Revenland

VI

You know that chill on the back of your neck?

It starts off as a slow panic, but once you feel like there's something always lurking at the corner of your eye, the feeling begins to consume you.

Peter and I had fallen asleep and I only woke up when the sky was brightening into a dark purple. I woke up alert and uneasy, while everything was still too dark to see.

Not far off from were we laid, I could hear a faint rustling, like something brushing against leaves as they passed.It was so faint that I wouldn't have been able to hear it if I hadn't been alert and completely still.

I waited with bated breath, my eyes searching the forest around me.

I heard it again and my heartbeat quickened as it sounded much closer.

Far closer than I desired.

I nudged Peter and he groaned loudly which caused me to cover his mouth with wide eyes. He peered at me quizzically over his mess of hair. I brought a finger to my lips and motioned to my ear to tell him to listen.

Many seconds past until he finally whispered, "I don't hear anything."

As if waiting in the trees, figures jumped down from above and pinned us to the ground. I let out a scream before the one holding me captive blew a sparkling blue dust in my face and I instantly felt detached from my body.

My head lolled to the side and I met Peter's drowsy eyes before everything was consumed by darkness.

—

I slowly began to feel myself coming back when my head began to throb.

There were muffled voices around me and I tried to focus all of my strength on listening to what was going on.

"Is this really necessary?" I heard a young man's voice. "They are completely harmless."

"You know the law Knit-Wit," A gruff voice spat out harshly, "Humans are not welcomed here."

The throbbing in my head died down to a dull ache and I was able to grafually flex my fingers, slowly feeling how numb they had become.

It was only then that I realized my hands were tied behind my back.

My back ached and I tried to straighten up, but was constricted by thick ropes, pinning me to whatever I was sitting against.

  

"That was the law of your Queen, do you still abide by her rules when she was the one to exile you all in the first place?"

I felt my eyes flutter and my heartbeat quicken with excitement; it wasn't long until I felt my heavy eyelids open and the morning sun blinded me.

We were still where we made camp, but whoever had captured us had tied us to the base of a wide tree trunk.