A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry that I haven't updated for ages! Been a bit preoccupied with all this schoolwork and stuff. But here is the next chapter and I hope you enjoy!
Oh, and to all those people who decided to guess what was happening, you were all exactly right! lol! I was HOPING someone would guess :) Well done.
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Chapter 2: Blast from the Past
I must have fallen asleep somehow because a sharp and painful jab in my side suddenly woke me up.
"Wake up, breakfast," a horribly familiar voice crooned in my ear.
I froze. Oh no. It couldn't be.
I tried to jump to my feet, ready to run as fast as I could, but to my horror I found that I was tightly bound with rough scratchy ropes. I struggled helplessly against my bonds and tried to scream for help, only to find that I was gagged as well.
SEEf's ugly, hairy face leered down at me and he laughed coarsely as he watched me shrink as low to the ground as I could. The ogre then reached out and stroked my cheek with a hairy finger, his beady eyes gleaming with a gloating triumph.
"Remember me?" he asked with a nasty smile that revealed his pointy yellow teeth.
'What? How?' I tried to ask, but it came out as a muffled sound of protest instead, which sent the other ogres around me into gales of crude laughter.
"Not going to speak to us?" SEEf taunted with a mocking smile. "Come now, surely you are not going to deprive us of your sweet tones, are you?"
But I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me struggle further. Instead I gave him a cool stare, despite my heart racing at the speed of a galloping centaur.
SEEf pretended to wipe away a tear of laughter, but still the nasty look remained. I felt a flicker of fear leap inside of me. This time I could not defend myself. I was helpless and at their mercy. Sooner or later I would be eaten.
He stared me straight in the eye and his grin grew wider, stretching from ear to ear. "You cannot hide anything from me, my dear. I know all your secrets, all your wishes… and all your desires."
My gaze did not waver in the slightest at his words, but a pang of sorrow still stabbed me in the chest. I would never see Char again, never tell him that I loved him just as much, if not more than he loves me. Or used to love me.
"But I can see the question that you are just dying to ask," SEEf continued with a malicious grin, interrupting my rueful thoughts.
I did not miss his emphasis on 'dying'.
I tried not to react, but the ogre must have seen something waver in my eyes for he broke out into nasty laughter again.
"We have no one but your delightful young prince to thank for our escape," SEEf then said after he stopped laughing, although the ferocious grin never left his face. He beckoned to one of the ogres behind him, who came up and handed him something. SEEf then held out the objects to me on his filthy palm. They each looked like a combination of mud, twigs and leaves – all rolled together into two large and disgusting balls of muck. My heart sank as I remembered when Char and his retinue of knights first saved me from the ogre band. They had put wax in their ears so that they could not hear the ogres' smooth, sweet and compelling voices.
SEEf grinned at my look of realisation and started to toss them up and down, his beady eyes all the while never leaving my face.
"We are not stupid creatures, my dear," he said quietly, his grin fading. He looked faintly angry. "One of the guards had brought kegs of ale. Foolishly they drank and laughed while we watched and waited in our prison. In their state, it didn't take much of an effort to convince them to raise the gate to our hut so we could escape." He rubbed his fat, hairy stomach suggestively, a wicked gleam to his eye. "They were sweeter than what I am used to, but delicious all the same."
I stared at him in horror, feeling more than just a little sick. They had eaten the guards. My stomach flipped on its side. I hoped that they hadn't come across Simon. The parrot cages were very close to the ogre huts. Please no, I prayed desperately.
"And so, here we are," he said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. He reached out again to roughly caress my cheek. "I am going to enjoy eating you," he crooned with a lazy smile. My heart's pulse quickened with fear. He was so close that his rancid breath washed over me like a heat wave, but I was too frightened to gag. "I promise that I will relish every single, delicious moment."
His mouth was slightly open so I could see his pointy yellow teeth glistening with drool.
"Revenge is sweet, or perhaps savoury," he said with a soft yet evil laugh that chilled me to the bone. "As soon as I find out I will tell you."
"Father," suddenly one of the other ogres spoke up in Ogrese. His gruff voice seemed to be laced with a warning tone, although I couldn't be sure.
SEEf looked more than just a little annoyed at this interruption and with a snarl, he spun to face him. A droplet of slaver flicked from his mouth and landed on my forehead. It burned my skin and I wriggled a little in pain.
"What?" he snapped, glaring fiercely at the ogre that had spoken. I frowned. He seemed vaguely familiar.
The ogre stood his ground under SEEf's deadly look, but I noticed a muscle in his eyelid twitching slightly with unease. "Remember what we discussed and agreed upon?" He stressed the word 'agreed' ever so slightly. "You've had your fun, but I think TShNOO won't be happy if you disobey him," he added pointedly.
TShNOO? It sounded like someone had sneezed.
"He said he wanted her alive and unharmed," the young ogre continued. "You heard him yourself, and I doubt that you could have forgotten so soon. By now he will have reached the Fens and is waiting for us to arrive with her."
All at once I realised who the ogre was. It was NiSSh, the one that had wanted to keep me for a pet, and the only one that had showed me some kindness, even if he had agreed to eat me in the end. It had been more than a year since I had seen him last. He had grown much bigger and the black hair on his face had sprouted into thick black clumps like the rest of them. He had grown uglier too.
SEEf scowled at him in annoyance. "I had no intention of disobeying him."
I did not believe him for a second, and apparently NiSSh didn't either, judging from the look in his eye. I didn't want to feel grateful to an ogre, but I couldn't help it. If he hadn't intervened, I was willing to wager that a nice big chunk of my thigh would have been missing by now.
"I was merely scaring her a little." SEEf shot me a poisonous look. "It's nowhere near what she deserves for tricking and capturing us with her filthy prince and his knights."
"Perhaps," NiSSh said, throwing me a calm, passive glance. He seemed unperturbed by what I had done to them all. "But we have our orders. If we don't follow them… well, I don't know about you, but I for one wouldn't want to have TShNOO angry at me."
There were grunts of agreement from the other ogres and I felt my spirits lift. It suddenly looked that I would still be alive for a little while longer yet. I wondered who this TShNOO was to have such power over them.
"Fine," SEEf growled. "We move out now. The Fens is still far."
SEEf began to hoist me up onto his shoulders, but was suddenly stopped by NiSSh.
"You have been carrying her all night long, Father. Let me take her to ease your burden," he said lightly, his voice sounding as if that was all he meant; but the look in his beady eyes plainly said that he didn't trust SEEf in the slightest. It looked like SEEf was about to argue with him, but noting all the other ogres watching him, he closed his mouth and nodded. He watched NiSSh sling me around his shoulders with a surly look.
"Move out!" SEEf growled again and they set off at a fast pace across the grassy meadow. I was safe for now, but once we reached the Fens… I shuddered to think what would happen and prayed that we would not reach it any time soon.