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Chapter 15 – Facing Up to Ogres

I awoke to the smell of toast. I was laying on some dry leaves with a blanket over me. I opened my eyes and saw John sitting on a log with a pan in his hand.

"Something smells good." I said groggily.

"Good morning. Hungry?" John smiled.

I sat up and saw two pieces of browned traveller's bread in the pan. He gave me one in a tin cup.

"Did you bring the whole household?" I teased. John seemed to have everything in his saddlebags.

"Just the necessities." He handed me some butter and a knife. I was right, he brought everything.

After a quick breakfast for both the horses and us, we started on our way before the Ayorthaians or even the Count come and find us.

We rode at and easy canter, both of us were silent.

"Hey Dee, do you believe in love?" asked John.

I was startled by this question. I didn't know what to think. I slowed Lightning to a trot.

John slowed Hotspur so he could talk "I do." John answered his own question softly when I didn't answer.

I turned to look at him and found him looking at me. His gaze was gentle and caring. I looked away and felt my cheeks burning.

We rode on in silence. I avoided John's gaze even when we stopped for lunch.

When we were almost at the border of Kyrrian, I saw something big in the distance coming towards us.

"What's that?" I asked John. He followed my gaze and before we could say anything more, the things were in front of us.

There were three of them. They were hideous, with oily hair and blood under their nails. I recognized them at once.

Ogres!

They came closer, the horses shied.

"Would you boys like to come with us? We have much food and entertainment. Come." One of them, a female said in Ayorthaian in a sweet voice.

Boys? Even ogres mistook me for a boy. I would've laughed if the circumstances were different. Luckily they were speaking in Ayorthaian; our Ayorthaian wasn't that good so their spell wasn't too strong yet. We still had a chance to run, I started to turn Lightning to go the other way.

Big mistake! The ogres saw I wasn't falling under their spell and realized they had to speak in Kyrrian. Ogres weren't stupid. They repeated the message in my native tongue. Despite my efforts to yell to drown out their voice, we were still captured. It only gave the ogres something to talk about.

"Loud one it is." Said the female.

"I heard those are the most delicious." Said the youngest one.


John and I were bound by our wrists and ankles. Lightning and Hotspur escaped while the ogres were too busy with us.

"We are going to have a big dinner today SseS." Said the female to the other male in Ogrese. I thanked my mother for teaching me the language.

"Yes NOesH. Or we can save some for breakfast or a snack." Said the one called SseS.

"Who shall we eat first?" the youngest one jumped up and down.

"Why don't you ask them NiSoo." Said Sses.

NiSoo came running to us and said in Kyrrian "Who would like to be eaten first? How about you?" he pointed at me "This one looks tender." He called to the others.

"How would you like to be cooked? Bloody, medium, or done to a crisp?" he grinned at me, showing black teeth stained with blood.

I shuddered involuntarily while NiSoo chuckled and went back to the others.

"I get the arms, they are the crunchiest." Said NiSoo.

"No, I want them, I'm older." Sses argued.

"I get to eat it whole since I found it." Said NOesH.

"You did not find it, I did." Said NiSoo.

"But I tamed it." NOesH argued back. Soon fists were flying as the ogres argued to claim my body parts.

I looked at John; he started to saw the ropes bounding his wrists on a sharp rock while the ogres were arguing. I started to do the same thing.

I almost saw the ropes through when the ogres stopped arguing and turned to us. I stopped immediately, but John had already unbound his wrists and was trying to untie his ankles.

"Look, this one's getting free." Said NOesH.

"Let's eat it first." Said Sses.

The others nodded in agreement and Sses grabbed John violently and dangled him by his arm.

"Save yourself Dee." John shouted over the ogres' laughter.

Tears formed in my eyes. No, I can't just sit here and watch John get eaten. I had to do something.

Then I remembered mother's lessons in ogre taming. If I can do that, we can escape and be on our way. I recalled that mother used the ogres' voice persuasion to persuade the ogres themselves. I was never good at that but I had to try.

"Y-you don't– " My voice came out as a squeak. I tried again, "You don't want to eat us." I croaked timidly in Ogrese. The ogres didn't even look at me, so I said it louder this time, but my voice was still dry.

The ogres looked at me, startled at first. Then they burst into laughter.

"Look, this one's trying to speak our language. Let's eat it last so it can entertain us." Sses bellowed between bursts of laughter.

