We go about doing nothing for what feels like a few days. A few days later I find another bottle and see its a note from Alexon.
Annebelle!
I got your note and how can you not remeber Peter? I thought you liked him? Did he tell you how important you are to him? Is he taking care of you and treating you well? OH! I almost forgot to mention. I sent out a search party for you two along the river. If they show you a flower then it is my search party. If they don't then try to fight them off and flee, somehow. Trenton has also sent out a search party for you too. Dad won't listen to me and say you ran from them but he thinks I dragged you and ran. Please write down for him to read. Just don't let Trenton get you first. He wants to make you his wife and dad is thinking of agreeing. He thinks it is a good idea to unite the two kingdoms and make it one, but I don't agree. Belle, I miss you so much. You are the only one who is talking to me and mama is dead. The witch couldn't save her, but they saved dad. I will explain more when you get home. Please respond quickly. I want to hear your sassy comments.
Love, your dull and somewhat laughable big brother
I feel tears runnning down my face. I can't let Treton get me. Anyone but Trenton. I feel arms wrap aroud me and pull me towards a very muscular chest. Peter starts to talk in my ears and wipes away my tears. I bury my head in his chest and cry even more. I miss daddy. I miss Alexon! And most of all I miss Mason. I miss home and my garden and my books.
"Shhhh. Shhh. It's okay baby kitten. We will be home soon enough. I promise you that much." Guardian Sanders says resting his face in the crook of my neck. "Now what does the note say that made you shed tears, baby kitten? What upset you so much? Is there any news about home?"
I hand him the note and fish the pencil out of the bottle. I turn to face Peter and see his face in anger. He looks up and his eyes even show anger, no fury. His eyes show complete fury in dark pools of brown. I back away in fright. I have not seen him angry and it is not cute. Note to self: Don't make Peter mad.
"He is not going to get you! You are mine and mine only! Is that clear?" He asks in a firm tone. I nod quickly and back away more. Don't make him anymore mad than he already is.
"O-Okay. H-h-he won't g-get me." I stutter out and look towards the floor. I hear him get up and feel his arms wrap around me. He mutters in my ear but I am shaking still by how angry he is. "I don't even like Trenton, you brute."
I feel his laughter. "Gods, whoever likes him must be blind or just stupid. He smells of brat and untamed power."
What? Untamed power? I know Trenton has munipulation powers but other ones? Is he part decendant of witch or fae? Or some other creature? And why does he want me? What did I do to get his attention. I was defending myself and thats about it. Wait! "How can you smell power? Who can possibly do that?"
Peter stiffens and pulls away. "What do you mean?" He gives me a blank look. "Nobody can smell power."
"But you just said that he smelt like untamed power. So appearently you can smell power."
"We will talk about this later. Right now, we have to entertain our guests." His looks go over my shoulder.
I turn and see a bunch of men on a row boat.
"Princess Annebelle! We have been sent to retrieve you from this tiny and dingy cave." One of the men says. He hops out of the boat and walks up to me. He bows and takes my hand in his and kisses the top. "Alexon sent us."
"He did?" I try to act excited. "What did he bring for me? Any sweets?"
The guys look back and forth between each other expectantly. My facefalls. Oh, fish food. These are Trenton's men. "We didn't bring you anything princess. I'm sorry."
I turn to Peter with tears in my eyes. I show him my worry. "Alexon didn't send anything. But he would have at least sent me a dress right?"
"OH! Yes! He sent one of those along for you." The guy says then goes to the boat and pulls out a light pink dress. It has long sleeves that fall from the wrist, a tight torso, and it hangs low in the front. It would hang to my feet and has silver stitching with white ribbons across the torso and on the seeves. "And he gave you a cloak." The guy pulls out a silver cloak that sparkles in the light. Oh, I love sparkly things.
I grab the dress and cloak and look at them. They are quite pretty and I do like them. I might just keep it for myself and not send thanks back to the prince. I look up to the guys and see they are staring at me. I hide behind Peter and he motions them out of the cave. The men listen and wait in the boat.
"Do you want me to turn so you can change? Or will you need help?" Peter asks.
"I won't need help until after it is on. I will need someone to tie it up that's all." I say. Peter nods and turns with his back to me.
I quickly pull off my old dress and throw the new one on. It hugs my torso and shows my chest more than I would prefer but I can't be picky.
"Okay, Peter. Can you tie me up?" I ask him while turning my back to him.
"It would be an honor your majesty." Peter says tieing the back of my dress up.
I turn to face him and pull the cloak on. It fits my length perfectly. How did he know how tall I was? I'm not even average length so he couldn't have guessed.
