Oookay, sorry for the long wait, folks! I was really busy writing down this story in deviantART (sweatdrops), and I made some changes in this new version. But anyway, thanks for the reviews and advice you gave me. I really appreciate it a lot. Now back to the story.
Chapter Two: The Abduction
The next morning, an hour before sunrise,
Amarelle woke up and she began to dress. Then she hurried down to the
royal stables. Everyday, before sunrise, she would take one of her
father's horses and ride around the kingdom where she would breathe
in the fresh morning air and clear her thoughts from the night
before. Of course, she isn't allowed to ride without a chaperone
and there is fear that she will get kidnapped if she decides to ride
through the forest, like that similar incident that happened years
ago. However, nobody knows that she has been riding alone her horse
for many years. It was her little secret.
As she arrived at the
stables, she soon realized she wasn't the only one up. When she
reached her favorite horse, a magnificent chestnut-brown mare, she
felt a hand on her shoulder. She gasped in surprise and she spins
around to see the skinny squire Ellyn looking at her with an amused
expression. Amarelle became annoyed with him because he had come up
behind her unexpectedly, like many times before.
"Squire," she
began in an angry voice, "I thought I told you, you must never
sneak behind like that."
"Are you afraid of me, Princess?"
he asked, smiling.
She snuck up her nose
in the air haughtily. "I'm not afraid."
Ellyn places both of
his hands behind his back and he continues to smile in a cocky manner
at her.
"Where you going so early this morning?" he
asked.
"Nowhere," she lied. "I just like to see the
horses."
"Going out for a ride?"
Her eyes widened. "How
did-?"
"Let us say that I have been watching you taking out
the horses and ride them out in the country for two years in
secret."
"That is not possible. It has always been my secret."
"Princess, I do not want anything bad happened to you, ever since what happened eight years ago," Ellyn said.
"I know what you are talking about!" said Amarelle angrily. "But I am not a little girl anymore, and I want you to stop treating me like one. If you dare breathe one word about my little secret, I will personally…"
"Talking of secrets,
I have one too." Then Ellyn began to gaze down at her emerald eyes,
his expression turned serious. "Princess, I--"
"There
you are!" said a gruff voice behind them. They turned around to see
Sir Bratticus walking towards them, waving a bottle of brandy in one
hand.
"I thought I would find my darling wife here," he
commented. On closer inspection, his face is sagged and red. He had
been drinking.
"I am not your wife, Bratticus," Amarelle
seethed. If there is one person she loathed to see, it is
Bratticus.
"Not yet, anyway," he said. "You missed last
night, dear. It looks like I never really killed Malevont at all; I
just killed his own wife. What a laugh, he was furious! Don't worry
of your little heads, I will soon be ridding him soon in three days
as soon as King Wizengarde gives him his new bride."
"My
father would never do such a thing!" Amarelle shouted.
Bratticus
laughed deliriously and took a huge swig from his bottle. When he
finished drinking all of its contents, he threw the bottle away and
it landed and shattered into many pieces.
"Now if you do not
mind," he began talking to Ellyn. "I like to have her back."
"She
does not belong to you, Sir Bratticus," Ellyn said, glaring at the
drunken knight. "So why don't you just leave her, or better yet,
US alone?"
Bratticus growled and he cocked his fist back and
punched him in the face. Ellyn fell back and landed on a stack of
hay. Then he quickly rammed himself into the knight and both of them
began throwing punches at each other.
"Stop it! Stop it both of you!" Amarelle shouted. Then she grabbed Ellyn's arms and pulled him off from Bratticus. Ellyn is now sporting a purple bruises on his cheeks and left eye while Bratticus only has a nosebleed.
"Come one, Ellyn, let's leave," she pleaded the squire. Ellyn gave Bratticus a dirty look before he follows Amarelle out the stables.
"Squire… You really shouldn't have stood up for me, you know," Amarelle told Ellyn as she dabs his bruised cheek with a damped cloth. Ellyn winced in pain. Both of them were sitting under a tree next to the royal garden later that morning.
"But--"
"I
told you, I can take care of myself."
"I do not want to leave
you alone with that knight, Princess," he winced in pain. "He
just wants to get under your skirt."
"I know what men like to
seek, thank you," she said.
"I'm not like them." Then he
turns his head sharply to face her. "What I was going to say to you
back at the stables is that..."
"Don't move too much, or
I'll hit your eye," Amarelle scolded him. Ellyn sighed sadly as he
lets her fixes his bruised cheek.
"Okay, I'm done," he
heard her say. "You can go back to your chores, Page Boy."
Then
with that, she ran off, her brown hair dancing behind her. Ellyn
sighs again. You are a fool, Ellyn, he thought sadly.
Up above in the sky, Malevont had been watching Princess Amarelle running away from Ellyn. A wicked grin played on his face.
Three days
passed, the day has arrived. In the courtyard, seven maidens all fair
and graceful were standing on a wooden platform. Each of them had a
grim look on her face. King Wizengarde and his knights were standing
nearby, all armed and ready to attack. Ellyn is among them (he did
not want to miss this event). The king looked worried.
"Do
not despair, Your Majesty," Bratticus assured him. "None of
these ladies will be doomed to be that dreadful dragon's bride."
"How
are you sure, Sir Bratticus?" asked the king.
"I killed
his wife didn't I? So I'm going to kill him too as soon as he reaches
this courtyard. My blade will cut off his head in one slice!"
the knight boasted.
Wizengarde sighs and shakes his head. "I
hope Malevont does not come."
Meanwhile, Amarelle is in
an open field picking yellow and blue flowers.
"Father would
like these," she said to herself. As she bends down to pick the
next flower a large shadow fell on her. She looks up and screams.
"Look! Up in the sky!" a knight shouted. Wizengarde
looks to where the knight is pointing. Malevont is flying over the
courtyard; and to everyone's horror, there was Amarelle wrapped in
one of the dragon's claws. She was screaming and struggling to free
herself.
"Malevont! Leave my daughter alone!" Wizengarde
screamed in terror.
"We made a bargain, Wizengarde!"
Malevont said in a loud voice. "Your precious daughter is now
mine!"
"Father, help me!!" Amarelle
screamed.
"Attack!" Bratticus ordered his men. The
knights raised their bows and their arrows shot to the sky heading
toward Malevont. The dragon raised his jaws and flames spurts out
from his throat and engulfed the arrows to ashes. The dragon made a
victorious roar before disappearing from sight, bringing the young
princess with him.
Ellyn witnessed all this, and as he watched
Amarelle being taken away, he couldn't help but gasp in
horror.
"Princess... Princess... AMARELLLE!!"
End of Chapter 2
Nooo, poor Amarelle! Where's Superman when you need him?! Will Amarelle ever be saved? What was Ellyn going to say to her? And what about that incident that happened eight years ago? Why am I telling you all these pointless questions?!
