Terror Island

Chapter 1

Ellie was worried about Eric and Ariel. They were in the sea and Ellie was running Eric's kingdom until Eric got home. Ellie was nervous about it, especially since now she had to dress the part, but she would always help Eric and Ariel however she could. Besides, Carlotta and Grimsbee were both here to help her along the way until Eric came home and Cody was staying by her side to encourage her. She could do this.

Carlotta was in her room now helping her with all the complex buttons and bows to the dress that she was wearing now and Ellie sighed.

"What is it dear," Carlotta asked with her kind and soft voice.

Ellie sighed, "I'm just not use to this…I mean I was basically a slave for five years. I don't know how to run a kingdom. I never wore nice clothes like this, I wore crappy and run down clothes, in fact my 'uniform' was almost rags, but that was how they all liked it." Ellie shrugged, "Just wearing these fancy dresses is weird for me, I'm not use to it…"

"Oh my dear, I am very sorry. If it's any consolation, you look beautiful…You will make an amazing princess, you are very caring," Carlotta smiled as she tied the last bow and they left to meet Grimsbee and Cody.

They had no more then gotten to the main dining hall, where Grimsbee and Cody waited, when a bell from the town tolled and Ellie looked up, brow furrowing. She had never heard that before in Eric's kingdom. She looked at everyone in the room and Carlotta and Grimsbee both looked very worried.

"What is that," she asked.

"Nothing good," Grimsbee replied. "It's the alarm at the prison, it means prisoners are escaping, and from the sound of the loudness, it sounds like it's a lot of them…This is horrible!"

Ellie looked nervous for only a moment, she knew that Bucks' men were held in that prison, but she couldn't focus on that right now. "We need to get the people of the kingdom to a safe place and quickly, before this gets out of hand and people are hurt," Ellie said calmly as she ran out of the castle.

Her mother's captain of the guard who had escorted her and Cody to the kingdom met her at the door, "Your majesty, we need to get you and Sir Cody to safety right away!"

"No! I want you to work with Eric's guards that are still remaining and get the people of this kingdom to safety. Cody and I can wait, but while Eric and Ariel are gone, I have to lead this kingdom and I won't allow anyone to get hurt while I am on watch!"

"With all due respect your majesty, I can't follow that, I was ordered to protect you and I will to my last breath, it is my duty!"

Ellie frowned as Eric's captain of the guard ran forward, "Do you know a safe place for all the people of this kingdom to go in this sort of emergency?"

"Yes your majesty, Prince Eric has a cave set up right outside of this kingdom with fresh supplies, a kind of emergency shelter for the people," the guard replied.

"Good, you and my guard and Carlotta and Grimsbee will leave at once and get all the people to safety…Do you know who escaped," She asked calmly.

"Yes your majesty, it was the men that held Prince Eric and yourself and all the other royals on that island," the captain replied.

Ellie's eyes grew wide for only a moment before her resolve set in, "Take my captain and all your men and get the people to safety now! That's a direct order," Ellie demanded. "I will distract them here and hold them off as long as I can!"

"No your majesty, I am not going with Eric's men, your mother ordered me to protect you and protect you I shall," Ellie's guard argued.

Ellie was growing frustrated, "There isn't time for all of this! Am I or am I not your princess?"

"You are," he replied solemnly.

"Then this is a direct order from your princess! You will go with Eric's men and you will help everyone evacuate! These people matter more right now! I will stay here and hold them off as long as I can, but you must go with them and help protect everyone else!"

"But your majesty…"

"NOW!"

The guard sighed but bowed his head, he couldn't refuse a direct order from his royal family, even if he had sworn an oath to protect them. He would come back for her once he got everyone in this kingdom free. He slowly turned and left with Eric's captain of the guard and they began to evacuate the kingdom. With them gone, Ellie turned to Carlotta and Grimsbee.

"Now, I want the two of you to leave with Louie and get out of here and get to safety, take Cody with you and get to safety," she ordered.

Carlotta frowned, "As the head house maiden of this castle, it is my duty to watch over the royals within the castle, I will not leave your side!"

