| Halt's Ranger Apprentices | This is War | Volume 2 |

CHAPTER TWO

"Stop lying!" Morgarath screamed in fury. He lifted the whip above his head and brought it down in a fast motion. A loud smack bounced off of the cliffs as it hit bare skin. Annabelle let out a scream of pain as she felt the whip cut through more flesh.

3 weeks had passed since Annabelle had been imprisoned to Morgarath. Belle closed her eyes, tears rolling down her pale and weak face. She felt the sting of the whip still on her back, but refused to feel the pain and concentrated on anything but the pain.

Suddenly, Will popped into her mind, but she quickly pushed him aside, knowing that wouldn't help. After the pain started to subside she opened her eyes and looked into the cold and pitiless eyes of Morgarath. Belle then stood up from her crouched position on the ground. She ignored the sharp pains that hit her like lightening and gave Morgarath a defiant look.

"Maybe I am lying, but you'll never know, will you?" Belle said, trying to make her voice sound more confident then she actualy was. Belle saw a fiery look, blaze in Morgarath's eyes.

"TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!" Morgarath bellowed, putting his broadsword at Belle's neck, "Or I will kill you." He snarled. Belle forced herself to not flinch and kept her defiant gaze steady and strong.

"Well go on then, kill me. But, if you kill me you'll be left to wonder for the rest of your absurd life of what might've happened if you hadn't of killed me! You could've found out valuable information about the upcoming war, but you will never know if you kill me!" Morgarath hesitated for a second, before lowering his sword in frustration.

During these 3 horrifying weeks, Morgarath had been trying to get any kind of information out of her. But, to Morgarath's fury, Belle had refused to say anything.

There was something familiar about Belle that made him uneasy and he wanted to figure out what that was.

After Morgarath lowered his sword, Belle bit her tongue to suppress a sigh of relief. Belle's ultimate goal was to keep Morgarath guessing who she was, to keep him on his toes. It was only temporary until she could figure out a way to escape the hell hole.

"Are you saying that you know something?" Morgarath asked, eyeing Belle suspiciously. Belle simply shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not. For all you know I could be an innocent farmer who is playing with your mind," Belle said confidently, watching Morgarath's expression change from fury to confusion. "or," Belle began again, "I could be the princess of Araluen, heir to the throne who has all the inside information." Morgarath let out a bark of laughter.

"You? A princess?" Morgarath asked through breaths. Belle bit her lip to suppress a smile and kept a serious face. "you wish." Morgarath then let is laughter subside and pointed to two Wargals near by. "take her away, bring her back in 3 hours." Morgarath said firmly and the mindless Wargals obliged. As Belle was being taken back to the cage, she heard Morgarath mutter something about, if only he had the princess of Araluen. And, since Morgarath was oblivious to Belle's facial expression, she let a smile crease face.

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"I don't know, little brother, but there's something about Annalise that doesn't feel right." Logan whispered, his breath coming out in little puffs of smoke as the constant cold air hit his skin like a thousand knives.

As far as the boys knew, Annabelle was actually Annalise and had a strange talent for swordsmanship. The boys had been trying to squeeze out any information out of her, but she didn't budge and most of the times they saw her, she was too exhausted from the gruesome torturing, that the boys had no right to bug her about information.

Suddenly, the low grumbling of a Wargal alerted the two boys and they both lifted their heads up from their bored gaze on the floor. There, appeared two Wargals that held Belle on each arm, the unlocked the cage and shoved her in, making her trip and fall on the dirt floor. Then, with one last growl, the Wargals stalked away.