WHAT UP!

Here's the next chapter of The Princess Bride! Last time, you got the idea behind the story, but everything is not what it seems.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Austin & Ally or The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Chapter 4

Kidnapped by Bandits!

A few weeks after accepting the prince's proposal, Ally had been moved out of her family's small home and into a room at the castle. Now, she will be announced to the rest of the village and the surrounding areas as the prince's fiancé. A normal girl, royal or common would be jumping for joy at the thought, but for Ally, it was agonizing.

Here she was, after making that vow, standing in front of a large mirror with a dozen young ladies crowding around making sure she looked her best for the presentation. She was wearing a dress that most likely cost more than her house, horse and vegetable garden all combined into one. Long sleeves of silk, colors only found to the rich, and bejeweled circlets covered her body and she felt completely out of place. In all honesty, she preferred her flowy cotton skirts and dresses with plain headbands and simple shoes.

That was now a thing of the past.

Even before she had moved in, royal courtesans and teachers had come to her house to give etiquette lessons and proper ways to address the nobility as that was to be her life from now on. Every day it felt like she was being crushed by everything they were teaching her and all she wanted was to crawl into a hole and not come out. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

Her ladies-in-waiting had finished straightening her dress and placing the circlet on her head. Her hair had been styled into a long braid and her feet were covered by silky slippers. It was time for her grand debut to the people, whether she wanted to or not. She was led from her room towards the courtyard of the castle, where everyone from the surrounding area had gathered. She could hear the chatter and giggling of adults, children and the elderly as they waited to hear who their future queen would be. It was a long time coming for them, so many viewed it as a festive time.

Ally stood behind a sheer curtain as she heard the trumpets sound and the courtyard grew instantly quiet. Up on a high turret, the elderly king and queen, along with Prince Dallas and his right-hand man Trent, stood waiting for the big announcement. Dallas raised his arm and the trumpeters stopped.

"My people," He stated, his voice echoing around the large courtyard. "A month from now, our country, Florin, will have its 500th anniversary. On that sundown, I shall marry a lady who was once a commoner like you."

What a nice way to put it. Ally thought as she remained hidden behind this screen. Her maids were once again applying pins to her hair and makeup to her face before they were shooed away by the head courtesan.

"However, you may not find her common now." Dallas said with a little smirk etched onto his face. "Would you like to meet her?" The full courtyard replied with a 'YES' and his smirk seemed to only get bigger. With a wave of his hand Dallas brought the attention to the tiny runway set up.

"My people, the Princess Ally." And the sheer curtain parted to reveal Ally, dressed to the nines, but her face remained as it always was: solemn and without emotion.

She walked to the end of the runway as the crowd of people dropped to one knee, bowing in respect to their future queen. Ally looked around at the people and then up at her betrothed. She made it no secret to him or others of the court of how she truly felt about her situation.

She was only doing this for to help her family, nothing more and nothing less. She would never feel any kind of affection for Dallas and would do what was required of her by the marital laws.

Dallas however believed that Ally's broken heart only needed time. He would show her kindness over the coming month until she returned his feelings. Time would be his friend and bring him the girl he desired.

However, time is no one's friend and it was running out on Dallas's plan.

It was beautiful sunny day and Ally decided to take a break from her lessons and wedding details to take Seelie for an afternoon ride. It was the only time of the day that she could have to herself and she was going to use it as much as she could. However, this ride would take a turn for the worse.

She had just ridden over the bridge leading from the castle to the nearby forest when she came upon three men sitting by a tree. One of them, a small man with glasses and a strange accent, stopped her horse in its tracks.

"Excuse me, ma'am," He said. "We three are but poor, lost circus performers. Would there happen to be a village nearby?" Ally gave him a peculiar look as she surveyed the other two men.

One was a tall, lanky man with bright orange hair and strangely colored clothes. They were mismatched and brightly colored and a rapier sword was attached to his waist. The other was a rather large man, quite large in fact, and didn't really look all that put together. His mousy brown hair was a little disheveled and his clothes looked tattered and torn. They must have been lost for quite some time.

