3. The ambush

Rose

That night I kept having weird dreams of which I don’t remember. I opened my eyes and lifted my head up to notice the setting once again has changed.

"I'm in the detention room" I stand up alarmed "was it a dream? But…it felt so real" I looked at my arms and they were burnt, literally cooked lobster red, that's how burnt I was. "it was real, I got this from the dessert" I took off my shoes and examined my feet, they were burnt as well and were hurting like hell "it was actually real, I'm not crazy" I said gasping, I quickly took my backpack and ran out of the door. I noticed it was dark. "it's night time, oh my god it's night time!" I exclaimed.

If mom was home I could assure my ass completely grounded. I ran all the way to the main gate, it was locked. I had to jump over the fence, landed on my butt and ran to my car well pretty much limped to my car trying to run, I made my way home praying to all possible existing Gods that mom was away for work. It took half an hour to arrive home but it felt like an eternity, as I parked my car I could see my mother stomping to the parking lot and glaring at the car. Shit, she was waiting for me... and she looked really pissed.

-"mom" I said as I opened the car door to exit it, she didn’t seem happy at all

-"where the hell were you? Why did you come home so late?" she barked at my face her questionnaire

-"I'm sorry I…" she's not going to believe me, I suddenly remembered Kevin Hart's stand-up comedy, when your truth sounds like a dumb bullshit, better tell a believable lie "I got detention for being late, then after detention ended I went to read a book in the library and totally lost track of the time I'm so sorry mom" well better half-truth than a total lie no?

-"oh really?" she looked at me and raised her eyebrow "what was the book about?" she asked

-"um…well the book was about this cute guy named Jesse and how he saves this girl from dying in the cold, she had amnesia so he kind of had to stay with her until she got better. I wasn’t able to go past chapter one because I got a bit late to the library and they kind of kicked me out for staying until closing time" I quickly explained

-"why didn’t you bring it home?" she quickly asked

-"I did but I will read it later" I said happy to remember I still have a book from the library I haven't returned

-"I hope you didn’t plan to do anything for tomorrow" she said making me confused

-"no, I didn’t. why?" I asked curiously not getting where she was getting at

-"because you are grounded" she barked on my face

-"what? Why?" I desperately asked

-"why do you think?" she barked again

-"what's the matter? I just got home a little late it's not going to happen again I swear!" I whined and looked down in total disappointment

-"a little? Do you by any chance have an idea of what time it is?" she asked while rubbing her temple

-"no" I looked at her and motioned to tell me the time it was

-"it's fucking twelve am Rosalie! You are so much lying right now, you leave school at two pm, detention? Normally half hour to one whole hour" she yelled at my face almost busting my ears for how loud she was being "also noting as an extra that the library you always go to closes at seven pm" she looked at me completely pissed

*

I entered the house, she was close behind me almost stepping on my steps, I was totally upset, if I tell her the truth she will still believe I'm lying anyway so what good would have been for me to not lie anyways? I tell the truth and I could just imagine her calling a mental hospital to take me in ASAP.

-"I will stay in my room all day tomorrow, sorry for lying but you still would believe I was lying if I told you the truth. And sorry for being late" I said then started walking towards my room

-"whatever I don’t want to see your ass down stairs so you better stay locked unless you need to eat" she said not giving three flying fucks of anything I said or even my apology

Completely upset I ran upstairs and locked myself in my room, my eyes stinging due to how my mother was, I know I lied but I tried to justify why I lied and she just dismisses me like she does to her company employees. I would really love to escape this shitty situation and world…somehow it started to feel more appealing for me to be in that cave with that unknown man, his arms cocooning me and feeling cared for and protected against his warm and solid body than at home feeling unwanted by my own flesh and blood.

-"I need to see him again, I have to go back somehow" I said while sliding down to the floor, back being kept up due to the door "but how can I go back? I don’t have the drawing and I fell asleep and woke up back in my world" I sighed

I started thinking, how can I get back there without the need of the drawing. I got up and took off my clothes to take a shower. My mind was still running and analyzing how to get back, I needed an escape from here and that place was the best place to escape to. Time passed and I was still thinking, as I looked at my clock I noticed it was already three am, I was sleepy but I wanted to keep awake to continue thinking how to get back however my eyes decided today wasn’t the day we will be awake for twenty four hours. My eyelids were very heavy to the point I could no longer open my eyes and soon enough I was the arms of Morpheus.

