Crown of Shadow

Chapter 5

Eilisia had found a safe hollow quite a distancee from the camp and was sure that the blonde man would have no way of finding her. She waited for several hours yet the mysterious woman did not appear. Against her better judgement Elisia decided to go after her. She trudged through the forest and thought of how her life had changed. Only a little while ago had she been playing in the woods with Saleyah and joking around with Roy. Oh Roy! How she missed him! She longed to see his smiling face again. She turned in the other direction and hesitated. Judging by the stars home would be this way. She could go back to home and safety. She could see her father again and finnally get to be the town herbologist like she had always wanted. She sighed. She couldn't leave the woman who had saved her life. It would be unfair and there was no telling what they would do to her for helping her. With that in mind she continued on. Still deep in thought she wasn't looking where she was going and tripped over something on the forest floor. "Surely not?" she whispered to herself. But it was. Sitting on the floor right where she had tripped over it was Yunerith root. It was a usually hard to find plant that grew deep in the forest. She had only encountered it once or twice but mixed with Fuiner an (easier found fruit) could create a mixture that was sometimes used in medicines. It caused the patient to become terribly ill therfore wiping the worse sickness away. But it was terribly uncomfortable to go through and caused a lot of pain so therfore very few people used it anymore. With that she gathered up the root in the folds of her caped and continued along searching for the Fuiner berry.
When she had finally found some of the bright orange fruit, she sat down on a log, pulled a stone towards her and began to pound the ingredients together until she had gotten a nice thick paste. After that she slid it into one of the many glass viles she had in her cape for collecting things and continued on for about twenty minutes. She had then reached the camp and crouched down among the shadows and surveyed the camp below her. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted her rescuer bound tightely to a tree with a very deep gash in her stomach. She was completely unconcious. She then glanced around until she spotted a pot of stew boiling and being prepared for dinner. She frowned. It would be hard for her to get the mixture into the pot without being noticed. With that she scooped up a leaf and slid the mixture into it then loosely folded the leaf. She then tossed the leaf as hard as she could hoping that the leaf would unfold in the stew, letting the mixture escape. She leaned up against a tree and waited.

William the blonde man smiled at the woman hanging almost lifeless from the tree. Her long black hair was dampened with sweat at her side. He had watched as he had cut her from behind as she fought all twenty of his men valiently. There had been no scream or shout of surprise only a small gasp. Which could mean only one thing. He smiled grimly and was about to walk back to his tent when he heard a weird plunking noise. He looked at the pot to see ripples spreading across the surface. Not sure if he had imagined it he called his men for dinner.

William didn't feel very hungry after getting his hand shot through, so he decided to skip dinner tonight. Nursing his wounded hand he made his way past his men to make sure that the prisoner was still secured when he heard a dry cough from one of his men. No one else seemed to notice it though and continued on eating. When all of the sudden all of them started loosing their food as fast as they had put it in. Playing along he quickly moaned and fell to the floor with is men. When all of them had collapsed he spotted the princess he had captured run in and start to untie the young woman.

"Not so fast!" he said quickly, leaping to his feet and pointing his sword, recently acquired from one of his men, at the girls throat. She staggerd backward and grinning he tied up Elisia and retied the woman's bonds even tighter.

"Dont worry sweetheart." he said lifting her ching up. "We can talk some more tomorrow." and with that he banged his sword hilt against her head and she drooped into unconciousness once more.