When Leia's eyes fluttered open, she was not sure what day or time it was. The last thing she remembered was hanging upside down in front of the Prince of Faerie and the fear that relentlessly gripped her sides.
The gasp that escaped her lips was strained. She cleared her throat, flying out of the bed as she desperately tried to gather her senses.
The room was larger than what she was used to at her palace. She couldn't help but be a little impressed and curious as to where the faerie's wealth had originated from. She had been covered by a thick duvet, the earthly brown matching her hair, which had been braided in a crown around her head.
There was a desk by the large window overlooking an overgrown tree, its branches hanging in a curtain around the trunk. She frantically looked through the drawer but it held nothing but loose paper and a feathered pen next to some ink in an engraved glass.
She moved towards the large doors opposite the foot of the bed and flung them open, letting in much more sunlight than she was prepared for. Squinting she peered into what looked like a sitting room. The large couch sat in the middle of the room by the fireplace with countless feathered pillows arranged on it.
I've decided to keep you. The words played on Leia's mind. There were vines on the walls around her, making her blood crawl with the memory of the prince. She racked her brain but there was a gap of time where no memory filled.
In a panic she looked down and her ripped battle gear was replaced with a simple flowing floral dress that would have landed her in a lot of trouble were she to be spotted in such a garment. The straps were thin and it touched her calves when she walked. It felt like the room was spinning. She looked at her hands but her cuts were gone. Inspecting her body, she realized where the vines had drawn blood, was now untouched skin.
Leia looked outside again trying to figure out where in the castle she was put. She couldn't see the ocean from the windows in the bedroom so she must be on either the southern or eastern side of the castle. Judging by the line of trees in front of her, she would guess it was the former.
The door closest to the bed creaked as it swung open and what could only be described as an imp sauntered in, its crooked hands clutching a simple pair of slippers and a thick coat, similar to what she would wear back home.
It turned its misshapen face towards her and its eyes, black as coal, widened. Leia screamed first and the thing screamed a horrid response, dropping everything and scuttling behind the bed. She looked around frantically for a weapon, but there was none. Instead, she grabbed the feathered pen and held it like a knife. Surely if she got a good aim at the neck she could do some damage.
The backside of the thing stuck out behind the bedframe and it was... shaking. Leia lowered the pen. "I –I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she said. Her face softened as she took a cautious step towards the creature. It was unarmed and didn't seem to want to hurt her.
The door flung open again and the pen was back in an armed position in Leia's hand. The creature squeaked and dashed out of the room so quickly that all she saw was a blur.
"Brownies don't like to be seen," Prince Dakath said coolly as a greeting. He leaned against the door frame with his legs lazily crossed by the ankles. He no longer wore the crown from the night of the celebrations. Instead his curls were neatly brushed back and tied on top of his head. He wore a loose cotton top and pants that were so white it seemed to reflect the sunlight back into the room.
"It's the middle of the day, I'm not sure what it was expecting," Leia said. She tossed the pen onto the bed. It would be no use to hold onto it to try to use it against him. He took a step forward and she took an equal step back. His blood red eyes lit up with amusement. He offered his hand which she now saw was filled with some sort of nuts. "The day begins at what you would call late evening for us."
Leia watched his hand as though he was offering her poison.
"Very well. You will eat eventually, should you wish to live," he said, tossing a few in his mouth. He motioned towards the door. "Come on then." His smile was wide, innocent almost, but something about it seemed forced to her. She felt as though every muscle in her body was being scanned and calculated by his eyes.
With great hesitation, she took a few steps towards him, carefully picking up the coat and slipping her feet in the slippers. She couldn't deny that she was slightly afraid. His casual demeanor aside, Prince Dakath reeked of power.
"Where are you taking me?" She blurted out the question before she could stop herself. Her heart quickened with every step they took. He didn't respond. Instead, she was forced to listen to the echo of their footsteps through the corridors as he marched ahead.
He liked to keep her guessing it seemed, which irritated Leia to her core. This was like some sort of game for him, and she was desperate to figure it out. Figure him out. He stayed quiet the whole way with his back tensed under the thin fabric of his shirt. She was left to stew in her confusion and suspense.
The winding corridors were much like the walls of the room. The vines grew thicker as they walked, curling around each other to sometimes form shapes. A crown here, a sword there. Leia could not figure out the significance of them all. They turned to find a stairwell winding down to a tunnel-like opening. The vines tumbled out onto the ground as if being set free from the confines of the castle.
She was reluctant to continue following, her feet feeling more like lead as she walked down the stairs behind the prince.
She was graced by two large wolves standing in the garden before them and she stumbled back, tripping over the bottom stairs as her heart pounded. She had never seen a wolf before and these towered over her, which she knew from her studies, was not normal. The brown one's howl filled the air around her as it took a playful step towards her and she scrambled up a few stairs with wide eyes. She had the best general in their country train her in all arts of battle, she could take down an opponent before they had the chance to raise their weapon at her, and yet here she was in front of the large wolves, frozen and sick with fear.
