On the road Prince Callum and Mr. Braun continued. Riding down the road to through the forest to Monteg. They rode all throughout the morning and then stopped by the side of the road to let the horses rest; they stopped by the river side and so the horses quenched their thirst as well. Mr. Braun looked at Prince Callum who was sitting on a large rock lost in thought; both with bowls of soup in their hands.
"No harm will come to her. We will get to her in time," Mr. Braun said.
"Why do they want her?" Prince Callum asked. "The fayagans . . . Why do they want her?"
"We don't know. Her mother just told us they want her because of her power."
"What power is that?"
"I don't know. All her mother said was to protect her from the night and that was what we did," Mr. Braun said.
"I guess the animal attack she suffered when she but a child worked well to your advantage."
"There was no animal attack."
"What?" Prince Callum turned to his h
Night time fell and in Monteg, Loque Bella was in her room standing by the window and looking out. There was a gentle fire burning in the fire place and outside a gentle breeze blew.Just then the door unlocked and swang open and in walked Princess Rada."I brought you a cloak. Put it on it's cold out there," Princess Rada said holding a grey fur cloak in her hand that she then threw onto the bed."Where are we going?" Loque Bella asked."We're going deep into the mountains. That's where the cave my brother trapped himself in is.""So this is it for me huh?""We don't know that. You could survive," Princess Rada said."Could. That doesn't sound very promising.""I'm sorry Loque Bella but you are the only one who can help my brother. This has to be I'm sorry.""Yes but at the cost of my life," Loque Bella said and turned to her. "How can the two of you be this cruel?""We are not cruel. We are in pain and hav
A moment later Princess Rada had removed a few of the large rocks that were covering the opening of the cave in which Prince Mangus was in and Loque Bella had climbed through it and was walking through the dark cave with an oil lantern. She had taken off her fur cloak and left it outside with Princess Rada who was standing with butterflies in her tummy; she didn't know Loque Bella much but she knew she was of good heart. She didn't want to see anything bad happen to her. "Be careful Loque Bella," Princess Rada said to herself as she watched walk deeper into the cave. She walked through the darkness with the oil lantern held out in front of her to see where she was going, tip toeing along the cave floor and following the sound of Prince Mangus in deep sleep; shaking like a leaf and with her heart beating as loud as a drum. The cave was dusty and stuffy and had cob webs hanging everywhere; cob webs she had to remove from her path in order to keep moving. Loque Bella walked on and hea
Princess Rada walked up to the hole and looked into the darkness to try and see through it but she couldn't see anything; all she could hear was heavy breathing."Mangus . . . Brother?" Princess Rada gently called out as Loque Bella, still in her moon essence form, was standing a good distance behind her. "Brother?""Uh . . . Rada," a voice from in the inside of the cave said; baritone like the sound of a thunder storm."Huh he's back, he's back. Mangus!" she said and quickly got into moving away a few of the rocks to make the opening bigger.Just then Prince Mangus crawled out of the darkness and into the moon light; breathing so heavily and with his skin so moist like he just had water poured on him. He too had long white hair like Princess Rada which was at the moment falling over his face and was shirtless in a pair of grey cotton trousers that were torn at the bottom."Oh my goodness brother," Princess Rada said and helped him to his feet. He
Morning came and in the kingdom of Monteg Princess Rada, wearing a long gown, made her way down the corridor to Loque Bella's room. She unlocked and swung the door open and found Loque Bella sitting on the bed and looking out through the window at the mountains that bound the kingdom."You're awake," Princess Rada said and she turned to her, wearing a white night dress. "I came to announce to you that breakfast will be served soon and that you need to get ready.""Ready in what? The only dress I had is ruined. I have nothing to wear," Loque Bella said."Yes you do." She walked to the large wooden wardrobe in the corner and swung its doors open and inside were fancy dresses of different colours. "You can help yourself to either one of these dresses.""Wow," she said standing up and walked up to stand beside her. "They're beautiful.""They are.""Are these yours?""Yes they are," Princess Rada answered."I thought this was a spar
An hour later, Loque Bella joined Queen Gwen, Princess Rada and Prince Mangus in the dining hall for breakfast; with Loque Bella sitting where she sat before and the prince sitting right opposite her."It's so good to have you back my son," Queen Gwen said."It's good to be back mother. It's good to be home and see your faces again," Prince Mangus said. "I missed you both so much.""We missed you too my son. We missed you so much.""What was it like?" Princess Rada asked."Being under the curse? It was the worst experience of my life," he answered. "I was imprisoned within my own body. When I gazed upon father's blood and I started to turn into my fayagan form against my will, I felt myself being pulled back. I could still see the light but as I got pulled further back it started to dimish. It kept getting farther and farther away until the light eventually disappeared and there was nothing around me but darkness. But thankfully I had already made
