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What is your favorite ship with Canada that is NOT Prucan? Important for next story.
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Nikolai stormed out of his castle toward his bride to be.
Tiesa was nuzzling the leopard like she was her mother and the cat was purring curled up with her bird.
No sign on his sister.
Excellent.
"TIESA!" he roared.
His bride jumped and the cat hissed. The leopard tried to move but could not. Nikolai had to admit that it was good that the leopard was indisposed right at the moment.
He waved his hand and Tiesa was a woman right before his eyes. Her hair was no longer in her braid. It was messy and wild. Much like her eyes which were wide in fright. Her night dress was torn and a couple of tears from being indecent.
Nikolai stormed forward and grabbed her by the arm. When she tried to get away, he kissed her and threw her over his shoulder.
When she opened her mouth to scream, that was the last straw. He used his magic to put her to sleep.
He carried her to his castle where she was going to clean herself up, put on the wedding dress, and become his forever.
His blindness did not allow him to see two little birds following him. Or the cat that ran off into the woods.
"Did you hear that?" Matthew stopped his horse.
"I did." Alfred did not need to say who the scream belonged to.
Because there was only one woman that was in these woods and she meant the world to Alfred.
They urged their horses to go farther, to go faster, to do anything it took to get to Tiesa.
They ignored the low branches that hit their faces.
They ignored the wind stinging their eyes.
There was only one thought in their minds right now: were they too late?
Finally it got to where they could take the horses no further and they had to leave them behind.
"How do you know that this is the right way? I mean, the last time we were here was night and it was only one time."
Alfred ignored his brother.
"Alfred?"
"I'm following our 'love connection'."
"Your what?"
"Our 'love connection'. It's where Tiesa and I could find each other without anyone telling us where they are hidden."
Matthew let out a chuckle but then he saw his brother's face.
He looked so serious.
"Okay. That sounds fake but okay."
By the time the two brothers passed the fallen tree that Matthew could swear was the same as the first two, he was getting very frustrated with his brother and his "love connection".
"Meow."
"Mattie, I get that you're annoyed but don't act like a cat."
"Meow."
"Hey little kitty, what are you doing in the big scary woods?" Matthew picked up the white cat that his brother was oblivious to.
"Matthew, stop acting crazy."
The white cat purred as Matthew started to rub her ears.
"Matthew why," Alfred turned around. "Why are you holding a cat?"
Idiot. "This is the same cat that was with Tiesa. She must have been looking for us."
The cat leaped out of Matthew's arms and landed on her paws. She then took off in the opposite direction that Alfred was leading them.
Matthew ran after her.
"Hey, don't you trust me?" Alfred shouted.
"Between the cat and your 'love connection', I pick the cat."
Alfred had no choice but to follow the cat and his brother.
Tiesa woke up with a jolt.
Nikolai was staring down at her and with the fresh pink scar on his face and his milky white eyes, he sent ice cold shivers down her spine.
"You are going to clean up and you are going to put the wedding dress that I have for you or I will clean you and dress you myself. Do I make my self clear?"
It was all Tiesa could do to keep the violent shivering to a minimum.
"You have thirty minutes." And he slammed the door causing Tiesa wince.
She might as well get clean considering she did look homeless. She looked at herself in the mirror. My God, was that her?
The girl in the mirror had tangled, greasy brown hair. She looked so thin, it could not have been healthy. Tiesa was willing to bet she might see the outline of bone if she took off the dress. The only food she could eat was berries and she was not ready to lower herself to kill an animal. The girl's green eyes were wide and frightened. And there was so much dirt.
Tiesa smelled her night dress. It smelled like wet dog. Did Alfred find her disgusting when he saw her last? Tiesa would not blame him.
She took off her dress and got in the tub of clean water. Tiesa scrubbed the dirt off her body and did her best to free the tangles in her hair.
She didn't want to get in the wedding dress but she didn't want to get in her nightdress either. So she put the wedding dress on. It wasn't too flashy or big like the other's she has seen. It was like a dress a peasant would wear only white. Not to big but not to plain.
Nikolai thew open the door as Tiesa just put on the dress. She jumped and tried to crawl out the window but despite his blindness, he knew where she would be headed and pulled her back.
"You're mine!" he hissed in her ear.
Tiesa spit in his face which earned her a slap on the cheek.
Anger swelled up inside her. She didn't have a sword on her but that did not mean that she was unarmed. She formed a fist and punched him in the nose. She heard a crack and felt warm liquid on her hand. She turn got out of his grasp and ran out of the room.
She looked at her hand and saw blood. All of her fingers moved so the crack must have been his nose.
Marie flew down the hallway and chirped at her. Tiesa followed her down another hallway, up many flights of stairs, down a corridor until Marie halted at a door at the end of the hall.
Tiesa, out of breath, opened the surprisingly unlocked door and walked in. There were many books and charts that were scattered throughout the room. Marie flew to one book that was left unopened.