I hear a few gasps and see the a few of the men gasped and Peter is gaping at me. I give them a confused look.
"What? Is something showing?" I say looking over myself. No. Nothing is showing.
"My god, Belle. You look splendid." Peter whispers.
"Yes. Your beauty is showing." A man says from the boat.
I blush and pull the cloak around me tighter. "Well stop staring please."
They clear their throats and look away.
"Well come on princess. We need to get you home."
"But Alexon doesn't have a note for me?"
"No, your majesty. Were you expecting one?"
"Yes I was, sir. You see we are very close and I am all he has left. You do understand sibling love, correct?"
"No, your majesty. I don't have any."
"Well I'm not leaving until you have a note from Alexon for me. Are we clear?"
"Crystal, your majesty." The guys crawl into the boat. All except for one. He walks towards me but Peter stands in his way.
"Will you come with us until we can get a note from Alexon? You don't look to well and we can't loose another princess. Not our favorite one."
"Well I have no idea let me think about it. It's kinda nice not having to take care of duties." I give them a slight smirk. He nods and goes in the boat.
I look to Peter and see his face is emotionless. "We must go with them and break off whenever we can. If I do go with them I can try to send note to Alexon from the Northern Kingdom."
"If you want to your majesty. I'm only your private guard." His voice is flat.
"But-"
"But what princess? What do you expect from me? I'm only following your father's orders." His tone is final.
I turn away from him to hide my tears. I throw my hood over my head and sit at the back of the cave.
"Princess?"
"Take Peter with you please. Come back for me later. I want alone time."
"I'm not leaving you, princess. It's-"
"Please take him." My voice cracks. I feel tears forming.
"But-"
"Take him now! I am sick of him!" I yell out with the tears falling.
"Princess, please. Let me stay here to protect you." Peter says.
"No! I will be fine on my own."
The men grab his and throw him into the boat. He fights back. He hits one of the men in the nose and pushes another into the water. He hits another in the gut.
I sit there frozen. One of the guys hits him on the back of the head with an empty bottle. Peter stumbles and falls. I gasp and cover my mouth with my hands. The tears mulitply and I shake. They took out Peter.
He's not dead. Just unconscious.
This is why mother never let me learn to fight with the guards and knight to be. I can't handle people being hurt unless it is necessary. This wasn't necessary.
Alexon! Please hurry up! Please! I back away more and cover my face. Please. Anyone I know. Now they are going to take me. They got my guard out of the way and it's the weak princess left.
I scoot back and my foot hits something. I turn around and see the bow with a few arrows. I hide them under my cloak and look to the men. All of them are talking about taking down a guard. My royal guard.
Oh if they find out about this Peter will be taken away from me. I will be assigned a new guard. I don't want a new guard. I want Peter.
One of the men walk up to me with his hands out in a gentle way. He crouches in front of me.
"Come on. Let's take ya home now." He says offering a hand.
I hear a bunch of noise and peek from behind the man. I see two guards wearing blue and deep green. My royal colors! They knock out the rest of the men. I stand quickly and push the man backwards. He gives he a curious look which turns to fury when he sees two blue and green dressed men.
"Annebelle." One of the guards says with arms open.
"Gerald!" I run into his arms. He hugs me tightly and kisses the top on my head.
He's the royal guard leader and Peter's father. He was my dad's guard until another guard proved better than Gerald. So he's a close friend of ours. He helped my dad take care of me when I was younger and has never stopped. Even when he had his own son.
"We have something for you." He pulls away and shows me a flower. I smile and take it in my hands. I smell it and close my eyes. "Now lets get you home, princess."
He leads me toward the entrance of the cave and he checks over the boat. He tenses and hands me over to the other guard. Gerald steps in the boat and throws his son over his shoulders and takes him to our boat. The guard lifts me in and climbs in behind me.
"Princess, what happened?" Gerald asks.
"They came before you and posed as Alexon's search team. But Alexon was one step ahead and said my team would have a flower for me." I explain.
"How about the new dress?" He climbs in the boat and places his son on a bench.
"Oh. Tristan's team gave it to me. I love it. It sparkles in the light." I twist my hips and the dress swings and shines in the light.
"It is very pretty, but are you going to return it?"
"No. They caused this problem so one dress won't make a difference to them. Even if it is pretty. What worries me the most is that the cloak was made for me. It fits me perfectly and I'm smaller than the average lady."
"I noticed. Now sit so I can get us home." Gerald says. I sit and place Peter's head on my lap. I play with his knotted hair. I wonder how bad mine looks. I run a hand through it and feel very few knots. But it does feel greasy.
Gerald rows the boat up the river and then switches positions with the other guard.
"Annebelle, why was Peter unconscious in the other boat?" Gerald finally asks.
