud and clear then rolled her eyes. ‘Is this really and truly happening? I am sleeping, or going to if I can, in the same tent as James- I mean Ramel that was once the most popular dude in school and who is now posing as my protector? And from whom? And I had always known- or hoped secretly that mom, wasn’t actually my mother.’ Belle shifted into a comfortable position in her sleeping bag ‘which is extremely comfortable. I could fall straight to slee-...’ Belle drifted to sleep.






















CHAPTER 4


In what seemed like five minutes later, she was being shaken gently awake. Belle in a state of confusion, shot up and tried to hit whoever was trying to wake her.
“No!! Go AWAY! It’s time to sleep!” she cried. She slid her body deeper into the comfortable sleeping bag to hide her face from the sun that was just peeking from above the ground. Where had the tent gone?
“Hey! Ouch! I let you sleep in. I told you that we were getting up early. No- stop! Don’t hit me! God, Belle, GET UP!” Ramel muttered something under his breath and Belle’s sleeping bag disappeared. Her body hit the ground with a soft thud. Belle looked around- ‘Where did the tent go? God! What time is it? I hate this idiot.’ Belle thought.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Belle said as she rubbed the back of her head and stood up. ‘I’m hungry, and I need a shower.’
“Sorry, no luxuries. We have to bathe in a stream a little down that path,” he pointed to the worn path just near their small camp. “And we’ll have to eat what we can catch. No luxuries.” He chuckled, and a dimple Belle had never noticed before appeared in his left cheek. She also never noticed how deep blue his eyes were when they danced with amusement. Belle scowled. ‘It’s the sun. I am losing it. I gotta keep my mind clear of thoughts of he’ll just- then stop thinking for now!’ she told herself.
So, Belle and Ramel walked, and about a half an hour later they were at the stream and Belle had forgotten all about her no thinking rule, and was dwelling deeply on one particular thing. Although before she could utter it, Ramel said “I’m going a little up north the stream to find some breakfast. That’ll give you some time to bathe. Everything you’ll need should be in the bag I packed from your room. No, it’s over there.” after he pointed the bag out, he turned to start walking. She wasn’t the only one to dwell deeply in her thoughts. Ramel walked silently up the dirt trail he was so familiar with. He shook his head in confusion.
‘Why does she continually accuse me of being such fowl things? Am I really that bad? It wasn’t my fault I got acquainted with her petty high school enemies. They are not really my friends. I just had to keep myself busy from noticing her. Sometimes it worked, but I must admit, I thought about her constantly. Although from what’s going on in her head- we were enemies, I am an enemy.... what did I do? I had to ignore her all year, but it was for her sake! I guess she never believed me...’ Ramel knelt down to the rushing water. The water was cool to his face.

He sighed as he pictured Belle’s face. Belle was beautiful. ‘But she sure is a handful.’ She had long, sleek, jet black hair that was always in a ponytail. Her eyes were a deep, intense green, with gold flecks and she had freckles on her nose which shone evidently when she blushed. She had a radiant smile when she wasn’t scowling. What Ramel thought her most attractive trait was that she didn’t know how beautiful she was. This was an incredibly rare thing to find in pretty girls.
Ramel had now caught enough fish to last all day. ‘Now, some firewood.’ he thought. He began to pick up wood. It was about thirty minutes before Belle saw him again. She had bathed, and set up breakfast. She had caught enough fish to last them most of the day, and she cooked them. “What took you so long? Never mind, I made breakfast. Here.” she took a plate and stood to hand it to him. Ramel just stood in shock as the flames flickered before his eyes. And yet he was not so surprised because yesterday morning he saw her rush to school at 40 miles an hour, as if she did that every day, so Ramel wasn’t very shocked. The fish smelt wonderful, and he took the plate gladly.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. What were you doing that it made you take so long?” Belle said. She was feeling nice at the moment, and offered Ramel more trout. She didn’t eat any. This puzzled Ramel so he asked her why she wasn’t eating. “I ate already.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You know we’ll be walking a long time, and there’s no eating until we camp again. You might want to cut the bull, and eat something.” all the while he was still shoveling food into his already stuffed mouth.
“Stop, you’ll choke!”
“Like you care... we should get going, I can continue my explanation that I had to cut short yesterday.” he motioned for her to begin packing as he put away breakfast. Soon afterwards, Belle and Ramel were ready to go and Belle was more than ready to hear the story that was responsible for all of this.
“Well?” she prodded.
“Well one minute! I got make sure I got everything right before I say anything. I like having my facts straight.” he paused for about two minutes to ponder over her life story. It was remarkable, in fact, everything Belle had to suffer. He knew where to start.
“Well, we aren’t normal.” Ramel paused again.
“Speak for yourself please. I will not be categorized ‘abnormal’ by some stalker who reads minds. Nope. Not me. Oh, sorry, continue.”
“Thank- you,” he said grinding his teeth in frustration. “You were not born here. You’re from another land- um, dimension. Way different from this one. We are going there. We left your home surrounding, a few hours ago-“
”Uh, wait one minute! What exactly do you mean by home surrounding? Do you mean Bowie?- because that’s what it’s called. I know you’re not normal but to have lived here for~”
“Can you please let me finish ONE sentence without interrupting? Please!”

“Sheesh. Sor-ry.” Belle rolled her eyes.
“Thank - you. I know what Bowie is, for one, and two, by home surrounding - I meant earth. But wait- we aren’t in space or anything, so chill. It may look like we’re still in that jungle from yesterday, but we are nowhere near that place.”
“So how did we get from there to here in one day?” Belle snapped. Nothing was making sense, and even if it did- she wouldn’t believe any of it.
“I thought you wanted to hear my explanation!”
“I do but... you know what? Just go ahead with your stupid explanation... This is one long nightmare.”
Ramel sighed and tried to continue, “Ok, you are from a land called Secrel Dome. As I said before, you need to know that you aren’t normal. You aren’t like other people. Way before you were born, Dome was a joyous place of prosperity for magical creatures. I know, -Please don’t interrupt, Belle.” Ramel had silenced her before she could say anything.
“I know that you believe in magical creatures, Belle. I can see it... and you are right. There are so many of them I cannot possibly name them all. You’re mother was the daughter of the ruler, Glethendire. Her name was Elizabeth and she was well respected throughout the land. We are on our way to the elves, where she was most respected. We should be there only minutes from now.”
They continued walking for about four more hours.
It was past noon and Ramel heard Belle’s stomach grumble. Ramel stopped walking suddenly, and Belle almost knocked straight into him.
“Get down, Belle.” Ramel whispered as he quietly crouched to his knees. Belle saw his eyes notice something on the ground. His eyes narrowed, but all Belle saw were leaves. His hands were touching and feeling them gently when he knelt down with his face to the dirty ground and all was silent.
‘Wait, it’s not silent. I hear a thumping- no, more like drumming, a soft but solemn drumming.’ Belle thought.
“You’re right, Belle but you have to be quiet, or else they’ll hear us. They think we’re intruders. That’s what the drumming means.” Belle only frowned for he had invaded her mind once again.
Belle heard something else. She couldn’t quite make out was because Ramel was still shuffling the leaves. She strained her ears to recognize the increasing noise. At last Belle heard the sound of deep, blood chilling laughter. She tried to tap Ramel on the shoulder- “Ramel,” he jerked off her hand.
“Shh.”
“But- Ramel!”
Why couldn’t he hear it? He only held up his hand to silence her. Belle was getting a little agitated, knowing that the foot- no- hooves were coming closer- the laughing louder. Belle shut her eyes tightly. She had to warn Ramel.
“Ramel, listen” Belle cried. The laughter was now high pitched and bringing pain to Belle. She closed her hands over her ears jerking as she fell to her knees.
“Now is not the time for your questions, Belle. We gotta run.” he tried to pull her up while running but she resisted- wait, it wasn’t her resisting, someone was pulling her. He turned in shock to see huge ugly, scaly hands pulling Belle by the legs. Belle was screaming at Ramel for help- loud, powerful shrieks. ‘This girl doesn’t know she’s capable of permanently deafening someone with those shrieks?’ Ramel pulled his hardest but then a pair of soft arms clasped tightly around his waist and pulled him off the ground forcefully. His gripped slipped; he let go of Belle.

