So Ella and I lied down to sleep on the cold, mossy ground next to the pony and the wagon full of food that the elves had given us.

I found myself staring up at the trees long after Ella had fallen asleep. I found myself thinking forcibly of Nathanial, who had completely escaped my mind but now returned to me with a jolt. I felt sick, like crying. I had left Nathanial without the slightest trace, other than Ella's stuff going missing.

I wondered if Nathanial thought I'd gotten caught and stopped coming to the garden because I'd been forbidden to. Or maybe he thought I thought myself above him and just decided he wasn't worth risking being caught for. I really rather hoped he thought the first.

So I lied awake, watching the soft breeze rustle the fallen leaves and the branches of the trees until I could no longer make them out in the darkness. It seemed as if the moon itself had diminished. I must have lied there for a couple of hours when my eyelids finally started to droop...

Then, suddenly, I heard a twig snap. I wasn't alarmed, plenty of animals lived in the forest. I continued to lay there, only I was wider awake than I had been a few seconds ago.

My eyelids started to droop again.

I heard something.

It sounded like low hissing.

I propped myself up on my hands so I was partially sitting up.

I peered into the darkness.

It was pitch black, I couldn't even see Ella whom I knew was asleep somewhere near my feet.

I could hear her breathing deeply.

The hissing got louder.

It started to sound kind of like words.

"NisSh! I'm starving! Let's attack now, before they wake up!"

I distinctly heared this out of the hissing, yet it sounded oddly as if the hissing and the words were one.

I sat bolt upright at that.

"Quiet! I think one's awake!" a hissing voice said.

Then, with a jolt I heard footsteps shuffling across the ground.

They were heavy footsteps.

They sounded like they belonged to something big and heavy.

I was about to scream so that Ella would wake.

I opened my mouth...

And something clapped itself over my mouth-

...before I could make a sound.

That something smelt horrible.

It was rough and rather hairy.

I'd have said it was a hand, only it was much too big to be a hand...

unless they had giants in this world?

But no, you'd think giants' hands would be even bigger.

I wasn't sure what is was, but I knew that it might not be altogether too good for me. I kicked out but met only air. I tried to hit something with my hands and feet and arms... any way I could, I fought back. But I only ended up getting sore body parts because I did hit something hard and hard it was. Hard as a stone.

I felt a huge, bulky, muscular, fatless arm make it's way around my waist and pull me toward the hard thing I'd hit before.

I felt myself being dragged into the trees.

I still could see nothing... not even the hand and forearm across my face.

I was forced to blindly stumble across the forest floor when the being threw me from him.

I tripped.

I was caught...

...by more huge beings of unknown appearances.

There was much more than three...

I didn't know how many there were though.

Before I could scream, my mouth was forced open by more giant hands.

A course something that must have been cloth was shoved into my mouth...

I couldn't make a sound.

I tried to fight...

with little success.

Whatever kind of creatures held me captive were unbelievably strong.

My hands were forced together.

They were tied with a thick, rough rope.

I tried to spit out the cloth; to kick to punch... anything I could.

Yet my legs were then forced together and my ankles: tied tied.

The ropes dug into my wrists and ankles brutily.

I was dropped onto the ground.

Nobody touched me, but the creatures were all moving in towards where I'd been sleeping.

I heard the pony whinny.

I was so exhausted.

I couldn't think straight.

I felt sleep wash over me.

Even though I didn't know what was going to happen... I still caved in to the wonderful relief of sleep.

Author's Note: Please review!!