*

I woke up to the feeling of a warm breathing against my neck, a hair that wasn’t mine was tickling my cheek and a big body laying almost on top of mine. My eyes fluttered open and I smiled happily "I'm back" I thought, I softly caressed Jesses hair which made him slightly shift in his sleep

-"Jesse, is morning, shouldn’t we go already?" I asked gently shaking him awake

-"hm" I heard him whine slightly but instantly I was met by his beautiful blue eyes "hey" he smiled softly as he got off me "I'm sorry that I was on top of you but you were shivering nonstop, so I thought maybe a closer body warm would do a better job…and it did" he slightly explained

-"thank you" I said shyly looking away then feeling a blush creeping up my cheeks

-"shall we go my lady?" he asked then suddenly his smile was erased, his body slightly stiffened and he walked slightly away from me then started smelling around as if he was some kind of animal, his moving suddenly reminded me of Tarzan, they were rough and animalistic, his hands on the floor and he was smelling and walking on his hands and feet as if following a trace of smell…what the actual fuck?

-"uh, Jesse? Is everything all right?" his head snapped and looked at me, a little more and his damn head would fully turn around like the exorcist girl, kind of creeped me out "I'm seriously getting scared" I whispered

-"you should be, I can smell the enemy getting close" he growled "we will need to make a run, I can smell a whole army so I won't be able to protect you at all, I'm outnumbered" he explained in a husky angry voice

-"Jesse this will be the last time I will ask you…what are you?" I looked at him while hugging myself with his cloak as if trying to protect myself with it

He looked at his hands and feet, as if remembering he shouldn’t walk that way then he got up and cleaned his hands on his pants, he slowly walked to me as a predator would walk to its prey then he smirked when he saw me backing away to the corner of the cave.

-"s…stop" I stuttered to then hear a very loud and melodic laugh, he was laughing at me while holding his belly "what are you laughing at?" I whined

-"oh I'm so sorry it's been a long time since I don’t see that expression that it just made me want to tease you" he said while wiping a tear that fell from the corner of his eye "I am a shape shifter, I can change my body to be any animal" he quickly said "now we have to go to Grivya unless you want to be on the enemy hands and believe me, they won't be as nice as I am" he said smiling warmly

I nodded and walked to him carefully then waited for him to lead the way, he started to walk but then stopped making me hit my face with his broad back, he suddenly turned around and looked at me, took the cloak and quickly put it on me the correct way, the hoodie was on my head almost hiding my face then he softly brushed my hair away from my view

-"if I die or I'm held captive, run north, do not look back. When you reach the border ask for Jasper or Arthrus and tell them what happened, ok?" then he softly kissed my forehead "they will know I sent you, you have now my seal on your forehead" he smiled softly then backed away from me and started walking

"but I don’t want you dead, and how will they know the kiss is a seal?" I said while following

-"they will just know, we all sense magic even if it’s the slightest hint of it, specially mine" I saw a slight smile creeping on his side profile then heard him "do not disobey the direct order of a king ok?" he smiled at me "go straight north and notify the issue that will be your mission little soldier" he said on a slight deeper and huskier voice which made him sound totally sexy, with that voice I would follow him even to my own death bed if he wants

-"yes sir I will totally obey your orders" I said mockingly then giggled, he looked at me and rolled his eyes "I am no soldier Jesse, and I'm the worst at obeying orders so do not expect me to give my back to the man who saved me" I smiled and kept walking behind him

