“You two look fabulous! You will be the talk of the Rose Kingdom!” said the Queen.
“The seamstress promised that your new princess dresses will be finished very soon,” she said.
Out on the main pathway from the Kingdom to the Dark Forest, Princess Wildheart was still tied up in the back of Prince Dark soul’s wagon. He continued to rant and rave about how great he was as they plodded along. She was completely disgusted with him, disliking everything about him. She wondered how long it would be before Prince Morgan awakened and discovered her missing from the Kingdom. They passed Elise Coopers’ farm and Collin Winters’ cottage as they continued into the Dark Forest. Maybe the elves will attack and save her, she thought as they continued deeper into the forest.
Elise had made her way to the stables and entered through the main doors. The horses appeared to be there but there was no one in sight. She didn’t notice the swords lying on the ground.
“Maybe they are over at the Tavern drinking some ale,” she thought as she turned and went that direction. She entered the Tavern and found the two Princes at a small table sipping ale.
“No luck finding your Prince?” asked Prince Tanner.
“He was not in the stables. I thought maybe he went in here,” said Elise, scanning the room for him.
“He will turn up soon I’m sure. May I buy you ale Elise? I am enjoying one for myself,” said Prince Tanner.
“Sure, that sounds refreshing. Thank You Prince,” said Elise as the Prince stood and pulled out a chair for her to sit in.
She sat and talked with the Princes while enjoying the ale delivered by the Tavern Maid.
Out on the trail, Prince Darksoul kept the wagon moving along. It was becoming a bumpy ride for Princess Wildheart who still remained tied up in the back of the wagon. Even though she was not gagged anymore, she had little to say to the evil Prince as they rode along. The Princess was getting really tired of the constant bragging and annoying comments from Prince Darksoul.
“Hey, why not let me go now and you can escape before Prince Morgan and the others wake up and come kill you,” she said to the disgusting Prince Darksoul.
“We can just keep going until we get to my Kingdom and you marry me Princess. No need to fantasize about a white knight rescue from Prince Morgan. He is still under the hay out cold would be my guess,” said Prince Darksoul.
“Do as you wish Darksoul. Not only will I refuse to marry you but the longer you drag this out you are just ensuring death for yourself in the end,” said Princess Wildheart.
“Keep talking to me like that Princess and I will stop the wagon and put the gag back in your mouth,” warned Prince Darksoul.
Princess Wildheart decided to not provoke him any farther since it would not benefit her to be gagged again. As angry as she was, all that could be done was to ride along quietly until a chance to escape or be rescued presented itself to her. They continued deeper into the forest and Princess Wildheart began thinking about Chelsi again. The elves could barrage Darksoul with tiny arrows knocking him out and saving her. It seemed that she was not in that bad of a spot here. Potential rescue from Prince Morgan or Chelsi would be possible and Prince Darksoul wasn’t harming her for now. She smiled at the thought of the elves attacking the evil Prince. Then she remembered the small pouch of sleep potion that Chelsi had given her. Looking down at her vest she could see that the bag was still in her pocket from the elf encounter.
“I don’t have my Princess Sword but I do have some knock out powder!” She thought. “Chelsi had said it could be eaten or put in a drink and have the same effect as it did when the tiny arrows were coated with it.”
The Princess then smiled big as a plan came to mind.
“Prince Darksoul. I wonder if I might have my hands freed so I can enjoy some white powder tea,” she said.
“No, I think you can stay tied up until we reach my Kingdom. My guards can keep watch over you there my soon to be bride. I do believe that some tea might be refreshing for me at this point. White powder tea you say? Never heard of that particular variety,” he said, mulling the idea over.
“Well I could sure use some now. It helps me to stay beautiful and gives me great strength until it wears off,” said the Princess.
“It sounds like the tea should be for me, not you,” said Prince Darksoul.
He stopped the wagon and went back to where the Princess sat.
“Where is this white powder tea you speak of?” He asked.
“It’s my tea! Not yours! You have no reason to want any more strength or be better looking Prince Darksoul,” said the Princess.