“Ramel!” Belle screamed as the hands pulled her onto the black horse and rode off unnaturally fast.


CHAPTER 5



Ramel hadn’t been settled on the horse like Belle. He was carried in one arm, unconscious, with branches scratching his face and rustling his already rustled hair. Before Ramel could fight back at whoever had taken him, a soft, sweet scent flowed through his senses and he went unconscious.

* * * *
‘Ugh... where am I?’ Ramel’s eyes remained heavy and closed as he tried to gather information on his surroundings. He couldn’t.
‘What happened?’ Ramel suddenly remembered. ‘Belle!! Oh God, she tried to tell me. Everything is a mess.’ Ramel thought.
“It most certainly is mister.” said a cheery young voice. Ramel then realized where he was... and what was happening. He opened his eyes. He sat up and felt his head, it was bandaged.
He saw a young child elf sitting dressed in spider silk dyed green and brown on the dirt ground, watching him. “Why am I here, little boy?” Ramel asked.
“Because you came without being invited. Now you’s in trouble.” the little elf giggled. He was watching him with curious eyes. Ramel was in what looked like a tree, a really, really big one. ‘This could only be if... I was in the Elf kingdom... Figures.’ He sighed and looked around, ‘This was not the way I wanted to get into this place. There was a small fire a little ways beyond his view, but he could tell it was dark, and he had to get out of this place. Belle’s face flashed in his head again and again with tears streaming down her pale cheeks. He strained to get up. He was placed in a little leaf hammock and it seemed impossible to get without falling flat on your face.
“No, no, no, mister. Mama said you gots to stay in bed, or you’s going to be hurting all nights, and days.” he waved his finger at him. He looked adorable, he looked about four years old. “What’s your name, little guy?” Ramel asked. The childlike elf stood and puffed out his chest in pretend toughness and said “I am Lazel, and I’m going to be a warrior one day. Just like Papa.” he almost continued but someone had said, “Yes, son, one day. But right now you must sleep.” Ramel heard the soft, sultry voice echo from all directions. It seemed to seep from the walls itself.
“But I don’t wanna!! Don’t wanna. Don’t want to.” he said crossly. Lazel crossed his arms against his chest and put on the toughest face he could. Although Ramel didn’t see anyone besides Lazel, he could smell the scent of a young mother elf. Ramel knew many things of the Elven Kingdom. He knew one thing was to never trespass over elf ground without permission- it meant death. He sniffed the air again, ‘The same scent that had knocked me out earlier! Oh, shit,’

“Watch your tongue around my son, young witch. You trespassed among the elves and with no welcome. I know how much you know about we elves and we can’t risk you leaving, staying or...living.” from out of the shadows came a beautifully graceful young elf. She glowed brighter than moonlight and only upon her skin. Her hair, dressings- all beautiful. ‘But now is no time to dwell on looks,’ he began to think, but he was interrupted.
“No, it isn’t at all, young witch. I have knowledge of your journey; you will never succeed- even if you escape.” the mother walked over to him and only then did he realize how tall the she was. She bent over the hammock, then over Ramel and picked up her son. Her rose petal scent engulfed his senses once again, almost to unconsciousness. Lazel began to cry for he had tried to hide behind his hammock and yet the mother still found him. Ramel tried to take this time to read the mother’s mind. He had concentrated for protruding an elf’s mind was way more difficult than Belle’s own.
He heard the mother thinking, ‘This silly child, and always causing trouble. And yet, I love him so~’ Ramel cried out in pain. He felt as if his head was about to burst. His plan backfired in too many ways. He was in trouble now.
“If you ever DARE protrude my thoughts again, young witch, you will not get a warning, but a death sentence. It is humiliation of all elves that someone with the likes of you has such a great gift.” the mother was yelling now. As she was yelling she was growing taller and taller. Ramel thought, ‘This was a mistake. But MAN! What is it with chicks, and having me not read their minds? Can’t live with, can’t live without ‘em.” he sighed while his head pounded. Ramel was not intimidated by the mother elf. This was only a small dose of temper from the likes of an elf. You should see them when they are really mad.
“I wanna STAY, mama. Please!! Please, can I stay- five more minutes?” Lazel put up four fingers. His mother shrank down to her normal size and looked at her son. He obviously could melt his mother’s heart in a matter of minutes with only a cute gesture. Ramel chuckled. The mother picked up her son, who was trying to hide again, and silently took him past a silk curtain. Ramel tumbled clumsily out of his hammock. ‘Surely elves cannot sleep in these wretched leaves?.’ he thought angrily. He rubbed his head and got a clearer view of his prison. He had to get out of here. He had to save Belle. His heart contracted at the thought of those scaly hands touching her. His thoughts, however, were interrupted.
“It is not a prison that you are in, young witch. What is your name?” the child’s mother was behind him, and he jumped. Ramel inhaled before he answered.
“Ramel.” he paused. “I will not reveal anymore to you. Will you let me go? That girl, you must have seen when you took me,” he didn’t get to finish.
“Took you? I saved your life, Ramel. By the time he would’ve gotten Isabelle on his horse, the demon would have killed you, with a snap of his filthy dead reeked fingers, and you would have been dead. So you now are in debt of the elves, and you have trespassed. You owe me your life.” she smiled a wicked smile. ‘Ramel’s journey has finally begun.’ thought Elkira, queen of elves. Her smile faded a bit, ‘It’s about damn time too.’


