As Yao pushed her forwards in the forest, Natalya kept wondering when he'd finally drop the act and just let her go already.
Once the guards had returned her to her quarters at the palace, Natalya had barely enough time to change back into a simpler lounging gown and housecoat when Yao knocked on the door. He had immediately sent the guards away, before using some rope to tie Natalya's hands behind her back. Once her arms had been secured, he then dragged her through the servant passages, snuck her out of the castle and led her into the forest.
Yao had kept quiet this whole time, but one solid look at his face allowed Natalya to see what he was actually plotting. Erzsébet wanted her dead, but he was going to use his birth spell's loophole to defy that order.
"Keep moving," Yao ordered as they circled another log.
"Just let me go, Yao," Natalya pleaded as she played along with his act, "I swear you'll never see me again."
"You think I want to be out here?" Yao scolded, "You brought this on yourself. You never should've upstaged Erzsébet, and now we're both paying the price."
They walked for a couple more minutes before reaching a clearing in the woods, where Yao pulled at her bound wrists to stop her. Natalya stood still and waited silently, before feeling what seemed like a sharp blade against her wrists and the rope.
"What are you doing?" Natalya asked as he cut off the bonds.
"My birth spell requires me to obey whoever is on the throne, but there is a loophole," Yao finally explained, "Once in my life, I am allowed to defy an order. Your family was always kind to me, Natalya, which is why I'm using it now."
"Wait, what?" Natalya gasped, feigning shock, "Why now? Why me?"
"Because you are the last chance we have," Yao insisted, "I'm supposed to take you further north into the woods, where the Beast is rumoured to linger. Instead, I'm releasing you here, so that you can flee south and possibly escape. If you survive this, Erzsébet can never know that I helped you, is that clear?"
"I understand," Natalya acknowledged, "Thank you, Yao."
"Good, now run," Yao ordered ," Run far away, and fast!"
Natalya immediately bolted away from Yao, sprinting out of the clearing and deeper into the forest. She kept up her pace for as long as she could, hoping that Yao had pointed her in the right direction to flee either south or west, and not towards either Tark or the Beast. She barely even watched for any location markers in the forest, just trusting her feet to not fail her now.
She reached another clearing where large rocks blocked the way forward, so she immediately approached and started to climb. Her feet slid a bit on her poor choice of dress, but she still managed to climb to the top of the boulders despite ripping the cloth a few times. Once standing at the top, she finally paused to look ahead, seeing a small home built into the roots of a thick tree in the next clearing.
As Natalya sighed in relief at the prospect of asking the inhabitants to help, she took a small step forward, only for her foot to slip on the gown again. Natalya squealed as she completely lost balance and fell forwards from the boulders. She only tumbled about ten feet to the ground, but there were enough rocks for her to bang her shoulders, body and head against.
Once she was finally on solid ground again, Natalya groaned as she rolled to her back and caught her breath. Her sight was going fuzzy, and she could barely sense anything else before it all went black.
The first thing she noticed was that her head hurt.
The next was that, even though only the trace of light could be seen through her eyelids, there was definitely too much light above her head right now for it still to be night, but not enough to be daytime.
Finally, she realized that she was laying on something soft, and that she felt warm.
Natalya finally opened her eyes, and saw a wooden roof above her instead of the trees and the night sky. That allowed her to conclude that someone had moved her from where she lost consciousness. Remembering that she had been overlooking someone's wooden cottage before falling off those rocks, she turned her head to the right and immediately moved her head back in surprise.
A small man with light brown hair and blue eyes had been laying on the ground beside her, watching her sleep. His head had been propped up on his arms, while his legs kicked back and forth behind him.
"Hey guys, she's awake."
Hearing someone else speak, Natalya looked towards the voice, and saw a small blond man leaning against the wall behind the creepy one on the ground. Hearing some more shuffling around her, she continued looking around the rest of the room as five more small men came forward to look at her. Two were above her, leaning on the railing of what appeared to be the second floor of the cottage. There was another below them at her feet, and the last two were to her left. Except for the one with light-brown hair beside her, they all had various shades of blond hair.
"Hello," Natalya greeted, "Who are you all?"
"We ask the questions here," the one on the balcony to her left directed, "Who are you?"
"I am Princess Natalya," she answered, groaning a bit as she tried to lift her head a bit more.
"Princess Natalya?" the one laying beside her to the right repeated.
"That's not possible," the one at her feet denied.
"Princess Natalya's a defective troll," the one closest to her on the left claimed.
"That's an insult to trolls, Emil," the one on the right of the balcony pointed out.
"It's true though, Lukas," the one leaning against the wall to her right countered, "They keep her locked up in that tower."
"Who cares," the one of the balcony to the left redirected, "I say never trust anyone over four feet."
"Let's drag her back out to the woods," the one named Lukas suggested, "and pretend like we didn't see anything!"
"No, you fools, she's a princess," the one further on her left opposed, "That means she's valuable."
"We should hold her for ransom!" the one at her feet recommended.
"She's worth gold!" the one to her right on the wall supported.
"Maybe we should get to know her first," the one on the ground beside her said.
As the men argued, Natalya worked on sitting up properly without getting crazy dizzy again. Once she had her bearings, she glanced around and finally recognized that the small men were in fact dwarfs, before using her birth spell to judge their intentions. The three towards her feet on the ground floor wanted to ransom her for gold. The two on the balcony, plus the one named Emil to her left, wanted to just dump her back in the woods. The brown-haired one beside her was simply a hopeless romantic who didn't stand a chance.
