The Hidden Princess

Time warp

Angela and Cladd spent the day together practicing werewolf skills.  They shifted and went for a run in the woods.  Angela’s wolf was bigger than Cladd’s by almost a foot.  She was much faster too.  They sprinted through the woods chasing each other, bounding over fallen logs, through ponds and over rocks. They came to a clearing and decided to stop.  Angela still needed some rest periods, but her activity tolerance has improved greatly. 

They were just laying in the sunlight letting their wolves enjoy the sunlight when both of them start feeling watched.  Cladd stood up first and started looking toward the woods. ‘Over there.’ Cladd mind linked Angela and she turned to look.  She could see shadows moving and eyes staring back at her.

Bella came forward and took control howling a warning to the onlookers. One of them came forward with his head down in a submissive stance.  He was grey with black tips with brown eyes, following him was 2 more than looked smaller than him one was brown, and one was black both with green eyes.  Both of them showed a submissive stance.  ‘Shift’ Bella demanded and they did without question. 

Bella allowed Angela to come back and shift back to Angela.  Cladd and Angela stood looking at the newcomers “What are you doing here?” Angela asked curiously.

“We are just hungry and heard running and thought that maybe there was food here Your Majesty.” The eldest bowed and went to his knees and so did the 2 behind him.

“Your Majesty?” Angela asked and she heard Bella snicker in her mind ‘I might have forgotten about that part, sorry Angela’ she heard Bella say in her mind link. 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” And he did not look up from the ground inside he was stunned that she had such wings as werewolf, he had never seen or heard of anything like that.

“Please stand.  What makes you say that?” Angela asked.

“You are our Queen; I know by the markings and your size.  We have been waiting for you for a long time.  Your people have suffered greatly under King Thomas.” He paused but decided to go on “If we may be of any assistance to you it would be our honor.  We have left our clan because I feared for my children after the death of their mother.  We have been living off the land for almost 6 years now.” He bowed again and so did his children.

Angela looked over at Cladd and took his hand. “What are your names?”

He bowed acknowledging Cladd “Your Majesty. My name is Bradford, and these are my children Bartholomew and Elizabeth.  They are twins.”

Angela turned from them and looked at Cladd she mind linked Adden, Marta, Emmaline and Cladd all at the same time. ‘We have found refugees from King Thomas’s realm, they are werewolves.  Should I trust them?’  After some discussion it was greed that Adden and Emmaline would come to them.  They did not want people to know exactly where they were staying yet.

Adden and Emmaline got there in plenty of time with his gift of flight.  Emmaline was the one who was going to take the lead on this.  She had lived off the land for 10 years, she could verify their story.  Emmaline walked up to them and started talking to them and then they went into the woods together.

She had them show her what they were living off, how they slept at night, talked about different aspects of the forest.  Did they see many guards and such?  She was able to confidently say that she believed them and knew of several small bands of tribes that had left their bigger tribes for the same fears.

Bradford and his children sat around a fire with them that night.  They talked about how it was living under King Thomas.  “Just after his take over, that would not have happened without the werewolves, he killed our Alpha and his family and proclaimed himself our new Alpha.  He put most of the men in silver chains and forced them to do hard labor, many of them died.  He would remove young pups from their parents for training never to be seen again.  Shifting was forbidden and punishable by death.  He also would not let us meet any longer or be seen in groups of 5 or more.”  He paused while he remembered “When my mate died his guards came for my children and we ran and never looked back.” He looked over at his kids who were huddled together next to him. 

Everyone listened intently to his story and Adden suddenly got a very uneasy feeling. “What of the Fairy realm?” It was the first time he had seen anyone who could answer this question.

“King Idean fought well but he was taken over by Thomas himself and killed during the battle. There were whispers of a royal wolf that showed up fighting on behalf of the Fairies, but nobody could confirm that.  Most of the werewolves were killed by her that were in the castle.  She might not have known who she was, much like you Your Majesty.  We haven’t seen the royal wolf bloodline for many generations.” Bradford looked over at Adden who was stoic in appearance but on the inside, he wanted to cry.  Emmaline could feel it in him and placed her hand on his leg giving him comfort. “The fairy realm is black place now.  Thomas had most every fairy either killed or taken to the dungeons.  Nobody goes there, they say it is haunted.  Thomas will not even go there.”

