Once Upon a Time

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

I woke up to a bright light shining in my face and a sore knee. I had no memory of what had happened the night before, but I did know that I did not want to get out of bed for any reason.

I groaned at the light and rolled over on my side away from it, covering my eyes. I could feel that there was a pillow under my knee, elevating it. Confused, I slowly pulled it out from under me because it was uncomfortable. As the blood poured back into it, I gritted my teeth at the pain and whimpered, the events from the night coming back to me. We had run away from the palace, the only place I had lived in for as long as I could remember, and were now being hunted.

I forced my eyes open and looked around the room I was in. It seemed to be a small den, with a stocked fireplace in the corner and multiple old tattered couches scattered about the room facing it. I looked out the window above my head that the light was coming from, and only saw the green trees of a forest. I looked back to the room and saw that Anna and an unfamiliar lady were sitting on the couches, both of them reading.

Anna decided to look up at me right then and a grin spread across her face. She jumped up, setting her book down, and walked over towards me.

"You're awake." She said, smiling.

I nodded and tried to sit up, using my hand as a barrier against the brightness coming through the window.

She mouthed an 'Oh' and reached up over me, shutting the thin curtains so no more light could get in. The woman looked up from her book to Anna, giving her a questioning look, but it changed to a smile as she saw that I was awake.

She slowly got up and came over to me. "Darling, you're awake." She told me, feeling my forehead for warmness.

"Uh, um," I started. I had no idea who she was. "Who are you?"

She smiled. "I'm Lacy's mother, but you can call me Daisy."

I stared at her, confused. How did we come here? And how did she know that I knew Lacy?

Daisy looked at my leg. "Oh, that knee needs to be elevated!" She reached for the pillow and laid my leg back on top of it.

Anna sighed and rolled her eyes. "I think that her leg has been elevated for enough, and the leg needs to have some feeling in it."

Daisy nodded and removed the pillow, setting it on the end of her bed. "Of course, dear,"

When I sat up, I put a hand to my head as I felt a headache come on. "How long was I asleep?" I asked, curious. It didn't feel that long, but who knows? It could have been a year, although I doubted it.

Daisy smiled apologetically. "You've been asleep for three days."

I couldn't have heard her right. "Three days?"

Anna nodded and bit her bottom lip. "Well, you lost a lot of blood, Aileen."

I nodded back, not wanting to believe that I had slept for that long. "Um, how did we get here? And where are the others?"

Anna answered again. "When you were shot with that arrow and we went to hide, Fern ran away. After a while the guards gave up and went to go search somewhere else for us, and then Lacy's mother found us and brought us here." She shrugged. "Jasper, Raphael, Lacy, and her brother are out in the forest, hunting and collecting wood."

I was silent for a minute, processing it through my mind. Finally, I asked, "Has Fern come back?"

Daisy shook her head. "We haven't seen her since she ran off."