I'm in tears. -sniffle-

Not really, but still. :')

I post the first chapter, I head to bed. I wake up, come back from my gymnastics lesson, open the email, and all 15 are from fanfiction about you guys favoring and story alerting. I'm so happy! ninjabookworm, for your review, you get a cookie. :D And no, I'm not professional. I find that when I read books, I kind of pick up on stuff (I have a high reading level, however not many books interest me). Things like more description, less dialogue, but just enough to make it so everybody isn't mute, unless you made a chatterbox like Nudge. Lol.

So without further warning, here is chapter two! (Heads up, since it's hard to tell, I'll tell you who starts the chapter [Max].)

Sabotage.

I don't know where I am. All I know is, is that that man was not one of my bodyguards. As a princess, it is your royal duty to remember the faces of each and every guard in the castle. All…seven…hundred of them…which wasn't very hard because a good majority of them were pretty cute. Ugh. Damn these teen girl hormones. It's not like I was able to pick my suitor myself anyway. So why bother thinking about it?

Fang and I were sitting across from each other still, only he was in a light slumber. I could tell he was a light sleeper, because every time we hit a bump, his eyes would open a slit, and then close again. Every once in a while he looked over to make sure I was still there, and then would change positions and fall back asleep. If you could call it that.

The shrill screech of a man in pain rang out into the chilled air, causing Fang to jolt up and slam his head on the ceiling of the carriage. He let loose a colorful variety of words and pulled a sword from under the cushion. He pointed it at me, in a "stay here" gesture (my ankles are tied together, dumb ass) and then opened the door. He quickly locked it, then surveyed the land.

"Sa…sab…o…Fang…r-run…" The man who'd taken an arrow in his chest fell off the seat and onto the grass, dead.

Fang came back inside after a moment. "Can you ride a horse?"

I nodded.

"Good." He brought the sword down, slashing my ropes to bits, and then pulled off the gags and pulled me outside. "Go get the chainmail for your arms, the breastplates, and the chainmail for your legs. Do it quickly." Fang shoved me off, towards the dead man, while he broke the horses away from the carriage frame and pulled them over. I had managed to get the all the chainmail and one of the breastplates on. I was struggling with the one on my back just as an arrow shot past, embedding itself in the tree trunk.

Fang grabbed the straps, tightened them as hard as they could go, much to my protest, and shoved me to the pinto mare. "Get on the horse! NOW!" He threw the helmet at my head and put on his own, mounting.

I strapped the helmet on and didn't have much time to think before Fang pulled my horse into a gallop via his bridle. In a matter of seconds, we were racing through the darkened forest, trying to outrun the enemy I could now hear on horseback behind us.

He cursed. "Madison was right," he mumbled. "I should listen to her more often."

"About what?"

"Shut up and control the horse!" he snapped, pushing his black stallion to go faster. I did the same, letting out a terrified scream as a volley of arrows raced past us, some clinking off the chainmail and others losing momentum and falling into the grass and bushes.

After what seemed like forever, we finally slowed, and Fang slid off his horse. He promptly slammed his fist into the tree, angry, and watched as the blood oozed from his fist. "Get off the horse," he commanded.

"Why—"

"I said, get off the horse."

A tiny bit afraid of a punishment, though I didn't know yet if he was even really heartless enough to purposely hit me, as opposed to restraining, like he did earlier, I slid off the horse. "Okay, kiddo. Calm down…"

"I will not calm down!" he snapped, turning his sword on me. "I will do whatever I want. Do you know why? Because I'm the captor, and you're the captive. Alright? Do you understand, you stupid pirouetting puffball? Or I swear by King Draconair's name that I will cut your feet off and mail them back to the kingdom!"

I just rolled my eyes. "Get off your stupid high horse and tell me what's going on!"

"Roikos," he hissed. "There, you happy?" Fang was pacing now, trying to control his breathing. "He…he's my rival. He knew if I completed this mission, I would forever be rewarded by…someone, if I succeeded. He's trying to steal you from me to steal my thunder and win his approval. It doesn't help that Roikos is his son. Or that…if I come back empty handed, I'll be killed."

"So what's stopping me from running to him right now to get my kidnapper killed?" I smirked knowingly.

"The fact that he doesn't know what a border is and that he finds rape and domestic abuse to be a character-building pastime and I'm still a virgin. Who would you rather go with?"

I tried, and failed, to give him a look, but he could easily see the terror in my eyes.

"Okay, so I'm not a virgin, but I don't rape and that's not the point! People in this realm, dear princess, are not above beating the snickerdoodles out of anyone who ticks them off. And you and I will be dead in two days time if you don't stop asking questions and listen to every. Single. Word. I. Say." He sheathed his sword and grabbed my shoulders, shaking them. "I, am being sabotaged currently. My…" he swallowed, "secret friend Madison told me this would happen. I'm not supposed to even contact her, seeing as she's Roikos' little sister, but I always do when I need advice. We've been friends since I was three, which now should be about fifteen years. She told me Roikos was planning something. But I never imagined he would actually try this…" Fang just kicked a rock. "I have to keep you safe. Now this isn't a job anymore, Max."

"What is it then?" I murmured, paying complete attention to him.

"Now…now it's life and death. If I die, you're dying too, because you sure as hell can't get around this realm by yourself. Speaking of which…Do you have on shorts under that?" He pointed to the dress.

I nodded. "Yeah…? So?"

"Hold still." He took the sword and grabbed the bottom of my dress, then dragged the blade in a surprisingly straight line around the bottom of my hips. After that, he drew another circle around me and took it off so it reached mid hip now. He ripped it open cleanly and then dug in his pocket for two safety pins. He then stuck one end of the strap on my left side, pinned it, and then looped it around my neck, and pinned it on my right side. "There. A halter. Much easier to run in." He looked at my silver flats. "…I suppose they'll do."

I had ended up changing into flats before I left, after Cayla had seen me off. I eyed the dress, now shirt, and nodded a bit. "This could work." Then I eyed the pick up part of my dress on the ground. "Gonna throw that away?"

He waved his sword a bit. "Smart girl. You learn quick. Now, get on the horse. I have a safe house in a village coming up pretty soon, and I wanna get there and ditch these horses and get you some actual clothing." For a moment, I saw the gears turn in Fang's head. "Shit. You're a princess, aren't you?"

"Um…yeah. Kind of." I raised an eyebrow.

"No, stupid. You're a princess. Everyone knows what those look like!"

I finally saw his point. "Ugh. Great." For a moment, I looked around, wondering what I could bend to my advantage, before I finally noticed the saddlebag. "Anything in here…?" I wandered over, undoing the leather strap, and threw the flap open. I grabbed the thick cloth and heaved it out. "A cloak!"

"Perfect. Kid, you just might make it through this week without dying."

(Fang is 18.)