Happily Ever After......NOT!

Chapter Eighteen

      Hayden and I neared the blood red forest and I realized that all the trees that were visible didn't just have red leaves, but also the tops of all the trees were shaped like hearts. Like a Gardner had came through and trimmed all the tops of the trees to be shaped as hearts. It made me feel like it was time for the Sweetheart Ball that my parents threw every year. It was such a grand party all the guest dressed in red and danced with their sweetheart or if they came single they danced with the others at the party. The trees reminded me of the heart ice sculpture that sat on the table during Sweetheart Ball.
       I smiled at Hayden trying to image him dressed in red at the Sweetheart Ball dancing with a beautiful woman.
       Hayden glanced over at me and caught me smiling at him, "What are you smiling at, Princess?"
        I twirled the tip of my boot in the dirt, "Have you ever gone to The Sweetheart Ball??"
        "How can you think about a party at a time like this!" Hayden said shaking his head he treaded back and forth in front of the red forest getting furious with each step he took.
       "What's wrong Hayden??" I asked watching him pace in front of the  for-longing forest.
       Hayden stopped pacing and pointed to the forest This whole bloody forest is what's wrong! It's not suppose to be here!." He yelled.
       "Calm down," I said going and standing in front of his I stroked my fingers threw his hair in hope to calm him.
      "Don't tell me to calm down this forest is not suppose to be here!"
        Removed my hand from his hair, "What do you mean it's not suppose to be here?"
       Hayden pointed to the dark red forest in front of us, "This...... This forest is not on the map." He hurried searched through his burlap sack.
      I shook my head deeply confused, "Hayden, what do you mean? A forest can't just   pick up it's tree roots and move!"
       Hayden nodded finding what he was looking for he looked at me, "No, but some ONE can." He unfolded and well used map it's corners wrinkled and torn he glanced from his map to the forest and back down to his map.
     "You're saying someone moved a whole freakin forest?!" I laughed, "You know how crazy that sounds?!"
       "I'm serious!" Hayden showed me his map, "See we're on this road right here." Hayden traced his tanned finger down and stopped at a forest. "The Enchanted Forest of Youth is suppose to be our next forest and our last one before we reach Agog, The Enchanted Forest of Love is supposed to be nowhere bloody near us!"
        I bite my lip, "Maybe you're confused and this is the forest...."
        "No! I've traveled here thousands of times! And I don't being played!"
         "Who's playing you?" I asked.
         Hayden rolled his eyes, "Who do you think?" He sighed shaking his head, "Now let's get this over with." He walked to the edge of the forest."
         "But Hayden! The Great Wizard is on our side, why would he do this to us?"
         "What have I told you this whole trip? The Great Wizard plays games, the only one he cares about is his own self, now let's move it we don't have all day."
         Then it hit me, Hayden said this forest was The Enchanted Forest of Love. My eyes widened and my voice cracked, "Hayden if going in that forest is going to make you fall in love with me....." Tears silently fell down my cheeks.
         "Hey." Hayden said softly he stepped out of the edge of the forest and came back to me, he took my hand in his and with his free hand wiped my tears away.
          "I can't watch you die." I said looking up into his gorgeous brown eyes, "Not after watching my mother die." I shook my head. "I just can't." I said quietly.
        "Don't worry about me," he said squeezing my hand, "You need to worry about yourself."
        I looked up at him confusion etched in my face, "What do you mean?"
        Hayden looked away in the distance, "Remember when you promised not to fall in love with me?" I didn't say anything so he continued, "Well this forest is going to test you, so you better be good a keeping promises." He grinned at me and walked back to the edge of the forest and looked back at me, "You coming?"
       I looked up at the Enchanted Forest of love with it's heart shaped tree tops and red leaves. How could I tell him that it's too late for that, that I was already falling in love with him more day by day. Taking a deep breath I walked up to him and together we enter the Enchanted Forest of Love which could very well be my undoing.
      Not only was the tree tops heart shaped, but so was the rocks that were embedded in the dirt path and even the flowers that bloomed from the grass beside the path were red and shaped like hearts. I thought the palace had a lot of red in it, this forest put the palace to shame, everything was red! Red flowers, red rocks, red dirt, even the sky and grass around us in the forest appeared red.  Birds chirped and flew around us singing sweet songs of love as they flew from tree to tree trying to find a mate.
       "I'm going to be sick of red." I said with a giggle.
       Hayden smiled.
      Suddenly up ahead a couple strolled together talking and laughing.
