Chapter 102

The Horned King had had the most enjoyable day he could ever remember having. He even felt faintly regretful that the sun had disappeared so soon.

Nightfall was more familiar to the lich. He did not enjoy being out in the bright sun, as it hurt his eyes. He was far more accustomed with the darkness anyhow.

He had no trouble seeing in dim lighting.

He noticed the horse had slowed, but thought nothing of it until Mitternacht stopped completely in the middle of the path. Avalina hadn't asked him to, the Horned King would have felt it if she had tightened the reins.

Following her gaze and the horse's, he looked down the paler path to the right, as moonbeams slanted through the holes in the treetops.

He had an inkling of why the animal had stopped and it was confirmed when he felt such a wave of pain coming from Avalina he withdrew his hands from the front of the saddle.

She was crying. He knew this, although he could not see her face. How tense she had gotten, how she trembled faintly against him in an effort to hide her grief.

Hide her grief from him, to be exact.

His irritation rose unbidden, quickly turning into anger, and he gripped the cantle of the saddle tightly as it boiled through him.

He had given her everything she could ever want. She had music, the library, freedom to roam his grounds at will, why was she being so difficult?

After a long moment, she turned the horse toward the castle, but her grief only seemed to increase as they pulled away. It was so sharp. . .

'Why is she determined to be discontent?' He thought angrily to himself.

'Does she not realize that she could be dead?'

That faint voice in his head which now spoke to him whether he wished it or not.

'You know why she suffers.'

He tried to shove it away, but it was no use, and his anger rose.

He knew why she cried. And he knew that he was the one responsible for it.

And it angered him that he could not silence his own faint regret at this.

Or was it guilt he was feeling?

The horse took a rise, and Avalina slid back against him and stayed there.

He could feel her sadness, but her leaning against him had came as totally unexpected.

He felt her warmth seep through his robe, right on his chest, and he was unprepared for it.

It felt. . .felt. . .

He could not explain it. What was this he was feeling?

She trembled in her sorrow, and when the horse took another rise he gripped the front of the saddle for balance.

He wished she would not feel sad.

How was it that people comforted each other?

She had held his hand before, but hers were under the stole. . .

She leaned slightly to the left, and he kept his arms on either side, not wishing for her to fall off.

She rested against his other side now, her head leaning against his chest.

He could feel her heartbeat.

She was so tired. . .and so sad.

She was nearly unconscious for most of the ride, not that he minded. Her emotions were not so strong that way and made them slightly easier to ignore.

Slightly.

At the stable her exhaustion showed through so badly she could not lift the saddle, and after a moment he gently took it from her, gritting his fangs at the feel of her fear.

Grooming the horse was better. It took her mind off other things. But when they finished, it began to come back to the surface, and his anger only increased her fright.

The meal would be awkward tonight, and he had no wish to see her fight with herself or allow his own inner turmoil to show.

It would never matter how much he did, he was still her captor and that would never change.

He knew she would cry after she got away from him, and that angered him more.

He told her to eat in her room, and snarled when she tried to follow him. He wished to be alone with his unpleasant thoughts.

He hadn't taken a dozen steps when he heard her gasp and felt her pain suddenly rise.

Turning, he saw her bent double as if she were fighting an invisible force, and he realized the problem in another instant.

The child was suffocating.

"Avalina?"

The Horned King couldn't reach her in time as she collapsed, and when he knelt beside her and turned her over it became obvious she was no longer breathing.

"Your aura, Sire!" An Invisible suddenly cried.

"You pulled it from her too fast!"

The Horned King gritted his fangs and shook her shoulders.

"Wake up!"

Nothing.

His anger was now long gone, replaced by a sense of urgency so strong it made his chest hurt.

"Avalina!"

A gasp from the Invisible was followed by it yelling.

"My friends, quickly! It's Arawn!"

The Horned King shuddered at the sound of his master's name, before realizing what had happened.

He had been waiting for an opportunity like this, his master. Waiting for the Invisibles' guard to drop, but also the lich's, where he could take them all by surprise.

