~Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo~

Hello you lovely readers! How are you? I apologize for the late update, normally I have one (sometimes more than one) update every week, but I am really in love with this fic and just had to have it perfect! A thank you to all those who have read, favorited, and followed! I hope you like it so far ;) A special thank you to KazumaKaname, Hylla, guest, anonymousP, guest, and broman2! Thanks for the reviews/ comments/ and overall support! This updates for you guys.

Enjoy

previous chapter...

Except her powers were working, I guess I'm just prone to them. She sighed.

Her panting became deeper, her body felt like jello. The blood escaping her body became darker, almost black. This is not a good sign. She thought, but she noticed the blood from the shape-shifter had stopped.

At least I did something right today. She smiled.

With one last glance at the life she saved, the princess blacked out.

Her form fell hard onto the bloody ground.

Chp 2

Where Am I?

Am I dead?

Although I feel light headed, I also feel like I'm walking on air.

My entire body hurts.

It's difficult to breathe.

The princess's thoughts began racing through her head as she recalled what had previously happened.

My castle, my people, they were under attack.

Father, mother, brother, are you safe?

What of the shape shifter?

Her thoughts came to an abrupt end as she passed out once more. It was as if the curtains closed, her thoughts evaporated, everything went black.

Slowly blinking a single eye open, Orihime felt that very small action took away all her energy. If she could sigh, she would have. Although she could barely see because her sight was still hazy and it was dark, she could make out the forest below her. Below me? Finally noticing the body under her, the princess came to the conclusion someone was carrying her. Looking down, she saw brown boots. But no average boots, they were leather, expensive. The more she thought, the action to process became even harder. After a while, she became tired.

Except this time, she allowed sleep to take her.

The single droplets of water that's sounds seemed to vibrate off the barren concrete mixed with the yells of unknown men woke the princess. As her eye lids abruptly widened she quickly looked around her. No longer on the back off someone, she was lying across the concrete floor, a cell? The rusty bars in front of her answered her question.

The space was very small; if she opened her arms simultaneously she could touch both walls. As her senses approached her, finally, she noticed a fowl odor. There were two buckets in the corner, grimacing, she saw one was for her 'business' and the other was a dark color of drinking water.

Gasping, she forgot her hood was off. Placing it back over her head and a majority of her face, she saw she was shackled to the floor with heavy metals, both of her ankles weighted down. Trying to lift her leg, she winced. The metal was very tight and practically eating into her skin. Lifting her cloak, and observing her ankles, she saw she was already bleeding. Noticing a dark purplish bruise right under the shackles; she attempted to take them off, increasing the pain.

It still didn't work.

With the previous battle she took part in, the spells used, and healing that shape shifter, she was exhausted… It was like a flesh wound, it would take days to heel.

Biting her lip, she tried to come up with a plan.

She was now captured by an unknown enemy.

Who brought me here? Was it the shape shifter? Orihime questioned herself.

As a breeze blew in from somewhere, Orihime shivered.

Alone and afraid, the voices by the cell grew louder. Looking up, she saw a cell across from hers. Squinting her eyes, for it was still dark and there were no candles lit, she saw

there in deed was a person.

Crawling closer to observe who it was and plausibly get some information on her surroundings, wincing, she managed to move a little closer. Managing to hold in a gasp to not gather any attention upon herself, she saw it was a man in rags, his pale skin visible to her in the dark, cuts and wounds infected all over his body. His bones were outlined by a single sheet of skin. Orihime knew from just looking at the poor man he was starving and injured. Won't somebody help him?

As he opened one eye and noticed the girl in a cloak was there looking at him, he smiled wickedly at her.

"You will die a painful death as long as you are here," he choked out in a very hoarse voice, lifting a finger right at the princess. With his wicked smile on his face, his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell to the ground. A thump was all that was heard before Orihime could no longer stomach the sight.

The princes shuddered and took a deep rattling breathe. With her eyes watering unsure if it's from fear, the death of a man in pain she just witnessed, or what's in store for her, Orihime hid farther into her cloak. Feeling a shiver go down her spine, Orihime involuntarily jerked back to get as far away from the now dead body that most likely predicted her future.

Allowing the tears to escape, shutters racked her body as she trembled. She was terrified, away from her castle, people and family. Her powers were of no use to her in the state she was in, where ever she was. Hearing footsteps approach and stop in front of her cell, she refused to let anyone witness her in this state. Taking a deep breathe and pushing all the worries and anxiety to the back of her mind, she squared her shoulders. Through the cloak, although it was difficult, she could still make the outline of three figures, the one in the middle the tallest. Each was dressed in armor with a sword by their sides.