* * * *

Belle groaned, she was in pain. The pain was so sharp everywhere, especially her head. And yet, she lay on an incredibly soft little bed, even though the last thing she could remember was that cold, horrible, haunting high pitched laughter. Her head felt heavy but not so much as her eyes- she had to put effort into lifting them.
‘What the-?’ she thought, but stopped because her head pounded only more- it hurt to think, so she didn’t even want to think about talking.
As she finally opened her eyes very slowly, everything she saw seemed to be a blur of red, and brown… mostly red though. She looked for a door, already trying to plan an escape. As she tried to ignore the pain it brought to her, the doorknob slowly turned and opened to a small girl who looked like a servant. She looked about 12 years old.
“Excuse me, Miss, can I get anything for you?” said a soft British- accented voice. Since Belle’s vision had cleared some, she could see that the girl was very pretty for her age… The girl shuffled her dirty feet as she waited- she would not meet her eyes. She asked again thinking Belle did not hear.
Belle shook her head, no. She didn’t know what this place was, or why someone would kidnap her, and she certainly wasn’t going to eat or drink anything from here. No matter how deprived of food she felt.
“That won’t be necessary, Semini, everything she needs has already been injected in her,” said a deep, and unfeeling voice. Another person stepped into the room. A strikingly handsome man pushed the little servant girl aside without a moments glance. Semini, as he had called her, almost fell, but regained her balance. She stepped quickly out of his way in fear. His frosty gray eyes bore on Belle as he walked to her beside in three quick steps. “How do you feel, Belle? Are you comfortable? You know, you can-“
“Go to hell, you bitch. Why am I here?” Belle was seriously getting some bad vibes on this guy. Not to mention the room. That red stuff on the wall resembled nothing like spilled cranberry juice. The floor was dirt and the room was small with no windows. No escape here. She couldn’t let him know how scared she was. He was tall, very handsome, and looked like he had the heart of a snowball. ‘I hope to God he’s not a serial killer. It really hurts talking to him- my throat is burning, and my voice is raspy.’ Belle thought. She touched a hand to her throat, which immediately received a fast pulse, and felt very warm. She scowled, and put on her most unattractive face.
The man chuckled. ‘She’s way too much like her mother. If she has even half her brains, I’m going to have to get more serious here…’ he thought, as he listened to her rant, and rave. ‘Such colorful language too, I wonder what Father will have to say about that. Probably that I should’ve taken care her the moment I sensed her power. Well, I’ll grant him the indulgence of the possibility that I killed her already… then I can have my own fun.’ He chuckled softly now as he watched Belle’s face go from a sickly pale to a colorful shade of pink. She was angry with him. He bent down and whispered in her ear, “You know, Belle, I would want to reserve some of that energy. It really might come in handy, particularly with what I have planned for you.” If Belle knew how fast she could turn from a weak pink to dead beet red with anger, she’d be astonished. She couldn’t speak, and wouldn’t let herself because she knew nothing of the things the strange man had in store. Whatever it was, his cold, unfeeling voice could not have made it sound any worse.
Daniel lifted his head and gazed down at Belle, wondering how he was going to deal with her attitude, let alone her power. Should he exercise slow torture, or extremely painful torture? She knew of no way to fight him back so, he decided on slow. First, though, she had to eat and sleep. Belle obviously showed more of her mother every minute- especially with not accepting my food. “Well, it’s all been injected in her blood anyway.” He muttered to himself.
Belle’s head shot up at the words before she could control herself. She felt like she wanted to throw up. This was ALL Ramel’s fault. Every single last bit. As soon as she escaped from this place, she would throttle his neck.
“Let… me… go…” croaked Belle. She shot a look for help at Semini who saw, but refused to try to communicate, or do anything in fact. She just stood there, watching Belle burn out her lungs, shuffling her feet on the dirt floor.
“Now, now, Belle, why would you want to leave? You just got here, and I have a few little somethings planned for us tomorrow. I’d be heart-broken if you just got up and left,” he added mockingly. His voice, no matter how cold and hard, seemed entirely too familiar. Where had she heard this voice before? It had the same bottomless cold, the same deep, hard ends. Belle dismissed it, thinking it of unimportance. She sat up a little higher in her bed, and then stopped midway. The look of realization popped into her eyes as she lifted her blankets. Her clothes were gone! Everything! She didn’t even have socks. And this guy had been staring at her this entire time. Her face turned a bright shade of pink as she glared mercilessly at Semini. She could’ve said something, anything. Belle was naked, and making a fool of herself. And it wasn’t like she wasn’t in pain either. Every gesture shot a sharp pain down her neck to the rest of her body. Belle could come to only one conclusion. ‘They’ve drugged me, stripped me, and made sure I have no means of escape… they want me dead.’



















