Stepan
*****Nessie's POV*****
I rested my head on Jacob's chest. He smelled so enticing, and the warmth from his bare skin always comforted me. My eyes were getting heavy but I forced myself to stay awake. He was apologizing to me, and I didn't have the strength to reply back. I dozed off and fear overcame me as I knew the unexpected would arrive without my knowledge.
I woke up and found myself outside. I immediately knew it wasn't La Push, and I was in a dream. It was evening, and the only source of light was from the bright blue moon. Yet, it wasn't dark for the light reflected against the white blanket of snow and ice all around me.
I could hear screams in the background and what sounded like horses. I followed the sound and opened my mouth at what I was witnessing.
There was a battle going on with hundreds of dead bodies all around the ground. Even the fallen horses were trying to get up as their rider had tragically laid dead. So much blood everywhere, and my senses could smell the fresh blood. I've never had fresh blood before except the one time I had to drink from Jacob. It was a different taste, and I had craved it enormously, especially Jacob's. But I learned to curve that thirst the more I was with him. However, this bloody smell all around me seemed toxic to my senses.
After walking around the dead bodies, I found myself closer to a few soldiers still in battle. A lone soldier was in battle against three other soldiers. The lone soldier seemed at a disadvantage but he was quick and fierce, and made the fight appear like a game that he easily won already. However, he was too quick to celebrate as his back was turned for a split second thinking he attacked all three soldiers when a fourth one came out of nowhere and lunged for him. Unexpectedly, an arrow stroked the attacker straight through his head. The lone soldier swiftly turned around and was baffled at his own lack of attention. He stared at the soldier on the horse who momentously saved him. The oddity of it was they looked to be on opposing sides with the lone soldier cloaked in fur and leather, and the soldier on the horse covered in dark metal and leather. Why would he help the lone soldier?
Within a minute, a herd of soldiers clearly from the lone soldier's side came rushing to his aid. They knocked down the rider to the ground. As the soldiers were about to take a sword into the heart of the rider, the lone soldier screamed. It wasn't a dialect I knew, but somehow it all translated for me as so I could understand the dream.
All the soldiers were puzzled and halted, but it was clear the lone soldier had ranking over them as they stepped away from the rider. As the lone soldier walked over to the rider he removed his fur hat and mask, and I gasped at what I saw.
It was me. I was the lone soldier. My eyes squinted, so I could try to focus on her. All the features were there. I wanted to wake up from my dream, but I felt the urge to keep on watching everything unfold.
She walked up to the rider and pulled out her knife and placed it under his neck. She motioned the knife as to cut his neck, and I turned my head not wanting to see this gruesome death. There was no scream from the rider. I looked again and instead she had cut his string that tied the rider's mask. She peeled off his mask, and my world seemed to understandably acknowledge everything I thought I had known.
Steven was the rider.
He looked different with longer hair and his facial hair was untouched. He was dirty and sweaty from the battle, but you could tell it was him by looking at his eyes. He kept staring at her, and wouldn't look at anyone else. She seemed pulled to him also, but her posture changed once she realized she was gazing too long at him.
He finally spoke, "The great Princess Angara. It was an honor to have saved your life."
She didn't look pleased with his answer and with one swift move; she knocked him out with the handle of the blade she held in her hand.
The guards lifted his body while one addressed the Princess.
"Princess Angara, do you not think your father would rather rid of this soldier instead of keeping him hostage?"
"He will be a worthy hostage, Yulian. This is the great Stepan that we have here. We shall see how great he is truly worth to his family. Take him into the eastern wing dungeon."
It wasn't long until everything around me changed instantly, and I was inside the dungeon. It was a dark tall tower and within it was a single window above that looked impossible to reach. The room smelled of mold and was infested with mice. There were no furnishings whatsoever, while the dirty floor had blood stains evident from previous prisoners.
The door opened and the soldiers threw Steven into the middle of the room. They stripped him of his clothes and left only his pants. One of the soldiers grabbed something from the wall and dragged it over to the center of the room. My heart seemed to sink as I understood what it was that the soldier, Yulian, held in his hands.
They were handcuffs chained to the wall. The handcuffs had sharp blades inside the rings. I'm sure they were unsanitary, but without hesitation, they clasped them tight around his wrists.
"Try to move and escape out of these cuffs, and you shall surely bleed to death with each blade digging deeper into your veins. The princess has too much mercy. I would have thrown your body into the frozen lake for the fishes to feed on."
"And for that, I am thankful that you are not the Princess." Now wasn't the time to be funny, Steven.
Yulian cuffed Steven's wrist, and he flinched when the cuffs were tightened. My face winced at the thought of the pain he must have been feeling. The cuffs explained the scars on his wrist, and I felt remorseful for him.
Once he was cuffed on both wrists, the guards left him alone and the room was silent. Steven slowly fell asleep. I decided to walk towards him. I didn't know if he could see or hear me. He lifted his head up and looked straight at me. The doors opened, and I turned around to see the princess standing at the door. Neither one of them saw me. I was just a passenger walking in a story.
She walked as if she was getting ready to seduce Steven, and she walked right through me and straight to Steven. She was strikingly beautiful. She was so well put together though she wasn't wearing a gown like a princess. She had on a tight fitted leather jumpsuit that covered her from her neck all the way down to her feet. It accentuated her curves, and you could tell now the way she was dressed that she was a full grown woman. Her hair was tightly pulled back in a ponytail, and her sleek hair reached her waistline. She wore no jewelry at all except a ring made of silver.
