All characters are owned by George Macdonald except whatever OC's that I manage to come up with, purely fan made and inspired after reading all the great PatG fanfics
In the middle of the night, while the king and queen were sleeping quite peacefully in one another's arms, the captain of the guard burst into the room, a lit torch in one hand and a brandished sword in the other.
However he stopped to look at the couple close together in the soft bed with cover and pillows surrounding them, safe and secure in their dreams.
The captain of the guard had to wake himself from his bewilderment and rushed to the king's side, shaking him roughly awake. The captain of the guard was a relatively strong man with a short dark beard and a thin face so it was very easy for him to wake the king.
To this date, the soldier had been the king and queen's most dedicated servant which is why he was the royal guard.
"Wha-what's going on here Sedaris, wh-" but the captain of the guard interrupted him, which was extremely unwise, but interrupting the king only showed how severe the situation was.
"Sire, we are under attack."
The queen was awoken by the shouting that was going on by her bedside, looked up and saw the captain of the guard, sword unsheathed and standing beside her husband.
She immediately thought the worst.
"What is this, what's going on?" she looked at the captain of guard, but he did not appear to want to hurt Gabriel so she sat still in her position.
"We are being attacked by outside forces. Last I checked they had just scaled the outer wall" Sedaris Cromwell, captain of the royal guard answered as he lowered the flame of his torch.
"Is it the raiders or is it the gypsies?" The king asked, analyzing the enemy from what his guard would tell him.
However Gabriel could have sworn that the kingdom had been on good terms with the gypsies after the last meeting he had with their leader and surely the raiders wouldn't attack the castle when they knew the kingdom was well armed and strong.
"Neither sire, it seems as if they are some sort of creature, they have large pointed ears and green skin and so ugly, I've never seen anything like them" Sedaris answered, shivering as if he could not shake the image from his head. "Some of the soldiers from around here are talking of goblins."
Gabriel's eyes widened though he did not know whether to believe in the superstitious talk or not. "We can't waste time then" Gabriel answered quickly and got to his feet. Angelica, who had been deathly quiet this entire time, spoke up now, her voice terrified and shrill.
"Wait, you can't go out there, you might be hurt." Angelica grabbed onto Gabriel's arm and pleaded for him to stay.
"I have to go my love," he whispered and put a hand to her cheek, rubbing a tear away. "I will come back for you, do not fear." But he leaned in so that only she could hear, "wait for me at the tower, I think you know the one I speak of. If I am not there when you first arrive, go to the top and stay there. You'll be safe, I promise."
Gabriel stood back up and Angelica let go of his arm slowly, "please be careful" she whispered softly, and then looked at the captain of the guard who had been staring at the couple, "both of you."
Sedaris bowed and smiled at the queen but she was already staring back at her husband.
"I'll be waiting." Angelica whispered as Gabriel but on both his boots and left with Sedaris once the captain of guard handed Gabriel his sword.
Angelica felt her heart flutter as the door shut behind her husband and immediately after she got to her feet, and put on a pair of flat shoes.
Once she reached the door, about to leave she glanced back at the dresser drawer and opened it. Inside, a tiny knife lay on its side, and she grabbed for it, tucking it under her arm as she shut the drawer and grabbed a candle. With knife in her right and candle in her left, Angelica opened the door slightly looking out into the dark hallways.
She couldn't see very much, even with the candle in front of her, but Angelica knew she had to go to the tower and that the creatures, whatever they were, probably hadn't reached inside the castle yet.
Holding her breath and taking a step into the hallway she looked to her left and then the right, 'nothing so far.' Now the real question was should she go right or left.
As she began to turn to her left Angelica paused in mid movement.
Was that a crack she heard?
Angelica saw the candle that she held in her left hand go out and felt something much like a hand clamp down on the one that held the knife.
The hand that had grabbed her squeezed so that she had to drop the knife. "Let go of me!" she screamed but a second hand came to cover her mouth so that it stifled her voice.
"Angelica, it is only I."
She heard the familiar voice and turned around but pushed herself away from Sedaris who still had his leather gloved hand closing her mouth.
"Were you always there?" Angelica whispered, looking the king's royal guard up and down.
"I was here long enough to make sure you were safe." The guard replied defensively as he picked up the knife that he had forced from her hand.
"Then why did you do this." Angelica held out the hand that he had squeezed painfully. The soldier winced when he saw the red skin he had caused.
"I'm sorry for that, my queen, but you would have stabbed me." He gestured to the knife in his hand and Angelica nodded but she realized her husband was not here.
"Why are you not with Gabriel? Why are you not looking after my husband?" She whispered, growing uneasy with each passing second that she spent in the royal guard's presence.
"He is fine," whispered the guard seriously, "Gabriel is a strong young man who can take care of himself."
"He is your king; it is your duty to protect him, not me. Besides, by your logic, I am a strong young woman who can take care of herself, so please, Sedaris, give me back my knife."
The royal guard just laughed lightly and took a step closer to her, "Don't be foolish Angelica, a young helpless woman like you shouldn't be left alone when there are strange creatures roaming around the castle at night," Sedaris took another step towards the queen, "the king wouldn't want you to be harmed." The look Angelica saw in his eyes as they gleamed in the darkness caused her to step back, gazing at her knife Sedaris still held in his hands.
"I love you, why do you think I would harm you?" The guard took another step towards Angelica but she just grabbed the butt of the knife from out of his hands and gripped it tightly.
"I don't need your help Sedaris; I am perfectly capable of defending myself when I do not have to worry about my own guards jumping me from behind." And with that the queen backed up from the royal guard, turned away and began sprinting down the hall to the tower that her husband had told her about.
