Frozen Memories: Heirs of Ethra

The Dark Prince

Drowsily, I picked up my head, my eyes blurrily focusing into vision. It was then that I realized that I was yet again in another cell. How did I even get here? The last thing that I remembered was hearing the domineering voice of command telling half a dozen soldiers not to kill.

The Amthirion was so heavily surrounding me, I was too delirious to try and remember what happened following that moment. I could smell the sickly sweet odor of the raw steel. So much so, that I wretched onto the black sand-like floor.

It was when my legs weakened from beneath me and my body refused to fall with it that I felt the tug against my wrists that seared against my skin. Groggily, I looked up at my uplifted hand to see that it was pinned against the wall, a thick chain so deep in its platinum-like color, it gave off a metallic purple color.

“Ah!” I gasped, as the pain began to sink in. The excruciation had begun to cause my body to tremor violently in reaction to the torturous chains that held me bound.

Weakly, I looked up when I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. There stood a guard, tall and large, staring stoically a me.

Tired of him watching me, I screamed in a language that I could not place but was easily spoken. “Let me out of here!” I demanded through my prostration.

The guard’s eyes blinked once and then he finally unlocked the cell door. Now it was my turn to startlingly blink at him as he entered my jail cell. I would have liked to have thought that maybe he had done what I asked because I simply demanded it. However, reality assured me that was most certainly not the case.

Regardless, I watched him closely in hopes that he’d at least take these chains off of me. I winced as he took my hand and began to unlock the chain that held me against the wall. When my hand dropped, I immediately noticed that the cuff was still on my wrist.

“You-I need this off!” I exclaimed. “It’s burning!” I hissed, though more than that, it was weakening me severely. “Please!”

When he finished unlatching me from the wall, he grabbed me up off of the floor and brought my hands to the front of me, connecting my hands together. Then he grabbed me by the back of my neck, lurching me forward against the face of the bars. I jerked away from him as hard as I could as not to slam into the cell. I tried to regain enough strength to stand on my own, but before I could, the guard had grabbed me again, this time by the back of my broken mid-length hair.

I was too weak to counteract him this time around. While he held on to me, muttering curses under his breath towards me, he opened the bar door.

“You’re coming with me,” he snarled and dragged me by my hair out of the cell. With all of the Amthirion surrounding me, I found it shocking that this beast of a guard would be able to function with the strength of the raw steel. I struggled to look up to try and better catch a look at his armor, and just as I suspected, it looked to be something quite heavy in make. I’d imagine that even in its fitted build, it’d be hard for anything to penetrate it.

He dragged me out of the large holding area and into the grand hallways of a place so extravagantly huge that I could only be left to assume that it was some sort of castle,

Down the deafening silent hallways is where I was dragged, weakly kicking and struggling to relinquish his grasp from around my hair.

“Let go of me!” My scream echoed throughout the corridors of the castle.

Steadily, I noticed eyes peering through the cracked doors with a certain curiosity of the prisoner wildly hollering for assistance and relinquishment.

I groaned, grunted, and jerked in every feeble attempt to get out of the guard’s grasp. My legs were too weak to maneuver; I could barely feel them beneath me as I was forcefully dragged against the intricately made marble-like flooring.

When we finally came to a stop at the door, he lifted me up from the ground and struck me so hard, I began to hear a deafening high-pitched sound, my vision blurring as I felt the quick wetness of blood running down my nose and lip.

“You keep your mouth shut, or I will do far worse, you insubordinate femlin!” The guard growled before opening the doors before us.

Barely conscious at this point and in so much excruciating pain, I finally welcomed the notion of being carried across the floor of whatever room I was suddenly in.

“Sire,” I heard him say before tossing me to the ground before whoever it was that he was speaking to. “Your prisoner,”

I struggled to lift at least part of my form up, but this monstrous warden had literally knocked what strength I had left from me. Still, however, it would not stop me from boldly glaring at the one who summoned me through my weakness. I had decided in that moment that I would not yield to whatever past unknown fears were lurking in the back of my memories, suddenly being stirred by the tortuous state that I was in.

“She is..badly wounded,” this royal male noticed, his darkened gaze challenging mine while he spoke.

“The femlin doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut-” The guard’s words were cut off by a loud whistling sound, followed by a loud ‘thwip’! Before I could center my vision again, the male sitting upon this throne had disappeared and the wind that his speed created blew past me, whipping my hair around wildly. When I shakily looked behind me, I saw the man that was once sitting down staring at me, now standing in front of his guard.

“I told you…” He said in the language that was commonly spoken amongst them. The loud clank of his guard buckling to his knees before the royal elf-like male. “...to bring her here…unscathed.”

He walked away as the soldier collapsed to the ground, dead! Quickly, I followed his footsteps, wondering what he’d do next, when I saw his large feet standing before me. My mismatched gaze followed the length of his strong legs up to his masculine build, the ripple of his muscles showing through his beautifully black-made fitted tunic.

