Chapter 3:

Wren had managed to find a way out of the castle, and out into the forest of gallows. She befriended the ravens, who took particular interest in her. One of them crawled onto her shoulder, and whispered in her ear.

" Beware of the Prince of Midnight. He kills. Always beware…Never believe him…He is a liar…" And it flew away, leaving her to ponder on it's words. Carrion…liar? No doubt about it. She followed the path, until she saw an old, stone bench. It was buried under a pile of leaves, and vines were starting to creep up it. She cleared away the leaves, and sat cross-legged on it. She closed her eyes, and whispered "Illastial groperius!" She then started to meditate, the noises of the ravens cawing, and the wind blowing through the corpses fading, until she was alone in her own world. She felt herself lift off the bench, her legs still crossed, and float there. Wren did not open her eyes, for she was used to this.

She sat there, levitating, for what felt like a few minutes, but was really a few hours. Wren felt herself relaxing, and she felt more peaceful then she had the whole day.

" So you enjoy my Forest?" She jumped, and tumbled two feet, hit the bench, and fell to the gallow-leaf-strewn floor. She put her hand up to the newly forming bump on her head, and looked up to see the one person she wished she could avoid. She glared at him. He ignored her look and offered her a hand. She helped herself up, and stood less than three inches from him.

" I don't think anything here is enjoyable."

" Well that is quite sad, perhaps there is one thing that you might find enjoyable."

He grabbed her hand in his so fast she could not protest, and lead her away from the forest of gallows. Anytime she tried to pull away, he gripped her a little tighter. Besides that, his grip was not very tight at all, but his flesh was as cold as stone.

They came down to the shoreline, and Carrion finally let her go. She stubbornly pulled away, and stood there, enjoying the view. She took off her shoes, and then waded into the Izabella, until the water was a little above her ankles. She gasped at the mist when it sprayed her way, and then closed her eyes, and let the feel of the sand beneath her toes, the water splashing her legs, and the mist spraying her face and hair cleanse the fear and ugliness she had been feeling here.

--------

I watched her as she took off her shoes and walked into the water. She looked like all the troubles in the Abarat that she had ever faced were washed away from her in that very instant. I knew that the Sea was the one thing that she would find comforting in this place.

I waded in beside her, shoes and all, and put my hand on her shoulder. She really was a beautiful thing, if I might add. She glanced up at me. I could see the reflection of my face, complete with my glass case, in her glass-like green eyes.

And then it happened.

She turned to run back to the shore, as worried as a rabbit being chased by a fox would, but managed in knocking me down instead. I fell, and hit the ocean bottom. My glass shell that covered my face shattered. I tried to get up, but I felt a tremendous pain in my right ankle. So tremendous that it made me sit back down into the sea. My head started to sink down into the water, but then I felt hands wrap around under my armpits, and she started to pull me to shore.

--------

Wren grabbed The Prince of Midnight under the arms, and proceeded to pull him out of the water toward the shore. In her haste, she saw that his glass case had been broken.

They reached the land, and she knelt down beside him. She put her hand around his back.

"Up." She ordered.

He got up, with much help from Wren. And then he saw them.

There were people. Tons of people. And they had weapons, and fire, and horrid things of torture. But the worse part was that they were coming right for them.

Carrion tried to stumble on faster, but only managed to fall. Wren lifted him up again, and they stumbled on down the beach.

Then, if things could get anymore unexpected, they did. Wren suddenly turned around, and much to Christopher Carrion's surprise, said "Oprebtentab-Ingoto!"

The men and women were still running.

What use did that have? Thought Carrion. But then he saw that the people suddenly hit what looked to be an invisible wall. They hit the ground, and then got up to see what was the matter.

The spell only lasted for a little while, and only managed to get Wren and Christopher a few feet farther. Every once in while, Carrion would hear her call out the same spell again. But each few feet they gained only lasted for a few seconds, before the running citizens gobbled them up.

Finally, Wren got outraged.