Chapter 6




Ramel tried to climb out of the hammock in vain. He wrestled with the leaves and vines until he fell upside down onto the floor with a thud. Ramel stood, brushed off his new silk elven pajamas and stopped the hammock from swinging. He tip-toed to the fireplace across the tree-room to get his and Belle’s belongings.
It was pitch black inside and outside, but Ramel had prepared himself. Before the fire died out, he mentally memorized every inch and object in the tree-room. He patted himself on the back silently as he avoided the wooden dinner tray table near his hammock. He padded silently on the dirt floor in no shoes as he jumped over the dead leaves so they wouldn’t crunch and make a noise.
Ramel new things about the Elves that he would have to inform Belle about when he rescued her. ‘Not ‘if’ but ‘when’ I rescue her, I’m going to tell her a lot of things. I can’t hold back anything in case of another setback like this one. Plus, girls have this thing with having guys tell them everything the minute they spark curiosity. I can’t read her mind now, or else, Elkira, as I found out at dinner would know this.’
By this time, Ramel had reached and packaged their belongings into one magical bag he’d spotted during the dinner Elkira had invited him to. He tried to get her to give him a secluded dinner, but she was already two steps ahead of him. She made sure he ate dinner in public, and that many faces would be acquainted with his. Many would notice him, if they saw him sneaking out in the middle of the night.
‘Yeah, well, who’s two steps ahead, now? I could shadow myself and no one would even know I left ‘til morning.’ he smiled grimly.
“Don’t be too sure about that, my young, naïve Ramel. I’ve been watching you with quite the perceptive eye lately, and I must say, I am impressed.” Said Elkira’s voice.
Ramel groaned aloud, ‘How could I have been so dumb? She was reading my thoughts the entire time.’ A fire in the fireplace appeared after a few moments. The room was lit aglow so that everything was red and yellow. Ramel sighed and sat in the nearest feather-pillowed chair. He remained silent and thought of white as he stared at Elkira’s lit up face. She was wearing a toga with jewels at the bodice that swept the floors. With an amused look in her violet eyes she walked to the stool next to Ramel and sat down. She tucked her long legs beneath the stool when she began talking. Her voice was soothing to his ears.
“You know what you must do young witch, and I respect your strength and perseverance. I admire your loyalty to Isabelle; you should know already that she has much to learn in very little time.” She paused, but Ramel kept silent and nodded slowly, thinking only of white. He knew he could not let her know more than she already knew, but then, that just might be everything. Elkira continued, “Isabelle needs to know ways to protect herself from those demons. Have you taught her them?”
“I couldn’t, she wouldn’t shut up.”
“Did you tell her about her heritage? Magic? Secrel Dome?” she leaned forward, her eyes softening in sympathy as she saw him just shake his head wearily. “She’s probably just like her mother. You know, Ramel, when I rescued you, I realized how high the level of her power is when she is around you. Have you noticed it?”
“No.” Ramel was curious.
“What did you tell her the entire day and a half you spent with her? Elkira inquired.
Ramel shrugged, “I spent most of my time arguing with her- she’s so strong willed, and so skeptical around me. I don’t know why.”
“Isabelle has spent her entire life learning never to trust anyone, especially the kind of people you associated with. She doesn’t understand half of her own world, when she’s supposed to know thousands. To make matters more difficult, she grew up without a true guiding hand and was introduced to the bad half of her world. It was your job to keep her safe from most of it, but you did nothing.
“It was your job to keep her safe from the dangers of the Dark Forest but you failed that also. Everything you told her went through one ear and out the other, truth be told. I can see it right now. She is very scared, and blames everything on you.” Elkira closed her calm eyes that had bored deep into Ramel’s anxious ones, and breathed deeply before continuing.
“She is West of the Dark Forest and far north past Glethendire. She is in pain, but that is all I can see. There is something evil clouding my vision, but you must ride quickly, for Isabelle is not strong on her own.”
Ramel sat there, drinking in the information, before he gathered his and Belle’s belongings and stood. “I’ll need transportation. And might I have some food for the journey? If this place is where I think it is, it’ll be a whole two days before I reach her. Man, I really screwed up.” He put his fingers at the bridge of his nose in frustration. He had to think of how he was going to get there and what would happen when he did.
“Shh, shh, you’ll wake Lazel. It’s okay, Ramel, don’t think like that. The worse he could do to her is mentally abuse her. He’s the face of evil, but since when has evil prevailed? Isabelle has come as we sent for her, and with you by her side, sun will shine once again in Secrel Dome.” Elkira smiled warmly before she stood to pack traveling food and clothes. She told Ramel of the immediate path to take once he reached the Elves’ Gate. But as he prepared to leave, Elkira stopped him and left the room. She went past the silk curtains to another room of the hundreds in her tree.
As she emerged, she carried three silk bags. She sat down on the dirt floor and placed the three bags in a horizontal row so they faced him. She sat in silence and watched curiously at how Ramel picked each one up and examined them. The first was brown with delicate swan feathers sown into its hemming. It looked empty but Ramel was doubtful. He hoped it wouldn’t be too heavy. The second one was red with purple gems that glittered in the receding moonlight. It was almost dawn. This red bag had objects poking the silk, fighting to come out. Although Ramel knew that Elven silk was as tough as dragon scales, despite their immense softness. The third bag was green, and it was very plain and bland-looking. He almost asked why, but Elkira stood before he could say anything and shoved the bags into his arms. Where was he going to put everything? Sure, there was a spell for everything but he didn’t have much time. Ramel glanced outside a window, it was almost daybreak. He was supposed to have left hours ago. What had kept him? Belle was most likely suffering drastically in his hands, and it was all his fault.
“Stop worrying so much, young Ramel. Everything will be alright. These packs weigh just about as much as a small tolken stone.” She pointed to the bags. “I cannot explain everything that they contain, only one thing.”
She took the red bag with purple gems and undid the tied strings. When she pulled out something from the bottom of the bag, she strained a little, as if it was very heavy. Ramel leaned closer to the bag only to jump back with a start as Elkira drew a long, sleek sword in one sudden movement. He almost tripped. She chuckled. “Ramel, be welcome to your new friend. This sword has been in the Elves’ generation for as long as I can remember. And that’s a very long time. Here, take it. I’ll walk with you to the Gate. We can waste no more time.” She placed a hand on his back to push him forward, but Ramel needed no encouragement. He was across the room in a moment, and out the door in another. The ground outside was cool to his feet, and the breeze relaxing to his thoughts. Elkira smiled as she watched him sigh in relief. They passed gigantic tree homes, as big as buildings, with doors and vine-covered windows. Their branches seemed to reach the clouds. They walked quickly through the peaceful, jungle-like kingdom.
The queen of elves and the little sorcerer went into the horses’ stable, and silently, Ramel picked a white mare. She was the smallest he could find. Since elves were naturally tall, their horses had to be bred according to their size. He began to look for a saddle and other supplies. The mare seemed sturdy enough. He needed a horse strong enough for a long journey and for both Belle and him. He pictured Belle in his head standing. She was a good four inches shorter than him, but that never stopped her from doing what she wanted. Ramel knew Belle had never ridden a horse before and he pitied himself for the hours to come. He began to saddle the gentle looking horse.
Elkira, listening in on his thought, continued nonetheless. “This sword is called Jemenira, or ‘Finder’. It has numerous powers, all for different purposes, but has only one wielder. My dreams have been telling me that Jemenira can no longer be of Elven possession, but of the young guardian of Secrel Dome. Which, I have known secretly was you, for many decades yet. Many of our kind have guessed and pondered, but ancestors of age are welcome in my dreams. Just as you must welcome Jemenira, he has to welcome you, Ramel.
“You must know the ways of the sword, and you must always be in control of it. There is a guide in each one of the bags, but a most useful one in the green one. Even so, you cannot open it. It must open itself on the night of the Crescent Moon.”
“When is that?”
“Day after tomorrow. You had better rescue Belle before then, else, you will very much regret it later.”
“How do I get Belle to understand everything, Elkira? She’s very headstrong. And stubborn.” Ramel frowned. “The only reason I haven’t been able to explain everything is because she won’t let me. I have tried everything in my will~”
“You obviously haven’t because she still doesn’t understand, and you have gotten nothing into her head. Don’t blame yourself, Ramel, her power is most threatening to his evil bidding. He sensed her long before the both of you realized anything. All you need to focus on now is rescuing the queen of Secrel Dome. She wants you, Ramel, know that. But more importantly, she needs you.” They had by now reached the Elves’ Gate, and Elkira stopped and looked down at Ramel who was mounting the white mare . Her wise violet eyes held much knowledge, and sadness for Ramel.
‘Such a great task for so small a boy. Jemenira shall give him strength, but without Belle he will be weak. He’ll realize it in time, I pray. Gammedion had better not give them any trouble, else I’ll have his head.’ She smiled. ‘He is perfect for this job though, I must say.’
Ramel cleared his throat as he watched Elkira dwell in her thoughts. He didn’t dare try and sort out everything she told him so far, or else his brain would just fry right in front of them from lack of sleep. So he waited for a moment before shifting his packs and saying, “Elkira?”
“Yes, Ramel?”
“Is there something in these packs that I can contact you with? You see, Belle can be a little frustrating sometimes, and I might need someone to talk to that understands all these complications. Is there, like, a magic mirror, or stone? I am not fully alert for lack of sleep, and I will need a guide that~”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Ramel. You have more than enough guides. And it will be me that will contact you, Ramel, because I cannot have you calling me for every rhyme and puzzle that awaits you in the Dark Forest. I know you wouldn’t act like a fool, but Belle is naïve to the ways of magic and everything about our world in general. I shall know if you are in dire trouble, and because I like you,” She paused to unlock the gate and push the slightly reluctant Ramel out of the comfort zone of the Elven Kingdom. “I’ll come and help you in person. Now, hurry, and remember, the Crescent Moon, Jemenira, the day after tomorrow.”
Ramel dug his knees into the white mare and rode off like the angels of hell were after him.

