Chapter Four

We walked what seemed forever with Bemus constant chatter, and although I wanted to ask him to assist me in escaping he wouldn't shut up long enough for me to even ask. And then Easton, I found him quite handsome, but he frightened me. I tried to talk to him, to have a simple conversation with him but he would only stare at me. It was like he wasn't even there. As we walked I tried to remember landmarks on how I could get home, or at least as far as I could go, because I had learned that I had slept three days since they came from the old mirror in my family barn.

We walked in a straight line down what looked like an old deer trail, Easton was in front. He kept a good six foot distance, I would have lost track of him if he wasn't so tall and Bemus, well, he talked loudly behind me. My feet were aching and I couldn't wait till we came to a rest. I don't think I have ever walked this much in my entire life. "Stop." Easton came to a halt and held his hand out to us to stop, I gave God a small thanks for causing Bemus to finally stop talking.

"What is it?" I asked him in a whisper, but Easton as per usual was ignoring me and was looking out into the distance. I looked back at Bemus, his face changed to something serious. I had a strange feeling in my stomach. I tried to listen to the world around me, it was oddly quiet at first and then it sounded as if there was a herd of animals coming towards me. Without saying anything to me and in a quick movement, Easton grabbed me and tossed me into a tree as if I was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. I screamed as I waved my arms until I landed hard on a tree branch a couple feet above him. I gripped the tree tightly, holding on to dear life. Easton pressed his finger to his lips, telling me to be silent, my heart was pounding in my chest.

Bemus put his hand on the helt of his sword and then the two switch looks and then bolted in the opposite direction we were walking. And I couldn't believe it, they left me there alone in a tree. I finally got the chance to escape. I waited a few moments to make sure they were gone before climbing down from the tree. As soon as my feet touched the ground I heard a grunting sound. "Well, well." I froze, a chill went up my spin. I was too afraid to move. "Looks like we caught something to eat."

"What is it?

"An elf?" I turned slowly and stared at the horror of what stood behind me, three green men with huge yellowish green tusks that glittered with slim stood behind me. In each of their hands were spears.

"Take it to the Chief, he'll know." I screamed as they started poking me to walk, and we moved through the brush. My legs were getting cut by thorns until we came to a clearing with small mud huts, bones were scattered across the ground and the whole little camp smelt like sewage. I saw more of the green men, and they literally hissed at me as we went through, and then they got behind the three originals and joined in the game of poking me with spears. One thought crossed my mind, this is how I am going to die.

"Look chief we caught it!" We came to a stop at a bigger green man, instead of two tusk he had four. He peered down at me, and then leaned close to me and sniffed. I gagged when he leaned in, he smelt horrible. "What is it?"

"He's an elf, you see." He kicked one of his men out of his way to get a better look at me, his man went flying landing a few feet on the ground. I winced. "See his ears, you fools." My ears?

"Can we eat him?"

"Sure," the Chief happily replied and his group cheered.

"You can't." My voice squeaked out, the chief got close to my face.

"Why not elf?" He growled and his group hissed and readied their spears.

"Because," I needed to sound brave. I couldn't let them know how scared I was. So I took a deep breath and flipped my hair over my shoulder and puffed out my chest. "Because," I said again louder, and sounded braver. "I'm poisonous. If you eat me you will melt into a pile of muck.��� I pretended to check my nails. Please be stupid. I prayed.

"You're lying." He growled and I dodged a poke from a spear.

"I am not," I snapped. " I am a rare type of elf."

"Oh yeah? What is you called then?" He grumbled, and gripped my arm.

"I'm a, uh, Cobra. Yeah a Cobra elf." I hoped that they didn't have snakes here because if they did I was so screwed.

"A cobra, ain't heard of that." Oh thank god.

"Alright mister Cobra." The Chief spat on me. "If I can't eat you, I'll kill you." The group laughed happily.

"You can't!" I shouted and the group grumbled angrily again.

"And why not!" The Chief snapped.

"Because if you kill me, as I die a gas will come out and kill you in like three seconds." He made a worried look, I need a way to get away from them. "But there is a way to make me not poisonous."

"Oh yeah, better start talking." He twisted my arm, and there was a sharp pain causing me to gasp.

"A tea!" I shouted, I hoped that Bemus and Easton would come save me. "A special tea, not any old tea would do."

"Spit it out elf!"

"You have to get a single tea leaf from the tallest peak, and then you have to get a, a uh, pixie!" They were getting closer to me. "And then you need spring water, the clearest spring water you can find. There can't be any dirt in it, then you need five salmonberries and three blueberries. And then you need a scale."

"A scale from what?" The Chief leaned closer.

"A scale from a, uh, dragon!" I was starting to sweat from nerves.

"A dragon?" I nodded my head, Oh god, please have these things here. "You heard the elf, go get what it said." His little troup left, leaving me with the Chief. "And if you lie," he squeezed my arm so tightly it felt like it would break. "I'll kill you, got that?" I nodded my head, I looked over his shoulder and saw Easton. My heart sighed with relief, he had his bow pulled his arrow back. "Huh?" The Chief turned to see what I was looking at right when Easton let his arrow go. It flew from the sky, hitting him right in his left eye. He dropped my arm and gripped the arrow, roaring as he tried to pull it out of his own eye, and that's when Bemus swept in and tossed me over his shoulder as the Chief shouted for his men to catch us. Easton ran alongside us, only to turn enough to shoot a green man with an arrow.

We ran through the trees, the green men chased us. They threw their spears at us and then we came to a cliff with a rushing river below us and Bemus sat me on my feet. "What are we going to do?" I asked him, and he looked down at the river and back at the green men below us.

"Can you swim?" He asked.

