Chapter Seventeen - I Will Not Bow
Hey hey hey, I'm back! ^-^ Let's see what you guys think of this chapter, because we need to find out who's decided to kidnap Mina this time!
Evx : That is a good question. cx Lots of things just happened! What's going on is also a good question as well. We'll find out all that right now! And no, Mina can't get a break, because she is cursed. But would we really want her to get a break? Unless it was a short break.
tardiscompanion101 : I'm glad you kept reading! As for what Savannah is going to do, well, we'll be finding out soon enough! And you probably should be worried about Mina. She just can't get away from Fae who want to get her for one reason or another, can she? It probably won't end well, but it'll be extremely exciting! :D And no problem! I love updating this story. Thank you for reading! I'm super glad you can't wait for more!
Now, that's enough from me. Let's get to the reason you guys are reading, which is the story!
"There's a girl there." A voice from the right.
"Do we shoot her?" Another one, also sounding male, says from the same side.
I swing around in both directions, and see nothing. But I'm in the middle of the woods, and it's getting dark, so I can't really say anything about whether or not that can tell me anything distance wise. I grab a stick, trying desperately use the Fae magic that has been eluding me all along, and that's when something else hits me. I don't think I've eaten, or had anything to drink, all this time. How on earth am I still alive? Distracted, I almost miss the arrow that gets shot at my face. Almost. My hand flies up to protect myself, but the arrow stops, an inch or two away. At first, I think it's my magic, and I grip the stick harder. It'll turn into a dagger if I need it too. I know it.
But when I try to make the arrow drop, it won't, and I realize with horror that it isn't my Fae magic that stopped it. Is it Prince Teague's? Is he saving my life again? Or is it someone else's?
"Why would you do that, idiot? She wants her alive!" That's another man's voice.
"For now." That's another ominous guy's voice.
That's four in all, right? So I only need to take on four men - Fae men, which makes things worse - armed with a stick and no Fae magic of my own for reasons I can't figure out. I could change into my Fae form, but I can't use Fae magic now. Why?
The arrow flies back to a hand that pops out from behind a tree to catch the shaft, and then I feel hands grab my neck.
"Night night." Once again, I find myself choking, and I try to pry them off. This, plus the necklace tightening, is too much though, and as I once again pass out the same guy says, "Sleep tight."
Mina's Point of View
I open my eyes slowly, finding that my neck hurts more than I would've thought humanly possible. It takes me a moment to register that it's not just the necklace - although that has tightened considerably - and that part of this is me getting choked previously. Which reminds me of the fact that someone got me, and that is when the fact that I am moving really hits me. I watch trees go by in a blur, before looking forward to find that I'm riding on the back of a horse-man. That's a centaur, right? There's a rope that's tying me to this guy - probably to make sure I didn't fall off when I was knocked out - and I see two centaurs riding in front of us, and one to the right.
The centaur that I'm riding is a gray Lipizzan when looking at the horse aspect - I think - although his tail is a blue in color, which matches his human, messy, short hair. I can't see his face, so I don't know anything about it though.
"Careful now, newbie." The centaur to the right says to the one I'm riding. "She's awake."
"I can tell." He says it in an almost irritated fashion, which I guess makes sense, as he can probably feel me moving around on his back.
I decide not to speak at all, as at this point I'm not in the mood to find out what's happening to me. I've learned that no matter what, pretty much anything that happens to me is bad, so I might as well not even ask. At least I can prolong finding out what the bad thing that is going to happen to me is if I don't ask.
"What did she do to make her so mad?" The one I ride asks, and I sigh inwardly. Yes, what did I do to make someone mad this time? Who's after my blood now? I have the thought that maybe it's Savannah, but I watched her fall off the cliff. There's no way she could survive that fall, unless she caught the cliff edge or something. Despite the logic going on in my head to try and combat the idea of this being organized by Savannah, her threat remains in my head, and I can't shake the feeling that this is caused by her. Which is, to be quite frank, terrifying.
I glance over at the centaur to the right again, expecting him to answer, and get a better look at him. He appears to be a brown American Paint, with a pink tail and pink, short, curly hair. He has darker skin, and has fuchsia-colored eyes as well. The eyes cause the whole look to be rather unnatural. Then again, the centaur that I'm riding - which is honestly rather awkward as it feels wrong to be riding on him as if he's a saddled horse and not a Fae - has blue hair, so I suppose all centaurs look slightly unnatural.
Instead, the centaur directly in front of us speaks. He has whitish blonde hair - the first hair color I've seen that actually look somewhat normal - that's tied in a pony tail, and his horse body is an Andalusian, if I remember anything about the time Nix wanted wanted to teach me horse breeds, which I might not. Who knows?
