The Nature of the Test (Part 2)

For a timeless period, I felt like I was cocooned in a shell, surrounded by nothing but darkness. And then, cracks of light got in through the cracks as the cover started to unravel.

Then, before I knew it, the root-like creatures had released us and dumped us down on our behinds with a loud thump.

"Argh!" Albert shouted out, immediately kneeling up to look around in a panic. "Where are we?"

"Not a very intelligible question from such an intelligent boy," I said, surprised at the harshness of my tone. But... I was angry, that's for sure.

The boy with black hair stiffly turned towards me. "... It might just be my muddled senses, and do tell me if I'm wrong. But, are you, perhaps, picking a fight with me, Sir Eleftherion?"

His sudden show of hostility shocked me. He had stared at me with belligerent eyes. Even the way he had said my name had made me flinch out of my control.

But, my surprise soon turned into annoyance, and my anger came straight back up again. I stood up hastily and spat out at him, "So what if I'm picking a fight with you? You may be older than me but I'm quite sure I'm stronger than you."

He furrowed his brows, although he too snapped back at me angrily, "You've clearly shown you're the tougher one of us, but seeing you deciding that this very time would be a ripe one to have petty arguments such as this only proves you sadly aren't the brains in this pair."

"Right," I snarled. "Well then, I'm not! But if you're so smart, then why don't you just go ahead and bring us back to that clearing!"

Albert glared at me, which easily made me angrier. He asked, "Why are you so angry anyway? Pray tell, what have I done?"

"You!" I screamed, although, in my fury, I hadn't had an inkling about what even came out of my mouth. "Why'd you grab onto me? Did you really think you could be of much help if you came with me?! Do you think you're some sort of hero?!"

His eyes widened. "What are you even saying? I was just trying to help!"

"Bah!" I blubbered out, my fury bubbling so much inside my chest that I didn't know what to do with it. I settled with punching bare-fisted at a nearby tree trunk.

"Eleftherion..." I heard his voice call out to me. I cursed him. 'Right as I was just about to break that tree in half...'

Nevertheless, I looked back at him impatiently. Albert was coming up to me with both hands held up, almost in a gesture of peace... or surrender. His eyes were no longer glaring, but was instead covered with worry. I hated those black eyes, beady like a bird's.

I felt the need to tackle him down.

"RaaAAAA!!!" I screamed out loud, abandoned my tree, and hit him squarely at his abdomen with the top of my head. "Die, you stupid prince!"

I heard him gasp out in pain, and we landed hard on the forest floor. We rolled around for a while like two little boys in a play fight. But I was seriously angry.

'... Why was I angry again?' My mind tugged at me, but I paid in no heed.

"Eleftherion!" the princeling kept calling out, but I could only think of it as stupid. 'I'm Eleftheria, dolt, not Eleftherion.'

"Wake up!" He pushed hard against my chest, keeping my claws at bay. "Wake up! You're not acting like yourself!"

'What?' I thought. But then, looking down, I realized where he had placed his hands at.

I growled in womanly disbelief. Now, even his longer arms could not keep me at bay. I had enough of this.

"I've had enough of stupid boys touching me wherever they want!" I screamed shrilly and, covering up my torso with my one hand, I slapped him hard across the cheek with the other.

When I pulled back to hit him again, I saw that I had drawn blood. It seems like my slap had caused a nose bleed. I stared at him blinking dazedly underneath me.

For a moment, my shuddering anger abated and guilt soon overpowered it. In that short moment, the young prince saw his opportunity. He screamed out his own war cry, twisted me around, and tackled me onto my belly.

"Be alive, Eleftherion!" he panted as he pinned me down. "I think you've been bewitched."

~~

It probably took only a few moments for me to calm down, but it seemed like I had thrashed out in pain for a long time. All the while, Albert had kept me steadily trapped, head all but snogging with the soil.

"You feeling like yourself now?" he asked, taking his skewed glasses off and wiping at the glass with a handkerchief.

"Ugh... I'm not even sure what happened," I muttered, clutching at my aching head. "Did I really just attack you?"

"Yes, indeed." The boy nodded mechanically. "I was lucky you didn't seem to be able to use your magic back then, or I might have just ended up like that poor earth troll's head."

