Cinderella vs. Happily Ever After

Chapter 36

            “We had thought you dead. You have been long in coming,” Amorrt said as he stopped in front of Valerie.

            Her mouth open and closed several times before she finally managed “A-Amort? B-but how did you…? I thought you were locked in Methus with Konah!”

            He snorted. “This is not the ideal place for this discussion,” he said. Taking in her expression he sighed. “The short tale is that with the godmother’s attention focused here, we were able to escape with our allies. Now, you must accompany me. Bring your allies. You will need them.”

            She frowned but didn’t comment, instead turning to the others. “We’re going to the main camp now I guess. Faal, Rish, maybe it’s better if you stay here. There’s not a lot of space between the trees.”

            “We arre drragonss. Trrreesss so not botherr uss,” Rish said, the flaps behind her head fanning half out.

            Val shrugged. “Well you’d know best. I just don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

            Faal hissing laughter made his opinion on that clear to her. She made a face at him then waved Isaac and Miette up. “Let’s get the show on the road then.”

            Amorrt nodded at her, falling in beside her. Behind, Kafin and a handful of the other green jacketed men moved out to either side of their group while Faal and Rish brought up the rear. The rest of the soldiers either ran ahead or moved out to the sides, well away from the dragons. Most of them kept glancing back at them, like they expected to be eaten or roasted at any second. Valerie rolled her eyes at their behaviour.

            They marched through the trees, the slithering sound of the leaves mixing with the odd crack as either Rish or Faal wasn’t careful enough and snapped a branch, or an entire tree, in passing. She looked back, curious as to how they were moving through a forest that really didn’t have enough room for them to move through without leaving a swathe of destruction. She watched their bodies shoot up, thinning out as they squeezed through the spaces between trees. It reminded her of gerbils and mice and their ability to fit through tiny holes. But on a far larger scale. She shook her head, assuming that this was more of them being magic. The part of her obsessed with dragons wished that the whole thing didn’t look as ridiculous as it did.

She turned back towards the front, sweeping the area with her eyes. Already she could see people taking a peek and then running back. She supposed they must be quite the sight at the moment, a human-dragon parade. “So how are things at camp?”

Amorrt gave her a sidelong look. “You will see. Your timing could have been better but with the obvious strength of your new allies, I believe that things will balance.”

She frowned. “What do you mean? You’ve been acting kind of weird. Well, weirder than normal.”

He snorted. “Our camp is not as black and white as one would hope. We are lucky that your allies outnumber the rest or I fear this would be far more difficult than it will be.”

She was about to reply when she caught sight of the camp ahead of her. Within the forest was a second forest, this one of tents. She could see some attempts at making a wall out of logs had been made. She wasn’t sure if it was a recent project or one that had been abandoned but it meant the back end of the camp was sheltered by a rough wall. The tents were set up in clusters, some proper military lines and others had clearly been placed with little to no thought towards neatness and organization. What had her heart beating with renewed hope was the sheer number of tents. She thought there had to be well over a thousand of them spreading out before her among the trees.

The perimeter of the camp had been cleared of trees, giving them a wide open space to stop. Amorrt stopped in front of the pair of camp guards who held their blades crossed in front of them, stopping their cavalcade. “What are you doing?” he snapped, glaring at them.

“She gave us order that no unauthorized people are to enter the camp,” the one of the left said, the sweat sliding down his face obvious. Given the cool air, Valerie thought it was the sight of her dragon companions that had him almost trembling. She was impressed that he still kept up his guard.

She put a hand on Amorrt’s shoulder, making him flinch and whip around to glare at her. She pulled her hand back and held both arms to placate him. Then she turned and smiled at the guards. “Please forgive us for barging in like this without warning. My name’s Valerie Ash and we’ve come to help.”

The guard was saved from having to reply by yet another shout. This one was a ragged one of “Miss Ash!” coming from several people. She sighed, wondering if this was shout at Valerie day or something.

Turning, she saw several men wearing the black braidless green jackets of the militia. Isaac grinned. “Oh look Val, yelling at them worked.”

She kicked him as she waved then cupped her hands around her mouth to call back “Glad to see you made it.”

At their shout, several other militia members had come running over and soon Valerie found herself surrounded by them. They looked at her but their gazes kept sliding over to Rish and Faal, their eyes wide. “Y-you recruited dragons, Miss Ash?” The moustached man from the divided militia said, eyes nowhere near her.

She chuckled. “More like they volunteered to help us.”

Amorrt shook his head. “You should not be surprised, Harmin. Given who and what else have arrived under her banner, dragons are not such a leap.”

Harmin saluted the prince, grinning. “You’re right about that, sir.”

The next shout they heard was familiar to everyone present. Valerie jerked her head up and grinned at the large figure running over to them. “My lady!” Konah said as she slid to a halt beside Amorrt. “You are safe.”

“Yes I am. And I’m glad to see you and Amorrt. I’ve been worried about you.”

He knelt, one hand in a fist over his chest as her eyes went wide. “My lady, I cannot apologize enough for what has befallen you. My godmother…I never thought that something of this nature would happen.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed one of his arms and hauled him to his feet. “You’re an idiot. None of this is your fault. It’s the crazy fairy’s. It’s not like you can pick your godmothers so relax. Besides, you’ve been trying to help us the whole time. I owe you for that.”

The next voice to interrupt wasn’t a shout but a female screech. A screech of “Apprehend that woman!”

            Valerie turned to stare at the half-familiar brunette woman pointing a finger at her.