"The stupid-" Blonde - it's much easier to refer to them by hair color in order to keep them straight, seeing as I don't know their names - begins, and I listen intently while trying to seem uninterested.
"Don't let her hear you calling her that." Pink interrupts.
Blonde glances back to glare at Pink, and I see his eyes. His eyes are a blue that I know I've seen before, and I think back to whenever I was stuck between Scylla and Charybdis. There was a wolf then, who turned out to be Prince Teague. Is this him too? And if it is, should I be happy about that? Or should I be worried? If it's him, I don't know if he'd help or hinder me here, which makes me concerned. I'm not sure if I should trust this centaur in front now or not. On the one hand, I can't jump to the conclusion that he's Prince Teague. On the other hand, I should be wary if he is.
He starts the same way as before, but continues the statement this time. "The stupid Sylph," That sounds like a Fae, but I've never heard of that creature before, "wanted to test her. You know how she's like. Not doubt it was a dramatic situation, and even though she could've saved herself, she went with the theatrics in order to cause a fuss. That's her after all. A drama queen. And then she sent us to go fetch her, seeing as we could get there quickly. Quicker than her, at least."
"She made us do the work for her. It's stupid." The centaur to the right of Blonde speaks up, and I see that he's a black American Paint, and his tail is black. His hair is long and black, tied in a ponytail. "I can't comprehend how she managed to get our entire group to listen to her and do her every bidding."
"I can." Blonde responds. "She's got everyone agreeing to follow her, and is using some form of magic to bond them to her. It honestly shouldn't be possible for a Sylph, but she's managing it. No doubt someone else is helping. I suspect the Prince."
That seems fishy. It either derails my theory of Blonde potentially being Prince Teague, or it's like his comment from when he was being a wolf at the Charybdis and Scylla situation. Prince Teague said what some Fae believed there, and then said that he believed the Prince - meaning himself - sucked both those beasts into the Grimorie as an obstacle and punishment for the Grimm girls. At the time, I didn't know it was him, but if he said that,
"I ought to report you both for treason, discussing matters like this and talking about Her Majesty in such a matter.." Pink says, but when I look over, I see that he's grinning. That explains why his reference to this mysterious lady wasn't sounding too serious. These guys must all be tight, except for Blue, seeing as Pink called him 'newbie' earlier.
Blue's voice sounds very serious as he says, "Well, shouldn't we not be talking about her in such a manner? Wouldn't it make sense to say something?"
Blonde snorts. "You got a lot to learn, newbie. We don't report any other centaur for saying stuff like this unless you've sworn your loyalty to her, and I know for a fact you haven't. You don't want to either."
"And we aren't worried about this girl giving us away?" Black says, and I worry a tiny bit. I could be in for some trouble if they think I've heard too much or that I might give them away. "I mean, if she ends up needing to save her own skin, who says she won't turn us in?"
Dang it. Crap! I try to use my ever elusive magic in order to get this rope off so that I can get off this centaur and try to escape, but it's not working. And, of course, it's right now that my necklace really starts to burn. I'm not sure how I was ignoring it, but it's beginning to feel like murder, and I can finally feel it starting to squeeze. I knew it was tightening, but now it is actually beginning to restrict my breathing. I choke a little from shock, causing more attention to be dragged onto me. I attempt to pull at it with my fingers, but that really doesn't do much. But it does make me feel like I'm doing something to stop it, and that's what matters, right?
"I don't think we have to worry." Blonde says, looking back to meet my gaze and making me flinch. "She seems too frightened for her life to worry about ruining ours."
Is that a hidden message? I feel like I'm analyzing everything Blonde says too much, but I'm honestly terrified of the idea that he's Teague. Talk about paranoid. This whole 'no one is what they seem' thing is really starting to get to me at this point in the game, because it seems like no matter who I believe is who they claim to be, they seem to turn out not to be. Unless, of course, they make it obvious that they are evil. Then they're what they claim to be.
So I guess I should just start assuming everyone I meet either is lying or evil.
"I suppose you're right." Pink says, and Blue nods his agreement.
Black shrugs. "Well, I suppose there is no time to argue now. We're here."
I peer out from behind Blue in fear, but then all I see is tree. I blink, confused. This is where they live? In the trees?
"I hope you don't think we sleep on the ground, girl." Pink says, and when I glance over I see him grinning at me. "You must think we're quite primitive, seeing as your face proves that you thought we lived on the ground. We don't though. Try looking up."
He winks at the end, and I have the decency to look embarrassed. I do as instructed, looking up, and my eyes widen. Tree houses. There's this complex of tree houses that stretches out further than I can even imagine. But how do they get up?