He knew his former apprentice like the back of his hand, and he knew his temper would get the better of him eventually.

And this time he meant to kill.

Placing his hands on her chest, the Horned King pressed down quickly once, twice, before checking for breathing.

She wasn't.

"Answer me!"

He applied pressure again, twice more, forcing himself not to press too hard, knowing full well what he was so easily capable of.

"No!" He snarled in fury, watching her unresponsive body.

"AVALINA!"

It was so dark. So incredibly dark. She had never seen a night this black in her life. There was no light to be found.

Except. . .what was that? Far above her head, nearly hidden in the layers of darkness, was the tiniest glimmer of something. It looked like a tiny, tiny star, nearly buried in the black.

As if she were swimming, she began to drift slowly toward it, feeling light as a feather.

Drifting. . .drifting. . .

She got no closer, although she felt as if she were flying so fast. . .

A voice filled her ears.

"Come," it whispered from below, "Come here!"

She instantly felt as if she had turned to stone, and she began to sink as terror filled her.

That voice. . .she knew that voice. It was the cruelest, coldest sound she had ever heard, and she struggled and fought in a panic as she continued to sink.

She knew that voice!

She tried to scream for help, but nothing would come out.

"At last, I've got you!" The voice roared in glee.

"They can't help you now!"

Sinking. . .sinking. . .something was pulling at her, weakening her struggles, and she could only thrash helplessly against it, screaming silently in the dark.

'Help me, help me!'

She was getting tired. . .the force she was fighting against took advantage of this and she began to sink faster.

The voice laughed, and it terrified her more than anything else. There was nothing but pure, malicious victory in the noise.

'Somebody help me!'

She may have been sobbing, but she couldn't tell. She was losing this fight.

She could only twitch feebly against her attacker now. Nothing would work right, and the light above her had vanished for good.

She sensed the owner of the voice reach out to grab her, and she gave a silent scream of horror as it laughed in sadistic glee.

'Help me!'

Suddenly, streaks of colored light shot through the darkness, right for her. She felt the hellish presence draw back from her, followed by the ugliest snarls and screeches she had ever heard. She had never heard anything like it, and she cringed violently from the noise.

It sounded like metal being ripped in half.

All at once she could move again, and one of the light beams was zipping all around her.

"Come, quickly!" A new voice cried, urgently.

"Come, now!"

Weakly, she attempted to follow the beam, but she was so tired. . .the darkness below called softly to her, promising rest.

She slowly began to sink again, despite having nothing pulling her down but her own exhaustion.

"No, no, no!" The new voice cried.

"You have to come with me! You can't go down there!"

'I'm. . .trying. . .'

The battle was still going on, but it seemed dim now, hardly worth interest.

Something she did hear though was that wicked laugh ringing in her ears.

"Yesssss, that's it!" It called to her.

"Come here! Surrender to me!"

She tried to fight harder in terror, but she made no headway at all.

'Help me!' She cried silently.

"Follow me!" The voice shrieked in a panic.

"Come with me!"

It took all of her strength, but she managed a feeble twitch.

"That's it!" The voice cried.

"Come on!"

Another twitch. She felt as if she had traveled a million miles with that one action.

"Yes!" The voice called.

"Come on, again!"

The next one was a little easier, and she heard the evil presence below her (Still locked in combat with the strange beams of light) roar in fury at this.

"Come on, almost there!" The voice cried, and she could see the tiny glimmer of light again.

Fighting. . .fighting. . .she could barely move at all. But she was moving. And she was gaining, and the beam that had stayed with her encouraged her on.

The light did not grow brighter or larger, but when they neared it the voice spoke again.

"Now touch it! Quick!"

She did as it bade, and the scream of rage from that evil presence rang violently against her.

"AVALINA!" He roared again in a furious panic.

A sharp, choking gasp answered him, and he felt her body jerk as her eyes slowly came open.

Gasping and coughing followed as she lay there, eyes half closed, bringing air back into her starving lungs.