"There is nothing nearby." Ally said. "Not for miles." All of a sudden the small man's face turned from a humble smile to a wicked sneer.

"Then there will be no one to hear you scream." And the large man stepped towards her. Ally tried to let out a scream or turn Seelie and run, but a large hand had clamped down on her throat and she passed out.

After she had passed out, the three men had moved her and the horse to the water's edge, where a boat was waiting. The smallest of the men had grabbed a blue shirt from his bag and began tearing at it, trying to rip a swatch and the emblem on it. The orange haired man saw what the other was doing and walked over to get a better view.

"What is that you are ripping, Chuck?" He asked, his voice giving off a slight Spanish accent. The other man, now known as Chuck, looked at the other man.

"It's fabric from the uniform of an army officer of Guilder." He explained, finally getting the swatch and emblem free from the uniform. The larger man looked up from his position on the boat with Ally.

"Who's Guilder?" He asked in a very deep voice. Chuck was beginning to get annoyed by the amount of questions from these two idiots.

"The country across the sea, the sworn enemy of the country of Florin." He said as he attached the fabric to Seelie's saddle. "Go!" And with that Seelie took off back towards the castle. "Once the horse reaches the castle, the fabric will make the prince think the Guilderians have abducted his love." He began walking the gangplank and onto the ship, a wicked grin still plastered on his face. "When he finds her dead body on the Guilder frontier, his suspicions will have been confirmed." That caused the other men to become a little scared. That was something they had not talked about when they were hired for this job.

"You never said anything about killing anyone." The giant said.

"I hired you to help me start a war." Chuck explained. "It's prestigious line of work with a long and glorious tradition."

"I just don't think it's right." He said back. "Killing an innocent girl." Chuck looked shocked at what his hired help had just said.

"Am I going mad, or did the word 'THINK' escape your lips?" Chuck yelled at the somewhat gentle giant. "You were not hired for your brains, you hippopotamic land mass!"

"I agree with Kellan." The Spanish swordsman said. Chuck then threw his rage onto his other hired help.

"Oh! The SOT has spoken!" He said. "What happens to her is truly not your concern! I will kill her! And remember this, never forget this!" He turned towards the Spaniard. "When I found you, you were so slobbering drunk, you couldn't even afford brandy!" He then turned from the Spaniard to the giant, now known as Kellan. "And you! Friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed? In Greenland?" Both of the men gave a solemn look and Chuck, happy with what he had done, walked towards the back of the ship where the wheel was. This left the Spaniard and Kellan alone to converse.

"Chuck," The Spaniard said. "He can…fuss." Kellan then reach over to pat his friend on the back.

"Fuss, fuss… I think he likes to scream… at us." The Spaniard knew where his large friend was going with this and he quite liked it when they did.

"Probably he means no… harm."

"He's really very short on… charm!" They both laughed as the Spaniard turned back to his friend.

"Ah, you have a great gift for rhyme."

"Yes, yes Dez, some of the time."

"Enough of that!" They heard Chuck yell from the wheel as they set sail. The Spaniard, now known as Dez, looked out over the horizon as they did.

"Kellan, are there any rocks ahead?" He asked.

"If there are, we'll be dead!"

"No more rhymes now, I mean it!" Chuck yelled.

"Anybody want a peanut?"

Later that night

Night had set on the sailing ship when Ally had finally come to. She thought that she had been dreaming, but was sad when she saw that it was not a dream. Now here she was, kidnapped by a short, annoying whiner, a brightly colored Spaniard and a somewhat gentle giant and no way to hang herself. First the prince's proposal and now this, did God like making her life a living hell?

Chuck had sat himself on a barrel, Kellan was standing behind the wheel while Dez had perched himself on the back of the ship. He wanted to make sure that no one was following them, regardless of it they were from Guilder or Florin.

"We'll reach the cliffs by dawn." Chuck said as he leaned back on the railing of the boat. "Why are you doing that?" He asked Dez. His constant vigilance was becoming annoying as they had left Florian borders quite a while ago.

