Day 2

Viola and her sister Fiona awoke early as was their training. They tried to catch some fish but it was a lot of work and little reward. Between them they caught one fish. They ate it while it was still cooking.

Both women felt gross, they were dirty and they needed to brush their teeth.

That horrible fury feeling was really bugging Viola.

The sisters hobbled along in silence. Their sore feet were really a problem. Their sleeping arrangements had added to their aches and pains.

“We need help” Fiona said.

Viola had to agree,

“We do. The river leads to the castle and there was smoke so someone must be there.”

“It can’t be that far” Fiona said stopping and rubbing her blistered feet.

Viola was trying to ignore her own blisters and sore stubbed toes.

“Let’s set up camp here and make a big fire that someone will have to see. Maybe help can come to us.” Fiona suggested

The ladies made a fire and rested. Then they made a shelter. Not a very good one but a sort of shelter, it would have to do. They tried to catch some fish again as they were still so hungry. But it didn’t work. Tired, sore, smelly and dirty they sat on the dirt in their dresses.

“Well” Viola said jokingly

“Next time you want to see me let’s make it a restaurant”.

Fiona smiled,

“In the city, maybe Italian, no fish”

The sisters laughed, they began to talk catching up on years and joking about how life was funny. Their fire was huge and it was noticed but not only by a good person.

Ranger snuck up on the ladies.

‘Wow how stupid’ he thought.

‘Dressed like that and bring attention to yourself. You are begging the hunters to find you.’

He snuck up on the girls and covered their mouths. He was strong Viola panicked. She stamped on his foot, elbowed him in the ribs and hit him in the face.

“Wow” Fiona said,

“Where did you learn that?”

“Dad taught me self-defense.” Viola said.

She picked up a stone and waved it threateningly at the man.

They are not from around here he realized, that explains everything.

“Put out the fire” he said but they didn’t understand

He put a finger over his mouth and cupped a hand around his ear,

“Sssssssssshhhhh” he said.

The girls wondered what game he was playing and they listened. They heard voices.

“Over hear” Fiona called.

‘Stupid girls’ thought Ranger.

He grabbed Fiona and held his knife to her throat, he put his finger over her lips “sssssshhhhhhhh” he said

He beckoned for Viola to follow.

She did, her sister was in danger and when she got the chance, she would make him pay, with his life!

Once they were in the forest, she noticed the men arriving at the fire. They were big scruffy men with swords and knives and clubs. They looked very rough and dangerous. She glared at Ranger and noticed that the blade held to her sister throat was the wrong way around. The sharp side was facing away from Fiona and not against her skin.

Ok so maybe she wouldn’t kill him, just beat him for scaring her and her sister.

She glared at him. The men spoke a language she didn’t understand but they seemed to be looking for someone. Ranger put his finger over his lips and beckoned Viola to follow, he was still holding Fiona with the knife to her neck. Then once they were far away enough, he bound Fiona’s hands and then Viola’s. He put each lady over a shoulder.

Wow! It was uncomfortable! His shoulders dug into their tummies.

“I don’t think he wants to hurt us” Fiona said,

“Oh” Viola said annoyed by their current situation.

“The knife wasn’t sharp” Fiona said.

“It was” Viola said “He just had it the wrong way around.”

Fiona smiled.

“What are you smiling about, he threatened you.”

“Maybe” she said

“But only because it’s the only way to get the message to us.”

“Are you suffering from captures syndrome already?”

Viola asked unable to believe what she was hearing.

“NO!” Fiona said defensively

“I am pointing out the obvious, he hasn’t hurt us”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Viola interrupted,

“Oh, so this isn’t hurting you!”

Fiona rolled her eyes and continued,

“He prevented us from being out- numbered by bad looking men. He held the knife the wrong way not harming me.”

Viola rolled her eyes.

They finally stopped he put them on their feet. He pulled a rope ladder made of rope and wood down. He urged them to go up. Fiona went up. Viola pretended she couldn’t climb with her hands bound. He gave her a serious look and then pointed up the ladder.

“My hands” she said.

Holding them out. He growled a word and the brown eyes glowed.

She climbed the ladder, at the top Fiona sat all ladylike looking up at him with big eyes.

‘She has Stockholm’s syndrome.’ Viola thought.

He brought them water in a skin like in the very olden days. Then he put a rug down. On a round small table. He set two bowls of food on it and freed their hands.

‘Food’ Viola thought.

She ate and it was good. It was some kind of stew, with real meat in it. It needed salt but who cares when you have only eaten a half-cooked fish in the last day and a bit.

“See” Fiona said,

“He’s not trying to hurt us.”

“Fiona” she said touching her chest

“You are” she said gesturing towards him he said nothing.