Night time came and as Loque Bella was still in her room, this time standing by the window looking out at the night that was once the main source of her nightmares, a knock came to her door. "What do you want?" she asked and the door swung open with Prince Mangus walking in. "Loque Bella," he greeted. "Prince Mangus." "You missed dinner." "I wasn't hungry," Loque Bella said. "You have to eat so that you can keep your strength." "Yes so that it can be used to selfishly serve you." "You must not dwell on that," Prince Mangus said. "How can I not dwell on that? It is the sole reason why you're keeping me here. To use my power for your own selfish desires," she turned to him and said with her voice raised. "We will take good care of you." "That is not the point." "We will protect you," he said. "That is not the point either. I don't care how well you treat me, this is never going to b
On the road to Monteg, Prince Callum and Mr. Braun managed to find a way across the river via another bridge and had made camp in the forest.There was a small fire burning and over it was a pot of soup; soup that they had poured into their bowls and were having with the bread the woman they saved baked for them."Good bread," Mr. Braun said."Very good bread," Prince Callum said and they ate on."Mm excuse me for a moment, need to take a tinkle.""We're in the middle of dinner Mr. Braun.""Apologies your highness," Mr. Braun said as he put his bowl on the ground and got up; disappearing behind one of the trees.He began relieving himself but in the middle of it suddenly he heard the sound of twigs snapping behind him. He stopped and looked back and seeing nothing he carried on.Just then a large hand came up from behind him and covered his nose and mouth and pulled him back into the darkness.Prince Callum eating on hea
In Monteg, Loque Bella lay in her bed quietly crying to herself. Just then the door was unlocked and swung open and through it walked Princess Rada with a tray of food in her hands.She walked in and put it on the bedside as she just lay there looking at her with a dead look on her face."I brought you something to eat," Princess Rada said. "I know you're hungry you haven't eaten in quite a while. Please eat something." Loque Bella turned to the side and gave the princess her back. "Can I sit with you?""Do whatever you want. I am your property after all," Loque Bella said."Please don't be like that.""Don't be like what? Upset. You're keeping me here against my will and now your brother just forced marriage on me, what else do you possibly expect me to be if not upset?""But you said yes to his proposal," Princess Rada said."Because he left me no other choice. He said that if I didn't marry him then he was going to fly out to Hamps
Back in the snowy forest of Monteg, Prince Callum was sitting on the ground holding Loque Bella's cold and beginning to freeze corpse in his arms with both he and Mr. Braun were crying."Let her be your highness, she's gone," Mr. Braun said."No she's not. She can't be gone. I . . . I love her, she can't be gone," Prince Callum said."I am so sorry.""She was the one Mr. Braun. You how sometimes you know things just by looking at them?""I do yes," Mr. Braun said."When I looked at her I knew she was the one. I just knew it. Looking into her eyes I saw my whole future in it and now that future will never be.""Your highness I am so sorry.""There has to be something we can do," Prince Callum said. "There has to be a way for us to bring her back.""Your highness please you are making this very hard on yourself.""She can't be gone Mr. Braun. She can't. I love her and I need her," he said and looked down at Loque Be
The creature flew out of its nest and seeing its massive size, Loque Bella shrunk to the size of a pea. It was a giant pterodactyl with the feathers of a snowy owl; squawking and flapping its large wings."Oh my goodness oh no," Loque Bella said looking at it fly on. It then turned and began flying towards her and seeing it coming straight for her, her heart dropped right out of her chest.She screamed and began climbing, as fast as she could, as behind her the creature homed in on her.Its sharp beak was aimed at her and was going to stab her right through the back had she not let go and fallen a few vines down just in the nick of time.The creature like lightning turned its body to the side and flew on as Loque Bella saw it go and continued climbing."Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" she said as she climbed; Gorra had nothing but terrible words to say about the pterotus and it was out to get her. Not good.It turned in the air and flew d
It was a couple of hours after midnight and the full moon still shining its bright light, Loque Bella in her moon essence form flew through the night sky in the direction of the Harborage of Embellishment. She had left Marius behind and it was a decision that cut her up. It reminded her of the heart ache that came to her when she saw Prince Mangus dead and what he put himself through just to ensure her safety and that just made her leaving Marius behind even more painful. The desert was dangerous and he was out there by himself, what had she done? With what they had faced, she couldn't believe that she had left him but she had to. Leaving meant he could have her portion of food and water which would give him another day but still that was not good enough; hunger and thirst were not the only things that could kill him out there, there were the creatures also. And what if one of them attacked him? They barely survived going up against them the two of them what more by himself?