"Huhh..." I sighed into my knees, sitting on a tree stump. "Well, I'm sorry about your nose."

I stared up at his blood smeared cheeks after he had rubbed at his face clumsily. He shrugged. "I reckon it's not broken at least."

"We have that small relief, I suppose," I said. "It would be a pity to ruin your pretty face."

For a while, he was silent. I first thought that he was still angry at me, but then he asked incredulously, "Pretty? My face?"

I blinked at him. Although most others would say that Prince Albert of Kingdom Montauk had a common face, I would say otherwise. In my past life, he may have only remembered me as a wee princess from the bigger kingdom, who he had only spoken with for a mere three hours, but...

To me, he was the symbol of hope; A prince who had hailed from a youngish kingdom which only came into its moderate power due to their people's intellect, and not by their magic prowess or physical strength. He had spoken to me as an equal, and did not force my hand in marriage. And this promise of a marriage, that I could have only allowed with my own choice, had sparked a strength inside of my past life's weary heart.

Because of my brief encounter with the prince, I had become steadfast for a long time, even up to my 18th birthday, just by filling my head up with wishes of a better life with that ordinary-looking, black-haired boy.

So, even though my wishes to be married to him was denied not too long after, and even though I had tried to reopen the case to the court for years after that and to no avail, I still remembered that kind boy's face with a soft heart.

"Yes, you." I nodded at him, staring as his younger countenance started to blush in embarrassment.

"... T-That's such an odd thing to say," he uttered out. "I think your sense of taste and attractiveness is a bit off."

I laughed and then approached him. Holding out my sleeves, I wiped at the smudges of blood on his face. He flinched back. "What are you doing, dear lad?"

"Wiping the blood off your face," I told him, raising up an eyebrow. "You need to wipe it all off. Blood gets itchy on your skin when it dries. I still remember that darned creature..."

"You mean that flying squirrel that got its innards splashed onto you?" he asked, and stood still as I cleaned his face up.

"Yeah," I muttered. "You saw that then? When that mage killed it right in front of me?"

"Oh, I doubt there was anyone who hadn't seen that," he said. "Every student and mage was already so interested in both of you anyway. So, when you got attacked, all eyes saw how it went."

I sighed. "We're really that popular now, Joren and I?"

"Probably more like infamous, if I should say," he retorted with a small smile.

"I think I understand why I had felt so angry enough to tackle you down just now," I grumbled, to which he chuckled at. This version of the prince didn't seem like the polite and passionate man I had met in my past, but I can't say I didn't like the change all that much. "... But, what exactly happened?"

"Hmmm..." He looked around us, where tall, pink-leaved trees shielded us from the quickly setting afternoon sun. "When we got dragged off by those... vines, it had us for a long time before throwing us down here. Not much looks any different, and I'd reckon, with the direction of the sun, the clearing would probably be right in this direction."

He pointed at his right, squinting out his eyes like he could manage to see the clearing through the thick trees.

"But," I started. "I mean, what exactly happened to me that I would attack you like that?"

He dropped his outstretched hand and looked at me. "I don't know... but I think this may be a work of mysterious magic. One that isn't our basic notes or so... I suspect ancient magic was at work."

I furrowed my brows. "And what is to say I won't attack you again, or you me?"

"... Nothing," he replied with pursed lips. "For all we know, we're both under the magic already."

~~

For a while, Albert and I walked in the direction the boy believed would bring us straight back to the clearing. Every move I made was calculated and I had my guard up all the time and for both of us.

I was watching out for moving tree roots when Albert stopped walking in front of me. I asked quietly, "What?"

"... We're going in circles," he said, and then held up a hand at me before I could say anything. "Wait, look up there. You see that branch? I had tied up a part of my handkerchief there earlier. Upon seeing it again, I first thought I had only made a mistake while leading us on, but... we've already passed by it four times now."

I frowned. "That's impossible. We've clearly been walking in a straight manner."

"And for that I am of the same opinion, but," he muttered and looked around us. "I think we might be stuck here until we pass some sort of test."

And just as though his words had invited trouble, a melancholic voice started to envelop the forest with its soft, enchantingly beautiful song.

"Or defeat some sort of monster," I mumbled back.