"I don't need any of this, Selena!" Guinevere complained in front of the mirror as she gazed at herself while the dark elf was tying half of her hair up in two side buns with a gilt metal.
"Seriously, who dresses up their captives with beautiful silk dresses?" Guinevere asked.
She was wearing a high-collared pink dress that had hems stitched in the form of lotus petals and was held in shape by thin lines of gold around the collar and chest.
"I told you, it's one of my past times. And it's great to have someone else try on my work other than myself." Selena explained and stepped back, gazing at her with round eyes. "You look a lot better!"
"Well...I do." She said honestly, glancing at her favorite violet dress lying at her bunk looking torn and worn out. "Thank you, I guess."
Selena smiled. "You're welcome. Now let's go outside."
"No thank you." Guinevere refused.
"Why?! It's been a month since Alice took the restraining spell in this tent and you'd only ever been out for, like, five times!"
"All I ever see are creatures with horns. Who wants to see them everyday?"
"We could go to the river today."
"You know I couldn't get past the circle of woods." She said bitterly.
Selena sighed and slumped down the only bunk inside the tent. "How can you not ever get bored?"
"Thinking of ways to torture Dyrroth and that blood demon queen never fails to get me through the day." She seethed, anger boiling inside her again.
"You're doing it again."
Guinevere turned to Selena's direction with a clueless expression. "What?"
"Take it easy on that rage, lady. You always tell them darkness would not befall you, but then you turn the air tense with your fury."
Her eyes widen in panic. "Could you really feel that?"
"A few times already that I wouldn't be surprised if you turn all dark tomorrow."
Guinevere got to her feet and strode towards Selena. "I would not!"
"Maybe it wouldn't be bad, you know."
"It wouldn't be bad to be bad?" Guinevere enunciated with distaste. "Do you even listen to yourself?"
"Look at me, Guinevere." Selena said, staring at her eyes. "I used to be a mere elf, one among hundreds. Then by a very cruel sacrifice, I was fed into the Shadow Abyss and came out like this; a more powerful, one of a kind being."
Guinevere understood what Selena was talking about.
The dark elf might look cheerful and mischievous with her bright pink hair and constant bright lavender eyes, but since they had met in the forest, she could feel an enormous amount of magic emanating from Selena, making Guinevere always careful around her.
And she knew it wasn't only her who could feel that. She could see it from the way Alice tolerates Selena even though she could see pure irritation coming from the blood demon's face. And she saw it on the way the orcs and demons seem to take a step away on the few moments she and Selena walked around camp.
"I could see that. But not all of us are great at handling their own darkness." She answered.
"True, but what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't let your fear get in the way of your present. Look at you locking yourself up in this tiny tent just because you're afraid of losing yourself which may or may not happen."
Guinevere sighed. She couldn't believe she was listening to an abyssal witch. "Why do you keep coming in here?"
Selena sighed and rolled her eyes. "As you can see, Dyrroth's the only one around here who's around my age, and he's not fun to be with."
"And I am?"
The dark elf looked at her, somehow taken aback by her question. "Well, your fesityness amuses me. And it's rare to meet people who don't tremble in Alice or Dyrroth's gaze."
Guinevere scoffed. "There's only one gaze that could make me tremble."
"A spider's?" Selena asked, laughing.
"My dad's!" She corrected, but Selena's laughter went louder as she leaned back against the bunk, holding her stomach.
"I heard how you went berserk over a spider last month! Hahaha!"
"Stop it." Guinevere droned.
She merely frowned at Selena whose laughter only died down a couple of minutes later.
"Hey." Guinevere called, making Selena look at her as the elf wiped her teary eyes dry.
"Hmm?"
"Haven't you ever considered...going home?"
Selena's bright face turned all serious and dodgy all of a sudden. "No."
"Why? Don't you miss your family?"
"Who wouldn't?" She asked, a crease appearing in the middle of her brows. It was the first time Guinevere ever saw that kind of expression on the elf's face. "But you know fully well that sometimes the only way to protect the people you love from yourself is by staying away."
Guinevere was taken aback by how right Selena was.