"Hurry up!" Black and Blonde stand by a ramp I overlooked as Black calls us over, gesturing for Blue and Pink to follow them. "And Blue, you can probably untie the Grimm now. I doubt she can really do anything that would get her very far now."
There's an underlying statement there, and if there isn't, I've made one up. That statement happens to be that I'm totally going to die and there's nothing I can do to stop it. A fantastic message, right? I mean, there's the slight chance that he doesn't mean that and I'm overreacting due to not eating or drinking anything this entire time - although you'd think I'd be dead by now at this rate - but like I said, it's only slight.
"They've returned with the Grimm!" A voice shouts as Blue unties the rope holding me on, and walks up the ramp.
I lurch, unprepared for losing the thing keeping me on as well as the fact that I'm likely to slide off on the ramp. I've never ridding a horse, and while this is differently and I should be used to it now, I'm not. That rope was definitely the only thing keeping me on. I grab onto Blue, knowing without a doubt that I'm going to fall, until I realize that I'm not because I'm grabbing on to Blue. Which, of course, makes me realize I'm grabbing on to him, so I let go slightly, unsure of how to stay on. He chuckles at my awkwardness, but doesn't offer any help as he goes up, coming to the flat area. We begin to walk, but I am just trying to keep myself on without being awkward. Blue still doesn't help at all, and I decide that I don't think I like centaurs very much. This whole experience has proven that. I don't like Fae magic very much either. What's the point if I can't use it to get anything done? I would've been better off teaching myself skills like untying knots.
Which I probably should've done anyways.
I look up to see Blue approaching an area with a very large crowd, and when they see us, they all quickly part. Now I see a somewhat cleared area made of the same planks everything else is, although I don't know what's keeping the crowd back. Probably a fence, although I can't see. There's a raised platform in the middle with a throne on it, and sitting on that throne is a girl with blonde hair. I have a feeling I know exactly who it is - I have for a while - but I decide to pretend I don't. Playing dumb is always smart, right? As we get closer to this platform - even though I'm inwardly screaming for me to somehow take control and send me riding in another direction - I see that I was correct in my guess that a fence is keeping the crowd back. The entire crowd is made up of centaurs, so this must be an all centaur civilization. As we get even closer to the raised platform - which I find that I am avoiding looking at - I see Blonde in the crowd, very close to the edge. His eyes are fastened on me, scaring me. I move my gaze away to find we are in front of the platform, and the girl stands.
"Your majesty." Blue bows down, and unprepared me slides a bit on his back, bumping into his back. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was planned and purposeful. Stupid centaurs.
"I wish I could say it's lovely to see you, Wilhelmina Grimes, but it's not." Savannah, an apparent Fae that I never discovered was a Fae till now, stares down at me, and she does not look good at all.
Her hair is a tangled mess, looking like it's been letting a tornado live inside it. It's not nearly as amazing as it normally looks, and the crown made of branches that sits on it does not make it look regal. It makes it look like she got sticks stuck in her hair. There's a cut above her left eye which still looks to be bleeding, and I wonder for a moment if she let herself bounce off something in all her theatrics, as Blonde called them. Her blue eyes seem to have lost any emotion they might have had, as if it was sucked out. That's not even mentioning the fact that her mascara was running down her face, and she hasn't bothered to fix it. That's shocking, considering this is Savannah. And her smile. It's this creepy grin that no matter how many times you look at it, it doesn't get any better and makes you feel more and more uncomfortable. The fact that her lips are colored purple - they weren't before, so I don't know where she got the lip stick to do it - makes them look bruised as well, even though I know they aren't.
She looks flat out creepy overall, and that's not even considering her green dress that's too short or her bare feet, which make her look like some psycho that lives out in the woods. In fact, I feel like I've seen her like this before. At least, I feel like I've seen her head like this before. Oh, wait, I have, in my stupid dream who can't happen to be a bit more clear on details so that I can actually manage to avoid some of these events.
"Oh trust me, White, if it were up to me, I wouldn't be seeing your ugly face. Compared to you, you're right, I am lovely. And that's saying something." I don't know what I'm thinking, saying something like that, and I promptly dismount Blue - who is still kneeling - as I look around, trying to figure out if there's a way out.
Realizing there's not, I turn my attention back to Savannah, who looks shocked for a moment at my response before shaking her head. "Tsk tsk, and here I was thinking we could make a deal."
I shudder. The last few deals I've been making haven't really seemed to be going my way at all. I'm not sure I'm so ready to make anymore deals, especially if the deal is with one of the girls who contributed to my nightmare of a life. "I'm not interested in making a deal with someone like you."
