When Your Feathers Flutter Down to Me

Chapter Two: The Princess And The Outskirts

Suddenly, the other guard stood up. "Take it back," he said darkly.

"Hah? Never. I mean what I say, always. If you don't like it, then perhaps you should take your pathetic little heart and- Guh!"

Before she could finish what she was saying, Elisia found a boot planted firmly in her abdomen. With it being the second kick she had taken, it was a certainty that a bruise would be there, the first of its kind on the previously unblemished skin of the princess.

While she coughed from the impact, the first guard smirked. "Didn't ya just yell at me

about not hittin' princesses?"

"Sorry. I just couldn't help it. I really like that girl, you know? Hearing a woman like the princess badmouth her just really gets to me," the other guard explained. Underneath him, the princess coughed.

"Maybe we should put her gag back in," the first guard said with a smirk.

Once it was back in place, the guards continued on with another conversation while Elisia laid in agony. She talked big, but her resistance to pain was relatively low. Getting kicked twice in the abdomen was enough to make her want to pass out. She wondered if any of her bones were broken, but it seemed like that wasn't the case. Although, that knowledge did little to make her feel better.

"I swear, when I get out of here, I'll make both of these guards pay," she thought darkly. At the moment, she could do nothing. Aside from the obvious bindings of her limbs, the rope was enchanted as well to prevent the person being held captive from using magic. That meant she really had no real means of attack, along with not being able to heal herself. "Curse these ropes," she thought.

As the carriage continued on, the light outside faded, leading to the group needing to stop for the night. "I guess we'll set up camp out here," the first guard said. The area was a wide plain, with forest in the distance. They were currently on the only road leading to their destination. Getting out of the carriage, the other guard sighed.

"Man, we still have a long way to go."

"Yeah, still at least a few more days if I had to guess," the first guard said. "Hopefully we don't have any more problems with the princess."

"You know you started most of those problems, right?"

The guards, along with the driver, set up for camp. Meanwhile, Elisia was left in the carriage, moaning in pain. The initial impacts had hurt enough, but she found that as time went on, it felt harder to breathe. Every intake of air seemed to result in a sharp pain shooting through her. Trying to sleep seemed like it would be impossible.

After the tents were put together, the first guard came back. "Hey princess," he said smugly, drawing a glare from the girl. "Just thought I'd let ya know we're turning in for the night. It gets kinda cold out here, so be sure to stay warm!" He added a mocking laugh before slamming the door of the carriage shut.

The inside wasn't too dark thanks to the barred windows allowing moonlight in, but that

didn't make her settings any cheerier. It was gray all around, and truly, thanks to the guards and previous passengers, the carriage itself smelled awful. Adding her bruised stomach into the mix, Elisia was quite miserable.

As it turned out, it was only going to get worse. The guard turned out to be telling the truth, as the temperature in the air gradually dropped. Soon, the former princess was shivering. "It's freezing!" she whined to herself. "Why is it so cold out here? It was never like this in the capital!" Of course, that was her major mistake. In the capital, she had had every amenity available to her. If she ever went out at night, she had plenty of warm coats or blankets. Now that she thought about it, she vaguely remembered seeing commoners on the side of the road wrapped up in cloths. "Perhaps it's always been this cold at night then..."