And now, Princess Maximum herself! The future queen!" Just as I was about to descend down the stairs and into the horrors of the ballroom, a sweet smelling cloth was placed over my face, and I felt myself falling back, and then, there was darkness.

I could feel myself floating in between consciousness and blacking out. There seemed to be a tingling sense down in my toes, but I ignored it. I had other things on my mind. For example, what happened? I thought that I was supposed to be going to a ball. I guess that's all right, though. It's not like I wanted to go anyway. But Jeb'll kill me. He was going to kill me if I escaped. Which I didn't. I can take his punishment.

"Why isn't she awake yet?" A voice murmured, pulling me out of my reverie. Soon, that tingling feeling began to spread to the rest of my body. I willed it to stop, floating in darkness was just so calming. Yet it didn't listen to me, and soon my whole body felt like tiny pins and needles were being pushed into it. I tried to move, but I couldn't, like I was paralyzed. My mouth didn't open, like it was glued closed and my eyes were wide in the silent scream.

The tingling then began to burn, and I tried to scream again and again, making my throat raspy and hurt without even doing anything. A white light began to come towards me, closer and closer, like it was flying. "What's going on?" Came a worried voice from the other side. My eyes felt like they were rolling back into my head. I wanted to stay in the darkness!

The light came colliding into me like a horse might to one person. The breath was knocked out of me and finally, I was able to close my eyes and gasp for air. My stomach heaved, and I turned to take everything out of my stomach. When I was finished, I laid there, gasping for air. My eyes opened a crack, the light was blinding. I tried to move my arm to block the light, but it was like it weighed a ton.

"You heaved on my shoes!" One said in disgust. "Pass me some sort of leaf, will you Fang?"

Fang. Didn't I know that name? I must of heard it in the palace somewhere, it seemed so familiar. "Why-" I started to cough as soon as I started to speak. I wanted to know why I couldn't move. At least the tingling went away. I don't feel like I'm being put in a fireplace anymore. "Give her some water." A new, deeper voice commanded.

"Why?" said the man who's shoes I threw up on. "We need all of the water we can get!" I heard a sound, like fabric being ripped from fabric. "She needs it more then we do." I heard him kneel down to my level, his voice was closer to my ears. "Drink." He ordered, and a nice stream of water was poured in my mouth. "Why can't ... I move?" I rasped out, my eyes opening a bit more.

Fang, I assumed was kneeling next to me. He was wearing a navy uniform with a raven's crest across his chest. His olive skin seemed to glisten from the heat as he casually flipped his black hair out of his eyes. Was he my age? Or was he older? The strangest thing about him was his eyes. They were like endless pools of ink or the feather's of a crow, black and mysterious.

The other one had puke on his shoes. His hair was strawberry blonde, and his eyes were a light blue, and misty, like they were hard to see out of. Perhaps there was something wrong with them. His skin was white, and he was wearing the same uniform as Fang, except that there was a badger where his raven was.

"Look," the blonde one said. "I don't know why you can't move." Fang glared at him. "You should have gotten all of the ingredients right, Iggy. We could of asked Mri Yaska to do it for us, I'm sure she would of gotten it right, but no. You had to do it. Besides the fact she can't move, she woke up later then she was supposed to. She was supposed to wake up in three hours, you dolt! It's been a day!"

Iggy looked stunned for a second, and then regained his composure. "You'll probably be able to move again in a few hours." He assured me under a glare from Fang. "How did you get me here?" I asked him suspiciously. "We, erm, walked." He muttered. I knew it wasn't true, but I was playing the role of a stupid princess. You always gotta play some part. "Oh. Did you carry me or something? I think people would of reconized me in this dress."

They looked at each other. "No one noticed." Fang said a little too quickly and I raised my eyebrows. "Hmm." I mused, and shut my eyes again. I heard a sigh of relief from my left, Iggy. Ha. They thought I believe their little story. "Why don't you rest a little?" Fang asked me. He must of been standing over be, since the glare from the sun was gone.

"Okay." I murmured, and pretended to sleep. Instead, I drowned in my thoughts. I know I was kidnapped, but why? I'm not saying that I won't thank them, certainly, when I'm running out of here, but they probably didn't kidnap me just for a favor. Did they want money from my father, holding me ransom? Or did they want more? Like ... me?

"Max?" A voice said, Fang, once again. "I can tell your not sleeping. Your eyes are twitching." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him very maturely, but grunted and response, and actually closed my eyes like I was about to fall asleep. Sleep did seem quite nice right now. Maybe I would stay in this nice, darkness awhile.


"Is she asleep?" I asked Fang quietly, for I could not see her myself. "Yes." He murmured. "Let's move a bit. Wouldn't want to wake her." I nodded, and followed Fang. I could tell where he was going, since he was taking louder steps for me to hear. Yes, the blind one does have better hearing. Works for me.

"So, what do we do?" Fang asked me. I shrugged. Usually Fang was coming up with all of the plans. He knew that I had trouble thinking of ... possible things to do. I mean, in this last plan I had, all we needed were a couple of goats, a dragon's scale and some other stuff. And he refused me! Can you believe that? I would of went with it. It was a good plan too.

"Do you think that she really believed that we walked here? I would of thought by her reputation, Maximum would have more brains." Fang didn't say anything, except, after a moment of silence, he murmured, "Not everyone has the brains like you do, Ig."

I smiled. "You got that right." It wasn't everyday Fang complimented me, and I took it happily. "But seriously, she had a point. What happens if she keeps asking about it? It obvious we didn't walk." I moved my arms up and down slightly, hoping Fang would get the clue. I wasn't going to say it out loud, of course. Everyone knows that if you don't want something to be jinxed, you shouldn't say it unless you were absolutely sure that no one was listening.

By the tone of Fang's voice, I could only guess that he had gotten my clue. "We just have to insist we walked until we can think of something better." He muttered. "We should probably go back over there. Gods only know what she's doing."

I shrugged in reply. "I'm in the mood for some exercise. Meet you there." He didn't say anything, but then said, "I'm nodding, Ig." I smiled at him as I heard him leave. Thankfully, we were out of view of other people, and I could do this easily.

I unfurled my wings and took to the sky.


I woke up being able to move. My arms and legs weren't numb anymore, but they weren't the easiest to lift. Somehow, I managed to prop myself up on the tree. "You all right down there?" A voice called up over me. I swear, my heart stopped as I craned my neck to look up.

Fang. I should of known it. "Why are you up there?" I asked him tiredly, dropping my gaze from him to the ground. He didn't say anything. I assumed he had shrugged, but I wasn't going to look up there again. It was then when I realized why I was here. "Why you kidnap me?" I asked irritably, out of the blue. "I have my reasons." Fang said gruffly. I sighed. It was probably the best answer I could get out of him.

Now, Iggy would be much easier to get an answer out of. He seemed insecure and oblivious. Perhaps if I bugged him enough about it he would decide that he should tell me, just to get me out off his back.

Yes, that was perfect. I just had to ask him when he got back. Where ever he was. But I wasn't going to ask Fang. I knew he wouldn't tell me

A/N: Second chapter! Whoo! I know this is way, way shorter then the first one, but that was just an introduction. All chapters from now on will either be this length or longer. :) Review please and I hope you enjoyed it!