Faebelle's head was pounding. It felt as though someone had hit her over the head with a shovel. Perhaps if she just went back to sleep, the headache would be gone when she awoke again. She curled herself up again trying to fall back into the lull of sleep. But something just wouldn't let her. No matter how she tossed or turned, she couldn't get comfortable. On top of that, there was a dreaded clopping noise that drummed in perfect in tune with the pounding in her head. Clop-clop-cloppety-clop clop. Sitting up straight trying to rub the bleariness from her eyes, Faebelle was made painfully aware to the cause of her troubled sleep.
Thick iron bars bolted to the bottom of a wagon had replaced her cozy sleeping roll in the forest. She was in a cold, confining cage mounted upon the back of a horse drawn were still in the woods but it didn't look like the same woods. The forest was darker here: Less warm and definitely less welcoming. How long had she been out? Whom had captured her and where were they taking her? What had they done to Villaed? That last question stung her the most. Although a Night Elf, she couldn't recall anyone being so good or kind to her. Given, she couldn't remember much of anything past the last week of her life. Still, she refused to give up on the one memory she had of someone showing her kindness.
A hooded figure sat at the helm of the horse drawn carriage. The pounding hooves of the two sturdy clydesdale's pulling the wagon cantered through the silence of the overcast morning. Well that explained the clopping. Or was it even morning? The deep set grey of the sky and looming fog told Fae it had to be in the A.M. hours, but in this dense, deep part of the woods, who really knew. Despite the heavy canopy of brambles above them, the forest felt bleak in these parts. The trees barren of leaves as they lie dormant for winter stood in stark contrast to the evergreens she had spent her time with Villaed under. She missed those trees. She missed Villaed even more.
Sitting up on her knees, Faebelle found the most troubling part of her captivity. Where she had gone to sleep wearing a simple shift, she was now adorned in an elaborate white gown. Wispy lace fell from her shoulders as an embroidered bodice hugged her slender torso. The beadwork and silver-laced embroidery was rather remarkable; The skirts billowed gracefully to the floor taking up a good deal of the space in the cage. Under different circumstances she might even be impressed by the craftsmanship. Although she shuddered to think about someone undressing her to fit her in a dress, she was more concerned about what the gown was for. After all, it DID sort of resemble a wedding gown. Sitting back on her heels in the ballooned skirt of the whitewash dress, she peered through the bars trying to get the attentions of the horseman.
"You there. Who are you?" She demanded with that poignant air of matter-of-factness that portrayed her as some kind of nobility. The figure remained stoically still. "I insist on knowing why you have abducted me." she pushed. Still nothing. Groaning in frustration, she pulled at the iron bars with all her might to no avail. "You've no right to take a woman in the middle of the night and cage her like an animal. I demand you stop this rudimentary vehicle this once and release me!" The words were barely out of her mouth before she found herself regretting them. Without skipping a pace, the cart carried on up an ever winding path. But the hooded figure's head slowly turned. Unnaturally, the head spun slowly as if carefully pivoting on a screw. No face could be made out from the shadow beneath the hood, but two glowing ember red eyes could clearly be seen boring into her soul. Faebelle shrunk back into her cage and shivered. Whomever had kidnapped her, it clearly wasn't human.
The hours drummed on as Faebelle sat listlessly in her cold cage. The cart slowly trekked the winding road rounding the crumble scarred mountain. As they climbed higher up the jagged earth, Faebelle noticed a darkness coming from the mountain's pinnacle. Each mile closer brought the dreadful darkness clearer into view. After a while, she could start to make out the shape of a structure from the oozing black. Spiraling stone towers stood tall against the dark sky. The actual building seemed to lose definitive structure around the edges. Inky blotches of stone and black wavered like the air close to the scorched earth during a heat wave. Faebelle gasped in horror. Taking the bars of her cage in fist, she began to shake violently against her prison once more. As the dirt highway changed to black paved stones, she knew this was their destination.
She screamed and cried and flailed. Perhaps if she made enough of a ruckus, someone would hear her. Villaed would never willingly allow her to be taken to such an ominous place. That was, if he still lived. Crying out in agony as the terrifying castle crept closer along the horizon, she had almost forgotten about her demonic captor. A moat of putrid, foul sludge surrounded the dark fortress. The place stank of death. Twisted buttresses of black granite twirled ornately, entwining the structure's many towers into a single hub. Towers adorned with menacing gargoyles that watched in foreboding from their perch upon the inky fingers in the sky. This may very well be the place she would die.
The carriage came to an abrupt halt in a sprawling courtyard of dead thorned roses. Again, without moving from his seat, the demons hooded head swiveled to stare into her. Faebelle backed to the farthest corner of the cage but it wasn't nearly far enough. Her eyes must have grown more accustomed to the darkness, for this time she could make out more of the demon's face. The beast lacked lips entirely. Instead, a cluster of rotting, misshaped and pointed teeth closed together from all sides of it's mouth. The burning stare was almost too much to handle. Yearning to look away, her body was transfixed with fear. Inhaling deeply as if it would swallow the world, the creature exhaled blowing a wisp of red dust all around her in the cage. Not wanting to breathe an iota of whatever that vile substance was, Faebelle held her breath. The demon resumed the same red toxic breath a few times before he sat in waiting, never blinking nor moving it's impenetrable stare.
Feeling, faint, Fae kept her resolve and waited for all the red particles in the air to dissipate before exhaling and keeling over, completely breathless. The beast seemed unaffected by her efforts. Instead of resuming his shower of secretions, this time he inhaled as if in preparation.. Exhaling deep, he puffed his chest and took a mighty, drawn-out breath in as if to inhale her very soul. The particles in the air that seemed transparent began to glow again as Faebelle felt a stream of energy being sucked straight from her core and into the monster. After one deep breath, Faebelle collapsed. It felt as it the very energy that fueled her motor functions was gone.
She clearly remembered saying goodnight to Villaed before she went to bed the night before so she knew she had gotten at least a full night's rest the night before her abduction. So why was she so tired now. Her eyelids burned with heaviness as her vision went bleary. The energy to maintain consciousness was too much as her body felt heavy and leaden. Closing her eyes was sweet relief. Almost as blissful as her descent into a sudden and deep sleep. In her collapse from consciousness, there were no evil demons. There was no captivity. She was lost in a forest of whimsical, unspoiled dreams. Perhaps this time when she awoke, she would be safely nestled in the forest with Villaed by her side.