Fairytales Aren't Perfect

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE:

        Melody awoke to something bright shining in her eyes. She blinked a few times before completely shutting her eyes, shying away from the luminous light. She was leaning against something warm and it felt nice, very nice.

The light came closer and against her better judgment Melody moaned and shuffled closer to the heat and away from the light. There was an irritated noise that reminded Melody of chatter and the flitter of small wings; a bug. Melody, with perfect bug swatting posture—as perfect as you can get with your eyes closed—brought her hand down to squash the bug when something bumpy and lumpy caught her wrist.

“You no kill faerie,” something grumbled, before releasing her wrist. Terrified Melody opened her eyes and if it wasn’t for the arms that were holding her back, she would have bolted. In front of her was a bunch of misfit looking creatures. Some had boils, some bruises, and some sharp manicured nails.

“Shhh.  Shh. It’s okay Mel,” the person behind her soothed, his warm breath brushing past her ear.

“Ian?” she sounded breathless and startled, damn him.

“Yes?”

“Get your paws off of me!” She hissed, quickly forgetting where she was and wriggling against the bounds that were his hands. Gosh he had arms of steal, Melody noted half annoyed, half pleased. Damn him.

“Sorry Princess, not gonna happen,” he said, sounding a little strained.

Melody huffed and stopped struggling, knowing it was pointless. Melody looked over across the fire to where the group of people sat. There was a handsome knight with a sword resting at his side, a girl with springy blonde curls, a bear with a tutu, and a large brown ogre that Melody had the sneaking suspicion was the one stinking up the place. Where the hell was she? There looked almost as many as 20 people sitting near her and a few more milling around the surrounding area.

“Ian,” she squeaked, suddenly frightened, “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

Melody wriggled around in his arms just to glare at him and saw a pained look on his face. “Are you okay?” She asked, forgetting about the assassin looking lady who had been staring her down moments before from inside the foliage of the forest.

“Just peachy,” He said, gritting his teeth.

Melody cocked her head to the side, “What wrong?”

Ian looked down at his lap than back at her, a dark brow raised. Melody blushed scarlet and looked at his jaw, suddenly feeling interested in the small dimple on the side of his mouth. “Yeah, so do you think you could stop wiggling around for now?” He said, speckles of amusement in his voice.

Melody flushed again and nodded, “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize… Now what were you going to ask me?”

Was she going to ask him a question? She could barely think straight.

“Mommy is she a princess?” A small voice inquired.

Melody turned her head around in him to see a woman bend over to answer the little boy, “Of course not Morgan.”

“Well Ian called her a princess!” The little boy exclaimed, folding his arms across his chest.

The little girl on the other side of the woman rolled her eyes, “You’re so stupid Morgan!  Of course she’s a princess. All princesses are pretty, like Bell.”