Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 19

Darkness enveloped me, even though my eyes flitted open. I started to panic. The last thing I remembered was Zachariah calling out for me and then something hitting the back of my head. I felt someone next to me and a blanket over us. My eyes starting to adjust to the darkness I recognized the silhouette of Zachariah’s face. I could breathe a little easier, it seems we were not in immediate danger at the moment. What had happened though? I did not know where we were. I got up to investigate and headed to an area that had a little bit of light coming from it. There seemed to be an entrance here but it was covered with foliage. I parted it a bit to get a look outside. We were apparently in a cave. Which explained why it was so cold. We were going to freeze to death in here. I went outside and searched the surrounding area for wood, gathering up enough to start a fire. 

I headed back inside the cave; Zachariah was still sound asleep. I placed the wood on the floor trying to be quiet as possible not to wake him. I set it up a good distance away from us so that we would not roll into the fire but still close enough to warm us up. I took a stick and a little bit of kindling and began twisting it vigorously with my hands. After a few tries I started to get a little spark from the friction. I blew on it trying to get some oxygen and it ignited! I did it! I put my hands out trying to seek out the warmth. It felt good to melt my freezing bones. I heard a groggy groan come from Zachariah. I looked over at him, the fire now illuminating the entire cave so you could see. I gasped looking at his face covered in blood, as well as his clothes. I rushed over to him trying to find where the blood had been coming from. There were no injuries on him and I began to realize this was not his blood. What the heck happened? Zachariah awoke to me just staring at him.

“Analise, are you ok? I was so worried.” He said sounding exhausted.

“I am fine, but I am not the one covered in blood. I checked your body...it does not look like it is yours.”

“It is not. We ran into a little trouble. Some men grabbed us and took us back to their camp. I was trying to figure out a quiet way for us to escape but you were still unconscious. One of the men started taking advantage of that and was fondling your breast and licking your face. I just could not sit there and watch him take advantage of you. I killed him and the two other men who attacked but one of them got away.”

I crossed my arms across my chest as if to defend myself from something that already happened. My skin began to crawl at the idea of some creep’s hands being on me. Zachariah had been able to get me out of yet another dangerous situation. He was always looking out for me and I was starting to soften to him. I came close to him and kissed his lips soft and tenderly. All he wanted to do was protect me, maybe I had been misjudging him this entire time. He really did care for me, despite his past transgressions.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“Do not thank me just yet, I let the last man get away. Now there are soldiers who are searching the forest looking for us. The castle is probably more guarded than ever because they have to know we are coming. Not to mention I have no idea where we even are now.”

This was frustrating for me. Not only did we have soldiers looking for us but now we did not know where we were going! I had no idea what to do at this point. It felt like were two steps forward only to take a million steps back. At this rate I would never make it back to the castle without a fight. I was prepared to fight but if I did not have to, I was not going to. Ok the new plan was to find out where we were. 

“What if we ask for directions?” I asked Zachariah.

“Who are we supposed to ask? Do you want to wander aimlessly until we just find someone?”

“Not exactly...” 

I had a plan in mind but I knew Zachariah was not going to like it.

“The soldiers who are looking for us probably know where the castle is right?” I looked at him sheepishly.

“No, we are not doing that! We are not just going to walk up the guards and ask them? That idea is ludicrous. It’s like you want us to die or something.”

“I am not saying we ask them directly, but they have to go back to the castle at some point. We could just follow them.”

“Well they are already gone so it is not like we could even do that.”

“They probably have a camp nearby. People do not travel after dark. We just find the camp and then follow them.”

Zachariah shook his head completely against the idea of even trying. I knew we could not stay in the cave though. It would do us no good to not attempt anything. I grabbed up my stuff and was determined to head out with or without his help. He agreed knowing there was no use in arguing with me. He put out the fire and began following me.

“Which way were the soldiers headed?”

He pointed in their direction. After a short amount of time we could see a fire burning. The camp was up ahead and I was happy that we found them so quickly. We got up closer to get an idea of how many we were dealing with. There were three men in total with their weapons nearby. Two were asleep with blankets on the ground and the third was clearly supposed to be look out but was sleeping sitting up. We just had to wait to follow them and be cautious not to alert them to our presence as we did so.

“I have an idea,” Zachariah said. “It is kind of risky though.”

“Is the risk worth the reward?”

“It is if it actually works. In case things head south I will need you to cover me so I can make it out of there, ok?”

I nodded not sure what his plan was yet. I watched him as he touched each of the sleeping men’s foreheads. After a couple of minutes, he came back to me, grabbing my hand and leading me back to their camp.

“What are you doing?” I asked nervously.

“It is alright! I rewrote their memories of looking for us into them needing to help us get to the castle. They will now guide us just outside the walls of the castle. We should have no more issues getting there unless we run into more soldiers. Otherwise it should be smooth sailing.”

I was still a little nervous but if Zachariah said it would work then I knew it would. I had first-hand experience at how powerful his dream and memory magic were put together. He had me lay down and get some sleep because we had a long road ahead of us and it would not belong now until I was finally back at the castle. I was so close I could taste it. King Cardwell I hope you are prepared because I am coming for what is mine.