A Ransom Paid in Full

Part 1: The Capture

  It was half past midnight when Princess Felicia awoke with a start in her lush sleeping chamber. She heard the soft raspy whisper of her bodyguard Jasper call to her through the heavy door to her chamber.
"Princess! ...princess! You have to get up! We need to get you far away from here!"
Princess Felicia slid across her velvety sheets, swung her legs over the edge of the bed and let her bare soles touch the cool stone of her bedroom floor.
"I'll be right there Jasper. I'll come let you in and entertain this silly prank of yours."
She stood up and sauntered across the room. Her lithe, whispy frame made hardly a ripple in her roomy, gauzy night gown as she moseyed to the door.
She undid the latch and opened it just enough to stare nonplussed into Jasper's gaunt, moustachioed face.
"it's no jest, Princess! A battalion from House Corpus in the east is on their way right this minute to lay siege to our home! My spies have discovered the plot in the nick of time! The king and queen have agreed it best to take you to a shelter house far away to avoid your capture or worse!"
Felicia tried her best to rub the sleep from her eyes and come around to the full gravity of the situation.
"Dear gods, Jasper... What of mother and father? What shall become of them?"
Jasper pursed his lips
"They'll live most assuredly, Princess. Our guards and army will surely route this scum. This is simply the safest course of action for you, my lady."
Felicia furrowed her brow and closed her eyes as hard as she could. She opened them and surveyed her dear old bedroom.
"Well, dear Jasper might I have the time to pack a bag and change my clothes? I assume I must stay for some time."
Jasper nodded.
"Aye, princess. And seeing as you'll be somewhere far from danger, and you are a woman of 22 you must spend some of that time alone I'm afraid. I must attend to your mother and father once you're out of harm's way."
Felicia felt a tear well up within for a moment.
"Very well. Let's be off."

Felicia and Jasper rode off into the night on his black steed. She wrapped her arms tightly around his middle and tried to drown her anxieties of the night on the rhythmic thumping of her meager satchel upon her back. She tried to instead worry of weather or not she brought enough clothing and personal affects.
"I see the safe house, Princess!"
Jasper pointed one gauntleted finger toward a modest stone cottage nestled along the country road.
Felicia felt relief warm her tightly wound body. Her simple evening dinner gown and strapped sandals were hardly ideal riding attire and she longed to be off the horse and to sleep in relative safety for the night.

  When they arrived at the cottage, Felicia stood apprehensively at the door. She looked back at Jasper sitting stop his horse with a mask of melancholic nerves.
"Worry not my lady. My men have prepared adequate beddimg and accomodations for you until my return. Wait here and do not venture away. If I do not return in a week's time, your cousins in the south have been instructed to send for you and take you in their charge." Felicia nodded solemnly and turned away to step through the door.

When Felicia entered, she brushed a stand of her long flaxen hair behind her ear. The smell of soil and mossy cobbles clung faintly to the air. She threw her pack onto the modest (much more than her own) bed setting along the east wall and sat upon the floor beside it. The Princess contemplated her lot in the dark, one room cottage for what felt like an hour. Just as she was beginning to contemplate the fates of her family and home, she noticed a small package on the dining table. It was nearly wrapped in pink foil and a smart blue ribbon. She stood and strode to it, her waif like hips swaying as she walked. Something ethereal seemed to call forth from it. "this is the first part of your gift dear Felicia. Please open it." She undid the the ribbon in a mild haze. When she did so, the box gently popped open; releasing a surprisingly large cloud of shimmering pink gas. It filled Felicia's nostrils and instantly filled her head with a drowsy fog, and her stomach with a curious hunger. She stumbled to her temporary bed and collapsed onto it face first. Sleep took her, and dreams of great feasts, and relations with beautiful lords and ladies filled her mind.