Reina: Return of the Princess (*COMPLETE*)

Chapter Fifteen

Gavin slowly opened his eyes. His body ached everywhere. It even hurt to breathe. His head was foggy and he rubbed his eyes. His long tail twitched.

Tail! When did I shift into a mouse?

He looked around to try to figure out where he was and why he would have shifted into a mouse. He was in some sort of wooden cage that was made out of tree branches. He could barely see outside of his wooden jail, but knew the Elves had captured him some way and taken him to Vandengir.

As Gavin sat alone in the middle of his prison, he tried to collect his thoughts. What had gone wrong? His thoughts were still foggy, but the memories came back. He remembered the Elves heading towards the girls and that he had thought he could divert them by running into the forest. The Elves had split up and only about half of them had followed him, while the other half had continued searching for the girls. He had shifted into a hawk and flown back to the girls as fast as he could. Out of nowhere, a large lightening storm had surrounded him making it difficult to spot the girls. Just as he had found them, he had heard a loud bang and felt some kind of net wrap tightly around him. Falling from the sky, he knew he was bound too tightly to shift into a different form to free himself from the trap and so he braced himself for the colliding into the ground.

He remembered crashing through the forest trees and into a large bush that softened the landing a bit. He did a self-check and was surprised that he wasn't hurt as badly as he thought he would be. He had simply lost some feathers and his wings were scraped up a bit, nothing serious. Better still, the netting must have snagged on the tree branches as he crashed to the forest floor because his bands were loosened just enough to allow Gavin to shift into a mouse.

Gavin remembered peering out of the bush and finding a large tree only a few yards away from the bush. He could sneak over to the tree, climb to the top, shift back into a hawk and fly away. Right as he was planning his path to get to the tree, he was being encircled by thick blue smoke. Startled, he darted from the bush to try to reach the tree, but the smoke was everywhere and getting thicker by the second. With every breath the smoke squeezed his lungs tighter and tighter until the oxygen was taken from his lungs. Everything went dark and he felt as though he was falling again. That was the last thing he remembered.

With his head now cleared of the effects of the blue smoke, his thoughts turned to Corinne. He had to escape and find her. She would have absolutely no clue how to survive in the forest, let alone protect herself. Bria wouldn't be any help either. They would be stuck in that tree for days. He remembered what Bria had said about Corinne being a true queen, and hoped she would figure something out.

Gavin was mad at himself for getting caught, but tried to focus on an escape plan. He surveyed his prison and realized he was wrong about his cage. Rather than tree branches, the cage bars were actually soft tree roots. The tree roots had piercing wires around the inside as well.

He knew his sharp teeth would make quick work of the roots. He maneuvered around the wires and quickly bit his way to freedom. With the first bite, the entire cage moved and he thought he heard a groan. Gavin froze. Not smart!

Gavin peered through the small openings in his cage and saw five Femar trees surrounding him. Not Good. The Femar trees could feel his every movement and likely had just warned the guards that he was trying to escape.

Sure enough, he heard a door open. The Elven Princess Stana walked in the room. She whispered something to the trees, and they unraveled their roots just enough to allow her to glare down at the mouse. Stana's face was filled with rage.

"Not so strong now are you, Gavin? You didn't prepare for this did you? Can't just shift your way out of this one." She smirked. "Well, I have a secret. An Elvin assassin was sent to find your precious little princess. He is the best Elven warrior our kind has ever seen. Did you honestly think she would get past him, especially with you out of the picture?" she laughed with complete bitterness and hatred in her voice. "Gavin, your princess will be dead within the day, mark my words. Remember what happened to her sister Sibyl? Reina's fate will be the same, I will make sure of that," she threatened. "And you! We will take care of you nice and slowly. You will give us information Gavin. You may refuse at first, but I promise you will be begging to tell us everything," she snarled, as she picked up a knife and slammed it down next to the cage and laughed wickedly.

Gavin scurried to the front of the cage and squeaked out, "she is stronger than you think, Stana. I wouldn't underestimate her. We don't even know her magical capabilities yet. Maybe your assassin should be the one to be worried."

Stana slowly bent down and peered into Gavin's eyes and sneered. "I'll be back shortly so we can begin your lesson on good manners." With that, she spun around on her heels and stormed off. The wooden cage closed up again.

Gavin needed to get to Brimsdelle immediately and get help from the Siri guard before going after the girls. Stana was right. If an Elven assassin was out there looking for them, then he didn't have that much time and would need backup. He couldn't risk fighting him alone.

His thoughts returned to figuring out an escape plan, the future of the Siri kingdom depended on it. If he gnawed his way out, the trees would feel him and warn the Elves. If he did miraculously get out of the rooted cage, he would still be seen by the trees standing guard waiting to sound the alarm. Surely the Elves would be waiting with more nets and more blue smoke.

He thought of the many shapes he could shift into. A small insect would allow him to fit through the small openings in the cage, but as soon as he left, the trees would know.

A bear? That would shatter the cage, but the Elves would be back with their magic within seconds.

Think, think, think.

He was running out of time and Stana would be back and ready to cut him to pieces. "That's it," Gavin thought, "PIECES!" In an instant, Gavin formulated his plan. He crawled to the back of the cage where the trees could not see him and shifted into a lizard, his body twisting and turning during the process. He knew the trees would have felt him moving and would be on high alert.

He jumped onto one of the wires, wrapped his body around it and bit down on his tail. He ground down on it as much as he could with his teeth and then forced it onto the wire. Gavin held his breath and and before giving it a second thought, he jumped off of the wire and ripped off his own tail. His face winced in agony as he tried not to scream out in pain. He lay on the cage floor for a moment unable to move, frozen with the excruciating pain. He gasped for air as he watched his tail wriggling and squirming as if it were alive. Though the pain was severe, he needed to be quick. Gavin knew his tale would regenerate. He slowly crawled to the largest opening in the cage and squeezed his small body through. The trees did not notice his slow escape as they were focused on the burst of activity still in the cage. As long as the tail was still moving, Gavin knew he would go unnoticed.

Hampered by the incredible pain of the remaining stump of his tail, he slowly crawled off of the trees and towards the door. The trees tried to get a good look to see his new shape. Gavin slipped under the door and was out of the room and into the corridor. He quickly spotted an open window in the corridor wall. Nervous from the pain a shift in his current state would cause, he grabbed hold of the wall and braced himself. He closed his eyes and shifted into a hawk. The pain was unbearable, but quickly faded as he refocused on his escape. In an instant, Gavin spread his wings and shot out of the window. He beat his wings as fast as he could, wincing a bit from the sore he had inflicted upon himself. As he climbed higher and safely from the castle, he heard Stana's voice echoing off the mountain walls, "NO! GUARDS!"

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<A/N:
So this was a pretty awesome chapter to write. It was so fun thinking of all the different things Gavin could do to get away. My husband actually helped me come up with some stuff for this chapter and the next and it was super fun to work with him.
Thanks for reading and keep on voting. You guys are awesome!