“I can decide for myself what I want without your help Princess! Where is it?” He asked.
“It’s in my vest pocket but it is mine, not yours,” said Princess Wildheart.
Prince Darksoul grabbed the pouch from her pocket and then licked the side of her face again. She was completely disgusted once again but happy he was falling for her plan so far.
“You make me sick! Don’t touch me!”
“That was your lunch and tea Princess!” laughed Prince Darksoul. “I know you liked that,” he said laughing even harder.
“After drinking this tea I will be the strong one! Not you with your soggy face,” he laughed while returning to the driver’s seat of the wagon.
“Wrong Darksoul, you will be the sleeping one.” The princess thought to herself smiling.
She turned her head and watched the evil one poured a cup of water for himself and dumped some white powder inside to make some tea. He was thirsty so he guzzled it right down, every drop.
“Your tea tastes like crap! Only if I get some extra strength would it be worth putting up with the bad taste of it,” he said.
“Goodnight Prince Dummy!” The Princess thought to herself.
Prince Darksoul started the wagon moving again. It only rolled a few feet when the Prince began to feel funny.
“Your girlie tea is making me sick! What kind of crummy tea is that?”
Prince Darksoul was starting to get angry now that the tea was kicking in.
“I call it Sleep Well Tea,” said Princess Wildheart, trying not to laugh.
“That’s a really stupid name for a tea,” said Prince Darksoul.
He moved the wagon a few more feet but then started getting sleepy.
“We will stop here and rest a while,” he said.
He got out of the wagon and tied the horse to a small tree. Then he got out his bedroll and laid down in the shade of the cart for a nap. A minute later he was asleep.
“Prince Darksoul!”
No answer, the powder had done him in. He would be out for hours now. Princess Wildheart happily scooted to the back of the wagon and hopped down to the ground. She sat and found that the ropes on her feet could be reached by her hands. In a few minutes her feet were free from the bindings. She stood and walked over to Prince Darksoul who was sound asleep. She kicked him in the sides a few times as hard as she could. He didn’t move or even make a sound. He was in knockout land now.
“Now if I can just free my hands from these ropes.”
She looked in the front of the wagon and found nothing to help her there. She looked back at Prince Darksoul and saw he had his sword still attached to his belt. Using her boot she managed to slide it from the sheath and kick it away from him. Sitting on the ground she could get the sword blade between her boots and rub the ropes against the sharp blades until they were cut through. With the sharp blades of the sword her hands were free in no time.
“Finally free from Prince scumbag,” she said out loud.
She got a drink of fresh water and put her bag of powder into her vest pocket again. She tossed the sword over into some shrubs and untied the horse from the tree. Walking back over to Prince Darksoul sleeping on the ground she kicked him in the side with her boots as hard as she could.
“That is for hitting my friends!”
“This is for licking my face!”
She then kick
ed him again as hard as she could. The Princess rolled him under the wagon and took his bedroll to make herself a saddle. She unhitched the horse from the wagon and rode off leaving Prince Darksoul behind under the wagon. She was a skilled rider and would soon be leaving the Dark Forest in her wake heading toward her Prince and Rose Kingdom.
At the Tavern, Prince Tanner, Prince William and Elise had finished their ale and decided to go back over to the stables and see if the others had returned there yet. They entered the stables and found the Stable Master had just awakened. He was standing there rubbing his head.
“What’s wrong?” asked Prince Tanner.
“Someone came up from behind me when I was brushing that horse over there and hit me in the head with something. It must have knocked me out. I just woke up a few minutes ago and my head has this lump and is throbbing,” said the Stable Master.
“Are you ok?” asked Elise.
“Yea, I guess so, just hurts a little bit,” he said.
The two Princes started looking around to make sure the horses were alright. Then they heard a soft moan over in the direction of the haystack. They went over to the haystack and started pulling some of the hay back and found Duke lying there underneath it.
“Duke! Duke! You ok sir?” asked Prince Tanner.