"And I promised Eric I would look out for you. I have helped Eric all these years and watched him grow up here in this castle, I will not leave it in its time of trouble, nor will I leave you defenseless. I am staying right here," Grimsbee argued.

"And I am not leaving your side again, I couldn't protect you from Bucks back on the island, instead you protected me, so I am not going to leave you here, I will help protect you," Cody argued fiercely.

Ellie sighed, "I can't let any of you suffer like I did! Please! You have to run like the others!" Ellie's eyes were begging, she couldn't do this again, not again, but the three loyal friends wouldn't leave her side. Ellie blinked away her tears and sighed, pulling a sword from one of the nearby suits of armor. "Well, it sounds like we're in for a fight…"

"Then we'll be ready for them," Carlotta said grabbing the big carving knife off the kitchen table.

Grimsbee sighed but grabbed another sword from another suit of armor and Cody followed suit. They all walked to the entrance of the castle where Louie met them with his own large carving knife. Ellie doubted Louie could actually attack someone because she'd seen him chase after Sabastian and he never caught him, but then again the man could always surprise her.

Ellie cursed under her breath as she saw Bucks' men coming straight for them. They had their guns again and the knives and swords they had to protect themselves wouldn't do squat against that. Ellie's eyes narrowed as the hoard of men came at them, there had to be at least twenty. Ellie swallowed back her fear and stood in front of her group.

"Stop! You don't have to hurt anyone! Please, just leave us alone! You're free now, just go," Ellie said and was surprised at how strong her voice sounded considering how scared she felt.

"Well look at that, if it isn't our ol' maid," one of the more vile men sneered and an involuntary shiver went down Ellie's spine.

"My name is Ellie Charming, and I am not your maid any longer, I am a princess and the protector of this kingdom for the time being. Now do as I said and leave!"

"We're sorry princess, where are our manners," one of the other men mocked and Ellie frowned.

"You heard her, leave now," Cody said forcefully, stepping up next to Ellie and putting a supportive and protective hand on her shoulder.

Another man smirked, "Aw, isn't that sweet, our little maid has a pet. I might remind you that we're the ones with the better weapons." And without waiting on any other interruptions, the goon, who looked to be the one in charge, shot Cody in the knee. "Now, do we need to keep shooting people or do we want to just give up?"

Ellie sighed, she helped hold Cody up after he'd been shot in the knee. Slowly she put her sword down. "It's alright, just don't shoot anyone else, please! I won't fight you, please just don't shoot anyone else!"

The man stepped forward and smirked, as if he'd known from the start that that was going to be Ellie's choice. He moved forward to grab her as the other men pointed their guns at the four others there. Ellie slowly lowered Cody to the ground so that he wasn't standing on his shot leg. The man roughly grabbed Ellie and she didn't fight him. Carlotta, Grimsbee and Louie looked worried, but they didn't try to stop them but followed the other men. Carlotta and Grimsbee helped to keep Cody up and keep him off his bad leg. Slowly they were led back into the castle.

The lead goon, Johnny Icepick Johnson, led Ellie back inside the castle. The others were led behind them at gunpoint.

Once inside the castle, Johnny turned to Ellie, "Video call your parents now!"

Ellie frowned, "NO! I won't let you hurt my parents! I just got them back, I won't let anyone hurt them!"

"How do you know that they are safe," he asked with a smirk.

Ellie frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Why don't you call them and find out?"

Ellie swallowed back her worry and finally she pulled out her phone and sent a video chat message to her parents. She gasped when she saw Lady Tremaine answered her father's phone. "W…What are you doing with my father's phone?"

She chuckled, "You didn't think I would give up my kingdom so easily, did you? Well, I helped Bucks escape, and in return, he helped me take back my kingdom. Your parents are rotting away in the jail they locked Bucks up in. In fact, Bucks was so hoping you would call, he really misses his wife."

Ellie's eyes grew wide, but then she remembered Cody's mother. "Wh…What about Cody's mother? What have you done with her!"