He gestured towards the door in his tree house and kept repeating a word.

“I think he is telling us to leave” Viola said,

“And we should.”

“No” Fiona said,

“My feet hurt and he’s a good cook. I am staying with him. Plus, I feel safe with him.” She added.

Viola held her clutch bag it didn’t have much as she was in no danger at the embassy and her emergency stuff was a different bag.

Fiona took off her broken heals and rubbed her feet they were dirty and her nail polish was chipped but up in this tree house on those rugs she could walk bare foot.

Viola decided to take off her shoes too, someone needed to make sure Fiona was safe.

The tree house had rooms in it and Ranger came from another room with water in a big metal bucket with some funny looking orange stuff. He had strips of cloth too. He put the bucket with water down by the door and gave each girl a cloth. They looked at him confused.

“Do you want me to bath in a bucket?” Fiona asked

He sighed. He sat next to Fiona and put her feet in the water. He began to clean them. Not being as gentle as Fiona would have liked.

Viola put her feet in the water and cleaned them. She was sore and her blisters hurt.

Ranger gave Fiona the cloth to finish cleaning her feet. Then once they were clean, he gave them an animal skin to dry their feet with. It wasn’t as nice as a towel.

Then he gave Fiona the orange goo. He said somethings but she didn’t understand.

‘They are the most stupid girls I have ever met and somehow they are both married.’

He knew Viola was angry with him and didn’t trust him. But Fiona seemed to be more understanding and grateful. He gently took Fiona’s foot and put the orange goo on her sores.

“It stings” she said to Viola.

“What about your boyfriend” Viola said.

“It’s not serious” Fiona said,

“He’s a boy filling in for a man.”

“This man” Viola ventured.

“Maybe” Fiona said smiling,

“Thank you” she said smiling at him.

He gave the orange stuff to Viola. She put it on her sores. It did sting.

She watched as he cared for them and as Fiona flirted. But he seemed to pay no attention to her signals. Viola wondered if she had imagined his eyes glowing. He gave them food and bear skins to sleep on.

Fiona looked around the place while he was gone. So did Viola but for different reasons. Viola wanted a weapon. Fiona wanted something to bond over. When he returned Fiona had found a book with sketches in it. Viola had found a knife.

When Ranger returned Fiona went to him invading his space and showed him the book. He was angry and shouted at her.

“I save you, feed you, mend your wounds and you invade my home like a pestilent bug!”

She even had the nerve to draw in the back of his book!

She was however talented. She had drawn him and it was good, above she had written something. He was too angry with her to ask about it.

Viola said to Fiona,

“Come let’s go, we have overstayed our welcome.”

He heard the girls climbing down the ladder and he let them go.

The next page she had drawn Viola and a man in the background but he had been crossed out.

Suddenly he thought, ‘what if they are widows? That’s why they have holes in their ears but no man is traveling with them. Where did they come from?’

The next page was of a place he had never seen. Big buildings and other things he had never seen.

‘Could they be from another world, are the “sugs” active again?’ he wondered

Viola and Fiona went to the river where they drank. Neither lady said anything. Everything that was happening was unreal.

It got dark. They started a little fire but for some reason they felt scared like they were being watched and stalked. Viola finally broke the silence.

“We will head for the castle tomorrow,”

Fiona tried to smile,

“You know” she said, “I liked him I was impressed with how capable he was, cooking, cleaning our wounds, carrying both of us at the same time without becoming tired. I liked the idea of a capable forest man, who saved the damsel in distress.”

There was silence.

“I like how tall he is and his deep brown eyes, he’s ruggered….” Her voice faded off.

Viola finally said something, even though she wanted to say ‘he kidnapped us,’ she instead said,

“It was nice of him. But why did you want to be a damsel in distress?”

Fiona laughed a sad laugh,

“Because I am tougher than all my boyfriends and I always save them. Just because I am capable doesn’t mean I want a weak guy. It means I want a more capable guy.”

Viola had needed to be rescued before and it wasn’t nice. She wanted to be the most capable person in the room and saving someone was just part of the job.

But Fiona wanted a prince. Viola knew there were no princes and hoping for one made you weak.

Taking a deep breathe she put her arm around Fiona.

The ladies awoke with a start, from a cry from the trees behind them. It sounded almost human. The fire was just smouldering embers. Viola pulled out the knife.

“Where did you get that” Fiona whimpered,

“I stole it from that guy,”

The sight of red eyes glowing from the darkness sent adrenaline pumping through the veins of both girls. Something was out there and looking at them. There was a whimper and a yelp and Ranger staggered out covered in blood with a blade in his back.

They gasped,

“Wash the blood off” Viola ordered,

“Whatever is out there can probably smell and track blood.”

