Happily Ever After......NOT!

Chapter Seventeen

       I gasped as I stared at my blood stained hand, "Hayden you're bleeding!" I looked at the dark red stain on his black cotton shirt feeling a little woozy.
       "What?" Hayden lifted his left arm and looked at the stain on his cotton shirt. "Oh it's nothing, just a scratch." He said calmly.
      I shook my head, "We better have a look at that." I said taking his hands and guiding him over to a fallen log that was beside the path.
     "No seriously, Amaya, I'm fine."
      "You're not." I argued, "And we're not going anywhere until I see how bad you're injured. Now take your shirt off."
      He grinned that wonderful grin of his, "You just want to see me shirtless." He sat down on the log and grimace as a jolt of pain went up his side.
      Ignoring his comment I pulled out his bottle of rum and oil from a mermaid's tail hat he had previously used on my injured feet when they were raw and bleeding. "Now are you going to take your shirt off or do I have to do it for you?" I asked looking up into his gorgeous eyes that I fell harder for everyday.
     "Oh I'll love for you to take my shirt off." He said with a teasing grinning his accent ever so thick and sexy.
     "Okay." Reaching down I took hold of the end of his black cotton shirt, as I raised it over his head my fingers brushed his bare chest sending a thrill of shivers down my back.
       He looked at me in complete surprise like he didn't think I'll actually take his shirt off.
      We gazed into each other's eyes and just for a moment I thought he was going to kiss me, that this would be the moment of my first kiss. He'll lean in and so would I naturally and then he'll wrap his arms around me and our lips would meet. He'll pull me close to him and I'll feel every muscle in his bare arms and...... Then the moment ended too soon and he turned and looked at his wound, "Bloody hell it's worse then I thought."
      I shook my head and came back to reality, gently I touched his bare side where the injury was, blood gushed from the gap that was about 5 inches long. Without hesitation I dumped some rum onto his wound washing the blood away.
     He screamed and cursed as the rum stung like hell then he grabbed the bottle of rum and chugged so much down I thought he surely would be wasted. His face pale he gave me a small smile, "Next time warn me." The smell of rum on his breath made me want to gag.
      I took the bottle of rum from him, "Sorry, I forgot how bad it stings."
      He shrugged, "No big deal, I probably deserve it after all the times I called you royalty names."
      I rubbed the oil from a mermaid's tail into his clean wound and smiled he did call me your highness or princess more often than he called me my name.
      He watched me put the mermaid oil on and dress his wound, when I was done he asked, "Don't princesses learn how to speak, walk, sit, and dance? How come you know so much  cooking and bandaging wounds?"
    "Well growing up as an only child in a castle filled with empty rooms, you feel very lonely and bored. I spent most of my time in the kitchen with our cook Zora, she let me help her prepare meals though Father hated it, he would say "The kitchen is no place for a princess of Rollick." I mimic making Hayden laugh.
       "But what about bandaging wounds?? Did you spend all your time with the Royal Doctor as well?" He teased.
       I laughed "No,That was my parents, when I got injured or hurt my hand maidens would rush to my side to take care of it, but my Father and Mother would refuse for them to help me. My father's motive you got to take care of yourself in this world because nobody is going to be waiting on the sidelines to take care of you. So every cut, every scrap I got as a child they made me dress and bandage myself."
     Hayden shook his head, "Man your parents sound tough."
     "I guess they were, but it's how they choose to raise me." I stood holding my hand out to help Hayden stand as well.
     He grinned, "So will I live nurse?"
    I smiled, "Let's give it a few hours to see." I teased a hint of sparkle in my eyes.
    Hayden threw his head back and laughed then he slipped his black cotton shirt on then picked up his pile of sticks he dropped when he had to fight Killia's two goons, "I'll build a fire, you think you can think of something  to cook with that pretty head of yours?"
     "I think I can manage to find something." I smiled and went to look for something. Luck was on my side I found two wild carrots in the ground and some mushrooms. Pulling them up I returned to where Hayden had started the small fire. "How does cooked carrots and mushrooms sound? Maybe add a little bit of that jerky you still have?" I asked.
      Hayden finished blowing on the fire, then pulled out his jerky from his burlap sack and handed it to me, our hands touched. "Sound like heaven." He said as his hand brushed mine.
       I lowered my head bashfully even a slight touch from him sent my heart pounding and my head spinning. Oh Lord help me I was falling for him.
                                                                      ~
       He was right, the wild carrots, mushroom, and few jerky shredded into tiny bite tasted heavenly cooked together. After our meal we packed up what little we had and continued walking along the well known path. I cautiously I watched Hayden walk, worried that his wound was painful and that he was hurting.