How stupid she felt to have thought she could accomplish stopping this war on her own. Sneaking into the Land of Faeries and thinking it would be easy to kill not one, but three of the princes. With one bite these wolves could probably eat her whole.
A light and carefree laugh made her whip her head to the prince. He was clutching his sides laughing. She gaped at him before pressing her mouth into a thin line. He looked younger when he laughed like that. Whimsical even. The laugh however only made her stir with anger and annoyance. She wasn't sure if she was angry at him or herself for reacting that way.
The wolves sat before her like puppies waiting for their next treat. "Princess of the Northern Range. The one who braved an attempt to put an arrow through my back, is afraid of wolves?" He announced to the sky.
The prince laughed again before hopping onto the back of the other wolf, still chuckling to himself. The black long hair of it had been braided and knotted to resemble reigns of some sort which his hands gently closed around.
She rolled her eyes, ignoring him. His mockery was something she was not unfamiliar with, as she got plenty of that from the general and her brothers back home. A girl learning to fight amongst her older brothers was worthy of the most brutal of jokes. A piercing in her heart brought a knot of emotion to her throat. Her brother Emmett will never joke with her like that again.
She trembled slightly as she approached the second wolf. Her eyes stayed locked on the prince, trying to figure him out. He had settled into his seat, watching her with curiosity and something else that she couldn't quite place.
The wolf showed its teeth, spit dribbling from its mouth and she wanted nothing more than to run back up the stairs and hide in the room she came from. Instead, she cautiously held onto its brown fur and swung her leg up. When she was settled, the prince whistled and the wolves started running.
Leia screamed as the wind lashed at her face, pulling at her cheeks. The wolves were fast. Faster than anything she had ever experienced. They slipped through the line of trees, leaping over obstacles in the forest. Her knuckles went white from the death grip she kept on the fur reign.
Finally they stopped and she stumbled off, heaving in a nearby bush. It seemed as though her heart's resting rate was double what she was used to in this terrible land. Her eyes clouded over with tears as her empty stomach squeezed out a bit of bile. Prince Dakath laid a hand on her back and the waves of nausea immediately settled. She felt like she could breathe again.
The air was sweet with the scents of flowers mixing together. Her vision cleared and she realized she was standing in the middle of a field. Wild flowers grew all around them and stretched all the way towards the mountains in the distance. "What is this? Why did you bring me here?" She asked. It was so beautiful that her awe carried her words. She had never seen a field so beautiful.
Prince Dakath fed the wolves two slivers of meat from a bag he had strapped to his side before seating himself on a large rock. "We're in the middle of an old battlefield," he said simply.
The trees around them were tall and flush. Some had fruits growing on them but there were none rotting on the ground below it. She touched what looked like an orange to find it moving under her hand like water. The war was going onto its eleventh year and the vegetation looked as though it was growing for decades.
"I don't understand," she said. Not a patch of grass looked out of place, she didn't see any signs of a battle.
Prince Dakath swept his hand across the field and the vines grew from the soil, taking the shapes of what looked like dwarves, nymphs, faeries that looked similar to him and many more creatures that she didn't know the names of. "When my kind dies, we are reunited with the earth." He pointed at the mountains. "Those are giants who have left us, they are becoming extinct now because of your people and your explosive devices." He pointed again to a lake with water lilies. "Pixies," he said. "They gave their life to protect their land." He went on pointing at different things and stating what they used to be... Who they used to be.
She slowly looked around, drinking in the scenery, picturing every one of the flowers and trees that were once life.
His throat bobbed with emotion. Raw and painful. She couldn't help but empathize. She had lost so many people that were dear to her in the war as well. So many children were casualties in the fighting. It shouldn't have been this way.
"This is nothing but a war of crowns. A fool's fight to prove who is stronger, faeries or humans. I brought you here to ask you to aid me in putting an end to the bloodshed, Princess Leia. Our people need not go on dying any longer."
Her eyes met his and she could believe that he was being sincere. Stunned, she opened her mouth to respond but quickly closed it. What could she say? The humans were suffering, their numbers of able men for battle were dwindling fast and iron was becoming a scarcity.
Did the faeries know how close they were to winning? A couple more years and there might not be any more humans for Leia to rule. She wondered about the toll of the war on the faeries, maybe it was worse than she was led to believe.
Faeries couldn't lie, and yet she searched desperately, playing over the words he had spoken to her, looking for some sort of trickery.
"You're just one prince, and I'm just one princess. How could we end a war without any more bloodshed?" She asked.
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Author's Note
Hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to vote, comment and share with your friends if you did!
With Love,
Miriam <3
(4, 614 words minus the author's note etc.)