Fiona took the barely conscience Ranger into the river, he was soaked

“Don’t pull the blade out” Viola called, “I have done first aid” she said.

“So, have I” Fiona said.

The man’s shoulder length dark brown hair waved in the water.

He coughed blood.

Fiona called

“He’s coughing up blood. Maybe there is something at his place can help us.”

They put one arm of his arms over each of their shoulders and they ran for his place. Amazingly they found it. He was grunting something, but neither bother to try to understand. He fell unconscious.

“Bad timing” moaned Viola.

He was too heavy but they could hear things getting closer.

“We will climb up the side with the rope, and hopefully drag him up with us before we are all goners.”

So, they climbed up the sides pulling him up with them. He was heavy, he kind of awoke making it easier for them to get him up the ladder. At the top they lay him on his side and pulled up the ladder then closed the door. Using their phones for light with what little battery power they had. They got a lamp and lit it. They got water and rags and that orange goo he used on them.

“I might need to stitch him up”

Viola said

She pulled up a splinter of wood from the floor and with the knife sharpened it and made it thin. On the thicker end she made a hole in it and then cut her dress. Taking threads, feeding them into her wooden needle. Then she put needle and thread through the orange goo.

“Alright slowly pull out the blade.” Viola said.

Fiona ripped it out and started cleaning up blood. Viola started stitching.

“Ahhh” he yelled in pain becoming conscience,

“Keep him still” Viola told Fiona

They finished wiping, stitching and cleaning him up.

Afterwards, they were tired and decided that the bear skins he had offered them weren’t so bad. Viola slept on the floor by the door and Fiona lay with Ranger.

Viola woke up to a creaking sound behind her. She looked over expecting to see Fiona but instead it was those red glowing eyes. She froze with fear calculating her options. The red eyes met her’s and came straight for her. She gripped the knife. Then they stopped glowing and it was Ranger. He was walking about with severe injuries and glowing red eyes.

‘Maybe contacts’ she told herself unsettled by his glowing eyes.

Ranger sat next to her. He took her now shaking hand.

She had been though a lot but this was nerve wrecking.

He held her hand to his face. Opening her palm so it touched his cheek. He took her other hand and put it over his heart. Then while smiling his eyes turned red and glowed. She tried to pull away and reach for the knife but he held her hands and his eyes stopped glowing.

“You are freaking me” out she whispered.

He let her hands go, and moved away from her silently. He moved silently though the tree house.

He returned with his book that Fiona had drawn in. He showed the drawing of a city.

Viola shrugged not understanding what he was saying. Once again, he took her hand and put it on his face and the other over his heart. He closed her eyes. Her mind raced and her heart pounded. This was freaking her out. A weird guy with glowing red eyes!

‘How will I tell Fiona?’ She thought,

Then her mind was still and she could hear a man’s voice saying,

“Show me where you are from?”

A map of the earth appeared and then it zoomed in on Germany and then to her home. This was the best interrogation technique she had ever experienced. She would never tell someone where she lived… ever!

“I mean you no harm” the invisible man said.

“Show yourself!” she demanded.

Ranger appeared,

“Take my hand” he said extending his hand.

She reluctantly took it

“See” he pointed to a field filled with blood.

Men fought with axes and swords and arrows. It was a war. Then a young woman appeared she ordered the deaths of the survivors. Woman and children included. She sensed the terror in the hearts of the survivors.

Then just as suddenly she was back in the room with Ranger and his freaky glowing red eyes.

“What are you?” she asked afraid.

Fiona joined her on the floor,

“He’s a survivor among his people. The queen brought terror and enslaved all of his kind. He is one of the few still free”

“How do you know this?” Viola asked,

Trying to hide how shaken she was.

“He told me. If you let him, he will show you. You will understand. Believe.”

Fiona said smiling.

“I told him about our world. He will try to help us get back home.”

“Fiona” Viola said calmly,

“What if he is a spy or something?”

Fiona giggled,

“I had no idea you were so serious, it’s cute. Oh, and I plan to keep this one.” She added.

‘I am fighting a losing battle with this one’ Viola thought.

‘She can keep her weird red eyed boyfriend if that’s what she wants.’

Ranger was unsure if revealing himself was a good idea. But discovering the ladies were from a world that doesn’t believe in other worlds having life would help. Both sisters had secrets. And yet they both felt the needed to be a protector.

He had learnt more about them then they knew. But he was weak so he couldn’t see without them knowing he was in their head. He had learnt Fiona liked him and wasn’t married. Yet she had a man waiting for her at home. This didn’t make sense to him.

Viola had killed people and lying was part of her. But she believed she was doing the right thing and that it was to protect others. She also was not married.

In their world men put rings on woman’s fingers and woman put holes in their ears and other places themselves.

Earth had strange customs.