"You won't get any gold for me, my sister-in-law wants me dead," Natalya explained, "Queen Erzsébet sent me out here to be killed by the Beast."
"Why would the queen want you dead?" the one further on the left asked.
"Because she's wicked, obviously," Natalya answered.
"She's evil," Emil added in agreement.
"She's a witch," the one to her right at the wall said.
"Remember that time -"
As the dwarfs talked to each other again about how wicked the Queen was, Natalya listened closely and used her birth spell to observe them again. Erzsébet's tyranny had ruined their lives, forcing them out of Ivrark and into their current occupation as bandits. They already hated the Queen and longed for revenge, which was something Natalya could certainly work with.
The dwarfs finally stopped arguing when the one on the balcony named Lukas stomped hard on the floorboards.
"Sorry, but we have things to do today," Lukas reminded, "so it's time for the princess to shuffle along."
"Wait, you can't just kick me out," Natalya pleaded, "I have nowhere else to go!"
"Look, if the queen finds you here, she'll kill us too," Lukas argued, "If we can't get a ransom for you, then you'll only make trouble."
The other dwarfs groaned in reluctant agreement, before coming forward to pull her up to her feet. Natalya encountered another short wave of dizziness, but quickly found her bearings again once fully standing. As the five of them pushed her towards the door that must've been behind her, the two from the balcony climbed down the stairs to join them. Knowing this was the time to play her hand, Natalya planted her feet in defiance.
"What if I could help you?" Natalya suggested.
"How could you possibly help?" the other dwarf from the balcony asked, "You're wanted dead by the Queen, you have nothing to offer."
"I can help you get revenge on the Queen," Natalya clarified, "I know that you are bandits, wanting vengeance for being expelled from Ivrark."
"How do you know that?" Emil panicked, "Is this a trap?"
"Relax, it's not a trap," Natalya assured, "My birth spell allows me to see through ruses, and I quickly deduced that you are thieves. If you let me stay here incognito, I can help you steal from Erzsébet. Better yet, if we can get some of the proceeds of thieving the palace back to Ivrark, we can convince the villagers not only to accept you among them again, but also to rise against Erzsébet."
"You don't even know the first thing about thieving, do you?" the other dwarf from the balcony judged.
"We could teach her," the dwarf who had been further on the left proposed, "There are ways she could lure people into our traps."
"Huddle!" the dwarf who had been at her feet shouted.
The seven dwarfs huddle together, leaving Natalya outside the circle to observe.
"All right, you guys," the same dwarf led, "Let me hear it."
The dwarfs immediately all started talking at once, creating a loud overlapping chatter that Natalya could not make sense of. After about a minute of undecipherable rambling, one of them stomped on the floor to demand an immediate silence.
"All those in favour of letting the girl stay, say aye," one of them called out.
"Aye," various voices answered.
"Opposed?"
"Nay," one named Lukas voted.
The others all groaned as they broke the huddle. As they turned to look back at her, Lukas was the first to walk away.
"Tough luck, your Highness," Lukas said as he headed over to the supplies area at the far side of the room.
"Sorry, Your Highness," the dwarf who had been at her feet declared, giving an obvious glare in Lukas's direction, "All votes need to be unanimous."
Natalya looked over towards Lukas, who was deliberately ignoring how his comrades were glaring at him.
"You know, there is one little detail I haven't mentioned yet," Natalya added, slowly walking towards him, "Perhaps it would be enough to sway your decision."
"Nothing you can say can make me change my mind," Lukas rejected.
"If Erzsébet is defeated and removed from the throne, I would be the new Queen of Stulikya," Natalya explained, "Once I have power and control, there will be generous rewards for whoever helped me reclaim my family's crown."
"Rewards, you say?" Lukas slowly repeated, now turning to face her.
"Granted, it may take a bit of time to fix all of Erzsébet's messes," Natalya disclaimed, "But you would be able to live comfortably the rest of your lives, at the very least."
The glint of discerning interest in his eyes showed Natalya that he was very tempted to change his mind, but there was a stubborn idea in his mind that kept her from prematurely smirking at the win.
"You screw us over, you're out of here," Lukas warned, "Understood?"
"Understood," Natalya complied.
"Can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Lukas groaned, "Seven dwarfs and a princess, it is."
"Thank you," Natalya acknowledged, allowing herself to finally smile as the others chuckled at Lukas's defeat.
"Don't get too cocky, princess," Lukas cautioned, "You don't know anything about thieving yet."
"Relax, Lukas," the dwarf who had been at her feet groaned, "We'll get her training immediately."
"What are all your names?" Natalya asked, "I heard Lukas's and Emil's, how about the rest of you?"
"I'm Raivis," the light-brown haired dwarf answered.
"Eduard," said the one who had been with Raivis on the right side.
"Berwald," said the one who had been with Lukas on the balcony.
"Tino," said the one who had been to the right with Emil.
"And I'm Mikkel," the last one replied, "Let's see what you can do, Princess Natalya."
Author's Notes
Yes, the dwarfs are the Nordics plus Estonia and Latvia. Keeping track of which dwarf was talking before revealing all seven names was a lot harder to write than I thought. To help you all make sense of which dwarf Natalya sees in which spot when she wakes up, here's a quick recap.
To her right, Raivis was closest and Eduard was further. To her left, Emil was closest and Tino was further. At her feet was Mikkel, while Lukas and Berwald were above him on the second floor balcony.