"Yeah." I replied slowly, Easton and Bemus switched looks and nodded. I had a weird feeling as they nodded to each other and then pushed me over the cliff before jumping off behind me. The last thing I saw before hitting the water was the green men leaning over looking at us, a few even throwing their spears after us.

The water was too fast for me to even swim, and it was pulling me under. I quickly grew tired of fighting against the current that I simply began to sink and right before I drowned two arms wrapped around me pulling me to the bank. I coughed and gasped for air when we rested on the bank. I turned to look at my rescuer and thank them and was fascinated and appalled by who saved me. It was a mermaid, but not like you would see in a Disney movie. Her skin was a soft purple, and her hair was a dark blue. She had small pectoral fins on her hands and gills on her neck. She was very pretty even though her eyes were a solid black. I smiled shyly at her and wondered if she saved me only to eat me too.

And then she smiled back, she had teeth like a shark. They were pointy and had more than one row. She quickly looked behind me and hissed, then there came an arrow zooming right past my ear hitting her right in the heart. I watched in horror as she flopped around like a fish out of water until she finally grew still and died. Easton walked up and pulled me up by the arm. "Lets go." He said as he dragged me.

"She saved me." I shouted at him. "She saved me, you didn't have to kill her." He stopped walking, and I bumped into him. His face was very close to mine, my heart began to beat wildly in my chest.

"She was going to eat you." He said simply.

"Oh." I said nothing else as he turned and started to walk away. I knew it, she was going to eat me.

"Princess!" I turned and saw Bemus running towards me.

"Hey, Bemus." I smiled at him.

I waved at him and he sighed with relief and then we resumed our normal position. Easton in the front, me in the middle and then Bemus in the rear talking up a storm.

~~~~~

After what seemed like an eternity -actually a day if I am, to tell the truth - of trampling through the forest, and four attempts on my part of running away and giving up for a bit, we came upon a small village; a hunting village Bemus told me. One like the one he grew up in, he seemed proud when we went through the gate.

I was hoping that this place would have a hot shower, I smelt like a shit and my muscles were sore from being stabbed by goblins, Bemus told me what they were during his constant rambling. My t-shirt was stained, and somehow I even managed to put small rips on my shirt. My jeans, my thirty dollar jeans that I convinced mom to buy me at the start of my junior year, were also dirty and torn, and not the stylish kind of rips either. My clothes looked horrible while Easton and Bemus looked perfectly fine, with no stains and no rips. I hate nature. Bemus walked through the village with a smile, waving at everyone who would pass us. They stared at us as we backed over their cat, or like we picked a fight with their grandmother.

I rubbed my arms, trying to draw attention from my clothes, hair, face, and away from my period. But they continued to stare at me and the boys, they walked past with quite the distance between us. We must have carried in the plague. Honestly, their hospitality was crap, 1/10 would not recommend. It was quiet, all too quiet. Unless you count Bemus's happy chattering, dude definitely can't read a room. I could feel Easton standing closer to me than before, simply by his body heat radiating off of him like an oven. It was as if he was like a snake and that he was preparing for an attack. "Princess." He whispered so close to my ear that it tickled my skin. The suddenness of his voice made me jump, and made my heart skip. It felt like forever since the last time I had heard his voice. "They are curious about you from your attire, They mean no harm to you." I glanced over my shoulder at him, his eyes were so pretty and so close to my own. He was so handsome, he would be even more if he didn't have the permanent frown. Or, a resting bitch face. He must have lots of girlfriends.

I wanted to kick myself at my thought. Why would I care, he is my kidnapper. I am supposed to hate him. I groaned and started to the top of Bemus's head bobbing about as he chatted. The dude is dumb, but then he stopped and walked slowly and for once he was quiet. "Well, they don't have to stare," I mumbled. "It's rude." My stomach growled if it felt like forever since I last ate. Lasagna sounds pretty good right now. Bemus turned and looked at me with a large sheepish grin.

"Hungry now, aren't we?" He chuckled. My apple slices this morning have worn off. I'm still not used to having actual meals. Not that I ate much, to begin with, mostly snacked. But I could kill for real food. "Perhaps your people will spare some food for us." He thought aloud, we stopped at what seemed like the town square. A well covered in moss and chickens running around. It was a mess, dung from cattle, chickens, and horses covered most of the dirt square. Leaping to the stone wall around the well, Bemus cleared his throat and placed his hands on his hip. "Excuse me." He shouted, people, stopped and stared more than before. Embarrassed, I took a step back bumping into Easton on the way. Easton placed his large hand on my shoulder to keep me from running off I presume. I wanted to, more now than ever. "Could you spare some food for me and my travel companions?" He questioned politely.

"You are the Erlkings' guard. We poor, why would we feed the likes of you?" An old man shouted back. Everyone else mumbled in agreement.

"And what if I told you we have the Princess in our presence?" Bemus smiled, placing his hands on his hip, making sure his sword swayed a little.

"We think you are crazy." They all started walking away but kept their eyes on us. "The Queen ran away with the Princess long ago ."

"Long live the Queen." People mumbled.

"Rude." Bemus jumped from the wall and shook his head. "Talk about great hospitality."

"Bemus." Easton walked forward, pulling me along. "This is one of the poorest villages in all of the Seelie Court. So what little they have they tend not to share with outsiders. You should know that your village was the same."

Bemus sighed and closed his eyes. I glanced up at Easton, those were the most words this man has ever spoken since I have had the unfortunate luck to meet him. "Damn, your right." Bemus patted him on the shoulder and looked at me. "Sorry, Princess, but you will have to wait till we get to the palace."

"That's fine," I mumbled. I didn't mean for him to ask for food for me, Easton pushed me forward signaling me to walk. A rooster chased some hens across our path. This town sucked.