I awoke slowly the next morning. I didn't really want to leave my blissfully dreamless sleep to possibly see Arion lying next to me, which would shatter any semblance of a good mood that I had this morning.
However the combined bird song and light hitting my face through the opening of the tent made me roll over and make a move towards waking up. And perhaps I also intended to jostle and awake his royal annoyingness. But I managed to roll all the way over and onto my back. I frowned, and felt around next to me, my eyes still firmly shut.
Now I might have been tired last night, but the inside of that tent had not been large enough for the two of us to sleep next to each other and still have room to roll over. Yet my hand met nothing solid except for the wall of the tent.
My head moved off the ground a few inches, and I cocked one eye open. No one else resided within my tent. Opening both eyes lazily, I sat up with a groan. I hurt all over. Clearly, my muscles had protested to yesterday's activities. Once seated I looked – really looked – at my surroundings. There was no sign that anyone other than I had slept here last night. There was no other pillow, no clothes, no sleeping bag.
Odd. He had seemed so determined to keep an eye on me. With a frown, I touched my head, and felt that my hair was a tangled mass of wild curls. Oh hell. I'd forgotten to do anything with my hair last night. Now it was time to pay the piper.
Thankfully I was not such an idiot that I had no hair tie. I pulled the thick black band off my wrist and piled my hair up on top of my head in a loose bun. With no concept as to how acceptable it was, I decided that I'd just have to give up on looking nice this morning.
Of course, it wasn't exactly like I was trying to impress anyone. Wherever that anyone-that-I-was-not-trying-to-impress was. Glaring at the flaps of my tent, I considered what I would say once I got outside. I had really exploded last night, with good cause. But even then I felt a little ashamed of my behavior.
I had really acted like a hot-headed bitch, even when he had… tried to pity me. Why did he have to go and make me feel sympathetic for him? I wasn't feeling charitable towards him or any of his family members, but I owed Arion an apology for growling at him for his gentle words.
A little petulantly, I stuck my head out of my tent. Arion sat against a tree, nearby to my tent but not within. I was also surprised to see that he had a blanket laid across his lap and he was asleep. I crawled out, and looked at him, whatever annoyance I had felt greatly eased. It appeared that he hadn't slept in my tent. How… honorable.
In sleep, Arion looked remarkably innocent. Like he could do no wrong and all was well with his world. His gold curls tumbled into his face and framed it nicely. It was hard to think that this sleeping man could be the same one who drove me to such acute anger. I was more than a little drawn aback by this, and deeply disturbed that I was capable of thinking this of my kidnapper.
This thought, I realized that I had an opportunity before me, practically laid out on a silver freaking platter, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to take it. I tried to make as little noise as I could as I moved. 'Think as light as a feather,' I thought, thinking extremely weightless thoughts at my feet. I crept around the fire, and reached the edge of the clearing, where I put my hands on Arion's shield.
Now if I could just get past this part. This time, I sunk all my effort into it, feeling the way the shield moved and was reminded again of the thrumming guitar strings… A Spanish tango sprung to mind, which was when I had the most bizarre idea of dancing with the wall instead of at it.
If weeks of teaching myself hadn't taught me to listen to my instincts, I never would have done it. It was a really dumb sounding idea when you thought about it too much. So I didn't. My feet seemed to move into the spicy tango without my telling them to, and I soon found a saucy, sexy dance that reminded me very much of the 'Cell Block Tango' in Chicago.
The thrum seemed to change. It became my thrum for a few moments, and I plucked at it and told it what I wanted to do. 'Let me out,' I danced it, if dancing could have words. The wall balked at that thought, and seemed to argue that it was its purpose to keep me in. But I soon bent it to my will and stepped easily though.
As soon as I was though, I curtsied and smiled at Arion's force field. If it had been a person, I bet it would have grumbled. But I only had time for that one little formality. Now I had to get away from this place…
I was only a few steps away from the campsite when an unbelievable pain wracked my body. Crying out, I collapsed to the ground as Arion's words echoed in my head. 'You train and you stay.' The words were burned in my mind as I stood slowly, fighting pain as I stood and tried to keep going.
'You agreed to the game. Even half-Fae must be bound by their word.' My mental Arion continued, as I grit my teeth. Bound by my word. I remembered the rose incident and grimaced. The agony would only get worse the more I moved away from him. And I knew there would only be so long I could stand it.
I took a few deep breaths, collecting myself. It seemed to make the word ache less, but it remained in the core of my being, like something had bruised my soul. My jaw tightened, and tears threatened to come out. I bit my lip, forcing them back. I would not cry. I would escape.
Slowly, painfully, I pushed myself to my feet. I took there, sucking in great gasps of air. I could do this. I could get away. I just had to focus myself, and get myself out of this mess. But the more I told myself this, the straighter my form got, the more my oath seemed to strangle and wrench at my soul. Take the greatest pain you've ever experienced, multiply it by a huge number and imagine it attacking your very being. It's like nothing that words can clearly describe.
Once erect, I clung to the nearest tree. It was like a lifeline in my spinning world. I just wanted the pain to go away, to get this hell to end. And I knew what the answer to my problem was; it just wasn't the answer I wanted. I stood there for a bit, hoping in vain that the spinning would stop and I would somehow be released from my rash promise last night and be allowed to take another step and another until I was far away yet again and could disappear for good. I knew that if I could get away just one more time, none of these damn faeries would ever find me again.
But that wasn't option. The world did not stop spinning, and my instincts were now telling me that if I attempted to continue onward, I would unquestionably meet my end. I slowly moved my left foot forward, almost as if testing the water of a pool. The further forward it went, the dizzier I got. Yes, continuing would just make it worse. Even though the stubborn part of me wanted to vehemently deny it, there was no escape without more unendurable pain.
