A/N: Sorry that it has taken me so long to update, but with school and the computer and the disks messing up on me, it was kind of hard. I promise to do better though.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Messa and the story line

Chapter 8 The Cottage

Most of the ride to the cottage was silent. Ozorne was there so neither girl really felt like talking too much. The animals were even quiet sensing Daine's trepidation for when they got there. The whole mood lifted, though, for about three-quarters of the way there, Ozorne left to attend to some official business.

"I am so sorry I cannot escort you the whole way, my dear, but duty calls," he said, bending down to kiss her, but she moved her head away. He straightened back up with an evil look in his eye and continued, "Now, Josephine, remember what I told you, if you step more than five feet off of this path before you are within a two mile radius of the cottage, you will die. You do remember what will happen after that, do you not? Although there has been one change since we last talked of it."

"How so, my lord?" Josephine asked, less than eager to find out.

"Well, I realized that I had not taken into account that you are the soon to be empress and that there are people out there who might want to use you to their advantage. I had to rectify the situation immediately, of course. Now, as long as you do not leave of your own free will, you will not die and the bracelet will alert me to the fact," Ozorne said, proud of himself.

"How considerate of you," Josephine said, dryly. She had considered that option one of her last resorts. She almost added some nasty words, but the look in his eyes told her she was already in enough trouble from turning her head away. She soon learned that this was true when he grabbed her, pinning her arms to her side, and kissed her so roughly that he drew blood at one point. He then left without another word.

Daine and Messa watched him until he was out of their sights. They looked down at their necklaces to make sure that no one was listening, which no one was. Then the woods became very loud as opposed to the silence of before. The animals came back to life and the girls, well, they were cheering.

"Thank the gods, I thought we may actually have to ride the whole way with him!" Daine exclaimed.

"I know what you mean. I don't know how much longer I could have kept my neck down without getting a crick in it or crashing the horse, or even worse, falling of the horse," Messa laughed.

And so the girls filled the once uncomfortable silence with the sounds of laughter and chatter. Sometimes these noises were interrupted by a loud screech when a wild animal would come up to say hello. This was because to Messa, hearing and knowing that the animals will do this is a totally different thing then living them doing this. This continued until the girls came within sight of the cottage, at which point, they stopped in awe.

It was the most beautiful place that either girl had seen. Ozorne had certainly spared no expense. Although it looked like any other cottage, it was bigger and obviously was better made. It sat in a huge field that had a stream going directly through the back of it. It also had a place for a little garden and many beautiful plants already in its windows and such. There was a stable off to the side so the girls went to put their mounts up, though they promised to let them roam around later.

The two girls went inside to find themselves in a huge kitchen and dining area. Beyond that was a huge sitting area with large bookshelves lining the wall and a desk in one corner. In the other was a staircase with a small toiletry underneath it. Up the stairs, there was a large bedroom with a door off to each side. On the right side, there was another smaller bedroom, obviously meant for Messa. On the left side was a closest/ large bath. The whole place was lavishly decorated and furnished.

" You know, for a complete gods' cursed jerk, he did go all out on this place," Daine commented.

Messa nodded, " I hope that this doesn't make up for everything he has done to you, though."

"Odds bobs, of course not."

"Good, just checking. How about I go make us some lunch?" At Daine's nod she went downstairs.

Daine continues to look around the room as she waited for Mesa to let her know that dinner was ready. She found that the bed was especially soft. She also found that her closest was already completely filled with dresses. She was taking a mental note to ask to go shopping for some clothes that she could actually live in out there when she heard a scream come from downstairs. She hurried down there to find a still screaming Messa and a very annoyed Badger god trying to calm her down.

"Messa, its okay. This is the male badger god that I was telling you about," Daine said as she rushed to give her old friend a hug.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me, my lord," Messa said, bowing.

"Of course," the Badger said, "Now, Kit, I have something to give you. Would you please come outside," he added before wobbling away. Daine did as she was told, although obviously confused, and Messa did the same.

Outside, there was a pack of wolves waiting patiently for her. When she did, they all started wagging their tails. Messa would have screamed again had it not been for Daine yelling out "Brokefang" and rushing toward the group. Messa decided to let her friend have a private reunion and went inside to finish lunch.

"They are going to be staying here for as long as you have to since this is the only family that we could bring you," the Badger said.

" Thank-you" was the only thing Daine could manage to get out.

" I have to go now, Kit, take care and I'll see again as soon as possible." He said before disappearing.

"Thank-you guys for coming," Daine said to the pack.

"We couldn't leave you without a pack, no one deserves that," Brokefang replied.

"Daine, Lunch is ready,' Messa yelled out the door.

"Yes, we should probably go hunt, too, and get acquainted with the surrounding area and the prey" Brokefang said, " We will be back tonight."

"Happy Hunting," Daine yelled out to the disappearing pack before turning to go have her own lunch.

A/N: I would just like to explain that the Bracelet can take away her power if Ozorne so chooses to do that. I would rewrite that part but as I said my disk messed up and I no longer have that chapter. Anyway, thanks for all your reviews and please forgive me for taking so long.