"OPREBTENTAB-INGOTO!" She cried out.

But then carrion saw it.

The Wormwood.

A few more yards and they would be there. But only a few more yards till the people would be to them. But Wren's outrage seemed to bring more power to her spell then usual, and they managed to reach the Wormwood.

Wren cut the ropes, and let the ship sail away. Carrion barely managed to get onto the deck, before he blacked out.

--------

Christopher Carrion woke to find himself dragged against the edge of the boat. He looked up to find a tired looking Wren at the stern. She noticed that he had awoken, and went over to him.

She bent down, and looked at Carrion's foot. Then she looked him, who nodded. She nodded back, and then started to remove the robes and then the shoe wrapped around his right foot.

She then tore some robes of the Prince of Midnight, who looked startled at her doing so, and then preceded to wrap them around his ankle.

When she was done, she crawled away from Carrion, and then dropped down on the deck, asleep.

---------

As much as he hated leaving his Towers, especially with some random thief-of-a-girl, he couldn't help but get up and steer the boat. Then he realized that his efforts were of no use, for Wren had cast a spell on it that caused it to need no director.

Well, he was up anyway, so he figured that he would stay up. He felt empty without his glass case. He then realized that he had an open wound where the pipes that had lead out of his head into his glass chamber were gone. He screamed in agony as he felt the pain. Wren awoke.

She came over to him and said, "Shhhhh….Not so loud. They'll hear you." He pulled off another one his robes and tore it into pieces, then wrapped them around his head, and tied them. He felt dizzy, and almost fell over on top of Wren in the process of trying to sit down. She helped him-God bless her-and he managed, for the second time today, to black out.

The next thing he noticed, they were sailing toward some island. It looked to be a Day Island. But as they got closer, he realized it was artificial light. Pyon…He fell back asleep.

The next time he woke up, he was being dragged to some awful place. For some reason, there was no fake light here. He felt himself being dragged into a quiet room that was pitch black. He felt himself being covered in a blanket. Wow, he had fallen so low…

The next morning, he awoke to find that he was in a burned down building. The blanket that was covering him was actually Wren's cloak. No wonder his feet were sticking out.

"Here's your cloak back." He said as he handed it to her. As much as he despised wearing her cloak, he had come to the conclusion that it was much softer than any cloak he had ever possessed.

He looked around the room. There was a bunch of old wood beams, scarred from flame. Then it hit him.

He fumed.

He turned on his heel and walked right out of the ashes, into a burned-down orchard.

"What's wrong? Is this place not sanitary enough for you or something?" Wren had followed him out.

"'This place' is where I use to live. The Carrion Night Mansion. My father caused it to burn down."

Wren looked into his eyes, and could see the feelings and memories behind them.

"Ohhh…. I'm sorry about that." Was all she could manage to say.

"Can we leave?"

"Well the boat…it…it kinda broke…"

"WHAT!"

It seemed like this was the icing on the cake. His emotions went into overdrive. And guess who he decided to put them out on?

He turned around and punched Wren. She had a gut feeling that this was coming, and she caught his punch and gave it right back. He wasn't expecting this. She had to admit that she did have some street credit. He put his hand to his eye, where she had hit it, and then in his flurry, raged at Wren.

He tried to hit her in the face, but missed. He then tackled her to the ground, where they started to wrestle.

He was a strong opponent, she had to admit. But Wren was no shrimp. She put up a good fight.

In the end, they both wound up with a black eye, a few cuts, a bloody nose, a lot of bruises, and a lot of anger toward each other.

"Well, I thought we could try to blend in to get onto a boat, but no. You just had to get all mad and freaked out." Wren said.

Carrion had been looking toward the ground, bent over, trying to stop the bleeding from his nose, but now he looked up at her. His eyes had sunken in, and were black from being bruised. He looked possessed. He stood up to his full height.

"You…." He said.

--------

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, I've been on vacation. But hopefully this chapter is long enough to suite you. A lot happened in this one.