Cursing mentally, I considered my one option. Or, rather, the only sane option. I was not about to cast aside my life simply because I was stubborn and didn't like Arion. It was a fool's reason to keep this up, and even I could admit that, no matter how much it irked me to admit it.
My mouth thinned into a tight line, and I stepped backwards, the pain easing slightly. With a sigh of defeat, I managed to turn around and then slowly work my way back to camp. Even as the horrible sensation left, I felt extremely woozy all the way back. I think it was the slowest and most embarrassing walk I've ever had to make.
By the time I was back, I wished that I could just not exist for a while. I was so mortified that I had managed to get through the barrier and it had all been for naught. What if he had noticed? What if he was awake and smirking and laughing at me by the time I got back? A flash of anger tore through me. So help me god, if he did that, I would try as hard I could to dance a lightning bolt at that blond twat's head.
The force field opened up for me and let me through without complaint. In fact, it seemed to welcome me, hurrying me back inside its borders with the haste of a babysitter who lost their charge and managed to find and put them back into their crib shortly before the child's parents came home. I shot a surly glare at the world, expecting to see Arion there, giggling himself to bits at my failure, but instead he still sat against his tree, now awake, but looking solemn.
"I'm glad you made the right choice," he said evenly. I waited for the snarky comment, something about how despite even with my pigheadedness I could still see he was the right way to go.
"I didn't want to come back," I snarled back, lashing out preemptively.
His expression didn't change and his cool eyes remained locked with mine. "I know that." He looked so hurt for a few seconds, but that cool exterior was back quickly.
That he didn't argue back, and it left me feeling like the jerk in the situation, which wasn't okay. I was the kidnapper here. Nor was I the person who ruined another person's entire future as she thought it would be. He should be the jerk, and for once he wasn't playing that part for me. It threw me off, and my emotions became really messy really quickly.
On one hand, I was glad that he wasn't being the Arion I'd come to know and hate. But I desperately wanted someone to hate, and he wasn't giving me that person right now. My anger needed a focus. However, I knew that attacking him while he was acting like this would just make me feel like shit.
So I turned away from him, growling to myself and trying to get rid of as much as my fury as possible in the sound. It didn't work, but it was an effective enough tactic that I wasn't tempted to kick Arion for something he wasn't do anymore. Well, he was still the reason I was trapped here, but he wasn't being a bitch.
Finally, I turned back to him. He'd stood and was poking the fire, his face still doing that carefully reserved thing. "So when did you notice I was gone?" I asked tightly, back still turned. I didn't want to face him yet. This new civility of his wasn't going to be enough to erase what he'd done, but I wouldn't be the rude one in the situation.
"I knew the moment you were awake," Arion replied calmly. I stiffened at that. So he'd been faking being asleep.
"What, were you watching me?" I demanded, spinning around. I realized my voice was sharp, and took a deep breath. "I mean, that's really creepy," I tagged on, forcing myself to not let the remnant anger out at him.
"No, I'd merely cast a spell to alert me when you were up." He said it so nonchalantly.
"Oh," I said, feeling a bit unsettled. "That's better than you watching me sleep." It wasn't much better, but hey. I wouldn't complain, considering he had originally been planning to sleep with me, and hadn't. Then it occurred to me – if the spell had gone off when he'd woken up, why hadn't he been up when I had? "So, why weren't you awake?" I asked, turning to face him.
"I was wondering what you'd do." He was poking the fire, but stopped thoughtfully. "I rather expected you'd try to escape again, and I wanted to see if you'd manage it this time."
I frowned at him. "Weren't you worried I'd escape?"
Arion shrugged. "Not at all. Either you'd achieve at escaping or you wouldn't. If you hadn't, breaking my shield would have been the first thing I taught you. I knew you were still bound by your word, and that you couldn't leave without killing yourself."
"So you just sat back and watched," I said blandly. After a pause, I asked, "What if I had killed myself?"
"It wouldn't have gotten that far," he replied finally, his mouth thinning into a grimace. The expression was quickly gone, as he met my eyes. "I wanted you to come back yourself. But, if you had stayed determined, I would have taken you back into camp before you died."
I kept my eyes locked on his briefly, trying to figure out why that sounded so sweet to me. I told myself that it was really because he needed me, and that it was because of him that I'd been bound here. I decided not to dwell on this conflicting emotion I felt and was gratified when my belly growled.
Arion smirked at me, and I crossed my arms. Before he could comment on the unladylike sound my stomach made, I tartly said, "Sue me for being a real girl and needing to eat. Do you have any food?" I asked.
"I'll go look for something. Meanwhile, I want you to think of a way to describe how you got out of this shield. Perhaps with more eloquence than you described my shield with, so that English-speaking beings can understand it." He had a dry humor, this bastard did.
I stuck my tongue out at him as he stood and began to move towards the woods. "You're just jealous because you wish you could speak creatively like I do." Maybe I was being delusional, but I thought I heard him chuckle as he left.
Meanwhile, I got close to the tiny fire and sat crisscross applesauce in front of it. As I warmed myself, I thought about this new… lack of animosity maybe, between me and Arion. The way we'd just exchanged words was teasing. My friends and I spoke that way to each other. I glared at the fire, then reached over and grabbed the stick Arion had been prodding it with earlier. Poking the fire, I sorted out my feelings about this. I wasn't sure I liked it. But I wasn't going to complain that he wasn't the Arion I was accustomed to.
I puzzled over my emotions until I heard him stalk back into the clearing. I turned my head and stared at him. He held two rabbits in his hands. "Oh goody, rabbit again!" I exclaimed sarcastically.
"Oh hush, you liked it last night," he chided. He quickly set to work preparing them, and I set to work looking anywhere but at the rabbits.