Frostbitten Past

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ANDORRA FELT the stillness of the in-between and she didn't like it. It felt too calm, too still, too quiet.

She knew something was wrong, and she had a feeling it wasn't supposed to be so dark. Or, she hoped it wasn't supposed to be so dark and ominous.

She hated the feeling as though she weren't alone. It wasn't as though she were hearing breathing, or hearing movement, but she could feel the presence of someone else there with her, in this dark in-between world she was no inhabiting. It wasn't a bad presence persay, but Andorra hated that she couldn't see the other being.

"Hello?" She ventured, listening to the way the darkness seemed to eat up her voice. It wrapped around her in an embrace, almost suffocating her. She didn't dare move, or really breathe, trying to understand what her senses were telling her.

Princess... a voice came from around her, rumbling and echoing in the darkness. It sent chills up her spine immediately, and she knew that she was in danger. All of the anger she felt when she'd torn through time and space was suddenly gone, replaced with fear.

Princess... we've been waiting for you... waiting for you to join us. Your parents were not enough... we want you too... we need you...

Andorra felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, but she tried to stay calm. She could smell something rotten, something that made her gag. It felt warm, as though someone were breathing on her, and it made her insides turn to mush.

"I need to get out of here." She announced, but she had a feeling the voice didn't care about that, or really about her. "Where is here?"

She felt the rumble of a laugh, so dark that it rumbled through her entire body. She felt it in her bones, in her blood, and it made her suddenly cold with dread. Her heart began to beat wildly in her chest just then, as if she was suddenly realizing the danger she was in, and her chest tightened.

You have slipped too far... you have come to the dark depths, the deep below, the place lower than human hell. Only powerful beings can cut through like that, straight from one world to another... you are a skilled Princess indeed.

She could barely breathe over the pounding of her heart, and now she was feeling dizzy and lightheaded. She wasn't breathing enough, was taking too shallow of a breath, but she couldn't stop herself from hyperventilating.

She wasn't in the in-between. She was lower than that. She was in the Fae hell, wherever that was.

"My parents are here?" She called out timidly, hoping that they were and they weren't, for if they were, then that would mean she found them. But if they weren't, then at least they were somewhere safer, somewhere that wasn't this dreadful place.

Your parents have been here for a long, long time... your father first... and then your mother, after she hid you from us... we were so hungry for you, and they took you from us... but you have come back to us at last, our Princess...

She felt the tangible fear, so potent that it was choking her. She didn't understand where she was, or why she was there, but she had to escape. She tried to scrap through the worlds again, like she did before, but this was different. When she tried, she was met with something hard, something pressing.

She was trapped.

Your parents tried that... tried to escape... but we have strong walls...

She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, letting the stench of the rotten roll over her. She knew almost nothing of the Fae religion, or their beliefs, but she had to try. She opened her mind completely and she called out to Cornomous, first in her mind, and then outloud.