****

Angela ran down the soft carpeted steps into her kitchen. She skidded on the polished floor so she wouldn’t fall, and squealed as she skipped around the chairs down to the other staircase and into the basement.
She bounded down the wooden staircase and flicked on the nearest light switch she could find. She put her hands to her head as if to calm herself and took slow, deep breaths before she went crazy again. She whispered to herself and muttered things under her breath as she scanned the boxes that lay in neat rows in the room.
The man in the shadows thought she looked like a mad woman as she ran across the room back and forth turning over boxes and throwing papers in the air. She moved the heavy ones forcefully and jumped over some as she tore at her hair in what seemed like fear. Angela ran from corner to corner almost spotting the hidden man. She was obviously looking for something. As she cried out in impatience, she fell to the floor and began to weep. After a while, she stood carefully, scanning the room a final, hopeful time before she wiped her tears and turned to leave.
But she stopped, as if she remembered something. Angela’s face lit up as the hidden man’s own filled with dread. He prayed the ever vigilant woman wouldn’t spot him. He cursed silently as he watched her check an unopened box, praying that she hadn’t found it, or worse, him. Her head jerked up as she turned back to one corner of the room, and walked there slowly. Angela crouched down to the box, and the hidden man peered curiously from the dark shadows he lay in.
Before the man could fully register what had happened, Angela had pulled a pistol from the box, turned completely around and shot the man in the thigh.
“WHERE IS SHE?” she yelled at the groaning shadows. The man slid to the floor in a pool of blood, his face stretched in agonizing pain. He moaned, and cried out, pleading, “Help! Help! Somebody help me!”
No use.
“I SAID where is she?” she kicked him in the injured leg. He screamed. “Answer me, or so help me, I’ll empty this pistol into your head.” She was breathing heavily when she talked and sat down on the box she’d pulled the pistol from. But the gun didn’t waver, so the man talked.
“With the boy,” he croaked. His face was ashen as he cried out again in pain. She still wasn’t satisfied, but if Angela wanted more information, she’d need to clean his wound, else he’d go into shock. She turned swiftly to a first aid kit she’d strewn across the room in her frenzy for the book. She hadn’t found it, but she found this sponge of information.
She carried the box over to the man and began to expertly clean his wound.
“I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me everything. Answer the questions I ask or I’ll do what I said before.”
The man nodded weakly before he went into shock. Angela didn’t panic. She sought some blankets and began to warm him. She had to stop the bleeding. She reached for some antiseptic and began working.
She spent the night nursing him to health. Incredibly slowly but surely the spy’s bleeding slowed, then stopped. She would need his life if she wanted to find her step daughter.

****

Belle lay still in the complete darkness that surrounded her for several moments before she struggled in vain to sit up properly so she could adjust her eyes to the dark. She knew where everything was already though; the small cot left to her bed where the sleeping Semini breathed softly, the old, scratched wooden door directly in front of her, and the little wooden table to the right of her, with a chair and tablecloth set with her last meal.
The pain had subsided little since Daniel, as she found was his name, had left. When he had, Belle could tell Semini wanted to be anywhere in the world but with her. She suffered Belle’s anger before she had broke down crying, and whimpering in her cot. About an hour later, the crying stopped, replaced with shuddering breaths and finally, sleep.
So Belle figured this was the ideal time to make her escape, despite how weak she was. She sat up even higher, pulling the blankets with her to her chin then around her so she could slide off the bed.
As her feet left the comfort of her bed, and as her aching head left her feather soft pillow, Belle’s body broke out in heavy dizziness. She thudded back onto the small bed and almost screamed in frustration. She couldn’t fall asleep for fear and anticipation of the following day and its contents. She needed Ramel to get his punk ass over here, and help her. ‘Not rescue me. Help me.’ She thought.
Belle heard her stomach growl in hunger. As soon as Semini had fallen asleep, she’d carefully extracted the I.V. from her veins.
She could not stand the little girl, and her quietness. She had let Belle find out on her own the of her clothes, and materials. Belle pulled her quilts closer around her. ‘How humiliating.’ She lay back onto her small bed and sighed in resignation. She might as well get some sleep since there was no point in trying to escape while she was so weak. She thought of the dizziness she had experienced and longed for Ramel to come to her rescue.
‘Help, not rescue. Hey, maybe I could even get outta here on my own without his help. I’d like to see the look on his face.’ Belle scrunched up her nose and made a face, trying to imitate Ramel when he got angry. ‘Oooo, vulnerable Belle made it out of the big, scary cave of the evil demon man!! Ooo, and all by herself too! Good for you, Belle!’ Belle thought sarcastically. ‘Yea, well, you wait, Captain. I’ll get out of here before you get here, and then,’ she smirked. ‘Some things are going to change. But in the meanwhile, I’ll have to find a way to get outta here before you get here.’ She glanced at Semini, wheels already turning in her head. ‘How could I get her over to my side?’ Belle certainly knew she wasn’t on Daniel’s side. So what exactly should she do with Semini?
‘I won’t take advantage of her or anything, I just think she needs some friends. I don’t think she’s any happier in this hell than I am. So if I go to her tomorrow…’ Belle then began conceive her plan to escape.