I was getting frustrated; maybe I should just give up. How did Mother ever do this?

"Let's start a fire now so we can cook this one," NOesH pointed to John "I'm hungry."

NiSoo started a fire while NOesH and Sses argued what parts they wanted. Time was running out for me.

No, I couldn't just give up. Come on Dee, you can do it.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember everything Mother taught me about taming ogres. Honey and oil, she said.

I opened my eyes and almost screamed. The ogres got the fire going and were tying an unconscious John to a big branch.

Calm down, I told myself.

I imagined swallowing a mixture of honey and oil like Mother said, and started talking in Ogrese.

"Untie the boy and me, we will find you some delicious food if you do." My voice came out steadier than I hoped. "We are your friends, trust us."

It was working! The ogres stopped tying John up, NiSoo was even starting to untie him.

Keep talking Dee, I thought.

"We are great wizards and we will be able to give you everything you want. Just untie us first."

Sses came towards me with a knife, I almost screamed and broke the spell.

"Don't hurt me." I whispered.

He didn't, he just wanted to cut my rope. I shook my hands to get the circulation going and kept on talking.

"Thank you friends," I said when the other ogres finished untying John, "Close your eyes and we'll give you everything you want. You are not hungry; we just gave you lots to eat. Close your eyes, go to sleep and we'll give you more."

The ogres fell on the ground and immediately started to snore. I almost laughed by caught myself.

"Wha–" John woke up and looked around him.

"Come on." I hissed, "Let's go before they wake up." I half carried, half dragged John out of the ogres' camping place.


We found our horses grazing in a small hidden meadow in the forest. I wrapped John's bleeding wrists in bandages he brought and told him how I tamed the ogres.

He laughed, "You are not just the Centaur Rider anymore, you are also an Ogre Tamer."

"There. Are you okay to go on?" I asked when I finished wrapping the bandages.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little sore, especially my arm, but I'm fine." I could see he wasn't because he winced when he tried to move his arm.

"Let's camp here for the night. It's getting late anyways." I said.

"But we have to ride, what if the Count catches up to us, or worse, the ogres– " John protested.

"Don't worry, the Count will just pass us by, this place is quite far from the road. And the ogres won't find us here." It was my turn to comfort him.

"But– " John tried again.

"No, you are in no condition to travel. How can you ride when your arm was almost torn out of your socket?" I said firmly, "We are staying." I hated to order like that but I couldn't let John travel in his condition.

I started a fire while John got out the cooking supplies with his good arm. I brewed tea with a special leaf that would make John feel better. I learned all kinds of uses for herbs from our cook Mandy.

When we got the horses settled and started to eat, the sun was already slipping under the horizon. We watched as sliver of sun splashed the sky in brilliant colours.

"I love sunsets." I sighed, "I used to watch it from the library tower at home." I suddenly realized how homesick I was.

"I love sunsets too." said John, "As well as sunrises."

"I can never get up early enough to see it." I answered. "When we get home, I can show you the view from the library tower if you want."

"I don't think so." John turned away, "Thank you for the offer though."

The sun disappeared under the horizon, and stars were coming out.

"Okay. But you don't have to be afraid of my parents. After all, you did kind of save me." I turned to him just as he looked my way. Our eyes locked for a moment, I realized his eyes were really blue.

"I, I can't." John stuttered and broke away.

I nodded. If he didn't want to come, I won't make him.

When we settled into our makeshift beds of blankets, I heard John say to me, "Dee, I'm sorry."

"What for?" I asked.

"For not able to protect you from the ogres."

"That's okay. This was the best way to learn the art of ogre-taming." I answered, "I'm sorry for not acting sooner to save you some pain."

"That's okay." John mumbled, "Night."

"Night." I said sleepily.

Just before I drifted off to dreamland, I thought I heard a whisper. "I love you." It said. But it was probable just the wind, or my imagination.

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I've FINALLY updated!! thanx for being patient, to make up for it I wrote a long chap. you might have to be patient for the next chap too 'cause of school and stuff.
I added the ogres 'cause it wouldn't be ella enchanted without ogres right!
okay, I added some fluff, not that much but I'll eventually add more.
reviews!! reviews!! reviews!! reviews!! reviews!! reviews!! reviews!!
EvenSong: thanx for reviewing like after every chapter!!!!