Outlaw Princess

Cecilia ran back to the road as fast as she could hoping that someone would help her. She was still confused about what just happened, but she couldn’t think of that now. She just had to find the others and head to her sister’s castle.

Cecilia reached the main road. On the ground was a torch, still burning. Cecilia could see that the main road was soaked with blood, she could also make out a human foot. Building up her courage, she slowly went towards the torch, and bent down to pick it up when it was in reaching distance. She lifted up the torch, and looked around her. To her horror she saw that she was the only one left.

Eleven bodies surrounded her, each mangled in some sort of way. Cecilia held down her vomit long enough to figure out that all the horses were still there, calmly standing.

“Wolves with a taste for men,” Cecilia said softly, and then she crossed herself, hopefully to ward off any more evil that waited in the woods. Cecilia was numb, she couldn’t feel fear or sickness. She was in shock, and she couldn’t piece back together what had happened.

A soft moan took her out of her thoughts. She turned the torch around to see a knight, sitting against a tree, his face twisted in pain. Cecilia approached him to see that he had a cut in his leg, so deep that she could see the bone.

She softly placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll help you.”

He opened his pale blue eyes, “Princess, I’m so glad you are alive.”

Cecilia wasn’t sure how to treat his leg, but she knew that she should stop the bleeding. She quickly took a handkerchief out of her bodice, and wrapped it around the leg. “What is your name?” she asked.

“Sir Henry Roberts, my lady,” he said, gritting his teeth from the pain.

Cecilia heard footsteps approach her from behind, she turned to see another man. She quickly recognized him as one of the men in her personal guard. The man had blood on his hands and face, but other than that he was fine.

“Help me lift him onto one of the horses,” Cecilia commanded.

The newcomer and Cecilia struggled to get the knight onto the horse, but succeeded. “Thank you, my lady,” Henry said.

The man helped Cecilia onto her own horse, and he jumped onto another.

“What happened back there?” Cecilia said, after a moment of silence.

“Werewolves,” the man answered.

“Werewolves?” Cecilia asked surprised. Tonight was turning into a nightmare.

“Yes, m’lady. They are littered in the forest back home, in Frank, though I have never encountered them in Zorr or Lane.”

Frank was both bordered by Zorr and Lane, to the south. Cecilia was there a couple of times to negotiate marriage with her father, but none of the engagements came through.

“Do you know much of these wolves?” Cecilia asked her companion.

He was silent and nodded his head, “They destroyed my village.”

“I am so sorry,” Cecilia said.

“It is not your doing princess,” the man said, “Besides, we did warn them that traveling this late was dangerous. We did all that we could.”

Cecilia nodded, glad that she had someone to comfort her. “What is your name?”

“Lowell, your majesty.”

“And you are from Frank?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Well it is very nice to meet you,” she said.

“It is a pleasure to be in your majesty’s company,” he said, and smiled.

With the night full of terror, Cecilia was glad that she had someone who would be pleasant to her.

She really needed an ally now, especially since she found out what Casandra really was.
They rode the rest of the way to her sister’s castle in silence. They reached it by dawn.