Semini listened quietly to Belle’s plan before she stood from her cot and walked right over to her, watching the door apprehensively.
“I suppose it’s good to know another person isn’t going to be taking advantage over me.” she snapped at Belle. Belle turned to face Semini in shock, with wide eyes to realize that she was awake still. ‘And did she just- no, not another one, please.’ Belle groaned, realizing what was happening. She turned her back to her again.
Another mind-reader, with no respect at all for the victim, Belle, and her privacy. ‘Yeah, well, tough for you Semini because I’m goin’ to SLEEP. God, my head feels dizzy.’ Belle made a note to not yell in her head after she’d been injected with sedatives.
Semini giggled softly trying not to listen to what the stubborn young woman was doing to herself. She composed herself in but a moment, before glancing at the door again, then speaking in her clipped British accents.
“Look, Belle. Yeah, yeah, I know you’re name. That’s beside the point. If you think that becoming fast friends and skipping out of this man made jungle in one day, boy, do you have another thing coming. No one has ever escaped from Daniel’s rooms, no one. The fast friends thing can only work on one condition: Do not make Daniel angry. And you’ve got to do whatever he says. You have to~”
“Have you seen a psych ward lately? Have you gotten your head checked? You must be joking, thinking I’ll do whatever that monster in skin tells me to. You may be weak as hell, letting him push you around like some doll, but I a way different story. And with all those conditions, and then some, I don’t know if this friendship thing is worth it.
“You make him seem undefeatable, that is insane, and that it’s completely impossible to escape from this man made jungle- whatever you meant by that, anyway. Yea, well, boy do I have news for you. I am going to escape from this hell hole if it’s the last thing I do, and when I do, don’t expect a passenger seat in my car on the ride home.”
Belle crossed her arms and shifted into a comfortable sleeping position. She would not have some little girl try and tell her what could and could not happen. Belle decided her own future. ‘Shit, who the hell does she think she is? Ramel had better get his ass over her before I blow a casket. I am not in my patience hour.’ Belle tossed and turned as Semini also angrily walked to her cot, and stayed awake, staring at the low ceiling, wishing desperately to be home again.


















CHAPTER 7



The minute Belle fell asleep she dreamed the same plaguing dream again and again with the same terrifying death of the poor woman that tried desperately to save her baby from the clutches of the evil man until she shot up in bed, panting shallow breaths. She put her clammy hands to her heart as if to steady it, but it continued to pound so loud she thought Semini could hear it.
Belle glanced feverishly at Semini who was truly sleeping this time and frowned. ‘I certainly don’t need another mind reader with me on my way out of here. I will get out of here, whether she wants to give me her help or not. I don’t need her… OK, maybe I do, but she’s really making it hard to become friends. My whole plan was flushed down the bin when I found out she was a mind-reading coward. I still can’t believe she had conditions when I wanted to be her friend. Absolutely ridiculous…’ Belle shook her head, heavy in exasperation.
Then before she drifted to sleep again, her thoughts wavered to her dream. ‘How strange. That voice…so familiar…very much like Daniel’s own, in fact… And that poor woman…’ Belle’s thoughts ceased as she fell quietly to sleep.

****

Semini crawled over to Belle and looked fearfully at the door before gently waking her. She had thought seriously at what Belle had said to her last night, and decided what to do. She would never again be humiliated by Daniel, or Belle, for that matter. Semini was long since tired of people calling her things like that. But for a girl of twelve years, what was she to do?
Belle groaned, and swatted Semini’s hand away. Semini frowned, and shook harder, willing Belle to wake up. If she didn’t help Belle carry out her plan, she’d never be able to live with herself.
Semini had seen the torture and agonizing pain Daniel could inflict, and turning down Belle’s offer of friendship and plan to escape would be cruel and just plain stupid.
‘But the idiot won’t wake UP!’ she thought angrily. In one quick movement, Semini pulled down the warm quilts off Belle who fought and scratched and would have screamed if Semini hadn’t covered her mouth with her hands.
“Look. I don’t want to hurt you, Belle. I’m here to help. I know where they put your clothes. I am truly sorry about last night but we don’t have time right now to talk. We have to go.” Semini urged.
Belle stopped squirming, realizing her clothes were gone all over again. Belle groaned and blushed quietly as she wrapped the cotton sheets around her and stepped out of bed. The minute she did, she felt dizzy as the room moved in circles around Belle’s head. She collapsed back onto the bed.
“Uh, I don’t think I’m ready to be off the bed yet. What the hell did they inject in me that could last all night and morning?” she croaked. All Belle could think about right now was food.
‘That I.V. stuff must have been tainted with some drugs, or something.’ She thought.
Belle struggled to stand up once more a minute later, but Semini refused.
“No! No,” she said hastily. “I can see that you’re still weak. We can’t accomplish anything when we’re weak.”
Belle ignored her, but when her stomach growled ferociously, she silently agreed. She hadn’t eaten solid food in almost two days. ‘All the more reason to get the hell outta here.’ She thought.
“You got that right.” Semini chided. She had thought all was well after her sincere apology and her will to help. Belle’s response told her different.
Belle only glared at her. “And what the hell is this?” she gestured towards the door, meaning Daniel, then to Semini’s cot, then most dramatically at Semini. “A joke? I don’t like jokes.” She said, thinking of Ramel.
Semini sighed quietly and glanced fearfully again at the door. ‘Daniel is too far away, I can’t read his mind. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, considering Belle.’ She looked back at Belle who was looking around for some food.
“You won’t find any food, Belle, you heard what Daniel kept on saying, ‘It’s all been injected in her anyway.’” She made a face as she imitated Daniel. Belle only scowled again.
“What does he even want with me?” she inquired. Belle couldn’t ignore her stomach for much longer. Semini was starting to loosen up and Belle, trying not to wince at the thought, could use that to her advantage.
“You know, Semini, that’s what it is right? OK, Semini, we can’t just sit here and wait for that Daniel creep to come back, and take me away. Do you know your way around here? Is the place big? When his demon thing captured me, I sort of went unconscious, and sick, now, I guess. So, the plan I had before could be put into action if you could read Daniel’s mind or something and~”
“Nope.” Was all Belle received.
“What do you mean ‘nope’?” she asked, anger simmering.
“I mean, I can’t read minds that are very far away. You see, Belle~”
“No. I don’t see. Nor do I want to. I just want to get the hell out of here, while I still can. As for Daniel being far away, I say that this is the perfect time to escape because~”
“Well, Belle, you’re wrong. There is really no ideal time for an escape here. Wait, I didn’t mean it like that~”
“Please, then. Enlighten me, how exactly did you mean that?” she crossed her arms over her chest.
Semini was as close to anger as she’d ever been in her life. “Why are you acting like this? I’m trying to help us escape~”
“No, dear Semini. You are shooting down every opportunity to escape every time you keep arguing. If you wanna peak into my head again, I don’t care. You’d finally see that whether or not, you want to come, I’m going to leave. And there is nothing you can do about it.” Belle’s face was heated with sickness and emotion. She had to get out of here. She just had to.


