Light of the Unexpected Adventure

Chapter 16 Searching and Hiding

Gabriella's POV

My explanation of the situation means nothing to the guards, it falls on deaf ears. I huff out in frustration, wanting to get up to join them or at least better explain myself so they won't be scared of me, but I can't leave because of this bubble. So I slowly reach out, watching my fingertips tremble nervously, not knowing what will happen if I touched the bubble. I point my finger out as it slowly gets closer to the glistening shield. But as my finger makes contact, the bubble instantly pops and completely disappears from around me. Jumping in shock, I looked all around me, seeing the piles of ogre ash and the footprints from the men who ran away. I keep looking until I see one guard slowly walking towards me.

"I don't want to hurt you." I say with my hands up but trying to keep my distance as I scoot back on my bottom and across the dirt, away from him. "As I don't want to hurt you." he responds putting his gloved hands up, and I see he doesn't have a weapon within his grip. "The King has found out about you being out here.. and has demanded you are brought to him because of your powers." he declares as I shake my head in confusion. "How could he have possibly found out about her.. Or me.. I mean." I say looking back and forth around me as if this is some trick, waiting for something else to happen.

There is no possible way he could have found out about me and the power I gained in such a short period of time. I looked back at the man, seeing the confusion on his face because of my comment, I would assume. "I don't know.. All I know is that the men were sent to look for some woman that has power and to bring her to the King.. I didn't know that 'she' would be you.. Gabriella." he says to me as I shake my head in shock, how does he know who I am?

"How do you know my name stranger?" I yell out at him as he steps closer. I scoot back, and he takes a couple more steps in my direction before kneeling down in front of me. "I am the guard that covered for you with Mother Ann yesterday. Apparently, you are memorable to me, but I am not to you." he says to me as I squint my eyes, seeing his familiar ones under the guise of the helmet. "Well, it's harder to recognize you when you have seen my face, but I have never seen yours. Now please just let me go back to my hut and no one will ever have to know this was me.. Please."

I beg this of him, just hoping he will be as nice as he was to me yesterday, but he just huffs out as he stares over at me. "I would.. But I can't.. I need this to get me into the castle and closer to the King.. I'm sorry." he says as I shake my head. I am shocked that a person I thought seemed nice and genuine just wants to get the luxuries of the castle under his belt. This is selfish. "You could let me go and say you never saw me." I say as he huffs out even louder than before.

I just hope that he has some shred of mercy or even empathy for me. I watch him look around before looking back at me with those beautiful eyes of his that stare straight through me as if I am as thin as a leaf. The surprising part is that he looks as if he is thinking about it, but he just sucks in a deep breath before saying softly. "I am so sorry, Gabriella.. But.. I can't." he says before reaching out for me. The anger takes over me as I swipe his hands away. The surprise is in his eyes as I watch him reach again, but I do the same, making this situation frustrating for the both of us. If he is going to try to take me in then I won't make this easy on him.

"I don't want to hurt you.. Just come with me, and nothing bad will happen to you by my hand." he declares as I shake my head and try to scoot away, but he grabs my leg and pulls me back to him, before throwing his leg over my legs, until he is hovering over me as I try to push him off. But with that action, he grabs for my arms as I try to pull them out of his grip. His grip just tightens around my forearms easily, with his fingers overlapping one another, showing how big his hands are in comparison to my arms. He tries to pull me up using this same grip, but I instantly try to push back, which catches him off guard as he almost falls, but using my arms to rebalance himself.

It's a constant back and forth scuffle between us, and no one is giving in. That is until the mysterious bubble is somehow instantly formed around me again, but this time it surrounds him too, not just me as I figured it would. This startles me because I am not sure why it was formed in the first place or how I even did it.. If I did it. He looks around us, slowing down his fighting, but not letting go of my forearms, as he states. "What is this?" I shake my head, not knowing what to tell him because I have no idea what it is either. "I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine." The annoyance is hand in hand with the confusion as he stares down at me in an accusing tone that makes me think he doesn't believe me.

