Chapter 3

"Ellie what was that?" Her mother asked, looking at the remaining ashes of the letter in the fireplace were the fire died down.

"Tegan's application letter, she gave it to me, she wanted me to go." Ellie answered while still crying.

"Ellie! Why did you do that?" Her mother asked.

"Because I have no choice." Ellie replied.

"Oh Ellie." Her mother sighed.

"I'm going to take a walk through town ok?" Ellie said.

"Ok then." Her mother replied, watching Ellie walk out of the front door.

"Your highness." A guard said as he approached Marcus, while he was sitting on his throne.

"Yes?" Mark replied.

"There seems to be a shortage of slaves in the kingdom." The guard explained.

"Really?" Mark said.

"Yes your highness, we need more workers for the field and the laundry." The guard said.

"Fair enough, go down to the town and capture some more people, men and women, pay the families if they refuse, they'll expect then." Mark explained.

"Yes your highness." The guard said and walked away to explain to the other guards what was going to happen.

Ellie was walking through the town and looking at the many stores. People were buying and selling bread, animals, meats and all sorts of things. She continued to cry through all of this, her hair was sticking to her face from tears.

She continued to walk around when all of a sudden, a bunch of villagers started running past her.

"What's wrong?" She called out.

A young man stopped when he saw her confused look on her face.

"Quick you must run! Prince Marcus's guards have arrived and they're capturing people and taking them back to his kingdom!" He explained.

"Oh good god!" Ellie gasped and started running.

She looked behind her shoulder while running and saw a few of the guards chasing after them.

Ellie started to panic, and tried to run as fast as her little legs would go.

She didn't see the hole in the ground up ahead, and she tripped, falling onto the muddy ground. She gasped out as she felt pain in her ankle. She tried to get up, but felt someone tugging on her leg. She looked up to see that it was one of the guards.

Ellie screamed out. "No!"

"I've got one, I've got one!" He called out, picking Ellie up and handcuffing her behind her back.

"No please!" Ellie begged as he walked her through the streets.

"Walk faster!" He yelled pushing her to hurry her up.

"I can't, I've twisted my ankle!" Ellie cried out, limping in pain.

"Hush! I don't want excuses!" He yelled and continued to push her along.

They reached a horse and cart, with other people already inside.

She saw an older woman and a few men sitting inside with their hands cuffed.

"No, no!" Ellie screamed out.

The guard picked up Ellie and threw her inside; she hit her head on the wooden floor, causing her to black out.

Ellie slowly started to regain consciousness after being blacked out. She looked out from the sides and saw they had arrived in the outside court area of the palace.

She saw Marcus and Jocelyn approaching as the cart stopped.

She gulped, knowing what was going to come, wasn't going to be pleasant.