"Isn't that the reason why you haven't attempted to escape for the last month?" Selena added.
Guinevere turned away, hating how she seemed to be too transparent for Selena to read. "I just couldn't escape." She defended.
"You've got plenty of chances when Alice was away. I'd always put my guard up in case you attempted to. But you didn't."
"Then tell me next time so I could do so." Guinevere said crossly and got to her feet. "Could you stop acting like you know everything and just leave?"
"Sorry." Selena muttered. She stood up and headed towards the exit, only to stop right under it. "Would you like to do something that could somehow ease up that rage inside you?"
Guinevere looked at Selena over her shoulder. Her lavender eyes were back to their bright expression, a smile forming in her face.
"How?"
"Let's go!"
Selena grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the tent.
As usual, about fifty demons and orcs rustled around, a few keeping the large fire burning at the southern part of the camp, others brandishing their weapons, and some were keeping guard around the perimeter.
Although far ahead, the largest demons and orcs gathered, noisily cheering with their axes and clubs drawn up as they watched a scene in the middle of their crowd.
It was where Selena was dragging Guinevere.
"Are you planning to offer those monsters lunch with my flesh?" Guinevere blurted out.
But she went silent the moment they drew near the back of the crowd and bent a little to see the scene through the gaps of the monsters' waists.
She peered through it just in time for the monsters to make way as a large body of an orc thrice her size went flying to her direction, with her ducking just in time for it to pass over her head.
The body landed a couple of meters behind her and she straightened back up to see the rest of the crowd staring at her.
Dyrroth was standing right in the middle of the crowd, a smile of victory flashing in his face before it faded the moment his crimson eyes fell on her.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, now frowning.
Guinevere, though completely clueless as to why she was there, held her head high and glared at Dyrroth.
"She's the next one to challenge you." Selena said.
"Definitely." Guinevere agreed, then did a double take. "Wait, what?"
"What?" Dyrroth asked, displeased.
"Wait," Guinevere blurted out as she headed towards Selena, who was standing in front of the monsters on one side of the broken circle. "I didn't agree—"
"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" The monsters started chanting, a few voices at first, until it went louder and became all of them.
Guinevere looked around, not knowing what to do. There was bloodlust in their bloodshot eyes, the dull fangs of the orcs protruding of their lower lips looking dirty and stained. The demons looked cruler, with the constant glint of mischief in their eyes and their tails that varied in shapes and length slamming against the ground as they chanted.
They looked gross and dirty and disgusting that Guinevere didn't want anything to do with them.
But the fact that she was there, breathing the same air as those stinky creatures, ignited her rage all over again.
"ENOUGH!" Dyrroth yelled at them.
They stopped all at once for a couple of second, only to chant back up again.
"Alright. Bring it on, blond horns." She provoked.
"What did you just call me?" Dyrroth asked in a dangerous tone.
"Oh, don't embarrass yourself twice." She answered, pacing inside the monsters' circle willingly.
Dyrroth scoffed. "You dare show yourself in here in that form? Selena" he called, glancing to where Selena was standing. "I apologize beforehand for what's going to happen to your handy work."
"No offense would be taken, Dyrroth." Selena answered, glancing confidently at Guinevere.
Guinevere paced sideways as Dyrroth did, going the opposite direction as he was to keep the distance between them.
"I got to say, you did well on turning the homeless lady look like a damsel." He said to Selena without taking his eyes off Guinevere.
"Always remember, blond horns, that the most beautiful lotus grows up in the harshest mush." Guinevere then advanced, leaping into Dyrroth's direction.
He dashed away, just as she expected, so she blinked to his direction a split second after she landed, leaving an illusional image of herself at its place.
Dyrroth lunged towards her, slashing his blade across her form. He was taken aback the moment the form popped into thin air, and Guinevere took it as a chance to poke Dyrroth from the back.
He looked over his houlder just in time for Guinevere to spin midair and hit him full on the chest with her leg, sending him sliding across the ground.
The monsters stopped their cheering, surprised at how easy she knocked down their leader, making Selena's pleased laughter ring in the air.