Angelica ran swiftly down the halls of the castle, through doors, tearing around corners and leaping agilely down stairs.
The words of Sedaris still echoed in her mind and she felt her heart thundering in her chest.
When Angelica had first seen Sedaris at the foot of the bed she had thought the worst, that he had finally lost his mind and was about to kill Gabriel; lucky for all of them this was not so.
Though this is not to say he would be incapable of doing such a thing.
He had made attempts on her before, Angelica typically ignored them but even she had limits. She knew he would never put the king in danger for the only thing Sedaris valued more than the queen was his reputation as a first class soldier.
No, the queen was quite sure that Sedaris would keep her husband safe, but she never got use to him.
Instead of worrying about Sedaris harming Gabriel, Angelica now had to worry about her husband going off to fight strange creatures trying to break into the kingdom.
When she first opened the doors she could only see through the crack with one eye. Angelica did not know what to expect, whether it would be all out chaos or nothing at all.
As it turns out, the grounds were very deserted, and though this made everything look very frightening in the dark of the night, Angelica was slightly relieved not to see everything going up in flames.
But when it was this quiet and she felt ready to step outside, she heard grumbling that did not sound quite human.
There were deep voices echoing in the courtyard and as they began to come closer Angelica shut the door that she was peeking through.
"They're all sleeping" grumbled one as it strode past the door.
"Sun people are so stupid; they don't even have guards out here."Another scoffed as the band broke into malicious cackling.
"This is going to be easier than the king said."
Angelica didn't know what was going on, nor did she believe the king this group was talking about was her husband but she assumed easily that these were some of the invaders trying to break into the castle.
Which meant the castle was being invaded by another kingdom, but this was hard to believe since Gabriel's family had never been attacked by another kingdom before.
On most occasions the king and queen were never at this castle, in fact this had been the first time Angelica had ever come here so it was a great mystery why another kingdom would be attacking the farm castle.
With all the confusion of being woken up at such a late night, Angelica found herself dizzy and sore from trying to piece together what was going on in her mind.
She could hear the rough cackling and goading stop just in front of the door she was behind. They were going to come through. They were going to open it and discover her.
Maybe she could at least knock them out if she pushed the door open fast enough and ran out as fast as she could so they couldn't follow.
Breathing in calmly and using all her strength to thrust open the door quickly; Angelica pushed forward and felt the door stop suddenly as it must have hit their toes.
Blood curdling screams erupted from the other side of the door as she squeezed through the opening and ran out into the pitch black. She had not expected such a loud scream for it had only hit their feat but Angelica was not prepared to stay longer to witness their anger.
However, before she was more than ten meters away she did manage to glance over her shoulder for a second to see the three creatures that had been at the door sprawled on the floor, wailing in agony as they clutched their feat.
But when she saw the bare feet in the moonlight and their strange forms Angelica's eyes opened widely, 'What kind of feet look like those?"
As Angelica ran from the strange creatures, she felt her body collide with a hard surface.
Stunned and slightly winded, Angelica stepped backward and looked up to see two bright golden eyes staring down at her.
"Well, well, well," said the tall, almost human looking creature as it approached Angelica, emerging from the shadow of the tower like some dark nightmare about to descend upon unsuspecting prey. "A little sun girl."
Angelica backed up, sucking in her breath from the shock.
The creature was tall, as she had first noticed, but it was also none like she had seen before. It had green skin, yellow eyes that glowed in the dark, large bat ears that were on both sides of its head and came out of dark hair. Long black nails stuck out from each finger and an ancient looking sword was clutched in its hand.
It didn't appear as if she had much chance against this monster, but remembering the ghastly howls that escaped the creatures she had seen before when she had stubbed their odd looking feet, Angelica tried to create the same reaction again.
With all her might she lifter her foot and stamped down, but the creature was quick to read her reaction and moved so that she only stomped on the stone.
"I don't think so" smiled the creature, exposing a set of grotesque teeth. Angelica backed away and stumbled over a loose stone in the courtyard. Immediately she came to her senses and began running in the opposite direction of the creature, towards the tower that her husband had told her about.
Angelica knew the tower very well for when she had first arrived she had noticed it had a winding staircase spiralled up around the outside of the walls and at the very top where the staircase ended there was a wooden door and on the other side a safe room where her husband told her to meet him.
At first Angelica just stared at the crumbling stone steps going up the outside of tower where it would eventually reach a door at least fifteen feet above the ground. Gabriel wasn't here, he had told her to go inside but she had no idea how long she should wait for him and the fear of climbing up the stone steps on her own terrified her.
Angelica held her breath, shaking with fear as she took her first step up the stairs. "This pace will never do," Angelica muttered to herself and she grasped the idea that the creature that she had run into could very well be on her trail.
Running up the stone steps, careful not to run too close to the edge, the queen managed to reach the door in less than thirty seconds.
She breathed a sigh of relief but opened the oak door quickly, noticing that she would be easier to spot and an easier target if she stayed at the top of the tower with no cover.
Angelica shut the door quickly after she went through; breathing shallowly as she locked it as well.
"My child" a ghostly voice whispered as a strong white light shined behind her, "You're hurt."
Angelica turned around and stared in bewilderment at the figure with white flowing hair and creaseless bright skin as they walked towards her.
I think we all know who the ghostly white figure is. And for the design of the tower I got the idea from the tower where Irene's great great grandmother lives, in the movie the princess and the goblin, if you notice the staircase on the outside is also broken in the movie but I'll explain why later on...