We kept walking for a while, it felt like one hour or so, suddenly I heard a weird noise, apparently Jesse heard it too, I saw him taking off his shirt, I blushed at the sudden doing. As soon as he finished removing his pants I heard a loud roar, his clothes on the floor and he was suddenly shielding me from a rain of fire arrows that were attempting to kill us, his body was no longer human looking, he totally looked like a giant beast, giant wings were shielding me from the arrows as I felt as if he was kind of spitting or something, I looked up he was a big golden dragon, he was throwing fire to the same direction the arrows came even though the enemy was unseen at the moment. If this were other kind of situation I would have totally laughed due to all the arrows were bouncing on his gigantic golden body like toothpicks thrown into a wall. As the arrow rain ceased he flapped his wings and flew upwards, I was looking at my surroundings totally scared…feeling useless I wish I could help him but I have no magic. I'm just a mere human from another world... an outsider. I looked towards south and noticed an army, most of them riding horses, some people on foot and others kind of didn’t looked like normal people size, they looked like giants, others looked like things I would never guess what the actual fuck they were I just wanted the floor to open a hole and eat me, not that I don’t trust Jesse to protect me but he's right there was too much people for him to handle them all alone. Suddenly a giant fireball was thrown by one of the giants towards Jesse, he shifted into another animal I didn’t recognized at all it had horns and kind of looked like a giant bat and dinosaur at the same, its body was covered with lots of spikes and two giant horns on his head, kind of looked like a monster hunter elder dragon who's name I don’t remember, he suddenly twirled in the air and spikes flew towards the enemy army, I was totally in shock this was better than a fucking movie. Another giant suddenly was flying, I noticed he was thrown by another two giants, that giant was able to take Jesse down. The giant was holding Jesse pinned on the floor I saw who apparently was the leader, a man fully dressed in black, he looked pretty built, dark hair and a weird translucent woman flying around him protectively. Before I could even think about it I started walking towards Jesse who was still being held down by now several giants.

-"excuse me? Hello?" I tried to get their attention but nothing worked it kind of was as if I was invisible

The man was now close enough to Jesse, and smirked. He looked as evil as a demonic possession, well at least this one had a beautiful looking face…goth looking but still handsome, his lips were full, his jaw so sharp that can cut any finger who touched it, deep dark brown almost as black hair, it looked as dark as I could bet his soul looked like and about six feet tall.

-"shift back King Jesse" the man demanded, his voice was full of hate

Jesse shifted back to his human form. His body was fully naked, blood dripping from an arm into the floor, his hair sticking on his forehead due to sweat and his eyes were showing something that looked like resentment and hate. He looked in my direction motioning with his eyes for me to go away and escape but I didn’t comply, I got as close as possible, the weird translucent woman was now eying on my direction, I removed the hoodie of the cloak and glared at them.

-"I mean no harm to anyone but please release Jesse immediately" I said then heard the man laugh, the sound of his laugh was as scary as a horror movie

-"what is this Jesse, now you have a non-magical pet?" the man said humorously as his companions started laughing with him "let's see let's see" he said then look out a weird looking knife

The knife had dried blood, its blade looked as if it would be a miracle if that thing could cut, he suddenly slide his hand on the blade and blood dripped from his hand and suddenly started dripping his blood on Jesses face as the translucent woman started swaying around the now immobile Jesse and the man in black, the giants were no longer holding Jesse down, he was just lying on the ground his body looked lifeless however his eyes and moving chest were still moving, his eyes looking around and sometimes rolling back in mute pain, his chest was moving up and down due to his breathing, I didn’t want to lose the man I'm grateful to.

-"I prohibit you from hurting that man!" I screamed out of know where, suddenly the man was thrown back as if he was pushed by an invisible strength, Jesse slightly moved and looked at me dumbfounded

-"run" he muttered then stopped moving when a spear pierced his back

I screamed and ran to his body, I didn’t want to leave his dead body to enemy hands, I looked up the man was stumping towards me, I desperately took a stone out of the pouch I was given by my uncle, removed the spear from his back and put the stone in the hole left by the spear. Suddenly I was yanked away from Jesse's body by the hair, I screamed in pain while begged to be left by Jesses side but they didn’t comply to any of my begging. I remember last thing I saw was Jesses lifeless body on the ground, me screaming and crying, begging for Jesses awaken but none happened, after that everything went black, I was knocked unconscious with my fate left on the hands of the enemy.

-"she will make a great sacrifice, obviously after exploiting her repelling power that is" was the last that I was able to hear from a very macabre voice...