       My eyes widened, so far the only people I've seen since Hayden kidnapped.... Well I guess it was more of a rescue me, has been The Great Wizard, the others who had tried to kidnap me, and Hayden. There hadn't been anyone else traveling on the road. I threw my hand up in the air and waved to them. "Hello!"
      The couple didn't respond, they didn't even glance back at us. They just kept talking the woman giggled at something he said and held hands.
       I frowned at the couple as they continued walking, "Well aren't they rude!"
        Hayden laughed, "It's not their fault, it's what the Enchanted Forest of Love does, the longer you're in the bloody forest the more you're start to get feelings for someone. Until eventually all you think about is that person and everything else is tuned out, so that couple up front as been here awhile and things around them are tuned out and all they can think about is each other. Romantic isn't it?" He grinned.
       "But Hayden the longer you're in this forest it's going to make you start having feelings for me and then you'll......" I blushed stopping my sentence, I'll love for him to have feelings for me! But as long as he was cursed that couldn't happen, quietly in my head I promised myself that I'll help break the curse so we could be together and then he could tell me he loved me. That is if he even wanted to tell me he loved me, I peeked at him through my long eye lashes, he was so mysterious and hard to read at times.
       Hayden broke me out of my trail of thought, "It's not that kind of love princess." He said with that same mysterious smile.
       We continued walking each of us lost in our own deep thoughts. I puzzled over what Hayden said about it not being that kind of love, what kind of love could of possibly be? And how long would we be in this forest anyway? I didn't think I would ever get tired of the color red, but I really longed for any other color than red.
      Then a drop of the red ooze that dripped from the red leaves of the trees dropped onto my left arm. When the drop of ooze touched my  arm it formed a heart shaped. I stared at the ooze, what on earth was it anyway? Was it rain that was red or could it be blood? My eyes widened and I stared at Hayden.
     Reading my eyes, he nodded at the ooze, "It's safe to eat, don't worry."
    I wrinkled my nose at first, but then shrugged, "Oh what the heck I already tried frog legs, what would a little bit of red ooze from a completely red forest do!"  cautiously I dipped my finger into the red ooze and lifted it off my arm, then slowly I put my finger with the ooze in my mouth. The ooze electrified my taste buds with a sweet taste. "Mmmm it's so sweet!" I said then I licked my finger to get the rest of the ooze off.
     "Yeah." Hayden said looking up at the scarlet  leaves above us that dripped with the red ooze, "Sickening sweet."
       "What does it do?" I asked.
      Hayden shrugged, "I don't really know."
      Dramatically I placed my hands on my heart pretending to be shocked, "Hayden Marx doesn't know a answer!" I broke out with a grin.
      "Funny princess very funny." He smiled, "It must be a short rain water for the forest, I know some people who likes its sweetness and they make rum from it, but other than that it's just sticky and ignoring."
         Hadyen and I walked some more, till ahead of us loomed a dark red cave. It's entrance was shaped like a heart and the inside of the cave shone so bright like someone had captured the sun from the sky and trapped it's beautiful rays inside this blood red cave.
      I stopped before the entrance of the cave wondering if Hayden was going to have us go inside
      As if he read the answer to my thoughts he helped out his nice warm hand, "Your highness." He said  swooping with a low bow, "Will you join me this lovely day into the tunnel of love?"
       I broke out and giggled, and took his hand lightly with mine, "I'll be honored Sir Hayden."
       Hand in hand we stepped into the tunnel of love, cave of wonders,  whatever you wanted to call it.
       Hayden grinned, "You really think I could be Sir Hayden? A knight?"
       "Oh sure the ladies would have all loved you too. Too bad you had to mess that up by the stealing the princess of Rollick and who knows what else!" I smiled, then gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "But in my book you're a knight."
       "Thanks Amaya," then he leaned in so close I could feel his breath on me as he whispered, "And you're still a royal pain in my book." He grinned letting me know he was teasing.
        I laughed then looked around me at the walls that sparkled with billions of  red jewels each reflecting back at us with their magnificent glitter.
    Hayden got his knife out of his brown burlap sack and slowly hacked away till he had cut a few pieces of the rubies off the walls of the cave. He held them in his hand fascinated like most men when they held riches in their hand. I stared at him in disbelief and he looked at me, "What?, he asked innocently.
         "You know if you wanted jewels, there's plenty in Rollick's palace when we get back we can rob it while we're at it." I said then I walked briskly down the cave where I could see a little bit of light.
        Holding the rubies tightly in his hand he ran after me, "Really?!"
        I rolled my eyes at him and stepped out of the cave and looked back at him, "No." I said flatly and continued walking.
       Hayden stopped and stood for a second, then he ran after me to catch up. When he was right beside me he tossed the glittering rubies up into the air then caught them in his hand, "I thought princesses loved jewelry and high priced things."
