After another desperate look around the sand at her feet, Cece bounded after Jeroff, now several feet ahead of her.
The wind was growing even stronger, making Cece thankful
that they should be heading into a building soon where someone could hand over
some clothing for her to wear. The cool air was a stark contrast to her burned
skin. I must look like a lobster! No
wonder this guy thinks I'm so strange!
Jeroff said nothing to Cece as she caught up to him. As they moved further from the supposed cursed water, the sand transitioned into tall patches of grass that came to her knees and felt like tiny papercuts across her sunburned skin. The grass seemed to grow around sharp rocks that cut into Cece's bare feet no matter how carefully she placed them on the hard surfaces. Jeroff never noticed, his clothing giving him plenty of
protection against the grass and his shoes- boots, rather- making it easy to
maneuver over the angled rocks.
After a short distance, Jeroff stopped suddenly, nearly
causing Cece to run into the man. There was nothing to be seen anywhere except
grass that grew more thickly and seemed much taller than what they were currently standing in. Forest lay several miles away from where they stood, the trees eerily still despite the whipping wind. Behind
her she could still hear the waves splashing against the beach. The wind was
howling now, making the blades of grass sway and dance furiously. Cece felt as if the
wind was starting to turn her body to ice.
"Why did you stop? I thought you wanted me to talk
to this Loyie person?" Cece asked, though her voice seemed lost in the brisk wind. This time it was Cece who garbled the strange name
of 'Loyie'. It certainly was quite foreign. How her subconscious mind ever came
up with it, Cece didn't know.
Jeroff only held up a hand. He stood stock still as if
waiting for something to jump out at him.
"Well Jeroff, seems like you always bring back the
interesting ones," a smooth voice said, easily carrying through the wind
to reach their ears.
Peeking around Jeroff's shoulder, Cece could see a tall,
very tan man seemingly materialize out from the grass, as if he had been riding with the blowing
wind. His hair was the color of mud and eyes greener than she had ever seen
before. He looks like he was carved from
stone! Cece felt herself drool slightly at the well-built man. At least with dreams I can drool all I want!
"Prince Bramaad," Jeroff said, bowing formally.
"I did not realize it was your turn to set the traps."
Prince? Cece
raised her eyebrows, impressed at her dream. Now she was making very
good-looking princes up that actually did some work!
The prince only smiled and winked at Jeroff before
glancing toward Cece. His beautiful green eyes seemed to weigh and measure
every part of her, making her blush. For the first time in her dream she wished
she had on some sort of clothing, but decided against trying to cover herself. This is just a dream. Who cares if this
gorgeous man sees me naked? This is just a dream…
"Where did you find her, Jeroff? You're certainly
not one to go to the hells and pick out a pretty lady to take to our
camp," the prince was saying, a teasing grin on his face as he turned to
face the other man.
Jeroff's cheeks reddened and shook his head. "No,
Prince Bramaad, I found her," he hesitated, clasping his hands behind his
back and standing even straighter, "I found her in the water."
Bramaad's expression hardened and Cece could see him
clench his square jaw. His green eyes returned to Cece's dark gray ones,
caution filling them as he weighed and measured his options. His eyes glided
down the length of her body, but he looked to be assessing her for threats,
rather than for the fact that she was completely naked.
"She seems harmless enough for now," Bramaad
started slowly, "but we can't take any chances. We need to talk to
Loyie."
The prince turned briskly and started to weave through
the grass. Cece was surprised to notice a long bow attached to his back. She
hadn't noticed the weapon sticking above his shoulder before, though she
supposed that her subconscious mind just now imagined it on him since he
suddenly became a more threatening character. Patrick had gone bow hunting
once, but beyond that, Cece had no knowledge of how useful the weapon was. It
seemed like it would be a very hard weapon to learn.
Why in the world am
I even thinking about this!? Cece shook her head, trying to get such
thoughts out of her mind. She shivered, though this time it wasn't from the
freezing wind.
Jeroff glanced over his shoulder at Cece before
murmuring, "Follow my exact footsteps. There are traps everywhere in this
field and you could get hurt." His voice was firm and strong, making Cece
more than eager to comply.
Cece followed closely behind Jeroff, afraid to let him
get too far ahead. The prince was wading his way through the tall grass,
casually making wide circles when there was no visible reason to do so, and
walked through a rock patch just before they reached the tree-line.
Cece's legs burned from the long walk, feeling tense and
nervous to make sure she was following Jeroff exactly. Her skin felt too hot
and too cold all at the same time, her sunburned skin feeling pulled and
strained while the wind whipped and wound its way around her, making her teeth
chatter. What I wouldn't give for some
soft clothes right now!
She couldn't understand why her dream was taking her in
an extremely uncomfortable direction. She had heard that dreams were supposed
to teach you things about your life, but the only thing Cece felt that she was
learning was that sunburn in certain areas of the body was extremely
uncomfortable and that maybe she had always been too modest in her life. Being
naked in front of two guys wasn't too bad, though Cece didn't think she'd bring
that practice back into her waking hours.
Finally the small group reached the line of trees that seemed untouched by the wind.
Bramaad carefully looked around before ducking underneath a low branch, which
they could have easily gone around, but Cece didn't argue the fact. She didn't
know what sort of "traps" the prince had set, but considering how
much her sunburn hurt, she didn't want to find out how much one of these traps
would hurt.
Once past the branch, the bitter cold wind immediately
died, as if the trees somehow blocked any speck of wind that should have been
able to seep through. The forest seemed to make way for a small village.
Scattered around the massive trees stood small huts obviously made from a
mixture of mud and branches. It was crude, but would be easy to tear down in a
case of emergency moving. There were clear paths, proving the group had been
there for some time, but Cece couldn't help but notice how temporary everything felt.
Looking behind where the three passed under the low
branch, Cece was startled to see how the branches of the tree made an almost
perfect gate, as if you could just push it open and walk straight into the
grass fields.
"I'll take her from here, Jeroff," the prince
muttered, his eyes darting around the camp as if making sure no one noticed the
strange naked lady in their group.
"But-" Jeroff started in protest, but one look
from those sharp green eyes silenced the man.
Prince Bramaad grasped Cece's arm and began pulling her
around the outside of the huts, tucking her behind trees when he saw someone
meandering around their little village.
"We have come too far to let someone like you ruin
everything," the prince growled at Cece, no longer acting the calm and
collected "nice guy". The hand clamped around her arm caused her eyes
to water from how it felt against her sunburn.
"I don't even know what you're talking about. This
is just a damn dream to me!" Cece growled right back, clearly frustrated.
She was sick of this dream and just wanted to wake up. How hard was it for
someone to just shake her awake and make this whole thing end?
Cece tried to yank her arm from Bramaad's grasp, but his
hand held strong and only made her skin protest even more as he tightened his
grip.
He slowly pulled her closer to him, making her stumble
slightly, his green eyes locking onto her gray ones. "You will not hurt my
people. You will not bring death to us. I will make sure of it."
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