Stuck in a Fairy Tale - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I awoke to the sound of birds singing their morning song. The light shined on my face through the trees and I slowly opened my eyes. Nightmares ran through my mind all night, making it seem like I had not slept a wink. The images of my father in chains being beaten and tortured seemed so real.

I looked over and saw that William was still peacefully asleep. A small smile came to my face but quickly faded when the realization came that we had to walk for god knows how long. I let out a deep sigh. With that William woke up.

"Morning sunshine! You're a light sleeper," I noted.

"Good morning lovely. My, it looks like a night's sleep is not your enemy. You look as beautiful as ever," He smiled then began to stretch after lying on the hard ground all night.

I blushed at his comment.
"Why thank you. You look pretty handsome yourself."

He grinned. As he picked up his bag, he said "So how did you sleep?"

I got up and brushed off my clothes. "Honestly, not so well. I kept having nightmares of my father. I'm scared to know what they're doing to him. He's all I have left. My mother died when I was just a child." I wiped a tear from my cheek.

He had a mournful expression on his face from what I had just told him. "Don't cry. We'll rescue him. Trust me." He rubbed my back in reassurance and I shuddered at his touch.

I nodded. "Ok. I know it doesn't help to think of it. We just have to move forward and hope for the best. So sir William, how far is this town you talked about?" I looked up at him, trying to hide the worry on my face.

"Well, it should take about half a day's time if we keep a constant pace," he told me as he was trying to calculate the forest.

I stopped abruptly, a stunned expression on my face. William looked back and walked back to me.

"Are you ok M'lady?" he said while waving a hand over my face.

I blinked, ensuring I was alive.

"Holy mother of pearl!"

"I beg your pardon?" He asked quizzically, not understanding the modern expression I used.

"Oh never mind. I was just surprised is all." I smiled to show him there was nothing to be concerned about.

"I guess I didn't realize how big the forest was. We better hurry then. It might be too late by the time we get to the castle, to my poor father," I told him quickly, grabbing his arm and heading in a direction I hoped would lead us to civilization.

He laughed which caused me to stop and look at him. "What? Why are you laughing?"

He kept laughing hysterically at me then finally quit and took a breath.

"I apologize miss but the town's that way." he said, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Oh well you could have said something." I pushed him to show how upset I was.

"Hey!" he grabbed his arm. "I would have but you didn't leave me any chance to say anything."

"I'm sorry. I didn't hurt you did I?" I reached out to the place on his arm where I pushed him.

He looked down at my hand on his arm then looked up at me, our eyes locking. "I've gone through far worse." We both quickly looked away.

"Shall we be on our way?"

"We shall." I nodded and we headed in the right direction to the town of Eulicius.

What a name for a town I thought.

After being in silence for a few hours I decided to break the ice. "So what kind of work do you do around here besides saving damsels in distress?"

"I am a part of the king's army. I also have to rid the forest of traitors like the man you saw me fight when we first met."

I remembered that from the story but he didn't know I knew that. Well the part about the traitor was different, which is why I didn't trust him at first.

"Right. Who was he and why did he kill your father?" I asked with concern.

"He was a Daharian, who are enemies of the kingdom of Weinrich. My father was killed with honor, trying to protect our people." I could see the sadness in his eyes.

"Do you think these Daharians could be the same people who captured my Father?" I was afraid to think such a thing but I had to ask.

"If that's the case, your Father is in more grave a danger than we thought but we can't give up or lose faith."

He surprisingly turned to me and hugged me closely, petting my hair to comfort me. A few tears fell freely down my face. I felt that if we just kept holding onto each other like this the world was a safer place, void of dangerous creatures, horrible men and everything else.

He let go first, wiped the tears from my eyes, and grabbed my hand to keep going on our journey.

We wandered for hours and hours through the forest. I was completely exhausted. Why couldn't I have appeared in this world with more comfortable shoes?

Just when I thought it would never end, there was a clearing ahead of us. When I got closer, I noticed medieval huts, markets full of people and children running around. Thus far, the only things I have seen in this strange new world was William, that Daharian he fought and lots and lots of trees.

This was a different picture altogether, something I never imagined I would see apart from the fairytales I read. We walked towards the peaceful town as I thought in wonderment of this place.

The sounds increased in volume the closer we got until we were in the midst of it. I followed closely behind William through the crowd of people, wondering what we were going to do now that we were actually here.

I looked around amazed at the scene I was in. There were tents that sold different kinds of jewelry, colorful scarves, and much more. On one side of me, someone was roasting a pig outside their home. On the other, children were playing whimsically.

William stopped in front of me and started talking to one of the villagers to see where we could buy some horses.

He held on to my hand and pulled me into the direction the kind man lead us to.

"Hello sir, we lost our horses in the forest and have traveled a great distance. We are in need to buy a couple of your most suitable horses as we are on a journey to the kingdom of Weinrich, " he said to a man who looked to be in his mid 40s. The man stopped grooming the horses to speak to us.

"Hello. You've come to the right place." He had a deep British accent, wore green robes.

"Why I must say you look absolutely lovely miss," he noted and gave me a slight kiss on the hand.

I have never gotten this many complements back home. I was starting to like it here. I smiled sincerely up at him.

"Thank you." I replied and curtsied.

"I do have two horses at hand but they won't be ready till morning. Is that a problem?"

I couldn't bear another delay but what choice did we have.

William and I looked at each other, the same thoughts running through his head it seemed.

"That will be fine and how much for them?"

"6 gold pieces. You can pay me in the morning when you get the horses."

"At least we can have a comfortable place to sleep tonight," he said after were away from the horse man.

"True. We would have stopped to rest anyway so this isn't delaying the journey."

Another good thing was I got to explore this quaint little town with William, I thought to myself and smiled.

Before long it grew dark and it was a different scene filled with music, dancing and laughter.

"Shall we dance?" William proclaimed with his hand out towards me. I held on to it and he brought me gracefully to the dance floor where a group of people were already dancing.

As soon as we begun, the band slowed down the music. This was really a dream come true, being swept off my feet by my knight and shining armor. The dancing was different from what I was used to but so was the music. Fortunately, I caught on quick.

A few songs later, we decided to call it a night. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time," I told him, laughing playfully.

"Neither have I." He smiled. I felt his hand holding mine once again and it seemed to belong there. God, I wanted to stay here. This time was meant for me. I had no desire to go back to school or to the suburbs. Sure I would miss my friends but I'm sure I would make new ones here.
"Good evening to ye," the woman at the tavern said to us as we walked in. We both smiled earnestly at the elderly woman, who wore a green wool dress with white trimming. William greeted her like the gentleman he was and asked for a place to sleep for us.

After they conversed, we crept upstairs to our room. I was kind of nervous sleeping in the same room with William but it can't be much variant from the forest.

I took off my shoes once inside, my aching feet covered in blisters.

"You can have the bed. I'll sleep on the floor. I just need a pillow," William proclaimed.

"Nonsense, the bed is big enough for the both of us. We both need a good rest for tomorrow," I replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, William."

"Ok"

As we got ready for bed, something dropped to the floor from my gown. We both looked to the ground and sure enough it was the book that had lead me to this world. A shocked expression came to William's face as it was opened to the next page of the story, the pictures again changing to suit what was happening. This time it showed a picture of us dancing the night away.

He was not supposed to see this. I was sure it was tucked tightly in my dress but it must have loosened through the night. This is going to change everything.

What was I going to do now?