****
‘Well, I can’t stop now or else that just might put more distance between me and Belle. That’s one mistake I’m going to steer clear of. It’s definitely the last thing we need, right Tashas?’ The matched pair rode hard and swiftly as one throughout the entire early morning. Ramel, deep in despair and determination, did not stop for fear of the shifting forests. He was about to fall off his friend, Tashas, though, from lack of sleep.
They galloped nonetheless as he silently communicated with the pretty white mare he was riding fiercely.
‘Yes, I can go on for about two or three hours but I am young and must sleep, if not eat, for strength.’ She replied.
Ramel smiled knowingly. He hadn’t slept a bit since Belle and his first night camping. He was, without a doubt, on overdrive.
‘Yes, an hour or two, and then we’ll rest.’ He didn’t comment about how incredibly sore he was from riding because he knew it would be very rude.
Tashas picked up speed, hurrying to the hour of sleep and food. The very thought gave her considerable strength.
So, for the next hour and a half, the tired pair tore through the dangerously colorful moss, and plants. They passed rushes of lingering trees, and creatures’ homes of all shapes and sizes, despite what the homes actually were. Ramel took no notice of the passing beauty, for he was wise enough to know of the stories behind it. They passed monstrous lakes, and rivers, only pausing to drink when it was absolutely necessary.
Regardless of his numerous efforts, Ramel couldn’t quite get Belle, and her voice out of his idiot head. The flush that came about her face when she was angry or confused. The change of hazel to a dark, clouded green-gold when she was sad. He sighed, totally fed up with himself.
‘Your feelings are mutual, you know, child.’ Tashas said quietly in Ramel’s head.
‘Huh?’ he replied stupidly. ‘What’re you talking about?’
‘Oh, you humans are so dull witted, sometimes, its quite embarrassing.’
‘You’ve never even seen Belle before, let alone know how the hell she feels about me!’ he thought incredulously. This was ridiculous.
‘You can’t go around talkin’ to people like you’re a frigging shrink. You don’t even know how I feel, let alone~’
‘How Belle feels?’ she snapped quietly. ‘I know a lot more as a four-legged horse than your entire race together, just so you know. Don’t come on to me about you silly “shrink” business. Humans make everything difficult and complex, more than necessary. So please, don’t flatter yourself. You may be too blind to notice when two of your race are in love but we creatures of Secrel Dome have progressed far more than you, child, could ever conceive.
‘But if I don’t stop soon, I’m going to collapse right here and now, then the both of us won’t be comfortable in this shifting forest. I thought that we’d have been out of the forest by earlier this morning, but since we aren’t we’ll have to be careful. And I’ve been wondering when you’d notice that your silly sulking makes your human stench almost unbearable. Elven horses are sensitive to human odors.’ Tashas added hastily, trying not to be rude, but had to make her point.
‘Well, isn’t that too bad for you, Tashas, because I think I’m going to sulk for, hmm, let’s see- AS LONG AS I WANT!’ he thought, scowling. He jumped off of Tashas, then left her for a minute or two to scout their surrounding. But he was just so tired. So very tired. Ramel came back, claiming that the place was clear, and safe to sleep for a while.
‘Only for a little bit..’ he thought to himself sleepily. He faced an inner battle over whether to eat or to sleep. Sleep won. Ramel muttered something under his breath and pointed to the ground, almost falling from dizziness. Silvery mist shot through his finger, almost too thin, and quick to see, but it compacted and formed the softest sleeping bag he could conjure in under three seconds.
He was asleep before he hit the sleeping bag.
Tashas shook her head in exasperation as she trotted quietly to a little pond Ramel had mentioned. She lifted her hoof and lightly touched the settled water. The ripples traveled to the far end of the pond and then back to where Tashas had placed her hoof. Elkira’s face appeared in the water, calm but questioning. ‘This child is really head over heels with our queen of Secrel Dome.’ She said to her owner.
‘He is way out of her league.’ Elkira agreed. She lay in her soft swan-soft bedroom, watching Ramel in her Looking Basin. The pure crystal glittered in the rising sun, flashing blinding colors around her. She pinned her flowing white-blonde hair above her head and grinned.
‘They’re perfect for each other; don’t you think so, though?’
Tashas neighed back in agreement. ‘But you could never tell by the way he denies himself the possibility of Belle’s love. He brooded the entire way here, you know,’ Tashas chatted. ‘Having to tolerate human complaints was not on my list of to-do things. I’ll never understand humans, I think. They make things so complicated at the most unnecessary times. I told him I was tired and I’d need to rest. He looks terrible.’ She added. ‘Almost falling off me at galloping speeds.’ She grumbled.
Elkira only smiled, amused. ‘You must be patient, Tashas, please. You were chosen by the Protector of Secrel Dome, this should be an honor!’ she tried to frown disapprovingly but ended up chuckling.
She shook her head in delight once more before she sobered and looked seriously into her looking basin. The water rippled several times before the picture of Ramel turned to Tashas.
‘Be reasonable, Ramel has a lot to do in only a little bit of time and you need to hurry to Belle before matters are out of our hands. Do you understand, Tashas? If you wake Ramel in a few minutes, and continue on your present path, you should be there by sunset. Do not take any detours or hidden paths. I trust and love you both, so don’t make any mistakes.’
‘Yes, yes, your Majesty. I’ll do my best. I must go now for I’m afraid that I’ll need some rest, despite what I said.’ She neighed quietly and closed her eyes to separate her thoughts so she could sleep. She sleepily trotted toward the peaceful Ramel and silently curled close in a protective stance.
‘Only an hour or two..’ was Tashas’ last thought before finally drifting to sleep.




















CHAPTER 8

It was Ramel who woke first. Woken by fears and monsters of his own dreams he shot up calling Belle’s name. He needed her and needed her now. Aware that Tashas would awake only a moment later, Ramel stood and went to find the little pond he spotted from before. He bathed and cleaned himself up the best he could. He tried to calm himself. ‘Belle is OK. If you keep worrying yourself like this you won’t have any energy to rescue her.’ Ramel thought. He grinned, thinking of the look on her face when he rescued her. He only prayed she was not hurt. His grin faded. If anyone had touched her…
Tashas began to stir so Ramel climbed out of the cold water and hurried on his clothes.
‘Hey, Tashas, you ready to go?’ Ramel inquired.
‘Does it look like I am ready to go, Ramel?’ she quietly thought back. She stretched in her place then slowly stood and joined him at the pond. She drank her fill before saying,
‘Well? What are you just standing here for, pack up and lets go. We don’t have a lot of time.’
Ramel decided to hold his tongue and silently packed his belongings. He glanced at the sky just before they rode off; he hoped its gray dullness wasn’t affecting Belle like it was him.