“I’ll live. I was just in here with Prince Morgan and the two girls along with Prince Tangent. We found the Stable Master unconscious and were trying to wake him when someone attacked us from behind. Where is everyone else?” asked Duke.
The brothers started pulling back more hay and found Prince Morgan, Prince Tangent and Pricilla. They continued searching through the hay but could not locate Princess Wildheart anywhere. Duke tried to wake Pricilla but she didn’t budge, still out cold. Elise ran over and tried to wake up Prince Tangent and he started slowly coming around. The brothers decided to dump a bucket of water on Prince Morgan and that woke him up. They tried the same thing with Pricilla but she didn’t move.
Prince Tangent woke up dazed with a headache.
“Where am I Elise?”
“Take it easy my Prince, you are in the stables, someone had knocked you out but you are safe with me now,” said Elise.
Prince Morgan stood up rubbing his head. “Where is Princess Wildheart?”
“She is not anywhere in here. It looks like someone knocked us all out and took her Morgan,” said Duke.
Prince Morgan noticed her sword on the ground along with Pricilla’s.
“The Princess Sword,” he said. “She would never just leave this on the ground like that.”
Duke picked up Pricilla in his arms.
“Help me get Pricilla to the castle Morgan, she won’t wake up,” said Duke.
“My sister Tori can help her. She is a trained healer Duke,” said Elise, helping Prince Tangent to his feet.
“Let us all get back to the castle,” said Elise.
“Not me! Not until I find Princess Wildheart. Someone has taken her hostage,” said Prince Morgan.
“You are in no shape to travel yet Morgan. Help me get Pricilla back to the castle and we can both go look. I can track anyone anywhere,” said Duke.
“I’ll help you with her Duke. We need to hurry though so we can find Princess Wildheart,” said Prince Morgan.
All of them went to the castle, including the Stable Master. Tori came running when she heard there were injured people inside the castle.
“Oh my! What happened?” asked Tori.
The two Prince brothers filled her in as Pricilla was put on a bench in the hallway. Tori put bandages on the others who had been awakened while Elise watched over Pricilla. Tori put some sort of medicine on the lumps to speed healing and reduce the swelling.
The men all stood and watched as Tori and Elise cared for Pricilla.
“Go and find Princess Wildheart! I can take care of Pricilla. Duke, try not to worry. She is just knocked out and should be fine,” said Tori.
Duke gave Pricilla a kiss and he and the other men except for Prince Tangent, all went to look for Princess Wildheart together. They went back over to the stables to look for any clues that might help. Duke is an expert tracker and should be able to figure out where she may have been taken. Duke examined the area where they all had been knocked out. He found the other swords over to one side of the stable.
“Well here are the swords, all are here.” said Duke.
He continued to examine the area as Prince Morgan gathered up the weapons.
“From the way these tracks look I would say a wagon was here. In fact I remember we were all trying to revive the Stable Master and a wagon was right there. Now there are just wagon wheel tracks left there and they lead out of the stables,” said Duke.
Duke followed the tracks on foot and noted that they went toward the front outer gates of the courtyard. He bent down to look closer and found that something more heavy than just a wagon by itself had made the tracks.
“See the way this wheel mark digs in here. Those deep tracks show that this was not just a wagon with load of hay. Something else was in the wagon along with the hay. My guess is that Princess Wildheart was abducted and taken away in that wagon,” said Duke.
“Let’s get our horses Duke. We can follow those wagon tracks and find her,” said Prince Morgan.
“Let’s go! These tracks will be super easy to follow,” said Duke.
The four men mounted up on their horses taking their weapons with them. They had just trotted out of the stables when they heard a horse come galloping up and through the front courtyard gates. It was Princess Wildheart riding in at full speed. She smiled when she saw the four men on horses in front of her. She rode up near Prince Morgan and jumped off her horse. He came down off of his and they both hugged each other, holding on close. She gave Prince Morgan a big kiss.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“We were just now getting ready to track you down Princess. Glad to see you are alright,” said Duke.
