Taken by the Stars

Chapter 3

"- will be alright!"

"She's been out for 2 hours! Tell me that's fine!" 

Catherine heard a loud bang on a surface and immediately thought of Colette. "Colette, we're all worrying about her, but right now, what's best for her and us is to let her rest. Besides, don't you have to report back to your father since you're in Sunera?" That was Mia.

Something was going on and Catherine was trying to come to it. She tried to will her eyes to open, it was a challenge as it felt like someone had sewed them shut and she shuddered at the image that occurred in her mind. Then she felt an alarming ticklish movement scurry across the lower half of her arm, triggering her eyes to really open and nearly let out a scream.

She took in her surroundings seeing that she was laying in some bed with a canopy of willow branches strewn across. It seemed to move at will, like it had a mind of it's own. Colette and Mia some feet away discussing until they noticed their friend was awake.

They ran to her side. "Catherine!"

"Thank God stella worked. I feared that it wouldn't work with her!" Mia exclaimed.

"Stella?" Catherine questioned the unfamiliar word. Mia faltered and looked to Colette for help. 

"Right, I forgot......You ummm....Didn't know...." The room grew silent.

"Yeah....Umm...My mother'll want to see you..." Mia replied in a small voice.

"Wait, just exactly where are we?" Just as Catherine asked, a set of double doors were thrown open, startling all three of them. 

What strode in was a magnificent being. His hair was navy and pushed back in pompadour style. His ears were pierced with red gems and his eyes. Oh his eyes were a deep crimson only capable of giving cold gazes. Catherine noticed those features first and then the abnormally pointed ears and the cosplay like clothes and weapon at his side.

"Who's that?" Catherine whispered to the girls. Colette cleared her throat while Mia addressed the man directly.

"She's awake. We're making our way there now, so you don't have to check on us." It was a stern manner of tone coming from Mia, something Catherine was not used to. She wondered just what they were talking about.

"After you." The man gestured for Catherine and her friends.

"What's going on?" Catherine again whispered.

Colette gently shushed her and and told Catherine that everything would be explained in a few minutes. Seeing that anymore wasn't going to be said, Catherine followed her friends and the man out of the room and into a magnificent hall.

"Where's Maria?" She barely managed to ask while taking in the white ornate stone structures all around her.

"She's got...Some business to take  care of." Said Colette. Catherine could sense that both of her friends were tense. Seeing them so, her eyes wondered to the man up front.

His back looked strong but his shoulders... They carried a story. More and more she began to wonder who this man was, why she hadn't seen him before, when they all stopped in front of a grand set of double doors that reached the high ceilings.

Two silent and intimidating men were guarding each side of the door. They were wearing suits of wood armor and each held a spear in their hand.

Upon seeing the group, the men opened the doors without a word and Catherine and the others walked in. With caution but amazement, Catherine followed her friends into a room, or rather grandeur courtroom. Something Catherine could only have dreamed was possible.