The Thirteenth Princess

The Maiden of the Night

After what felt like hours of running, we finally slowed to a halt. It was only then That I realised I had no idea where we had been going, and I had been blindly following this mysterious maiden through the darkest depths of the forest. I could barely breathe, and my chest was burning with the fury of all the past, present and future wars.

"Zoe."

"What?" I managed.

"My name" her words came amongst raspy breaths "is Zoe"

"Rapunzel"

"Nice" It was at about that moment that it was my turn to collapse into sleep. I looked Zoe in the eyes, and her smile was the last thing I saw before I fell into her arms. She pulled me close to her chest, and I was conscious enough to struggle to get closer to her. She dragged us over to a dry place beneath a mossy overhang protruding from a small hill. I manoeuvred myself to be sitting next to her, curled up in a ball, my head resting on her shoulder. She began to play with my hair, which was now cropped short. She must've thought I was asleep, because she began to murmur in a soft voice.

"It suits you. I'm only sorry that the memory attached to it was falling out of a tower, and being kissed by a crazy person." She thought wrong.

"I loved every second" and with those last words, she rested her chin upon my head, and I drifted off into the realm of dreaming, where often love and torture are not as different as you may think...