Hikari felt herself wake up slowly. The muscle aches in her shoulders and her calves were the first things she realized. She shifted, trying to move her muscles around. Then she realized she could not move. She gasped, suddenly awake and alert. She was bound to a chair, arms tied behind her back and legs tied to the front legs of said chair. She tried to summon up her fire dragon, but something around her neck shocked her. She gasped. Something papery crinkled around her neck. A ward... it had to be a ward against fire demons... She vowed to herself that if she ever got out of this situation, whatever it was, she would destroy any all wards against demons she could find.
She surveyed the room she was in. Dark. Equally dark with both her eyes open and her eyes closed. No sign of natural light. It could be anytime day or night. It was cold and damp, a still chill hung in the air. Under ground possibly. She could hear muddled voices in the distance beyond her. She wondered where they were, what they were. The wolf demon bandits. There had been more of them in the pack. When she fought them with her family and the royal family, they thought they had killed all of them, just like the Great Hawk Spirit told Mother they should. At least seven were alive though. Eight, counting their elvish leader who looked so weirdly familiar. He set her nerves on edge though, that was for certain.
She twisted her neck around, trying to get the ward off of her. When that didn't work, she twisted at her bounds around her wrists, trying to yank her arms free from them. When that was fruitless, she pulled at her lower legs, trying to get them loose. All she managed to do then was bounce the heavy chair she was bound to on the floor. She determined she could not stand up with being bound to the chair either because only her tip toes barely touched the ground. If she tipped the chair over, she would fall over, which would be a worse situation than she was currently in just sitting there upright.
She could hear noises growing closer, but muddled ones. She heard the sound of a squeaky door swing open in front of her, followed by torch light stream in with it. She saw the bald elf, standing before her, torch in hand. He entered the room, followed by a series of wolf demons behind him. They stood along the wall by the door. The elf placed the torch into a bracket hanging on the wall. The dim light was enough for her to see and count by. A dozen wolf demons, and one elf. Hikari felt her stomach sink at the sight of them. Mother was told by the Great Hawk Spirit to get rid of all the wolf demon bandits and their leader. They had failed...
"You're awake," the elf said in a chipper tone. It set Hikari's teeth on edge. "You were knocked out a little to hard by someone," he glanced over his shoulder at the biggest wolf demon behind him. The one whose breath was rancid. "We need you whole, princess, unless of course you don't want to cooperate with us. If you don't wish to help us, well..." He let the threat hang in the air, but looked back at the biggest wolf demon once more, who loosed a lecherous laugh.
Hikari kept her face blank, not wanting to show any fear of what he was threatening. She was determined not to allow him any information.
The elf circled around her chair. Hikari watched him, head following him. He grabbed an empty chair that was behind her and drug it noisily around in front of her. He sat down on the chair backwards. He stared at her, arms coming to rest on top of the back of the chair.
He smiled at her. That smile was eerily familiar. "You know, when you attack an ice maiden to get her tear gems, it can have quite the unexpected consequences," he reminisced. "Wasn't as enjoyable as some people would think, with all that crying."
Hikari kept her face still, but puzzled over that internally. She wished she could puzzle it out with the fire dragon, but she was held back from that by the ward.
"Decisions you make can have unintended consequences," he lectured. The glean in his eyes were almost manic. "Could yield you useful consequences. You, or one of your brothers." Another veiled threat. "Tell me everything you know about Prince Takashi and King Hayate. Well, King Hayate's trip." She stared at him. On the inside, she felt hunger remind her she had not eaten in a while. She did her best not to let it show on her face. "We're waiting," he said in a sing song voice. When she did not speak, he rose up suddenly. "Okami, you can have her," the elf suddenly ruled. "Guess she doesn't want to be queen someday."
The elf stepped away from his chair as the biggest wolf demon stepped away from the wall and towards her.
Hikari gasped, feeling her panic take over her. "No, no," she said, leaning away from the wolf as he bent over to untie her hands. If he was allowed to do this, it would not end well.
The elf cocked his head at her. "You'll talk, princess?" he asked. Okami was still untying her hands.
Hikari flinched away from the wolf demon. The feeling of his furry hands made her cringe. She nodded her head up and down.
The elf snapped his fingers twice. "Back off," he ordered. Okami grumbled, retied her hands, and stepped away. The elf sat back down on the chair backwards. "Ready to talk already?" he asked. "Because if not, Okami likes them young. Even if you are valuable to me, for now." He paused. "So how long have the king and queen been out of the country?"
