Disclaimer: Anything by the wonderful Gail Carson Levine is not mine. All of the characters and ideas from Ella Enchanted are Gail Carson Levine's. However, most of the plot and characters are mine.

Summary: Sarah, Ella's daughter, is kidnapped on the night of her debutante ball. At first she does not know what her captors want from her, but when she does her life is changed forever. What follows is an adventure featuring magic, mayhem, romance, elves, balls and a prince in disguise!

A/N: Thank you so much to all who reviewed – I love you guys! I made this chapter longer for you all so I hope you like it.

Chapter 4:

On The Run

-

Sarah's face bore an expression of horror as one of the ropes supporting the bridge snapped......

She desperately clung onto her horse and screamed as they fell down through the air. Her scream caught Fin's attention and he ran over to her, his heart in his throat as he watched them fall into the river below with a huge splash.

Sarah went down under the water for a few seconds and then her head bobbed up again. Fin scrambled down as quickly as he could to the bank of the river and dived in.

He was an excellent swimmer and easily managed to reach Sarah. Unfortunately, no matter how excellent at swimming a person is, it is quite a difficult matter to drag TWO people back to shore.

Fin, clutching Sarah (who was unconscious) tightly grabbed onto a rock. The horse was nowhere to be seen, but Fin had more important things on his mind. He cursed himself. How was he ever going to get himself out of this mess?

He tried to bring Sarah back to Earth. "Sarah!" he repeated over and over again till his breath was hoarse. He grew so frustrated that he slapped her face. This was at the point in which she had started regaining consciousness.

"Ouch! Why did you have to do that for?" she demanded angrily.

Fin almost cried with relief.

"You stupid git! You could have been killed!"

Sarah stared at him in wonder, she could not believe that he cared so much whether she lived or not. Sarah understood the underlying truth when he said, "Our master will kill us if anything happened to you."

Sarah groaned, "I'm glad I'm so important to you."

"How are we going to get out of here? Do you think that you could grab onto this rock? You are starting to get heavy."

Sarah latched herself onto it. She then saw a sight that made her eyes light up.

"Fin, look! It is Flame."

Sarah and Fin were smiling hard with pleasure.

"Come on, you guys." Yelled Flame over the roaring sound of the water. "I have got a rope here. Pull yourselves over."

They both proceeded to do just that.

Sarah was lying down on the ground, an expression of annoyance on her face.

"I cannot believe you did that!" shouted Fin.

"Why can't you believe it? What normal person would not try to escape from their kidnappers?!"

"But you deliberately risked your life like that! Did not you see that the bridge was too old and rickety? Did not you understand that we would have found you somehow, no matter what happened?"

Sarah scrunched up her face in pain; her headache was growing worse with all the noise that they were making. She wished that they were not making such a big deal out of everything.

She tried to move but found that the task was too painful. Flame, who apparently was quite a skilled healer, could not see any broken bones of any kind but suggested that she should lie down for the rest of the day. She had rubbed in a special lotion that smelt of roses onto Sarah's body. There was to be no more travelling for the moment.

"You are extremely lucky that you were not badly hurt." Were Flame's exact words.

Sarah thought that she was unlucky though. Her body ached and she missed her parents yesterday. She wondered what her friend Isi was up to. Sarah had taken so much in life for granted and now it was too late to do anything about it.

The three spent their evening deep in their own thoughts. Sarah was not tied up – they figured that she would have great difficulty trying to get up, let alone run away.

Suddenly, a thought came to Sarah.

"Where are you two from? You are surely not Kyrrian."

"We are- " began Fin, but he was cut short.

"We cannot give away our identities! Suppose we are caught, then they will know who we are."

"Surely there can be no harm in telling her where we are from. The kingdom that we come from is not that small!"

Flame grunted and Fin took it as her consent.

"We are from Bamarre."

"Bamarre! Oh, I have heard many legends about that place."

"Yes, it is quite well-known."

"My favourite is the one about the Two Princesses. I loved it how they were true heroines and found the cure for the terrible disease, the Grey Death." Sarah's face shone at the memory of the tale. Ella had often told it to her.

Fin smiled. "Yes, it is a favourite of mine as well." His face suddenly grew sad and Sarah wondered why. What did this poem mean to him? What memory did he have that was so painful?

Before Sarah could continue her questioning any further, their conversation was interrupted by Flame's cry. She was looking through a spyglass.

"Quick. I can see some trackers, they have come for the Princess."

Flame and Fin hurriedly packed their belongings and they shifted Sarah onto a horse. Fin climbed protectively onto the horse carrying Sarah, and Flame went onto the other.

"We must split up! They are roughly a kilometre away in that direction." Flame pointed to where she meant.

"You go on and take her onto the original route and I will distract them. I will hopefully meet up with you later." Flame told the others, then dashed off into the direction of their pursuers.

A bubble of hope seemed to well in Sarah's heart. She would be free! Her father's soldiers would surely find her. Sarah wondered is she could somehow make the job a lot easier for them. As if Fin knew what she was thinking, he took out a small bottle and forced her to drink from it.

Sarah reluctantly swallowed the warm liquid inside it. It tasted bitter and reminded her of lemons. Sarah did not notice any side effects at first, then realized that she was feeling more relaxed. She tried to speak but not a single word was she able to utter. She could not move her body either except for her eyes.

Sarah was angrier than ever before. She was paralysed! She was completely helpless. Fin sensed her anger but knew that he could not risk them being found. He could not afford anymore trouble than what had happened so far. If he was caught, the penalty would most likely be death.

He rode off into the opposite direction of their pursuers, gripping Sarah tightly.

"Now just keep calm. Everything will be all right. I promise that I will not hurt you."

"As if!" thought Sarah. Everything was just going downhill.

They seemed to ride for hours on end, hardly stopping at all. There was a grim silence between them. He was not in the mood for talking, and she could not talk at all because of the potion.

The places in her body that were hurt from the fall seemed to be on fire. It was growing darker by the minute and she was feeling sleepy. The steady rhythm of the horse soothed her. The stars that were beginning to appear in the night sky seemed to look over her and protect her. Fin's arms were like a warm blanket and she settled back into them.

Sarah was too tired to notice the swift noise of something flying through the air.

She was too tired to notice that Fin was pressing his body onto hers too heavily.

She was not too tired however, to notice the dampness of his shirt and an unusual sweet smell.

The pungent stench of blood.

A/N: Okay guys! I hoped you liked that chapter. Sorry about the cliffie, I know how much you guys hate them but they are so much fun to write! (I'm evil I know.) Anyway, I promise to update soon!

Now you all know what to do next – review!