Lady Tremaine shook her head, "You are just like your mother, always worried about other people when you are the one in most trouble. His mother is fine, she's locked up as well, but they're all safe. You can see them as soon as you return home to meet your husband."

At this Bucks took the phone and smiled, "Where is my beautifully submissive wife?"

Ellie swallowed and shook her head no, "Please…no…I…I just got free of you."

"Yes, well now you won't have all of your friends to help you. Some of my men are going to stay behind and continue to attack my cabin boy's home so that he doesn't come rushing after you, and the other kingdoms that helped rescue you are busy with their own 'villains,'" he said using air quotes, "so none of them will be coming to your rescue either. So, you can either come with my men to see your parents and save them, or you can run and leave your parents, and Cody's mother's fate in my hands, or you can come and meet me. So, what's it going to be?"

Ellie looked down and sighed, closing her eyes, "I…I want to see that my parents are alive first, otherwise I have no way of knowing you are telling the truth…"

"Aww, you don't trust me after all our time together?" He smirked and turned the camera around to face out the window that looked down into the prison. She could see the small figures of her parents and Cody's mother and she sighed, "Fine, I…I'll come…" She couldn't open her eyes because she wanted to look strong and brave and right now, if she opened her eyes, she knew she'd show her weakness.

"Good, then I will expect you tomorrow," he said flatly.

"We can't travel that fast, Cody was shot, it will take at least three days to get back home," Ellie argued.

"I will give you two days, then I start beating my prisoners, and you know how cruel I can be to my prisoners…"

Ellie swallowed hard, "I…I will be there…"

The video chat ended and Ellie sighed, "Ellie, you can't seriously be considering this," Cody grunted.

"Cody, I have to go after my parents, I have to save them, and your mother…If I don't go, then Bucks will hurt them far worse then he hurt Eric…Please Cody, you have to understand!"

"Well then, you are not going alone," He said with a frown.

"I don't mean to sound mean, but you will only slow me down with your knee wound, I have to go at it alone, I will get there much faster. If I stay here, if I wait on you, that will give Bucks more time to torture our parents. I have to go alone…You can follow if you want, but you need to get patched up first…" She looked at Carlotta, "Carlotta, can you patch up his leg wound?"

She nodded, "Of course I can."

"Grimsbee, I need your fastest horse, I need to get to my kingdom as fast as I can."

He nodded, "Well yes, of course, but you can't seriously be thinking of going alone…"

"I have to, my parents lives depend on it. I already lost them once, I won't lose them again!"

"I will pack a lunch for you to go," Louie said quickly.

"Thank you, Louie," Ellie replied with a smile, "I just have to pack a few things before I leave…"

She hurried up to her room and packed the cream she used on the whip marks, just in case, a few extra hair barrettes to keep her hair out of her eyes, and grabbed her jacket before rushing back down the stairs. When she got there, the crew was still being guarded by all of Bucks men.

"You can't seriously think I am going to let you go at this alone. We have been a team since I met you in Bucks cells under his room and I won't let you face him alone," Cody growled.

"Well you will have to live without me this time Cody, I have to go, and I have to go now," he frowned at this.

"You know I will follow you."

She sighed, "Fine, then follow me once you are all patched up, but know that I am not going to slow down for you."

Grimsbee came back with a horse and Ellie slung her pack over her shoulder, stashing the food that Louie made for her in the bag and mounted the horse. She was slightly surprised when the head henchman climbed up behind her on the horse.

"W…What are you doing," she asked slowly as he hugged around her.

"I'm riding with you of course, to make sure you go straight there and don't stop for any help," he said with a smirk, "and you are wasting precious time just waiting here and arguing with me."

Ellie sighed, "Fine, you can ride on the horse with me, but only because I don't have time to argue with you!" She turned to face Eric's friends with a smile, "Thank you all so much for your kindness, it won't be forgotten. I have to go now, but next time you see Eric and Ariel, tell them thank you for everything."

"We will, be safe my dear," Carlotta said in a worried tone.

Ellie nodded and then took off quickly, she had no time to waste.