She held a glass bottle and pulled off the cap. She grabbed his chin and made him open his mouth and poured water for him to drink.
"What pleasure do I owe that the princess has come to be my servant? I assume the rumors are untrue in how you torment your prisoners to death."
"This was for rescuing me though I had that soldier if you would have allowed me a little time."
"I do not think that is true, Princess. You would have seen your last moon had it not been for my rescuing you."
"I am not here to argue with you."
"Then free me of these chains, and we shall talk like equals."
"I shall ask only once, Stepan, so choose your words carefully."
She seemed intimidating, yet he didn't flinch at a single word she said.
"What interests has brought you to Lake Baikal? We have nothing of value to your country. My people live in harmonious peace, but we will protect any threat given our way."
"Do not pretend you do not know, Princess. Why do you think there have been so many intruders into your land? Your people hide something of value here, and it has cost thousands of innocent lives to come and find the truth. You will have to admit we were one of the few who have come close enough. I may be the only one who has ever laid eyes on the Princess. You were but a myth and a legend until now. Now I know you are of flesh and blood."
"There is no story here to tell. You come with your country based on rumors of our people? There is no merit for you, but a waste of your time."
"Oh I know it is true. I have heard about you and your sorcery, whatever you may call it. And I am not leaving until the truth is revealed."
"And what truth may that be?"
She was surprised by his ego knowing full well that any wrong movement and she could have him ordered to be killed. Steven was being bold, but for what?
"Princess. I am not the only prisoner from my family to be here. You have held a family member of mine for so long until he was too desperate that he escaped out of these very cuffs. I am assuming he was your one and only prisoner to ever escape. When he arrived home, he didn't live much longer after losing too much blood. But something within him brought him home to us, so he could at least warn us."
The princess seemed horrified at what she was hearing. She remembered that prisoner as he was a prisoner that she held captive because she didn't want to end his life. When they came to check on him in the morning, the only thing remaining was his left hand. The thought of him finding his way home through the treacherous cold and without his hand made her feel nauseated, but she had to remain unflinching.
"The ironic thing is this, Princess. That prisoner described you just as you are right now. So I was delighted when I saw you in the battlefield because it confirmed that the story he told was all true when everyone thought he had lost his sanity in the rigid cold."
"There are many prisoners who have escaped, Stepan." She was trying to change the subject.
"I am sure there are several, but you had a soft spot for this one. I do not know, maybe it was his story about his family back at home that made you pity for him. But you cannot escape these cuffs without assistance."
"Get to your point, Stepan."
"Oh I am almost there, Princess. You were right in which he did have a family. He had a young grandchild who believed in his story and vowed one day to seek revenge for the death of his grandfather. So it is true, you are immortal, and your beauty exceeded what my grandfather had so thoroughly detailed."
Within a few seconds, Steven had escaped out of his cuffs and pushed the princess straight up against the wall. He pinned her tightly that she was unable to move and placed his hand over her mouth. He slowly pulled something out of his mouth. It was a piece of metal, and he deliberately put it in her face.
"You see, Princess. My grandfather was given a key the night before his execution as a means to escape, but he didn't have enough time so he had to pull off the other hand. A key that he said was given to him by the beautiful Angara, the princess warrior of Lake Baikal. Now, interesting enough you should be as old as a grandmother as that was over four decades ago. So tell me, how you have not aged at all, and why the world would not annihilate your country to find this sorcery magic that your people are hiding? Evidently, it is something so worthy that my grandfather would have ended his life in search for it."
He closed his eyes shut, and took in a deep breath. His temper calmed down, and he slowly removed his hand from her mouth so she could speak.
"Your story is a great tale, Stepan. You almost had me believing everything you said. Maybe your grandfather was senile after leaving here. Do you honestly think you can escape from here? All I have to do is call out the guard's name, and they shall be in here in no time at all. But I am not going to do that. Instead I will let you release me, so that I can return you back to your cuffs. Believe me when I say, you would rather have me torturing you than my father who truly shows no mercy, even to his own daughter."
He didn't move, and I don't know if he believed her bluff. He pulled himself back and stepped away. He walked into the middle of the room and spread his arms out so Angara could cuff him. He kept gazing at her, and seemed to study her every move. She reached for the chains and placed them around his wrists. She saw the blood from the cuts, and took the bottle of water and rinsed off the blood then wiped it with a dry cloth. All the while, she never stared at his face. It was as if she felt guilty for placing him here, and she was the reason for inflicting the pain to his wrists.
He finally spoke, "It doesn't hurt, Princess. I have battle scars far worse than this."
She didn't answer him; instead she kept on cleaning his wrists. Once she was done, she held the bottled water to his face.
"Before I leave you this evening, would you care for one last sip of water?"
"Will I have the honor of seeing you again tomorrow, Princess?"
"Angara. Call me Angara, and there may be a possibility that I will visit you tomorrow. You are my one and only prisoner."
"Then I shall wait for tomorrow to drink, so the thirst will be well worth it."
She was taken aback by his words which caused her to blush profusely. She turned around and headed for the front door. She looked at him once more, "Have a pleasant evening, Stepan."
"And a good evening to you as well. Angara."
She grabbed the torchlight and took away the only light in the room, and all was dark and I was still lost in my way in this dream.
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