"Ah, but it's simple, really." This comment that leaves Savannah's mouth makes me cringe. Is it ever really? No. "See, I can spare you life right now, Mina. I could have you killed right this instant, because I control all these Fae. I'm their queen." As if I didn't notice. How did she accomplish that one? I'm going to have to believe my four escorts on that whole idea. "Yet I'm not killing you. You know why? Because I know I made your life terrible, and I'm willing to make it more terrible. There's no swaying me on that note, seeing as you failed my test. You are a horrible person." She forgets the fact that she is one too. "But I might be swayed from flat out killing you, because believe me, it wouldn't be pretty, painless, or quick. You want to know what you'd have to do?"
"No." My answer is simple.
She ignores it, and goes full speed ahead anyways. "All you have to do is admit I am better than you."
"Oh, that's all?" I don't know what's gotten into me today, but that sarcastic response exits my mouth next. What can I say? Savannah brings out the worst in me. Although I don't think she's ever managed to get this much of a rise out of me before.
"I want you groveling on the ground before me. I want to see you begging for your life. I want to see you on your knees before me. I want you to admit that I've been better than you all along." Doesn't she already believe that? Why does she need me to prove that. "It's simple really. I want you to bow."
I snort. "As if. I will not bow to you, Savannah White. And you can't make me."
"You really want to die that much?" She raises an eyebrow. "You are much stupider than I thought. I gave you more credit than you deserved."
She raises a hand and turns her head to the left as if to summon someone in order to give them an order - probably one to kill me - and then my mouth, once again, opens without permission. What is with it today? "Wait!"
She pauses, turning her attention back to me. "What? Have you changed your mind."
"No." I shake my head. "No, I haven't." But when she goes to go back to whatever she's doing, I continue to try and keep her attention by saying, "But I do happen to know that there are Fae here who are not pleased with you ruling."
This catches her attention. "What did you say?"
"You have Fae among your midst who aren't pleased with the fact that you are ruling here." I say in bigger words this time, looking over the crowd, although Savannah doesn't notice my scanning. She's too outraged by this.
I don't see Black or Pink anywhere. However, I do see Blonde, standing in the same place he was when I last saw him. He's a little ways to the right of the platform, standing in the front, although it looks like he'd like to try and slip backwards a bit. His eyes meet mine, and he gives a subtle shake of the head. Yet somehow, it doesn't feel like an order. It feels more like a request. He's asking me not to give him away, along with his buddies. And suddenly I realize that I can't do it, even if I want to stay alive. I just can't. Besides, at this point, it seems like all the cards are stacked against me. Maybe I'm just slated to die.
"Who are these Fae?" Savannah demands, bringing my attention back to her.
I meet her gaze, and say, "Promise me my life, and I'll tell you more."
She frowns, contemplating the idea and obviously not liking it. "How is that fair?"
"You get to be rid of the traitors, and I will be able to stay alive. Seems fair enough to me." I respond as smoothly as I can, formulating a plan.
"Give me the names." She says, extending a hand to demand them as if I can hand them to her.
I shake my head. "Not until you promise."
"Give me the names!" She demands again.
This time, I comply. "Well...Well, there's me for one."
She stares at me, shaking her head. "You don't count, you idiot. Who else?"
I give a shrug. "Who knows? I'm assuming there are others though. After all, who could appreciate you ruling over them?"
She shakes her head, turning to the left and speaking to someone. "Take her away."
"Wait!" I shout as Blue begins to step away. "We made a deal!"
She snorts. "Ha. You told me that you weren't interested in making deals with me. Besides, your information doesn't count. We already knew you didn't, and without any names, it doesn't matter." She pauses. "However, I'll let you live one more miserable day. I'll kill you tomorrow, but I'll torture you tonight."
I try to shake away the two sets of hands that grab me, looking up at her. I don't know what comes over me, but something does, and as I look at Savannah I scream. It's not a normal scream. It's an unearthly scream that makes me wince in pain. It does worse to those around me, who cover their ears and seem to be in immense pain. Savannah seems to be in the most pain, sinking to her knees and screaming some not nice words at me. I hesitate, not sure what I've done, before trying to run away. But that hesitation was all it took. The two centaurs - I can't see who they are - grab me again, and although I try to scream, those are just normal. I kick and squirm, but it doesn't work. I'm beginning to get dragged away, and it dawns on me that I've really messed up this time. I'm going to die.
Woah, that was a long chapter. Hopefully you guys liked it! I'm excited to see what you guys think about all this. What did you think of this discovery with Savannah? How do you feel about Black, Blonde, Blue, and Pink? Do you think any of them are Teague? If so, who? Or do you think none of them are? What do you think is going to happen to Mina now? And what was up with that scream? What does that mean?
Anyways, please review! I'll try and get another update up soon, but the more reviews given, the more likely I am to update! c: Thanks for reading! See you next update (or at another story I update, if you guys read any of my other stories)!
~ Dagger