"Open the cell," a deep voice commanded, the tall man in the middle. He sounds… younger?

As if on queue, two men opened the cell and approached Orihime.
Her fight and flight kicked in and she attempted to use her magic, anything. Calling out for her shield to stop the men in their steps, she tasted blood. Immediately stopping, she brought her right hand to her face.

Another nose bleed, another warning. If she keeps this up, she'd practically be digging her own grave. There's only so much she could do before her body gives up on her… Stopping her chants, the pain in her ankles kicked in. Grimacing, she looked up at the three in front of her.

"W-Where am I?" She stuttered out in a whisper. The men ignored her question.

"It's a lady prince, can we keep her?" One of the men cracked his knuckles, a grin plastered on his face touching the corners of his ears.

"We'll be kind and take turns!" The other added approaching the helpless princess's figure.

"No." The third voice stated. Stopping in their steps, the two men turned around, deflated.

"Remove the shackles off of her." The man commanded, observing the girl in the cloak. The men nodded, but as they turned around the grins came back on their faces.
"This will hurt you more than it'll hurt me," one of the men whispered to her. He smelled of filth and alcohol.

Lifting up the bottom of her cloak, the princess wanted to pull her ankle back but the man had a tight grip on her bruised and bleeding ankle.

"You made a mess," He frowned looking at the blood now on his hands. Tightening his grip on the hurt ankle, the princess whimpered.

Opening the locks, he slowly ran his rugged hands up her leg, over the bruise.

"I asked you to unlock her," the voice commanding repeated.

The man had stopped moving his hand, but kept it in place grinning at the girl in the cloak. Unlocking the other ankle, the princess kicked him away once she was freed and lowered her cloak.

"You little bitch," the man seethed, lifting his sword, he stopped when the man he referred to as prince took a step forward.

"Not yet," his warning was laced with venom.

Now in front of the princess, Orihime refused to back down, but she could not look him in the face. He was going to kill her and admitted to doing just that a second ago.

"Can you get up?" The 'prince' asked harshly.

Orihime didn't respond, but lifted herself up. Furrowing her brows, she managed to get up and stand on her own two feet.

Although she was in pain, she refused to show it.

"Good," the 'prince' said, "Follow me, guards, walk behind her and lock the cell."

The 'guards' grunted in reply, while the prince began walking, Orihime in tow, she ignored the pain in her ankle. The 'prince', Orihime noticed, took very long and quick steps. Orihime was not only injured, but also a female. Trying to keep up with him, she kept her gaze on the ground to not fall in the dark. They had to take many turns and passed by many cells. Making their way down a stone hall that looked like the secret passage back in Orihime's castle, they made their way up a very large stair case. Trying to suppress herself from crying out, Orihime noticed there were finally candles beginning to align on the wall. What felt like an eternity later, they almost reached the top. As the man in front of her stopped, Orihime almost ran into him.

The 'prince' opened a door; walking through it Orihime had to close her eyes from the sudden bright light. Slowly opening her eyes, she was met with a fancy hallway that looked much like her homes. But she noticed the stone walls were a different shade and the portraits were of people she did not recognize, their were rugs on the floor of intricate designs. Looking questionably up to the 'prince', the man finally turned around.

"That's enough guards, thank you." Orihime finally saw the face of the man. Her earlier hypothesis was indeed correct, he was young. Probably no older then her, may be even the same age. He was huge, tall, the muscles of his neck clearly defined even though the rest of his armor covered his entire body. So much metal, it must weigh a ton! And she saw he was handsome. The next thing that caught Orihime's eye was his bright orange hair. Who is he? Is he the one that brought me here? What happened to the shape shifter?

Grunting in reply, the two guards walked back in through the door of what Orihime assumed to be a dungeon. With her guards up, Orihime looked around for anything that could help her. She knew it would be foolish to escape injured and without any of her magic too. She would just have to fend off for the next few days, then she could some how escape, get her way around.

Taking a deep breathe, she asked the first question that kept popping back into her head.

"Where am I?"

How did Orihime get there?

Where do you think Orihime is?

Who do you think is the 'prince'?

Is Orihime's castle safe?

Who's the shape shifter?

What do you think? I would love to know!

until next time,

loverofliterature_111