A new day came and Loque Bella and Marius continued making their way through hot bareness to the Harborage of Embellishment.Walking on suddenly Marius stopped and turned his head to the side."What?" Loque Bella asked."Did you hear that?" he asked."Hear what?""I think I just heard thunder.""Thunder," she said and looked up. "That's not possible there's not a single cloud in the sky.""It didn't come from the sky.""Then where did it come from?" she asked and Marius ran to his left and began climbing the large dune. "What are you doing?"He climbed on and when he reached the top his blood ran cold."Oh my goodness," he said."What? Marius what is it?" Loque Bella asked and ran up the very dune to see what he was looking at. She reached the top, with him just standing there with a blank expression on his face, and when she saw what had gotten him so spooked, the same expression came over her face.
The sun rose over the dunes and brought forth a new day and walking on across the hotness Loque Bella and Marius carried on; now with only one bag with the things they needed to survive.There was a large dune in front of them and when they climbed it hoping to see something in the distance that would give them relief, it gave them the opposite feeling; they both gave out heavy sighs and threw their heads down, there was nothing out there but dunes, dunes and more dunes."Goodness gracious, I don't know how much more of this I can take. I am so tired," Loque Bella said heavily breathing, with her fur cloak stained with dried up blood and washed in dirt to keep the blood from being smelled by any nearby predators."We'll get there don't worry," Marius said with his bag on his back."Get where? We don't even know where we're going.""Yes we do. The Harborage of Embellishment.""Yes but we don't even know if it's out here," she said."Of
Marius crouched on through the tunnel following the bloody drag marks and finally came to the end of it. The tunnel came out into a large open area and standing up straight he then took off his bag and secured it in a secluded corner and began looking around for Loque Bella.He was about to shout out her name when just then he heard a squeal coming from the darkness; a squeal that made him hide the oil lamp under his cloak and hit the ground.There were large rocks and bolders scattered across the area and these were what Marius used to hide himself from the creature; popping his oil lamp in and out from underneath his cloak to see where he was going and not lose track of the bloody drag marks."Loque Bella," he whispered out to her but the only thing that responded was the creature that gave out another squeal. Quickly he hid the oil lamp and sat quiet as somewhere in the area the creature ran around; with the sound of its many legs hitting the ground like a sm
The following day came and Loque Bella and Marius carried on. From walking across the hard ground of the desert they found themselves entering the loose sand portion of it with dunes of different shapes and sizes scattered across the area, as far as the eye could see."Goodness and now the real hard part comes," Marius said."We have to get across all that?" Loque Bella asked."Yes we do. And there's no sign of trees anywhere so I'm guessing we have double this ground to cover.""Great.""Come on let's go. Let's see if we can cover a good amount of ground before the overhead sun comes upon us and makes our day.""Alright," she said and they began making their way across the loose sands of the desert; continuing with their journey through the bare hotness to the Harborage of Embellishment where Loque Bella's last chance to return to her lover and family lied.Hours later the sun was directly overhead and was at its meanest; as below it
The sun rose bringing forth a new day and Loque Bella and Marius were off. They had bags on their backs filled with the things they needed, their skin painted with thick white paint, their faces too, fur cloaks over their clothes to shield them from the sun, fur boots to protect them from the hot sand and their weapons on their belts; a sword and knives.The sun blazed on and on they walked on the hard bare desert ground; making sure to build their tent and rest every three hours to quench their thirst, rest their feet and paint on a fresh coat of white paint."Goodness no wonder the people who venture into here are never seen again, the sun is brutal," Loque Bella said; with the both of them breathing in and out heavily trying to catch their breaths."Yes. Either the sun got them or other things did," Marius said."Right.""Scared?""Of course I'm scared. There are creatures out here that are going to attack us and we have no idea what they
Night fell and outside the hut they had rented for the night, Loque Bella and Marius sat on the ground around a fire; both with blankets over them and taking in the quiet of the night, with distance looks on both their faces."How are you doing over there?" Marius asked."I certainly could be better," Loque Bella responded. "I knew what she was going to tell me I had to do was going to be hard but I didn't think it was going to be this hard. Journeying through a hot desert against the blazing sun to reach an oasis that no living soul has ever been to sounds like one of the hardest things I'll probably ever have to do.""It is. The desert is so hot and vast that people who have attempted to cross it and come out the other end . . . Have never been seen again. Goodness I didn't even think there was anything alive in there, an oasis for that matter, if I hadn't heard everything else it would have easily been the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. An oasis in