“Prince Darksoul knocked all of you out and abducted me. I was tied and gagged before he put me in a wagon under some hay to hide me. He said he would kill you all if I made any noise to prevent him from escaping with me. With his henchmen holding swords at your throats, I had no choice but to obey,” said the Princess.
“How did you escape him?” asked Prince Morgan.
“I tricked him into drinking some of this knockout powder I got from Chelsi the elf. I left him sleeping under the wagon and rode the horse back here as fast as I could,” she said.
“Good job Princess! Glad your ok. He didn’t harm you any did he?” asked Prince Morgan.
“No, he bragged about himself and licked my face but did nothing that harmed me. He is a mad, disgusting, pig of a man,” she said.
“He is mad, licking your face. Quite mad and disgusting,” said Prince Morgan.
“How is your head?” asked Princess Wildheart, touching his bandage.
“I’ll be ok. Elise had her sister Tori fix me up. She is very good at healing it seems,” said Prince Morgan.
“Glad you are ok. Where is Pricilla?” asked princess Wildheart.
“She took a hard hit in the head. Still out cold in the castle. We should all go back there and check on her,” said Prince Morgan.
“Did you find my Princess Sword?”
“I found all of our swords in the stable. Let’s go get yours.”
“Tanner and I are going to go back to the Tavern and have ale. We will put the horses away,” said Prince William.
Once back inside the castle they found Pricilla lying on the bed where they left her before. Tori was watching over her and wiping the big bump on her forehead with a cool cloth when they walked into the room. Duke went over and kneeled down beside her. He leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Pricilla’s eyes then opened.
“What’s going on?” asked Pricilla.
Duke gave her another kiss and stroked her hair. He told her that everyone had been knocked out and Princess Wildheart h
ad been abducted by Prince Darksoul.
“I remember now that he me in the head with my own sword,” she said.
Pricilla got up and then saw the knot on her forehead in the mirror
“Wow! No wonder I was knocked out,” said Pricilla.
“Don’t worry that lump will go away in a day or so Pricilla. Let me bandage your head and put some medicine on it for now,” said Tori.
Pricilla thanked Tori and let her care for her. Prince Tangent was now wide awake and sitting with his arm around Elise watching Tori bandage Pricilla.
“I knew Prince Darksoul would try something like this. If I ever see him again I will run him through with my sword,” said Prince Tangent.
“If he has any brains at all he will never show his face around here anymore,” said Duke.
“I could go for ale. It’s been a long day,” said Pricilla.
Tori and the others went over to the Tavern to join the two Princes who were working on their second ale. After the drinks arrived from the Tavern Maid everyone chatted for a while. Pricilla spotted the three men who had been hired by Prince Darksoul over standing at the bar. They were drinking and having a great time with the money they had earned doing Prince Darksoul’s dirty work.
“I am positive that those are the men who clubbed you Duke!” said Pricilla.
“That’s them alright!” said Princess Wildheart.
Prince Morgan, Duke and Prince Tangent got up and went right over to the men. The men didn’t even notice them coming until it was too late to escape.
“Well, well. Look who we have here. Our little friends from the stables,” said Prince Tangent.
Prince Morgan was the first to take action. He grabbed the largest of the men by his collar and rammed his face into the bar top. Then he pulled the big man back and onto the floor, kicking him several times. Duke and Prince Tangent had grabbed the other two startled men. Prince Tangent grabbed a fork that was lying on the bar top and jammed it into the man’s shoulder, and then he took the same mug that the man had been drinking from and broke it over his head. The man fell in a clump to the floor. Duke had the other man by the collar and punched him real hard in the face, knocking him back to the bar. Duke then grabbed the man’s ale and broke the mug over his head, just like Prince Tangent had done. The same results were obtained as the man crumpled to the floor. They grabbed the men feet first and drug them out of the Tavern and into the street. All three of the men were unconscious and just lying out in the dirty street outside. When the hero’s came back into the Tavern they were met by claps and cheers from the girls and the Tavern patrons. The men couldn’t help but smile as they walked back over to their table to rejoin the others.
The Legend of Princess Wildheart Page 14