My Cinderella (Arthur Pendragon love story.)

Chapter 18

With the sound of the rustling  leaves following her every move, Isabella ran for what felt like hours on end. With bitter tears streaming down her rosy cheeks she moved gracefully through the narrow trees of the winding forest.

After a couple more minutes of running she decided that she was far away enough to stop running and just walk until her mind was clear.  Slowing her pace, she jogged until she finally stopped altogether. She took in a deep breath as she looked around her at the surrounding of green trees and the soft sound of running water of the nearby river.

She carried on walking until she reached a clearing ahead of her.

She walked towards the clearing and finally found a rock to sit on. She carefully sat down and sighed trying to keep the negative thoughts penetrate her mind.

She closed her eyes and leaned back a little, she listened to sound of the birds in the trees singing, she listened to rustling of the leaves in the gentle summer breeze. Then she heard the sound of footsteps approaching her.

She opened her eyes and came face to face with the person she lest expected to see ................
Her mother......

Isabella stared blankly at the woman in front of her. Her mother. The woman that was said to be dead. Was standing, alive and well, in front of her very eyes. What? How does that even make sense?

The lady looked at Isabella with wide eyes as well, it was a couple of minutes before the soft gentle voice of the lady was heard.
"Isabella? My dear is that you?" It was barely even a whisper. But surprisingly Isabella still heard it.

She looked at the woman standing before her before slowly nodding her head. She woman looked at her for a couple more second before she embraced Isabella in a warm hug.

Just at that moment the reality of what had happened at the town, the fact that her mother was still alive dawned on her and in the comforting arms of her mother she broke down into small sobs filled with bitter tears.

The sound of running feet echoed through the quiet lands surrounding the two ladies. They pulled away from each other to look towards the sound of the footsteps.

Someone came into view and Isabella's mother, Rose, pushed her daughter behind her in case it was an attack on two innocent woman standing in the middle of the forest.

Luckily the person turned out to be Merlin but he was not alone. Behind him was Gwen along with Mina and a little further away was Arthur.

Isabella and Arthur looked at each other before Isabella broke the gaze by turning to look at her mother.

Merlin stepped forward, this only caused Rose to push Isabella further behind her. Isabella stepped away from Rose and said to Merlin,
" Merlin why did you follow me here, you know that it is dangerous in these woods."

Merlin raised his eyebrows at her remark about him coming to find her, guarded by knights and accompanied by the Prince of Camelot.
"Isabella, you came running through these woods on your own. With no guard what so ever and now we find you with some stranger."

Isabella looked at the ground when she heard what Merlin had said that she could've been taken by some creature. But then looked up again and looked at Merlin before saying,
"This lady is no stranger. She is my mother."
Merlin's eye widened as he looked at Isabella then looked at her mother.
Gwen and Mina ran to Isabella and hugged her, before whispering words of comfort to her and saying that they were so worried that something might have happened to her.

Isabella smiled and hugged them back saying that she is perfectly fine and that there was no need to worry. They pulled away and Merlin then hugged her. She pulled away from his grasp to go back to the loving arms of her mother, but a hand caught her wrist before she could get away. She turned around to face the person, and came face to face with ..........................