Dyrroth's fangs bared in anger as he shrugged off the monsters who helped him to his feet, his eyes looking dangerous in their crimson hue as he glared at her.
"Sneaky." He muttered and lunged to her direction.
She leaned back, stepped away, ducked down as Dyrroth advanced, slashing his blades one after another and spun with his leg stretched out, the blades in his calf missing her by a couple of inches and slashed a portion of her newly dyed black hair.
Knowing Dyrroth wouldn't stop with only that, she jumped out of the way, which she realized a split second later was a good idea as Dyrroth smashed down the ground where she had just been.
She landed over a meter away from him, her shoes sliding through the gravelly soil of the clearing they were in and made her bump against a bulky orc's stomach.
She hastily got away from him not only because he smelled like a dead rat had died under his armpits but also because it looked a lot horrible upclose.
"You're getting irritating by the minute." Dyrroth fessed and attacked again.
The fight went on longer, their spectators cheering one minute and then gaping the next as they alternately took over the fight, both of them having difficulty landing a solid blow on the other.
As they fought, Guinevere suddenly got a feeling of deja vu. It was as if it wasn't the first time this kind of fight happened between them, which was ridiculous because they hadn't fight one on one to this extent before.
Had they?
Her thought got cut off by Dyrroth's chuckle.
"Feeling sentimental, Miss Violet?" He asked, a knowing look in his eyes as he threw a hard blow to her direction.
"Just having fun." She replied as she spun and stretched out a leg midspin.
Her left arm took the impact of Dyrroth's blow, but her right leg managed to kick him on the ribs, both of them gritting their teeth from the damage received as they staggered to opposite directions, panting.
But Dyrroth's eyes looked bright, as if he was enjoying how the adrenaline was rushing through his veins.
"Just so you know, I'm not stopping till I see those feisty green eyes reflect pain." He said.
"I'm not stopping till you're ready for a casket." She retorted and attacked again.
She sprang up in the air and was landing to his direction when she saw a flash of triumph in his eyes.
A solid wave striked right from behind him, the same skill that had lethally injured her and Rafaela before.
Fortunately, she was quick enough to shift her weight midair, blasting her own magic against it so she would be thrown back before it could hit her hard.
"WHAT IS ALL THIS!" A woman's voice echoed through the crowd while Guinevere was still falling back into a landing.
She felt something invisible and warm wrap around her limbs and made her land on her back with a grunt.
When she looked around, Dyrroth was just a few feet away from her, also lying on the ground and was struggling stubbornly.
She had to look down to see Alice, who had a furious expression in her face as she looked at the two of them.
The orcs and demons around them shuffled away from her, probably terrified of the angry aura coming out of her.
"You won't stop until you kill each other?" Alice asked as she paced to their direction.
Guinevere grew irritated. She was so helpless against the Abyssal Queen who was now towering over them.
"What about I spare you the trouble and do it myself?" Alice threatened.
"Let me go." Dyrroth commanded.
"Not yet." Alice looked around. "Everybody leave! Go make yourselves useful!"
Instantly, the monsters shuffled to work.
"You, too, Selena."
"But Guineve—!"
"Go." Alice said firmly.
Selena must've felt the danger in her voice because the dark elf glanced at Guinevere apologetically before walking away with reluctance.
"What's this, hag? Feeling sentimental? Scolding us for old times' sake?" Guinevere provoked.
Alice glared down at her before bending down to grab her chin, where Alice's long talons held her cheeks hard that it hurt.
"I might have mentioned you being part of some grand plan and therefore could not kill you, but I could think of a hundred different ways to torture you. So you better watch your mouth." Alice said through clenched teeth before letting go harshly.
"Where are you going?!" Dyrroth yelled when Alice then turned her back on them and walked away.
"Taking a beauty rest. I suddenly grew a wrinkle just watching the two of you."
"Release me first!"
"Oh, the spell will wear down in time." Alice said without looking at him.
"What?! Let me go, Alice!" Dyrroth ordered.
But Alice ducked down into her tent and disappeared out of sight, leaving Guinevere with Dyrroth in such vulnerable positions.