        "Well this princess doesn't." I said shortly.
         He chuckled, "Why not? These rubies are well worth three times the amount of what the Great Wizard is going to pay me."
         I shrugged, "Riches don't fascinate me, I was raised with my father telling me who is appropriate for me to see by how much wealth they had. If they had heavy pockets and had favor with my father  then I could go to their sleep overs or balls, but if they were low class, I couldn't."
      "Your dad gets on my bad side more and more." He smiled then turned serious, "But don't be mad at me for taking these rubies, I need the money and these rubies can change my life." He held one up to the light to get it's reflection.
       "You don't understand your life is perfect Hayden! You can go anywhere you want and live wherever you want!"
        "Ahhh but only if I have the resources, and I need money for supplies. My life isn't perfect, I can't live with whoever I want, my curse remember." Hayden placed the rubies deep into the burlap sack.
       We walked quietly for awhile then I spoke, "And who is it that you would want to live with?" I asked holding my breath hoping by all means he would want to live with me.
         "Grace, a dog that I've been wanting for awhile. But since I don't have a permanent home and never sure if I'm going to have food for supper or not; I didn't think it was fair to bring a dog into that life style you know?"
           I smiled, who knew Hayden had a passionate heart.
         Hayden continued, "So I was thinking maybe I'll do one more mission for the Great Wizard and tell him I quit and settle down buy a house and adopt Grace she's in a small town not far from Agog called Yugen."
        "Sounds like you have everything planned out." I said smiling. Though secretly inside I longed to be the one he wanted to live with, I didn't care that we wouldn't live in a castle. Just being with him was enough for me. I was broke out of my concentration by a couple tenderly kissing by a tree. "Hey look Hayden, it's the couple we saw earlier."
      Hayden watched them kiss as we strolled by them, the couple didn't even notice us they just kept their lips locked with each other. "Yeah and they won't be our last." He turned to me, "You're going to see soon exactly why this forest is the Enchanted Forest of Love."
      It wasn't long we passed the couple kissing that we came upon another couple kissing. This girl was pinned up against the bark of a tree and her legs were wrapped around her man's waist as he held her up and they kiss fiercely pulling at each other's clothes and their hands exploring each other.
       I looked away not wanting to watch, feeling slightly embarrassed that they would do that out in the open in front of everyone. We must have passed at least ten couples each kissing passingly with no intention of stopping anytime soon. Some we passed had removed their clothing and were still hungrily kissing. Others laid on top of their lover and kissed.
     I looked at Hayden as we passed yet another couple getting it on, "I'm starting to understand why you said this forest is not the kind of love that makes someone say 'I love you' " I said trying not to blush, but I could feel my cheeks heating up.
     Hayden laughed, "Yeah...... The longer you're in this forest the more your desires of being with that person and making love with them increases until you just can't hold back anymore."
      We continued quietly ignoring the couples around us that were making love. I looked anywhere but on the sides of the path where couples had stopped walking and were fiercely kissing their tongues in each other's throats.
      Suddenly there was a noise around us and it wasn't the sweet sound of birds singing songs of love.  This sound was a low grumble that shook the ground I was standing on.
      Hayden took a step back, "What the hell is going on?" He asked trying to keep his balance as the earth shook.
      I stumbled but caught myself, "You tell me!" I said.
      Then just as quickly as it came, it stopped and the dirt around me splintered and cracked open in spots all around my feet and breaking open all around me as well. I slowly looked around me in every direction, there was no way for me to walk except to step on the cracked dirt that looked as if any moment it would fall away.  I could feel the dirt beneath me start to move and break under me, my legs trembled frightened, "H-h-hHayden?" My voice cracked and my eyes widened.
      The ground beneath Hayden was unharmed by the earth shake, he held his hand out, "Stay right where you are Amaya, don't move. I'll try to find a vine for you to grab."
      "Hurry." I whispered as he started looking by some trees for a vine. The ground beneath me groaned and faster than I could react the dirt around me crumbled and fell, and then I was falling into a dark hole letting out an earsplitting scream.
     "NO!" Hayden yelled vines completely forgot as he slid towards the pit diving for my hands to grab them. His fingers just brushed my finger tips but it was too late. I was falling too fast for him to grab hold.
      "Hayden!" I screamed my face pale as I fell, Hayden's face faded from my view as darkness crept upon me as I fell deeper into the dark pit.
       I heard Hayden scream my name in a panicked voice I have never heard from him before. Then my body made contact with the sharp hard ground at the bottom of the pitch black pit, and everything went black.