"Making sure nobody's following us." He said back before returning to looking out on the water.

"That would be inconceivable." Chuck said, but not everyone on the boat agreed.

"Despite what you may think, you will be caught." Ally piped in. "And when you are, the prince will see you all hanged." She thought that might convince them to turn back around, to save their own skins, but Chuck wasn't perturbed in the least. He leaned forward to look her in the eyes from across the deck.

"Of all the necks on this boat, Highness, the one you should be worried about is your own." He said, hoping to scare her a little. It didn't work as Ally gave him a solemn look back at him. "Stop doing that!" He yelled back at Dez, who was still playing look out. "We can all relax, it's almost over."

"You are sure nobody's follow us?" Dez asked.

"As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways, inconceivable." Chuck said, a little irritability lacing his tone. "No one in Guilder knows what we've done, and no in Florin could've gotten here so fast." All of sudden, it struck Chuck as to why Dez might have asked that question. "Out of curiosity, why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Dez said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Suddenly, I just happen to look behind us and something is there." Now that caused a little alarm bell to go off in Chuck's head. Could someone from Florin have really moved that fast?

He rose up from the barrel he was sitting on and came to stand next to Dez on the back of the ship. He could see in the distance a small boat sailing in their direction. The sail had no emblem of either country, so maybe it could just be a local fisherman.

"Probably some local fisherman out for a pleasure cruise at night… through eel infested water." Their vigilance, however was interrupted when they heard a splash. Dez and Chuck turned back around to see that their captive had jumped overboard.

"Go in!" Chuck said, pushing Dez and Kellan to the edge of the boat.

"I don't swim." Dez said.

"I only dog paddle." Kellan said. Now normally this would annoy Chuck because now his captive was getting away, but in these waters, she wouldn't get far.

Ally was only a few minutes in when she stopped. She heard a high pitched shriek coming from the water. She looked all around her for what that noise was, but Chuck was ahead of her.

"Do you know what that sound is, Highness?" He yelled out to her. "Those are the shrieking eels. If you don't believe me, just wait!" All of a sudden, a slimy, spiked up back swam beside her, the shrieking sound coming with it. It seemed to be louder this time around. "They always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh." He wasn't lying about that. The shrieking noise got louder and louder as the eels swam closer to her. "If you swim back now, I promise, no harm will come to you. I doubt you'll get a better offer from the eels." Ally didn't have to be told twice.

She began swimming back when the shrieking became louder than any other time. She was almost to the boat when she turned around and there it was. It's sharp teeth could be seen as it charged towards her. Ally was frozen as it was within centimeters from her face when… THUMP!

Kellan had clubbed the eel over the head with his large fist and then lifted Ally from the cold water.

"Put her down, just put her down!" Chuck said and Ally was placed on the deck, a towel thrown around her cold, wet shoulders.

"I think he's getting closer." Dez said, completely oblivious to what was going on.

"He's no concern of ours." Chuck yelled to him. "Sail on!" And so everyone went back to the duties. Chuck looked back at Ally. "I suppose you think you're brave, don't you?"

"Only compared to some." She replied back.

By the time morning was on the horizon, the little boat was closely gaining on them.

"Look!" Dez shouted. "He's right on top of us! I wonder if he's using the same wind as we are using."

"Whoever he is, he's too late." Chuck said as he stared at what was in front of him. "See? The Cliffs of Insanity!" And they truly lived up to their name. These cliffs were very high up and would take an ordinary man forever to climb, which was how they earned their name. Trying to get up and off could drive a single man to insanity.

Luckily, the small group had their own way of getting up the cliffs.

They docked the small boat and exited.

"Only Kellan is strong enough to go up our way." Chuck said as he stared back at their pursuer. He wasn't far behind them, but just enough that they could get away. "He'll have to sail around for hours till he finds a harbor."

So, can anyone guess who their pursuer is? Shout out to anyone who can! Remember to review, favorite and follow for the next chapter!

Thanks and remember, stay ROSSOME!