"You don't know, and yet you are the one that created it." he snaps back at me as I shake my head. "I didn't.. I.. I don't know." I say as I push his hands back from me, but he keeps holding on as if his life depends on bringing me in. "Well, I know for a fact that I didn't make it.. And there are only the two of us here.. So, who else could create this?" He asks as I shake my head, not having an answer for that either. We push back and forth until I kick at him, but don't make contact hard enough to do anything to him, but it is enough to pop the bubble.

We both jump in surprise at the loud sound of the bubble popping. We are frozen in place as we look all around us. I don't know if he is expecting something else to happen. I looked to the side, seeing a rock as I quickly twist then slip my hand out of his grip just to grab the rock and smack him in the side of the head. Too bad the helmet is there to protect his head so he won't be hurt at all, just to make sure he got off of me and left me alone.

Luckily though, I caught him off guard to give myself a chance to leave. He tumbles off of me like a large tree that is chopped down. I quickly get up, and to my feet before I am able to run away from him and through the little bit of trees that I am all too familiar with. I, just as quickly, get to the wall and climb up the tree, then through the branches, getting away from him. I sit in the middle of them to give my body a chance to calm and hide. My next step will be to get back to my hut and get my things because if all the guards are looking for me and one knows exactly where I am. So that says to me that I won't be hidden for long.

Leoric's POV

I fell to the ground in abrupt shock. The rock hit my helmet so hard that it caused the helmet to ring and vibrate over my head, like a bell would. I squeezed my eyes shut, hating that sound as it reverberated around and within my skull. My hands didn't reach for the helmet fast enough before the ringing damage was done. I was not expecting her to do anything like that. She seems incredibly gentle and hates any type of violence. Obviously, because of our past experiences, I can see that from a mile away.

So I know her actions are out of straight fear at this point, since she doesn't know me or my actual plans and intentions, especially when it comes to her. But if she would have given me the chance to help her and figure something out, then we both could have been safe in this. But her running off is not helping anyone. Who knows what the men will do with her when getting hold of her. I know some of the men got a good look of her too, but luckily, they have no idea where she resides like I do.

So I have an advantage in this that could be used in my favor. Besides, I know who she is and where she lives, so why wouldn't I use that information when I now need it? But the thing is that I don't know for sure if that is where she will be going. I think I can assume that I know where she will be headed, but with the Mothers being the heartless women they are, I know that they will give her up easily and she knows that as well. So I have to find her even if it's not at her residence, at least before any of the heartless enemies do.

I push myself off of the ground and look around the area. I can't see anything, so I take the helmet off as I stand. My ears stop ringing which helps, so I am instantly straining my ears to see if I can hear anything to indicate which way she went. That's when I hear a branch break off towards the east side of me. I slip the helmet on as I turn and start running that way. But when I go in that direction, I look around everywhere I can. But I don't see anything. I know I heard the sound come from this area.

So, I search for a long moment, not seeing anything, until I accidentally kick a broken branch that looks as if it has been stepped on. I reach down, looking at it as I glance around, hoping for some other sound to emerge to show me the way to go next. But there is nothing here, just silence as if it is an empty area when I know better than to think that. My eyes ping to anything surrounding me, but all I can see is the very tall wall and the many trees surrounding me.

I walked back and forth past the wall, just wondering where she could have gone to that quickly. It was only a moment that she was given to hide, and yet she is nowhere to be found. She is short and not incredibly heavy or anything, I would like to say that her body type is curvy, voluptuous, if anything. But the point is that she is not petite either, with light colored layers of cloth on her tunic, so I feel like I should be able to spot her easily in this brown and green environment. But no.

Sadly enough, my eyes see nothing that would show her stunning features or at least where she would have gone to. Nothing when yesterday, that was all I could see. I could hardly keep my eyes from her, but now I can't even find her when I need to. It's frustrating. But I really don't have any ideas of where she could have gone to in this area. Well, besides the trees, but there are so many around, how can I even try to figure out which one she chose, if she chose one? Ugh.