"They went for him first. They hit him on the head with a bottle and he fell." I explain.
"So he did protect you some. This guy over here will be your other guard for a while." He sends a thumb towards the other guy rowing the boat. "His name is Kade and he's better than Peter. I know you are in good hands now."
I look over to Kade and see he has black hair the goes to his ears. He looks about low 20s and has sharp cheek bones. His blue eyes trap mine and he smiles. His teeth are in a perfect line and white. I smile back at him then look over to the grown up version of Peter.
"But I will still keep Peter as my personal guard?"
"Yes. But instead of one, you will have two."
"Yes, sir."
I look over the side of the boat and watch the fish swim under. I lay my flower in the water and I stick my hand in and swirl it around. A few fish come up to bite my fingers then swim away when the oars come up.
"How's father?" I ask.
"Healed. The witches came and healed him. They even tried to-"
"Save mother, I know. They came and visited me. They healed Peter and I. They said there is a secret and I made a deal with them but I can't remember it. I feel bad for that. They treated me well, considering I'm a royal." I lied. I do remember what they asked me.
"Well we can go and thank them for you if you would like. I'll send out a few men to do that when we get home."
"No. I want to do it myself."
"But, princess. They are tricky little pests."
"They aren't faries. Faries aren't pests either. They have saved me before and witches will be no different unless proven."
"How did faries save you, princess?" Kade speaks up.
"When I was younger I took my horse for a ride. I got lost in the forest and stared to panic. My guard couldn't find me and I kept venturing deeper and deeper because I thought it was the way home. Well to my luck my horse saw a snake, bucked me off, and ran. I fell into a tree and hit my head quite hard. The snake came towards me and I saw two sets of feet running towards me. I then saw blackness. I started to wake up and saw I wasn't at home or at the place I was knocked out. I was in a bed. I open my eyes and came face to face with the most beautiful man and lady I ever seen. They had wings behind them, and looked like they were making something.
"One of them, the lady, came over and explained that they saved me from the snake and other horrible creatures. They checked my head and saw the it had a horrible gash and fixed it up with magic. The man came over and explained that he was a royal and it is his job to protect humans. That he was going to make the fae better and unite them with us. I asked him if he knew what I was and he said a human. I asked him which one and he said high class. I chuckled a little and explained my social status. He immediately changed and became very formal. The lady laughed and said I was just a girl and he could act whatever way he wanted.
"After that they let a horse pick me and said I could keep her. I still have her too. I rode home and thanked them numerous times." I told the story.
"They aren't small figures?"
"No. The same size as us. They are all sweet too. I go and see them every once in a while but I haven't because I've been on guard duty."
We ride in silence for a while while I watch the water under us. The fish swim by lazily and the frogs swim by slowly. I reach in and grab one. I throw it at Kade and he jumps in fright. I laugh and toss the frog out of the boat with Kade muttering things to me. Gerald explains thats just a way of me messing around.
"A princess shouldn't handle animals." Kade says scratching his black hair.
"Well. I'm not the average princess, if you haven't noticed." I say with a smile.
"Annebelle!" My father's voice booms from up ahead. I lift my head up and him standing on the dock with Alexon by his side. I grin and wave. Alexon looks giddy. Dad looks relieved.
Gerald stops the boat and I'm immediately lifted out by two strong hands under my arms. The arms connected to the hands trap me in a hug. I hug him back. I rest my head on my dad's chest and close my eyes.
"I missed you, daddy. And you too Alexon." I peek from under dad's arms to see Alexon with his arms open for me.
I pull out of dad's grasp and run, or trip I should say, into Alexon's arms. He catches me and hugs me close.
"Oh, Belle. I missed you so much. It gets boring without you around." Alexon says.
"I missed you too, big brother. So very much."
"Where did you get the nice dress?" Dad asks.
"Tristan's search team gave it to me. I love it." I pull back and spin in a circle a few times.
"Oo-h. Pretty and shiny. It describes you perfectly." Kade says
"Who are you?" Alexon asks.
"Kade, Princess Annebelle's other guard." Kade says holding out a hand. My brother seems hesitant before shaking Kade's hand.
"Time to go. I shouldn't have come but I had to see my baby girl and see how she faired surviving in the wild." Dad leads us to the horses. I see my horse and smile.
I whistle and she looks over to me. "Starlight."
My horse is black and she is fast. A black mustang is what the trainers call her. But she is a sweetheart. She wasn't the horse I rode to the Northern Kingdom. That was a spare horse but they all respond to a certain whistle.
We hop on our horses while Gerald throws Peter over the back of his horse. I mentally cringe at how bad that has to hurt.