****

The gray dullness of the sky couldn’t affect Belle if she wanted it to because there were no windows. There were no way to scowl at the stupid, depressing clouds of ugliness.
“Hey Semini,” Belle called. She sat up in bed, less achy than before. Belle could now stand up, sit up and speak clearly. She’d been practicing.
Semini didn’t answer.
“Semini?” still no response.
Belle sat up higher and peered over her bedside. There was no one in Semini’s cot. Panicked, Belle rose from her bed and stepped silently to her bed and tried to see in dim light.
“I’m right here, Belle.” Said the soft British voice.
Belle jumped entirely to high for an ill person so Semini realized she was right. It was time to go.
Belle turned completely around to stand nose to nose with Semini.
“It is not wise to scare someone like me like that, Semini.” Belle said through clenched teeth. She unprepared for Semini to only roll her eyes, grin, grab her by the wrists and run out of the room.
Belle wasn’t grinning with her but followed her. Outside the room was a number of narrow hallways lit up by dull gold globes that looked far to old. It was almost freezing out of the room but Belle willed her hardest to ignore it. Running barefoot around in some moldy castle was not Belle’s plan for escape and if they died because of Semini’s impulses…
Belle growled.
Semini kept running, and Belle took a moment from her scowling to notice how well she ran. Breathing correctly, and running at a fast but steady pace. It might take a minute to match her pace. Right now she was being dragged.
“Will we make it?” was all Belle asked.
“Yes.”
“How?” Belle whispered.
“Just trust me. I know the way out. I thought about it for a long time. You don’t know how long I’ve been in this bloody castle. I was more than ready to leave a long time ago.”
“Why now, then?”
Silence.
Belle was ready now. She hadn’t last run since, well, in a long time. But every time she did it only took her a little bit to find herself and run a nice pace. She was pumped and raring to go.
“Come on, Semi, pick up the pace.” Belle was now running alongside Semini, grinning. They were going to get out.
“I wouldn’t be grinning so much I were you, we have a long way to go.”
They turned into another hallway.
“Why’s it so empty?”
“It won’t be for long.”
“You can fight?”
Semini looked at her and grinned.
“Born to.”
They turned into slightly smaller hallway. Then a tunnel. It had no gold globes. Belle stopped breathing to discover Semini panting, she let out her breath in relief. She couldn’t afford to lose Semini, not for anything.
“Keep talking, Semi.” Belle urged. It was a way to know she was still there.
“Uh.. Wanna know how I found the way out?” Belle heard a smile in her voice.
“Yeah. I really do.”
“I ain’t gonna tell you,” She laughed. “My little secret.” A pause. Semini sighed.
“The fat goons we have to fight will be here soon, so you better know how to fight them.” Belle wasn’t as surprised at the change of subject as much as the change of mood. It sounded like she was really depressed. “They’re really stupid, and ugly. They’re easy to kill. Taste good too.”
“Gross.”
“They do, though.” She laughed again. “Anyway, you just trick ‘em a bit, say something like, ‘Look at lady Glorken over there!’ they look and boom, kick ‘em where the sun. Don’t. Shine.”
Belle chuckled. “You’re alright, Semi.”
“Same goes.”
Belle saw a light at the far end of the tunnel.
“Here we go?”
“Here we go.”


****

‘Can’t you move any faster?’ Ramel complained. Although, the forest sort of was like a blur to Ramel, he blamed it on lack of sleep. He didn’t care how fast they were going at the moment. What ever it was, Ramel wanted to go twice the speed.
‘If I went twice my present speed, you’d just die.’
‘On a scale of one to ten, how fast are we going?’
‘Hmm. I’d say about… a three.’
‘A three!?’ Ramel thought, outraged.
‘Well, duh, Ramel, your just a kid. To go past this three, you’d have to have armor. Something to protect you. But, seeing as you don’t,’
‘You know, you sound awfully pleased with yourself.’ Ramel thought icily. They were going to get there on time. They had to.
About 3 hours had past since their nap and Tashas said he should expect at least two more hours of riding.
It was almost as if she enjoyed every single moment of this, this, this torture. If Ramel was a horse-
‘You aren’t a horse though, are you? Not even a human horse, much less an Elven one.’ She sneered.
‘Keep to your own thoughts will you? I wasn’t talking to you, and I’d rather keep my opinions my business.’ He ground out.
‘Whatever.’
‘Whatever, yourself.’ Ramel made a face to her head, but leaned closer because Tashas began to move faster. He grasped a tighter grip on her mane and dug his knees even deeper into the mare. ‘Oh, NOW you want to go faster, huh? When it’s your fancy? It never makes a snowball’s difference about when I want to go faster, but,’
‘OH, shut up, will you, please? Do you really want to know why I’m going faster?’
‘Oh, yea, that would be nice for you to clue me in, don’t you think?’ he bit out.
‘Shut up, again, and lower your head so that its buried somewhat in my mane. Hold on tight, very tight. We are being followed.’ She added sourly.
Only then did he shut up.
An arrow whizzed past Ramel’s bent head.
‘CRAP,’ he thought. Another flew past, above his head. Suddenly it was raining narrow, razor –sharp arrows. Muscles aching, and on overdrive, Ramel continued to urge Tashas on. Before Tashas read Ramel’s mind cry for help, he’d been hit.
An arrow had lodged itself in his side. Ramel never dared to try and remove it, but at a cost. They sped faster and faster only slightly avoiding roots and trees.
The arrows never stopped coming, but now, at least, they were out of range enough so that Ramel could acknowledge the seriousness of his injury. He lifted his heavy, throbbing head from the sweet smelling mare’s mane. The wind stung his face like needles and Ramel bent back his head in Tashas’s mane. But above the incredible pain spreading over his body, his blurred vision had seen a clearing. Their pace was phenomenal to Ramel and he realized the trees were thinning. He had seen a shadowed clearing past the few remaining trees. A plain was what it looked like. Lots of high grass. Even a hint of sunlight. Oh, how he longed to feel sunlight on his aching body. Him and Belle; Ramel had no doubt now in his head:
They were really almost there. And when they got there, He won’t know what hit him…
Ramel could already see the huge, long, depressing iron gate in his mind. They were almost there.
‘That should distract him from the pain.’ Tashas thought, satisfied with the distraction from the boy’s pain. With a grim expression on the mare’s long face, she rode on, casting away the thought of them not making it on time.
There was no actual plain. No grass, but as Tashas’s hooves pounded unmercifully on the hard gravel as they grew steadily closer to the iron gate Ramel so confidently dreamed about.


Tashas broke the growing, taunting silence that grew between them as she slowed down. They were at the top of a cliff, where the Great Black Gates appeared. The only way to go was down, and at the moment that didn’t look too agreeable with Ramel’s wound.
‘We’ll be inside in only a moment, Ramel, so you can stop dreaming inappropriate thoughts about Her Highness.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Ramel choked out. The first hints of color crept along his sharp cheekbones.
Then for the first time since the attack he lifted his head, slowly he rotated his neck and rounded his shoulders, ignoring the painful kinks and knots.
That’s when he saw it. The Great Black Gates loomed from a safe distance in all its evil, intimidating glory. Two guards were leaning against the entrance, grunting and growling at each other; a form of speaking. Their primitive clothing and large clubs told Ramel that these were the famous Glorkens. Trying to formulate a plan, Ramel slid slowly but gracefully from Tashas’ back and began to pace. Soon it made him dizzy so he stopped, took deep breaths and took in his surroundings.
The sky looking dark and foreboding, shadowed the long, long way down to a large clearing of dirt and gravel. There were no hiding spaces and Ramel finally came to terms with the possibility that he might not make it even to the gate alive.
‘Stop thinking such nonsense. We’ll make it there, and back, and do everything we need to do. But not with that wound. Hmm.’ Tashas paused her scolding to think. Which bag had Elkira

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