Adden sat and a single tear fell from his eye, he thought of all his servants, all his guards, their children, his father, everything he had ever known.  “I have to be alone.”  He stood and spread his wings and flew off. He was not sure where he was going but he just wanted to be alone. What were his Father’s last words to him? He had sent him to find the unicorn, did he know what was about to happen? A sadness engulfed his heart and all the pain of all the losses hit him all at once.  He flew blindly with tears streaming down his face.  How could he go on he wondered?

He landed where he thought he would be safe unsure how far he had gone.  It was dark and cold where he stood.  He noticed the floor was not the forest floor.  He was standing on nice smooth marble that used to be white but now were mostly covered in dirt. He pulled out a fireball to help light his way and see where he was when he realized that he was standing at the south entrance of his castle.  The  wooden door was open and fallen of it’s hinges, he looked in the direction that it was pointing to the south. ‘She would have escaped this way.” He could sense it. He walked in the door knowing the layout of the castle well, he sent his fireball ahead a bit to light his way. He walked down the hallway and up the stairs.  Their room was on the right side down a little further.  There were vines all along the walls and on the floor. He found himself in front of the door that was already open.  There was a skeleton laying in front of him and he saw Delilah’s dress torn to shreds.  His heart skipped a beat and tears started flowing freely as he reached for her dress.  He could still get a faint smell of her scent from it, but someone else’s scent was on it too.  He looked over at the bed now covered in leaves and dirt with the bed sheets till on it where they had last made love.  He gently touched the bed post and collected himself.  He put a piece of her dress in his pocket. 

He heard scurrying footsteps down in the great room.  He turned to walk out of the room, heartbroken.  He made his way down the hallway toward the great room where his father’s throne was.  He saw so many skeletons laying about.  It was like they were garbage to Thomas.  An anger started burning deep inside him.  Then he saw him, he knew it was him because some of the clothing around the skeleton.  It was his father’s headless skeleton just feet from his throne.  He noticed that a part of his sleeve was ripped, not stabbed, or cut but torn.  Just feet from his father’s body he saw large pools of what he thought was dried blood.  He knelt by it and calmed himself.  He touched it and he could see parts from it’s life.  It was a large beast but that was all he could get from it.  It was so old he was surprised he could get that. 

He heard the footsteps again, small footsteps.  He turned in the direction of the noise and moved his fireball in that direction too.  He found a small child standing, a fairy child.  He was scared to death, dirty, his wings were shriveled up and unworkable. “Hello.” Adden said “You do not need to fear me. I am a friend.” Adden squatted down to his level as he got closer.  “Where are you from?”  He could tell the child was sizing him up. “I am a fairy too.” And Adden produced his wings. The child looked at him with amazement. He looked back at Adden and pointed down. “Are you from the basement?” Adden asked and the child shook his head ‘No’.  “Are you from the ground?” and the child nodded ‘Yes’.

“Are there others like you?” Adden asked and the child nodded again. “Can you take me to them? I want to help them.” Adden waited a bit for an answer and the child finally nodded and began leading the way.

The child lead him for several hundred feet outside the palace and into the woods, there was a downed tree and he stopped at it.  He knocked several times a simple pattern and it opened.  He led Adden down into it and it opened up into a huge cave.  He saw several fairies with their wings either shriveled or totally de-winged.  They turned to look at him and many of them recognized him and they look on their face was shock.

“My King.” One lady stood up and said and bowed and they all followed suit.

Adden visited with what was left of the fairies, forced to stay below the surface during the day and only let some of the faster children out when they needed food.  There were approximately 50 fairies there. They all were ill with coughing and fever.  His heart was breaking. 

He learned that Thomas had gone crazy because he could not find either Delilah or her baby.  He had hunted every fairy down that he could find because he was convinced that they knew where Adden was.  The few of them that survived decided that it was best to hide down here and so far, it’s worked accept fairies don’t do well in the dark.  They are beings of light.

“Your Queen is here and she is very powerful.  She will defeat Thomas with my help.”  Adden felt a fire deep inside himself come to life. “I must return to her, you stay safe and we will free you as soon as we can.  I promise.” The child let him out and Adden took flight.  The child watched him as far as he could and decided that he would fight to the death for him. 

Adden returned to their cave and Emmaline was waiting for him.  Angela had thought of going after him but decided that he needed to do this on his own. He told them what he had found and even pulled out the dress that had belonged to Delilah and handed it to Angela.  Angela took it in her hands and looked at it and she could feel an energy from it and it warmed her heart. Adden took Emmaline and sat her on his lap.  He needed her to be close.