The Horned King released a breath himself as she slowly rolled onto her stomach to breathe easier, shuddering violently.

She was crying, and he could feel her terror tenfold. Whatever had happened to her. . .he held down a growl at the thought of what Arawn had no doubt tried to do.

Her breaths came in hitching gasps as she fought to breathe again in a panic, clearly afraid that each one she took might be her last.

"Relax. Take deep breaths."

Rubbing her back to help her breath return to her, he didn't notice he was still kneeling beside her, concern and relief etched all over his face.

"You are out of danger."

Gasping, she tearfully rested her head on her arms for several minutes, her lungs making up for the air they had lost as tremors shook her body.

She felt his presence, but did not fully realize how close he was to her until she fuzzily looked up and made eye contact with the lich, his face about two feet from hers, realizing he was the one helping her get her breathing back to normal.

As she looked up, the Horned King realized how close he actually was to her and rose quickly, backing away as he did so.

Now that his relief had practically crashed his system, he felt anger replacing it. But this time his anger was directed at him, for he knew it had been his fault.

Avalina slowly got up like she'd been beaten, and it took all his self-control to refrain from helping her.

"What happened?" She whispered, still panting, leaning against the balcony railing for support.

"You stopped breathing."

The shock on her face did nothing to ease the unpleasant feeling in his chest.

"I. . .what?" She asked fearfully, her eyes widening.

He nodded.

"Yes."

"But. . .if I. . .did, then, how?" She stammered out, confused.

I had to wake you up," the Horned King answered her.

"You. . ."

No. It had been nothing she had done. He had done it himself in anger when he had not been paying attention.

She had stayed in his aura all day, with hardly any breaks. While it no longer had a suffocating effect on her when introduced, when his aura had been pulled from hers that quickly, after sitting there so long, it had not been eager to give her up and had pulled her very breath from her.

"I. . .moved away from you too quickly," he dredged out, feeling heavier by the second.

"I have no excuse. It was not intentional."

Avalina looked down for a moment before fixing her eyes on him again.

"I'm sorry if I made you angry," she whispered.

"I didn't mean to ruin your day."

The Horned King felt worse.

"It was nothing you did, child," he told her, "Do not think it was. I brought it on myself."

A long, awkward pause followed before an Invisible (Or was it two?) crashed through the door, dumping Creeper in the center of the balcony.

"Ta-Daaa!" It cried.

"I present to you your very own glitter-goblin! Perfect for lightening up any situation! We make them made to order, ask store for details."

Avalina and the lich took the Creeper in, their mouths dropping open as they stared.

Creeper was covered head to foot in glitter. Absolutely covered. So much so that no part of his actual skin or clothing could be seen. Absolutely none. It was a dozen times worse than the Horned King had looked that one time, minus the confetti.

He sparkled. He shimmered. He *twinkled.*

Avalina burst out laughing.

"Creeper!" She choked out, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" The goblin barked, "They did it to me! I had nothing to do with this! *Look* at me!"

Avalina burst into another fit.

"I *am* looking! Hahahaha!"

Creeper looked from her to his master.

"So am I," the Horned King rumbled out, eyeing the goblin up and down, "And I daresay it is an improvement."

The Invisibles snickered as Creeper turned back to Avalina.

"Well, stop looking!"

"I can't help it!" Avalina howled.

"You twinkle like a star!"

The soft, deep chuckle of the Horned King added to the laughter in the room.

The goblin wanted nothing more than to slink away from this embarrassment, but a quiet growl from his master meant he was to stay put for as long as the Horned King wished.

Several minutes later, when the laughter had finally died down enough that one could speak and be heard, Avalina cackled out, "But Creeper, what *happened?*"

"Isn't it obvious?" One of the Invisibles laughed, (Or was it both of them?) "He's a Yankee Doodle Dandy!"

"And he's had too many rainbow mushrooms!"

It's been A while since I've done two chapters in one day. *Polishes medal* XD

Reviews much appreciated! :D