A Crown of Bones

~6| CHAPTER~

THE BRILLIANCE OF my plan wore off fast.

The warning signal saying I almost had an empty tank of gas was the first clue.

I couldn't stop and pull over to get more.

Sure father had left his wallet in the car, but the risk outweighed any reward.

Females went nowhere alone. There was always a male with them. This wasn't for protection. It was an act of claiming and dominance. Normally I had my parents around when I was young, with father standing close by. But now I had no one.

A female that was alone meant only one thing. She was free.

Free for the taking.

There were several nightmares that I had at night. One was the Conversion- the tortures and agony blending together in my dreams to create a dark monster.

The other nightmare consisted of the thing that I had fought for claw and fang, during my imprisonment there.

My body.

And I wouldn't give it away so easily to anyone.

I roll my eyes at my mantra though.

Just a few hours ago I had been on the brink of being sold to the Wolf King. Though maybe a small part of me had always known that it would never have worked. That I would never have really been able to follow mother's command. Keep quiet.

Only one thought clearly rang out through my mind against the haze that seemed to occupy it since the Conversion.

Frost Mountain.

Father had been right in calling me crazy. I was.

Crazy enough to become ensnared within the story and think it true.

Why shouldn't it be true?

I have felt a piece of my soul rip away.

I have seen beasts with fangs and red eyes of nightmares emerge from men.

I have seen women fight through hell and come back. Come back and somehow been able to smile through the torture of their pain and the burning of their flesh.

Why should this not be true then?

I should count myself lucky that the Frost Mountain edge peaked close to the Wolf King's Palace. The land basically divided into three parts.

Frost Mountains.
Snowy mountains that were filled with brutal ice and merciless winds of frost and fury.

Rosslar Desert. 
Hot deserts- sand all around for the eye to see and no water in sight for your sandpaper tongue.

The Lost Forest. 
Dark woods. Cool rich forests where the beasts could come out and play.

Maybe I wouldn't have to risk stopping for gas.

But my dress.

That was another matter that I had to deal with.

I certainly couldn't go hiking in the mountains with it.

Though the legends did say that the fruit was located at the center of the mountain. I remember mother saying that detail when she told me the story at a young age. Maybe there was a tunnel or something I could find.

I drove on though.

The mountains soon loomed in front of me as the car started to beep it's warning about its almost empty tank.

I ignored the noise and continued forward.

I wasn't afraid.

Not really.

I was hungry. I wanted that fruit. The fruit that promised a different life away from this world.

I would reach out and claim it.

What did I care about being a bride when I could be a true Queen?

I would take that throne for myself.

Claim whatever inch of power that I could. Power that I once had that had been stripped away from me.

As If I would settle for anything less than blood.

Ready or not Axis.

I've come to burn your Kingdom down.