The warrior princess

Chapter 4- Alone

"Grace." The archer pondered. The princess lays still on the ground, not twitching or moving a muscle. her eyes closed and arms bent.  As if she's asleep or dead. The archer crunches down beside her leans over with half of his head listening to her breathing. And plants two fingers at her neck. Her silent breathing, her chest moving up and down in motion. He glanced behind to get a look, the men's arms and legs moving in a swinging motion.  He doesn't hesitate to put his hand under her thighs and lifting the princess up and letting her upper body hang over her shoulder. 

 Automatically his legs set motion on the path. And his arm moving, he can feel his legs working under him. Soon as the guard is out of sight he slows down the pace. The archer sighs shortly.  Gently he lays the woman down, her ginger hair. The dirty white dress, but she's perfect. 

Quickly he swings the cape over his head placing it over Grace. She'll sleep for awhile he expects. The archer walks into the woods to find twigs and stones. The path is muddy, covered with leaves in distinct colors,  some wild lilies are growing in the trenches. The white petals stretching out the ends are bending out.  

The pistils are orange, some spots are decorating the flower. And the screaming green steam with thin leaves. He studies them his mother favorite flowers. He blinks a couple of times and turns his heels around to the lair.  Carefully he places the stones in a ring, dropping the twigs and branches inside. With the two stones, he knocks them against each other. A tiny spark shines but not enough to set the twigs on fire.

a spark touches the twigs and a wave sweeps over them forming a fire. The man grabs the cape, when he's about to walk away he sits down on one knee."We'll meet again, princess," he whispers into her ear before getting up and leaving her to rest. 

I look down at my body, the hands and my legs have been wrapped up with cloths.  Why did that man save me? A fire has been made. The flames dances and the cracking of the fire are somehow calming. Going outside the castle was always a restricted area, my father always warned me about the dangers and the threats lurking outside the walls. Where am I? I close my eyes. 

The dress has dried with mud stains and dirt. If I collect enough sticks perhaps I could stay over the night, but that counts if the fire doesn't go out. The cold temperatures will kill me if I can't stay warm. I'm lucky that the winter hasn't arrived yet or I would have been dead already. 
Right now I'm more worth dead than alive if I chose to return to my old kingdom. The air is fresh when it enters through my mouth and nose. 

At a certain point tingling starts to numb my feet, soon I've lost any feeling in my feet. I have to return soon to my fire or I'm not going to survive tonight.  Finding anything to eat will be a hard task, I'm not exactly a hunter. The trees stand tall, stretching so far the treetops aren't visible.  Sticks are laying scattered everywhere, I bend down picking one of them at the time. Some of them are soaking wet, I immediately throw them away. When my arms bearly can carry something I turn around in the same direction I came from. I have never hunted before so finding food will hard task,  I haven't eaten a thing since I was imprisoned.

 My body aches and I lay down on the wet and hard ground. The smell of pine and smoke drifts into my nose.  My sight is blurry trying to focus, quickly I rub my eyes. The feeling of being watched is bothering me. I get on my feet a turn a couple of times around.

An arrow graces my hair,  I  throw myself down on the ground covering my head. My palms get wet and full of dirt as I lay on the ground. My eye bug out when I sport a man hiding.  Soon I realize he's not alone. On instinct, I plant my palms into the ground and pushes off with my feet. "Get her!" The man who suggests that he's the leader shouts. My legs working under me, the darkness casts shadows everywhere. My hands get chilly and so does my body. Sweat flows down my face, making the cotton dress uncomfortable. One of my feet stumbles in a branch automatically making my body tilt forward. Branches whip my face, I groan out before holding my arms in front of my face to no use. 

 Parts of my dress gets stuck between the branches I have to tug on it when I run between the bushes. I turn my head around to spot a group catching up on me, the adrenaline pumping through my veins and system. My mouth sucking some of the air sending it down to my lungs it stings making it feel like a fire rages through my system. My running is wobbly as I attempt to bear it. I turn as I reach a meadow away from the path. To focused I forget to look down, my foot gets caught in something, suddenly my body flies forward and I grunt breathing in and out. The throbbing pain spreads out to every part of my body. On my tail, the hunters come running behind me. I crawl over a trench, making sure to stay flat. 

I crouch down hiding in the grass keeping my head low and trying to get a look. "Where did she go?" one of them inquires. He ends up getting an aggressive answer.  The leaders shove his sword into the man's stomach and pull it out and the man falls on his back dead. My body freezes after the scene. I turn to see one of the hunters standing right behind me before I can make a move he swings his hand across my cheek.

"Please, don't kill me." I plead. His raging eyes staring at me. The hunters forming a circle around me to make sure that I can't flee. If I take a chance again they will definitely slay me on the spot. All the thoughts that swirl in my head. This is the end for me. "Was the ax to heavy for the executor to swing?" He taunts me. I roll my eyes at him observing him. The hunter grabs my arms, I gasp planting my feet on the ground he laughs at me with a grinning the yellow teeth and a stinking breath roaring at me to not make a fuss for them.

  A struck to the back of my head takes me by force, black spots appear in front of my eyes. My ears are ringing as a bell got stuck inside of them. The dizziness making the sight spinning around. Helplessly I sense the men lifting my arms up dragging me on the ground until one of them lifting me up in their arms carrying me with them.