Tiesa looked at it and gasped.
It was a spell on how to change a person to an animal. Including how to keep them as one and more importantly, how to break the spell.
"So all that is needed to break the spell is the Kiss of Unrequited Love or to kill the caster." Tiesa looked at Marie.
The little bird nodded.
"You are brilliant Marie. Truly you are." She praised her small friend.
Marie puffed out her feathers in pride and smiled.
"Come on Marie. We have to find some way to kill him."
As Tiesa sprinted through the passages and Marie flew, one thought circled through their minds.
Kill Nikolai, get away.
Alfred and Matthew followed the cat through the woods back to the clearing by the castle where they found Tiesa.
"Thank you little cat." Alfred rubbed her ears, gaining a purr from the small cat.
Alfred and Matthew drew their swords and took off towards the castle.
The cat followed them.
Matthew knelt down so the cat stopped. "Sweet cat, can you please stay out of this? I don't want you getting hurt."
The cat looked like it understood, though, it looked very sad. The cat placed it's front paws on his knee and leaned up to touch her nose with his.
The cat sat back down and a yellow bird made it's perch between the cat's ears.
"Dude, I think you have an admirer."
"Shut up Al."
They saw a leopard growling words(?) of encouragement to the bear that was doing it's best to break down the side door.
"May I?" Alfred asked the bear.
The bear stared at him but must have decided that Tiesa was more important than Alfred was at the moment. The brown bear backed off leaving a very scratched up door.
There was a hole in the door left by the bear, name had to start with a V, that Alfred stuck his arm through and unlocked it from the inside.
He opened the door and the bear charged in. The leopard tried move but it was obvious that she was in pain.
"Why don't you wait here. I don't want you to get hurt anymore than you already are." Alfred said softly.
The leopard nodded and stayed.
Alfred and Matthew followed the muddy bear tracks throughout the castle. They heard snarling and shouting that was faint but as they got closer, it grew louder.
They charged through a broken door to find that Tiesa had a sword in one hand, a knife in the other and she was kicking ass.
The bear attacked Nikolai and Tiesa striked at Nikolai when he was busy fending himself from the massive bear.
When Tiesa saw them, a grin broke out on her face and she laughed. "Want to join the fun?"
Nikolai threw a magic spell at Tiesa when she was not looking and without hesitation, Alfred jumped in front of her and within a blink of an eye, he was an eagle.
Tiesa stared at Alfred in shock. Alfred screeched and awkwardly started to fly around the room.
Tiesa and Vanya roared at Nikolai and charged at the same time.
Once Alfred got the hang of flying, he screeched and flew directly at Nikolai and attempted to claw his eyes out.
With all the chaos, Nikolai didn't see Matthew sneak up and stab him in the back.
Nikolai looked shocked. As he drew his last breath, those that he cursed turned back into a human.
Alfred was no longer an eagle and he fell five feet to the floor.
Vanya was now a tall young woman with silver hair with a sunflower and dark purple eyes. Her dress was a light pink and her cloak was a grey.
She looked shocked that she was a human again.
"I never imagined I'd have fingers again." She whispered in amazement as she curled her fingers.
Tiesa helped Alfred off the floor. "We should find the others."
They stumbled into the hall as Vanya was not used to walking on two legs yet where they found a fifteen year old girl with blonde hair in a red plaid dress and a black corset.
She stared at her arms and dress, not believing that it was real.
She saw the others and her smile glowed.
"Vanya! Tiesa! I'm a human!" Marie ran to the women and hugged them tightly.
"Alfred, Matthew, this is Marie. You have already met Vanya." Tiesa introduced them.
"Where is Eliisa?" Marie asked.
"She should be outside where we left her." Vanya replied.
Once they were outside, they found a woman lying on the ground in a blue dress with her messy, blonde hair underneath her.
"I guess now I can't lie in the sun and sleep all day now." She said sadly.
"No, we can't." Vanya sighed.
"How are your ribs?" Marie asked.
"A lot better. When I turned back into a human, they must have been repaired."
"BIRDIE!" a loud shriek of joy came from the mouth of a pale girl running at top speed towards Matthew.
She tackled him to the ground and kissed his cheek over and over.
Alfred laughed as his brother was getting kiss attacks from a girl.
The girls were amused as well, but they gave them some privacy.
"Wait, who ar-" Matthew was cut off because the pale girl kissed him square on the mouth.
"I'm Julchen." She said out of breath. "I'm from the awesome Prussia."
"Hi?" Matthew weakly stated. That was his first kiss from a girl.
"So should we head back?" Tiesa asked.
"We probably should. I don't think that Arthur can keep mom occupied any longer."
"What do you mean?"
"Alfred and I begged him to be the diversion so mom would not find out about our coming to find you." Matthew explained.
"You do realize that they have been secret lovers for about ten years now. Right?"
The look of confusion was then replaced by expressions of both shock and horror.