Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 18

Today was they day we left our secret cottage in the woods. It had been a safe haven for us and I wished we were staying. Analise insisted on leaving though and I could not let her go alone. I could not live without her and yesterday had only solidified that. I had made sweet passionate love to her and I could feel that she was meant for me. She might not have seen it right away but the way she just gave into me I knew she could feel it too. I had held her all night long, save for the little bit of time she got up to pack in the middle of the night. I felt more connected to her than ever before. Nothing was going to ever take her away from me and after she had her memories, we would leave the castle and go spend happily ever after together. I was so sure of it.

Analise was in the kitchen gathering up more things for our trip. She had already changed into this strange outfit that I had never seen before. The color was black and somehow it was shorts and a top. She was also wearing these silver arm bracers. The outfit exposed her to midriff and I could not lie, I loved seeing her skin exposed, it made it so easy to touch it. I came up behind her holding her waist and giving her kiss on the cheek.

“You ready to go yet, honey?”

She nodded grabbing her now black cloak and then picked up mine and handed it to me. I grabbed the knapsack and the water flask. We head out the door and began our journey into the woods. I looked back behind me watching our cottage of love disappear in the distance, and as it did, I felt like a part of me did as well. I hoped we would return soon and our love could only blossom from there. 

After walking for about an hour I noticed Analise had been particularly quiet. I tried to break the silence by talking about creatures we would pass telling funny stories about times when I was a child. Myself and some other children in the area used to play by chasing the woodland creatures obviously never being able to catch them. It was just fun to see the others try and fail, sometimes one of us would even trip and all of us would laugh. I smiled at Analise hoping that she would start up some sort of conversation. She just kept looking forward, focusing only on what was in front of her.

“Honey, are you ok?”

“Can you stop calling me that? I have a name and I am fine. I am just eager to make it to the castle.”

“Honey is just my pet name for you, I know your name silly. Plus, there is no need to rush. The castle will still be there when we get there.”

“First, I am not your pet, I am not your anything. We can hardly even call each other friends since I do not know anything about you or even myself for that matter. Though it may not seem urgent to you, it is too me. The longer I am without my memories the more lost I feel in this world, not that you could understand.”

I did not respond for a moment as I could feel her frustration practically radiating off of her. I got that she wanted to get to the castle as quickly as possible but it really felt like there was more going on here.

“Are you upset with me?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” She asked sarcastically.

“Why? What did I do?”

She laughed like I just told a joke.

“The better question is what have you not done. I do not think I would even have the time to explain what you have done wrong.”

“Well it is a pretty long walk, so I would say you have at least some.” I smiled trying to lighten the mood.

She glared at me. I grabbed her hand and kissed it, trying to stop her to talk for a second.

“That there! That is one of the things, you cannot seem to keep your hands to yourself. You have been all over me since day one. Uninvited I might add. Not to mention you cannot seem to take no for an answer. We are not together! You stole my memories from me! You think I am just going to trust you because we have spent time together?”

“Analise we spent more than a little time together. We were intimate, our bodies were melded into one. Does that mean nothing to you?”

“Yes. I do not know how I can make it more obvious to you. Everything means nothing to me because my life is not even real at this point! Everything I know about myself you have told me and I am just supposed to take you at your word? I do not know you and you do not know me. There is nothing special between us because there is no us!”

Her steely grey eyes stared up at me, looking at me as if I were nothing to her. My world started to shatter. How could she say such things? I was meant for her and she for me. Maybe I just needed to give her more time. We would get her memories back and she would see that we were supposed to be together forever. She pulled away from me continuing to walk forward. I followed behind her quietly trying to find some hope in the darkness she just threw at me. I rationalized that she was probably just on edge with the thought of making it to the castle and having to possibly confront Cardwell. If we were lucky, we would not have to face anyone at all. I knew of a few secret passageways that we could use to get into the castle undetected. Cardwell most likely kept the vials containing Analise’s memories in his room, which would be the hard part. The king’s chambers were guarded at all times whether or not the king was in there. It would be impossible to escape some altercations, unless we had a distraction which we were still working on figuring out. I stopped dead in my tracks. 

“Analise wait!” 