       Hayden broke the silence between us, "You stare at me any harder and your eyeballs are going to fall out of your head." He grinned.
     I focused my attention instead on the path, "I'm sorry, just are you okay? You're not in any pain are you? Because we can stop any time and take a break." I babbled all at once.
      "Amaya, I'm fine really, a little sore but okay." He smiled at me which made my heart beat faster.
      I brushed a pieces of my hair back and tucked it behind ears. My mind wondered back to when Killia held me captive and how Hayden told Killia I was a much better person in bed, "I can't believe you told Killia I was much better person in bed!" I said playfully shoving him being careful not to shove his injured side.
      He laughed, "She bought it though."
      I blushed, "But we never...... Why did you tell her that anyway?" I held my breath could it be he wants to be with me is why he said it?!
     Hayden shrugged, "I just know how to push her buttons, Killia has always been the jealous type."
       "I can't believe you were actually engaged to her!"
        "Yeah, I don't know what I ever saw in her." He added looking deep in thought.
        "She's definitely not your type." I said smiling at him.
        "Ohhh so you know what my type is uh?" He said with a glimmer of laughter in his eyes.
         I smiled teasingly, "Maybe."
        "Are you my type?" He asked elbowing me gently.
       I blush, "I don't know you did want to get rid of the princess with five inch heels as fast as possible." I said thinking about some of our first conversations to each other.
       "Yeah, but that's before I knew the princess in five inch heels, and now she traded her gown for leather jeans and cotton shirt with a leather vest, and her heels for boots. I think I can manage with that."
    I groaned, "Don't remind me, I miss my old clothes." I looked down at my outfit, "But the Great Wizard does have good taste so I can't complain."
     Hayden was quiet for a moment, "Princess can I ask you something."
      "Anything." I said giving him my full attention.
      "What are you going to do about your father? The King of Rollick I mean, he killed the only mother you ever knew and made you take the fall for it, are you going to let him get away with it?"
       I paused thinking about it, of course I didn't want him to get away with it, but what choice did I really have? My father already has the whole town of Rollick thinking I did it, "I can't think about that right now, first finish the mission and get the Great Wizard his silly necklace and talk to my birth mother. All I can think about right now is breaking this curse.  I'm done with things always going wrong in my life, it's time for things to go right after I get my life under control then I can start thinking about what I'm going to do about him."
       Hayden smiled at me, "I think you already got your life under control."
       "By having things go wrong? Getting kidnapped twice make that three times when you first kidnapped me, having my mother die and getting blamed for it and put in prison, having no suitors stick around long enough to say 'I do', to find out I'm adopted and my own mother didn't want me, and the reason behind that could be because I'm curse with the Curse of Unhappiness and can't be happy because things are always going wrong and......"
      "Yes!" Hayden said cutting me off as I was about to ramble on. We walked quietly side by side me not saying anything and Hayden lost in thought. Finally he broke the silence, "Princess..... I know a lot of bad things has happened to you, but that's life! Bad things happen to everyone and there's nothing you can do about it."
     I frown, "What are you saying?"
     He shrugged, "I'm saying maybe this whole thing of yours isn't a curse at all, maybe you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
      "Are you serious? You heard the Great Wizard in his cottage right? He said I'm curse with the Curse of Unhappiness." I pointed out.
      "Yes and I never question anything that the Great Wizard says, but he also likes to play games. And Amaya.... You choose if you're going to be happy about a situation or not, you choose if you're going to take the bad things that happen and dwell on them or if you're going to push pass them and be happy. It's your decision so choose to be happy."
    "I've tried Hayden! and to be honest being with you has been......

      "Bloody hell." Hayden interrupted me his dark brown eyes focused ahead of us on the path, frowning he looked disconcerted and glanced behind us down the path where we just came and then looked back ahead. His face a puddle of confusion.

         "What's wrong?"  I asked, I was starting to realize when Hayden cursed it was because something wasn't right.

         His face was dark and angry, "This isn't bloody right." He grumbled taking off at a run.

             "Hayden! Wait!" I called after him running to keep up. I stumbled then fell hard on the dirt, picking myself up I ran fast and then I saw why Hayden had taken off, for up ahead of us was another forest. There was something different about this forest though, the trees were shaped like a gardener had came and trimmed and cut them just like the Royal gardener did at the palace. Also the leaves of the trees where blood red nearing the edge of the forest I stopped and stared up at it with Hayden. The blood red leaves oozed  with what looked like blood.