**DAPHNE**
As Trielle trots to a stop next to Petra, we are suddenly surrounded by strangely garbed soldiers. Each of them pointing at us with long stone tipped spears.
“Halt!” The largest one says.
He is humanlike in form and skin - with eyes like the day and hair the color of cornsilk. He is handsome, his fair ivory skin unblemished and the cut of muscles obvious in his build. However, the look he wears is one of supreme displeasure. He eyes me upon Trielle’s back and his mean little lips purse in disapproval.
“Why do you bring a mortal here?” He demands, glaring at Petra.
I lower my eyes, feeling somewhat ashamed and strangely saddened.
“How do you question anyone who rides Ash’s beasts, Finn? You of all people should know, we did not, and could not have stolen them.” She laughs, leaping off Delago’s back and holding her hand up to keep my place steady. Then, turning her eyes to Finn, she adds, “And this girl is not just any mortal. If I were you, I would treat her with your utmost respect.”
Finn smirks at her, and the soldiers around him laugh heartily. “You are right about one thing; she is not just any mortal. She shall be the newest addition to our collection in the dungeons.” Turning to me, he hisses, “You are not welcome here.”
He edges close with his spear, and I catch Petra’s eye. Troubling enough, she does not look worried. In fact, she appears pleased. I frown at her in question, and she winks at me as if to say, just you wait.
My gaze turns back to Finn, who has just raised his weapon to my eye level and that is when it all goes wrong for him. Trielle’s eyes burn a throbbing red as she rears up gently to stomp her hooves and send a stream of fire forth. Finn leaps backward, losing his spear as it flares up and turns to ash. Then Trielle’s breath becomes heated smoke, scorching all who are close and causing them to fall back.
She is protecting me.
I smile just then, the love I already had for this animal tripling and warming my heart.
The remaining soldiers lower their weapons immediately, a couple of them scrambling forth to pull a fallen Finn to his feet. He is panting and angry when he looks at me, I can feel the disgust for me coming off him in waves.
“See?” Petra sniggers at him. “I tried to warn you. She’s not just any mortal.”
Trielle kneels, losing the flames from her feet as I slide off of her, and causing the small combatant of soldiers to frown. I pet and kiss her when she rises, and she neighs happily.
Finn is uncaring, his stubborn glare firmly in place. He motions his company to his sides, and they effectively block our entry into the cavern beyond.
“You will regret this,” Petra hisses in Finn’s face, not at all afraid of him. Her tiny body fizzes with blue electric energy and her eyes begin to glow the way they used to back at Hadimere Palace.
“I will not,” Finn snaps back. “You may enter, but the only way that mortal is getting in here, is if she is wearing silver handcuffs.”
Petra is becoming a ball of fierce blue light and I reach out to her, stroking her arm to calm her down. “It’s okay. We should just wait for Ash.”
Finn spits at my feet in anger. “You! Do not ever say the name of our prince so casually, human. Or I shall have your head on a stick to grace the Trail of Fallen Rock.”
I gasp and begin to tremble as my eyes go from soldier to soldier. Each one of them wears a mask of hate for me and my kind that I can feel slice into my bones.
The sound of hoofbeats shakes the ground behind us and at first, I am sure it is more soldiers come and take me away. So certain am I of this, that I do not even turn around when they stop.
With the slow approach of heavy booted footsteps, a sultry and familiar voice sounds at my back, “Any hand that touches this woman with intent to do harm, shall decorate the tip of my sword. Is that clear?”
*Klyesque!*
I spin around to see Klyesque and Dionie walking toward me, each of them glaring angrily toward the small block of guards at the entrance.
*Where is Ash?*
Klyesque stomps forward ahead of me and shouts, “Soldiers, stand down. You will kneel each and every time you see Lady Daphne from here on, and that is an order.” She glares at them haughtily and one by one they lower their eyes. “You may start now,” she hisses, glaring pointedly at Finn. At first, none of them moves, but then, she draws her sword, and the group of them can’t fall down fast enough. “That’s better.”
Blinking back the tears that had formed in my eyes, I whine at her, “What the devil took you so long?”
She giggles, “We got here as fast as we could. The Dracuum were less than pleased to find their prey had escaped them.”
“There were three!” Dionie pants in agreement, and I notice for the first time he is injured. There is a bandage around one of his thick muscled thighs and blood seeping through his shirt. “They were not easy to kill.”
Klyesque laughs, “Speak for yourself ogre.”
“Wait!” I exclaim, not being able to hold back my fears any longer. “Where’s Ash? Is he okay? Why is he not with you?”
Klyesque loses her smile. “I do not want you to worry Daphne, because Ash is ruler here and as such, he cannot be easily harmed on his own lands. But-”
“But?” I shriek.
She swallows thickly, gazing past me to Dionie as if for asking for agreement. “We became separated.”
“Where?”
She sighs, heavily. “In the mists.” She hisses, “In the Fog of the Forgotten Wood.”