She turned back to look at me. Before I could get her to stop, I felt something heavy slam against my head causing me to black out. After sometime I opened my eyes to what appeared to be a small camp. I looked around trying to get a little awareness of my surroundings. there were two men sitting nearby on logs next to a fire cooking food over it. I tried to get up only to realize my hands and feet were tied. Analise was sitting next to me not yet awake also tied up.

“Hey fellas, looks like one them are awake.”

A couple more men came out from behind me and walked up to me. They stared at me waiting to see what I would do. I said nothing, trying to figure out who these men were and what they wanted. One of the men crouched door close to me, reeking of alcohol.

“What are you doing around these parts boy? Don’cha know these woods ain’t safe?” He smiled in a way that was meant to be threatening.

I stayed quiet. I could not let them know what our business was, and I could not risk trying to escape right now without Analise being awake. If these men knew who we were they would take us back to the castle and try to claim a reward for us. If they found out who we were and we escaped they would alert the castle of our presence. Neither one of these situations were desirable. I needed to wait things out. This situation needed to be handled delicately. The man kicked me in the side.

“You mute boy? Answer me when I talk to you.”

I just glared at him. I needed to know whether Analise was ok though. With these types of men, she was definitely in danger.

“What did you do to her?” I asked the man snarling at him.

“Nothing yet,” he smiled at me.

He walked over to Analise and licked her face, clearly trying to get a rise out of me.

“Do not touch her!” 

“Or what? If you ask me the girl wants it. Just look at the way she is dressed. She is practically naked.”

He went up her shirt and placed his hands on her bare breasts, and started to fondle them. I was trying to keep calm, but I started seeing red. Analise was mine and he dared to touch her! I would kill him. I would kill them all. With my magic I untied the ropes around my arms and legs. I levitated the man against a tree. I picked up a rock nearby and began bashing the man’s head in. His body went limp, but I could not stop attacking. With each swing of the rock against his skull, blood spattered in my face. I was now drenched his blood. I felt my two arms being pulled. I looked to the sides of me and saw his two buddies trying to stop me. They were both armed with swords. I levitated the swords from their belts and impaled them together making them look like a human shish-kabob. My eyes scanned the area for third one expecting his attack. Panic ran through me as I realized he was nowhere to be seen. He could have gone in any direction. The coward saw his friends being killed and just took off. I cursed to myself. I needed to get Analise out of here. We were not safe, who knew if he had more buddies that were going to come after us or if he would find a soldier nearby and report us.

Analise was still unconscious as I untied her restraints and picked her up. I did not have time to check if she was ok but I could still feel her breathing in my arms and that was peace enough for now. Now I needed to figure out which direction to go. I did not know which way was towards the castle or away. It did not matter at this moment though. I needed to put some distance between us and this camp. I chose a random direction and started running. I went as fast as I could, glancing behind me occasionally to make sure we were not being followed. I was starting to feel very tired and knew I needed to rest. I also needed to check on Analise and make sure she was doing alright. Luckily, I found a small cave nearby, I placed Analise against a tree while I checked to make sure the cave was not inhabited, all clear. I picked her up and took her into the cave lying her down on her back. I checked her pulse to make sure it was normal and felt her head to make sure her injury was not fatal. Everything seemed good. 

I searched the area quickly for foliage to camouflage the cave entrance. Just as I had finished, I started hearing voices nearby. I peered out of a little section of the cover I had created. Just 50 feet away were castle soldiers. They were combing the area searching for what, I could only assume was myself and Analise. My heart was racing a million miles a minute. I should have remained calm back at the camp. I let one of the men escape and now we had soldiers on our trail. This was all my fault. If I had not focused on that one man, I would have been able to see that one of them had run off. My anger had gotten the better of me. The soldiers meandered a bit until confirming with each other that they both found nothing. I leaned against the cold slate of the cavern wall and let out a sigh of relief. We could rest for the time being. I stared at Analise praying she would wake up soon and we could figure things out. It was starting to get dark outside and was becoming quite cold. I cuddled close to Analise trying to keep her warm. I grabbed a blanket out of the knapsack and wrapped it around us. Thank goodness I had the foresight to grab it at the camp. I had a long night ahead of me and I knew I would not be sleeping through it.