“Are you alright?” He asked in the same language that he’d translated to his now-dead henchman.

“What…do you care?” I hissed in English while simultaneously trying to gather enough willpower to lift myself up from the floor. Of course, I failed miserably.

“Allow me,” He kneeled to lift me when I immediately pushed away from the stranger.

“I don’t…I don’t need your help!” I hissed haggardly in the tongue in which he’d spoken.

He backed away from me; fortunately, his hands lifted with resignation. “I am only…trying to help you…little femlin-”

“My name…is Mina!” I growled. “And if you…want to help me…bring me…to my friends!” I scowled. “Where are they?!”

“Friends?” He tilted his head, his dark eyes looking down at me. “Two Lycan wolves, a hybrid…two beautiful vampires…a rare…guardian…and another…similar to yourself,” he remarked.

Killian, Thorne! The hybrid…it had to be Roman! Keyvah and Amorah. The way that he referred to Max I could only assume that he had an interest in her, but…Nixon! The one similar to myself! How did he know!? Even I did not know when I had met him!

Fiercely, I met his gaze. “Where…where are they?”

He shrugged. “I released them.” He grinned. “Most of them, anyway. I’m sure they’ll be back for you. The hybrid…he seemed to hold a significant attachment to you.” he grimaced when he said this, a certain gleam of secrecy in his scowl when he said this. Did Roman do something to upset him? Somehow, I didn’t doubt this.

An attachment, I thought to myself, concerning his choice of words. That was really the only way that I could even describe it. I was so relieved to find that most of them had been released but the idea of one still being held up with who knows what being done to her, was frightening, to say the least.

“Where is she?”

“She?” He emphasized with a small smirk. “How do you know it is a she that I have kept?”

“Because…you look like a heathenistic piece of garbage that tries to make females do your will.”

Where his face turned curious for a moment, he finally spoke again-a small smirk hinting at the corner of his lips. “I do enjoy females,” He confessed to me. “Especially, the rare, and the intricately beautiful,” This elven stranger said. “However, despite my…look, I do not force myself on femlins-not even those that I harbor as my prisoner. I may not be your cup of tea, young princess but-”

“What have you done with Max?!” I demanded. Then I realized what he had called me. “Pri…princess? How-”

“Max…hmm-what an…intriguing name,” He returned in thought. “I assume that this Max is your guardian,” The tall and masculine dark-haired being quizzically assumed. When I didn’t answer, he made an amused gesture. “Yes, then?”

“Why…did you call me a princess?” I asked, pushing aside all that he had said except this.

He smiled for a moment and then turned more serious. “I know…who you are, princess, Mina.”

“Then you should also know my brother, the prince!” I quickly asserted. “So-”

“You know…can I be honest with you?” He cut me off.

“I had assumed you were being quite bold in your brutal honesty from the jump!” I expressed with frustration.

He sighed. “Your friend is safe,” I knew when he held out his hand to me that this reassurance was a ploy to get me to further trust him. Even if it was true. “And so are you,” He added. “I give my word,”

“And I take it, that is supposed to mean something to me,” I accusingly scowled.

“You…have only known earth,” he grimaced when saying to the alternate of this place. “I’d assume…that words are constantly broken there, but not here.” He sat on the floor in front of me. “So if you do not trust me enough to allow me to assist you in a more comfortable position then I will sit across from you…here.”

I pulled back slightly in surprise at this royal stranger’s candid and seemingly humble nature. “You were nothing like this the first we met. How do I know that this is not some change up just to reel me into some treacherous scheme?”

Chuckling harshly, he dropped his gaze. “I do have my…boldness about me,” He returned. “However, to be fair…you were not so easy to speak to, yourself.”

You had me chained!” I exclaimed. “With Amthirion! Of course, I was hostile. I thought that you were going to kill me! And I still do not trust that you won’t!”I barked.

In return, he simply shrugged, his expression understanding. “I can appreciate your mistrust,” His royalty countered. “You would not be a great asset to your kingdom if you were so trustworthy-”

“What are you on about?” I hissed.

“Well, princess, Mina. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am prince Adanis of the dark elven race.”

I shrugged. “Dark…that makes sense,” I rolled my eyes.

His brow raised with slight scrutiny in his abominably perfect features. “You have the blood of the dark elves in your genes as well. I can sense it. So, I’d be careful about being so stereotypical,” He returned.

To this, I simply averted my gaze in further frustration. “What do you want from me?” I hissed.

There was a slight lull in the conversation, causing me to stare at him again. “Well,” Adanis started to say. “I’d think it obvious, princess. You are the lost heir of the Ethrian Nymph Kingdom…it was only mere hours ago that I…have found that you are meant to be mine.”