The trap

"Ariadne," Draxan shouted her name.

He was looking for her everywhere, the forest was huge and she could have gone in anywhere. He had been calling out to her for hours with no reply.

He was getting more and more worried. She was all alone in a forest that housed so many dangers and it was all his fault. It was his mistake for trusting Kethra, he should have listened to his gut and went with his plan.

It would have taken a while to get to effect and show results but at least he would have warmed his way into her heart. But instead he got tried by the two faced snake he thought was his friend and ended up creating more distance between him and the crown princess.

"Ariadne," his desperate voice called out for her. His heart throbbed in his chest with the lack of response to his calls.

He was starting to imagine the worst of the situation. There were many possibilities that could explain why she was not responding to any of his calls, she could have been hurt, she could be in danger, she could have been kidnapped and so on.

She was the crown princess and taking her would get a handsome ransom. The queen would probably pay a fortune to get her baby back. It worried him to imagine in what condition she was in.

He rushed in deeper and deeper into the forest. His eyes frantically looking around for any glimpse of her. They said that it was only when we lost something that we truly start to understand what it means to us.

In that moment, the prince truly understood how much he had grown fond of the crown princess. He didn't care for himself or the dangers he was putting himself in by going deeper into the forest. All that mattered at that moment was finding Ariadne and going home with her.

He was falling more and more in love with her. With her out of sight, his heart was growing a longing desire to see again, safe and sound.

"Ariadne, where are you?" he shouted once more at the top of his voice. His voice echoed in the forest and just like the first times that he called out to her, he didn't get a reply. "Just tell me that you are safe," he let out.

"Arghh."

His scream echoed in the trees, he had stepped onto a trap and fell in. It was a very deep trap meant to catch very dangerous beasts that dared to enter the forest in attempts to get to the kingdom.

"Arghh," he screamed out as he landed on the sharp pointed logs that had been carefully arranged at the bottom of the hole. The wood pierced through his stomach and came out his back.

Draxan lost consciousness immediately.

By the lake, Ariadne's eyes shot open when she heard the scream. The scream sounded human and male. She sat up and debated whether to check it out or not.

Men were not in her good books at the moment and they had her husband to thank fot that. So she was hesitant to go in search of person who screamed.

"I am a princess. My people should be my number one priority," she told herself. But still remained seated. The pep talk was not enough to sway her ego to bend and go help the man.

In the end she decided to do the right thing and went in search of the person. She had all her senses on alert to find him faster. She couldn't sense any animal around, so she figured that the man was not being attacked by a beast.

"This forest is famous for its traps. Maybe he fell victim to one of them," she said as a by the way and froze. Her casual thought had made her heart skip a beat.

She heard the scream two times and it went silent. If her thought was right then he was in grave danger. She moved her hands in the air, it looked like she was practising the water dance with her hands.

She was trying to find blood, if the person got hurt then he must have bled and she could find him with her blood manipulation.

She kept walking in different directions while trying to spot the man. Her hand detected lots of blood north of her, it wasn't too far away and with her speed she only took ten minutes to get there.

She carefully took soft steady steps around the hole as not to fall in. She stole a glimpse inside the hole, it was too dark and deep to see anything but she was certain that there was someone down there.

They were bleeding a lot, it was urgent that she gets them out of their immediately. She stepped back, wondered around to find something she could use as a rope to tie around her and lower herself into the hole.