She shifted. "Just over six weeks," she answered. She met his eyes, not wanting to look afraid of him.
"Why did they go?" he asked.
She kept her gaze on him, even though it was the wolf she was worried about it. "To find a dark crone."
The elf perked up that. "Why would they do that?"
She shrugged the best she could. "Can't find one in country. Lord Mukuro must have used them all up to buy her immortality."
"Why do they want one?" he pressed.
She wanted to keep her mouth shut. The elf turned back to look at Okami. "To break a blood bond treaty," she rushed out.
The elf turned back to her. "Who signed a blood bond treaty? And why is it so important that both the king and queen had to go and leave the prince in your care?"
She squirmed internally, not wanting to share. "The king betrothed the prince to someone who hates him in a blood bond treaty. The king and the queen want him freed from it."
The elf cocked his head. He raised his eyebrows. "Who is he engaged to?" Hikari bit her lip, not wanting to answer her. "It's you, isn't it?" He laughed at her. "Oh, that's rich." He muttered under his breath. "You don't like him...?" he laughed at that. "He won't be a problem for long if we play our cards right."
Those words made her stomach made drop. "I'm not going to marry him anyway. I despise him," she told him. She felt like she would not let this elf harm the vain boy prince though, if she could help it.
"You'll be queen without him," the elf told her. "If you play your cards right. I've got a way for that. Off in the Northeast section of Alaric. When you say you're the grandfather of the Lady of Alaric, it tends to make sway. Makes them want to support me in becoming the new king of this country. Just have two cousins to deal with first."
She gasped at that statement in spite of herself. The Northeast was where a lot of nomadic tribes lived. And then him wanting to become king... and him being her grandfather. That could not be true. She knew little about Father's father. Just that he was an abusive, manipulative elf who was disowned and disappeared. He was assumed dead years before Father was discovered to be his son... Yet now he was here, talking about becoming the new king, hinting at killing the king and prince to get the crown for himself. Then he mentioned she could be queen one day...
"All I get is a gasp at that?" the elf said with a laugh. He studied her. Abruptly, he stood up. He snapped his fingers twice. "Untie the princess," he said, standing up. The wolf demons left the room, save one.
Hikari watched the elf, ready to panic. Okami came over to her, untying her hands. "Don't," she breathed over to the elf. All he did was walk over to the entry and watched from there.
Okami had her hands undone, turning to undo her lower legs. She was not about to let him harm her. She bidded her time, letting him completely untie her legs before she made her move. She reached up to ward on her neck, intending to rip it off. It zapped against her skin on her hand and neck. She gasped louder than she had earlier. She had never been electrocuted before, but it had to feel something like that.
Okami rose up, looming over her. She was ready to attack him, fire dragon or no fire dragon. She jumped up, sending the heel of her hand into his gut, followed by a few swift kicks in the shins. She slipped her way around him, heading for the door. Only to be stopped by the elf. He picked her up with one arm, carrying her with ease deeper into the room. He dropped her on something low and smushy. She landed in a huff.
"Out," the elf said, snapping his finger at Okami. In the dim light away from the torch, she could see him leave. He turned and looked down at Hikari. "You almost behaved well enough to show me you were loyal. Then you go and attack my commander. He was only going to untie you. I think a night without a meal will bring you back into our alignment, princess."
He kicked the cot she lay on for good measure. Then he walked away from her, grabbed the lit torch from the wall, and left the room. The inky black darkness and the echoing sound of the door being locked from the outside was suffocating.
She got up, fumbling her way towards where the thought the door would be. She ran into one of the chairs, but made it towards the outer wall. She groped the wall, trying to find a handle. When she managed to find it, she tugged, pulled, and banged on it. She pounded against the door, half in frustration, half in terror. One thing that scared her the most was the realization that she could not sense anyone behind that door, even though she knew at least a dozen people were down in this cave with her.
When she finally felt worn out doing that, as well as dizzy from hunger and thirst, she slumped down to sit on the hard stone floor beneath her. She reached up to her neck once more, intent to not let go until the ward was off of her. She screamed at the shock waves it shot through her. She gave up for good at trying when she realized the tips of her fingers were bleeding from the fruitless effort. That concerned her. She put each finger in her mouth, sucking on them gently to keep them clean. She had learned from a young age that if she got cut, infection could happen easily to her. Mother worried about more than she did because she was once rather ill when she was like five or something...
Once her fingers stopped bleeding, she groped her way back to the cot, wishing for some water. A sense of hopelessness began to wash over her. "Takashi..." she murmured without thinking.