"Betrayed by your own adoptive mother?" She mocked him.
He glared at her and hauled himself to sit up. "Shut up."
"How long do these spells usually last?" She asked.
"Usually an hour."
"What?" Guinevere snapped as she sat up. "You mean I'll be stuck with you for an hour?!"
"Unless you want to roll away like a disoriented caterpillar, yes."
"Damn it." She cussed.
The air between them suddenly grew silent, making them uncomfortable just by each other's presence that they looked away.
The sight ahead of them were just a scenery of towering trees making home for darkness ahead, the leaves far up high preventing most of the sunlight to stream in, thus making the place dim no matter how high the sun was up.
When Guinevere shifted her gaze back up front, she caught Dyrroth staring.
"What?" She asked defiantly.
His gaze turned piercing before looking away. "Did you really forget that you've been in the Abyss?"
"I couldn't even see myself being there! Why would you even ask that?"
"Just wondering where those evilness had settled on that small form." He answered, his gaze traveling from her head to toe.
"You know you've also been abducted, right?"
"Shut up."
"Haven't you ever thought of going back to your real family?"
"I have no other family than this one!"
"This one? Where your mother stuns you for an hour while she takes her beauty rest?"
"We had long agreed never to question each other's actions towards each other. It's something you could never understand."
"Wow. How great must it be." She said in a mocking envious tone.
"Don't you ever get tired of mocking?"
"I don't know. Don't you?" She asked back.
"TSS. Annoying as ever." He muttered.
Guinevere merely casted him a look and decided not to talk back, which she later regretted because having him around and not really fighting against him just made the air between them heavily awkward.
So she was so relieved when she felt her limbs getting free from its invisible bondage.
"Finally." She blurted out and was about to put herself up when she grunted, the arm she used to block Dyrroth's attack earlier suddenly searing in pain.
Dyrroth merely glanced at her then left, both of them heading the opposite directions towards their tent.
"I am so sorry!" Selena instantly blurted out when Guinevere stepped inside the tent.
She merely gave the dark elf a piercing look and headed to her bunk, where she laid on her side with her back facing Selena.
"Guinevere, I couldn't do anything with Alice's spells!" Selena explained, sitting behind her.
"Leave me alone." She said, exhausted.
"I didn't know Alice would come and do that to the both of you."
Guinevere sighed. "I know, Selena. Just leave me alone for now."
Silence rang for a couple of seconds before Selena replied, "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow."
Guinevere closed her eyes, a great sense of exhaustion suddenly dawning on her.
Her arm hurt badly, and it was making her a lot more sensitive.
She wanted to be back in her own chambers, feeling safe and warm in her own covers.
She wanted to see Lancelot and her family and let them know she was alright.
But was she really alright?
She wanted to be around the people she cared about and not worry about when she would suddenly get the urge to kill them.
After having the journey around the Land, she never thought she would ever want to wish she was back at Gorge again.
She felt warm liquid forming in her eyes, watering her lashes as she kept them closed.
Then she felt her bunk lowered as someone sat behind her again.
She acted out of frustration, sat up and turned around. "How many times do I have to ask you to leave, Sel—what are you doing here?!"
Dyrroth looked as surprised as her when she turned.
"Get out!" She snapped as she leaned as far as she could in the small bunk she was in.
Only then did she notice that Dyrroth now had a white linen cloth wrapped around his right chest and shoulders and was also bringing another piece of it in his hand.
"Stay still." He said and reached for her arm.
She stiffened as his rough, calloused palm brushed against her skin.
He wrapped the piece of cloth tightly around the part that was aching, even though she never told her where it hurt.
She watched him with nervousness and suspicion the whole time he was doing it, wondering what evil plan he now had.
"You broke a couple of my ribs." He said. "I guess we're even then." He added as he tied the tip of the cloth up in a knot.
"Why bother doing this?" She asked.
"Because I am determined to beat you the next time, fair and square."
She scoffed. "You better get your epic last words ready."
Dyrroth chuckled, pleased and determined. "Mind if I copy yours?"