Ch.1 Elizabeth
I could hear the commotion outside, something was wrong. We had been found. I looked over at my ladies and they all knew what was about to happen. I could see it in their faces they were alert and ready for the attack. In an instant our carriage came to a halt and the horses were going wild outside.
The doors flew open, but we were gone, having gone through the floor of the carriage. Our attackers were not prepared for our counterattack. I saw that Aylee my lady in waiting had been struck down already, the brown wolf towering over her. I quickly took my dagger and slashed at the wolf in front of me making him angry.
He took a swipe at me, but I easily dodged it. He tried to lunge for me and this time I narrowly escaped his attack. I had no time for him though, as Aylee was scrambling away from the wolf that was aiming for his attack. The wolf in front of me was young and had not reached his full size. Adult wolves looked more like the mythological werewolves that people wrote about in stories, but the young ones looked like massive wolves. I quickly cut him down and made my way to Aylee the wolf had already taken a swipe at her and her arm was bloodied. I came up behind the wolf and slit its throat before it could lunge at Alyee again.
“Come on!” I said taking her hand and pulling her up.
There was a scream from across the field I could see Kenna get slammed on the ground over and over again. I was too far to help her.
“Let her go!” I screamed trying to race over to them. I was stopped dead in my tracks as an arrow went right through the man’s head knocking him over. I quickly gathered myself from the initial shock and made my way over to Kenna who was still on the ground. She was unconscious I touched her and could feel how weak she was. She was beginning to fade.
“No Elizabeth you can’t.” Aylee’s urgent hush came as she swooped down next to me. I felt her stopping my hand as I was reaching for Kenna.
“She’s dying!” I snapped taking my hand away from Aylee’s. I then took Kenna’s hand and felt a rush go through me like electricity leaving me and going to her. I could hear the horses approaching as Kenna’s eyes fluttered opened.
“Elizabeth…” She said breathless and shot up to a sitting position.
“It’s ok.” I said giving her a hug and breathing a sigh of relief.
“Elizabeth.” Aylee said a warning in her tone. I pulled away from Kenna and looked back at the three men unmounting their horses. Aylee stood up shielding us from the men.
“Are you ladies alright?” I heard a familiar voice ask, I stood up quickly moving towards the men.
“Thomas!” I said letting him see me.
“Elizabeth?” Thomas said moving closer to me carefully as though I would disappear. “Elizabeth!” He said once recognition set in. I rushed over and he took me in his arms a huge weight was lifted I felt a tad bit safer now that he was here.
“Thomas, oh I’ve missed you!” I said holding on tightly. I could feel him holding on tightly as well.
“And what about me?” came a voice to my left. “Justin!” I shouted releasing Thomas and throwing myself into Justin. “Well I’ve miss you too!” He said lifting me up slightly.
“Now what in hell happened here” Justin asked as he released me and looked around.
“You were always getting into trouble E.” Thomas said looking around as well.
I looked around and assessed the damage. The moment of joy of seeing the others was short lived. All the wolves that had attacked us were dead along with some of our men, my heart clenched as saw them laying there. They did not deserve what happened to them, all they had done was follow me and try to protect me, the guilt started to set in. All I could see were my fallen men and the blood all around so much blood.
“Elizbeth.” Kenna said coming over to me and gently took my hand. “I know.” I replied we had to keep moving to safety.
“Thomas, I need to see Tristan.” I said turning back around to him. I could see his eyes fixed on Kenna like he was in a daze. “Thomas?” I said as his attention snapped back to me.
“He’s not home, he went on a business trip. The queen is home, we’ll take you to her.” My heart clenched at the word queen. I knew that he had been engaged I had not realized that he had married already.
“I’ll have my men clean this up, maybe one of your men can stay behind with them to get your people and your things?” Jason asked me, and I nodded starting to feel the effects of earlier.
“Come on.” Aylee said pulling me forward, with a knowing look in her eyes.
“Your hurt.” I said remembering her bloodied arm. “I will be fine.” She answered sternly.
We made our way to the carriage as it had not been too damaged, and Thomas decided to ride with us to get more details.
“Thomas these are my ladies, Aylee, Kenna, and Isabel.” I said introducing the three. Isabel had held her own and was uninjured and I was relieved to see her.
“This is Thomas he is a very good friend of mine.” I told them. They made their introductions; I could see Thomas was focused only on Kenna. Kenna on her end seemed a little dazed still and did not notice his attention on her. Once we were settled and on the move, I could see Kenna did not feel well.
“Are you ok?” I asked her as the others talked. She smiled at me. “I am fine, just a little headache.” She answered.
“It’ll go away soon.” I said taking her hand in mind once again. I closed my eyes and let the energy flow through me once again. I could hear the tiniest gasp from Aylee next to me.
“So how did you know to help us and not them?” Aylee asked Thomas, quickly getting his attention onto her and away from us.
“We didn’t, it was more like a gut feeling that we should help you. Then we saw that monster attacking Kenna.” He said the last bit dripped in anger. It surprised me to hear it as Thomas was one of the most levelheaded people I knew.
“Well it’s a good thing that you guys got there when you did. I don’t know if we would have lasted much longer.” Isabel said breaking the tension.
“Oh, I don’t know about that you ladies seemed to have a good handle on things we just sped things up.” Thomas said with a smile aimed at Kenna.
They continued their chatter getting to know each other. I could tell Thomas was trying to engage with the others, but he kept coming back to Kenna and she seemed oblivious to it. I looked out the window finally feeling the full effects of what I had done. I felt weak and my head throbbed. I hoped it would go away soon as I needed to be ready to meet the queen.
I could see the scenery on the outside nothing had changed at all. It looked familiar like a memory from a distant past life. It was beautiful here with the lush forest to one side and the majestic sea to the other. My kingdom was beautiful as well but it was full of hardships and sorrow. This place was my home this was where I grew up, learned everything I knew, it had made me who I was today. My eyes began to feel heavy and I rested my head against the side of the carriage and let sleep take me over. I knew it would be a while until we reached the castle grounds.